Martial Arts Livestreaming
Chapter 267 - 243 Tai Chi

Chapter 267: Chapter 243 Tai Chi

September 28th, a sunny day.

In a private hospital in New York, several figures were moving about on the green lawn.

Li San, dressed in a white hospital gown, sat in a wheelchair, watching the "battle" on the lawn with great interest. To be accurate, it couldn’t really be called a battle; it was just Wu Li practicing martial arts.

On the lawn, seven robust Chinese men in black suits were attacking Wu Li.

Their fists and feet created a gust of wind with their swift movements, clearly trained fighters, yet in front of Wu Li, they were no match. He didn’t fight back but, instead, simply reached out to grab the incoming fists and with a pull and a tug, he made his attackers lose their balance and tumble outwards.

During this process, Wu Li’s body turned, and although he appeared to move slowly, he always managed to dodge the attacks from the left, right, or behind him just in time. Then with a quick movement, he would close in on one of them and, with a push or slap, he would send them tumbling again.

The ground was soft, and Wu Li wasn’t using much force, so these men weren’t hurt when thrown. They quickly got back up and charged at him again.

Wu Li moved effortlessly amidst the seven, like a butterfly flitting through flowers, continuously throwing them to the ground.

Li San could see that what Wu Li was using was the Tai Chi "listening skill" technique. The moment he touched or made contact with an opponent, he could "listen" to his opponent’s power, find their center of gravity, and then with a gentle "push," disrupt their balance and throw them down.

The listening skill of Tai Chi seems mysterious, but in fact, it’s about refining a keen intuition.

When starting to practice listening skill, you begin with pushing hands. When two people’s arms touch and they exert force against each other, if both push forward, you can clearly feel the other person’s force directed forward. That’s "listening" to the power. From there, neutralizing (Hua Jin) becomes easy, like if you suddenly withdraw your strength and move backward or sidestep, catching the opponent off guard, causing them to lose balance and lunge forward involuntarily. In this way, you neutralize the opponent’s force.

Or, with a little variation, when the opponent’s force pushes forward and you want to neutralize it, butting heads directly would be exhausting, needing more power than the opponent to neutralize it. However, if you change the direction of your exertion to obliquely upwards, or to the left or right, then you don’t need much force to alter the direction of the opponent’s force. This too is neutralizing.

Four ounces to deflect a thousand pounds; the principle is just this, a matter of dividing and combining forces, something those who have studied physics would easily understand.

Listening skill is about understanding the direction of the force, and neutralizing is about changing the direction of that force, thus changing the final landing point of the opponent’s attack.

The initial stage of listening skill is to feel the direction of the opponent’s exerted force when it remains unchanged, which is actually quite simple and something even an ordinary person without martial arts training can do.

To advance further requires a long time of practice, being able to notice the direction of the opponent’s force even as it constantly changes.

If this level of skill reaches profundity, then it’s the level Wu Li is demonstrating at the moment: he only needs a slight touch to immediately "listen" to the opponent’s force and find their center of gravity.

As for disrupting the center of gravity and throwing someone, that’s the skill of neutralizing: how to use minimal strength to change the force of the opponent quickly and disrupt their balance is what one must practice with neutralizing.

Clearly, facing seven opponents at this moment, Wu Li’s level of listening skill and neutralizing were both at a superior level.

The skirmish lasted for over ten minutes. Even if Wu Li was gentle and the lawn soft, being continuously thrown dozens of times wore down the seven men’s bodies, which felt as if they were falling apart.

"Alright," Wu Li motioned with his hand that they could stop.

The seven men then stopped and, with respect in their eyes, bowed to Wu Li with a cupped fist salute.

These seven were personally trained by Li San, in charge of the Hongmen’s security work. Each one commanded men of their own, capable of holding their ground, yet before Wu Li, they were like children, thrown around without the ability to fight back.

"Not bad, your listening and neutralizing skills have taken shape," Li San said to Wu Li.

Wu Li walked towards him with a smile, "How do I compare to you?"

"Ha-ha!" Li San laughed, pointed at Wu Li, and said, "Wait until I have fully recovered from my injuries, then you will know."

During these last few days where the two had been exchanging martial arts knowledge, neither held back in sharing their understanding of their respective martial arts. Li San, due to his injuries, couldn’t demonstrate, so he mainly watched Wu Li practice Tai Chi.

The seven men who had sparred with Wu Li previously served as Li San’s human punching bags, used expressly for practicing his force.

Listening skill and neutralizing, once reaching a certain level, can hardly improve by simply pushing hands. At this point, you need a real person to test your force against: to experience the sensation of an incoming punch and feel the process of disrupting someone’s center of gravity.

Putting it plainly, it’s about constantly being attacked and then trying to disrupt your opponent’s balance, continuously throwing them out of position.

This kind of process is very painful for the sparring partners, as they may be thrown out hundreds of times a day, and each time the intensity varies—you never know if they’ll control their throw or if it’ll be too hard; over time, even a body as tough as iron couldn’t withstand it.

Originally, Hongmen found many people for Li San to practice with. These seven people were the ones who persisted until the end and, by a fortunate accident, received Li San’s guidance. Later, they began to take on important security jobs.

This time, to ensure Li San’s safety in the hospital, Hongmen dispatched many security personnel, including these seven people. It just happened that Wu needed to practice, so Li San called these seven back to let Wu test his skill.

"Once you’ve mastered Listening Skill and Hua Jin, the techniques of Tai Chi, such as Single Whip, Cloud Hands, and Five Hammers, you will find it easy to get started," Li San told Wu.

Wu nodded his head. After several days of interaction and the complete legacy granted by the system, his understanding of Tai Chi had deepened considerably. The various routines and techniques of Tai Chi are, in fact, just external manifestations—the real core lies in Listening Skill and Hua Jin.

"Tai Chi is more of a concept," Li San said, looking at Wu.

"Your current Listening Skill has reached a point where you can react immediately to any change in your opponent. However, the ultimate realm of Listening Skill is ’The cicada knows the autumn wind is coming before it blows,’ meaning that even before the opponent moves, you have already anticipated how they will act."

"The cicada knows the autumn wind is coming before it blows," Wu murmured.

In fact, after developing Fist Intent, one becomes extremely sensitive to the gaze and hostility of others. To some extent, this is also a type of ’The cicada knows the autumn wind is coming before it blows’, where you can sense in advance that someone will act and thus respond even before they do.

But the ultimate realm of Tai Chi’s Listening Skill is evidently more powerful than that. Before the opponent even moves, you not only know that they will make a move, but you also know exactly what move they will make!

Such Listening Skill is incredibly mystical!

"As for Hua Jin, its highest realm is to encompass all things; the heaven and earth are in your heart. No matter how powerful the force that strikes, it simply merges with me, negating the need for deliberate deflection."

Speaking thus, Li San extended his hands, drawing arcs left and right before pulling forward and bringing them together in front of his body.

Watching Li San’s movement, Wu vaguely felt its conception: it was as if everything under heaven was embraced within that gesture, grand and magnanimous yet all-encompassing.

This is the mother form of Tai Chi Fist, Grasping the Sparrow’s Tail.

After completing this simple movement, Li San’s face suddenly paled, and he coughed a few times before speaking slowly, "I haven’t reached that realm either, but over the years, I’ve gleaned a bit of conception from Grasping the Sparrow’s Tail."

Wu felt moved. The conception behind Li San’s Grasping the Sparrow’s Tail was certainly a result of many years of accumulation and insight, representing the true core of the core, and now he was freely sharing it with him.

Although the two of them had been very open in their martial arts exchange, such content could have been justifiably withheld by Li San without any obligation to share.

Wu looked deeply at Li San, and although he didn’t voice his gratitude, some things were better kept in the heart.

Li San did not notice Wu’s emotional change and continued, "Tai Chi encompasses all things. Everything in the world can be subsumed under Tai Chi. If you can truly comprehend the highest realms of Listening Skill and Hua Jin, then any punch or kick, no matter what technique, can be considered Tai Chi."

Wu nodded in agreement—Tai Chi does indeed carry that meaning. Sun Lutang, the Martial Saint of the Republic, integrated Xingyi, Bagua, and Tai Chi into a unified martial art, creating Sun Style Tai Chi Fist. This concept of Tai Chi goes beyond just the specific form of Tai Chi Fist; it represents an idea that encompasses all things, the integration of various martial arts.

After completing the Master’s Name task related to Li San, Wu’s Tai Chi Fist advanced directly to Master Level. After a few days of exchanges with Li San and having seven dedicated individuals to practice with, Wu’s Tai Chi Fist was only a step away from reaching Master Level.

Reaching Master Level in any of the three major Internal Fist martial arts gives one Master-level control over muscles and bones. Thus, training in the other two Internal Fists thereafter becomes much more effective. Wu’s Xingyi Fist was already at Master Level, and now that he was practicing Tai Chi with guidance from a high-level Tai Chi expert like Li San, his progress was naturally swift.

There’s a saying that Tai Chi Fist is an art that adds wings to a tiger—it’s already strong, but for someone who is already skilled, learning Tai Chi makes them even stronger, whereas for those with an average skill level, learning Tai Chi might not demonstrate much effectiveness.

To some extent, this is indeed the case.

Whether it’s Listening Skill or Hua Jin, mastering these will make Wu’s fighting style more diverse. Although it won’t necessarily result in a dramatic improvement in strength, it will solidify his path toward reaching Grandmaster Level. After all, the system’s requirements for advancing to Grandmaster Level also demand some understanding of the other two Internal Fists.

Now that he had met Li San and had enough Fan Value, Wu planned to exchange for a Master Level Experience Card to help break through to the Master Level in Tai Chi Fist.

If he succeeded, he would then possess four Master Level martial arts: Xingyi, Tai Chi, Golden Bell Shield, and Eagle Claw Fist.

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