Encountering Rain at West Lake

In the following days, Lu Hongti could occasionally be seen sitting on the steps, deep in thought.

"...Regarding anti-joint techniques, the main goal is to target a person's joints under certain circumstances, causing dislocation and rendering them unable to fight. Some techniques use leverage, while others involve forcibly breaking the joints. I know that your martial arts certainly include many grappling methods, so any specific techniques from me would be like showing off in front of an expert... What I want to talk about here are some more direct concepts, directly focusing on fingers, ankles, elbows, and knees. The purpose may be more specific..."

"Quick eyes and hands, *crack*, break it. When someone kicks out, instead of considering dodging or attacking other parts of their body, you grab the foot and apply force directly to the ankle. Whichever way they're going, you can follow that direction. This area is very vulnerable, and just one move can cause lifelong disability... I think many martial arts don't seem to do this thoroughly or directly. Of course, this might not be very useful on the battlefield, haha..."

"This is a basic concept, and it should be simple to understand. Then we can analyze things in more detail: how much force the fingers can withstand, how much the elbows, knees, and ankles can withstand. There are many vital points on the human body that we can list. For example, the human hand... here, uh, a cut here will generally cause unstoppable bleeding. Behind the ear..."

At first, she had listened to it as amusing boasting. People who had fought on the battlefield actually took a practical approach to all their moves. When it came to ideas like breaking fingers or attacking joints, there were actually many such techniques in martial arts, and Lu Hongti was well aware of the various vital points on the human body. Ning Yi made it sound simple: if you attack with a palm, I'll break your fingers, or if I catch it, I'll hit your elbow in the opposite direction. What's so special about that?

However, as he explained in more and more detail, some things began to change.

It was excessively detailed, excessively clear, and excessively organized. In those explanations, every inch of the human body seemed to be analyzed using a "because, therefore" structure. There were even some vital points that she had never thought about carefully before. Even if she knew about them, she wouldn't think about achieving those specific goals in the first instance when fighting someone.

"Who... taught you this?"

"Uh?"

"It's almost like... you're using your *gewu* methods to practice martial arts..."

Ning Yi thought for a moment, then nodded and smiled. What he was saying was actually a summary of many modern fighting techniques, mainly for self-defense. After all, he had studied and dabbled in them in his previous life: jujutsu, aikido, Muay Thai. He wouldn't be able to study them systematically later on. But apart from the fitness aspect, he basically only came into contact with highly lethal techniques for self-defense, even military boxing and many special forces techniques. He didn't need to tell Lu Hongti how to do it specifically; Lu Hongti was too familiar with those aspects. Therefore, he was talking about broad conceptual analyses to make the goal clearer.

"...For experts, there may be different responses, but on the level of ordinary people, quick eyes and hands, repeated practice, with the goal of destroying certain points on the human body in the shortest amount of time, coupled with the internal energy of these second-rate masters... It may be very demanding to become a true master, but in specific environments against other soldiers, it may be more efficient... Not pursuing comprehensiveness, complexity, or vagueness, but seeing the purpose clearly and doing specialized training, like a scalpel cutting in... Well, a scalpel is a *gewu* term..."

"For example, you can consider forming a group of five or a few people to specialize in infiltration, mutual support, and silent killing, coordinated with remote observation... It's not just you who can consider assassination. With several people working together systematically, the efficiency of assassination or disruption will be higher. But you must study it in depth, find the patterns, and look for weaknesses... Well, these ideas are for the next aspect. We'll discuss this in a few days, let's talk about martial arts first..."

"I have a few sets of fists. I don't know how useful they are, but you're the master. Can you evaluate them? If they're useless, just consider it a viewing... The first set was probably created to target these weaknesses. Unfortunately, my one hand isn't very useful, so I may not be able to demonstrate it well..."

Eight or nine days had already passed, and Ning Yi's left hand could basically move a little. Of course, according to Lu Hongti, it would take about half a year of continuous treatment to fully recover, and there shouldn't be too many sequelae. The first set of fists was naturally military boxing, a set of killing fists completely focused on practicality and vital points. Of course, it's not to say that learning it would definitely be applicable. Like anti-joint techniques, a lot of practice was essential, and even if ordinary people practiced it, they wouldn't necessarily be able to defeat opponents of the level of the Yang brothers with a build like Ning Yi's. Ning Yi didn't necessarily spend a lot of time training this. But Lu Hongti could naturally see the things contained within at a glance.

"This... it should be a fist focusing solely on speed and power. Below a certain level, it is indeed... terrifying."

"At the extreme of speed and power, can it compete with first-rate masters?"

Ning Yi was curious about this. Lu Hongti sat there and smiled, then walked in front of him: "Attack me."

"I'm injured, and I don't hit women..."

Ning Yi spread his hands, but before he could finish speaking, his right fist was ready to punch out. However, as the thought flashed through his mind, just as his fist clenched and prepared to strike, it suddenly lost all power. Lu Hongti silently placed two fingers on his elbow, then retracted them. His right fist was about to strike out again, and then he didn't care about his injured left hand, and prepared to exert force at the same time. Lu Hongti's fingers casually tapped on his hands, and also tapped on his leg. Her skirt fluttered slightly, and her toe quietly tapped his ankle. Then, Ning Yi wanted to open his mouth and crash his head over to bite, but his forehead was gently pushed, and his mouth, which had only opened a crack, slammed shut, and he swallowed a bean.

From beginning to end, Ning Yi's hands and feet couldn't even be raised. It looked like his body shook a few times, and then he covered his mouth with a frustrated expression: "That's not right..."

Lu Hongti smiled happily: "The cicada senses the coming autumn breeze before it moves. Your *gewu* seeks a simple purpose, but if my *qi* and blood have already told me what you're going to do before you even raise your hand, what use is speed or power? In the future, when you learn some martial arts routines, your master will also tell you that those moves are not for show. If our levels are similar, the moment your shoulder moved, I would start to raise my hand. When you see my finger moving, your stance must change immediately, and then I will also know that this move of mine is useless, and I must change accordingly..."

She thought for a moment: "But if you only seek quick success, this set of fists is actually enough..."

"Alright, I can only be a second-rate master anyway..." Ning Yi ate a bean. He was still speaking somewhat indistinctly at this time. That afternoon, they studied military boxing and also talked about *Tian Long Ba Bu*. The next day, Ning Yi demonstrated a set of Tai Chi Chuan to her, muttering to himself.

"Tai Chi Chuan, arising from infinity, the mechanism of movement and stillness, the mother of yin and yang..."

That's all he remembered of the sentence, but it didn't matter. It already sounded very mysterious. After he finished speaking, he quickly shut up and made a profound demonstration. In fact, what he was practicing wasn't some very powerful Tai Chi routine, but the old men's fists and old ladies' fists from the park, from the opening stance to "Grasping the Sparrow's Tail" to "Single Whip". It was early morning, and Lu Hongti was sitting on the steps eating small red fruits picked from the forest, laughing.

"You're joking, what kind of fist is this? How can it be so slow? How are you going to hit someone?"

Ning Yi's left hand wasn't very smooth itself, and he stopped at this time: "Shut up! Watch carefully and ponder it well. No laughing... Superficial!"

He was exasperated. Lu Hongti put a small fruit in her mouth, nodded seriously, but there was still laughter in her eyes. Then he started over from the beginning. Around the "White Crane Spreads its Wings" stance, Lu Hongti chewed on something and nodded, muttering: "This is the fist of a swordsman with a shield, but the fist intent is a bit scattered..."

"Advance, Parry, Intercept Punch, Close and Seal, Open and Close Hands, Right Single Whip, Elbow Strike..." Ning Yi was actually performing the movements softly and not very standardly. In terms of ideas, he naturally still followed the pure rational and pure logical route. The data stream and overall planning stream of military boxing and vital point analysis were more to his liking. He was just seeing if this fist technique was useful for Lu Hongti. Halfway through the fist technique, Lu Hongti just frowned and watched. After he finished, she sat there, pursing her lips: "Is that all?"

"Yeah, that's all I know," Ning Yi said, spreading his hands. "How is it?"

"Can't figure it out..." Lu Hongti's tone was a bit low. Then she looked to the side, as if talking to herself, "This fist of yours is too strange. It's broken. It shouldn't be like this. This is something from Taoism... My master was a Taoist nun, she..."

Her master had already passed away, and she didn't know what she had taught her before, but there certainly wasn't any Tai Chi Chuan at this time. Ning Yi also knew that this kind of Tai Chi had changed. If fist techniques were divided into practice methods and fighting methods, this wasn't even a practice method, and it was close to dance. Since Lu Hongti could have insights, he naturally didn't interfere too much. At noon, he took a gourd to fetch water, and when he came back, he saw Lu Hongti repeating that Tai Chi Chuan in front of the broken temple. However, she stopped three times in a row from the opening stance to "Grasping the Sparrow's Tail."

Stop once, start again, and it changes. Sometimes she shakes her head and thinks for a while, changes it again and starts over. It had already been more than an hour since she finished going through it once. Some of the places had changed so much that Ning Yi couldn't recognize them at all. She finished it continuously, sometimes fast and sometimes slow, but she had already shed many dance movements. It seemed fierce and determined. Between the movements of her skirt, there was also a unique heroic spirit and beauty. One stance, "Advance, Parry, Intercept Punch," even broke a small tree next to it. The sound of the wind whistling sharply between her shots. After she finished this time, she started to push and change it one move at a time again. This time, the speed slowed down again, but it became even more plentiful.

By dusk, the fist technique hadn't stopped. The setting sun shone through the gaps in the trees, and white steam was rising from the top of Lu Hongti's head. She had already changed the fist technique several times, sometimes quickly and sometimes slowly. In Ning Yi's opinion, it seemed that every time was very scary. Then they lit a campfire to cook rice. It was already evening when the rice was cooked. Ning Yi was still wondering whether to tell her to stop. Lu Hongti took a breath and came over herself, sitting next to him.

"Did you figure it out?"

"Can't figure it out. Some of your fists are used on the battlefield, which is easy to understand, but some others are hard to figure out..." She shook her head. "Using softness to overcome strength is like the Taoist idea of yin and yang. This doesn't seem to be from *gewu*... Where did you learn all this..."

"Uh, a Taoist priest passed by my door when I was little..."

Lu Hongti laughed: "He recited two poems... Don't fool me. I've inquired. If you don't want to say, then don't say. If you say it's what you thought of yourself, then I'll just think there's a genius in this world who is born with knowledge..."

It was taboo to ask about a person's skills after all. Lu Hongti took this aspect seriously. Ning Yi shook his head: "If there really is such a person, I'd really like to introduce you to them, but there really isn't... Well, it really is using softness to overcome strength. There are some very powerful sayings. Do you want to hear them?"

So that night, he used all kinds of sayings about Tai Chi Chuan to fool her again, things he had occasionally come into contact with, or things from TV. Of course, there were also things from business philosophy, some were made up, some were too mysterious, and the business organizational level was too practical. Ning Yi could have his own set of theories and write a paper on them without pressure, but it was of little significance to martial arts after all.

It might not be something that could be done in a day or two for Lu Hongti to reproduce Tai Chi. In the following two days, he poured in concepts like inch punch, Wing Chun, half-step collapsing fist, and Jeet Kune Do like stuffing a duck—Ning Yi hadn't practiced any of them, he only knew some fragments of them. For example, he knew a rough stance of how to stand in the two-character goat-clamping stance, and it was up to Lu Hongti to think about how to use it. He also spoke carelessly about the sayings of the short-range fighting of inch punch, for example, that there was a kind of fist that could be hit like this, and then this effect could be achieved. As for how it was achieved, who cares? He also talked about the importance of momentum in Japanese Kendo Bushido or the momentum of Muay Thai.

On the one hand, because there was no pressure to talk about these, and on the other hand, it wasn't just to show off for Ning Yi to talk about this. He was very interested in these things. Martial arts would develop for another thousand years, and in this thousand years there would be transformation, progress, and regression. In the end, combining the experience and mentality of a martial arts master, what would it become if he sent all the concepts of this thousand years over in one go? This was something he was very interested in.

He currently had three feelings about Lu Hongti: First, everyone is a friend; second, they are trading partners, and maybe he could ask for some other things in the future, which is an invisible resource; and third, this is an investment. He really wanted to see what would happen in the future. Of course, there was no need to think about everything so carefully, but since they were friends, he was also willing to provide her with some things he could provide, especially since these things were just a matter of lifting a finger for him.

Originally, he was planning to provide some things in exchange for martial arts secrets from Lu Hongti. Therefore, a few days ago, he had been thinking about and combining information, considering what would be suitable for her. It was like managing a company for her when there was nothing to do and providing various plans. He first had to understand what the inside story of this company was.

So, a few days later, Ning Yi said to Lu Hongti in the early morning: "Next, I want to discuss the situation in Mount Lüliang with you, discuss the annual situation of the Liao army's *dagugu* or invasion, discuss the situation of those villages in the mountains. I already have a rough outline, but the specifics are not entirely clear. Then... I will help you formulate a complete set of plans and programs, and plan some prospects and development blueprints for you, which will of course be combined with your local conditions and can be used."

Lu Hongti understood for a long time before looking at him: "I roughly understand what you're saying, but... you also understand this?"

Ning Yi smiled: "This is what I'm really good at. It should be helpful."