Chapter Twelve: I Stand as a Mountain Alone (Please Support with Favorites, Monthly Votes, and Recommendation Votes)
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Although Yue Huyang spoke in such a manner, one could easily imagine the immense effort he had invested in creating this new style of Xingyiquan. At this point, Yue Huyang sighed deeply.
“Once the tiger’s form of the tiger skin is obtained, the next step is to imbue the tiger form with intent—that is the finishing touch, like painting the eyes on a tiger!”
“Intent is something profoundly mysterious; it can be said to be a certain manifestation of the divine. And the divine itself can be classified under the primordial Qi of heaven and earth. This step is surprisingly simple, like the soul returning to its original body.”
“When the two merge, what you attain is a body of a spiritual and dynamic Qi-tiger!”
As he spoke, Yue Huyang suddenly gave a sharp command. In Meng Fan’s eyes, the Qi flowing around Yue Huyang intertwined, and behind him appeared an unparalleled fierce tiger as large as a small mountain.
Its entire body was stained with blood, resembling the fading light of dusk; its fangs were savage and sharp like deadly knives; its eyes were violent, reflecting a tiger trampling over corpses and carrying them off.
That tiger’s paw was larger than Yue Huyang’s whole body, as if a gentle swipe could crush Meng Fan into minced meat. Meng Fan could clearly feel the tiger’s overwhelming murderous arrogance and disdainful threat.
It seemed as if this fierce tiger possessed its own intelligence, ready to shred anyone before Yue Huyang’s command.
Gulp—
Meng Fan swallowed nervously. Thankfully, Yue Huyang did not unleash the tiger’s full intent as he had before. Otherwise, with this mountain-sized tiger form combined with such ferocious intent, Meng Fan might have been scared out of his wits.
Yue Huyang laughed heartily and dispersed the Qi-tiger, then winked playfully at Meng Fan, boasting a little: “This is the third level of Xingyiquan. What do you think?”
Meng Fan wiped the cold sweat from his brow and gave a thumbs-up: “Master, you’re truly formidable!”
One could only say that the world beneath the One Man is indeed deep and unfathomable. Meng Fan had only one master but witnessed such prowess; who knew how many hidden experts still lurked?
Not to mention, the so-called Lion Dance technique Yue Huyang mentioned was never fully revealed in the original manga.
People say One Man Down is a veteran shonen series, mostly featuring the younger generation like Zhang Chulan and his peers. How many real elders have appeared?
With Yue Huyang’s skills, he might not surpass those top ten elders but was certainly a renowned figure.
Yet who would have guessed such a person would run a modest martial arts school here, with only three disciples, his fame hardly known?
Yue Huyang was somewhat proud but not overly so. He humbly said, “I’m nothing special. When I first created this technique, I had a match with the old Mr. Wu Shiyuan.”
“He was like a raging lion, majestic and fierce. That’s when I truly understood what ‘Raging Lion’s Fury’ means!”
“I was young then. If it were me now, a draw wouldn’t be a problem.”
Yue Huyang never claimed victory, but as Chinese often modestly do, Meng Fan guessed that if they fought again, Yue Huyang would probably have the upper hand.
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Next, Yue Huyang began describing his vision of the fourth level of Xingyiquan—focusing heavily on both form and intent.
This step involved rebuilding and integrating oneself based on the third level, undergoing another round of refinement.
The Qi-tiger body would manifest as a real tiger form. This required extremely high cultivation, and the Qi-tiger would no longer be composed solely of primordial Qi.
It was like the Golden Light Spell of the Celestial Masters’ Mansion; those with profound cultivation could even let ordinary people see the golden light form.
In Yue Huyang’s vision, to enhance the Qi-tiger’s power, he always thought about integrating elements like thunder or fire into it…
In his ideal conception, the best method would be to combine ancient martial blood energy with the tiger’s killing aura and the aura of weaponry—a true method of slaughter. The White Tiger supervising troops, alas, the martial techniques had long been lost.
Techniques involving fire, thunder, and the like mostly belonged to great sects and clans, such as the Five Thunder of Yang and Yin in the Celestial Masters’ Mansion, or the Fire Control methods of the Fire Virtue Sect.
Learning from others’ strengths to improve oneself.
But Yue Huyang was stuck at this stage, earnestly pondering but unable to accomplish it. As the saying goes, a clever woman cannot cook without rice.
And this was only the “heavy form” part of the fourth level!
Next came “heavy intent.”
In Yue Huyang’s view, the tiger’s intent should be so strong that it could harm others from a distance, striking fear in one glance and shattering their spirit.
As for its quality…
There is a phrase: “To act as a tiger’s accomplice.”
Yue Huyang envisioned something magnificent—the tiger commanding a hundred weapons, the tiger’s momentum pressing upon the enemy. What did this mean?
According to his conception, his Qi-tiger could split into a pack of tigers, unified by his mind and will into a hundred-tiger battalion, forming a tiger formation.
A pack of tigers descending the mountain, forming an undefeated tiger momentum!
Like an army, wielded at will.
However, once again, there was no inheritance, no related cultivation method.
Such a specialized technique for honing one’s nature, especially one involving division and control, multitasking the mind, likely only existed in ancient times with the art of the “puppeteer.”
But puppeteers had long been eliminated by history, swallowed by the dust of time.
The term “puppeteer” originally referred to the craftsman named Yan Shi who performed before King Mu of Zhou, the founder of the puppeteer school, mentioned in the “Liezi · Tang Wen.”
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Legend has it that during King Mu’s reign, the craftsman Yan Shi created wooden puppets that could sing and dance, appearing almost alive.
King Mu watched with his concubines as the puppets exchanged flirtatious glances with the attendants, which enraged the king. He wanted to kill Yan Shi but stopped only after the puppets were dissected.
Thus, Yan Shi is considered the ancestor of puppet theater. Common folk call puppeteers and doll masters by their general names, but they refer to themselves with the elegant title “Yan Shi.”
They relied on making dolls and some mechanical tricks to fight enemies, inferior to the art of controlling spirits or transforming things, and far less than the art of refining artifacts, leading to their gradual decline.
Thousands of years ago, they were eventually absorbed by the refiners, becoming part of the divine machinery school, integrated into the refiner’s heritage—the most famous being Zhuge Shenji.
Everyone has heard of the Wooden Ox and Flowing Horse, but Zhuge Shenji’s legacy belonged to Zhuge Village; it was impossible to obtain.
Moreover, refiners are exceedingly rare, let alone those who have mastered divine machinery—virtually impossible to find.
Even if found, why would they pass on their secrets?
This left Yue Huyang somewhat stuck.
However, he was not idle. Though the fourth level remained unachieved, he had already imagined the fifth level!
Formless and without intent, returning to simplicity.
Yue Huyang sighed: “Formlessness and formlessness is true intent. Xingyiquan is originally modeled after animals in nature, each with its own allegiance, form, intent, and appearance.”
“But ultimately, all cannot escape the laws of nature. Nature itself is heaven and earth. Heaven and earth are the universe, all-encompassing and all-inclusive!”
“In my final vision, Xingyiquan would no longer be merely a martial art, but a great path of cultivation!”
At this, Yue Huyang’s eyes burned with fervent passion.
But soon, he lost heart himself: “Alas, it is just a fantasy!”
Meng Fan was even more shocked. If his master truly achieved this, he would be a saint no less than Zhang Daoling in history.
To describe Yue Huyang as a prodigy would perhaps be more fitting.
At that moment, Yue Huyang came back to himself, patted Meng Fan’s head again, his gaze firm and sincere: “Do not envy others for their heights. When your cultivation deepens, you will become your own towering mountain!”