Romance of Dragons and Snakes

Chapter 10: The profoundness of Taichi’s art of pushing hands

Tang Zichen slowly straightened the golden needle before shaking her hands so that the needle could slowly make its way into the joints of Wang Chao’s elbow. By the time Tang Zichen’s big thumb and forefinger left the butt of the needle, about seven eighths of the needle was already buried in his arm.

Wang Chao had nearly leapt in fright, but there had been no pain even after the needle had stabbed into him. In fact, instead of pain, there was a nice and refreshing feeling that spread throughout it.

After half an hour of Wang Chao becoming a human pincushion, Tang Zichen’s arm blurred once more as she rapidly pulled out the needles before intertwining it around her finger to form a ring again. At that moment, Wang Chao regained sensation within his arm, but the bruising had not yet disappeared from it.

As soon as she finished collecting all of the needles, her arm instantly grabbed onto Wang Chao’s arm and began to massage the area where the bruising was.

This time, Wang Chao felt as if each time she rubbed at his arm, an electric current was shocking his entire arm, causing the nerves to be jolted every now and then.

Gradually, the discoloration on his arm slowly receded away, but Wang Chao knew that this had to do with the powers of the Hidden Jin.

When sis Chen had used her Hidden Jin, the pores on his arm had opened up, allowing for the blood inside to seep out.

Furthermore, the black and blue swelling on his arm had gradually receded away as well until Wang Chao’s entire arm and fist seemed as if he had just pulled it out from a pool of water thanks to all of the sweat from the Hidden Jin of Tang Zichen.

“Hhhhhhhhnnnnnn……” Suddenly, Wang Chao could detect a low sound permeating into his ears as if there was thunder from somewhere.

“Where’s that sound coming from?” Wang Chao wondered. But then he realized that Tang Zichen’s entire joints were vibrating as she massaged his arm so that after a while, the sound that could be heard sounded a bit like thunder.

“Okay! Just rest for half a day and it’ll be back to normal. Don’t put any medicine and it’ll heal naturally. Using medicine is detrimental to healing since it will go through the kidney before being expelled from the body. This will naturally take a toll on the body even if it was applied orally or externally.”

After Tang Zichen had finished her kneading, she let out a long sigh. By this point, the swelling on Wang Chao’s fist and elbow was almost completely gone, only a small red trace remained.

“Sis Chen, your hand is covered with sweat…” Wang Chao muttered.

“Using Hidden Jin taxes the body, if one’s martial arts does not reach the quintessential change stage, then the Hidden Jin will not be usable and will lead to a high chance of heart failure. Furthermore, the body will begin to deteriorate with each attempt.”

“Quintessential change?” Wang Chao asked. From his two months of training, Tang Zichen had told him about the three Jins and even the principle of “Qi”. But this Quintessential change was something he had never heard before.

Tang Zichen only nodded her head, but gave no answer. Instead, she pressed a button on her armrest. In the next second, the door opened up as a servant came by with a basin of water and a towel. After washing her hands, she sprayed some water onto Wang Chao’s hand as well.

“You may leave, but leave the water here.” Tang Zichen spoke an order to the servant who immediately left. Then, facing Wang Chao, she spoke, “Come here, wash your hand and then water the grass with it.”

After washing, Wang Chao immediately carried the washbowl out to the garden and began to water the garden.

“Starting from today, I will be teaching you guoshu.” Tang Zichen spoke with a icy stare, causing Wang Chao to feel that the kindly elder sister had suddenly transformed into someone else. In fact, he could feel a cold one go up his spine. This type of feeling was something he had felt only once when the leopard had looked at the meal given to it at the zoo. But, the stare that Tang Zichen was giving him was far more intense.

“I’m sure you’ve been really curious about your sis Chen’s history, right?” Tang Zichen spoke.

“En.” Wang Chao nodded. He had this question on his mind constantly, but he had a premonition that if he had asked this question, then he would lose something precious. With a feeling like that, then it would have been better to be stuck in the dark.

“It’s fortunate you didn’t ask sooner, or else I wouldn’t have agreed to teach you.” She spoke. “The world I live in isn’t one that you could ever imagine or normally come in contact with. I only come to China once in awhile at my whim. When I first taught you a few things, that was just to see if you were qualified. But seeing your success, you possess some potential. This is why I left behind my belongings here so that it could be passed on. It would be unfortunate for the chain of inheritance to be broken one day without a successor.”

Wang Chao came to a shocking realization, “Sis Chen, were you planning on leaving after you teach me?”

“Correct. After I am done teaching you, I will be leaving. Starting from today onwards, whatever I teach you you will learn. Aside from anything martial arts related, you will not ask any other question. You will not talk too much, but if you do, I will immediately take back what I have taught.”

She gazed off to the side.

Wang Chao knew that this gesture was extremely important. Although he didn’t know just how sis Chen would take back what she taught if he were to talk too much, Wang Chao knew it wasn’t a smart thing to ask, so he nodded his head in a hurry.

“Good. Then I shall tell you this now about the world of Chinese boxing.” Tang Zichen spoke. “Chinese boxing has three realms, three stages, and three arts. The three realms are “Refining Essence into Qi”, “Refining Qi into Spirit” and “Refining Spirit and back to Nothing”. I’ve told you of the principle of refining essence into Qi before, but refining Qi into spirit, you’ve touched upon that briefly as well now. You used to be reserved and shied away from any task. But after practicing martial arts, you’ve grown brave. Chinese boxing can enable for a person’s very personality to change. The cowardly can become the courageous, the fiery can become introverted yet profound. To educate and discipline is the state of refining Qi into spirit. As for refining the spirit back to nothing…”

Tang Zichen thought a moment, “This is a realm that humans move walk towards to in their lives to come and realize. To talk and make empty promises regarding this realm is to end up becoming an empty lie. So I won’t speak of this realm. Then we come to the other two aspects of Chinese boxing, the stages and skills.”

“Clear Jin, Hidden Jin and Transforming Jin are things I’ve already told you. Thus, there are only the three arts remaining: bone change, muscle change, and marrow change. Specifically, these are tempering the bones, muscles and then the bone marrow. The first two, the bones and muscles are the easiest to temper. However, the bone marrow is the hardest. To make the breakthrough in the first two arts is to be considered a martial artist. To practice martial arts is to strive to surpass your limits, and to surpass your limits is to be born again. That is why the third step, the marrow change is so essential.”

“En, the bone marrow creates new blood, and so when even the bone marrow is changed, then the entire body’s blood supply will be too. This is the meaning to be reborn.” Wang Chao understood and realized the explanation. “Then just how would one be able to temper their bone marrow?” He asked.

“You use sound to vibrate the bone marrow. You must pay attention to this. This sound is not from the mouth or from the stomach. This is from the result of martial arts. Those accomplished enough will be able to freely control any bone, muscle, skin and organs within their body and can make it vibrate. When the vibrations resonate, then the resulting sound will be like the roar of thunder, hence the name “Tiger’s Thunder”.

Thinking for a moment on how to better explain the Tiger’s Thunder, she spoke, “Have you read the literary work, “Carving Up an Ox” by Zhuangzi before? Within the story, the knife that cuts away the bones creates a sound that becomes almost symphonious. The meaning behind this is very deep and the meaning of having a good health is stated within. Even the bells within a temple will ring for an endless amount of time after the first strike. This lingering sound of the bell is the result of the slight vibrations. The muffled thunder of the skies is also the result of vibrations through the sky.

TL Note: http://www.iselong.com/English/0001/1182.htm

“Pray with the evening drum, wake with the morning bell for thought and to be born anew. This is the entirety of the principle. Come, give me your hands!”

Extending his hands, Wang Chao allowed for sis Chen to grab all ten of his fingers.

A strange thing happened as when Tang Zichen grabbed onto Wang Chao’s fingers, he instantaneously became like a marionette and unconsciously began to shake. The tremors grew bigger and bigger, but when Tang Zichen let go, they gradually receded away from his body. Soon afterwards, Wang Chao was left standing with his entire bones all slightly shaking still after the resonance of the Tiger’s Thunder from Tang Zichen.

It had taken an hour before Tang Zichen had let go of Wang Chao’s hands. After the tremors had taken control of his entire body, he was left without any strength.

“I’ve ruined the experience for him, but there isn’t much time. I have to go back soon, so this method will have to do. Otherwise, there won’t be enough time to teach him everything.” Tang Zichen thought.

“Xuuu!” Wang Chao let out a long breath, “Sis Chen, how come when you pressed against my hands, I suddenly felt that I couldn’t control my body?”

“This is a skill of the upper layers of Taichi. When both hands are pushed together, then you can clearly sense the joints of every bone and instantly break down the center of gravity so that you’ll lose your standing. The bones within a person’s body can be similar to a lever, when the head is pressed against, it will stand up. When one’s skill is high enough, then when you press against someone’s hand, then they will feel dizzy and instantly jump. Not only does this not use my strength, but it takes away from your own. This is the principle of a high return from little effort.”

After Tang Zichen had spoke, she grabbed at Wang Chao whose legs immediately bent down before involuntarily leapt onto the garden grounds.

“How did I jump all of a sudden!” Wang Chao crawled up as he dusted himself up in some dejection at his involuntary control.

“That was just an experiment and a small explanation so that you could feel the sensation of what the Tiger’s Thunder feels like. Your bone, muscles and tendons are still unaffected and you still cannot use the Tiger’s Thunder. What I just did was the Taichi’s way of pushing hands which allows for one to understand the human body and to understand what the other side is capable of.”

“Come, I shall teach you what you need one step at a time!” Tang Zichen spoke. “First will be Bagua!”