255: Chapter 252 is full of top-notch people.

"Brother Zhang, you also have a background in Shaolin. Can you tell what level his Hard Qigong is at?" Li Changsheng glanced at Zhang Zhao beside him.

"It's hard to judge without seeing him make a move." Zhang Zhao rubbed his chin in contemplation.

"But speaking of Shaolin martial arts, it's nothing more than the Internal Five Elements and External Five Elements. Whether it's Shaolin Hard Qigong or the striking techniques, these Hard Qigong practices mostly focus on the External Five Elements.

Looking at his stance, it should undoubtedly be the External Five Elements. Just now, hearing what Brother Chen said, this person should have also learned Hard Qigong like the Golden Bell Shield and Iron Shirt.

When first practicing the Golden Bell Shield, one must use a mallet made of old cloth to strike the entire body, front and back.

Then switch to a wooden mallet, and then to an iron hammer; when you no longer feel pain from the iron hammer, you then use the method of Jiedi Gong.

If you practice this in conjunction with the Iron Shirt for two or three years, your chest and back will be as hard as iron and stone. Not to mention fists and kicks being unable to reach you, even swords and blades would struggle to cause damage.

Those who have achieved success in the Golden Bell Shield have bones in their chest and back that all merge together, as if they were naturally formed as a single piece.

Heh, don't look at Wuxia novels where the Golden Bell Shield and Iron Shirt are practiced by a bunch of low-level Jianghu figures. In fact, these two martial arts combined can be considered a Major Achievement in Hard Qigong.

Legend has it that one can obtain effects unimaginable to ordinary people, such as not drowning in water, not burning in fire, holding one's breath indefinitely, and not needing to eat or feel hungry. Of course, the reality is certainly exaggerated."

Zhang Zhao smiled and continued: "However, in martial arts, there is a good proverb: 'Strength cannot beat technique, technique cannot beat skill.'"

And the so-called 'strength cannot beat technique, technique cannot beat skill' actually means that someone with only brute force cannot do anything against someone proficient in boxing arts, and someone proficient in boxing arts cannot do anything against someone who possesses great mastery in Hard Qigong.

"Then what level do you think this person's Hard Qigong has reached?" Li Changsheng's eyes flickered; he had always been interested in coming into contact with Hard Qigong.

Although his own Twelve Forms of Tendon Transformation and Marrow Cleansing and the state of Transformative Stance could be considered to have achieved a fairly high effect of Hard Qigong, it was certainly inferior compared to orthodox Hard Qigong.

It was more about coordinating with force dissipation, as well as the Major Achievement of his own nourishing Internal Martial Arts, thereby achieving the illusion of Major Achievement in hard skills through the internal strengthening of the Hunyuan and focusing Qi at a single point.

"How would I know that?" Zhang Zhao shook his head with a bitter smile.

"There are too many Shaolin martial arts, and these styles of Hard Qigong are countless in Shaolin."

Hearing this, Li Changsheng was stunned. He looked at Odoba again and found that the other party indeed had no intention of showing much of his strength; he was just doing reaction training in an unremarkable way.

"However, one can tell that this person has a very solid foundation in Shaolin martial arts."

Zhang Zhao smiled in turn and pointed at Odoba's footwork: "Look at how his movement, advancing and retreating, is always on a single line.

Shaolin places great emphasis on leg skills. Even if one follows the path of Hard Qigong, one still has an extremely strong foundation in Stance Training and footwork.

And the core martial art of Shaolin is Xinyiba. Xinyiba requires leaping like a swallow soaring into the sky and landing like Mount Tai pressing down on the top; the rise and fall can only be completed within a position of about two meters.

Because the starting point is fixed by walls or water pillars, the landing point naturally becomes fixed in a single position.

So there is a saying, 'Shaolin boxing strikes along a single line,' which is the reason for this."

As he spoke, Zhang Zhao paused, looking a bit hesitant.

"Is there a problem?" Seeing Zhang Zhao's thoughtful expression, Li Changsheng asked suspiciously.

"Hmm." Zhang Zhao nodded. "I'm quite puzzled right now. Shaolin martial arts schools do indeed accept students without restrictions, but I have walked around inside them a few times.

To be honest, the core things aren't taught in too much detail. The first period is just having people hoe the ground, which is actually using the method of hoeing to teach some superficial concepts of Xinyiba.

Xinyiba is also known as the Hoeing Technique. It is a martial art created by being inspired by actions such as hoeing, digging soil, and turning a windlass while working in the fields.

Once you understand the most convenient, effortless, and ferocious way to exert force while hoeing, learning Xinyiba becomes much easier.

But how could a martial arts school teach you the core stuff? Later on, it's mostly just forms.

However, this Odoba clearly shows some proficiency in Xinyiba. I can't tell the style of his Hard Qigong yet, but it's likely not simple either."

Hearing this, Li Changsheng understood.

Zhang Zhao was right. Although Shaolin martial arts schools face the whole world and recruit students without restrictions, precisely because of this, they will not teach things that are too profound or essential.

If you sign up for a summer class, you might spend the first month learning to hoe the ground and toughening your body, and the second month learning some performance forms, like backflips and such.

The Wudang Daoist Martial Arts Academy is similar in this regard; it also accepts students without restrictions. In fifteen years, it has trained over twenty thousand martial arts students, two thousand of whom are foreigners.

Of course, in comparison, Shaolin definitely has more; their business and reputation have long been famous both at home and abroad.

And precisely because of this, how could the real deal be taught casually? It has become something you can learn as long as you pay. Generally, it's more or less the same, focusing on body conditioning and forms.

As long as it can be taken out for performance, you can't say they are cheating people.

Just regarding the training classes on Wudang Mountain that Li Changsheng knows about, they are divided into several types, such as domestic and international health preservation classes, domestic martial arts classes, and holiday training camps.

They even have collaborations with various travel agencies, so never think that Daoist Priests these days are poor. Some small temples might really be destitute, but Wudang is not short on money. They just appear simple, like quietude and non-action, and are used to being the same whether they have money or not.

Just last time when fishing with Daoist Priest Zhong Yunlong, Li Changsheng noticed that the Daoist Priest's fishing rods included expensive ones as well as homemade bamboo ones; it was just for the sake of being at ease.

The Daoist Priests are carefree and at ease; having money just makes them even more carefree and at ease.

Sometimes Li Changsheng even yearns for that kind of life and plans to learn from the Daoist Priests after finishing things here and returning.

His thoughts returned, and Li Changsheng immediately shifted his gaze from Odoba and looked to the other side.

"Brother Chen, this person should also be very powerful, right?"

Li Changsheng pointed to what should be the sumo area in the distance, where there was a big fat guy who was one meter eighty. He was truly very fat, and indeed very much a fat guy.

But fat as he was, Li Changsheng noticed that the vibration frequency of this person's fat was not large at all, far smaller than the vibration frequency of other sumo experts.

This meant that although he looked fat, his body fat percentage was not high at all; on the contrary, he might even be an extremely flexible fat person.

"Whoa! Young man, good eye!"

Chen Youcai gave a thumbs up and smiled: "This is a Yokozuna-level sumo wrestler named Azure Dragon. He is actually Mongolian and has won seven consecutive Grand Slams. He is known as the Great Yokozuna of the Heisei era!"

"I've heard of this one!"

Speaking of this, Zhang Zhao couldn't help but say, "But how come I heard he retired a long time ago? His body should have collapsed, right? Can he still fight?

And how does he look like he's very powerful?"

Watching the two big fat guys slowly wrestling with each other over there, Zhang Zhao felt somewhat unable to understand.