Romance of Dragons and Snakes

Chapter 20: Tang Zichen’s autobiography in the book

Ten bundles of paper bills were seated on the bed as Wang Chao sat down and stared at it for a long moment. With an equally long sigh, he began to clean it up before wrapping it up in newspapers and stowing it underneath his bed. His actions were the same as that of a miserly landlord.

But he couldn’t be blamed for such an action. He was still a regular high schooler who had never seen so much money in his life.

“True enough, the restrictions on one’s life gives raise to evil thoughts. If I want to change these evil thoughts, then I first have to change my way of living.” Wang Chao thought. The thoughts he had of killing Cao Jingjing and then Cao Yi had bothered him to no end afterwards.

“Martial arts should not feed one’s mouth. Your mind must be vast and forgiving, but do not stand to be insulted….” Tang Zichen’s words from before were suddenly recalled into his mind.

“Sis Chen definitely isn’t any regular person. If I want to see her in the future, I can’t be this cowardly. I need more power and more money!” After Tang Zichen had left, her silhouette had still remained within Wang Chao’s mind and captivated him.

“The changes I have now, it was all because of what sis Chen gave me. I definitely have to have the power to help her, I have to grow stronger.”

“Alright, no more thinking. I might as well think about martial arts.” After calming himself, he began to earnestly think about what he had learned from the battle.

That had been his first true combat experience, but the opportunity to fight wasn’t there. A single fist had caused the long haired male to be sent flying when he was least expecting it, and so this did not count as a true fight. And the fight with Cao Yi had been unfair as well. Cao Yi had been weary after using all his energy from the previous fight, that was why the Swimming Body from Bagua Zhang had proved to be so effective.

These two fights were not fights where both combatants were on equal standings.

“Clear Jin, Hidden Jin and Transforming Jin…considering my current level, Clear Jin is still a long ways ahead of me. While I had made that crisp sound while using the “Three Pace Pounding Fist”, it had only happened after I used my entire body and a long piece of land to issue power. In a real combat experience, I won’t have enough time or that much space. Even then, that single Pounding Fist Jin took a toll on my body, I wouldn’t be able to do it twice. When sis Chen taught me, she had made that crisp sound with ease; I’m still far away from her level.”

“As for Hidden Jin, even moving would be too difficult. The Qi would be burst past the pores and be lost, unlike the principle of sweating only when killing.”

From his own strength, he analyzed his fight and thought about the different stages of Jin he was working towards to, only to conclude he was still far away from it.

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When he thought about the Hidden Jin, Wang Chao jumped down from his bed and straightened his vertebrae. Swelling all of the pores on his body, he made a few slow moments as he focused the Qi around his body before trying to expel it from his hands only.

Bang! A palm slammed against the wall as Wang Chao slackened his vertebrae and diverted his center of gravity to force the energy to rush out from his palms. Trying to combine the principles of Clear and Hidden Jin in his palm strike, his goal was to try and split the wall.

Huuu! Huuuu! Wang Chao gave up. As soon as the energy left after the strike, his entire body slackened as sweat began to appear through every pore on his body.

As his entire body began to grow weak, the sensation of collapsing grew stronger. Wang Chao’s body couldn’t muster any strength at all.

“How frustrating!”

Sitting on the bed once more, he thought to himself, “I shouldn’t think about expelling the energy. When I do, all of it becomes scattered, aren’t I just seeking for death now?”

A person who practiced inner martial arts required their hair to spike, their goosebumps to appear all over their iron like skin while able to defend against any attack. At the same time, they would need to regulate the amount of water they had in their body without any of it leaking out so that they would be able to fight for an extended period of time without tiring. After spiking all the hair and focusing their entire concentration, then they would be able to detect even a single blade of grass being blown.

This was a good thing, but if one were to try to abuse this method, then in the case that their pores could no longer contain the Qi inside, then the Qi would be forced out as water, plummeting one’s life into a critical state.

When tempering one’s body, slowly shadowbox so that no Qi would be forced out. Then, transform the Qi to rotate within the body, and under the control of the practitioner, there would be no further harm.

But in a fierce battle, a balance between the two would not be met.

As for expelling Hidden Jin during a battle, it was the same as expelling fire outwards. As it burns the other person, the owner itself would face some danger as well. The majority of the time if one didn’t hit the other person, then they would kill themselves.

“It’s no wonder that the rumors said that when Bruce Lee reached the pinnacle of Clear Jin, his attacks were so brilliant it stunned everyone. But when he had an accident when cultivating Hidden Jin, he died.”

“An accident, what a convenient word to use!” Wang Chao spoke after experimenting with himself. After this, he had felt a deep respect for the word.

Flipping through Tang Zichen’s True Record of Guoshu, there was an excerpt on both Clear and Hidden Jin:

“I practiced martial arts when I was almost five years old. I could only practice my internal Jin, instead of my outer strength. Because my bone structure was still unstable, I could only practice by standing on stumps and nourishing my body for ten years. After another ten years, I was able to condense Jin and have finally attain the peak of training my bone marrow. Three years later, I was able to unite with Dao and practice martial arts whenever I walk, stand, sit, or sleep. If I thought about it, ai could kill someone within thirty six steps and with no fear of guns. I

possessed telepathy, and could predict like the cicada, sensing the coming of the autumn wind before it has even arrived. I possessed extraordinary abilities that was far stronger than intuition. These hardships and survivals in these practices, only I myself understood in ways other people could not even comprehend. From the time that my body attained a perfect state, I had already accumulated countless of experience regarding fighting and killed countless more. Those that I killed by hands numbered to be around 80% while those I killed by firearm was 20%. My achievements entirely depended on my ten years of posture training. First, I followed the path of practicing my Hidden Jin. This Hidden Jin was not practiced until circulated my whole body. When my body was tightened, my skin was like iron, and the pores were brought up an inch, looking as if they were soybeans. When relaxed, my body was like the fat of a goat, shiny but soft. If your body did not reach this state, then do not release this Hidden Jin easily. If it had attained this level, then your martial arts would become capable of the One Inch Punch. During fights, you could add the Hidden Jin. With the use of both the Clear Jin and the Hidden Jin, you would be able to reach a natural realm. This was also similar to the teaching of the Tachi martial arts. If the Hidden Jin had not been completely practiced, you could practice the Clear Jin first. In With inner martial arts, there were more creators of strength-based skills, yet during the beginning of the practice, the movements should not be complicated. It would be better for the movements to be more simple. Just practice one punch. As the saying goes, if one punch is achieved, then the hundred punches would succeed. If one punch was not successful, then any more practice would be useless.

The words written had been Tang Zichen’s insightful opinion.

“So my Hidden Jin is perfect yet and my pore strength isn’t enough. I have to bring it up an inch. It’s best not to think about expelling the Hidden Jin then. But effort leads to success, it’s only that my body isn’t strong enough yet to be able to control the flexibility of my pores. I should first practice my Clear Jin to the peak first. But simple is good, which should I practice first?”

After some thought, Wang Chao decided. While the Three Pace Pounding Fist could make a man fly, the amount of distance needed was far too much. In a real battle, it was useless.

After another moment of thought, Wang Chao had decided to practice the Smashing Fist that master Guo Yunshen had used to defeat everyone.

There were nine variations to the Smashing Fist: Half-step Smashing Fist, Retreating Smashing Fist, Rotating Smashing Fist, Chain Smashing Fist, Sideways Smashing Fist, and etcetera. But each one of these relied heavily on the strength of the waist and abdomen. The calves, joints and thigh muscles would assist in this motion. Then the shoulder, hand and vertebrae would harmonize with it.

“Guo Yunshen had practiced his Smashing Fist within a prison cell with dozens of kilograms heavy cangue on his arms and legs. Could I use something heavy to add onto my body?”

Once he finished planning, Wang Chao spent the next three days buying lead before using them to attach to his body, adding onto 35 kilograms to his body weight. At first, he was worried he would ruin his muscles or bring his practice off in a tangent. So carefully, he moved around first. After 10 days of practicing, he was able to issue power at every single spot. By adding more weight to each spot, he was able to issue even more power.

As he continued to add weight onto his body, Wang Chao had continued to refer to the True Record of Guoshu and learned from the diagrams of the joints within. As he continued to move and feel his body, he reallocated the weight as needed. Wang Chao could gradually feel that he could feel and recognize the muscles and bones on his body much more smoothly than before with even more precision as well. It was as if he was a worker that was growing more familiar with the inner workings of the machinery he was using.

Practicing this for three months, Wang Chao one day took off his clothes and stripped away the lead only to find out there had been a change to his muscles and joints, especially the joints to his shoulder and legs. When he had issued power, the socket of his joint in the area had clearly sunken in, showing that his ability to stretch the leg had grown stronger.

Even at this time, Wang Chao continued to practice his stances everyday. But the difference now was that instead of the three integrals, he had tried to practice the stance of the Assault of Dragon and Snake.

Aside from this, Wang Chao had spared no efforts in his Bagua drills. Every day at one in the morning, he would use the Mud Wading Step to travel to Lake Tianxing and then back, which would take him approximately five hours.

With each trip to and from, he would shut his pores and run wildly in imitation to the day he had chased after the car. His two legs would plow the ground almost as he sprinted.

The Qi in his body would be locked away, and it was only when he couldn’t contain it any longer that Wang Chao would practice standing still in several postures to regain his breath. Then, he would transform the Qi to enter his legs and all around his waist to settle once more.

During his two day weekends, Wang Chao would travel back to Lake Tianxing and think about the time he had spent with sis Chen.

With all said and done, Lake Tianxing’s residential district was not a place for the poor to live. Wang Chao had asked once only to find out that the villa that Tang Zichen had lived in cost 10,000 RMB a month.

The 100,000 RMB he had gained wouldn’t even be enough for a year.

But the rent and other fees had already been paid for a year previously, allowing Wang Chao several more months.

With time, summer disappeared as autumn approached, then autumn had gone while winter had arrived. In this time, Wang Chao had been satisfied with his school life. Since the time he had followed Cao Jingjing back home, she had taken notice of him and the two became close friends. Afterwards, they had seemed to others to be quiet intimate. This had caused many others to feel quite jealous, but Wang Chao had paid no mind to them.

All Cao Jingjing had known was that the day she was kidnapped, Cao Yi had suffered only internal injuries that had taken a month in the hospital and two months afterwards to fully recover.

As for what Cao Yi had done, it was only said to be a normal outbreak of fire.

That had set Wang Chao’s heart at ease.

“Today when my dad get’s back, he wants to see you, so come with me later.” Just the day before break after school had ended, Cao Jingjing had called out for Wang Chao shyly.

“Alright!” Wang Chao replied hurriedly. But inside, he thought, “Cao Yi’s methods are quite amazing, I was just about to go test out my skills. After practicing for so long, it would be strange not to try it out. And with his wide expertise, I can consult him to see what ways I could earn money. After all, in a week we’ll have the college exams. With my current grades, there’s no chance at all; I better find another alternative.”

He began to think about his future prospects.