I practice martial arts by adding skill points in modern city
Chapter 87: 【080】Hard Force and Soft Force

Chapter 87: 【080】Hard Force and Soft Force

Dong County Hospital, Intensive Care Unit.

The monk lay motionless on the bed with a tube in his mouth, only the numbers jumping on the ventilator beside him proving that he was still alive.

Among the battles that night, the monk was the most seriously injured, and the intestines flowing out from the wound in his abdomen caused him to lose too much blood. If it weren’t for Qin Tong leading people up the mountain in time that night, the monk’s life would have been lost there.

Qin Tong stood beside the hospital bed, his expression a mix of restraint and anger. The monk had stayed in Dong County for many years and was considered a very good friend of his. Being injured to such an extent this time, whether as a friend or from a police perspective, Qin Tong found it intolerable.

"Don’t worry, Old Guo, the mastermind behind this group must still be on the island. I will definitely drag them out and give you justice," Qin Tong said with determination.

...

When sent to the hospital, Wang Longhu’s clothes were already tattered and unwearable, so when he was discharged, he couldn’t find a replacement outfit and came to Ye Yuanpei’s place wearing hospital attire.

Upon opening the door and seeing Wang Longhu’s astonishing outfit, Ye Yuanpei and Lin Haitao were both very shocked.

"Have you been hospitalized? What illness?" Lin Haitao couldn’t help but ask.

"Oh, don’t mention it, just a minor injury, it’s nothing," Wang Longhu waved his hand, then put on slippers and walked inside.

Only then did he notice that there were other people in the room, a young man in auxiliary police uniform sitting on the sofa, focused entirely on petting a cat.

"Who is this?" Seeing the auxiliary police officer, Wang Longhu suddenly felt a familiar sensation but couldn’t recall the name, so he turned to Ye Yuanpei for an introduction.

"Don’t you recognize him? He used to hang out with us a lot in middle school," Ye Yuanpei said with a smile.

"Could it be... Chen Qiang?" Wang Longhu asked tentatively.

The young man petting the cat looked up and smiled, "Hello Wang Longhu, if it weren’t for meeting Ye Yuanpei, I wouldn’t have known you returned from Hang City."

"Hello, hello," Wang Longhu quickly greeted.

Speaking of Chen Qiang, he was also the friend who played with them most often during middle school.

But after graduating middle school, Chen Qiang went out to make a living instead of continuing education, so they lost contact until their unexpected reunion today.

For the youth from the small island, if they can’t make it outside, returning to Dong County to live a stable life seems to be the final destination.

"You’re a police officer now, in what capacity?" Wang Longhu asked curiously, sitting on the sofa.

Chen Qiang shook his head: "Just an auxiliary officer, currently helping at the checkpoint near the cross-sea embankment. It was quite busy before, but recently with Typhoon Coral coming, vehicles aren’t allowed on the cross-sea embankment, making work much easier at our post. Today is my off day, came to have a drink."

Old classmates gathered together, everyone was very happy. As the sky darkened, Ye Yuanpei cooked a grand meal and even brought out his treasured Tiger Bone Wine.

Normally, he wouldn’t bring out this wine for a meal, but Wang Longhu had helped him greatly last time by saving someone, so good things must be shared as hospitality; otherwise, it wouldn’t be fair.

After a few drinks, Wang Longhu’s body suddenly felt warm. The medicinal power of the Tiger Bone Wine spread through his body, feeling extremely comfortable.

"Longhu, let me add you on WeChat. We’re all in Dong County, if you need help, you can find me," Chen Qiang said, taking out his phone.

Even knowing Chen Qiang’s words were just polite, Wang Longhu naturally wouldn’t refuse and took out his phone to exchange WeChat with Chen Qiang.

A few hours passed.

1:30 AM.

"Drink! Keep drinking! Let’s see who goes down first!"

"Ugh... ugh... ugh..."

With a constitution now at 2.0, Wang Longhu’s resistance to alcohol had naturally become very high. Tonight, he drank 1.2 kilograms of Tiger Bone Wine and besides being flushed faced, felt no other effects.

Wang Longhu looked at the three people already lying on the table, incoherent and talking nonsense, and sneered contemptuously, pouring himself a cup of Tiger Bone Wine before heading to the balcony.

The apartment rented by Ye Yuanpei was on a high floor, and the night breeze instantly cooled the forehead, clearing the mind considerably.

Downing the strong drink in one gulp, Wang Longhu stood in the San Ti stance, quietly feeling the flow of energy within his body.

The dangerous battle this time had deepened Wang Longhu’s understanding of the Dark Force.

Merely using energy to attack meridians complemented with Ming Jin to defeat enemies is only a basic level of Dark Force skill, the effect merely embellishes and is not a qualitative change.

Had Wang Longhu not truly had the edge of reaching the human limit of 2.0 in constitution, he could never have had so much stamina to be able to fight like a War God, killing over a dozen martial artists before battling Nalan Lei for dozens of rounds.

This was entirely due to Wang Longhu’s unusual constitution, unrelated to having practiced Dark Force.

"The book ’Understanding Xingyi Boxing’ by Guo Yunshen states that Xingyi Boxing has three layers of principles, three steps of skill, and three types of practice, among which the three steps are Bone Transformation, Bone Transformation, Bone Marrow Transformation, each corresponding to Ming Jin, Dark Force, Huajin,

The initial refinement of energy transforms into Qi, filling the body, indeed with the effect of refining bones. When reaching the Dark Force stage, it targets the tendons. But how exactly are the tendons refined?"

Standing in the San Ti stance, Wang Longhu questioned himself, pondering the path beyond Dark Force.

The monk had told him, Dark Force has the division of hard force and soft force, achieving a balance of hardness and softness is the pinnacle of Dark Force.

Hard force is the power to shatter stones and break tablets, which Wang Longhu had already reached.

But the concept of soft force puzzled Wang Longhu, with no experts in Dark Force around him to explain in detail what soft force was, everything relied on Wang Longhu’s own exploration.

Running Qi to circulate the grand circulation in the body, Wang Longhu closed his eyes tightly, calmly feeling internal changes.

Bang!

Suddenly, a thunderbolt exploded in the night sky, startling Wang Longhu and causing his body to tremble, buzzing from inside out.

Wang Longhu abruptly opened his eyes, sensing physical changes; they came quickly and went quickly. Had Wang Longhu not been wholly focused on feeling the body, he would’ve missed the oddity post-thunderbolt.

Just now, as the thunder struck, startled, his bones unknowingly vibrated in a certain rhythm in sync with the thunder boom,

During this vibration, a trace of Qi permeated into his five internal organs, like a stream of sweet spring water, flushing his insides, something previously impossible.

The human body can be viewed as outer world and inner world, two different realms, the limbs and trunk as outer world, where Qi circulated daily.

And the five internal organs as the inner world, where Qi couldn’t venture, causing Wang Longhu to subconsciously believe it as a sure thing.

But just now, though there’s only an insignificant trace of Qi permeating the inner world, to Wang Longhu, this change is akin to opening a new world door.

Perhaps, by a lucky chance, he finally stumbled upon what soft force truly means.