Chapter 16: Practice Methods Close to Actual Combat The next morning, Du Ruor got up at six o'clock as usual. He went to bed a little late last night. A few days ago, when he was at home, he could fall asleep as soon as he touched the bed at nine-thirty in the evening. But here, the small square outside was bustling at 9:30 in the evening. It was not until around 10 o'clock when the party dispersed that Du Ruo fell into a good sleep. Perhaps this is the price of economic development. Of course, this is not a big problem, at least it has little impact on Du Ruo. He sleeps well at night, so it doesn’t matter if he sleeps half an hour less. However, today Du Ruo did not practice martial arts in the yard after getting up as usual. Instead, he applied medicinal wine in the yard, put on his clothes, and walked towards the back of the village. Practicing martial arts is important, but martial arts are more important. This is definitely not something that can be achieved behind closed doors at home. Even if you have a lot of things at home to assist in practicing martial arts, there will not be as much progress as a real fight. Now Du Ruo has a very good grasp of the basics, and the extracted skills appear in his mind in the form of memories, allowing Du Ruo to master them to a very high level. However, just because the brain knows it doesn't mean the body can use it, so after practicing a few times, Du Ruo decided to use a more practical method to increase his experience. It’s a pity that the times are different now. In this era of peace and prosperity, if Du Ruo wants to fight in actual combat, he can only find another way. Du Ruo has already thought of a way to increase practical experience.
When Du Ruo first walked in the village, he could see tourists preparing to take a bus to Huangshan to climb the mountain. It was already late at around six o'clock, and if they didn't set off early, it would be difficult for these people to get down the mountain on the same day. Du Ruo also wanted to go to Huangshan, but he took a different route. He did not go up the mountain according to the tourist route, but started from a small path behind the village. These villages at the foot of Huangshan have always relied on the mountain for their livelihood. Before Huangshan became a scenic spot in 82, the villagers in these villages, in addition to farming, also went into the mountains to collect herbs and hunt, so naturally there were small paths leading up the mountain. It was only after Huangshan became a scenic spot in 82 that the villagers had more jobs to do and their lives became better and better. Except for some elderly people who would go into the mountains to collect herbs, others were unwilling to take the risk of going into the mountains. Huangshan covers an area of 1200 square kilometers, but the scenic area is only about 160 square kilometers. Other places are well protected and there are a large number of wild animals living and breeding in the mountains. Du Ruo is going to Huangshan today, but not to engage in actual combat with wild animals. After all, they are all protected animals, and Du Ruo, who has no worries about food and clothing, is unwilling to harm them. Gradually, Du Ruo saw fewer and fewer people, and the surrounding area began to become deserted. Du Ruo was walking on the mountain path, which was the only path leading into the mountains. However, few people walked on it normally, and it was now overgrown with weeds. Looking at the path in the middle of the dense jungle, Du Ruo smiled. He stretched his body to loosen up all the joints, then looked around. After confirming that there was no one there, Du Ruo carried Chaoyang on his back and quickly ran into the jungle. Du Ruo has already checked and found that there have been no tigers on the mountain in recent years, and people rarely talk about bears at the foot of Mount Huangshan. Without these two animals, Du Ruo was able to think of his current exercise method. Du Ruo ran quickly along the path. No one had walked on the path for many years, and it was surrounded by thorns and branches blocking the way from time to time. However, Du Ruo's pace did not slow down. He regarded these thorns and branches as imaginary enemies. His feet moved quickly, and his figure sometimes rose and sometimes fell. Sometimes he would use Xingyi Bengquan to hit tree branches, and use his palms to push away thorns. He used tiger form to jump over dead branches blocking the way, and used monkey form to rush through dense branches. He jumped with the natural gate crow step, and used low crotch step to jump out from a low area of 30 centimeters. As Du Ruo moved forward, the surrounding thorns and branches became more and more dense. Du Ruo treated these thorns and branches as false hostility to his moves and attacks, dodging, blocking and counterattacking while moving forward quickly. Du Ruo's body changed very quickly, sometimes like a clever monkey, sometimes like a fierce tiger, and sometimes like a sparrow. Practicing like this is actually just close to actual combat. After all, thorns and branches are dead, but people are alive. These branches are only equivalent to one move. Unlike fighting with people, there may be other changes later. And branches are just branches after all. Even if Du Ruo ran as fast as he could, he couldn't be as fast as a human attack. However, this is the most effective and most practical method Du Ruo can think of, especially the effect will be better when he goes down the mountain. Moreover, in Du Ruo's opinion, this kind of training is already very good. Unlike ordinary people, his physical fitness can be enhanced by adding some energy. Once his physical fitness is strong, if he encounters an enemy in the future, the opponent will only have one chance to attack. The twelve forms of Xingyiquan are indeed routines that are more practical, but if you practice them without knowing how to use them, then they are no different from the Tai Chi practiced by old men and women in the park. So now Du Ruo runs in the jungle to practice his own moves, simplify and refine the Xingyiquan routines, and only after you are familiar with them can you practice Xingyiquan in actual combat.
Of course... Du Ruo's doing this was not without cost. After running for only twenty minutes, Du Ruo stopped to rest. The way up the mountain was a great test of his leg skills and physical strength, and it also consumed a lot of energy. He could not be careless at all and had to stay fully focused throughout the whole process. But despite this, after twenty minutes of walking on the mountain road, except for Du Ruo's face which was relatively well protected, his clothes had been cut into pieces, and there were red marks on his arms and thighs, with blood faintly flowing out. After all, it was a dense forest. No matter how good Du Ruo was at hiding or how fast he could move like a dragon, he would still be hit by the thorns or caught by the thorns. Du Ruo could only reduce most of the damage and protect his face. Injuries to other parts of the body were inevitable. However, despite the great effort, the rewards were also gratifying. Du Ruo discovered that in just these short twenty minutes, his Xingyiquan skills and Natural Gate techniques had actually increased by two points of experience, in addition to which his physical attributes had also increased by points. This efficiency is twice as fast as when he practiced in the yard. Seeing the increase in experience and attribute points, Du Ruo took a short rest and adjusted himself, then ran towards the mountain again. This place is only the outskirts of Huangshan Mountain, and Duruo is only running on the low hills nearby. There are very few wild animals here. Although Duruo's running makes a lot of noise, only pheasants or birds are occasionally disturbed. Not to mention tourists, even the scenic spots are far away from Duruo. However, as Du Ruo went deeper and deeper, it became more and more difficult to run. Not only was the road up the mountain difficult to run, but also because no one had gone so far in a long time. The original path was almost completely covered. Du Ruo sometimes had to stop and carefully identify and find the way. (End of this chapter)
