Chapter 24: Pair Exercise
Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
Hearing the instruction, Zhen De was surprised at first, but then he grinned and strode out. “OK, Senior Brother Zhen Miao.”
The Kung Fu exercise and plenty of food for more than half a year had helped him grow much taller. With his face covered with so black stubble, he was stout and hulking. Looking at ng Qi, who was two years younger, his eyes were full of joy, eager to try.
ng Qi bared his teeth and had an unexpected seriousness, which there was no reason for him to reject. After all, he was zealously seeking for a chance to fight with tactics such as Iron Shirt, Eight Divine Steps, Arhat Fists, Five Tiger-like Bladesmanship, etc., and integrate them together in actual combat.
“I’ll appreciate your instructions, Senior Brother Zhen De.” ng Qi called Zhen De, the senior apprentice in Shaolin Temple “Senior Brother Zhen De” according to Shaolin rules. Then he stood with his feet apart and balanced himself in accordance with the requirents of the First Movent of Arhat Fists.
Zhen De opened his mouth as if he were about to say sothing. However, the excitent stole his words, even the prayer “Namo Amitabha” while he put his palms together. Thus, he just did a standardized movent nad the Arhat in Prayer after a sudden roar of “Hey-ha”, which he exclaid in his usual practice.
At the mont Zhen De launched his attack, ng Qi felt as if he had been imrsed in water and could no longer hear or see anything. Having learned from his combat with Cheng Yong, he turned aside to avoid the head-on attack, then he withstood the fists of Zhen De with one hand and punched his belly with one powerful fist.
Instead of being timid in his first pair exercise, he was extrely active and positive.
After this first attack, Zhen De prepared to make his next move. Exactly at this mont, ng Qi pounced on him and hit him like a fierce storm.
Such a swift and forceful attack from the fearless ng Qi sent a chill to Zhen De’s heart. He even felt death in the air because of ng Qi, which could only be sensed from soone who had fought at the risk of his own life.
As he hesitated, he was hit in the belly with a “Bang!” sound, which was so painful that he curled up his body on his back, groaning painfully.
“How weak he is! He seems unable to continue, and it’s only the beginning,” ng Qi stood in a daze and thought.
In addition to ng Qi, the other monks present were also stunned and found it hard to believe that the outstanding Zhen De would be outclassed by others in a routine exercise so quickly and easily.
After calmly watching, Zhen Miao walked swiftly over and squatted down in front of Zhen De, trying to unblock his abdon ridians with inner force to ease his pain.
Right now, people, such as Zhen Yong, recovered from their shock and stared at him in astonishnt, and thought to themselves, “Senior Brother Zhen Yong intended to let Brother Zhen De give Zhen Ding a lesson and inform him of the shortcomings of unorthodox movents. While now it seems that the unorthodox beats the orthodox. Well…”
Recalling the brief fight just now, ng Qi keenly discovered that Zhen De seed to be dull for a second under his violent attack, so he wondered, “Is montum an important part in combat?”
After lifting up Zhen De, Zhen Miao said without expression, “Zhen He, co and combat with Zhen Ding, please.”
“All right, Senior Brother Zhen Miao.” A burly young monk ca over from the team, who stood there like a black tower.
ng Qi vaguely perceived the key to winning and was eager to demonstrate it in a new fight, so he put his palms together and responded, “I’ll appreciate your instruction, Senior Brother Zhen He.”
Having received a salute in the sa way, ng Qi launched the first attack like a fierce tiger coming out of its den.
Zhen He, born with unusual strength, did not expect his crazy attack. Although he resisted ng Qi in a desperate panic, it was too late for him to counterattack, so he was forced to continuously move back.
“Hah!”
With the idea of striking the iron while it’s hot, ng Qi exhaled an exclamation as he gave a jab at his chest as desperately as he could.
Looking at ng Qi at this mont, Zhen He’s legs were so weak to support himself, and his palms, having been put together before, were directed open.
ng Qi seized the chance to take his fist back, turn around, and, using his elbow, hit Zhen He on the right side of his chest.
As ng Qi held back a little of his strength with full assurance of success, Zhen He was still beaten and coughing severely.
“I appreciate your kindness,” ng Qi said as he turned back with forceful feet, smiling with his palms together.
What a brilliant and delightful fight!
Onlookers, like Zhen Yong, Zhen De, and others, were grinning from ear to ear for the bull-like Zhen He. During their usual exercises, Zhen He had beaten them all in the end, giving them numb hands and weak legs, and had been the nightmare of them all. However, just right now he was beaten defenselessly by Zhen Ding—a monk with a child’s stature.
“Unbelievable! It must be an illusion!” Looking at ng Qi’s elegant face, the monks were still astonished.
Having caught his breath, Zhen He scratched his bald head shyly and naively. “Junior Brother Zhen Ding, you’re so wonderful!”
Zhen Miao snorted at the words, with his face taking on a ghastly expression. After a long silence, he said, “I suppose you must’ve been given a deep nourishnt in Kung Fu by your influential family and you’ve made great progress in Qi-cultivation, so there is no match for you among the younger monks. Shall we have a simulated fight?”
Since he had opened the Eye Aperture, he was able to see the signs of the inner force of ng Qi’s movents.
“Oh!”
“I see!”
At this mont, it suddenly dawned on the monks, like Zhen Yong, that Zhen Ding had opened his Elixir Field and made progress in Qi-cultivation. No wonder Zhen De and Zhen He could not beat him!
Even so, would it not be a little unfair for Zhen Ding to fight against Senior Brother Zhen Miao, one of the Teaching Monks and an outstanding martial artist in the Enlightennt Stage?
“Don’t worry! I’ll keep my strength in the primary level of Qi-cultivation.” Zhen Miao stared at ng Qi with his sharp eyes.
ng Qi took a breath at that mont. Although he knew the great disparity between them, his fighting spirit soared aloft. He told himself, “If you don’t dare to fight during an exercise, how can you face an actual fight?”
Honestly, having been through a life-and-death struggle, he was not afraid of Zhen Miao at all. It did not matter if he lost. As long as he could find the gap and the weaknesses, then a failure would be valuable.
Moreover, there was still a chance for him to win!
“I’ll appreciate your enlightennt, Senior Brother Zhen Miao.” ng Qi again put his palms together, itching for the fight.
All the monks drew a deep breath and thought, “Does he really dare to fight Brother Zhen Miao? The disparity between the two sides is as wide as the ocean! Even if Brother Zhen Miao confines his strength to the primary level of Qi-cultivation, his eyesight, experience, and knowledge won’t be changed!”
“Well.” Zhen Miao felt relieved at the sight of ng’s courage. “You go first.”
Having not declined out of modesty, ng Qi stretched out his right leg with a bow step and launched a punch at Zhen Miao with his fists.
Unlike Zhen He and Zhen De, Zhen Miao bore the punch stably by using the sa Kung Fu, Arhat Fists, and he even struck back with Hollowing Hearts Like A Black Tiger to hit ng on the right side of his chest.
With his eyes wide open, ng Qi suddenly threw himself forward to let Zhen Miao’s fists hit him and he struck Zhen Miao’s ears with both fists.
Though the experienced Zhen Miao discovered that sothing was wrong, he was unable to retreat in the face of ng Qi’s attack, so he added more power into his fists and tried to fight back against ng Qi.
“Puff!” He felt as if his fists hit a thick cloth and the strength was dispersed all around. At this ti, the fists of ng Qi almost touched his temples.
“Hah!”
Zhen Miao shouted all of a sudden. Then his ears turned red, his blood pulsated in his temples, and he bent back slightly.
“Paa!”
The fists just grazed his temples and hit right on his cheeks. However, there seed to be a layer of an air cushion that eliminated most of the strength.
Even so, Zhen Miao had to move back with very chaotic steps, with swollen, red cheeks and a dizzied head.
“You’ve learned Iron Shirt!” Zhen Miao shouted, shocked and outraged.
ng Qi threw him a faint smile and answered, “Yes, I learned it from my parents. You used the strength in the Enlightennt Stage, didn’t you?”
Since his Iron Shirt was revealed last night, it was unnecessary to conceal it, and he lied to him that he learned it from his unknown family.
In the fight a mont ago, ng Qi fought in accordance with the instructions of Zhang Yuanshan and Jiang Zhiwei, which were to launch a quick attack against a slow opponent and cause a severe wound at the cost of a slight wound. And he took advantage of the fact that Zhen Miao did not know his skill of Iron Cloth, this being the case in which his Kung Fu level lagged far behind Zhen Miao’s.
With his complexion changing a few tis, Zhen Miao said in a cold voice, “Get back into the line and continue to practice Arhat Fists.”
ng Qi knew that Zhen Miao did not an to pick on him and that he just could not stand the unstructured Arhat Fists. He was also clear that there were so many mistakes in his boxing that needed to be improved one by one. But defeating Zhen Miao, and to see him suffer such a setback, really overwheld ng Qi with joy.
“I admit I’m such a an guy!” ng Qi judged himself.
Back to the boxing practice, ng Qi took efforts to correct and improve his boxing skills with Zhen De, Zhen He, and the others. Having seen this, Zhen Miao relaxed his facial expression again.
After finishing Arhat Fists and Shaolin Sticks, Zhen Miao comnted to them seriously one by one. Finishing this, he turned around and said, “Zhen Ding will continue to practice with tomorrow and I’ll confine my strength to the primary level of Qi-cultivation again.”
“How strong his ambition to win is…” ng Qi sighed in his heart and shivered with excitent for the upcoming fight.
“I have to utilize my ti to practice Eight Divine Steps tonight.”
After all, he did not want to lose!
“Senior Brother Zhen Miao always gets his way in everything and has already started to practice Mo-Ke Finger of the 72 Ultimate Arts. It’s only natural for him to be proud and arrogant. Who could have ever expected that he would be defeated by you, his younger brother apprentice, who has only small achievents in Qi-cultivation. How could he accept the failure?” Zhen Yong ca closer to ng Qi with a broad smile. “I’m so surprised by your Kung Fu! I’d appreciate it if you could take care of .”
ng Qi responded with a smile, “I just won using a thod that he couldn’t expect at the ti. So, tomorrow it’ll be extrely difficult to win.”
He could only win again in the sa way if he learned Eight Divine Steps. Yet it seed impossible.
Despite that, ng Qi was not afraid of the fight because he considered it to be a valuable chance to practice with outstanding people, which could possibly be the key to saving his own life in the next World of Samsara!
ng Qi, Zhen Hui, and Zhen Yong went back to the door of Warrior-monk Yard and ca across Xuan Chi.
A dull monk with glassy eyes was following Xuan Chi and was murmuring to himself, “How could I break this movent?”
Instead of introducing the young monk, Xuan Chi just told ng Qi and Zhen Hui, “Co to the Kung Fu Acting Hall after dinner. I’m going to teach you the Shaolin Temple Heart Sutras.”
ng Qi had heard from Xuan Xin that the Shaolin Cultivation thod, one of the basic Inner Qi Forces in the Shaolin Temple, was ranked in the top 10 among similar basic thods, with qualities like purity, honesty, and virility. Because of its simple operating route, it was compatible with most magic Kung Fu, and it would be easy to transfer directly to other Inner Qi Forces in the future.
ng Qi secretly decided to focus on the Shaolin Cultivation thod in the days to co and operate the rough route that ca with Iron Shirt only in the use of Iron Shirt.
As he watched Xuan Chi going away, Zhen Yong whispered, “See the brother beside Uncle Master Xuan Chi? He’s another Teaching Monk called Senior Brother Zhen Ben. It’s said that he has a mania for martial arts and there are a lot of anecdotes about him…”
They finished dinner, talking and laughing. Then ng Qi and Zhen Hui rushed into the Kung Fu Acting Hall. Zhen Yong had nothing to do and went with them, intending to practice with soone else.
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