Playing with fantasy beasts in the martial arts world

Chapter 127 There are still experts! (Please subscribe!!!)
Phagpa, the Buddha Shakyamuni, clearly possessed immense confidence, yet his confidence was expressed with remarkable composure.

This monk gave off a strange feeling. He was not like the Zen monks of the Central Plains, who always pretended to be detached from worldly affairs and humble, but he was also not like most Tantric monks, who were actually noblemen who had left home and had no magnanimity.

If I had to label it, it would be 'mysterious,' as mysterious as a rare flower on the snowy plateau. You seem to see it through the heavy clouds and snow, but you don't know its full appearance, and in an instant it disappears into the wind and snow again.

"You go first!" Huang Yaoshi was proud after all, so he didn't intend to waste too much time on verbal sparring and instead let Phagpa make the first move.

Phagpa didn't stand on ceremony. He stretched out his hands, which were as white and jade-like as a young girl's hands, and clapped them forcefully in front of him, chanting a strange syllable.

The sound waves, mixed with a force similar to a palm strike, converged and surged toward Huang Yaoshi. It was both eerie and insidious, and anyone who was not careful would be tricked and injured by the sound waves.

These martial arts techniques are indeed quite different from those of the Central Plains.

Phagpa was born into the Sakya school of Tantric Buddhism, which is currently considered a small sect within Tantric Buddhism. However, with Phagpa's rise to power, it will become the mainstream sect in the Yuan Dynasty and lead Tantric Buddhism.

The mainstream martial arts of Tantric Buddhism today, such as the Vajra School martial arts from which the Golden Wheel Dharma King originated, and even the Nyingma School martial arts from which the Great Wheel King Kumārajīva emerged in the Northern Song Dynasty, are actually deeply influenced by the Central Plains and can be said to be very similar to the martial arts of the Central Plains.

However, Phagpa's martial arts had a distinctly foreign flavor. If Huang Yaoshi hadn't been knowledgeable and skilled in sound-based martial arts, he might have suffered a loss from this move.

Huang Yaoshi held a jade flute and thrust it forward lightly. With a move called "Riding the Dragon with the Flute," he absorbed the energy and sound waves into the flute. He then guided the sound through the holes in the flute with the Orchid Finger Technique, creating a long, narrow, sword-like sound.

With a sweeping motion of the jade flute, Huang Yaoshi sent back the energy and sound waves that Phagpa had unleashed, which also contained a hidden sonic sword energy.

It has to be said that experience truly matters. Huang Yaoshi's "borrowing flowers to present to Buddha" technique was absolutely brilliant. He only exerted a fraction of his strength, yet he launched a highly threatening offensive. If he were twenty years younger, the outcome of this battle would have been a foregone conclusion.

The extent of Phagpa's future achievements will have nothing to do with his current level of martial arts prowess.

Huang Yaoshi's move was brilliant, but in Phagpa's eyes, it undoubtedly exposed his own lack of confidence, forcing him to rely on others' strength against him.

Therefore, after Phagpa painstakingly shattered the sonic sword energy sent back by Huang Yaoshi, he took a step forward and began to actively close the distance with Huang Yaoshi. When he was only three or four meters away from Huang Yaoshi, he suddenly stretched out his arm and swung it over like an elephant's trunk.

His arms, which originally had a span of just over a meter, suddenly stretched to nearly three meters, like a giant hammer that suddenly appeared and slammed heavily into Huang Yaoshi's heart.

If you stand behind Phagpa, you can see that a large part of his scapula is twisted and pushed forward, collapsing into a significant distance. His shoulders and elbows are also noticeably elongated, which makes his right arm, when he strikes, seem to have suddenly grown a lot longer, making his movements like those of a ghost or demon.

Even Huang Yaoshi was somewhat surprised by this sudden move. Fortunately, he was experienced, so he only took a small step back to give up some space, then held his long flute in front of his chest and thrust it forward.

Phagpa's attack was a long-range strike, using a pulling and throwing force. He took advantage of the momentum from the waist and stance, generating power from the ground and combining it with internal energy to transform his fist into a hammer, carrying a devastating force. Huang Yaoshi's power was both a short-range burst of inch-force and a series of continuous, wave-like strikes, neutralizing the threat of Phagpa's punch.

It was quite obvious that Huang Yaoshi was at a disadvantage.

His handling was fine, but the problem was that his strength couldn't keep up. By the fourth wave of the continuous force, he was already out of breath, and by the sixth wave, he began to show obvious signs of exhaustion.

At this moment, his condition is far from his peak. At his peak, Huang Yaoshi could use twelve layers of continuous internal force to unleash attacks that were truly like surging waves, one higher than the next.

If that's the case, Phagpa's punching power will at most be able to withstand the fifth or sixth blow before being completely neutralized. Then, his offense and defense will shift, and he will be dragged into the vortex by Huang Yaoshi, who will suppress him and beat him relentlessly.

Unable to withstand the onslaught, Huang Yaoshi had no choice but to retreat half a step, using the distance to create an opportunity. He almost skimmed the ground as he performed several somersaults in mid-air, dodging Phagpa's thrusting fist. Then, he flicked his fingers and swept them directly at several of Phagpa's vital points.

This is a very clever fighting style, and it is also the most suitable fighting style for Huang Yaoshi at present. It involves maintaining distance and avoiding direct close-range confrontation. Instead, it uses internal force to drive finger techniques to perform exquisite acupoint strikes.

Why do the old monks of the Bodhidharma Academy of Shaolin Temple practice exquisite finger techniques such as the Formless Finger and the Doro Leaf Finger, while the middle-aged monks of the Prajna Hall learn hard-hitting martial arts such as the Vajra Palm, Prajna Palm, and Kasaya Subduing Demon Skill?
They all understood perfectly well that as people get older, they can no longer engage in fierce, direct combat; they can only rely on skillful techniques or their superior internal strength to overwhelm others. But when they are young and vigorous, they must rely on their strong physique and physical prowess to overwhelm others.

Huang Yaoshi's Finger Flicking Skill was also incredibly versatile and ingenious. However, Phagpa was enveloped in a faint golden light, his hands forming a lotus mudra as he directly met the attack, allowing the finger force to strike his body, causing the faint golden light to tremble precariously.

"The Indestructible Vajra Divine Skill?" Huang Yaoshi asked.

Phagpa replied, "No! It is the Lotus Golden Body, passed down from the ancient Guru Padmasambhava!"

The ancient Guru Padmasambhava practiced in the charnel ground, where he not only comprehended the profound Buddhist teachings but also many extraordinary martial arts techniques.

Huang Yaoshi never expected that this monk in front of him had actually received the inheritance of Guru Padmasambhava. No wonder he had such martial arts skills at such a young age and had become a grandmaster.

With the lotus golden body protecting him, it would be very difficult for Huang Yaoshi to injure Phagpa with his finger-flicking technique.

The battle actually devolved into a war of attrition, but this tug-of-war was cruel in itself for Huang Yaoshi.

In fact, if it weren't for Master Yideng watching closely from the side, Phagpa would have already adopted a more aggressive and fierce fighting style. In that case, Huang Yaoshi would have had an even harder time, while Phagpa would have been able to secure the victory more quickly.

In their duel, both onlookers and participants knew that, barring any unforeseen circumstances, Phagpa would ultimately emerge victorious. Compared to Huang Yaoshi, he had no obvious weaknesses, but his advantage lay in his considerable youth, leaving him no reason to lose.

However, in other battlefields, the situation was reversed.

Guo Jing noticed his father-in-law's predicament out of the corner of his eye, so once he had gathered enough strength, he changed his palm technique without hesitation.

The same move, but with a change in the core, can produce vastly different results.

He had long since mastered the Eighteen Subduing Dragon Palms to a state of simplicity, so when he received the 'original' version of the last three palms from Huang Rong, he was immediately able to use them and push them to an extremely profound level.

At this moment, he switched to the core of the 'Dragon Fights in the Wild' palm technique, unleashing and pouring out the accumulated power and momentum in an instant.

The overwhelming palm strikes, the roaring and tearing dragon's cry in the gale, the swirling and dancing air currents that resembled shattered dragon scales and spurting dragon blood, all forced the Golden Wheel Monk to retreat steadily, leaving him with no power to fight back.

Even if the Golden Wheel Monk has the strength to lift mountains, so what?
Faced with Guo Jing's fierce offensive, he was like a small boat swept away by a dragon in the sea. It was difficult enough for him to maintain his own balance, let alone have the strength to fight back.

Guo Jing was putting all his strength into eliminating his opponent so he could then go and support Huang Yaoshi.

Yang Guo, relying on his Ecstasy Palm, fought the Happy King to a standstill, but then used his hidden arm to launch a sneak attack, injuring the Happy King and leaving him wounded.

If Yang Guo hadn't had a newly grown arm, which prevented him from using his full strength, that sudden palm strike could have killed the Happy King.

Thus, the Happy King became the first of the six grandmasters who fought to leave the battlefield.

He was merely a retainer who had been bought off, and had no loyalty to the Mongols whatsoever. Now that he was injured and might perish here, why wouldn't he flee?

Yang Guo, disregarding the pursuit of the Happy King, casually killed two Mongolian masters who approached him, then turned and rushed towards Huang Yaoshi, shouting, "Senior Huang, I was taught the Finger Flicking Skill by you, and I also studied under Aunt Guo in my early years, so I can be considered your grand-disciple. How about you let me have this battle?"

This statement was quite a show of respect for Huang Yaoshi.

Since he is Huang Yaoshi's grand-disciple, it is only natural for him to take on this battle for Huang Yaoshi, and it will not damage Huang Yaoshi's reputation if word gets out.

Huang Yaoshi wanted to be stubborn, but after Phagpa punched him twice more in the face, he had no choice but to swallow his words.

No matter how heroic you were in your youth, you will eventually have to accept old age.

Phagpa didn't seem to want to risk his life. Seeing Yang Guo coming to help, and Master Yideng watching him intently from the side, he turned around and flew down from the city wall.

Jinlun Fawang, who was being suppressed by Guo Jing, saw that his two helpers had run away. He was not going to stay any longer. He also used the force of Guo Jing's palm to fly out of the city wall and retreat into the Mongol army.

In the blink of an eye, the three Mongolian masters all retreated, as if this duel between masters had come to an end.

The remaining Mongol experts who remained on the city wall were surrounded and killed. Some of them were quick enough to jump off the wall and blend into the army.

But most of them lost their lives on the spot, hacked to pieces by the crowd, their bodies thrown off the city wall.

Although the Mongol army continued to surge upwards in waves, without the interference of these martial arts masters, ordinary soldiers found it difficult to climb the city walls.

The bomb birds also began to take action. Whenever too many soldiers gathered at a certain location, the bomb birds would fly over and drop bombs, blowing them up one by one.

The battle seems to be under control!

Suddenly, a bright, spherical object hurtled towards Yang Guo from a great distance.

When Yang Guo noticed, there was no time to react. He turned around and used the Xuan Tie Heavy Sword on his back to take the hit first. Then he took two steps forward, opened his mouth and spat out blood. The true qi in his body circulated and emitted a bright green color.

If he hadn't eaten the Grass-type skill fruit given to him by Cha Nan, which changed the nature of his true energy and gave it vitality, he would have been seriously injured even if he hadn't died from this attack.

"Are there any masters?"

"Who is coming?" Cha Nan realized what was happening and immediately summoned Monarch Melupa to stand in front of Yang Guo as a human shield.

While Monarch Melupa's attack power may not be particularly strong, her defense and health are still reliable.

(End of this chapter)