014 Skill Upgrades and the Twelve Forms of Xingyi Fist

After completing another session of the Single Weight Three-Body Posture, this time persisting until two minutes and fifty-five seconds, Du Ruo was just a breath away from the three-minute mark. He felt no need to force his progress—such haste would do more harm than good, and might even cause injury.

As Du Ruo withdrew from the stance, he saw the attribute panel before his eyes suddenly flicker. The experience bar, once at 99 out of 100, shifted, and a new option appeared at the bottom of the panel. At the same time, additional memories surfaced in his mind.

Name: Du Ruo
Age: 31
Essence: 8.39
Qi: 8.41
Spirit: 8.73
Attribute Points: 0.01
Skills: Xingyi Boxing LV1 (0/200)

A lottery opportunity has been obtained. Would you like to draw a new skill?

“Draw a new skill!”

For the time being, Du Ruo ignored the new memories in his mind and silently selected to draw a skill.

Skills: Xingyi Boxing LV1 (0/200)
Natural School Technique LV0 (0/100)

A new skill immediately appeared on Du Ruo’s panel.

“Natural School? Is this the Natural School created by the modern martial arts grandmaster Du Xinwu?”

The sight of the words 'Natural School' instantly brought to Du Ruo’s mind the name of a renowned figure. Over the past weeks, his leisure time hadn’t been spent solely watching short videos of pretty girls; he had also familiarized himself with many martial artists and schools.

Many may not be well acquainted with Du Xinwu, but he had once served as a bodyguard for Mr. Sun, earning widespread recognition as the premier bodyguard of his time—a testament to his formidable prowess.

Du Ruo set aside further practice for now, settled into a nearby lounge chair, and began to sift through the memories he had just acquired.

First, regarding Xingyi Boxing—upon leveling up, memories of the Twelve Animal Forms immediately surfaced in Du Ruo’s mind.

The Twelve Animal Forms consist of the Dragon, Tiger, Bear, Snake, Horse, Monkey, Steed, Rooster, Swallow, Crocodile, Hawk, and Eagle.

Beyond the fundamental techniques, these memories included the most crucial fighting methods, training regimens, and various auxiliary exercises—a veritable encyclopedia of Xingyi Boxing forms.

Du Ruo perused the knowledge of Xingyi Boxing crowding his mind, restraining the urge to practice immediately, and turned his focus to the Natural School’s technique he had just acquired.

From what Du Ruo knew, the Natural School encompassed hard and soft techniques, as well as lightness skills. He was eager to explore these, but unfortunately, only the lightness skill training method appeared in his memory—there was nothing about the hard or soft techniques.

“Tsk… Only the lightness skill, but it could be worse. At least it’s not the school’s fist form—if I got that, it would be pointless.”

Du Ruo’s thoughts were understandable. The Natural School did have its own fist form, but it was practically useless unless backed by tremendous internal strength; otherwise, it lacked both power and aesthetic appeal, and was less effective as a training method compared to other schools.

He delved into the lightness skill section of his new memories, curiosity piqued. Lightness skills—the sort that let you leap across rooftops and walk up walls—who wouldn’t want that?

Alas, his enthusiasm quickly gave way to disappointment.

The Natural School’s lightness skill didn’t actually make the body lighter; instead, it focused on leg strength and overall balance. Although, according to his memories, mastery of this skill could allow one to scale walls, leap great distances, and move with lightning speed, it was nothing like the flying feats depicted in TV dramas.

“Never mind, this is already quite a boon—no point in being greedy. The body is the foundation of everything; martial techniques exist only to better train the body. Once my essence, qi, and spirit attributes improve, who’s to say I won’t one day achieve those gravity-defying leaps from the dramas?”

Du Ruo consoled himself, then stood up to resume training.

He set aside the Natural School’s lightness skill for now—it wasn’t his immediate priority, and besides, he had an idea he wished to test.

Returning to the open space, Du Ruo decided to practice the Twelve Animal Forms of Xingyi Boxing first.

The Twelve Animal Forms differ fundamentally from the Five Element Fists, which are best practiced as a complete set for maximum effect. The Animal Forms, on the other hand, can be selected and emphasized according to one’s preferences or habits, with a greater focus on practical combat.

But at this stage, Du Ruo had no intention of indulging personal preferences—such decisions could wait until he had mastered the fundamentals.

The Twelve Animal Forms are not simply twelve moves, but twelve routines, each with its own core emphasis.

Take, for example, the Dragon Form—the movements are expansive and open, but using this routine to fight directly would be ineffective. The essence of practicing the Dragon Form lies in strengthening the spine and learning to generate power from it.

Similarly, the Tiger Form focuses on pouncing techniques, with the core goal of training the hip bones and generating force from the hips.

When practicing the Twelve Animal Forms, one must grasp the unique power generation of each body part and learn to apply this understanding in combat.

Moreover, most routines in the Twelve Animal Forms begin with the Three-Body Eagle-Catching Posture, and within these routines are integrated the five force applications of the Five Element Fists: splitting, drilling, bursting, pounding, and crossing.

This is the fundamental reason why the Twelve Animal Forms are considered the mother routines of Xingyi Boxing’s fighting methods.

Du Ruo practiced the Twelve Animal Forms again and again, carefully experiencing how each form mobilized different parts of the body. This could not be taken lightly—only by ingraining the mechanics into muscle memory could one break free from rote practice and apply them effectively in real combat.

He continued for over forty minutes, stopping only when his body signaled discomfort.

Reopening his attribute panel and adding his newly earned attribute point, Du Ruo was surprised to discover that the Natural School skill—despite not having been consciously practiced—had gained an increment of skill experience.

Name: Du Ruo
Age: 31
Essence: 8.40
Qi: 8.42
Spirit: 8.74
Attribute Points: 0.00
Skills: Xingyi Boxing LV1 (2/200)
Natural School Technique LV0 (1/100)

“Well, that makes sense. The Natural School’s lightness skill fundamentally trains leg strength and balance, both of which are also exercised through Xingyi Boxing—so it’s only natural there’d be some improvement.”

As he observed the skill experience increase, Du Ruo thought to himself that this was precisely why he chose not to focus on practicing the Natural School technique directly.

He had wanted to see whether every new technique required dedicated practice to gain experience.

Now, the answer was clear: as long as the skills were related or shared a core purpose, practicing one could incidentally improve the other.

This made perfect sense—after all, as one’s martial arts grow more profound, it’s not unthinkable to master the core of another style at a glance, simply by understanding its essence.

It was only a pity that attribute points didn’t increase simply as a result of skill improvement; they required actual, focused practice to grow.