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

"We can't lose face for the Green Gang!"

Huang Jinrong stood in front of the hall, his obese body pacing a couple of steps in front of the grand master's chair before turning around.

"We can prepare a generous gift as an apology for Wang Hu's mess." He paused, a cold glint in his eyes, "But the Green Gang isn't a pushover. He killed Zhao Jinshan and then made arrogant remarks about coming to provoke us. If we just let it go so easily, the underworld will think that I, Huang Jinrong, am afraid of him."

Du Yuesheng bowed slightly: "What does Boss Huang mean?"

"Send him another challenge." Huang Jinrong sat back down in his armchair, tapping his fingers on the table. "Tell him that the Green Gang has set up a ring in Shanghai and invites him to fight. If he wins, the matter will be settled, the generous gifts will still be sent, and the Green Gang will avoid him from now on."

He lost, but his life was spared; only his eyes were taken as compensation for Zhao Jinshan's death.

This approach of first showing courtesy and then resorting to force offered a way out without diminishing our prestige.

Du Yuesheng considered it several times in his mind.

First apologize, then issue a challenge. Apologizing is to give Chen Hongwu face, while issuing a challenge is to give an explanation to the Green Gang brothers.

It was a compromise that saved face for the Green Gang while leaving room for maneuver.

"Boss Huang's method is appropriate," Du Yuesheng nodded. "It provides a way out without diminishing his prestige."

Seeing that he didn't say anything, Huang Jinrong waved his hand and said, "Then I'll leave this matter to you. You can decide how to handle it. I just need the results."

After saying that, he turned and walked towards the back hall, his fat figure quickly disappearing behind the screen.

Du Yuesheng watched Huang Jinrong walk away, then turned around and instructed the few Green Gang disciples below who were still trembling: "Prepare the gifts according to the highest standards in the Jianghu. A pair of gold pigs, eight jars of Shaoxing wine, two bolts of Hangzhou silk, plus a handwritten letter of apology."

They said it was Wang Hu who took on the private job without permission, and the Green Gang was unaware of it, so they apologized to Master Chen. They put the items in the warehouse after packing them up, and would discuss the matter further once the challenge was settled.

He walked to the table, picked up a brush, spread out a sheet of plain white paper, pondered for a moment, and then began to write.

The letter was extremely polite. First, it apologized for Wang Hu's death, then it said that Zhao Jinshan's matter was a misunderstanding, and finally it changed the subject and proposed to make friends through martial arts, set up a ring, and settle all grudges regardless of the outcome.

After finishing writing, Du Yuesheng picked up the letter, blew the ink dry, read it through from beginning to end, and confirmed that the wording was impeccable before sealing it in an envelope.

He summoned two quick-witted Green Gang disciples and instructed them, "Deliver this letter and those gifts to the Chen family in Foshan and personally hand them over to Chen Hongwu."

"Also, go to the Jingwu Gymnastics Association and ask Mr. Chen Gongzhe to act as the middleman. He has a good reputation in the Shanghai martial arts circle and is also a member of the Chen family, so his words carry weight."

Du Yuesheng thought for a moment, then added, "We need to be careful about the timing of sending the gifts to Foshan. Let's wait until the Jingwu Gymnastics Association sends their message first. Once the Chen family accepts the invitation, we can then send the gifts over to avoid any offense."

The two disciples acknowledged and withdrew.

Du Yuesheng sat back in his chair, took out a cigar from his cigarette case, lit a match, brought the flame to the tip of the cigarette, took a puff, and watched the smoke rise between his fingers, pondering to himself.

Chen Hongwu was a highly skilled martial artist, bold yet meticulous. He was able to kill Mo Laohu single-handedly, proving he was not a reckless brute.

Now that the Green Gang has taken the initiative to make amends, as long as he doesn't intend to fight them to the death, he should accept this offer and make a trip to Shanghai.

As long as he's willing to come, regardless of who wins or loses in the ring, the Green Gang's reputation won't be further damaged.

-

Foshan, Chen Family Residence.

After the banquet ended, it was already night, and Chen Hongwu pushed open the door and went into the backyard.

Moonlight filtered through the gaps in the roof tiles, spreading a layer of shattered silver across the bluestone pavement.

He walked to the center of the courtyard and stood still.

The thunderous sound rolled through the internal organs, rapidly grinding and digesting the food in the stomach. The subtle substances transformed into qi and blood, permeating the limbs and bones, and the breath gradually became long and deep.

These past few days have been filled with fierce battles, from the long-distance raid on Guangzhou to assassinate Mo Laohu, to killing the British strongman Peter in the ring, and then punching Funakoshi Yoshichin and breaking Funakoshi Yoshinobu's throat. In the life-and-death struggle, every punch was a test of his own limits.

When you reach a bottleneck in your kung fu practice, you can no longer push yourself forward by simply practicing standing meditation; you must hone your skills in the face of life and death.

Every time I face a deadly threat, my blood and energy are pushed to their limit in an instant. My pores burst open, my hair stands on end, my bone marrow vibrates, and my spirit is forcibly twisted into one.

You either survive and reach the next level, or you fail and die on the spot.

The assassination attempt on Mo Laohu was the most dangerous, but the benefits were also obvious.

He could feel that his spirit and energy had been elevated to a level that ordinary martial artists could hardly reach.

The boxing manual says, "Practice boxing with a breath, and the breath nourishes a portion of the spirit." Essence, energy, and spirit are not ethereal or intangible things.

Essence is the vital energy and blood refined from the bone marrow; vital energy is the surging momentum of vital energy and blood between the tendons, fascia, and bones; spirit is the sharp intent that arises when the mind is concentrated to its extreme.

When essence is abundant, qi is plentiful; when qi is plentiful, spirit is complete; when spirit is complete, the power of the fist naturally arises, as swift as thunder and lightning.

Having fought his way through, his essence, energy, and spirit have been refined into a boiling furnace of molten steel, purer and more concentrated than before.

Each of the twelve forms has reached a state of perfection: the tiger's chopping force, the dragon's twisting body, the snake's drilling and entanglement, the monkey's shrinking and springing, the horse's charging, and the alligator's rising and falling.

Each strike is no longer bound by fixed moves, but rather the power is released at will.

It uses pictographs to convey meaning, achieving a unity of form and spirit.

Before the chopping fist even arrives, the intent of the fist strikes like a thunderbolt; when the collapsing fist is unleashed, the muscles and bones throughout the body resonate, and the force explodes from the Yongquan point to the fist, penetrating joint by joint, with a thunderous sound bursting forth.

His body-refining skills had reached the point where they connected with his flesh, skin, hair, bone marrow, and internal organs, penetrating his internal organs.

The skill of unleashing hidden power has reached the point where the entire body can freely exhale and exhale, including the back, chest, waist, arms, legs, and even the most difficult part, the lower groin.

During this period, he practiced diligently day and night, using thunderous sounds to vibrate his perineum and using hidden strength to penetrate the seabed, finally mastering the most vulnerable fascia in his lower genitals.

The hidden force spreads throughout the perineum, the penis retracts into the abdomen, and the anus is tightened as if closed, leaving no opening.

For an ordinary expert to master this weakness, it would take more than ten years of painstaking practice before they could even get close to the threshold.

Now, all that's left is the final step.

face.

The benefits of cultivating internal strength on the face are numerous.

The face is the meeting place of all yang energies, containing the five sense organs and seven orifices, making it the most vulnerable and sensitive part of the human body.

In a physical fight, a punch to the face can result in anything from a bruised and swollen face to a fractured skull.

After internal energy flows through the face, the facial muscles can be both hard and soft. When hard, they are like an iron plate, able to withstand even a heavy punch.

The boxing manual says, "Hitting someone is like hitting paper, being hit is like being hit by cotton." When a master of neutralizing force is hit in the face, the muscles on his face can instantly relax like cotton, dissipating most of the external force.

At the same time, it suddenly tenses up like iron the moment the opponent's punch is exhausted, and rebounds.

When one is gentle, one's pores open and close at will, and one's senses are so sharp that one can detect subtle changes in the opponent's punching style.

More importantly, the eyes are the seeds of the heart. With hidden strength flowing through the eyes, his gaze is as sharp as lightning, elevating his eye-sight skills to a new level. Ordinary martial artists would tremble with fear at the mere sight of him.

The ear is the orifice of the kidney. When the internal energy flows through the ear, hearing becomes extremely sharp, allowing one to pinpoint the location of the wind in a dark room without being hindered by light.

Moreover, when internal energy is channeled into the face, it can close the seven orifices, making one immune to water and smoke, and even able to resist poisonous gas for a short period of time.

When boxing skills are mastered to the extreme, one can even control the opening and closing of facial muscles, changing the shape and contour of the face.

Although this is not the legendary art of disguise, it is enough to make ordinary acquaintances not recognize each other when they pass by on the street.