Chapter Fifteen: The Eagle's Hand (Part Two)

Pictorial Fist is a beast-mimicking martial art, imitating the form of animals to embody their fierce spirit.

However, some styles only emulate certain postures or parts of a beast, which are considered the smaller branches of Pictorial Fist, known as semi-pictorial styles.

There is no difference in power between the major and minor branches; the difference lies in their extensiveness. For instance, under the scrutiny of a Grandmaster, a major style can evolve into several smaller branches, but the reverse is not possible.

The style Young Master Huang sought is one of these semi-pictorial forms—Eagle Claw. Of course, it also bears a common and somewhat trite name: the Mighty Eagle Claw Technique.

Eagle Claw is a highly practical hand technique within martial arts. When mastered, its strength is extraordinary—claws as iron pincers, fingers like steel hooks. In combat, it excels in grabbing and controlling opponents, striking vital points, disrupting tendons and dislocating bones. It is highly regarded among many martial sects.

Unlike the stories in popular novels, where a style’s power supposedly increases the fewer people who know it, martial arts in the real world grow stronger as more practitioners train them. The more renowned a style becomes, the more its flaws are identified and corrected by experts and prodigies, refining details and enhancing power from generation to generation.

Eagle Claw is one such style.

As more martial artists train in it, the style has diversified. According to Young Master Huang, there are eighty-six branches of Eagle Claw in the martial world, but only eight have established training methods.

Among these eight, the northern school has three branches, and the southern school has five.

Northern styles typically combine striking with soaking the hands in medicinal liquids. The resulting claws resemble steel talons or iron forks, capable of breaking raw iron, and are invariably bone-forging techniques.

For Kou Li, who was already engaged in bone-forging, it was unnecessary to invest great effort in these. The fusion, selection, and coordination of various styles is a profound study; without guidance from predecessors, one would undoubtedly wander down many wrong paths.

Among the southern five, two are also bone-forging. One is from the Arhat Temple, including the Vajra Eagle Claw and Temple Guardian Iron Eagle techniques. The others are found in the Jiang You region: the Yue Family Eagle Hand school, the Earth Eagle Claw school, and the Eagle Flip Nine Forms, among others.

Three other branches include the Esoteric Sect’s Eagle Claw, which focuses on internal energy cultivation, channeling force through the claw in the form of the mythical Golden-winged Roc; mastering this grants the power of divine sight. Unfortunately, this has been lost, with rumors of surviving disciples only beyond the northern borders.

Another is the Wudang Eagle Claw, which uses Taoist stance training to drive claw power, including four refining methods: Profound Eagle, Primal Chaos, Natural, and Seven Stars.

The last is the Emei Eagle Claw, also known simply as Eagle Hand. It claims to embody the eagle’s spirit by transforming the form into the spirit, turning the eagle shape into claws, and is said to be the most spiritually expressive of the styles.

Young Master Huang selected the last one for Kou Li, likely because Kou Li could embody beastly nature and perceive the spirit of the fist. Remarkably, he also obtained fragments of the Esoteric Sect’s Eagle Claw manuscript—the secret of cultivating divine sight.

After reviewing these materials, Kou Li was somewhat moved. It was clear Young Master Huang had invested tremendous effort and sacrifice to select the style most suited to him.

Eagle Hand includes seven fixed postures of the eagle form, eleven dynamic postures of eagle species, five refining methods, a breathing method, and a set of fist sequences. The actual combat techniques would be explained separately.

Kou Li finally understood just how difficult this ancient style was to master. His own insight into tiger-like movement was a rare blessing.

The seven eagle postures—Claw Reach, Wing Fold, Wing Spread, Prey Strike, Claw Fight, Body Shake, Sharp Claw—are all based on the flight and hunting postures of hawks and falcons.

After much contemplation, Kou Li slowly rose, settling into a half-bow stance. The perineum and Huiyin acupoints aligned diagonally, the tiger’s mouth (the space between thumb and index finger) pointed outward, distractions cleared, fingers spread wide. The strength was divided between fingers and palm, the palm curled inward forming four concave points, the tiger’s mouth rounded and braced outward, twisting and coiling with every inch of force condensed, then gently placed on the ground.

Then, loosening his legs, the vital energy surged upward. The stance wavered, and the sharpness he had just felt vanished.

“Wrong, the force is off.”

His body’s qi and blood, once as solid as a lead-mercury orb, revealed a gap for a brief moment. The eagle’s claw suddenly resembled a chicken pecking at grain.

Once, twice, thrice, four times—Kou Li lost count of how many repetitions he practiced within an hour. His understanding deepened, yet at the critical juncture, something always faltered. Even controlling his qi forcefully, he could not replicate the spirit.

The Eagle Claw strike, the prelude to hunting, requires an internalized fierce momentum. According to the manual, the key lies in the qi-blood line.

How to maintain this qi-blood line while preserving the fierce aura? And why does this line exist in the first place?

After meditating deeply, a flash of insight struck him. In a blur, he darted outside, others only hearing the rush of wind and seeing a shadow flash. Two practitioners training on wooden posts were suddenly struck and sent flying.

Kou Li balanced solely on his toes, the strength from his clawed toes nailed to the post tip. Then, with a clawed hand, he hooked forward, slowly rotating his wrist, claw centers inward, tiger’s mouths outward, concentrating all effort in both claws. His body trembled forward slightly; a flash of eagle fierceness swept through him.

This was it!

Eagle hunting is not like a chicken pecking at the ground; it is perched above, hooked to a branch. The qi-blood line is essentially the ten clawed toes hooking the branch, a subtle contact that is neither fully present nor absent, used to stabilize the body. This is the qi-blood line!

“Someone!”

“Sir,” a half-kneeling figure wearing a demonic mask responded. He was a martial artist from the Southwest, known only by his codename: Demon Ghost.

“Gather the fiercest eagles in the city.”

“Yes.” Though not the highest-level fighter among those serving the Feng family, Demon Ghost was undoubtedly the most obedient, carrying out orders without question.

Kou Li ignored others’ thoughts and began practicing the second posture, Wing Fold. Awkward and strange, he looked like a novice—and indeed he was—unconcerned with his status as chief steward or his reputation as the seventh Grandmaster of Cantonese Fist.

“What is the Chief Steward doing? Practicing martial arts? Does he need to practice?” Frog Face’s mouth instinctively puckered, dumbfounded.

“Nonsense. Your martial arts came from your mother’s womb,” Tuberculosis Ghost rolled his eyes and replied.

“No, it just feels off,” Frog Face muttered. In his mind, someone like Kou Li should be a ruthless villain, and when did a villain need to practice and improve?

Tuberculosis Ghost ignored him, sipping medicinal tea that warmed his body. The century-old ginseng tonic had stopped his coughing for half a month, and his once deathly pale face now showed vitality, even a hint of elegance reminiscent of the former head of the Southern Branch Fist Sect.

Having decided to retrain his martial arts, Tuberculosis Ghost had no hesitation in joining. Frog Face was hesitant but, after the old eunuch stuffed his room with five beautiful young wives, he resolved never to leave.

Three days earlier, Kou Li had repaired Tuberculosis Ghost’s meridians, restoring about eighty percent of his former strength. That night, they sparred, neither using full force, resulting in an even match.

Kou Li had roughly gauged his own strength. With his four limbs perfected and internal energy matured, he could indeed contend with those at the second level of the Four Great Refinements.

In other words, he had nearly reached the strength of Luo Yan Sect a decade ago.

It had taken the eldest senior brother ten years to barely break through the second level of the Four Great Refinements, which speaks volumes about the difficulty of the martial path.

So Kou Li dared not relax for a moment. If he couldn’t even climb the Five Sacred Mountains, how could he hope to walk the path to the heavens?

The Feng estate operated efficiently, partly due to location. Falconry and dog fighting were common pastimes among ancient wealthy families, especially in the entire Canton Prefecture, where sudden wealth bred gambling and spirited contests of eagles, dogs, and roosters.

The black eagle brought by Demon Ghost was not the largest but rather thin and bony, with four or five bloody wounds on its wings and many scars on its lower legs. It bore no majestic aura; instead, it was ugly and fierce, its eyes like hooked blades.

Any hand approaching within three feet was met with a violent attack, its sharp black beak stabbing like a hooked knife.

It was said to be the fiercest eagle among the city’s sixteen gambling dens, undefeated in battle.

With lightning speed, Kou Li flicked a finger, his fingertip hooking the eagle’s feathers and lifting it from its cage. His “Unwritten Diagram” external skill slowly unfolded, permeating skin, blood vessels, and tendons.

Wing Fold—an omen of flight and a process of gathering strength. A mere branch could not withstand the force of spreading wings ready to take off, so—

Kou Li focused his mind, drawing qi and blood from his dantian up to the chest center, channeling it through the inner arms to the Laogong acupoint and ten fingers, studying the eagle’s qi-blood flow. He finally discovered that the energy was concentrated at the base of its wings.

A dip, a rise, an explosion—the eagle’s peck was like a blade!

Kou Li instinctively twisted; a blood streak appeared on his cheek. The black eagle reined in its assault, its piercing eyes fixed on him.

Ferocity, pride, coldness, and murderous intent.

Unlike other birds, this eagle did not frantically struggle when caught; it was calm. Behind this calm lay patience, waiting for the next hunt.

Kou Li had heard that when judging an eagle, one should not look at its flesh but feel its bones. The larger the bones, the fiercer the bird.

The fiercest eagles have ferocity engraved in their very bones; it cannot be forged or learned.

When he touched it, it was like feeling uneven ridges and sharp spines, warm and slowly writhing, unsettling both foe and world.

“Interesting,” Kou Li grinned, his eyes shining like hooked eagle talons.

It was as if the humanized hawk and the hawk-like human were indistinguishable.