Tiger Roar Force and the Nine Forms of the Mountain Lord

There was also a Martial Arts Arena in the inner courtyard, but it was much smaller than the one in the outer courtyard, and the ground was tamped yellow earth.

It was mainly for the inner-courtyard disciples to practice martial arts.

When Chen Jing walked into the grounds, Cheng Lianshan was already waiting in the arena.

He wore a set of black fitted martial clothes and stood with his hands clasped behind his back. Morning light fell across his graying temples, and his whole presence was deep and steady as a mountain.

"You're here."

Seeing Chen Jing walk in, Cheng Lianshan got straight to the point.

"Little Jing, I've already looked over your foundation. You've trained your stance work to greater mastery, and your base is solid. You can begin touching the next stage of martial cultivation."

Chen Jing stood still and listened intently.

"Training strength, training sinews and bones, strengthening blood and qi—this stage is collectively called Body Tempering."

Cheng Lianshan raised one finger, his tone unhurried. "After Body Tempering, you have to train your kung fu into the marrow."

"When the bone marrow has been trained through, it creates new blood and replaces the old, washes away lingering ailments, and treats hidden injuries. Only then can one shed one's mortal shell and exchange one's bones."

"From there, one trains until blood and qi are like mercury, the dan is held into a perfect circle, and every gesture carries tremendous power, achieving the full perfection of body forging."

"This stage is called the Blood-Qi Realm."

Seeing Chen Jing's blank, lost-in-the-clouds expression, Cheng Lianshan smiled faintly.

He did not continue explaining. Instead, he extended his palm.

"Come. Place your hand on mine, stand in your stance, and I'll help you test the force."

Cheng Lianshan's palm was as rough as sand and stone, the edge of it covered in thick calluses. One glance was enough to tell it had been tempered through a thousand hammers and a hundred refinings.

Chen Jing did as he was told and placed his palm in Cheng Lianshan's. He set his feet shoulder-width apart, bent his knees slightly, and assumed the posture of the Fierce Tiger Stance.

Cheng Lianshan's hand clearly had not moved, yet Chen Jing suddenly felt the other man's palm give a sudden tremor.

An extremely subtle yet profound trembling force, like mountains roaring and seas howling, swept abruptly from Cheng Lianshan's palm.

Chen Jing only felt the bones throughout his body crackle in a crisp burst.

From his cervical vertebrae to his tailbone, from his shoulder blades to his finger bones.

Every seam between his bones, every acupoint, rang violently in the lingering aftershock of that tremor.

The thunderous rumbling surging through his entire body was like the echo of a fierce tiger howling at the moon in a mountain stream, and also like rolling thunder, driving the blood and qi churning up and down through him all the way to the very ends of every vessel in his four limbs and hundred bones.

With just that one touch, Chen Jing felt as if his whole body was about to fall apart.

His knees were shaking, his calves were shaking, even his teeth were chattering.

His Fierce Tiger Stance frame nearly collapsed, almost sending him sitting on the ground, but he still gritted his teeth and held on with everything he had.

Cheng Lianshan withdrew his hand, a trace of approval appearing on his face.

"Not bad. For your first force test, you could still remain standing. Your frame really has been trained very purely."

Chen Jing panted slightly. Sweat had seeped from every hair on his body, and that trembling force from earlier had still not completely dissipated. He could not help saying in shock, "Master, what kind of force was that?"

"This is a technique for shaking the acupoints and training the marrow."

Cheng Lianshan spoke very quickly. "You must remember this trembling force. Use your own force to penetrate deep into the acupoints and bone marrow, shake until sound emerges, like a tiger roaring through the mountain forest, thunder rumbling across the open plains."

"In the border army, they call it Tiger Roar Force, and also Thunder Roar Force."

"Wang Chong is stuck precisely at this step. His Fierce Tiger Stance reached greater mastery long ago, but his force has never been able to penetrate into the bone marrow and shake out a roaring sound, so he can only stop outside the Blood-Qi Realm."

"Cross this step, and it is another heaven and earth. Fail to cross it, and you can only wander around Body Tempering for the rest of your life."

Chen Jing thought of what Wang Chong had told him before, that his martial training was stuck at a bottleneck and he had been unable to advance another step. So this was where he had been trapped.

Cheng Lianshan extended his hand again. "Come. I'll help you test it again. You must carefully experience this feeling."

Chen Jing placed his palm on his again.

Cheng Lianshan's Tiger Roar Force came through once more, and this time, the tremor was fiercer and heavier than before.

At that moment, his skeleton seemed to turn into a bronze bell that had been struck, humming and shaking as echoes surged back and forth between the seams of his bones.

After two or three more tests, Chen Jing was already drenched in sweat. His hair clung wetly to his forehead, his clothes were soaked through as well, and he looked as if he had just been fished out of the water.

He only felt his blood and qi roiling, his legs and feet going weak. If his stance frame had not been stable enough, he probably would have long since sat down hard on the ground.

Cheng Lianshan withdrew his hand. "The shaking of the acupoints and bone marrow must be moderate, otherwise it will injure your foundation in return."

"We'll stop testing force here for now. You must carefully experience the feeling of force penetrating deep into the seams of the bones, trembling and shaking, and drawing out resonance from the bone marrow."

"For the next ten days, I will help you test force every day."

"Generally speaking, once Body Tempering has been trained to the level of entering the hall and ascending the chamber, one's blood, qi, and force are enough to shake the acupoints and bone marrow."

"It is just that after Body Tempering reaches greater mastery, blood, qi, and vital force increase greatly. Not only does that help with comprehending force in its subtleties, the time and effect of shaking the bone marrow will also yield twice the result with half the effort."

"That is why I require all of them to reach greater mastery in Body Tempering before they can set foot into Blood-Qi Realm cultivation."

Chen Jing's heart stirred, and he asked, "Master, what about perfect completion of Body Tempering?"

Cheng Lianshan paused slightly. "Perfect completion of Body Tempering means developing both blood-qi and force to the limits of the individual. If one steps into cultivation of the Blood-Qi Realm with Body Tempering perfected, it is naturally the best of the best."

"But the realm of perfection has always been hard to seek. Those capable of breaking through that bottleneck are not one in ten thousand."

"I myself never achieved perfect completion of Body Tempering, so I do not force it upon you either, lest you waste your years in vain."

Chen Jing understood. Cheng Lianshan and the others had been trapped by that bottleneck, so they had not demanded perfection.

But he was different. As long as he filled up his proficiency, reaching perfection would be as natural as water flowing into a channel.

Cheng Lianshan waved a hand, interrupting Chen Jing's thoughts.

"If you cannot comprehend Tiger Roar Force, then you will probably be like Wang Chong, stopped at Body Tempering."

He paused, then his tone shifted and became solemn.

"However, Tiger Roar Force is only a technique, a stepping stone to help you knock open the gates of the Blood-Qi Realm."

"What I am going to teach you next is the true essence of Lianshan Martial Arts Hall's inheritance."

Chen Jing raised his head and looked solemnly at Cheng Lianshan.

"I spent more than twenty years in the frontier army. I practiced fist arts meant for battle formations and slaughter, and I also witnessed the prized skills of all sorts of martial artists of the rivers and lakes."

"After I retired from the army, I fused and mastered the various techniques I had learned over those years, combined them with my own understanding of the Fierce Tiger Stance, and created a set of fist arts."

"It is called Nine Forms of the Mountain Lord."

Cheng Lianshan slowly paced to the center of the Martial Arts Arena, then turned to face Chen Jing.

"This set of fist arts is divided into training methods and fighting methods."

"The training methods can only display their true effect on the foundation of comprehending Tiger Roar Force. With Tiger Roar Force shaking the bone marrow, paired with the changes in the fist paths of the Nine Forms, every part of the bone marrow throughout the body can be shaken and tempered into place."

"As for the fighting methods, those are means to overcome the enemy and seize victory. First train out Tiger Roar Force; when the time comes, I will naturally teach you."

"I will first demonstrate the Nine Forms once, so you can have an overall impression. Afterward, I will teach you form by form."

"From outside to inside, I will explain in detail the inner circulation of force, the shaking of the bone marrow, and the details of the external stance method in each form."

"Watch carefully."

Cheng Lianshan opened his stance, his feet slightly apart, his hands hanging naturally at his sides, and the aura of his entire person suddenly changed.

A moment ago, he had still been a kindly teacher. At this moment, he was like a fierce tiger slowly walking out from deep mountains, beard and hair bristling, his presence majestic and vast.

"The Nine Forms of the Mountain Lord are known as the Descending Mountain Stance, Roaring Mountain Stance, Crouching Stance, Patrolling Mountain Stance, Pouncing Stance, Tail-Clipping Stance, Claw-Flipping Stance, Rock-Kicking Stance, and Concealment Stance."

As Cheng Lianshan recited the names of the Nine Forms, his figure shifted and darted through the arena in succession, whipping up gusts of forceful wind.

"Every stance, every form, is divided into training method and fighting method. The training method governs the inner: using the stance frame to regulate breath and draw force, shaking the bone marrow. The fighting method governs the outer: using force to overcome the enemy and seize victory. Every form is a killing move."