Romance of Dragons and Snakes

Chapter 25: The most classical way of fighting

“Sure enough, this is the way of fighting. Not hitting is the incorrect way, and hitting is the correct way.” Wang Chao’s Returning Body Palm had been executed perfectly, so he felt content.

When he had been shaking Li Wanji’s hand, he was fast enough to listen to the Jin after coming into contact with her hand. This had allowed him to know that a kick was on the way. But when he fought against Li Feng, he had been able to cross arms with him and so he had used his pores to listen to the Jin in his opponent’s body and the center of gravity being changed. Then, with this information, he had easily reversed the situation back onto Li Feng.

“This feeling is great, could this be what the Jin of Taichi feels like?” Wang Chao thought back to what Tang Zichen had spoken to him, “Taichi has no style. Those stances of “Fair Lady Works the Shuttles” are merely things that Yang Luchan had used to sway the officials. Taichi has only one move, and that is to listen to the Jin of others as well as their potential movements.”

“Although there is only this one move, one can freely manipulate and break the person’s center of gravity in thousands of different ways.” Wang Chao thought back to these words, finding them to be faultless.

Truth be told, when Li Feng had gotten up close to him and grapple onto him, Wang Chao had nearly fell to the ground. If it weren’t for his last moment “Snake Coiling around the Tree” motion and relied on his opponent’s body for the center of gravity, then he would have fallen to the ground and potentially lost.

But the main reason that Wang Chao hadn’t fallen was due to the exquisite leg strength he had. After Bagua and Xingyi, his leg strength was superb and thus led to him rotating his body when he fell thanks to the additional practice he had with the water vats.

Xingyi had focused on the leg strength on the moment between life and death. That was because when the human body rotates, there would be two different movements of the leg. One leg would detach from the ground while the other would borrow strength from the ground with the natural rotation from the spin while keeping a dangerous amount of power.

But for Taekwondo where the leg would superfluously flounder about, Wang Chao had disapproved of that.

Yet after some thought, he realized this was for show and not for fighting, thus the power to kill was not there.

“This Jin of Taichi is quite practical. With all the pores being so sensitive, my entire body becomes my eyes and ears.” Wang Chao thought back to when he and Li Feng had crossed hands. This experience had caused him to have another deeper insight to all three styles of Chinese boxing.

“This variation of the Returning Body that was able to be combined with the wrestling techniques. Ah, that’s right, Cheng Tinghua was first a wrestler before learning Bagua Zhang with Dong Haichuan. In the end, he made his own school which combined the palm techniques along with the wrestling techniques. It looks like if one wants to fight with a single style, they must be familiar with the surrounding styles as well in order to be great. If one doesn’t, then he will lose constantly. It seems that in the future, I must learn from everyone else while I fight.”

As Wang Chao thought about this, a fierce desire to fight had suddenly burned brightly within him.

“Who’s next?” Wang Chao looked towards the other black belt instructors.

Li Feng had already been carried away from the ring by another black belt instructor prior to this.

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“Just you wait, I’ll find and beat you in the future!” As Li Feng was about to exit the ring, he stopped his tears for a moment to utter those words and give Wang Chao a poisonous glare that promised revenge.

“Crap, this guy is a petty and arrogant person. He must have never lost before, but when I made him cry today, his reputation must have taken a hit. I can bet that he’ll make trouble for me later. If I had known earlier, I would have nipped this problem in the bud. A snake doesn’t stop trying to kill a man after biting it.”

Wang Chao turned to look at Li Feng with a thought of regret about not being able to finish him off to beat away any arrogant thoughts from him.

Wang Chao wasn’t some sort of softie. It was only because he had lacked the strength before. Now that he had learned martial arts and matured a bit, he could understand the ways of the world with even more clarity.

“Sixth degree black belt, Liu Wenjun. Please advise me well!”

Next, a calm looking middle aged man walked forward. No matter if it was his stance, air, or even demeanor, he looked stronger than Li Feng many times over.

Li Feng had been 21 years old when he became a fourth degree black belt, but this man was 30 years old by the time he made the sixth degree. While there was a considerable amount of an age gap between these two, the difference between the levels of temperance and skill was as wide as the heavens and earth still.

“This Liu Wenjun is most likely the strongest of the black belts here. Okay then, let me test my strength!” Wang Chao felt the desire for battle enter his heart as he prepared to test himself against an even stronger opponent.

“Okay!”” Just as Wang Chao uttered that single word, Liu Wenjun had suddenly charged forth, his entire body leaping forward 1.67 meters or so with both his legs already striking at Wang Chao’s head viciously.

This was one of Taekwondo’s top notch kicking techniques, the double flying side kick.

Wang Chao immediately felt a gust of wind blow at his face, stinging his eyes and blocking his mouth from breathing. If this move were to connect, then it would at the very least cause a head concussion.

“Sure enough, it is both fierce, yet beautiful at the same time.” Wang Chao thought as he moved to dodge it.

Because how strong the leap had been, this kick had taken around two seconds. But because of Wang Chao’s instincts, he had easily dodged it.

As Wang Chao moved to dodge, Liu Wenjun landed on the ground once more before swiveling and then bringing a leg up into the air. With a downwards momentum like an axe crashing to the ground, his leg tried to slam down upon Wang Chao’s head.

This was a fierce example of his flexibility and ability to do the splits.

Needless to say, this type of move would cause those who had never practiced before to feel intimidated and cowed. However, to Wang Chao, the movement in Jin was far too noticeable and so it was easy to dodge. Since he had also learned Bagua and could change his footwork at a moment’s notice, even if Liu Wenjun was just a tiny bit faster, he would not have been able to touch Wang Chao.

However Liu Wenjun continued to chain his kicks with different variations, but never once resting from his attacking position as if to show his vibrant attack and strengths. In this time, Wang Chao hadn’t been able to find an opening to take advantage of.

“With this level of Taekwondo, one could fight against seven or eight gangsters on the streets without anyone being able to dodge and be knocked unconscious.” Wang Chao thought as he altered his footstep once more to dodge.

But in terms of the eyes of the layman, it would appear that Liu Wenjun had the upper hand. With how many vicious kicks Liu Wenjun was doing, it looked as if Wang Chao was barely able to dodge by using all of his strength.

“This youth is quite the strong one, how extraordinary.” The heavily interested Zhang Tong continued to look for a moment, but she could already see the ending. Liu Wenjun was able to rapidly thrust out with his legs at an incredible speed and power. But in the case that his strength ran out, then a crack in his offense would be shown, and everything would be over from there.

Sure enough, three or four minutes later, Liu Wenjun’s kicking speed and power had clearly grown sluggish, showing signs of his exhaustion.

But to be able to kick so many times for this long, it was far more than enough to show why he deserved to be a sixth degree black belt.

“Just what does this Liu Wenjun even eat everyday? His nutritional intake must be massive if he could manage to kick for such a long amount of time.” Wang Chao had been secretly surprised by this man and his endurance.

For those who didn’t practice inner martial arts and wished to be an expert with a high amount of physical strength needed to cater to their body more than usual. These types of people, if they practiced enough,, then their speed would be quite fast and their power quite strong. Often times, some inner practitioners wouldn’t even be an opponent for these. Only those that reached the Transforming Jin stage would be able to contend against the outer practitioners that relied on money and hard work.

But this Liu Wenjun was clearly not an expert outer practitioner. There was no variation in his kicks and relied completely on his drive. Once his drive was gone, so would his strength.

Just as Liu Wenjun lashed out with another kick, Wang Chao tilted his body and allowed it to pass him.

By the time Liu Wenjun had kicked another time, Wang Chao had already forged forward with his left leg bent and his knee braced. Inserting his knee in between Liu Wenjun’s legs, it had been like an arrow shooting forward from a bow.

This was one of the most classical ways of fighting in Xingyi Quan. A leg to ram between the legs before arching one’s back and smashing the shoulder into the body full force, this was the “Bear Knocking Down the Tree” move that would send anyone to the ground.

Liu Wenjun had naturally been no exception. After being rushed at his median line, he had pushed and rammed away so that he flew for a moment before tumbling onto the the carpet.

“Good, good good! What a heroic kid.” Zhang Tong put down her wine glass as she propped her head to her hands.