Back in his courtyard, Ye Chen was sitting silently. Seemingly lost, he pondered on Xu Jing's fist art as he began to try the King Kong Fist.
He threw punches slowly and quickly, before stopping as he realized something was not quite right.
If I am correct, Xu Jing was training the 'Monster Executing Fist', a top mortal class martial art of unlimited power. And although the King Kong Fist is not as good as the Monster Executing Fist, it should be based on the same principle. However Xu Jing's fist seems so much more powerful and frightening compared to my fist, what did I do wrong?
Standing silently in the middle of the yard, with his eyebrows twisted together, Ye Chen couldn't stop thinking about Xu Jing practicing her fist skills, again and again.
Right! Xu Jing's grunting was heard more than five hundred meters away, such a noise must come from her strengthened body. While I have strong comprehension, my physical body is still too weak to master that powerful fist skill.
After realizing the key to the problem, Ye Chen sighed. He was not afraid of not being able to master it, he was afraid of not knowing why he could not master it.
The first thing he needed to do was to practice his horse stance, a strong punch can only be performed when you have a firm base, otherwise you might lose your life when you go head on against the enemy.
The horse stance required that you place your feet a little wider than your shoulder and take a half squat. Because the posture looked like riding a horse and was stable as a stilt in the ground, it was called the horse stance. A strong horse stance could strengthen one's kidneys, the back, and muscles which in turn would improve the Qi. A stable lower body would provide an unwavering balance, plus improved reflexes as well. A firm horse stance was one of the basics that everyone must learn before learning martial arts. It was like the saying: "You would never reach your destination without learning how to walk first". To copy the moves from the manual without actually training the whole body to endure the gravity and pressure would just end up being a bunch of fancy moves with no real power behind it.
With both his legs spread wide and bent at a ninety degree angle, Ye Chen looked straight ahead as he breathed in and breathed out while throwing punches at a controlled rapid pace.
Pow! Pow! Pow! Pow! ...
His punches were like bullets, fiercely stirring up the air around them. After about fifteen minutes of punching, he focused on his tensed lower abdomen for another fifteen minutes.
Then, in the evening, he repeated it all over again, but this time his speed was slowly increasing as he tried to break his previous pace each time he threw a punch.
After another two weeks had passed, Ye Chen was no longer seen practicing throwing punches. Instead he started to practice the low horse stance. He would stand there still in his low horse stance position quietly for half an hour at a time.
Soon, he realized it was way too easy, so he tightened his hands into fists facing forward, with straight elbows, as he placed them as parallel as he could to the ground while doing the horse stance. With his back relaxed and his chest forward, he began to lower his upper body as far as he could without falling over. After every hour, he would tense his lower abdomen and swing his upper body the other direction for another fifteen minutes.
After a whole month of training, Ye Chen's body had changed noticeably, he could almost lift half a ton and run so fast that it looked like he was flying. Also, his Qi could be seen emanating around the back of his body, full of energy. And the most noticeable change was the increase in his appetite. During each meal, he could eat three huge bowls of rice plus a whole barbequed chicken and still sleep like a baby. By the end of the month, his Qi could even float around his whole body freely without any restrains, it was almost like he had endless energy to spend.
But the most important thing of all was that Ye Chen finally managed to reach the state of heart and palm unity so he could keep himself at his peak the whole time during his fight with others. The heart and palm unity was simply the state where a martial artist was able to accurately move his arms and legs in a fluid manner effortlessly and without much thought.
Today, after practicing his horse stance, Ye Chen frowned and said, "My body strength did improve, but the strength is still not enough. Sister Xu Jing's power is at least a few times stronger than mine, especially when practicing the Fist of Monster Killer! She's so powerful, so strong, almost invincible ..."
Looking around the yard, his eyes suddenly lit up when he saw the huge hundred-pound rock in the corner.
Without a doubt, lifting could increase one's upper body strength, but could easily injure one's muscles and tendons, therefore was not a very wise thing to do. However, running while carrying such a weight was a completely different case, with the constant changing of the center of gravity and the shifting pressure, one could train every bone and muscle of one's body along with endurance.
Without hesitation, Ye Chen ran to the corner, using both of his arms, lifting up the huge rock, turning around and started running out of the yard.
The Windy Mountain had ten hills, and encompassed an area of ten miles. Besides the tops of the mountains which were covered by different buildings, the rest were rarely visited by anyone. But at the bottom of the mountain, there were many disciples from the Sky Cloud School guarding the entrance, not allowing anyone from the outside to enter.
On the path of the mountain, there was a human figure lifting a rock above his head and running so fast it looked almost as if he was flying. And if you paid attention, you would notice that there were no Qi fluctuations which signified he did not even use his Qi at all, it was completely due to his true body strength.
"Look, isn't that Ye Chen?"
"Yah! What's the heck is he doing instead of practicing?"
The Sky Cloud School had three thousand prospective disciples, and five hundred outer disciples, most of whom did not like to just stay in their own yard, they liked to come out here in the middle of nowhere and practice their own martial arts just like Ye Chen, and sometimes some of them would come out here with training buddies and maybe have friendly matches with each other.
Ye Chen kept focusing on the road, he didn't care about their discussions.
But sometimes you couldn't avoid trouble even if you wanted to.
Out of nowhere, another figure suddenly jumped out and landed in front of Ye Chen, cutting his way. It was a fourteen-year-old bulky-looking teenage boy.
Ye Chen stopped, "Wang Gang, what can I do for you?"
The bulky teenager was called Wang Gang, just like Ye Chen, he was also a outer disciple. However, his skills were considerably higher than Ye Chen, and had already reached Early Qi Realm Level 7. He was known for his mastery of different martial arts and his extremely strong body strength. The two of them had a conflict before, in which Ye Chen was beaten up by him and had laid in bed for half a month.
Wang Gang laughed at him, "You can't just practice like a mad person to be gain strength, it will never work. Just like last time, I could beat you into a dead dog using only a third of my strength."
Ye Chen sneered. I wasn't planning this, but since he came directly in front of me, obviously I will not just let him go like this. Half a year ago, I said one thing accidentally, and the next second I was being punched, and had ended up with two broken ribs. Luckily my family is rich and had many different medicines for wounds so that I could heal in less than a month.
"Is that right? So how do you think I should practice then?" Ye Chen dropped the huge rock.
"Cut the crap, let me teach you how!" Wang Gang suddenly leaned forward and after few steps, he appeared right in front of Ye Chen. Wang Gang threw out a huge palm, which suddenly swelled two times larger than a normal palm, and chopped down like a iron plate, making one clearly hear the loud sound of it cutting through the air.
Looking at the opponent's huge palm coming at him, Ye Chen stood still, as he lifted his left hand like he was holding a ball, and met it head on.
Suddenly, it sounded like a rock had just hit a piece of wood. Ye Chen was still standing there without having moved an inch, while Wang Gang's lower body began to wobble, full of weaknesses.
"How could this even be possible? His Qi skill was clearly below me, how could he take my Breaking Stone Palm and be completely fine? I'll be damned..."
Wang Gang immediately realized something was not right and ignoring all the weaknesses in his stance, he turned his right fist into a palm and chopped straight towards Ye Chen.
He didn't expect that Ye Chen had already seen it coming and would retaliate with an awfully strong fist right at the chest before he could even make his second attack.
"King Kong Fist, fifth movement: King Kong Smash!"
Snap! Wang Gang was punched into the air while vomiting blood, his body rolled a couple of times until it finally stopped moving. He looked like he had just lost all his power, he couldn't even push himself up.
Everyone was shocked. They couldn't handle the fact that Wang Gang, who had always been famous for his powerful strength had just lost in a head on collision with Ye Chen, and was wounded badly just like a dead dog...
Only Ye Chen knew what had actually happened. While Wang Gang's strength and Qi skill were both higher than his, but because Wang Gang had never paid attention to his martial arts skills, he had many gaping flaws and weakness in his stances. That Breaking Stone Palm was definitely powerful but Ye Chen had chosen not to contest head on with him. Ye Chen had actually used two moves! He began with a slight push to Wang Gang's palm first, making it lose some power, before he drew his fist back and then used all his strength to push it which made his opponent's lower body started to wobble. All of this happened so fast that it created this whole "head-on" illusion.
"Senior Wang Gang. It seems like your training method is too weak. Please excuse me." Lifting up his huge rock again, Ye Chen continued running.
After Ye Chen left, the crowd got louder.
"Unbelievable! Ye Chen won against Senior Wang Gang! Was that the King Kong Fist he was using?
"King Kong Fist and Breaking Stone Palm are both Middle Ranked Mortal martial arts, so it should not have had such a disparity. And Wang Gang's level is definitely higher than Ye Chen! What happened?"
"It's very simple," a seemingly-very-calm teenager said, "Ye Chen's King Kong Fist has already reached the Gentle Stage! His punches was strong and powerful yet still full of gentleness."
Someone questioned how would he know about that.
The teenager smiled, "Teacher once said, powerful but gentle should be the goal for every power-based martial arts. When Ye Chen held Wang Gang's punch, it seemed so domineering and easy, but it had actually used the gentle method of receiving the enemy attack and rebounding the power with Ye Chen's own attack. Of course, I only realized it after a careful observation."
The path in the mountain was steep and rugged, full of sharp rocks and large boulders making the path very hard to traverse.
With a shaking sweaty body, Ye Chen had just ran more than ten miles around the hills before he stopped in front of a wide river.
Boom!
He threw the rock on the ground, took off his outer clothes and jumped in the deep river. All of a sudden you could see a figure under the water throwing out punches one after another in a quick manner that disturbed the river's flow.
Practicing under the water was a hundred times harder than on the ground, the extreme pressure from the depth and speed of the rushing water would squeeze one's body from each direction and cause many people to be frightened for their lives.
Pushing his Qi into his dantian, Ye Chen firmly stood at the bottom of the river which was full of little rocks and mud as he casually threw a punch. With all the running water around him, the power of his punch could only reach about thirty percent of the usual.
However, this was exactly what Ye Chen wanted, otherwise there was no point in training under the water anymore.
The river suddenly became cloudy, and the flow of the river began to change and spin like a hurricane. It was almost as if there was a large monster hiding in the deep river, shifting its weight in preparation for the right moment to snake its head out.
In this extreme condition, Ye Chen could feel every bone and every muscle in his body shaking and fighting against the sudden turbulence as he finally managed to dig his feet into the river bed to find his balance in the high pressure and turbulence.
Losing track of time, Ye Chen ran out of his breath and finally came out of water.
Gasp! Gasp!
Ye Chen breathed in heavily, he laughed: "Training under the river is so efficient! I wonder how many people know about this method?"
...
The Town of Windy Paths was about ten miles from the Windy Mountain.
On the second floor of the Lucky Coin Restaurant ...
A man was seen stuffing his mouth, grabbing meat slabs with one hand and a bowl of water in the other. Ye Chen slobbered as he tried to sate his starving stomach, going crazy on this big table of delicious dishes, leaving nothing behind.
In the previous life, he would come here once every couple of days because as an outer disciple in the Sky Cloud Martial School, his meal was cooked and served in a huge pot which was like eating gruel, guaranteeing nutrition and nothing more. The good thing was even though the Town of Windy Paths was not large,it was full of delicious cuisines.
Plus, Ye Chen also enjoyed listening to the gossip outside the mountains which broadened his scope of the world, preparing him for the future when he would leave the Sky Cloud Martial School .
Nearby, there were a couple of martial artists sitting close to Ye Chen, each of them carrying a sword or a blade.
"Have you guys heard about it? Wu Wanshan, the Swiftblade lost to a teenage blade artist!"
"Yah, I heard about that, I think that teenager was called Lin Qi or something like that. He is one of the three famous disciples from Northern Snow Academy...His blade is extremely fast and sharp and beat Wu Wanshan in ten moves..."
"No way! Are you joking? Swiftblade has reached the Early Clasping Yuan Realm, extremely powerful! How could he lose to that kid?"
"Bro, you are totally out of it, everyone's talking about that fight, how could it be fake? But, now that you mentioned it, it is quite scary that Lin Qi who only has reached the Late Condensing Reality Realm was able to defeat Wu Wanshan... I wonder what would happen if he fought against a core disciple from the Sky Cloud Martial School?"
Ye Chen's eyes slightly widened as he tried to recall the memories of Wu Wanshan and Lin Qi...
Wu Wanshan didn't belong to any of the martial school or academies, around thirty years old, with his self-created, extremely swift blade art that could slice a drop of water into five parts in one second, once killed more than forty skilled horse thieves all by himself, could cut a bridge in half at a distance. His reputation was of being one of the fastest blade artist!
Lin Qi, one of the three core disciples in the Northern Snow Academy, started to train his Qi at the age of nine, and reached the Condensing Reality Realm at thirteen, Mid Condensing Reality Realm at fifteen, and the peak of Late Condensing Reality Realm at seventeen. With his excellent talent in blade art, his fighting skill was said to be almost equal to the top disciple of Northern Snow Academy - Childe North Snow.
Both of them were way too strong for the Ye Chen of now, but incomparable to Senior Xu Jing. Once he overheard the teacher saying that Xu Jing's skills had already reached beyond some of the Inner Court Masters, her genius in martial arts was unparalleled. She was one of the most rare geniuses in the history of Sky Cloud.
How long will it be until I reach this level? Ye Chen didn't doubt his potential at all because his only disadvantage was that he crossed over so late.
Suddenly, one of the guy said, "Who do you guys think has the most potential among the younger generation of Sky Cloud Martial School, compared to the other top disciples from the other four schools?"
"Without a doubt, Fragrant Plum Sword' - the top disciple of the Sky Cloud Martial School is definitely on the same level of Childe North Snow...As for the rest, I personally think the rank 4 core disciple Jing Jue could potentially make it; he's cold, emotionless, and very experienced."
"Jing Jue is great, but personally I think the rank 3 core disciple Yao Xiaofeng is quite impressive as well. He can always defeat people who are way stronger than him, very smart."
The guy who started this conversation laughed, "All you talked about were the top five core disciples, if it was before I would probably think the same, but this time I am really excited about core disciple rank 23 - Xu Jing."
"How so?" The others wondered, along with Ye Chen, who didn't expect them to mention sister Xu Jing.
"Three days ago, I saw her fight against the famous thief 'Iron Destroyer'..."
He hadn't even finished when the crowd started yammering, "'Iron Destroyer' Li Tong is definitely a character! Fraudulent, crafty, and brutal! He has been wanted for more than half an year now, but is still out there safe and sound. I heard that he learned his special Iron Destroyer art from the Rudra1 Nation and could crumble rocks and break iron. This Xu Jing girl you mentioned shouldn't be able to compete with this, right?"
"Wrong! Especially in that fight, Xu Jing completely beat Li Tong, not leaving him even a chance to fight back. In the end, Li Tong's arms were broken completely, and he vomited too much blood and died."
"What? Li Tong has the top skills of Late Condensing Reality Realm and couldn't even fight back?!"
"It's not that shocking if you were there to see what happened. You would know how strong and powerful Xu Jing's punches actually were. Compared to her, Li Tong seemed weak."
Ye Chen smiled, he was quite familiar with Xu Jing's power. Normally, in power-type martial arts, there were three stages : the first stage was the Gentle Stage, the stage where each movement began to turn from harsh and forceful into a strong, flowing, gentle movement. The second stage was the Opposite Stage, this was the stage where each movement embodied both the elements of hard and soft into strong and gentle movements. The highest stage was the Unity Stage, where one can no longer distinguish in a movement hard or soft, strong or gentle from one another. Xu Jing had already trained her Monster Executing Fist to the second stage! Although he had only trained for a short time, Ye Chen had also managed to reach the Opposite Stage in his King Kong fist which he showcased against Wang Gang.
Obviously, the three stages were not that easy to comprehend. For people who did not have much talent, it could take years, even decades, and could still fail to comprehend even the first stage. For example, that Wang Gang had not even completely understood the movements in Breaking Stone Palm, not to even mention the Gentle Stage...
[1] Rudra: A Rigvedic deity associated with storms and wind. Shares many traits with the Hindu deity Shiva.
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