Dao Qi Wu Zang Guan Guan: I became a Daoist Master in the 1990s

Chapter 120 Xingyi vs. Bajiquan
It was late at night, and all was quiet.

A cold moon hung in the sky, its clear light casting a silvery glow over the playground.

The tall trees all around rustled softly in the night wind, making the place seem even more desolate and empty.

The two arrived at the center of the playground and stood three zhang apart.

"This time, we will only discuss boxing techniques and not use our true qi, so as not to be caught off guard and cause a rift in the relationship," Song Dingqian suggested.

“That’s exactly right,” Qi Yun agreed.

As soon as he finished speaking, Qi Yun lowered his body slightly and assumed the Xingyi San Ti stance.

With toes hooked into the ground, hips fixed and waist twisted, spine straight like a dragon, the whole body appears relaxed, but in reality, the tendons in the thighs and arms have already been quietly stretched, like a fully drawn bow, containing the potential energy to explode with thunderous power in an instant.

On the opposite side, Song Dingqian stepped out of the classic Bajiquan stance, Liangyi Zhuang.

With his body as solid as a mountain, shoulders relaxed and elbows dropped, fists loosely clenched in front of him, a powerful aura of unwavering stability and explosive force arose spontaneously.

Bajiquan emphasizes "top, embrace, shoulder, lift, cross, and entangle," with powerful and fierce strength, and is a close-quarters, hard-hitting style that complements Song Dingqian's robust and muscular physique.

Both Xingyi and Bajiquan are known for their fierce and powerful nature.

However, Xingyi is an internal martial art, which emphasizes using intention to guide qi and using qi to generate power, cultivating both internal and external strength, and penetrating force; Bajiquan, on the other hand, is more external, emphasizing hard fighting and explosive attacks, taking the fierce and domineering style to the extreme.

"please!"

"please!"

Two short shouts rang out almost simultaneously.

Song Dingqian took the lead, his left foot stomping the ground like a plow, and with a thud, he unleashed a powerful right punch straight to the center of the body. It was simple and direct, yet it carried an overwhelming aura of crushing everything.

Qi Yun neither dodged nor evaded, but instead switched from the Three-Body Stance to a Chopping Fist, meeting the attack head-on.

He intended to verify what he had learned, and this punch was a pure Xingyi power exertion.

boom!
The two fists clashed, producing a dull, powerful sound.

Both of them swayed slightly, raising a small cloud of dust beneath their feet.

Qi Yun felt that the opponent's punch was incredibly powerful, like a giant hammer hitting him, and his arm went slightly numb.

A look of surprise flashed in Song Dingqian's eyes. Qi Yun's fist strength was more refined and his foundation more solid than he had expected. He was able to withstand a punch with seven-tenths of his strength without being at a disadvantage.

"Good!" Song Dingqian shouted, his fighting spirit growing even stronger.

He advanced with rapid, continuous footwork, his fists like spears, unleashing a barrage of moves such as "Face-to-Face Palm," "Dragon Subduing," and "Tiger Taming," his attacks as fierce and relentless as a storm.

Qi Yun focused his mind and countered with Xingyi Five Elements Fist.

Chop, smash, drill, cannon, horizontal—the moves are ever-changing, and the force is released and released.

His footwork was indeed exquisite; he could dodge heavy blows or skillfully deflect force at the last second.

However, after a dozen or so moves, Qi Yun gradually felt a bit uncomfortable.

His boxing style is powerful and fierce, but his footwork is more agile than robust.

Sometimes, even when the footwork is in place, the release of punching power appears somewhat weak due to insufficient grounding of the lower body; other times, even when the punching power is fully stored, the footwork fails to perfectly match the key points of power generation due to the pursuit of agility.

It's like a powerful war machine equipped with tires more suited to drifting maneuvers. Although it can move, it can never unleash its full power. There's an indescribable disharmony between its punches and footwork.

Song Dingqian, with his extensive experience, quickly noticed this.

He maintained his offensive but gradually increased the pressure, forcing Qi Yun to keep moving.

Although Qi Yun managed to hold on with his superb stepping technique, he was clearly at a disadvantage, defending more than attacking. After fighting for more than twenty more moves, Song Dingqian seized an opportunity. After a powerful feint with a "mountain lean," his real killing move, the "horse probing palm," shot out like lightning, striking Qi Yun's chest.

Qi Yun hurriedly blocked with a horizontal punch, while simultaneously using a stepping motion to slide backward and deflect the force.

Although he managed to block it, the immense force pushed him back three steps before he could regain his footing, his chest heaving with a surge of blood and qi.

Song Dingqian immediately stopped and said in a deep voice, "Abbot, I apologize."

Your Xingyi Quan is pure and powerful, and you have grasped its true essence.

But if I may be so bold, your footwork... seems to follow a light and swift path, which is extremely skillful, but it is not from the same source as the deep and powerful style of Xingyi Quan, which emphasizes stepping on the center gate. In fact, it is quite different from it.

This actually hinders the complete release of your punching power and the unification of your body's strength.

Why not try the "mud-walking step" from the Xingyi school? Perhaps it would be a better fit.

Qi Yun had already sensed something during this exchange, but Song Dingqian's words at this moment directly awakened him!
Yes, the Stepping Steps originated from the more advanced Five Elements Thunderclap Sword. After practicing it for a long time, it had become an instinct, and I used it subconsciously.

"Thank you for your guidance, Captain Song!"

Qi Yun sincerely clasped his hands in greeting, a look of joy on his face.

Song Dingqian waved his hand: "Sparring and exchanging skills is how it should be."

I observed that the abbot's fist technique had reached the pinnacle of "the unity of qi and strength," and was faintly touching the threshold of "the unity of intention and qi."

He pondered for a moment and said, "There is a saying in boxing: 'The mind is like gunpowder and the fist is like a piece; when the idea is ignited, even a bird cannot fly away; the intention must be as fast as lightning and the energy must be as sharp as teeth.'"

This unity of intention and spirit is not simply a matter of concentrating one's mind.

One must take the primordial spirit as the commander, and control all the strength of the body.

When facing the enemy, one should have a clear and empty mind, not a blank, but rather enter a mysterious state of "vague and indistinct, yet containing images; vague and indistinct, yet containing things".

Without consciously thinking or acting, let your fighting instincts resonate with the world and spontaneously erupt.

In this way, intention moves and energy follows, energy arrives and power is achieved, and reaction, perception, and explosive power can all reach their peak.

Qi Yun knew that this was far beyond a simple exchange of skills; it was a valuable transmission of experience.

He listened intently, memorizing every word.

He then followed the advice, trying to relax his mind, eliminate distracting thoughts, and pursue that ethereal state.

Seeing this, Song Dingqian continued, "The state of mind and energy in harmony cannot be achieved through hard work alone; it often requires pressure and perseverance."

Most martial arts practitioners in the world get stuck on the combination of qi and strength.

"Be careful, Master. I will put pressure on you to see if you can find an opportunity in the battle!"

Before he finished speaking, Song Dingqian's momentum changed again, and his attack became three times more fierce than before. The wind from his fists howled, completely enveloping Qi Yun in his fierce and violent Bajiquan style.

Qi Yun switched to Xingyi Treading Mud Step this time, and his steps immediately became steady and solid, like the roots of an old tree, connecting him more closely with the earth.

Sure enough, the force of the punch originated from the feet, was transmitted through the waist and hips, and flowed smoothly from one joint to the other, increasing the punch's power by more than 30%!
The transitions and connections between punches are also more fluid and seamless.

However, Song Dingqian also increased the power and speed of his attacks, still firmly maintaining his advantage over Qi Yun.

Qi Yun had to be fully focused, his mind taut like a string, struggling to withstand the opponent's storm of attacks, searching for that barely perceptible opportunity to counterattack, like dancing on the edge of a knife, extremely dangerous.

Under such extreme pressure, how difficult it is to try to empty your mind and enter that "dazed and confused" state.

Qi Yun tried several times, but each time his mind wandered, he was nearly struck in a vital spot. He had no choice but to quickly regain his composure and focus all his energy on dealing with the attack.

But in this constant tug-of-war between tension and attempts to relax, at a certain moment, Qi Yun took a blow from Song Dingqian's punch head-on. As his body trembled violently, his ancestral acupoint between his eyebrows suddenly twitched slightly without warning!
(End of this chapter)