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

The figure emerging from the pine forest was in his forties, with a stocky build and shoulders as broad as a door panel.

He wore a dark gray short jacket with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, revealing his forearms. The veins were bulging, and the muscle lines were clearly defined, like the roots of two old trees wrapped around his bones.

He was holding a single-edged sword in his right hand.

The blade was about two feet seven inches long, with a thick back and a thin edge, and the tip was slightly upturned. The handle was wrapped with a strip of black cloth soaked in tung oil. Moonlight shone through the pine branches onto the blade, giving it a cold, eerie glow.

There was a row of tiny rice-grain-sized notches on the blade, marks left from a hard collision with someone.

Chen Hongwu stopped and scanned the other person with his eyes.

With just one glance, one can discern the other person's true nature.

Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, toes slightly turned inward, knees slightly bent, and weight on your tailbone.

This is the stance of the Xingyi Quan San Ti Shi (Three-Body Stance).

The man's right hand is loosely gripping the hilt of the knife, while his left hand is half-open and half-closed, resting on his waist. This is the starting stance of the Xingyi single-edged sword, the "concealed knife stance".

Xingyi single-edged sword is different from Bagua sword and Taiji sword. Bagua sword moves by wrapping around the head and body, with the sword following the body's movements; Taiji sword moves by sticking, adhering, and following, with the sword moving like willow catkins.

Xingyi single-edged sword moves in a straight line with a hard approach; the sword technique is essentially the same as the fist technique.

The chopping fist transforms into a chopping knife, the collapsing fist into a bayonet, the cannon fist into a slashing knife, and the horizontal fist into a wiping knife.

The boxing manual says, "Xingyi knife, half a step collapse," meaning that within half a step, the knife is ten times faster than the fist.

Chen Hongwu looked at the other man's stance and said coldly, "I just killed him."

He bumped into two Xingyi School people at once, and he could guess with his toes who Wang Hu was.

The man froze for a moment, then reacted. His face instantly turned from ashen to purplish-red, his brow twitched violently, and a scar at the corner of his eye twisted like an earthworm in the moonlight.

"You!" he gritted his teeth, forcing out the words, "You killed Wang Hu?"

He and Wang Hu accepted Mo Laohu's bounty, and he told Wang Hu to go to Foshan first to scout out a way, while he would arrive later.

Who knew that in less than half a day, the person would be gone.

"You've finally met your end," Zhang Long spat out through gritted teeth, his voice low and menacing. "You dared to kill someone from our Green Gang? Now come back to the Green Gang with me, kneel before the leader and kowtow three times to beg for forgiveness, and I might spare your life."

Chen Hongwu did not respond.

He took a step forward with his right foot.

This step was taken very casually, like walking. But the moment the soles of his feet touched the ground, his entire demeanor changed abruptly.

The spine rises segment by segment from the coccyx, the shoulders are slightly pulled back, the chest is slightly concave but not tucked in, the arms hang naturally at the sides, the fingers are slightly spread, and the palms are suspended.

The key to Xingyi Quan is "true intention lies in the unintentional."

True masters don't focus on the starting stance; with a single step, the form naturally unfolds.

When Sun Lutang sparred with others in Baoding, he never put on airs. He would simply stand there casually, and before his opponent could even make a move, he would already be in front of him. When someone asked him why he didn't put on airs, he said, "Armor is for those who don't understand martial arts. True skill lies in the heart, not in the hands."

Zhang Long is not someone who doesn't understand boxing.

His pupils contracted instantly when he saw Chen Hongwu take that step. He had seen many masters in the Xingyi School, but he had only ever seen someone who could push their momentum from relaxed to peak with just one step, a Grandmaster of Transformation.

Zhang Long's Adam's apple bobbed, but his hand held the knife without hesitation. The Xingyi single-edged sword technique emphasizes "speed, accuracy, and ruthlessness," and hesitation is the most taboo thing.

During his four years in the Green Gang, he used this single-edged sword to cleave the heads of seventeen people, the fastest time being with only three strikes.

One slash broke down the door, another severed an arm, and yet another beheaded.

His swordsmanship was derived from Wu Shu's "Arm Record". He had fixed routines for breaking spears, sticks, and empty hands with a single sword. There were a total of thirty-six routines. He chose the six most ruthless routines and practiced them repeatedly until he could know the target of the sword with a single strike.

Zhang Long made a move.

With a stomp of the foot, the front foot of the Three-Body Stance becomes the back foot, and the body's center of gravity is suddenly pushed forward, taking only one step to go from stillness to forward momentum.

This is called "forward step," a footwork technique in Xingyi Quan specifically used to close the distance.

The key to the forward step is that the force of the back foot pushes off through the hip bone, which in turn propels the front leg forward. The toes grip the ground and push forward the instant the foot lands.

Therefore, the more than ten footwork techniques in Xingyi Quan each have their uses. In the Five Elements Fist, the Beng Quan (崩拳) uses the horse-shaped step, the Zuan Quan (钻拳) uses the snake-shaped step, and the Qian Tang Bu (前趟步) is the special footwork technique for the Pi Quan (劈拳), which can cover a distance of one zhang (丈) in one step.

With this step, Zhang Long instantly closed the distance between himself and Chen Hongwu to within three feet.

Using the momentum of his forward step, he swung his single-edged sword upwards, the tip of the blade drawing an arc from bottom to top, aiming straight for Chen Hongwu's left rib.

This is the "sweeping knife technique" in Xingyi single-edged sword. The knife sweeps upwards from bottom to top, with the back of the blade against the forearm and the tip of the blade following a slanted arc from low to high, aiming at the opponent's soft ribs and armpits.

The upward sweeping motion of Xingyi single-edged sword was derived by Cheng Tinghua from Bagua sword techniques. Cheng Tinghua learned Bagua palm from Dong Haichuan and later created his own sword technique, which he passed on to the Xingyi school.

The ruthlessness of the sweeping knife technique lies in taking shortcuts, not seeking the force of the chop, but only the cutting power when the tip of the knife slices across the body.

A silver light tore through the moonlight from below.

Chen Hongwu did not retreat.

He took a half step forward with his right foot, twisted his body forty-five degrees to the right, and his upper body opened to the side like a door.

Zhang Long's knife tip grazed past his left rib, the blade less than a finger's width from his clothes, the air currents from the blade causing the hem of his clothes to flutter slightly.

This is the "Turning Palm" of Baguazhang.

"Turning Palm" is the third of the eight palm techniques in Baguazhang. It follows the path of rotation and position change, "breaking straight lines with turning." When the opponent's attack is in a straight line, I use turning to move my body out of the attack line. The boxing manual says, "Turning is like a whirlwind, and all who come will miss."

Cheng Tinghua used his turning palm technique to break through countless straight punches and knives. The trick was to accurately predict the trajectory of the attack, turn his body to the side, and let the opponent's attack pass by.

The upward slash missed, the momentum of the blade not yet exhausted.

Zhang Long reacted extremely quickly. After his upward slash missed, he flipped the knife over and flicked his wrist, drawing a horizontal line in the air, changing the slash into a sweep.

Sweeping blade style!

Chen Hongwu's turning palm strike had not yet been withdrawn.

But his body shrank down like an eel, his knees bent, his center of gravity shifted below his dantian, and he became almost a foot shorter.

Zhang Long's knife swept across his head, severing several pine needles above him. Before the needles even hit the ground, Chen Hongwu had already sprang up from his crouching position.

This squat and spring is the Tai Chi "Needle at the Bottom of the Sea".

"Needle at the Bottom of the Sea" is a secret move in Hulei Tai Chi Chuan, which resembles a golden needle entering the sea and bursts forth from the bottom of the sea.

The Hulei style of Tai Chi was created by Li Jingyan, a descendant of Chen Qingping. Its form is powerful and swift, incorporating the power generation methods of Xingyi.

The key to the "Needle at the Bottom of the Sea" technique lies in concentrating all the body's strength into the dantian when squatting down, and then bursting upwards from the dantian when springing up, using the feet to push off the ground and propel the whole body up like a spring.

Chen Hongwu's Tai Chi skills were not as profound as Xingyi and Bajiquan, but he used the "Needle at the Bottom of the Sea" move perfectly.

Forced by circumstances, in the midst of his crouching and springing motion, he used the momentum of his springing to deliver a powerful upward punch with his right fist.

Dragon-shaped palm strike!

This punch is a variation of the "Collapse Fist" in Xingyi Quan, which is the most difficult to learn.

The starting point of the Bengquan (Crushing Fist) is a straight-line strike, while the Longxing Pizhang (Dragon-shaped Chopping Palm) changes the straight trajectory of the Bengquan to a diagonal chopping motion from bottom to top, transforming the penetrating power of the Bengquan into the shocking power of the chopping palm.

Few people in Xingyi Quan can execute the Dragon-Shaped Chopping Palm because this move requires extremely flexible spine. At the moment of chopping, the entire spine must twist rapidly from the coccyx to the cervical vertebrae, with the lumbar and thoracic vertebrae twisting into a single rope. The force is then chopped out along the arm and continues to penetrate inward as it strikes.

After undergoing the Thunder Sound Body Refinement, Chen Hongwu's spine became far more flexible and explosive than that of ordinary people. This Dragon-Shaped Palm Strike was executed in one smooth motion from crouching to striking. His right palm struck Zhang Long's chest, and the pressure from the palm made the air whistle low.

Zhang Long couldn't retract his knife in time.

He could only use his left hand to brace himself.

Chen Hongwu's palm strike landed on his forearm, which was held horizontally, and with a crisp "crack," the ulna of his forearm broke.

The residual force of the palm strike penetrated through the broken bones and continued to smash downwards. Zhang Long's chest was dented half an inch by this penetrating force, and his sternum made an even more muffled cracking sound.

Zhang Long opened his mouth and spat out a mouthful of blood mist.

The force of the palm strike sent him flying five feet backward, his back slamming into a pine tree, causing the pine needles to fall like a shower of needles.

The single-edged sword slipped from his hand, tumbled twice in the air, and plunged into the soil with its tip pointing downwards, the blade still vibrating and humming.

Chen Hongwu's toes spun half a step on the ground, using the "Dry Land Boat" footwork technique, and he rushed to Zhang Long's side in three steps.

The right fist bursts out from the center line with a tiger-shaped chopping force!

"Master Liu! Help me!"

Zhang Long's screams echoed through the pine forest.

Before the sound had even finished, a sharp whooshing sound suddenly came from behind Chen Hongwu's head.

Copper coins.

Chen Hongwu's scalp tingled with a sudden chill.

He reacted instantly, his spine bending sharply to the left, his body folding horizontally from the waist down, and his whole body collapsed a foot and a half in an instant.

A copper coin flew past his right ear.

The copper coin spun and pierced the trunk of a pine tree in front of him, creating a hole the size of the coin. The wood fibers around the hole were crushed into sawdust by the force of the rotation.

The copper coin pierced through half of the tree trunk and finally got stuck deep inside the heartwood.

"You're being far too aggressive. Why not give me, Liu, some face and let this Brother Zhang go?"