Chinese martial arts: From being shot and killed by the armed police during a mountain search to bec

The table was deathly silent.

He Yongfu's chopsticks fell onto the table with a clatter. Yao Cai, who had forgotten to chew the roast goose in his mouth, didn't even notice the oil dripping down his chin.

Chen Sheng's hand holding the wine glass froze in mid-air, the wine spilling over the rim and dripping onto the table.

All eyes were fixed on that person.

Chen Hongwu raised his head and looked calmly at the middle-aged man who had toasted him three times.

"Kill me?"

Chen Hongwu picked up his teacup and slowly took a sip: "If you wanted to kill me, wouldn't you have told me first?"

The man nodded, placed the tin wine pot on the table, and reached into his robe.

Everyone at the table was startled again.

Li Su had already held the chopsticks upside down in her hand, with the tips pointing outwards, just waiting for the other party to take something out before making her move.

The man pulled out neither a gun nor a knife.

It's a piece of paper.

Strictly speaking, it is an arrest warrant.

The man nodded, his smile lingering, but his eyes held a more serious expression: "My name is Li Cunyi."

Someone in the crowd gasped.

The name is exactly the same as that of Li Cunyi, the master of Xingyi Quan, but everyone knows that the person in front of them is definitely not the old master from Tianjin.

"Three days ago, I accepted Mo Laohu's offer in Guangzhou." Li Cunyi placed the tin wine pot on the table, the bottom of the pot making a dull thud. "Mo Laohu offered ten thousand silver dollars for your life. I, Li, am in this business of risking my life. I accepted."

Another commotion erupted inside the hall.

The martial arts masters present were well aware of the feud between Mo Laohu and Chen Hongwu.

The hatred for killing one's son is irreconcilable!

"I originally thought you were just a ruthless boxer, Master Chen," Li Cunyi said, staring into Chen Hongwu's eyes, enunciating each word clearly, "that killing is nothing special, you don't have any psychological burden."

He paused.

"But I was watching from the sidelines. I watched you fight two against one, watched you kill those two Japanese devils on the stage, watched you force back that old bastard Funakoshi Yoshinobu." Li Cunyi sneered, "I, Li, am not a good person, but I have a clear conscience. I hate traitors and Japanese the most in my life."

He clasped his hands together and bowed to Chen Hongwu with a swift and decisive movement, his sleeves fluttering in the wind.

"Under Li's gun, I will never kill heroes."

"Moreover—" Li Cunyi shook his head, his face full of admiration, "I'm not confident I can kill you either."

After saying that, he turned and left.

Chen Hongwu did not intervene.

Li Cunyi's blue cloth robe swung in an arc as his footsteps were unhurried, light as a cat stepping on cotton on the blue brick floor.

The crowd automatically parted to make way for him, and no one said a word to stop him.

Reaching the door, Li Cunyi waved his hand without turning around: "Master Chen, Mo Laohu won't let this go easily. Please be careful in the future!"

The figure disappeared into the night outside the door, like a drop of water merging into the ocean.

There was silence for three breaths.

Suddenly someone exclaimed, "Li Cunyi... the assassin surnamed Li, could he be that 'Ghost Shadow'?"

"Ghost Shadow? The number one assassin in Guangdong and Guangxi?"

"It's him! I've heard of him. He's a legendary figure, appearing and disappearing like a dragon, having assassinated no fewer than ten traitors and warlords without ever failing, and no one has ever seen his true face!"

"He actually came to assassinate Master Chen?"

The martial arts masters in the hall looked at each other in astonishment, their voices buzzing with exclamations and discussions.

Chen Hongwu gazed at the pitch-black night sky outside the door and picked up his teacup.

into the night.

The banquet at Hongsheng Restaurant ended, the tables and chairs were removed, and the blue brick floor was swept clean.

One by one, the lights in the streets and alleys of Foshan went out, and the entire city fell into boundless silence.

Chen Hongwu stood alone in the Chen family courtyard.

Without any lamps lit, moonlight filtered through the gaps in the clouds, casting a long, thin shadow on his feet. The flagstones beneath his feet were damp with night dew, gleaming coldly.

He looked up at the sky.

The sky was filled with countless stars, as if someone had scattered a handful of silver fragments across the heavens.

The Milky Way stretched across the night sky, a faint band of light extending from the zenith all the way to behind the distant mountains.

A night breeze swept in from the alleyway, carrying the coolness of early autumn in the south and the dampness of the distant Pearl River. Crickets were still chirping in the cracks of the courtyard wall, one chirp after another.

Chen Hongwu recalled many things.

He spent three years in prison learning boxing, falling and getting bruised and battered every day; after his release, he sought revenge, killing his enemy with a satisfying punch.

Then, crossing the barrier of life and death, he arrived in this era of rampant guns and cannons, a land shattered by war. He fought his way through, honing his martial arts to a level he had never reached in his previous life.

He remembered something the old man had said.

"To struggle with Heaven is endless joy. To struggle with Earth is endless joy. To struggle with Man is endless joy."

Chen Hongwu suddenly understood.

He stood in a stance beneath the waterfall, and fought wild beasts in the mountains—a struggle against heaven and earth. Heaven and earth remained silent, yet tempered his strength with thunder and rain.

Today, on the arena, he defeated the Japanese samurai and subdued the assassin who came from afar—that was a battle against humans. Human hearts are unpredictable, yet he tempered his will with life, death, honor, and disgrace.

When martial arts reach this level, the training is no longer about muscles and bones, but about the mind and intention.

When the mind and intention are in harmony, the intention and energy are in harmony, and the energy and strength are in harmony.

Of all the six directions, the mind and intention are paramount. If the mind and intention are not aligned, practicing for a lifetime will be nothing but empty shell.

When the mind is in harmony, every punch and kick becomes a world unto itself.

Having the nation in one's heart and possessing the skills in one's hands—that is true martial arts.

This nation is not the country of a single family, surname, person, or organization. Rather, it is the spirit and vitality forged by hundreds of millions of people who have shed blood and sweat on this land over thousands of years.

He closed his eyes.

Scenes flashed through my mind.

The moment Miyagi Nagaharu collapsed on the arena, the bloodied death of Ueshiba Morihei, the trembling fingers of Funakoshi Yoshinobu, the crisp back of Li Cunyi with his hands clasped. And the iron bars of his past life, the roar of the waterfall, the howls of tigers and leopards.

All the images come together, like rivers flowing into the sea, merging in with a roar.

At this moment, Chen Hongwu's mind was completely at ease.

He felt like a fish that had swum into the deep sea, and the starry sky above him seemed to have turned into a boundless ocean.

His gaze was as clear as water, and his heart was as turbulent as the ocean.

Then he moved.

It's not about throwing a punch, but about the mind moving first. Yin and Yang collide and surge within the mind, like two flints rubbing together and producing sparks.

The spark of energy flowed from his mind into his dantian, and from there into his limbs and bones. His spine straightened up, segment by segment, like a giant dragon that had been dormant for a thousand years raising its head.

"Hoo—" Chen Hongwu exhaled a breath of stale air and took a half step forward with his left foot.

Xingyiquan, San Ti Shi (Three-Body Stance).

Push outward with the front hand, pull back with the back hand, sit down with the hips, and pull upward with the spine. Xingyi Quan is all about the San Ti Shi (Three-Body Stance), and all its skills originate from this single stance.

Chen Hongwu stood firmly on the stake, then took a half step forward with his left foot and punched out from his waist with his right fist.

Chopping Fist.

The fist sliced ​​through the air, producing a slight whooshing sound. The force traveled from the soles of the feet all the way to the fist, exploding at the very tip of the arm.

Then come the Drilling Fist, Crushing Fist, Cannon Fist, and Horizontal Fist.

After finishing the Five Elements Fist, we move on to the Twelve Forms.

Dragon-shaped, tiger-shaped, monkey-shaped, horse-shaped, alligator-shaped, chicken-shaped, hawk-shaped, swallow-shaped, snake-shaped, tigress-shaped, eagle-shaped, bear-shaped.

Twelve figures darted and shifted in the courtyard.

When we reach the final form—the bear form.

"Bang!" A thunderous sound erupted from his bones.

Chen Hongwu suddenly sensed something was amiss.

Deep within the bones and marrow, a very subtle tremor was spreading.

Tiger and Leopard Thunder Sound!

Thunderous resonance cannot be developed through muscle exertion. Muscle exertion can only train the tendons and skin, not the marrow.

Thunderous sound must be guided by intention. Intention is like a needle, and breath is like a thread. The needle guides the thread, passing through the gaps between the bones.

Only when the bone marrow is drawn by the Qi (vital energy) and vibrates from the inside out can it produce a thunderous sound.

Xue Dian once said, "The thunderous sound of tigers and leopards is not something that can be trained, but something that can be nurtured. The mind is the furnace, the blood and qi are the medicine, and the bone marrow is the elixir. When the fire is sufficiently heated, the thunderous sound will naturally arise."

Chen Hongwu's punching motion gradually subsided.

He stood still, his knees slightly bent, his hands hanging naturally at his sides. The physical movements ceased, but the internal tremors did not.

He closed all the pores on his body. He didn't do it intentionally; it was an automatic reaction of his body after his bone marrow vibrated to a certain extent.

When the pores close, the body's vital energy cannot escape and instead flows back into the internal organs. Heat penetrates inward, while cold seeps outward from the bone marrow; these two forces converge among the five internal organs.

Hot and cold clashing.

Chen Hongwu clenched his teeth suddenly.

He could feel his internal organs—heart, liver, spleen, lungs, and kidneys—vibrating gently.

Immediately following were the large intestine, small intestine, stomach, gallbladder, and even the bladder, all of which trembled slightly at that moment.

The feeling was like muffled thunder rolling through my stomach. It was a tingling, pervasive vibration that came from the inside out. It was like immersing frozen hands in warm water in winter, where every pore opened and every muscle relaxed.

The coldness and heat mingled together, transforming into a warm current that spread from the depths of the internal organs and permeated every part of the body.

The bones, muscles, fascia, and skin of the whole body were enveloped in this warmth.

Chen Hongwu took a deep breath.

Only when your kung fu reaches this stage can you be said to have truly trained your internal organs.

In the past, when we practiced boxing, we trained our tendons, bones, skin, muscles, and fascia, which was about developing the body's potential.

Bring out the potential within your body, push it to the limit, and your strength will reach its peak.

However, once the internal organs are penetrated by the force, the nature of the body changes.

The internal organs become stronger, digestion and absorption become more thorough, the generation of qi and blood becomes more vigorous, and physical strength recovers faster. As the internal organs are strengthened, the limits of human potential are gradually raised.

This is the skill that truly improves physical constitution by working from the outside in, from muscles and skin to internal organs.

When a Xingyiquan master reaches this level, every movement he makes possesses the strength of a lion, tiger, leopard, or elephant. That's not an exaggeration; it's the absolute truth.

A tiger can drag a thousand-pound buffalo because of the strength of its internal organs.

Chen Hongwu stood still, the night wind blowing, the hem of his long robe fluttering gently.

He was completely still, but the tremors deep within his bones continued, subtle and persistent.

Like a drum, the drumhead is still, but the echo inside the drum cavity still lingers.

From that moment on, the python leaped up and swallowed the sun and moon to transform into a dragon!

P.S. Thanks to Mr. Muzi1-1 for the expert certification!! Two long chapters, totaling 6,000 words, too lazy to split them, so let's just call them three chapters.