Chapter 172: Turn the Hand to Cover the Fist and Intertwine Yin and Yang to Let it Fly (1/2)

Chapter 172: Turn the Hand to Cover the Fist and Intertwine Yin and Yang to Let it Fly

“Aside from Duan Guochao, did the military really have even more experts like this?”

Seated on top of the sofa, Wang Chao could immediately tell from his opponent’s movements that his skill in Baguazhang had already reached a very high quality level of skill.

In Baguazhang, one fought with the hand acting as a knife that would cut, slash and stab at the weak points while evading to the side. Aside from this, they wouldn’t use their fists to harm even in extremely close combat.

But if one’s martial arts were deep enough in understanding and were capable of make major improvements in vigor, then fighting head on with the fist to shake and break would be possible.

The Hammer Jin was different than a fist. With the Hammer Jin, the fist must be hollow and break out with power from within that space. Then the three joints, four tips and five organs must resonate with force to go from soft to hard and then from hard to an explosive might. By circling this powerful might, the force that comes out from the hand is second to none.

But there were many problems with the Hammer Jin. At a single strike, the muscles and bones must be well coordinated with one another. The internal organs, hair, nails, teeth and tongue must be in sync with the circulation of Qi with the spontaneous nature of a dragon flying out from the water after hibernation and with the grace of wind blowing through the trees. A hammer strikes the man, and the entire body will quake. The normal practitioner would not be capable of such a strike.

In the older schools of Baguazhang, there were several hammer fists. The “Eight Styles of the Reverse Arm Hammer”, the “Eight Chain Hammers”, and the “Twenty Five Paths of the Quick Hammer”. When Liu Qing struck, one fist had been wide open while the other had been hidden by his ribs. This was one of the Quick Hammers of Baguazhang.

The Twenty Five Paths of the Quick Hammer had two specific paths that could be expressed through a mnemonic. “Turn the hand to cover the fist with a palm and intertwine Yin and Yang to let it fly.” Right now in this movement of Liu Qing, he had demonstrated the mnemonic perfectly.

The meaning behind the mnemonic was that the palm represented Yin while the fist represented Yang. With the fusion of both as one struck from above and the other struck from below, it could strike with a ferocity that would release a thunderous sound as if lightning had struck. With the palm acting nimble and quick, it would hide the killer fist like the clouds that hides the lightning.

“His martial arts isn’t below Duan Guochao’s in the slightest. It’s no wonder he’s unwilling to accept me as his instructor; he is well within his rights to do so. But with this level of skill, he should be no weaker than Duan Guochao, so why was he only second place within the military? Or did he grow stronger in the years he was gone and came back for revenge against him?”

Wang Chao was very knowledgeable about the fact that the more one progressed, the slower one would improve as time goes on. For example, a world class champion sprinter could finish a hundred meter dash in 9.8 seconds, but to improve by a single second would be extremely challenging. For someone who finished well over ten seconds however, it would only take some practice before they would see several seconds shaved off in their next attempt.

This was the same in a match between martial artists. When against someone of weaker skill, they could not afford to go easy or else risk their opponent training hard for several years and come back in vengeance to cripple or kill them.

The path of martial arts was endless, but the limits of man was not. Martial arts was not something that the more one practice the more one learned, it was not the same as cultivating in the sense of Daoism. Today one killed with a flying sword, and in sixty or seventy years they turn over the entire ocean with a wave of their hand. With Wang Chao’s strength, he was already capable of Transforming Jin, but the height was the height. Even if he brought his body to its limits, he would only see a small improvement after extreme difficulty. In comparison to someone of weaker martial arts, they would have a far faster rate of improvement.

Jiang Hai would be a good example of this. Wang Chao had heard that after Jiang Hai had his sword taken from him, he had gone overseas to train himself diligently. It went without saying that should Jiang Hai survive for a single year without dying, then with luck, his martial arts would surely improve so much that it wouldn’t be implausible to see him catch up to Wang Chao.

A few years ago Liu Qing had lost to Duan Guochao. And now a few years later, he was on par with Duan Guochao. Such a progression like this was only natural.

“Then all that’s left to do is to press hands.” At the same time Liu Qing struck out, his palm had flew out in a similar fashion to the movements of a white snake towards Wang Chao’s wrist.

Wang Chao was proficient in Baguazhang as well however. He knew that this movement was meant to conceal the hidden intent with his other hand. Not even rising up from the sofa, Wang Chao drummed up the muscles in his lower back and but area before circulating the energy through his body.

Borrowing that power, his arm bent inwards and instantly jabbed at the hand coming towards him with blinding speed!

Bang! The sound of flesh hitting flesh could be heard as the hidden fist of Liu Qing made contact with Wang Chao’s hand.

“The Eight Elbow Sets?” When Liu Qing had his fist countered by Wang Chao’s elbow without even moving from his seat on the sofa, he had been extremely startled. But this feat was enough to tell him that Wang Chao was a man who was capable of the finest styles of Baguazhang, including the “Twisting Elbow Drop”.

Within the higher levels of Baguazhang, there was the hammer Jin, and there was the elbow techniques. In Bajiquan, the elbow was an exceedingly powerful weapon, but in Baguazhang, there was also a softer side to them that was extremely mysterious in comparison.

If not for that, Baguazhang would simply focus on attacking from the side at their own leisure with a knife palm. But that wouldn’t be enough to earn them a place as one of the top three internal styles of martial arts.

“I heard that he was exceptional in Xingyiquan, so why is he so skilled in Baguazhang as well?” Liu Qing knew that Wang Chao’s nickname of “Tortoise Immortal” had came from his display of Xingyiquan. So he had never expected to see that he would be proficient in another discipline too.

Despite the surprise in his heart, his arms did not stop moving for even a second. With a swipe of his left hand, it immediately formed a knife edge! In the next few moments, he stabbed towards Wang Chao’s ribs with the “Liberating Rib Pare.”

At the same time his left hand moved to free himself, his right hand began to shake similar to how a steel rod would vibrate after being struck. With a splurt of energy, he tried to strike at Wang Chao’s chest.

This was the skill of “Rolling Arm Hammer”.

His style of fighting was to fight with a rising palm and a rapid hammer. The palm was like the clouds, and his fist was like the lightning.

Drumming up the muscles in his butt once more, Wang Chao made a small movement with his body to slide three-four inches to the side and evaded the knife palm. Borrowing the momentum given to him from his dodge, Wang Chao’s elbow made contact with the other hand coming at him without his butt ever leaving the sofa.

From this elbow strike, Liu Qing could distinctly feel the air around Wang Chao’s elbow crackle. His own skin had acutely sensed the rapid displacement in the air as if it was exploding.

But there had been no sound that accompanied this rapid displacement of air, symbolizing that his opponent was someone that had achieved a state of martial arts where no sound followed the fist. He himself was thus lacking in comparison.