The Nine Cauldrons

Translator: Iamgt  Editor: Lucas

Chapter 9: Godly Tiger Form Technique

‘When I was seven years old, I was undergoing hellish training at the Siberian Training Camp. At that time, my body had not yet developed so that kind of oppressive training greatly affected my body. Although I studied Internal Martial Arts under my mentor, since my body was lacking too much, I didn’t have that great a potential. Even though I had reached the limit of Internal Martial Arts as well as my physical limit, my body’s fitness was still a lot weaker than Dolgoterov’s and the others.

Unable to step into the Grandmaster Realm, people could only strive for their physical limits at most, unable to advance any further.

There was a limit to training.

Like some athletes, in order to achieve good results, they trained desperately every day to win medals and ranks. When they were young, they won many competitions. However, many of them broke down when they reached their mid-thirties.

Of course, the level of training athletes did, did not count as extreme.

For example, some Muay Thai athletes were very crazy; like a machine. When they were twenty years old they were very scary, but many of them could not live beyond the age of forty. Even if they were able to live longer, they might have to lean on a walking stick! Because their potentials had been squeezed too much, so much that even their vitality was consumed.

Yet, Internal Martial Arts was different!

China’s Internal Martial Arts was very magical because the first purpose was not killing, but healthiness.

Healthiness came before killing.

A Muay Thai master would break down around the age of forty. However, for a professional in Internal Martial Arts, forty years old was exactly their pinnacle moment. Especially for an Internal Martial Arts Grandmaster; even at the age of eighty or ninety, they would still possess terrifying strength. Any Internal Martial Arts Grandmaster could live for more than a hundred years if he did not die in a fight.

Hence, one can easily see the effects of Internal Martial Arts’ healthiness.

Of course, in the world there was a long history of Ancient Indian Yoga, which also had a magical effect. Indian Yoga was not comparable to Internal Martial Arts as Internal Martial Arts were of a higher degree of difficulty, but Indian Yoga was on a lower level so there were more practitioners of Ancient Indian Yoga. Of course, the vast majority of SS-Rank practitioners all over the world, in other words the masters, whose level was at the Grandmaster Realm practiced Internal Martial Arts.

“Once you reach the Grandmaster Realm, you can transcend humanity’s physical limits.” Teng Qingshan couldn’t help but smile.

The limit of Internal Martial Arts was being able to completely control every muscle.

As for the Grandmaster Realm, the limit was being able to control and use all the energy of one’s muscles, veins and bones, throughout one’s entire body. That was the reason why a Grandmaster professional could send out a stronger fist despite having the same body as others.

“Steady, step by step. Practicing the ‘Three Postures’, ‘Five Elemental Fists’, and ‘Twelve Forms’ everyday will gradually strengthen the bones, improve the veins’ toughness and strengthen the muscles’ density, but this process is too slow.” Teng Qingshan sighed loudly, “Fortunately, my mentor taught me the strongest secret skill of Xing Yi Martial Arts named ‘Godly Tiger Form Technique’.”

There were various kinds of Internal Martial Arts in China. Besides the three major Internal Martial Arts, there were the Eight Trigram Palm, Five Elemental Fist Art, Hong Ga, Tong Bei Fist Art, Yong Chun Fist Art and many other types of martial arts.

But why could Xing Yi Martial Art , Eight Trigram Palm, and Taichi be called “The three major Internal Martial Arts” while other kinds of martial arts were at a lower level?

Was it because the other kinds of martial arts could not reach the Grandmaster Realm? Not really, other sects had also produced Grandmasters, and they had many practitioners.

The real difference was the difference between the Grandmasters!

The Grandmasters of the three major Internal Martial Arts were normally stronger than other Internal Martial Arts’s Grandmasters! In other Internal Martial Arts, after reaching Grandmaster Realm, you had to improve yourself step by step through practice. However, each sect of “The Three Major Internal Martial Arts” had their own particular secret skill, which could only be learned after reaching the Grandmaster Realm!

The secret skills could improve the ability of a master quickly and could only be practiced by those who reached the Grandmaster Realm.

They were Xing Yi Martial Arts’ secret skill «Godly Tiger Form Technique», Taichi’s secret skill «Boulder of the Black Tortoise» and Eight Trigram Palm’s secret skill «Dragoncarp Ascension».

«Godly Tiger Form Technique» was passed down by the Grandmaster of Xing Yi Martial Arts, Ji Jike, during the Ming Dynasty. Legend say that Grandmaster Ji Jike fostered a tiger and even slept with it. After a long period of observation, at the age of one hundred, he finally created this secret skill which surpassed the ancients and amazed his contemporaries.

When speaking of bones, tiger bones were the most famous. Tiger bone liquor nourished humans the most. Through this, one could see the power of tiger bones.

Practicing the «Godly Tiger Form Technique» was like becoming a tiger. It improved the toughness and density of one’s bones and muscles.

To practice the «Godly Tiger Form Technique», one had to reach the Grandmaster Realm and had to master the tiger form of the twelve forms. This way, one may be able to practice the «Godly Tiger Form Technique». This set of secret skills could only be learned by the core disciple of the Xing Yi Martial Arts sect.

“Let’s try it first.”

Teng Qingshan suddenly bent his body down and laid on the ground like a tiger in human form. Despite having laid on the ground, only his hands and legs touched the ground while his other body parts were not even touching the ground. The muscles in his body could not even tremble a little, he also needed to control his breathing and inner strength.

Sometimes, his back would arch slightly and sometimes bend down. His spine was like a great dragon, rising and flying low.

During the raising and lowering process of the spine, the muscles in his hands and feet were also moving.

The motions of the breathing and internal force must cooperate perfectly with the movements of the body.

The strength spread from the phalanges of the ten fingers to the arm bones, transmitting from one bone to another, spreading throughout the whole body. His breathing caused the movement of his organs. The powerful energy of the inner strength made his bones and muscles quiver. Teng Qingshan constantly made adjustments, trying his best to attain the state that was recorded in the «Godly Tiger Form Technique».

The movements seemed easy, but they were actually extremely complicated!

It was even harder than practicing the entire ‘Twelve Forms of Xing Yi.’ In regards to the details, one breathing error would lead to a wrong result, and a tiny mistake in controlling the inner strength would also lead to an erroneous result.

Countless experiments and adjustments would be performed!

The movement of the body, the function of the breathing and inner strength, the control of the muscles and bones……..

Through the cooperation of many components, adjusting again and again until it became perfect.

“Whew Whew” Teng Qingshan’s whole body actually began to emit sounds similar to the snores of a tiger. They were not really snoring, but the sound of the joints quivering and knocking against each other.

“A very marvelous feeling.”

Teng Qingshan felt as if he had transformed into a tiger that was lying down to sleep. At the beginning, he still needed to labor and toil with his mind and body, purposely controlling all of the muscles, bones, breathing, inner strength, etcetera. However, now he could naturally enter into that state.

His whole body felt numb and his bones felt itchy.

This was the feeling. As he started training himself, the day passed unknowingly.

“Hai.” Teng Qingshan got up. As he felt the strength within his whole body, his eyes brightened involuntarily, “I did not expect that a day of practice would have such great improvements. My physical fitness has improved by at least ten or twenty percent.” Teng Qingshan could distinctly feel the amount of improvement.

He also knew that usually, when one just began to practice, the improvements would be the most obvious. The longer one continued practicing, the lower the amount of the improvement would become over time.

“The Godly Tiger Form Technique created by Ji Jike is indeed marvelous. The movements seem simple, but are actually extremely complex. It was merely based on the movements of a slumbering tiger, but it is ten to a hundred times more complicated than the tiger form of the twelve forms. The figure and movement, the cooperation of breathing, the performance of the inner strength, the control of one’s muscles and bones, everything. I do not know how long Ji Jike experimented to be able to create this secret skill.”

Teng Qingshan remarked with a tinge of emotion.

Although no one knew who the first generation creator of Xing Yi Martial Arts was for certain, Ji Jike was the first generation grandmaster with the highest position in the history of Xing Yi Martial Arts. Therefore, many disciples of Xing Yi sect called him ‘Martial Ancestor Ji’

As days passed by, Teng Qingshan completely immersed himself in the Godly Tiger Form Technique. His physical fitness also improved with a shocking speed. This shocking improving speed also caused Teng Qingshan’s admiration for Martial Ancestor Ji to gradually increase.

***

Soon, half a month passed.

In this half month of practicing the Godly Tiger Form Technique, Teng Qingshan’s physical fitness improved from ten to twenty percent at first, but by the fifteenth day, the amount of improvement had decreased to the point where it was barely noticeable. However, in comparison to fifteen days ago, Teng Qingshan’s physical fitness could be said to have improved by twice as much during these fifteen days. Although his physical fitness only improved by twice as much as before, his real strength and ability improved by far more.

“I have been immersed in practicing Godly Tiger Form Technique and forgot to look for my brother Qing He.” Teng Qingshan couldn’t help but smile. In fact, at the time he escaped into China, Teng Qingshan was worried about dying in the hands of “Sharpshooter” and “Body Crusher”. Thus, he desperately desired to meet his brother “Qing He” before the fight.

Whereas now…

After reaching the Grandmaster Realm, Teng Qingshan, who had begun practicing Godly Tiger Form Technique, could be considered as someone standing at the pinnacle of the world. Compared to his strength before the breakthrough, his strength and ability were now more than ten times stronger.

Of course, Teng Qingshan did not have a sense of urgency, therefore he did not search for his brother in a hurry.

“I should find out about the situation outside first.” Teng Qingshan went into his room, turned on the computer and connected it to the network. He then contacted ‘Elena’ the same way as last time.

“Elena!” Teng Qingshan typed on the keyboard.

A moment later.

“Ah, Wolf. You finally contacted me! It’s been a month, I was worried to death about you.” From far away in London, England, Elena sat barefooted before her computer, swinging her white-skinned feet around as she typed and vented her dissatisfaction.

“I was recuperating.” Teng Qingshan smiled as he hit the keyboard.

“Well, have you recovered?” Elena asked worriedly. “The injuries have completely healed. By the way, how is the situation outside?” Teng Qingshan inquired.

An anxious expression crept upon Elena’s face as she pondered for a moment before she began typing on the keyboard: “Wolf, you are very powerful. You actually killed Sun Ze and Dolgoterov. Now you are ranked first among the list of fifty S-Rank hitmen. You are now called the ‘quasi-SS-Rank’ hitman. Are you feeling proud of yourself? However, I must to tell you some terrible news.”

“Say it.” Teng Qingshan knitted his eyebrows.

“It might be due to the rage of the Redmayne family, or the huge improvement of your ability that made the Redmayne family worried that you will seek revenge. Anyway, Redmayne paid a huge price to request the world’s strongest organization “God Kingdom” to step in. I guess that ‘Vishnu’ and ‘Shiva,’ two of the God Kingdom’s three giants, must have arrived in China by now. They should be searching for you.”

Teng Qingshan’s expression finally changed.

“Two of God Kingdom’s three giants”? Despite the improvement of his strength, Teng Qingshan also couldn’t help but feel shocked.

The three giants of the God Kingdom were claimed to be Gods! Of course, all of them were SS-Class hitmen; they were absolutely the masters of the Grandmaster Realm. Moreover, the three giants of God Kingdom had long since entered the Grandmaster Realm. A person who had entered the Grandmaster Realm years ago and a person who had just entered the Grandmaster Realm were very different.

Although Teng Qingshan’s body had doubled in strength due to the practice of the Godly Tiger Form Technique, which could take almost a lifetime to achieve for a normal Grandmaster, his enemies were two of the three giants, the invincible legends of the Underground World. Over the years, no one had been able to kill any one of them.

“This time, the Redmayne family actually requested for them to act and it was even two of them coming here together to deal with me. This is really a great honor! “ Although Teng Qingshan felt the pressure, an urge to battle also rose up from the depths of his heart.

Teng Qingshan did not know that the reason for God Kingdom to sent two of the three giants to China was because they were worried that Teng Qingshan might be a disciple of a sect located within China. If the Xing Yi sect sent Grandmasters to help Teng Qingshan during the fight, it would become incredible dangerous for the God Kingdom’s three giants. Therefore, they sent a team of two to kill Teng Qingshan.

If the two combined forces, they could attack together as they advanced and defend one another whenever they retreated. It would mean adding another level of security.

Through all the missions “God Kingdom” had accepted, there had never been a failure.