Chapter 24: Chapter 24

Hearing the instruction, Zhen De was surprised at first, but then he grinned and strode out. “OK, Senior Brother Zhen Miao.”

The Kung Fu exercise and plenty of food for more than half a year had helped him grow much taller. With his face covered with some black stubble, he was stout and hulking. Looking at Meng Qi, who was two years younger, his eyes were full of joy, eager to try.

Meng Qi bared his teeth and had an unexpected seriousness, which there was no reason for him to reject. After all, he was zealously seeking for a chance to fight with tactics such as Iron Shirt, Eight Divine Steps, Arhat Fists, Five Tiger-like Bladesmanship, etc., and integrate them together in actual combat.

“I’ll appreciate your instructions, Senior Brother Zhen De.” Meng Qi called Zhen De, the senior apprentice in Shaolin Temple “Senior Brother Zhen De” according to Shaolin rules. Then he stood with his feet apart and balanced himself in accordance with the requirements of the First Movement of Arhat Fists.

Zhen De opened his mouth as if he were about to say something. However, the excitement stole his words, even the prayer “Namo Amitabha” while he put his palms together. Thus, he just did a standardized movement named the Arhat in Prayer after a sudden roar of “Hey-ha”, which he exclaimed in his usual practice.

At the moment Zhen De launched his attack, Meng Qi felt as if he had been immersed in water and could no longer hear or see anything. Having learned from his combat with Cheng Yong, he turned aside to avoid the head-on attack, then he withstood the fists of Zhen De with one hand and punched his belly with one powerful fist.

Instead of being timid in his first pair exercise, he was extremely active and positive.

After this first attack, Zhen De prepared to make his next move. Exactly at this moment, Meng Qi pounced on him and hit him like a fierce storm.

Such a swift and forceful attack from the fearless Meng Qi sent a chill to Zhen De’s heart. He even felt death in the air because of Meng Qi, which could only be sensed from someone who had fought at the risk of his own life.

As he hesitated, he was hit in the belly with a “Bang!” sound, which was so painful that he curled up his body on his back, groaning painfully.

“How weak he is! He seems unable to continue, and it’s only the beginning,” Meng Qi stood in a daze and thought.

In addition to Meng Qi, the other monks present were also stunned and found it hard to believe that the outstanding Zhen De would be outclassed by others in a routine exercise so quickly and easily.

After calmly watching, Zhen Miao walked swiftly over and squatted down in front of Zhen De, trying to unblock his abdomen meridians with inner force to ease his pain.

Right now, people, such as Zhen Yong, recovered from their shock and stared at him in astonishment, and thought to themselves, “Senior Brother Zhen Yong intended to let Brother Zhen De give Zhen Ding a lesson and inform him of the shortcomings of unorthodox movements. While now it seems that the unorthodox beats the orthodox. Well…”

Recalling the brief fight just now, Meng Qi keenly discovered that Zhen De seemed to be dull for a second under his violent attack, so he wondered, “Is momentum an important part in combat?”

After lifting up Zhen De, Zhen Miao said without expression, “Zhen He, come and combat with Zhen Ding, please.”

“All right, Senior Brother Zhen Miao.” A burly young monk came over from the team, who stood there like a black tower.

Meng Qi vaguely perceived the key to winning and was eager to demonstrate it in a new fight, so he put his palms together and responded, “I’ll appreciate your instruction, Senior Brother Zhen He.”

Having received a salute in the same way, Meng Qi launched the first attack like a fierce tiger coming out of its den.

Zhen He, born with unusual strength, did not expect his crazy attack. Although he resisted Meng Qi in a desperate panic, it was too late for him to counterattack, so he was forced to continuously move back.

“Hah!”

With the idea of striking the iron while it’s hot, Meng Qi exhaled an exclamation as he gave a jab at his chest as desperately as he could.

Looking at Meng Qi at this moment, Zhen He’s legs were so weak to support himself, and his palms, having been put together before, were directed open.

Meng Qi seized the chance to take his fist back, turn around, and, using his elbow, hit Zhen He on the right side of his chest.

As Meng Qi held back a little of his strength with full assurance of success, Zhen He was still beaten and coughing severely.

“I appreciate your kindness,” Meng Qi said as he turned back with forceful feet, smiling with his palms together.

What a brilliant and delightful fight!

Onlookers, like Zhen Yong, Zhen De, and others, were grinning from ear to ear for the bull-like Zhen He. During their usual exercises, Zhen He had beaten them all in the end, giving them numb hands and weak legs, and had been the nightmare of them all. However, just right now he was beaten defenselessly by Zhen Ding—a monk with a child’s stature.

“Unbelievable! It must be an illusion!” Looking at Meng Qi’s elegant face, the monks were still astonished.

Having caught his breath, Zhen He scratched his bald head shyly and naively. “Junior Brother Zhen Ding, you’re so wonderful!”

Zhen Miao snorted at the words, with his face taking on a ghastly expression. After a long silence, he said, “I suppose you must’ve been given a deep nourishment in Kung Fu by your influential family and you’ve made great progress in Qi-cultivation, so there is no match for you among the younger monks. Shall we have a simulated fight?”

Since he had opened the Eye Aperture, he was able to see the signs of the inner force of Meng Qi’s movements.

“Oh!”

“I see!”

At this moment, it suddenly dawned on the monks, like Zhen Yong, that Zhen Ding had opened his Elixir Field and made progress in Qi-cultivation. No wonder Zhen De and Zhen He could not beat him!

Even so, would it not be a little unfair for Zhen Ding to fight against Senior Brother Zhen Miao, one of the Teaching Monks and an outstanding martial artist in the Enlightenment Stage?

“Don’t worry! I’ll keep my strength in the primary level of Qi-cultivation.” Zhen Miao stared at Meng Qi with his sharp eyes.

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Meng Qi took a breath at that moment. Although he knew the great disparity between them, his fighting spirit soared aloft. He told himself, “If you don’t dare to fight during an exercise, how can you face an actual fight?”

Honestly, having been through a life-and-death struggle, he was not afraid of Zhen Miao at all. It did not matter if he lost. As long as he could find the gap and the weaknesses, then a failure would be valuable.

Moreover, there was still a chance for him to win!

“I’ll appreciate your enlightenment, Senior Brother Zhen Miao.” Meng Qi again put his palms together, itching for the fight.

All the monks drew a deep breath and thought, “Does he really dare to fight Brother Zhen Miao? The disparity between the two sides is as wide as the ocean! Even if Brother Zhen Miao confines his strength to the primary level of Qi-cultivation, his eyesight, experience, and knowledge won’t be changed!”

“Well.” Zhen Miao felt relieved at the sight of Meng’s courage. “You go first.”

Having not declined out of modesty, Meng Qi stretched out his right leg with a bow step and launched a punch at Zhen Miao with his fists.

Unlike Zhen He and Zhen De, Zhen Miao bore the punch stably by using the same Kung Fu, Arhat Fists, and he even struck back with Hollowing Hearts Like A Black Tiger to hit Meng on the right side of his chest.

With his eyes wide open, Meng Qi suddenly threw himself forward to let Zhen Miao’s fists hit him and he struck Zhen Miao’s ears with both fists.

Though the experienced Zhen Miao discovered that something was wrong, he was unable to retreat in the face of Meng Qi’s attack, so he added more power into his fists and tried to fight back against Meng Qi.

“Puff!” He felt as if his fists hit a thick cloth and the strength was dispersed all around. At this time, the fists of Meng Qi almost touched his temples.

“Hah!”

Zhen Miao shouted all of a sudden. Then his ears turned red, his blood pulsated in his temples, and he bent back slightly.

“Paa!”

The fists just grazed his temples and hit right on his cheeks. However, there seemed to be a layer of an air cushion that eliminated most of the strength.

Even so, Zhen Miao had to move back with very chaotic steps, with swollen, red cheeks and a dizzied head.

“You’ve learned Iron Shirt!” Zhen Miao shouted, shocked and outraged.

Meng Qi threw him a faint smile and answered, “Yes, I learned it from my parents. You used the strength in the Enlightenment Stage, didn’t you?”

Since his Iron Shirt was revealed last night, it was unnecessary to conceal it, and he lied to him that he learned it from his unknown family.

In the fight a moment ago, Meng Qi fought in accordance with the instructions of Zhang Yuanshan and Jiang Zhiwei, which were to launch a quick attack against a slow opponent and cause a severe wound at the cost of a slight wound. And he took advantage of the fact that Zhen Miao did not know his skill of Iron Cloth, this being the case in which his Kung Fu level lagged far behind Zhen Miao’s.

With his complexion changing a few times, Zhen Miao said in a cold voice, “Get back into the line and continue to practice Arhat Fists.”

Meng Qi knew that Zhen Miao did not mean to pick on him and that he just could not stand the unstructured Arhat Fists. He was also clear that there were so many mistakes in his boxing that needed to be improved one by one. But defeating Zhen Miao, and to see him suffer such a setback, really overwhelmed Meng Qi with joy.

“I admit I’m such a mean guy!” Meng Qi judged himself.

Back to the boxing practice, Meng Qi took efforts to correct and improve his boxing skills with Zhen De, Zhen He, and the others. Having seen this, Zhen Miao relaxed his facial expression again.

After finishing Arhat Fists and Shaolin Sticks, Zhen Miao commented to them seriously one by one. Finishing this, he turned around and said, “Zhen Ding will continue to practice with me tomorrow and I’ll confine my strength to the primary level of Qi-cultivation again.”

“How strong his ambition to win is…” Meng Qi sighed in his heart and shivered with excitement for the upcoming fight.

“I have to utilize my time to practice Eight Divine Steps tonight.”

After all, he did not want to lose!

“Senior Brother Zhen Miao always gets his way in everything and has already started to practice Mo-Ke Finger of the 72 Ultimate Arts. It’s only natural for him to be proud and arrogant. Who could have ever expected that he would be defeated by you, his younger brother apprentice, who has only small achievements in Qi-cultivation. How could he accept the failure?” Zhen Yong came closer to Meng Qi with a broad smile. “I’m so surprised by your Kung Fu! I’d appreciate it if you could take care of me.”

Meng Qi responded with a smile, “I just won using a method that he couldn’t expect at the time. So, tomorrow it’ll be extremely difficult to win.”

He could only win again in the same way if he learned Eight Divine Steps. Yet it seemed impossible.

Despite that, Meng Qi was not afraid of the fight because he considered it to be a valuable chance to practice with outstanding people, which could possibly be the key to saving his own life in the next World of Samsara!

Meng Qi, Zhen Hui, and Zhen Yong went back to the door of Warrior-monk Yard and came across Xuan Chi.

A dull monk with glassy eyes was following Xuan Chi and was murmuring to himself, “How could I break this movement?”

Instead of introducing the young monk, Xuan Chi just told Meng Qi and Zhen Hui, “Come to the Kung Fu Acting Hall after dinner. I’m going to teach you the Shaolin Temple Heart Sutras.”

Meng Qi had heard from Xuan Xin that the Shaolin Cultivation Method, one of the basic Inner Qi Forces in the Shaolin Temple, was ranked in the top 10 among similar basic methods, with qualities like purity, honesty, and virility. Because of its simple operating route, it was compatible with most magic Kung Fu, and it would be easy to transfer directly to other Inner Qi Forces in the future.

Meng Qi secretly decided to focus on the Shaolin Cultivation Method in the days to come and operate the rough route that came with Iron Shirt only in the use of Iron Shirt.

As he watched Xuan Chi going away, Zhen Yong whispered, “See the brother beside Uncle Master Xuan Chi? He’s another Teaching Monk called Senior Brother Zhen Ben. It’s said that he has a mania for martial arts and there are a lot of anecdotes about him…”

They finished dinner, talking and laughing. Then Meng Qi and Zhen Hui rushed into the Kung Fu Acting Hall. Zhen Yong had nothing to do and went with them, intending to practice with someone else.