Romance of Dragons and Snakes

Chapter 31: Using people to test one’s Taichi and Jin

Ha! Wang Chao’s footwork began to slow down for a moment. Stepping to the left and treading to the right, he looked at the two bodyguards. “Rise, fall, cross, pierce.” The four words were constantly running through his mind as if he was mentally reciting the scripture written within a textbook.

The two bodyguards coming at him was truly a significant increase of pressure. If it were two regular fighters, then this would have been over, but they were mercenaries who were adept at Chinese boxing and experts on any sort of killing technique. Even their physique was alarming, combined with their willingness to ignore any damage to their own body in order to kill the enemy, they were a terrifying force to deal with.

When Wang Chao had touched hands with his enemies, he had been able to listen to the Jin as was taught by Taichi. With the ability to turn strength against the weak, he had been able to take the opportunity to throw the bodyguard to the ground. But now that there were two people fighting him at the same time, if he were to try and throw one person to the ground, the other person would take advantage. By that point, he would only be able to dodge without being able to retaliate.

“This type of fighting is annoying!” Wang Chao dodged strike after strike as he tried to look for an opportunity.

But after some time, even Wang Chao could gradually sense his weakness. One reason was that he wasn’t strong enough–against regular people, he would be able to. But these men were specially trained to be resilient to most blows. A single strike would not be enough to do any significant harm to them.

The second reason was that he was not perfect with his ability to listen to the Jin within. His pores were just barely able to detect the person’s distribution of power within and counteract against it in the best possible way.

Tang Zichen had been able to immediately feel one’s center of gravity and then manipulate it without using Hidden Jin at all.

This ability to listen to Jin was compatible with being able to do more with less was the genuine ability of Taichi. If it didn’t require instantaneous thinking, it was dodgeable.

Even the realm of not moving when the enemy doesn’t move, and making the first move when the enemy does was one of the highest levels of accomplishments in Taichi.

“Instinctual movement!”

Wang Chao’s strength in Taichi was still lacking and so required having to touch his opponent’s first in order to gauge their center of gravity. After this, he would be able to influence their next movements. With this intentional movement, the speed would naturally be slower.

To be able to do this without thinking would require a high level of martial arts. To have to think before moving would require a lower level.

This difference in skill would only take less than a second of hesitation in an actual fight. But a second of hesitation was enough to kill someone.

In a battle of life and death, a second or two was enough time to walk the path to hell or heaven.

From the very start of the two bodyguards coming up to fight Wang Chao, the three men were locked into a tight battle within the office room. Although the two bodyguards were extremely strong, Wang Chao was similarly fast and slippery in his movements. Every single time, he had been able to just barely escape from peril.

After 10 minutes or so, the three men had finally began to wear out in terms of energy. While the two bodyguards were trained rigorously, Wang Chao’s continuous circular motion had forced them to feel a little dizzy. Droplets of sweat could be seen dripping down their foreheads down onto their suits.

But yet their eyes continued to carry the fierce cold look on their impassive faces. They hadn’t even blinked even when sweat had dripped down into it. It was almost as if they were waiting for the most optimal time to strike Wang Chao down.

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While Wang Chao wasn’t sweating at all, his inner Qi was boiling as his iron like pores struggled to keep the heat down.

After 10 minutes of an intense struggle, Wang Chao practically exhausted all of his strength dodging and keeping the Qi from leaking out.

When the Qi escapes, so would one’s strength.

Wang Chao knew completely well what sort of situation he was in.

“Who would have thought that this experiment became my hardest battle yet instead of a simple spar?”

Throwing a look across the crimson red desk, Wang Chao could see that Zhang Tong was still looking at him with a smile.

“Hssssh!” Wang Chao let out a long breath of air before expelling the Qi from his mouth. Immediately, he felt no more pressure in his pores, but when he let out the Qi, he grew tired almost instantly.

With a great amount of effort, he stilled his heart and brought his nerves back together. Sensing that one of the bodyguard’s eyes had closed due to his sweat dropping in on it, Wang Chao quickly straightened his back and lashed out a fist like it was an arrow towards the bodyguard’s shoulder.

Although the bodyguard had sweat in his eye, there was no fear. At the same time as Wang Chao, he lashed out with his own fist.

Bang! The two men’s fists struck at the same time with a bone shattering sound. The joint of the bodyguard’s shoulder had been crushed, sending him flying backwards and rolling onto the ground as a result. As he stood back up, his shoulder could only flop in place lifelessly–he would not be fighting with that arm any time soon.

As for Wang Chao, he could only feel a sharp pain as his intestines felt the blow. The pain had been so severe, his breath had been lost and his control over his pores slackened, causing a layer of sweat to appear.

Another large wave of weakness entered his body.

“I’m lucky that this guy’s strength is pretty much gone. Otherwise, this guy’s fist would have been strong enough to destroy my intestines.” Wang Chao had only took this risk after making sure the two bodyguards were spent in energy.

All of a sudden, another bodyguard had quickly flashed behind Wang Chao. His left hand grabbed for Wang Chao’s neck while his right hand wrapped around his chest. Simultaneously, the bodyguard’s knee came up to strike behind Wang Chao.

Against such a thrilling killing move like this, Wang Chao was not panicked. His left hand flew behind as if it was a tail to obstruct the knee as his vertebrae transformed to act like a snake. With a violent twist, his center of gravity flew down to his tailbone and his hair spiked up as Wang Chao began to regain the energy he had lost.

The bodyguard that was trying to grab Wang Chao could only feel as if he was trying to wrestle a writhing python. With such a large amount of strength coming out from Wang Chao, the bodyguard couldn’t help but let out a grunt as he used all of his power!

In that split second, Wang Chao had managed to get a read on his opponent’s potential directional path and immediately issued power by jumping backwards. This course of action had allowed him to counter against the bodyguard’s strength.

But then Wang Chao suddenly changed his direction and tried to go forward with the help of the forward momentum the bodyguard was outputting.

Suddenly, it seemed as if the bodyguard had became a scarecrow after being launched forward into the sky towards the broken shouldered bodyguard.

The bodyguard that had his shoulder broken by Wang Chao had been extremely resilient. After being sent to the ground ,he was able to climb back up, but he hadn’t expected to see the body of his companion come flying at him.

Bang! The two men collided. The broken shoulder bodyguard was sent rolling on the ground with a muffled grunt before quickly scrambling back up.

Just as the bodyguard was scrambling to get up, Wang Chao had already flew viciously at him. With a raised fist, the two made contact before Wang Chao flung the bodyguard away once more.

The other bodyguard that had been thrown had gotten back up by then. But Wang Chao had beaten him to the punch and sent him flying as well.

As was the method for the “Rising Eagle Dropping Rabbit”, when they climb back up, send them falling, and when they fall, continue the process until they don’t rise. After another four or five times, the two bodyguards didn’t get back up. The two had lost all of their strength and could no longer stand.

By this point, Wang Chao had been thoroughly drenched. His clothes looked ragged and he was panting in the center of the room without any movements. Even raising his head was a challenging task.

“Good, very good!” Zhang Tong had been watching intensely as Wang Chao threw the bodyguards around until they couldn’t stand back up. With a sigh in admiration, she spoke to the last one, “Take these two out and give them some money later to recover.”

The bodyguard that had made no move to fight before walked out of the office with both bodyguards supported by his hands.

“How was it?” Zhang Tong waited for Wang Chao to rest up for a moment before asking.

“Amazing, really amazing! I was almost finished back there.” Wang Chao had managed to recover some health before giving his opinion on the fearful fight.

“I’ve heard after they retired from the military, they were considered the second-rate soldiers and were far away from the first-rate ones. But yet these soldiers didn’t take any sort of stimulants either.” Zhang Tong explained as she poured Wang Chao a cup of ginseng and oolong tea.

“Stimulants…” Drinking the warm cup of tea and rejuvenate himself, Wang Chao began to try and recover his strength.

“Correct, if they were to use stimulants, then their strengths would be increased exponentially. However, doping would cause damage to their bodies as well.” Zhang Tong nodded her head as she spoke, “What do you think of this calligraphy?”

The table had a piece of paper that said, “A sword to light the path, and the godly fist to drop all.”

“Haha, the godly fist dropping all, I cannot match up to that. My martial arts has yet to reach such a state.” Wang Chao spoke.

“What I could see from this fight was the fact that bodies were thrown everywhere. This must be the fighting style of Taichi; although I’ve never learned it, I know that after one has mastered Taichi, they can use people to test their Jin, is that true?” Zhang Tong asked.

“Testing with Jin…” Wang Chao began to think before nodding, “At first, one practices Chinese boxing by hitting sandbags then stumps or spears. Afterwards, they will be able to use their Jin against people to truly test their skill. Back during the Republic of China, the predecessor of Yang Luchan, Yang Chengfu had paid a high price of 6 silver yuan a month to be his testing case to practice Jin.”

Zhang Tong listened to this explanation for a moment before nodding her head. “Back when I practiced the art of the sword, my master told me that in the end, I would need to practice it with another person. Even the Daoist priests that practice the art of the sword in the Wudang Mountains would leap into the trees to slash at monkeys. What do you think about the bodyguards you just fought?”

“Those two?” Wang Chao thought for a moment, “Those mercenaries are excellent at grabbing and were great for me to use Jin to practice. They were quite the challenge.”

“So that’s your answer. Then why don’t you try again in the future to see how well you can do?” Zhang Tong smiled at him.

“En!?” Wang Chao had a look of doubt on his face.

“Are you thinking about asking me just why I’m offering this to you?” Zhang Tong’s mind was incredibly sharp and had instantly guessed what Wang Chao was thinking. Sticking out two fingers, she spoke, “The first reason is that your skill and attitude really interest me. The second reason is that if I ever come across a problem, I hope that you will come to my aid. It’s that simple.”

“What sort of problem?” Wang Chao asked.

“I don’t know. But you’re an intelligent person, knowing what identity I hold, it won’t be anything peaceful. You shouldn’t worry much, if I need your help, I’d ask you for it first. If you think you can’t help, then I won’t force you. This will be like helping a friend out. If there is an especially hard task that you help someone with, then that is the right thing to do.”

Zhang Tong let out a graceful smile as she spoke with her reasonably fair words.

“To help is to be human, to not help is to not be honest. Got it.” Wang Chao nodded his head before turning around to say goodbye. This fight had drained him of his energy, so he had wanted to head back and rest.

“Don’t be in such a rush, hold on.” Zhang Tong noticed that Wang Chao had wanted to leave and quickly spoke, “I know you’re a third year in high school ready to take the university placement exams. I know that with you practicing martial arts every day, you must not have taken university into heavy consideration. If you have interest, then let me know, I can help you get into any university.”

“University…” Wang Chao shook his head, “It’s a waste of my time.”

“Oh! Then whats your ideal future now, take some sort of project?” Zhang Tong asked.

“My ideal future…” Wang Chao knew that his dream right now was to practice his Chinese boxing until it reached the Transforming Jin stage and then find sis Chen. It was that simple.

But this dream was not something he would dare say to Zhang Tong.

“Do you really not plan on going to university?” Zhang Tong’s voice held some lingering regret to it.

“University is meant to waste your time of youth by living a life of pleasure, just what good is that?” Wang Chao was rather astonished by Zhang Tong’s question.

Zhang Tong let out a sigh, “It’s good to play. Once the time of youth has gone by, it cannot come back. When the time comes when you want to squander money, you cannot. Everyone has a period of time they wish to go back to. If you cannot do something, you may come to regret it later in the future. This is the same as a child thinking about his childhood.”

“But if you don’t realize that now, then forget it. You have your path, and I can only sigh about mine. I’m not in the mood to show you my sword dance, so you can go home now. In the future, feel free to come back and use my bodyguards to practice your Jin.”

Wang Chao nodded his head silently and left the building.