Chapter 8: The Summit Showdown (Part 1)

  When Luo Ke and Ma Jingyu entered the inner courtyard's martial arts arena, they happened to see two people facing off against each other.

  "Master Brother, among you, Second Master Brother and Third Master Brother, who is the most powerful? Can Second Master Brother beat that Chen Pengtao?" After all, it was still a ten-year-old child's body, Luo Kai unknowingly felt influenced, his curiosity piqued.

  "It's embarrassing to say, but although I'm the eldest of the three brothers, our martial arts skills are actually in reverse order. Third Brother is first, Second Brother is in the middle, and I'm the worst." Ma Xingyu scratched his head with a habitual gesture, his face flushing with embarrassment.

  "No way, just now Big Brother Master was defeated by Xu Ying Shan who uses the Eagle Claw Fist in less than ten moves. I heard a brother next to me say that Xu Ying Shan is actually the master of Tianying Martial Arts Academy."

  Having been here for over a month, Luo Kai had thought that the robust and majestic senior brother was the most formidable one. Now it seems he's been blinded by his own ignorance. He couldn't help but secretly sigh in admiration: outsiders watch the excitement, insiders watch the gate - the ancients were indeed not deceiving me.

  "Ugh, this Xu Ying Shan is nothing but a mediocre master, at most he's just an elite disciple who learned martial arts from the Tianying Gate in the mainland. He's already in his 70s and still has such a low level of skill, yet he wants to learn from others and open his own martial arts school? He can't even win a fight but still has the nerve to ask inland parents to vouch for him, it's really despicable.

  On the other hand, Chen Pengtao is quite a formidable opponent. Over 10 years ago, he was able to stand out in Fujian, where martial arts were flourishing, and become a Wuju champion. Now, he's the number one master of the Tianying Gate, his reputation is so great that I've even heard of it on the Taiwan-Haiti island. Plus, he's now in his prime, with both experience and physical strength at their peak. Even if my second brother has exceptional talent, it's still uncertain whether he can win.

  However, when masters engage in a battle, things change in an instant, and no one can predict the outcome." Ma Yingwu's face was filled with disdain when talking about Xu Ying Shan, but his expression turned serious when mentioning Chen Pengtao. A person's reputation is like a tree's shadow - Chen Pengtao is indeed a legitimate Wuju champion of the Qing dynasty, and his strength should not be underestimated.

  "They're starting, huh? What kind of fist is Second Brother using?" It seemed that his pre-transmigration self wasn't really interested in martial arts. Luo Kai searched through his memories and found that he didn't even know what kind of fist technique this Second Brother was using.

  "Look at his hand shape, right hand is crane hook hand, left hand is crane claw palm, standing in the golden rooster independent stance. The second brother must be using Crane Fist, no doubt about it. Heh heh, right hook and left palm, didn't expect my brother to come out with his ultimate technique." Ma Kengyu replied.

  In the martial arts arena, Li Chen's body slightly tilted to one side, with his right foot raised like a golden rooster standing on one leg. His right hand was in front, with his wrist bent like a hook, and his thumb folded against the root of his index finger, while the other four fingers were evenly divided downwards. His left hand was behind him, with all five fingers spread open like claws. The movement was relaxed, neither fast nor slow, stretching out with soft beauty.

  Across from him, Chen Pengtao stood with his feet shoulder-width apart, one hand behind and one to the side, his thumb stretched out and bent, while the other four fingers were clenched together. The angle between his two arms was like a tightly strung bow, exuding an aura that inspired awe.

  Eagles represent valour, while cranes represent longevity and transcendence!

  Chen Pengtao, eagle wings spread, takes the lead in starting.

  The crane's alertness is extremely high, and it can quickly reflect any movement. Therefore, the crane fist is a boxing method that uses stillness to control movement and idleness to replace labor. The crane fist spectrum has a saying: "All the moves of the enemy are floating clouds." It emphasizes that all the moves of the enemy are like floating clouds, and I am in a state of mind as if I have passed through the clouds. Li Chen has been immersed in the crane fist for decades, and his skills are quite deep. He has brought out the characteristics of the crane fist to the extreme, with his toes touching the ground, like a white crane dancing, fluttering like a swan, like a dream, like an illusion.

  Unlike the elegant and refined crane, the eagle is a clever and fierce animal. Chen Pengtao's movements were wide and tight, step by step, each move faster than the last, grabbing, hitting, taking, pinching, flipping, smashing, locking, relying, collapsing, intercepting, blocking, hanging, every move aimed at Li Chen's vitals. As they say, it's not that you don't know the goods, but rather the goods are compared to each other. When Chen Pengtao made his move, Luo Kai saw that his strength was far superior to Xu Ying Shan's, truly a gap between an adult and a child.

  The lightness skill of the He Quan master is like a crane playing in water, able to change and adapt instantly, using gentleness to overcome stiffness, and stiffness to control gentleness, making the opponent feel like they are being attacked from all sides, with all their moves anticipated, thus causing them to lose their will to fight before the battle even begins, and then one can take advantage of this emptiness to launch a surprise attack, causing the opponent to be defeated without a fight.

  Chen Pengtao had been exchanging blows for over thirty rounds, his momentum was unstoppable, but as he looked at his opponent's elegant and composed demeanor, he suddenly felt a surge of irritation in his heart, with an overwhelming urge to slap him to death. In modern terms, it was as if he couldn't stand seeing someone being so arrogant. After another nineteen rounds, Chen Pengtao's momentum had reached its lowest point, leaving him feeling limp and powerless all over. He threw out one more punch, but it was soft and weak, with a sense of having thrown the most pathetic punch of his life.

  "Sluggish and powerless......, not good!" Chen Pengtao, a seasoned veteran, let out a loud roar, suddenly snapping back to his senses, a sense of danger surging up in his heart, every single one of Chen Pengtao's pores opened wide.

  Crane Fist emphasizes defense before offense, hence the saying "the enemy doesn't move, I don't move; the enemy moves, I move first". Movement reveals weaknesses, so it's better to let the opponent make the first move and seize their weak point to launch a counterattack. It stresses that a thousand punches return to one route, and hitting an opponent is just one move.

  "Too late! The flying crane flaps its wings!"

  A thousand fists return to one road, hitting people only once, one strike must kill. Li Chen does not send out then it's over, sending out like a meteor chasing the moon, humming and hooting twice, using intention to drive energy, using energy to transport power, using sound to assist power, from within the body emitting a sound of a bowstring bursting, both hands popping out, crane hook hand taking Baihui acupoint, crane claw palm taking Xuanzhong acupoint, double pipes going down together must defeat the enemy in one move.

  Crane Fist emphasizes using internal energy to supplement external strength, with the unity of inner and outer techniques when striking. It utilizes the contrasting energies of light and dark to defeat the enemy, which is why practitioners of Crane Fist are divided into two levels: those who do not understand the dark energy are merely performing flowery movements, while those who grasp it can achieve great heights in a single step.

  Every part of his body emitted a trembling sound, showing the magnitude of his force. Li Chen's move was like drawing a bow, with his muscles and tendons like strings, and his meridians drumming, unleashing both hard and soft energies, truly having the momentum to destroy withered trees and pull out rotten stumps.

  Chen Pengtuo remained calm in the face of danger, shouting loudly twice, and his weak fists suddenly became energetic as if they had been injected with chicken blood. He blocked the crane's claw-like hands in front of him. Chen Pengtuo had actually trained his pair of hands to change and transform, adapting to the situation. Almost simultaneously, a muffled sound was heard, and another crane palm was unavoidable, even if his skills were unparalleled, he couldn't block two hands with one fist. Chen Pengtuo dodged to avoid the vital point, but his right chest still took a solid hit from the crane's palm.

  "Hard work, you've actually practiced hard work, unmoving as a mountain. This is Iron Shirt's ultimate achievement."

  Li Chen's face changed slightly, and his calm state of mind was finally disrupted. His crane claw palm had hit its mark, but it felt like hitting a steel plate, causing his hand to feel numb with minimal damage. Moreover, Chen Pengtao not only didn't retreat half a step after taking the palm strike, but instead revealed a hint of counterattack, his eyes gleaming with intensity, his body tense like a bow.

  Chen Pengtao, also known as Iron Feather Eagle, was a man of great renown. From a young age, he slept on a hardwood board, wrapped himself in soft cloth, and applied secret medicine to his entire body before using the cloth to strike himself repeatedly! After three years, he made minor progress and the pain gradually subsided, so he began striking his entire body with wooden rods. Five more years passed, and the pain gradually subsided again, so he removed the cloth and struck his entire body with a wooden mallet. Another five years went by, and the pain gradually subsided once more as he practiced refining his energy to merge it with his body, then used an iron rod to strike his entire body. He continued this process for another three years, practicing energy transformation to merge with his spirit. After ten more years, his hard work was complete, and his body was like wearing a suit of armor made of iron.

  A surge of abnormal flush rushed to his face, Chen Pengtao's eyes were sharp and fierce, his gaze was cruel to the extreme, the veins on his arm bulged like a flying dragon, and in an instant, it swelled several points larger. The fist that was tightly clasped with He Kou suddenly burst out with a strange force for the second time.

  "Bang." A loud explosion, Li Chen covered his right hand and retreated several steps. Chen Pengtao's mouth was bleeding as he covered his right chest, also retreating several steps, resulting in both being injured!

  "Great skill and powerful eagle claw technique! Good job, good job!" Li Chen praised twice, feeling a sense of meeting an opponent in chess.

  Sticky clothes force is a short-range instantaneous force technique, called "inch power" in Wing Chun, with the same powerful force as the eagle's claw thunder strike. The mighty eagle claw skill is a strength-based skill that mainly uses eagle claw lifting and tendon force as an auxiliary, and it cannot be used without mastering the eagle claw lifting skill. When this skill is used, it can move mountains and seas, and its power is boundless. The combination of sticky clothes force and mighty eagle claw skill makes its power naturally unmatched by Li Chen's crane hook hand.

  "He taught me the lost Crane Fist technique, Crane Dance Cloud Heaven Skill, and I was unknowingly entranced by it. If not for my recent training in Dark Energy to my chest, if not for my hard work in defense, I'm afraid I would have already ascended to heaven on a crane."

  Chen Pengtao coughed twice and was already injured internally.

  The He Wu Yun Tian Gong is a secret method that uses Jing, Qi, Shen, Mao and Xing to wear down the opponent's will. It is a profound mental technique that complements the Crane Fist, often achieving unexpected effects.

  "Unexpectedly, Chen Pengtao is so fierce, not only has he practiced hard qigong, but his Eagle Claw style has also reached a high level, and he has even mastered the internal strength to the point of being able to use it in his chest area. Now, the outcome of this fight is really hard to predict."

  Ma Yingwu couldn't help but admit that many practitioners of national arts practice external skills, but few can achieve great success. Chen Pengtao was able to bring both external skills to perfection while also mastering the internal force in his chest, making him a top-notch figure in the martial arts world, and even older generations of martial artists couldn't match him.

  "Dark energy has reached the front chest! Big Brother, does the cultivation of dark energy also have a hierarchy?" Taking advantage of the brief opportunity when the two were separated in the martial arts arena, Luo Kai decided to ask his big brother Ma Kengyu to make up for his lack of knowledge about dark energy.