Chapter 20: Old Bear Hugs Tree
Chen Wujun listened to Zhou Qing’s account, his heart shaken and filled with longing.
Over hundreds of years, generation after generation of prodigies standing on the shoulders of their predecessors had fused the advantages of old techniques and new techniques, constantly creating new cultivation methods.
Just thinking about it would shock one with such grand achievements.
“Master, then why are new techniques everywhere, while old techniques have little fame and few people learn them?” Chen Wujun suddenly asked.
“You’ll naturally know later.” Zhou Qing smiled, did not continue explaining, and instead said:
“You have killing intent on you. Have you killed someone?”
“But your Wolf Fist has form but no spirit, lacking joy in battle, invincible mentality, and the killing intent to definitely kill the enemy.”
“Though you’re young, you have many thoughts. Thinking too much makes your fists slow.”
“Of course, this thinking isn’t the recklessness of charging head-on to your death knowing you’re no match, but when fighting someone, you must have an invincible mentality!”
After speaking, Zhou Qing’s spine suddenly straightened, shoulder blades sank, heel lightly tapped the ground, producing a “pa” light sound.
The air in the warehouse instantly became scorching hot.
Zhou Qing did not stare at Chen Wujun, nor did any oppressive aura come from him; his body posture only changed slightly, and his breathing sounded like war drums.
Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump!
Chen Wujun seemed to be on the battlefield, his ears filled with the clash of metal and iron, the depths of his nasal cavity filled with the scent of iron and blood.
His toes involuntarily gripped the ground, waist and back naturally arched, fists clenched at his waist side; first he assumed Golden Rooster Stance, then the raised leg stepped forward, changing to Charge Stance.
He now had only one thought in his mind.
“Kill!”
However, in just an instant, Chen Wujun’s vision blurred, and everything returned to normal.
Only he remained in Charge Stance, fist clenched as if holding a weapon, standing there as if he would pounce the next second.
“This is joy in battle, invincible! On the battlefield, no need to consider anything else, just kill the enemy in front of you!” Zhou Qing said calmly.
Chen Wujun’s face was full of shock.
What was this?
He had just really seemed to be standing on the battlefield, becoming a soldier about to fight to the death; apprenticeship, walled city, all forgotten by him.
“When you practice punching in the future, contemplate the thoughts from just now.”
Chen Wujun released his fists, and after a good while came back to his senses: “Master, what was that just now?”
“A small trick in magnetic field usage! When you reach this level later, you’ll naturally know it.” Zhou Qing said flatly.
“Today, I’ll teach you Old Bear Hugs Tree stance training!”
“First sink the roots, then lift the spine; body like hugging a tree, intent as steady as a mountain.” Zhou Qing said from the side.
“Practicing this stance well can consolidate foundation and cultivate origin, strengthen waist and back; with greater waist and back strength, the body’s strength increases!”
As Zhou Qing spoke, he assumed a low horse stance posture.
“Thighs nearly level, feet gripping ground into three points, tailbone slightly tucked in, palms virtually pressing front outer side of thighs…”
“Inhale once, slowly count to 5, spine bones like a string of beads lifting one by one from the tailbone all the way to the chest…”
“Then exhale, slowly count to 7, body slowly sinks, feel the hip bones opening to the sides.”
“Hold for 2 beats, no movement no thought, listen to that point of ‘heat’ at the sole of the foot.”
“The human body has two systems controlling it simultaneously: one is the automatic system, controlling heartbeat, breathing, hormone secretion… this is the oldest system in the human body, unaffected by your interference, operating autonomously, most of which you can’t control at all, like heartbeat accelerating in danger, or how the body secretes hormones…”
“The second system is the active control system, controlled by your brain: thinking, planning, attention, imagination… this is also why humans became world overlords.”
“These two systems are mostly unrelated; we can actively change the world, but can’t fully control ourselves, only passively led by the body.”
“But our body has a part that is both automatic system and active control system; we can use it to control our body to a certain degree…”
“That is breathing!”
“Standing this stance is to have you interfere with your body through breathing, making your body obey you.”
Zhou Qing spoke of things Chen Wujun had never thought of; these weren’t taught in school either.
But thinking carefully, it was indeed so.
You can control raising your own arm, but not everything inside the body.
Only breathing can slightly interfere, like deep breathing slowing heartbeat when tense.
Zhou Qing corrected Chen Wujun’s movements, then said: “Standing this stance, you must stand out ‘hot, loose’ at the hip root, with a ‘taut’ sensation in the outer thigh fascia; only then is it practiced correctly.”
Chen Wujun had been standing Charge Stance these days, with great gains in strength in feet, legs, waist, and back, and often in a “on the verge of a great enemy” state, not unfamiliar with sensing body states.
While mentally noting the breathing, he sensed his body, soon feeling heat and swelling at the sole of the foot, as if a ground spring surged up from below.
After another two minutes, Chen Wujun felt a mass of hot air stuck at the hip, neither rising nor falling, and getting hotter, making his whole body uncomfortable, sweat flowing down his forehead.
“When the hip is not open, the fire is stifled at the pot rim; once open, heat pours down along the pot wall, falling along the pillar; pillar steady then body stable.” Zhou Qing looked at the sweat on Chen Wujun’s forehead and said leisurely.
“What you feel now is a ball of fire stuck at the hip, unable to go up or down; that’s the hip not opened, heat mass in the crotch.”
Zhou Qing reached into his pocket, pulling out something unknown.
“Open your mouth!”
Chen Wujun obediently opened his mouth; Zhou Qing tossed a soybean-sized thing into it.
“Hold it under your tongue!”
Chen Wujun didn’t know what it was, held it under his tongue; moments later he felt slight numbness at his fingertips and body surface.
“Intent imagine Old Bear Hugs Tree, heavy yet not stagnant…”
Chen Wujun imagined himself as an old bear hugging a tree, seeming to climb upward.
Though appearing heavy-bodied, his movements were not clumsy at all.
In no time, Chen Wujun felt something at his hip “pop” open; the heat flow clustered at the hip first slid to the outer edges, then flowed down along the outer legs to the soles of the feet.
Just like pouring a basin of hot water, from hip to soles, all warm.
Zhou Qing watched the changes in Chen Wujun’s expression from the side, nodding slightly.
Opened the hip so quickly… front to back not even ten minutes.
Indeed talented.
“That’s enough!” Zhou Qing said.
Only then did Chen Wujun stand up and move his legs and feet, surprised to find his legs exceptionally light, steps naturally wider, hip rotations with a smooth warm sensation, like a rusty machine oiled.
As if there had been a lock on the hip before, and now that lock was opened.
Just one Old Bear Hugs Tree stance, such great change in so short a time?
Then he remembered the foreign object under his tongue, spat it out, and saw it was a soybean-sized gray crystal with tiny specks of deep blue light inside.
Chen Wujun held the crystal in his palm, having a guess in mind, and asked: “Master, is this a magnetic crystal?”
“Just scrap.”
“This one is yours; use it once daily in stance training, enough for five days. After that, figure it out yourself.” Zhou Qing tossed a key to Chen Wujun, turning and walking out unhurriedly.
“Every Tuesday afternoon at two, I’ll wait for you here.”
“Other times, don’t come if nothing’s up, don’t come if something is; if you cause trouble, don’t say who your master is. On the martial path, you can only rely on yourself.”
“Lock the door when leaving.”
Chen Wujun looked at the crystal in his hand, then put it away.
At the warehouse door, Zhou Qing’s figure was already gone.
Turning to look inside the warehouse, all sorts of training equipment; he felt he could come use it normally too.
Circling the warehouse again, he picked up dumbbells and barbells from the ground to try, then took a single saber and a shield from the weapon rack.
Right hand single saber, left hand shield assuming Golden Rooster Stance, feet dropping to Charge Stance, then switching to Pounding Horse Stance.
He had heard Senior Brother Li say many times before that Wolf Fist was used by ancient soldiers, one hand with saber, one with shield.
Trying it now, he found many movements indeed had similarities.
But some movements wouldn’t work.
After all, Wolf Fist had evolved countless times; today’s Wolf Fist mainly for unarmed combat against enemies; if using saber and shield, there was probably another training method.
