Chapter 68: Reaching the stage where sound follows the fist” (1/2)

Chapter 68: Reaching the stage where “sound follows the fist”

In the middle of the room, the snake and cat were fighting.

The snake remained unmoving from its spot as it lifted its triangular head up. The scales of its body continued to rub against each other. Hisssss! The snake’s forked tongue flicked in and out of its mouth with a hissing sound.

The cat’s hair was standing on its end, looking more like a hedgehog.

Its back was like a bowstring with all four limbs planted on the ground. As it leapt into the air, it was like a gentle feather, but its mouth was uttering a fierce hiss as it clawed at the snake again and again.

Every single claw struck out quickly while it moved in a manner similar to Bagua Zhang. As its paws stalked to the side, it then shot out like a spear with a fierce hop and thunder like sound.

Bagua styled movement and Xingyi styled fighting. This was been naturally reflected within the cat’s body.

When Wang Chao had first learned the Three Integrals, it had been when he stepped on the tail of a cat and observed its reaction. But now he was looking at the cat once more to gain a deeper understanding of the tiger stance.

However this time, he was also observing the essence of the snake.

In Wang Chao’s eyes, the snake’s muscles had transform into his own muscles and its scales his own tail. With each movement from the snake, he found it similar to the movements of the snake stance.

External practitioners focused on the muscles and bones while internal practitioners tempered their bodies as well as the skin.

Animals would naturally make use of their own fur.

Seeing the cat and snake fight, Wang Chao felt it synchronizing with his own martial arts as well as the ideology of Guo Yunshen on the realms of martial arts.

“Refining essence into Qi….refining Qi into spirit…so it was like that. Refining Qi into spirit not only changes one’s character, but the most important thing is that it changes the manner of one’s fighting technique!”

“It is when is when the manner of one’s fighting technique changes that it could be considered to have transformed Qi into spirit. To have both body and soul changed is what it truly means to practice Xingyi.”

In the past, Wang Chao’s movements, figure, and stance, while they had form, it was learned from Tang Zichen in a textbook like fashion. So while he had form, it did not have spirit. So in theory, he was like a shell and not a master of the fist.

Although he had baptized his soul and reached the Hidden Jin stage, his circulation of Jin and his comprehension of the actual movements of the body was lacking.

That was why Guo Yunshen had categorized movement to be different from Jin in its own stand alone category.

Rumors had it that Wong Fei Hung could release the sounds of a tiger’s roar and a crane’s cry when moving.

When Wang Chao heard this the first time, he had thought it all to be just drivel and never thought about it again.

“A master is a master.” Wang Chao thought as he admired his precursors.

He had been completely engrossed in his attempt to study the essence of the fist and did not step out of the room for many days. Everyday, he would watched the cat and snake fight and observe their movements.

The snake and cat had been wild in nature and very warlike in order to fight for their survival. However, Wang Chao had been vigilant; whenever there was a fatal blow to be struck, Wang Chao would divide the two.

The cat and snake would fight for half an hour valiantly. And if both sides suffered injuries, then they would stay motionless for a moment before dropping any intent on fighting to split away. But on the next day, Wang Chao would instigate them once more to start up their fighting spirits.

For half an hour every day, Wang Chao would watch the two animals fight. But after the day ended, Wang Chao would reflect upon how the two animals issued power, the cat’s pounce and the snake’s swaying.

Gradually, the two distinct movements had slowly harmonized with each other in his mind.

When Wang Chao practiced the tiger stance, the pouncing movement of the cat had appeared in his mind, allowing him to feel as if he had transformed into that cat.

When he pounced, his footsteps had been quick, nimble and flitted across the ground. When he lashed out with his hands, there was a thunder like sound that accompanied his lightning quick movements. In his soft movements there was a hard lining, but within this hard lining there was a soft touch.

When Wang Chao practiced the Drilling Fist of the snake stance, he had felt himself transforming into a snake. His muscles had transformed into the scales of the skin as he issued power and his fists had became the head of the snake. Swaying side to side and striking like a dart, there was no difference from his strikes to that of the snake. His arm had been serpentine in movement and had even spiralled around in a hypnotic manner.

The Chopping Jin of the tiger stance and the Drilling Jin of the snake stance.

When the two stances harmonized to issue power, Wang Chao felt his own movements being guided by the spirits of the cat and snake.

Gradually, Wang Chao’s tiger style attacks had a light echo to it as if there was the sound of a tiger’s roar somewhere.

And when he used the Drilling Jin of the snake stance, his arms had twisted and swayed with the breathing tempo of his muscles. It had synchronized with the beating of his heart and truly imitated how a snake would move.

A tiger’s roar and a snake’s hiss. Not even trying to imitate their sounds, whenever Wang Chao struck out, his body had imitated the movements of the animals and naturally let out this sound.

Within a falsehood was truth, and in truth there was falsehood. Within form there was intent, and in that intent spirit laid hidden.

Finally after half a month, he had mastered the spirit and intent of the tiger and snake stance.

This was what the classics of martial arts said to be when the “sound follows the fist”.

When it came to the other Jin of the other stances, Wang Chao still found himself at the stage where his form had lacked spirit.

But when it came to the tiger and snake stance, he could be considered to have reached the stage of that a master.

“Eh? Boulder, did the cat not kill the snake yesterday? Or did we not skin the snake and ate it for stew?” Axe asked Boulder as they passed by the room, only to hear several sounds. Hiss! Hisss! Hissssss!