8 The Success of the Qinggong Technique
Cock-A-Doodle-Do!
Zheng-Fu would not wait until the sun came up, he rushed out of the house very early. He headed directly to the forest in the outer part of the clan’s estate again and it did not take him long to get to his practice place…
“I must succeed Qinggong skill today. I won’t let myself take it easy!” Zheng-Fu lifted up his arm and put it down eagerly and excitedly, thinking about achieving the Qinggong skill.
“Yah!”
Woosh!
Thud!
“F…F…Farther than the first time!”
Zheng-Fu, all of a sudden, yelled the joy out of his lungs for being able to move a little farther than before, even though it still looked like a failed attempt because he landed on his face still…
“This is it. If I continue to go in this direction, I will definitely be able to control my balance eventually. Hahaha.” Zheng-Fu said and laughed out loud with happiness…
From moving a few paces forward to being able to control the balance as far as half a Li (250 meters), Zheng-Fu proved that for the past two weeks, he had been working hard to focus on mastering Qinggong skill. He was now able to use the skill more effectively and could achieve up to half a Li eventually...
“My Qinggong skill is more synchronized with me now. I think I should try to use it along with some fighting movements. I haven’t tried to move around, but forward…”
If Zheng-Fu applied the Qinggong technique when he performed fighting skills, he would be able to reach the opponent half a Li faster than the opponent. That meant he would have the advantage to attack first. He could also get away from the opponent’s attack faster. But if he could not control the direction of his Qinggong movements as he wished, that meant he only used the skill to make an appointment with death…
Zheng-Fu realized that his practice time was about to run out because the clan’s martial arts test was around the corner. He only had about a bit more than a month to go. If he could not master the Qinggong skill until then, the chance of passing the test would be less than expected…
Zheng-Fu continued to practice successively. He came back home with wounds and injuries almost every day. His parents did not try to bother him but were concerned from afar. They both knew well that the clan’s test was soon…
In Zheng-Fu’s house…
“Do you think that our son has been beating himself up too much, dear husband? He comes home with cuts here and there these days.” Tang-Ling asked Kong-Shi worriedly about her son…
“He’s trying to do his best. We cannot meddle with his strong determination. This is our son’s decision.” Kong-Shi turned to answer his wife while giving a big sigh uncontrollably. He knew well what Zheng-Fu thought about the clan’s martial arts test…
“What would happen if he doesn’t pass the test?” Tang-Ling asked with worries…
“You have to believe in him. He will be able to succeed like the time he did when he studied with Master Huang. He could take in everything within a short period of time. Besides, what we can do now for him is to support him and believe in him.”
“Yes, dear!”
Back to the forest outside of Tian-Tang Clan…
Swoosh!
Clomp!
“I made it! I can master the Qinggong skill!”
After practicing heavily for the past two weeks, Zheng-Fu was finally successful in using the Qinggong skill. The skill that he adapted and developed with the knowledge from the previous world…
From being able to move just a few paces forward, he now could make it farther and farther. He also managed to move sideward and backward as he wished. Even though he could not make it as far as he wanted, he considered this a success. He was actually very pleased about the progress…
“This Qinggong skill I’ve been practicing is called “Willow-leaf Body”. I’m not sure if it exists in this world. But I know this skill consists of four stages.”
The four stages were “Synchronize with the Wind”, “Shifting Direction”, “Move without Destination”, and “Move at Will”.
“From the outcome of the practice, it seemed like I’ve reached the second stage, which is “Shifting Direction”. To reach the third and fourth stages takes a long time,” Zheng-Fu said and smiled happily…
“Never mind. I don’t have to practice the higher stages. This is good enough for me. The next thing I need to work on is the fighting techniques. I only know the “Index of the Sword of the Wind”. But this technique consumed a lot of Qi energy. So, I don’t think it’s a practical idea to use this technique to fight all through the test.”
Zheng-Fu started to contemplate his fighting technique again. He did not really know other techniques from this world. He only knew the ones that he came up with and used his knowledge from the previous world to practice them. He thought that if he kept on doing that, he would not have enough time to achieve any of them…
“Should I go ask father?” The vision of Kong-Shi popped up in Zheng-Fu’s mind all of a sudden. Though he was reluctant to go to his father for a short while, he decided to go to ask him about the basic fighting techniques that his father might think that he could achieve before the test…
Right after Zheng-Fu left the scene, there was a voice of a man who was up in the tree near the place where Zheng-Fu practiced his Qinggong skill, “That boy’s come here every day.”
“Yes. He likes to do strange movements too when he comes here. At first, I thought that he was playing by himself, but later on, those moves looked like some kind of a martial arts technique.” Another man’s voice responded to the first man’s remark…
“Right. That’s what I think too. But it’s unlikely to be a martial arts technique because there’s nothing like that at all in our clan’s martial arts styles.”
“You’re actually correct. I myself have never seen anything like that from our clan before. I guess we’re being too imaginative. Anyway, the clan’s martial arts test is coming in a few weeks. I’m so looking forward to it.”
“Right… We’ve been skipping it for many years now. This time is something I would like to witness.”
“Yesss!”
Zheng-Fu had been under surveillance the whole time of his practice session by the Monitors. But even though he was aware of that, he did not feel like he needed to worry because he thought that the Monitors would not know what he was doing. He was too young to cause suspicion and all he did was just move strangely…
It did not matter how experienced those martial artists were, they would not be able to understand what he was doing because his practicing methods took pretty much after the ways children played…
This was why it seemed to be normal for him to not worry that others would know that he had been practicing fighting techniques. Even if someone tried to point out, he would still be able to make excuses by saying that those were not any fighting techniques at all…
After Zheng-Fu had decided to go to his father, he rushed home to ask him about other basic fighting techniques. So, he headed home right away using the Qinggong skill along the way back to be more used to the skill…
It did not take long for Zheng-Fu to arrive home. He was all covered in sweat and dirt that he got from the times that he fell on his face…
Squeak!
“I’m home!”
?
No sign of anyone home…
