Chapter Thirty: The Combined Assault of Tiger and Leopard
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Among the three great martial schools, the Body-Burning Hall was founded by Lin Xianshi’s generation; the Che Family Fist, though called a martial school, was in fact a form of self-defense developed by the local people, and had branched out in Che Family Village for over two hundred years. The Five-Image Hall was even older—not in terms of years, but in the antiquity of its style. It inherited five forms from the ancient Eight-Image Boxing: bear, tiger, leopard, snake, and crane. The bear cultivates flesh, the tiger hardens bone, the leopard develops strength, the snake trains breath, and the crane refines essence.
Among these, the tiger form was, in truth, Fierce Tiger Boxing—or rather, the complete version of Fierce Tiger Boxing. The old feud between the Body-Burning Hall and Five-Image Hall began with a battle over the tiger boxing manual.
Jiang Shuiyuan had only ever heard rumors of this, perhaps with errors or gaps, but Kou Li didn’t mind; it was said that every grievance had its origin, every debt its debtor, yet most often, grievances had no head and debts no master.
In the world of martial artists, words mattered little; the fist decided all, and the strong prevailed.
“If we both claim to be the true heirs of the tiger form, then let us see whether your Body-Burning Hall’s tiger might or my Five-Image Hall’s tiger ferocity reigns supreme—there is no room for two tigers atop this mountain in Yuezhou!”
The woman opposite Kou Li, calling herself Lu Yao, gripped the ground with her toes, knees slightly bent, body sinking low. Her ten fingers opened and closed, guiding her arms, legs, shoulders, and even her spine in a rhythmic tension and release, in sync with her breathing.
Her deep, guttural breaths sounded like the prelude to a tiger devouring its prey.
What was even more remarkable: the two combatants’ starting postures were nearly identical, as if they truly practiced the same style.
“In the Body-Burning Hall, aside from Yue Wu Huo, this is the first time I’ve seen someone reach such a profound level in the tiger form,” Bai He marveled, then added, “But if that’s all, she will be at a disadvantage.”
“We have completed it,” rumbled the towering figure behind him.
“Roar!”
“Roar!”
“Roar!”
In the eyes of the onlookers, the two fighters seemed to truly transform into two striped, wild-eyed tigers—one male, one female—fierce in demeanor, claws and fangs deployed, pouncing and tearing with utter disregard for their own safety, as if truly fighting for the title of king of the mountain.
Taking advantage of her opponent’s evasive move, Lu Yao rotated her forearms inward, dropped her waist and stretched her neck. As her body expanded and contracted, her palms transformed into tiger claws—one step forward, claws slashing toward the face; the next, raking at the heart. The tigress emerging from her den was even more vicious.
Block high, and your heart would be gouged; block low, and your eyes would be clawed. Block both, and the tiger’s stance would immediately shatter.
Kou Li’s face was expressionless; the energy in his dantian surged and released in an instant. Eight feet in a single stride, he spun into a tiger’s crossing stance, his figure eerily appearing behind her—scissor hands, raking at her ribs, replaying the scene from moments before.
His tiger’s maw darkened and bruised, tendons twisting—he had once, with this very move, snapped a Water Dragon Gang enforcer’s throat. If he managed to seize her, the woman before him would be either dead or crippled.
But she seemed to have anticipated this. Her foot pressed and clawed at the ground, all ten toes digging in; her waist collapsed and hips twisted. Her lower body remained motionless as her upper body seemed to shrink by half, twisting nearly one hundred eighty degrees. In a bow stance, her double tiger claws swept upward from below, striking at Kou Li’s vulnerable spot.
It is said: a rounded back channels power through the body, force issues from the spine; a rounded tiger’s maw channels strength outward, increasing wrist power; a circular motion lets energy permeate the entire body, strengthening the gate of life.
Of these two tigers, one male and one female, Kou Li moved his feet in a circular arc, like a tiger stalking through grass, while Lu Yao was even more uncanny—her feet were still, but her body pivoted, tendons, bones, waist, and hips twisting with incredible flexibility.
Kou Li had not expected this move either. He quickly sank his weight, adopting the Five Flowers Sitting Mountain stance, channeling his energy downward. With a thud, his heel struck the earth and his arms crossed defensively.
A crisp crack resounded; sweat burst into a fine mist. The routines of Fierce Tiger Boxing seemed to have fused into Kou Li’s very instincts, so even against such deadly moves, in a split second, he managed to block her wrists.
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One up, one down, one tall, one short—their gazes met at the same level.
Yet in the woman’s eyes, Kou Li saw mockery and savagery, and his heart immediately sank. At the same time, a surge of danger overwhelmed him.
Lu Yao’s claws seemed to extend by half an inch, transforming from a grab to a rake. As her curled fingers straightened, her nails shot forward!
The claws of felines—tigers, leopards, and the like—are sheathed in their fleshy paws. When hunting, the claws spring forth; one thrust, one grip, and they embed deep in their prey, hanging on to bleed and tear until the hunt is done.
Lu Yao’s move was even more vicious. The wrist, where the tendons are exposed—one peck, one grip, then a pull, and the flesh and sinew of both arms would be torn away.
This technique was no longer part of orthodox Fierce Tiger Boxing, but rather a move newly devised by the Five-Image Hall—a move with an elegant name: “Wrist-Cutting Blossom.”
A maiden snips a brocade of paired mandarin ducks, sending it toward the rosy clouds of dusk.
Alas, the tiger form in our Five-Image Hall no longer rests on the lost foundation of the Hard Tiger Stance, but upon a newly created Cat-Tiger Stance, merging the tiger’s stability and might with the cat’s lightness and agility, strengthening the lower limbs and enhancing waist flexibility. Those ignorant of this are bound to suffer.
Bai He shook his head, as if he could already see Kou Li’s major tendons torn, his arms crippled.
Southern boxing takes the forms of animals as its postures and intention as its spirit; the techniques often imitate beasts, but the human heart is crueler than any animal, and the fighting even harsher.
The apprentices of the schools, too, saw Kou Li’s peril. All held their breath—though many resented their eighth senior brother’s overbearing ways, he nonetheless bore the school’s banner, and thus its honor!
That honor could not be lost!
“This woman was hiding her strength when fighting me,” Instructor Li’s eyes widened in disbelief.
“Is this still Fierce Tiger Boxing? How can it be so vicious and ruthless!” thought Jiang Shuiyuan.
“What tremendous power,” many apprentices were equally shocked; they might not grasp the intricacies or dangers of the moves, but the swift, hard exchanges were nothing short of ferocious. Yet despite being a woman, not only did she not fall behind, she even seemed to be gaining the upper hand.
At this critical juncture where victory, even life and death, hung in the balance, Kou Li suddenly took a deep breath—like a whale drawing water, vast and unending—his joints crackling. At the same moment, his forearm twisted nearly a full circle. The five sharp claws, instead of piercing his wrist, sank into the back of his hand.
Larger and more muscular than his opponent, Kou Li crashed forward with terrifying force—enough, it seemed, to leave a human-shaped dent in a thick wall.
The Tiger Flicks the Louse
Five-Flower Tiger Embraces the Hammer
The Fierce Tiger Ascends the Mountain!
Lu Yao’s expression finally changed. She had no time to pull or tear; her claws instantly retracted, and she retreated in haste, grasping her “tiger’s fur,” vanishing into a black blur.
For a moment, it was as if a black-skinned giant tiger, shoulders rolling, spine twisting, lunged to bite. Even with three inches between them, the pain radiating from Kou Li’s momentum told Lu Yao that this was the unique beastly force of Fierce Tiger Boxing.
She hadn’t expected her opponent not only to evade her Wrist-Cutting Blossom, but to have practiced Fierce Tiger Boxing to such depth that, even herself, without careful preparation, could not produce that distinctive force.
But he could—person and fist as one, the technique and its power inseparable.
Retreat—she had to retreat. To take that blow head-on would shatter her fighting structure and likely smash her body as well. Even so, the force of the punch left her stance teetering on the brink of collapse.
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“What a savage man—when did the Body-Burning Hall produce such a figure!”
In the blink of an eye, the victor’s edge was decided. None present could have foreseen this—not even Bai He, himself a master. It was not a matter of vision; even with the same set of techniques, different practitioners would display vast differences in power, rhythm, posture, movement, and coordination.
“Yet that wrist-turning technique—it’s reminiscent of Wrist-Cutting Blossom, but not quite a variant of Fierce Tiger Boxing. And why does it leave me with a sense of something unfinished…”
“We agreed this would be a contest of Fierce Tiger Boxing—why is your junior sister using other techniques?” Jiang Shuiyuan suddenly shouted. Indeed, both the Wrist-Cutting Blossom and her ferocious tactics were unlike the upright, majestic style of the tiger form.
“Yes, exactly!”
“That seems more like the leopard form from the Five-Image Hall—I’ve seen it before!”
“To use two styles against one—how is that a fair comparison?”
For a moment, the crowd seethed with indignation. Bai He smiled lightly. “I can assure you, this is definitely tiger boxing—our Five-Image Hall’s tiger form. It simply blends in elements of the leopard style.”
“Nonsense! How could two animal forms possibly be merged?” Jiang Shuiyuan retorted at once. “A tiger is a tiger, a leopard is a leopard; their styles and techniques are different. Mixing them is pure fantasy.”
“It’s because of the stance training—the stances and breathing of Fierce Tiger Boxing have been reinvented by us,” Bai He replied earnestly.
Everyone wore expressions of disbelief. Stance training was always the core of martial arts, but hadn’t those two methods been lost for generations?
Kou Li’s brows were furrowed as well. He was clearly in control, his dantian energy surging through his whole body, his movements relentless, his joints rumbling, the friction sounding like a tiger’s roar.
Yet his opponent resembled a cunning wildcat—in her movements and tactics, her structure seemed to collapse but never did, darting nimbly away, as if the fierce tigress had, with a twist, become a cat demoness.
How could Fierce Tiger Boxing have such transformations?
“This Cat-Tiger Stance was developed on the treetops,” Bai He said with a smile. “Back then, Junior Sister Lu suffered countless hardships to perfect her moving stance.”
A massive shadow behind him nodded.
“But once the moving stance was mastered, one could embody two forms—becoming cat or tiger at will. Tiger, cat, and leopard all belong to the feline family; with Cat-Tiger Stance as the foundation, two fists can be merged into one, enabling that technique.”
“Junior Sister has always been quite adept.”
Endurance had always been Kou Li’s weakness. Though both fighters unleashed lethal moves, their actual bout had lasted less than half the time it takes for an incense stick to burn. Yet the exertion had drained his strength at an alarming rate.
There was something strange about his opponent’s Fierce Tiger Boxing. If he did not end this quickly, he could not afford to exhaust himself completely. Resolving to change strategy, he shifted from offense to defense, steadying his foundation first.
But that was exactly the moment his opponent had been waiting for!
From the ancient Eight-Image Boxing, the ultimate killing move combining the essence of tiger and leopard forms—
Tiger-Leopard Double Strike!