Chapter 9: Tai Chi
He couldn't help but recall Tai Chi Fist. Twelve years had passed, and he wondered how much he still remembered.
"Peng, Lu, Ji, An, Cai, Lie, Zhou, Kao, Jin, Tui, Gu, Pan, Ding. Keep the spirit empty and the top of the head still; contain the chest and pull up the back; sink the shoulders and drop the elbows; relax the waist and sink the hips. Seem relaxed but not relaxed, about to unfold but not yet unfolded, the strength breaks but the intent does not, use intent and not force, Tai Chi circles and turns, never allowing a break." He began to recall it slowly in his consciousness.
Starting posture, holding the ball posture, single push posture, probing posture, supporting posture, pouncing posture, carrying posture, splitting posture, cloud posture, transforming posture, double push posture, downward posture, closing posture. Soon, after finishing the set of boxing in his consciousness, he had some realizations. If evolved into moves, they could be divided into: Grasping the Sparrow's Tail, Single Whip, Raising Hands, White Crane Spreads Its Wings, Brush Knee and Step Forward, Playing the Pipa, Step Forward, Parry and Punch, Like Sealing Like Closing, Cross Hands, Embrace Tiger and Return to Mountain...
This set of Tai Chi Fist was exactly the perfect method he urgently needed to solve the problem of his neural reflexes being too fast while his physical response was too slow, slowly coordinating the gap between his body and nerves.
Tai Chi Fist is easy to learn but difficult to master. Its moves are actually very simple; anyone can learn them after watching a few times. However, Tai Chi Fist does not focus on the moves, but on its boxing theory. This is its most essential part. Without a certain understanding of Daoist culture and the I Ching, it is impossible to unleash the true power of Tai Chi Fist.
The group of six paired off for matches. One round ended quickly, and the second round began.
"Yang Tong, Gelu, get ready." The teacher recording the scores announced.
Feng Xiaobo walked over and whispered to him: "Yang Tong, you need to be careful with this guy. I wasn't his opponent. He actually practices the most extreme hard style. Besides having powerful strength, everything else is similar to me, but his defense is too strong, and his explosive power is also quite extreme. However, his speed is too slow; just don't let him hit you."
He looked at the big guy, nearly 1.8 meters tall, not far away, and couldn't help but nod. A twelve-year-old boy who was nearly the height of an adult, his exposed muscles filled with a violent aesthetic. It was clear that this guy's strength must be very high. Gelu was not a student from class five. His group was mixed, although looking at the forty-eight people in the large group, students from class five accounted for more than sixty percent.
"Yang Tong, Gelu, go up. Feng Xiaobo, Ai Dong, get ready." After about fifteen minutes, the teacher recording the scores called out.
He jumped onto the ring, and the big guy Gelu also got on. He scratched the back of his head and smiled with incomparable honesty: "Please advise me."
"Old rules, you may begin." The referee announced solemnly.
Gelu set up a boxing stance. It was clear that he had learned a formal set of boxing. Elementary academies would not teach students set-style boxing or palm techniques; instead, they focused on building the foundation. If the foundation is not solid, everything is a castle in the air. For example, his father had only taught him the Wind Wolf Fist not long ago. Once the foundation is solid, the intermediate academy is the beginning of the rising period, where one can be taught boxing techniques and the like. But this does not mean students cannot learn a cultivation technique before then. It is just that building a solid foundation is already quite arduous for children; learning a cultivation technique on top of that would be even harder and detrimental to a child's growth.
However, for someone like Gelu who was born with excellent physical talent, it was possible to build a foundation while learning an advanced cultivation technique.
Gelu set his stance and then attacked.
"Bull King Fist!"
Like a wild bull, he rushed towards Yang Tong, his aura extremely astonishing.
The moment Gelu made his move, he grasped the power of this boxing technique. Its punching path was simple, but the punching force combined with the aura made one feel a sense of fear.
As soon as he set up his starting posture, he was met with Gelu's almost unreasonable fist.
Upon the first exchange, he felt a powerful force that exceeded his standard strength. It seemed that this Bull King Fist was also a type of boxing similar to Wind Wolf Fist, both focusing on generating force and increasing strength.
He used several transforming moves, a holding ball posture, to unload the opponent's strength, then followed with Raising Hands, Like Sealing Like Closing, and then stepped forward with Step Forward, Parry and Punch!
This punch used squeezing force. When unleashing power, he also used the Wind Wolf Fist's force-generating method to increase his strength, while also borrowing Gelu's own strength, sending him flying backward.
He retracted his hand and struck a White Crane Spreads Its Wings pose.
This move left the referee and the students below stunned for a long time.
"Kid, listen well. The actual combat of Tai Chi Fist focuses on listening to force and guiding hands. Lead into emptiness, borrow force to strike others. The whole body must be complete and unified; when one moves, all move; when one is still, all are still. The strength breaks but the intent does not, only then can it be triggered at a touch. Guidance is at the top, transformation is in the chest, storage is in the legs, the dominator is in the waist, store then release. The whole body must possess five bows to achieve storing force like drawing a bow and releasing force like firing an arrow. Force is stored in curves and has surplus; the force of the whole body lies in unity. Releasing force must focus on one side; one must identify the target to achieve the goal. Force starts from the heel, goes from the foot to the leg to the waist, and forms in the fingers; it must be a complete breath, without the slightest interruption."
The old man's voice suddenly rang in his mind, and the days that were the happiest in his previous life surfaced along with it.
"Listening to force, with my neural reflexes, as long as the punching speed does not exceed three times mine, I can grasp it in advance, and then it is time to guide the hand," he thought to himself. The sudden increase in neural reflexes, although he still couldn't adapt to it, was really too suitable for the performance of Tai Chi Fist. Tai Chi Fist emphasizes striking after the opponent, borrowing force to strike force, and using four ounces to deflect a thousand pounds. The key lies in striking after and borrowing force. The key to striking after is accurately judging the opponent's punching path, force, and center of gravity, etc. This is the most difficult and crucial point. Borrowing force is using the core theory and flexible application of moves of Tai Chi Fist to achieve this goal.
Gelu stood up immediately. He did not admit defeat directly like Tong Zhengbin; instead, he was extremely unconvinced. He had been sent flying shortly after the exchange, and he didn't even know how he was sent flying.
"Come again!" Gelu roared, his strength exploding.
"Bear King Palm!" Compared to the previous aura, it had doubled; the momentum was very frightening, and the wind from the punch could be heard with a "chi" sound.
The moment Gelu attacked, Yang Tong accurately judged the power and speed of this punch and could easily dodge it. If he forced a parry, he would inevitably be injured.
If there were no Tai Chi Fist, even if he used Wind Wolf Fist to fight Gelu head-on, he might not win, and the possibility of both being injured or even losing would be greater. After all, he had only been learning the boxing technique for a few days.
After repeating a few times, he sent Gelu flying and falling to the ground several times in succession until he was beaten into submission