Chapter 73: Great Freedom, Great Creation!

Martial arts are divided into two major categories: one is strength methods, and the other is move methods.

The fighting methods in Ape Punch are different from both, involving only the essentials of movement and muscle exertion methods, which ordinary people can also learn, open and closed.

Strength methods are methods of circulating blood *qi*, which is a deeper level of control. Only barrier-breaking martial artists with a certain amount of blood *qi* can use them. They are methods of controlling the strength and blood *qi* of the whole body for their own use.

After mastering them, every kick and punch will have greater power.

With the blessing of blood *qi* strength methods, the power of using Ape Punch to attack will be stronger, quite like the internal strength used in martial arts novels.

Move martial arts are another concept, which is an explosive move that pours blood *qi* into weapons and fists and feet, making them flourish.

For example, specific moves like Profound Ice Finger, Cloud-Exhausting Palm, and so on.

Liang Qu took the booklet handed by Hu Qi and flipped through it quickly. The bow strength method booklet was very thin, only five or six pages. After so many days of character recognition, he had no obstacles in reading it.

Liang Qu remembered the content in his heart not long after and tried to urge blood *qi* according to the method in the booklet.

During the circulation of blood *qi*, a moment later, there was indeed something strange in his body, completely different from the feeling of skin refining integrated into the body. Blood *qi* circulated endlessly, as if energy was flourishing.

A quarter of an hour passed, and the blood *qi* circulated between the meridians, becoming more and more proficient.

Liang Qu felt that this bow strength method seemed to be tailor-made for him, his blood vessels were bulging, and the momentum was sent by strength.

He moved, taking the fighting method with the strength method, *qi* surged, intention moved, strength came out, fist wind whistled, in one go.

Every punch and every kick increased in power!

So this is the true fighting style of a martial artist!

In the blink of an eye, Liang Qu completely changed into a person, majestic, like a divine monkey coming into the world, his arms swung long, his arms as bowstrings, his fist front as arrows, fierce and explosive.

Just as he was majestic, Hu Qi's short stick probed along the trend, like hitting a snake's seven inches, pointing at Liang Qu's chest.

The rhythm of the whole body was disrupted, Liang Qu's strength vanished, and the blood *qi* in his body evaporated by one-third out of thin air.

He stood dejectedly in place, like a monster beaten back to its original form by a stick, forced to exit the state of flourishing energy.

"Again!" Hu Qi said in a deep voice, "Only when the strength is continuous and endless can it be considered a small success!"

The most important thing about the strength method is the maintenance of rhythm. Beginners seem to be able to use it proficiently, but in fact, they cannot use it in actual combat at all.

If you fight with others for two moves, you will lose *qi* and be exhausted. You must have someone constantly "disturbing" you during ordinary practice, practicing the flow of *qi* and strength into instinct, so that you will not lose strength.

This method is connected to the way of training fighting methods.

In other words, Hu Qi is simultaneously training Liang Qu's fighting methods and strength methods.

To practice fighting, you must first be beaten. It is not a stupid pain training, but to find a way to avoid injury in the beating, a rhythm that belongs to you.

Every time the operation of strength is interrupted, the blood *qi* in Liang Qu's body will dissipate quite a bit, but after three or four times, it will be exhausted, becoming water without a source.

Liang Qu panted, his body gradually showing fatigue, but Hu Qi didn't let him rest at all. He threw down the short stick in his hand and set up a posture.

"Continue, if the strength method cannot be practiced, there is still the fighting method. You have learned the routines, and now you have to use them. Come, attack me."

Liang Qu took a deep breath, lifted his spirit, and rushed towards Hu Qi.

"Too stupid, don't expose your chest, grasp the distance between you and the enemy!"

"All fists, feet, and weapons are extensions. Imagine yourself as a circle, find your center, imagine me as a circle, find my center. The fist you swing is a circle, and my stick strike is also a circle. Every battle has countless circles."

"You have to maintain your center to destroy my center!"

"Wrong, still wrong, your flaw is too big, you haven't even found your center, again."

"Again!"

"Stand up, continue!"

The apprentices of the martial arts hall had already left, either going back to sleep or going home.

In the huge martial arts field, only Hu Qi and Liang Qu remained.

Liang Qu fell down again and again, and stood up panting.

Night, everything was silent.

Liang Qu, with his upper body naked, drew a heavy bucket of water from the well in the backyard and poured it over his head.

"Hoo!"

Liang Qu let out a long breath, and misty white steam rose from his body, echoing with the moonlight from afar.

Under the tired body was a gratifying harvest. He could feel his progress, the fighting method that was becoming proficient bit by bit, making people unable to stop.

Cao Shixiong Hu had rich experience, and his theoretical guidance was learned from Master Yang. Teaching him could be said to be easy, and Liang Qu also gained a lot, having a very clear understanding of so-called fighting, but unfortunately, practice couldn't keep up with theory.

He still had a long way to go.

"Junior brother, okay!" Hu Qi walked out of the room and shouted at Liang Qu, "After soaking in the medicinal bath, go to sleep quickly, and we will continue tomorrow morning."

"Yes."

"Hmm, nothing else, I'll go first, I live in the east wing."

"Wait, Cao Shixiong, I really have one thing."

"Say." Hu Qi was concise.

"I had a question when I was fighting with the Mountain Ghost. Why does our skin look no different from ordinary people, and it feels very soft and smooth, but it can actually resist blade hacking? If you want to have such defense, shouldn't it be as thick as cowhide?"

Hu Qi laughed: "If that were the case, wouldn't practicing martial arts be practicing yourself into a human-not-human, ghost-not-ghost? If a person wears a thick skin, how ugly it is? That book *Yu Guanxiu, Ming You Gan*, junior brother, haven't you read it carefully?"

Liang Qu was ashamed: "To tell the truth, senior brother, that is indeed the case."

"I guessed it was so. Breaking through the skin barrier, it looks like there is no difference, but it is like cowhide, tough and unbroken. The defense is greatly increased. The 'skin like cowhide' here is actually just a metaphor.

*Yu Guanxiu, Ming You Gan* clearly states that the essence of a martial artist becoming stronger is the 'severance' between 'me' and 'him', or rather, the 'severance' between 'inside' and 'outside'."

What the hell?

Liang Qu was confused. He could understand every word, but why didn't he understand when they were combined?

"Simply put, you broke through the skin barrier. It looks like the skin strength has increased, but in fact, the influence of external objects on you has been weakened. It is not just blade hacking and spear stabbing, including everything from the outside, which is resisted by your body.

Everything outside is the root, and you yourself are also the root. The two should have influenced, acted, and evolved countless possibilities, but the martial artist's path is to make the external root unable to influence your own root, transcending the world."

Liang Qu considered his understanding ability to be quite good, and felt that he had grasped the key.

"So, the martial artist's attack is to go the opposite way, and let your own root strongly influence the external root?"

"Junior brother is really smart." Hu Qi praised, "That's what it means. Martial artists are originally on the path of transcendence. Do what I want to do, resist what I want to resist. The stronger the strength, the stronger your interference and resistance to the outside world, leading to great freedom and great creation."

Liang Qu's heart was shocked.

The martial path of this world is probably more powerful than cultivating immortals!

No wonder he could only control the blood of ordinary people. Martial artists themselves are resisting his interference!

Damn.

He thought blood control was so powerful, but it turned out to be a miscellaneous cleaning skill! ===== CHAPTER 74 =====