309: Chapter 306 The Collision of Tai Chi, Bagua, and Baji

"Master Guo, the feeling is mutual!"

Li Changsheng cupped his hands in a salute, a faint smile on his face.

"Is that all Your Excellency has? Just these cunning tricks? You're being too slippery; watch your step! You clearly haven't mastered Taiji and Bagua, have you? You've certainly learned every obscure and niche technique, though. How about we try something hard? You go hard, I go hard, let's go toe-to-toe."

Li Changsheng flicked his hand and stomped hard on the ground. With that stomp, power surged through his entire body. Leveraging the kinetic transfer, his supple frame suddenly tensed like a bowstring as he settled into a Baji Quan stance and beckoned with a feint.

Seeing Li Changsheng's posture, Peter Guo grimaced and rotated his wrists slightly; they were still a bit numb.

He had just used a pressure point technique to massage them; it worked well at first, but it became ineffective later. Wherever he poked, the skin would bulge out, hard as a steel plate.

"Isn't that just Iron Body, one of the Six Styles? I can do that too!"

Peter Guo let out a cold snort, leaving Li Changsheng stunned.

What? The name sounded familiar, but whatever; this guy was always spouting strange terms. Calling Hard Qigong 'Iron Body'—it was actually quite fitting.

Bang! With a fierce stomp, Li Changsheng closed the distance instantly. As he approached, he turned sideways and spun, using the torque to extend his reach. His hands became palms, and leveraging the rotational force, he unleashed strikes, pulls, hangs, and lifts in various directions.

The poison of Xingyi could no longer deal with the cunning of this Taiji practitioner. Not only did he know some Taiji, but he also possessed the slipperiness of Bagua. Since that was the case, he would use the Baji Quan style—inch-striking, inch-Grappling, and unreasonable, head-on brute force—to break through his defense.

Mountain-Cleaving Palm, Upward-Turning Hammer, Horizontal Single Hand.

Striking a person is like hanging a painting; Pigua Zhang is like splitting a mountain.

Bang!

The palm strike descended, but Peter Guo merely leaned back slightly, puffed out his belly, and twisted his waist.

In the next instant, the heavy, linear palm strike felt like it had hit a tire; his hand slipped, missing the target. Retracting his palm, he threw another Upward-Turning Hammer.

This time, the force was clear, aimed straight at his head. Seeing this, Peter Guo lightly lifted and leaped, crossing his hands and pressing down rapidly.

Bang!

The immense force of the Upward-Turning Hammer was clearly beyond Peter Guo's expectations. His already light frame was lifted by the impact, and his hands, which had blocked the strike, went numb.

Yet, his hands still fluttered like a crocodile's tail, locking onto Li Changsheng's forearm, pulling and lifting it from side to side.

Crack, crack, crack!

Li Changsheng's expression shifted slightly. With great speed, he retreated half a step to open up distance, his extracted arm dangling like a kite with a broken string.

"Muscle-Separating and Bone-Dislocating Hand, close-quarters Grappling?"

Muscle-Separating and Bone-Dislocating techniques and close-quarters Grappling were rarely used in duels between experts because it was extremely difficult to precisely grip an opponent's bones and joints during high-speed combat.

Li Changsheng's face darkened. He shook his whole body, unleashing a burst of Springing Power. With a shake of his right arm, pop-pop-pop! After a series of crisp bone cracks, he twisted his hand, and the bone was set.

"Heh, Master Li, how was my force-dissipation method? And how about my Muscle-Separating and Bone-Dislocating Hand?"

Having succeeded with one move, Peter Guo wisely chose not to pursue. He glanced at Li Changsheng's stance, which resembled a horse stance leaning backward.

If he had rushed in, he likely would have been hit by a Horse-Form Cannon punch and a forward horse kick.

The Horse Form concealed leg strikes and trips, changing with the hand movements. Xingyi was truly poisonous; a small stance, if one wasn't careful, could lead to a painful surprise.

Previously, because he had been too eager to counter-attack, he had suffered from the Chicken-Form headbutt, the Chicken-Leg kick, the Snake-Form shoulder strike, and the Swallow-Form foot strike.

They say Taiji is cunning, but to Peter Guo, this Master Li was not only cunning but also poisonous.

He couldn't counter-attack; every time he tried, the man was covered in poisonous thorns, stinging upon contact.

Li Changsheng also had a complicated expression; the guy before him was absurd.

What force-dissipation? What Muscle-Separating and Bone-Dislocating Hand?

Oh, wait, the latter was correct. The former was just the 'Cotton Belly'.

The so-called Cotton Belly was actually a sophisticated Taiji technique; some Internal Martial Arts also had similar skills, but reaching this person's level was difficult.

It required the abdominal muscles to possess immense Springing Power, and reaching this level was extremely sinister. If he hadn't withdrawn quickly just now, the moment the man twisted and contracted, suddenly pushing outward, it would have generated a powerful spring-like effect.

As the saying goes, a rushing current produces lightning; a white cat has a black tail.

It was like the softness containing hardness in Taiji; the softer the Taiji expert, the more sinister and hard-hitting their force would be.

"Master Guo, I'll say it again: with this kind of kung fu, it's hard for you to win against me, and losing is only a matter of time!"

Li Changsheng's expression had turned cold. Although the opponent kept showing him novel, obscure techniques, this was truly frustrating.

He roughly guessed the opponent's strategy: repeatedly using these small secret methods to wear down his Qi and Aura. After all, the Aura Li Changsheng had built up earlier was truly formidable, and the opponent's goal was gradually being achieved.

"Don't be so impatient, Master Li. Before was just playing around. That move of yours just now was good, but you need to add a bit more; I can take the force."

Peter Guo grinned, though his teeth were clenched tight. If one looked closely, they could see his clothes on his back were already soaked.

The Cotton Belly could discharge and resolve force, but the hidden-force 'needle-spray' was real. With every spray and intake, combined with the fierce force of the Upward-Turning Hammer and the counter-twisting while blocking with both hands, it was quite draining on his stamina.

"The plan is proceeding as usual, but this guy's stamina is too monstrous. If we keep dragging this out, his Aura will dissipate, but my Qi will also be scattered."

Thoughts flashed through his mind. In the next instant, he took the initiative, performing a spiral stomp with his leg, rotating his wrist, and charging forward with the momentum of a palm pushing a mountain.

"Well fought!"

Seeing that the opponent clearly had the air of a grand, expansive style, Li Changsheng let out a low shout, twisting his waist to the left, shaking his body, and thrusting his right fist forward.

'Ten Thousand Generals Invincible,' 'Overlord Draws the Bow'—the moment he struck, it was the Baji Quan 'Stomp-Lift Heaven-Piercing Palm' stance.

Bang!

The two palms collided. The moment their palms hit, Li Changsheng felt a spiral force.

Bagua, 'Grinding Palm, Smashing Stele'!

Pushing out the palm, no matter how fierce the force, whoever collided with this strike would feel as if they were being pulled by several iron oxen, spinning a millstone. The result would be, at best, a dislocated wrist joint, and at worst, a shattered wrist bone.

Almost the moment he sensed the force, Li Changsheng's breathing changed abruptly, and his inhalation and exhalation rhythm shifted instantly.

Peter Guo's eyes narrowed sharply. He saw that the palms, which were originally similar in size, suddenly seemed to expand in surface area for a split second.

Immediately after, a burst of explosive force surged from the palm, and the immense power shattered the millstone force into pieces.

His expression changed abruptly. With no time to think, he performed a side flip, using his body's rotational force combined with the remaining millstone rotational force to do his best to dissipate this destructive power.

Thud, thud, thud!

Landing, his feet stepped on the floor as if stepping on water, rapidly causing violent ripples. Then, one step followed another.

For four or five steps, Peter Guo's waist leaned back nearly forty degrees. Only then, by leveraging the spring-like elasticity of Taiji tendons and bones, and using a small 'Thousand-Jin Drop' method, did he gradually dissipate the force to a manageable level.

Crack, crack, crack!

His spine popped in succession, snapping back straight like a whip.

Huff, puff.

Once he had completely stabilized his stance, Peter Guo panted heavily. When he looked up at Li Changsheng, his eyes were full of shock.