Even if all else fails, he could simply use his mutated soul power to take out one or two of them. He figured that even if he couldn't finish off all four, taking out two or three wouldn't be a problem. That way, the remaining one or two would probably be scared away! Although that seemed a bit wasteful, while soul power was precious, sometimes life and dignity were more important…
"Kid... you're just unlucky!"
The thug with the buzz cut was the first to rush forward. After all, this was still a busy downtown area, and it was four against one, so although each of them was carrying a weapon, they did not intend to use it for the time being. The thug with the buzz cut directly grabbed Yang Hongtao's arms with both hands, preparing to first pin Yang Hongtao to the ground, and then break Yang Hongtao's arms and legs.
Yang Hongtao had inherited the memories of several masters skilled in combat and killing, so upon seeing the thug's posture, he immediately thought of at least six or seven ways to knock him to the ground.
However, this is also the reason why Huang Lianshu did not send out any real experts. After all, Huang Lianshu is more afraid of death than anyone else. The few people who protect him closely every day are the most powerful experts. As for those who are casually sent out by him to do things, they are more like his lackeys than his bodyguards!
Unfortunately, Yang Hongtao is now a giant in thought but a dwarf in action. Although he can clearly see the flaws in his enemy's skills and understands the best way to counter them, he is powerless and finds it difficult to launch any effective attacks.
But now that things have come to this, Yang Hongtao has no choice but to stop hesitating. Even though he knows he can't fight back with his bare hands and feet, he has no choice but to bite the bullet and raise his hand to fight back.
Speaking of which, although Yang Hongtao had quite a few fighting techniques in his memory, the only one he actually practiced after his rebirth was Niu-style Tai Chi.
These days, he has been practicing Niu-style Tai Chi twice a day, morning and evening, almost without fail. Having already been immersed in this martial art for decades, after a period of training, the harmony between the art and his body is naturally different from other fighting techniques that are only familiar from memory.
At this moment, upon feeling the threat of punches and kicks from the enemy, he naturally and casually unleashed the Niu-style Tai Chi he had practiced so well.
Pipa Hands... This is an extremely difficult move in Niu-style Tai Chi, requiring an abnormal level of finger flexibility. When the fingertips tremble, they must create illusory shadows, as free and easy as plucking a pipa.
Yang Hongtao's finger flexibility is slightly worse now, but he has the advantage of extremely rich experience from his memory. With a tremor of his fingers, it is as if large and small pearls are falling on a jade plate, and he quickly flicks his fingers from top to bottom on the short-haired man's outstretched arms.
In an instant... the crew-cut man felt a sudden weakness in the large and small tendons of both arms, and he could no longer muster any strength. His previously aggressive momentum immediately faltered!
"There's a chance..."
Although Yang Hongtao knew that Niu-style Tai Chi was very effective for strengthening the body, he always doubted whether this seemingly soft style of boxing really had any offensive power. But when he saw that his casual move actually had some effect, he was immediately invigorated. Without saying a word, he changed his hand movements, switching from the pipa hand to the cloud hand stance.
Yang Hongtao waved his two large hands softly, as if without any strength, and gently brushed them towards the man with the crew cut.
Surprisingly, although Yang Hongtao's hands seemed not to have even touched Xiaopingtou's clothes, Xiaopingtou was like a lone boat caught in a stormy sea. He stumbled and swayed back and forth as Yang Hongtao's hands moved, and no matter how hard he tried, he could not escape the area covered by Yang Hongtao's hands.
The other three stared wide-eyed at the sight, their eyes wide with disbelief.
The reason was simple... because the man with the crew cut was a Tai Chi master, apparently practicing Chen-style Tai Chi. Although his skill wasn't perfect, it was still far superior to ordinary fancy moves. He had a slight reputation among Huang Lianshu's lackeys. However, today, this so-called Tai Chi master encountered another person who was clearly also a Tai Chi practitioner, and he was like a lamb running into a pack of wolves. He couldn't even escape, let alone fight back. How could this outcome not terrify the three men?
Volume 1 The Rebirth of a Prodigy Chapter 84 The Niu Family Tai Chi is indeed amazing
After making his move, he saw that the short-haired man was completely helpless against his changing techniques, like a toddler being toyed with by an adult.
Yang Hongtao was both surprised and delighted. Although he had long known that Niu-style Tai Chi was extraordinary, he never expected it to be so powerful.
In Yang Hongtao's perception, he didn't seem to exert much force; the short-haired man in front of him was like a lump of dough, which he could knead and manipulate at will.
In fact, Yang Hongtao's body didn't have much power to use, which is why he never had any confidence in his hand-to-hand combat ability.
He felt that with his small frame, even if these four strong men stood there motionless waiting for him to attack, he probably wouldn't be able to do much damage to them even if he used all his strength.
However, now that Yang Hongtao has fully demonstrated the essence of Niu-style Tai Chi, he has a deeper understanding of what it means to "use someone else's strength against them" and "use four ounces to deflect a thousand pounds".
In fact, Yang Hongtao's physical exertion during the entire fight was very limited, basically the same as the physical exertion he expended when practicing boxing alone every day.
Every move he made utilized the momentum of his opponent's counterattack, subtly guiding the opponent's strength and then turning it back on the opponent. This allowed him to effortlessly and completely control the crew-cut man.
Otherwise, if that crew-cut guy had really stood there without moving or resisting and let Yang Hongtao hit him, Yang Hongtao would probably have been exhausted and out of breath, and might not have achieved the same effect.
After two moves, Yang Hongtao put the Niu-style Tai Chi Chuan into actual combat and felt the profoundness of this style of boxing even more. In this simple practice, he also gained a deeper understanding of the secret of using the opponent's force against them.
If Yang Hongtao could only borrow three-tenths of the opponent's strength at the beginning, he can now borrow a full five-tenths.
In this way, the Cloud Hands move became even easier to execute. The palms continued to strike out continuously like butterflies flitting among flowers, causing the flat-topped man trapped in the palms to spin faster and faster, just like a rapidly spinning top.
When the buzz cut reached its spinning limit, Yang Hongtao suddenly swung his hands in the opposite direction, instantly transforming the Cloud Hands stance into a Double Folding Barrel stance. With his hands embracing the well railing, he suddenly shouted, "Stop!"
The rapid spinning of the short-haired man stopped abruptly, and at the same time, a series of "crack, crack" sounds rang out...
Yang Hongtao used the power generated by the crew cut's body rotation to accumulate power, and when the crew cut spun at its maximum speed, he suddenly reversed the direction of the power. As a result, the poor crew cut's limbs were broken into more than ten pieces under the huge reaction force. His hands and feet were twisted together like a pretzel in an instant. The crew cut groaned in pain, his face turned pale, and he fainted.
The other three thugs, who were standing right next to her, were completely stunned. Even Xin Yue, who had just finished making a call to the police, was so shocked that she didn't even realize that her phone had fallen to the ground.
Pedestrians who inadvertently witnessed this scene were even more astonished, as if frozen in place by Sun Wukong's magic, remaining in the posture of walking with their legs raised, forgetting to walk...
Yang Hongtao, quite unlike a master, took a few deep breaths to barely suppress his excitement.
Wow! This Niu-style Tai Chi is absolutely amazing!
Like most boys, Yang Hongtao dreamed of becoming a martial arts master when he was young, hoping that one day he could have amazing martial arts skills like the martial arts masters in kung fu movies.
They can act like chivalrous heroes in martial arts novels, upholding justice and eliminating evil.
It wasn't until I grew up and was constantly eroded by the burdens of life and the realities of society that I gradually forgot my childhood fantasies.
But now... Yang Hongtao has discovered that he actually seems to be a martial arts master, and he seems to be a very, very awesome martial arts master!
However, when Yang Hongtao recalled the ruthless bandit who had committed more than a dozen murders and whose memories he had obtained from Niu-style Tai Chi, he always felt that something was not quite right!
Before Yang Hongtao got into trouble, that ruthless bandit was already very famous. It is said that he was originally a butcher in a small town who made a living by slaughtering pigs. Later, his business grew so big that he opened a slaughterhouse.
For some unknown reason, he offended the head of a local tax office. As a result, the tax office staff kept coming down to audit his accounts under various pretexts every few days, making it impossible for him to do business. In a fit of rage, the butcher tucked a pig-slaughtering knife into his waistband and stormed into the tax office alone, killing six people in a row.
Not content with killing the people at the tax office, this ruthless man went back home and hacked his wife and father-in-law to death. He then went to his neighbor's house and slaughtered the entire family of four before fleeing before the police arrived.
If this butcher had only killed one or two people, it wouldn't have been difficult for him to escape capture given his alertness. But he went too far, killing twelve people in one go, which shocked the whole country. He was classified as an extremely dangerous individual by the public security department, which immediately mobilized more than half of the province's police force and even coordinated with two special forces units of the local garrison to assist in a massive manhunt across the province. Finally, after three days, the butcher was captured. During this time, the butcher also murdered two innocent villagers.
However, it was later heard that the butcher escaped again while being escorted to court by the armed police, and remained missing for more than half a year. This frightened many people who knew the butcher, especially those who had had some minor conflicts with him, and many even left their homes to avoid retaliation from the butcher.
Anyway, until Yang Hongtao's accident, there was no news of the butcher. Instead, after Yang Hongtao died, he turned into a wisp of soul hidden in a bullet, and saw the butcher at the execution ground and devoured the butcher's remnant soul.
Yang Hongtao found it hard to believe that this butcher, who had spent his entire life slaughtering pigs in the town, was actually a hidden martial arts master.
Moreover, after inheriting the butcher's memories, Yang Hongtao was able to find some scenes of actual combat in those fragmented memories. However, he always felt that although the butcher's Niu-style Tai Chi was very profound and mysterious, he could not connect it with the power he had just displayed.
However, Yang Hongtao's Niu-style Tai Chi Chuan was entirely derived from the butcher's memories. Theoretically speaking, no matter how well he practiced the technique or how profound his understanding of it was, it was impossible for him to surpass the butcher in such a short period of time! So what was the reason that allowed Yang Hongtao to bring out such a magical and powerful effect from a set of techniques that might have originally been just decent?
Yang Hongtao became more and more puzzled as he thought about it, and couldn't help but tilt his head and show a blank expression.
At this moment, Huang Lianshu's three henchmen, who had just been completely stunned by Yang Hongtao's mysterious fist technique, finally came to their senses. After exchanging glances, they suddenly drew their weapons at the same time, let out a shout, and charged towards Yang Hongtao from three different angles...
Volume 1 The Rebirth of a Prodigy Chapter 85: Weak When Facing the Weak
These three thugs were all highly skilled fighters that Huang Lianshu had recruited from various places over the years. One of them had even won a provincial martial arts championship. They were all quite capable.
However, when they witnessed their companions being brutally beaten and had their limbs broken right before their eyes, they couldn't help but feel a chill run down their spines. They knew that their skill level was only about the same as Xiaopingtou's, and even if they were slightly better, they certainly wouldn't be much stronger.
If they were to spar with each other, it might take half an hour to determine a winner.
The crew-cut guy was practically powerless against Yang Hongtao, which meant that if the rest of them went up against him, they would just be easy prey.
Although they were already feeling fear, the thought of Huang Lianshu's ruthlessness made them even more terrified.
Huang Lianshu was very generous to his capable subordinates. As long as you were capable and worked for him wholeheartedly, he would reward you with money and beautiful women without hesitation. However, if you did not put in the effort and dealt with the tasks he assigned carelessly, he would devour you whole, skin and bones.
So even though the three thugs were clearly unsure of themselves, they still drew their weapons without hesitation and charged forward.
The man in front used a double-headed cone, the man who attacked from behind Yang Hongtao used a nunchaku, and the man who pounced from the right pulled a small chain hammer from his waist.
These three thugs had all practiced martial arts since childhood. Although their kung fu skills weren't very good, each of them had learned a unique weapon. Among them, the nunchaku became known to many people because of Bruce Lee. The other two weapons, the double-headed cone and the chain hammer, were things that most people had never seen in their entire lives.
Yang Hongtao had never seen them before, and even nunchucks were a real thing he had never seen before; all he had seen before were props in movies.
However, having just learned the profound mysteries of Niu-style Tai Chi, he showed no fear whatsoever in the face of these three seemingly extraordinary weapons and the menacing attacks of three fierce and burly thugs.
The essence of Niu-style Tai Chi is to use the opponent's force against them. In other words, it is to use the opponent's own force to strike the opponent. The stronger the opponent's attack, the greater the force that Yang Hongtao can borrow. And this attack, whether it comes from the opponent's fists and feet or from the opponent's weapon, is not very different.
Of course... this is on the premise that Yang Hongtao can perfectly control the power of the opponent's attack, otherwise he can easily be injured by the opponent's weapon.
If Yang Hongtao could utilize the profound principles of Tai Chi to borrow ten parts of the enemy's strength, then even if he directly touched the enemy's blade with his own flesh and blood, he would not be harmed in the slightest.
However, in reality, Yang Hongtao can only borrow about five-tenths of his opponent's strength at most, so he doesn't dare to directly use his hands to block the sharpness of the enemy's weapon.
The thug wielding the chain hammer charged the fastest, and his weapon had the longest attack range, so he was the first to suffer a terrible fate. Just as the iron ball, the size of a baby's fist, was about to smash into Yang Hongtao's face, Yang Hongtao simply raised his hand and lightly brushed the side of the hammerhead. The hammerhead immediately paused in mid-air, stopping less than three centimeters from Yang Hongtao's nose, and then began to spin wildly at high speed.
The moment the hammer head rotated, the iron chain connected to it was also affected and began to rotate in sync. The other end of the chain was looped around the thug's wrist, causing the poor thug's entire arm to twist and turn.
"Buzz—" The force of the hammer's rotation was momentarily disrupted by the thug's pull, and then the chain hammer began to dance wildly in the air like a startled venomous snake. It swung horizontally and got entangled with the nunchucks that the man who had just attacked Yang Hongtao from behind had just swung.
Seeing this, the guy wielding nunchucks panicked and hurriedly pulled the nunchucks towards his chest. Unexpectedly, the hammerhead, which was still spinning, was deflected by his pull and slammed heavily onto his forehead with a "crack".
"Ouch—" The two thugs screamed one after the other, then got tangled together by the out-of-control chain hammer and fell to the ground.
At this moment, Yang Hongtao had already stepped forward, his chest puffed out, to meet the double-headed spike thrust out by the thug in front of him.
"ah--"
The thug, who had been gritting his teeth and wishing he could stab Yang Hongtao through the heart, was startled when he suddenly saw Yang Hongtao actually charging towards his spike. He gasped in surprise at Yang Hongtao's illogical action and instinctively withdrew his hand.
When he looked up again and saw the gruesome sight of his two companions with bloodied heads and twisted arms, he lost all courage and no longer had the heart to fight. He gripped the double-headed dagger tightly in his hand, but refused to thrust it forward no matter what.
Yang Hongtao's sudden step, seemingly risking his life, was actually an extremely exquisite move in Niu-style Tai Chi, "Advancing Lifting the Tripod," which is meant to launch a surprise close-range attack under the enemy's frontal assault. On the surface, he charged straight at the tip of the opponent's weapon, but his footwork was unusually unpredictable. In the blink of an eye, he had already brushed past the enemy's weapon with lightning speed. Then, he slightly lowered his body and rested his shoulder on the back of the attacker's arm.
This advanced stance, "Lifting the Tripod," is inspired by the imposing aura of Xiang Yu, the King of Chu. However, when it comes to the essence of the fist, it still lies in using the opponent's force against them and deflecting a thousand pounds with four ounces of force.
Under normal circumstances, Yang Hongtao could have used the full force of the thug's thrust to reverse the direction of the attack with his fist intent, sending the opponent flying backward.
However, to Yang Hongtao's surprise, the thug wielding the double-headed cone suddenly became terrified at the crucial moment, stopped attacking Yang Hongtao, and refused to exert any more strength to attack him.
Yang Hongtao's strategy was to use the opponent's force against them, but since the opponent wasn't using any force, how could he borrow any strength? Yang Hongtao himself didn't have much strength to use, so when he slammed his shoulder into the thug, although the angle was perfect, it only made the thug's body tremble slightly, without achieving any effect of injuring the enemy.
Both men were stunned. The thug was wondering why his enemy, who had been so powerful just moments before, was now completely unaffected by his attack, feeling weak and powerless. Yang Hongtao, on the other hand, finally realized the most fatal weakness of the Niu-style Tai Chi: it becomes stronger when facing a strong opponent and weaker when facing a weak one. If the enemy refuses to fight back, he is helpless against them!
Volume 1 The Rebirth of a Prodigy Chapter 86: Searching for Teeth on the Ground
It seems that while using skill to overcome force can be very effective most of the time, such simple skill is ultimately not the best approach. For example, encountering an enemy that adopts a passive and non-resistant policy is quite frustrating.
Moreover, Yang Hongtao can only borrow five-tenths of the opponent's strength through Niu-style Tai Chi, and a portion of that strength must be used to counterattack the enemy. Therefore, at least for now, he is not able to completely negate the opponent's attack power.
However, although these thugs had practiced martial arts for a few days, they were not particularly powerful. Their fists, feet, and weapons were not particularly strong. Even if a fraction of their power was not neutralized and was applied to Yang Hongtao, it would not cause him any harm.
However, if Yang Hongtao were to encounter a true master in the future who could kill him even with just half a bit of his strength, it would be extremely dangerous... Therefore, although Niu-style Tai Chi is indeed very powerful, if Yang Hongtao thinks that he can be invincible with such a wonderful boxing style, then he is probably not far from death!
Yang Hongtao then used a forward thrust and a powerful strike, ramming his shoulder into the thug's armpit. Instead of sending the man flying, the impact sent a jolt of numbness through half of his arm, causing him to groan in pain.
He stumbled and almost fell to the ground.
The cowardly thug's eyes flashed with a hint of ferocity upon seeing this. He felt that the person in front of him didn't seem that powerful. If he were to suddenly flick his wrist and sweep with the end of the double-headed spike... he might be able to cut a gash in the man's back!