Martial arts levels of Gong Nam Freaks # 3 - 6

[Ken Cheng]

In ranking the martial arts of the Gong Nam 7 Freaks, # 1 (Ohr Jen Ngok) and # 2 (Chu Chung) were said to be better than the others, and # 7 (Hon Siu Ying) was said to be the weakest of the seven. What about #s 3 - 6, though? Were Hon Bo Kui, Lam Hei Yan, Cheung Ah Sang, and Cheun Gum Fat all equal to each other in martial arts?

[tape]

I don't think they ever compared them separately, but I get the impression that the fifth freak relied on external more than the others who relied slightly more on inner power, so I'd put him as next weakest.

Of course at Freak level external might still trump internal since their internal is likely to be at an extremely low level, but I tend to rank people with high inner power as more powerful.

[Ken Cheng]

I don't think they ever compared them separately, but I get the impression that the fifth freak relied on external more than the others who relied slightly more on inner power, so I'd put him as next weakest.

Of course at Freak level external might still trump internal since their internal is likely to be at an extremely low level, but I tend to rank people with high inner power as more powerful.

Yes, generally, that's the case. Ohr Jen Ngok and Chu Chung demonstrated some (but not very profound) inner power skill, but the others, not so much.

I've always figured that # 3 - #6 were more or less on par, although Cheung Ah Sang might have been weaker (he was the only one who got killed during the fight with Chan Yeun Fung and Mui Chiu Fung, after all, although that could have just been bad luck).

[PJ]

I also got the feeling #5 Zhang Ah'sheng was the weakest. He was mostly brute force, did he even have any internal energy?

Amazingly, MAGICAL HANDS Zhu Cong actually developed a new art, on his own while in Mongolia, to counter Mei Chaofeng. He was really quite something.

[Ken Cheng]

I also got the feeling #5 Zhang Ah'sheng was the weakest. He was mostly brute force, did he even have any internal energy?

Probably not. I think that among the Freaks, only Ohr and Chu had inner power skills. The rest were just good weapons-users.

[Ian Liew]

I also got the feeling #5 Zhang Ah'sheng was the weakest. He was mostly brute force, did he even have any internal energy?

The way he stopped Qiu Chuji's cauldron with his chest he must have had some, even if his fat cushioned most of the impact. I think the book mentioned something about gathering his qi when the cauldron impacted, so he probably had a little foundation.