Chapter 78: From tiger to eagle and snake to dragon (2/2)

“Zhang Wei’s Wingchun is far too perfect. His One Inch Finger was terrifying even.”

Just thinking about that ghastly fighting scene, Wang Chao could only admire Zhang Wei’s Clinching Yin Horse stance and the One Inch Finger.

Pa pa! Pa pa! His thumb and forefinger flickered in and out with a crisp sound in the air.

He was testing out his own finger strength. With both his fingers closed together, Wang Chao stabbed in and out before trying to issue power through his knuckle joints.

Sure enough, his thumb and forefinger before had a large sound. But when he bent his knuckle joints, the energy and speed had fell drastically and there had been no sound either.

“With my fingers, that is a conflicting way to issue power. But to use my knuckles, that is what the martial art truly is. I will have to advance my tiger stance even more if I want to bring the martial arts to my fingers as well.”

In the past, Wang Chao had learned the way of the sword and used his fingers to reenact the movements of a sword. After stabbing and slashing for half a month, he had been able to temper his fingers to become extremely flexible. Two of his fingers were strong enough to shatter a cup even. If he were to use the power of the eagle stance’s claw form, then the hardness of his fingers would go up a notch.

He had initially thought that the skill in his fingers was quite decent. But after seeing Zhang Wei’s One Inch Finger, he knew that past the clouds, there was still sky. And past a genius was still another genius.

Zhang Wei’s knuckles were able to issue power with a loud crisp sound, that was the sign of true skill. With a large force and hidden strength, its destructive power was nearly fatal.

When Wang Chao learned the tiger stance’s Chopping Fist, he had been able to reach the stage where the “sound follows the fist”. However, there was one minute variation in his Chopping Fist. He had not the claws of a tiger in his fingertips.

A single chop should be like an axe splitting apart a mountain. Intent, vision, and spirit had to be focused upon the fingers. After that split moment, the fingers should gather together and release all the power that was gathered in it.

This way, the tiger and eagle stance would be linked together.

At the same time, the Southern Fist’s tiger and crane stance had this same variation. With a splitting motion, they would suddenly grab at the enemy. Naturally, their hand would form the beak of a crane to peck. This would require the Jin within the knuckles to change in order for a large destructive force to be had.

Although Xingyi had no crane stance, its eagle stance was quite similar to it. Within the world of Chinese boxing, those who reached the higher levels would begin to link together disciplines.

The “Splitting Grab” was something that would naturally form after changing from one stance to another. If one’s finger strength was not enough, then the transition from one stance to the other would fall apart.

To the ordinary boxer, this wasn’t anything special. But to a master of Chinese boxing, a weak point in one’s strike could prove to be fatal.

Wang Chao knew how to fight with the tiger stance and also knew how to transition in the eagle stance. But this transition from a chop to a grab, his finger strength was not enough. His power would naturally drop in between the two if he tried.

That was because his proficiency with the Chopping Jin and the Grabbing Jin was not the same.

His Chopping Jin was enough to shatter boulders, but his Grabbing Jin was far away from such a level. His eagle stance hadn’t yet reached a stage where the sound followed the fist either. All he had was the form, but not the spirit.

Fighting was something that should come smoothly and fiercely. The tiger and eagle stance had to change in such a fashion.

In the case the pouncing of a tiger failed, then one should transform into the diving of an eagle. When an eagle hawk came diving down from a thousand meters, it was far more fierce than a tiger.

So from a tiger to an eagle or a tiger to a crane, this was a transition that would become even more deadly.

Wang Chao’s tiger stance was good, but his eagle stance was not. If he tried, he would go from strong to weak. Against an expert, an attempt to make such a transition would cause him to die instead.

At the same time, when the snake stance became a dragon stance, it would also require a strong finger strength for its true form.

The fist of the snake stance was like a snake’s head. It drills fiercely with the five fingers like its fangs!

When a snake struck out for its prey, it would open its mouth wide and send its venom into it.

So in the snake stance, the crucial moment of the killing move would require the five fingers to act like fangs to hiss and bite.

When the snake tore its preys apart, it would not hiss. Instead, the sound from its fangs moving would be a muffled cry. According to the legends, this was the sound of a dragon.

The “Chopping Grab” was the transition from the tiger to eagle stance. The “Tearing Bite” was the transition from the snake to the dragon.

Both of them required the skill in the fingers to be at their utmost limits!

When Wang Chao talked with Chen Aiyang, he had came to such a realization.

If he were to complete this transition, Wang Chao’s martial arts would be elevated another step!

A true grandmaster of Xingyi would be able to flow from one stance to another like water in a raging river. There would be no stopping such a permutative flow of power and style.

As his mind thought about this realization, Wang Chao had quickly devised a way to increase the strength in each of his five fingers.

The days ahead of him was fraught with danger. In order to survive, he was forced to advance one step at a time.

Wang Chao walked towards the mercury filled balls and grabbed at it. As soon as he clutched the sphere, he raised it up!