Chapter 9: Hands are Two Doors, Feet are One Root
The cold chicken thought of the dawn, flapping its wings and blowing a long sound.
Zhou Yan’s feet stepped in arcs, his trouser legs crackled, and his footwork was light and natural, like a gibbon leaping, like a cat walking.
This is precisely “Yanqing Fist”.
In the past, the original owner lived a simple life as an escort, relying on his superb archery skills and his profound attainments in “Yanqing Fist” and “Taizu Long Fist” to establish himself in the escort bureau, with a bright future.
The original owner’s personality was also cautious, rarely causing trouble, and had little experience fighting with people from the martial world. Zhou Yan found it difficult to gauge his level in the Legend of the Condor Heroes world, but after fighting the Yellow River Four Ghosts, Sha Tongtian, and Hou Tonghai outside Datong Prefecture, he could easily draw a conclusion.
His current martial arts were inferior to Hou Tonghai’s, let alone comparable to people like Ouyang Ke and Monk Lingzhi, so he dared not be negligent in the slightest.
In the battle at the Mountain God Temple, the opponent seized and captured, and he blocked and parried, bringing Hou Tonghai crashing through the temple wall and falling outside, entirely due to his outstanding arm strength.
However, fortunately, he now has Jade Guanyin, which can soothe meridians, dispel fatigue, and repair internal illnesses, allowing him to cultivate intensely.
He is now solely focused on cultivating “Xiaoyao Fist” to the level of combining force, solidifying his foundation. With the improvement of internal force, “Yanqing Fist” and “Taizu Long Fist” will also reach a higher level.
At the faint dawn light, he woke up early, brushed his teeth with a pig bristle toothbrush and salt, washed up simply, and began practicing the footwork of Yanqing Fist, including horse stance, bow stance, empty stance, and toe stance. He then refined his leg techniques, as this set of skills has numerous leg variations, including kicking, thrusting, stomping, rubbing, chopping, lifting, and sweeping, over ten types. The leg technique he used at Songhe Tower, a rubbing kick that barely reached the knees, to kick Escort Lu of the Four Seas Escort Agency, who was soaring through the air, was one of them.
The air still retained the coolness of the previous night. After practicing footwork and leg techniques, his body stretched out, kicking far, striking close, grappling at close range, reaching far, elbowing close, leaning close, high-fisting, low-smashing, defending and attacking simultaneously, using both emptiness and reality, hands and feet attacking together, advancing on the upper, middle, and lower levels.
As he entered the state of flow, his body followed his steps, and he moved like a whirlwind within the courtyard.
Zhou Yan clearly felt that when he performed this set of fist techniques now, compared to when he fought outside Datong Prefecture, its intent was more rounded and fiercer. He was delighted, this was the result of listening to Hong Qigong explain “Xiaoyao Fist” and his own enlightenment, his understanding of the fist technique had deepened by three parts, and he had initially mastered guiding energy with intent.
“Yanqing Fist” also has hidden force, transverse force, opening and closing force, shaking and releasing force, and spiral force. This also means that as internal force increases, the previously elusive essence of this fist technique will be easily understood.
Zhou Yan let out a clear whistle, his waist turned left, his steps sank, and his fists separated, the left hand going up and the right hand going down, as if supporting heaven and earth.
This is the “Double Circle Hand” of “Yanqing Fist”, a technique as heavy as a mountain, which resolves any incoming attack on its own. No matter from which direction an attack comes, it is all contained within the “Double Circle Hand”.
The profoundness of this move was unprecedented, and Zhou Yan sighed:
“This is what they call ‘hands are two doors, feet are one root’.”
By noon, the physical fatigue caused by prolonged cultivation began to show. The Jade Guanyin hanging on his body emitted a warm and peaceful energy, clearing his meridians and dispelling bodily fatigue.
The miraculous function of Jade Guanyin could even repair internal illnesses, but this did not mean it could replace grains and cereals. Zhou Yan was already feeling intensely hungry.
Before the original owner became a runner, his monthly salary was two taels, which was enough for a comfortable life. Now, promoted to escort, it is five taels, more than doubling, which is why runners in escort bureaus would fight tooth and nail to become escorts.
Zhou Yan, integrating the original owner’s memories, knew that his living conditions were actually much more abundant than those of ordinary head escorts. He didn’t spend money at brothels, and with his excellent archery skills, he often went hunting in the suburbs, which not only improved his archery but also allowed him to nourish his qi and blood with the hunted prey.
However, because he had been on a letter escort mission previously, he hadn’t hunted or bought daily necessities before leaving. So Zhou Yan planned to solve his hunger, practice martial arts at the escort bureau, and buy some rice, flour, salt, and oil on his way back. He would go hunting in the distant suburbs on horseback tomorrow.
Thinking this, Zhou Yan left the courtyard, closed the door, and went to the bustling market. He found a restaurant, ordered two dishes, one meat and one vegetable, and two bowls of rice to fill his stomach. After leaving the restaurant, he walked swiftly to the Fu’an Escort Agency and headed straight for the training ground.
“Brother Yan is here.”
Some sharp-eyed runners saw Zhou Yan and greeted him enthusiastically.
Most of the runners were under twenty years old, wearing gray tight-fitting clothes, and their shoes had rough patterns and strong grip. If they were going on an escort mission, they would also wear a flat-top hat to shield them from wind and sand and sunlight.
“Brother Yan, come and practice martial arts.”
“Mm!”
“Brother Yan is really diligent.” A runner praised him sincerely, and was immediately tapped on the head by an escort who was leading the practice.
“Do you think Brother Zhou became an escort at such a young age by lying around? He’s been training through the coldest winter and hottest summer.”
The runner shrunk his head and chuckled.
“Aren’t you going to practice martial arts?”
“Let’s get to it.” The cheerful runner shouted and began practicing martial arts with his companions.
This is the life of a runner: besides escorting, loading, and unloading goods, they spend the rest of their time in the martial field.
There were five or six escorts who were not on escort duty, leading the runners in practice. Zhou Yan greeted the escorts familiarly and walked to a corner of the martial field, picking up two stone locks and tossing them up and down to exercise his arm strength and shoulder muscles.
After intermittently practicing for a hundred times, cheers erupted from the martial field. He looked over and saw the escort who had reprimanded the runner earlier performing a set of “Heron Fist”. With the last move, he flipped lightly backward for a zhang.
The escort’s surname was Shi, and his given name was Baichuan. He had a very martial world aura name and often claimed to be a descendant of Shi Qian of Liangshan, but no one took him seriously.
In fact, escorts often exaggerated their status, but Shi Baichuan’s lightness skill was outstanding, which was a fact.
Zhou Yan cheered, picked up a clean towel from the rack, wiped off his sweat, and then took another towel and walked over to Escort Shi.
“Wipe your sweat!”
“Thank you, Brother Zhou. With your thoughtfulness, few runners can compare.”
“It’s just a small effort.”
“Seeing the small, one can understand the big. It’s reasonable that you have achieved so much.”
Zhou Yan smiled and humbly asked for advice: “How do you practice lightness skill? By tying sandbags?”
Shi Baichuan, around thirty years old and short and stout, chuckled at his words: “The method you mentioned can only train leg strength. To cultivate lightness skill, you need to temper the meridians with inner qi. Take the Yinqiao and Yangqiao meridians of the Eight Extraordinary Meridians, for example. They run through the lower limbs, maintaining normal lower limb activity and having the effect of being light and agile. If you temper these two meridians, you will naturally be light as a swallow.”
“Instead of opening the Yinqiao and Yangqiao meridians, it’s better to temper the six meridians of the Foot Three Yang and Three Yin of the Twelve Standard Meridians. When the qi surges from Yongquan and the true qi boils, when you leap upwards, slightly bend your knees, gather qi in your Dantian, and the true qi rises, relax your muscles and bones, and your body will be like a flying crane.”
The speaker was an escort surnamed Wang. He was sharp-eared and sharp-eyed, and had clearly heard Zhou Yan and Shi Baichuan talking. He couldn’t help but interject.
Shi Baichuan retorted: “You’re a real troublemaker. External styles of martial arts work from the surface inwards, from the outside to the inside. First, nourish the Twelve Standard Meridians with qi and blood, and then the Twelve Standard Meridians nourish the Eight Extraordinary Meridians. If Brother Zhou cultivates according to your method, he will surely suffer from qi deviation.”
Escort Wang’s face darkened: “Are you implying I have malicious intentions?”
Escort Shi said: “It’s a lack of foresight.”
“You, then I ask you, have you tempered the Qiao meridians?”
“Have you perhaps opened the six standard meridians?”
“You’ll be the death of me! If you have the guts, let’s duel. Let’s see who’s capable.”
“Bring it on!”
Zhou Yan looked around. It turned out that neither of the two kind escorts had tempered the meridians they were talking about, and they were even on the verge of a fight.
