Romance of Dragons and Snakes

After another three days, Wang Chao, Lin Yanan, Zhao Xinglong, Boulder, Axe, and Hammer had all gotten on an airplane to Shandong. The other 20 soldiers had already left for Shandong earlier in secret.

Originally, Boulder’s squad of soldiers had a total of 25 men. But because of his first meeting with Wang Chao, Hammer had both of his arms broken by Wang Chao’s Chopping Jin of the tiger stance. So, there was a total of 24 men in the squadron in the past operations.

But it had been a full year now, meaning Hammer’s arms had fully healed. After that competition, even Hammer had came to respect Wang Chao. When this mission was handed down to him, he had immediately agreed to being Wang Chao’s disciple.

Hammer hadn’t been the only one. Zhao Xinglong had fully recovered his arm, leg and chest bones in less than half a year.

As a practitioner of inner martial arts, Zhao Xinglong’s body was naturally stronger than the normal person’s. Furthermore, Wang Chao was extremely rich and could afford to have the best orthopedic specialist to look after him. He had even used the Hidden Jin every so often to help strengthen Zhao Xinglong’s bones.

Half a year ago, Chen Aiyang had treated Wang Chao’s wounds with the use of the soft Hidden Jin to spread through his pores and gather within the lungs. However, the medicine that had circulated with it had been extremely effective to the point where even Wang Chao was amazed.

A martial artist would never not be injured. In the past, those of the Wulin had many healing techniques. Even Wong Feihung had been an expert doctor.

For those who only fought and didn’t heal, their wounds would accumulate and would sooner or later become handicapped.

Treatment using Hidden Jin was similar to a needle in concept, but it was far more effective than one. Wang Chao looked as if he was carefreely applying the Hidden Jin to Zhao Xinglong, but he had actually been concentrating.

Zhao Xinglong’s injuries had offered up a good opportunity to be his experiment.

Wang Chao hadn’t any medicine and so he had to make do with other means. Buying several bottles of tiger bone wine, he applied them to his hand and gently used the Hidden Jin to treat the injured bones within the body.

This way, the results had been extraordinary. Zhao Xinglong’s injuries had recovered at a lightning fast speed.

After this loss, Zhao Xinglong’s hidden fierce willpower had been brought out. And since it was at the hands of a Japanese, it had been brought out with an explosive start.

With his wounds healed, Zhao Xinglong spent everyday training himself to the point where he only had four hours of sleep each day while the rest of the time was spent training. Even Wang Chao had been brought into his training.

In the past, Zhao Xinglong had escaped the underground fighting rings and returned to his education. Then, because of Wang Chao once more, he was able to find a job at the Tianxing Networking and joined the ranks of the upper class society. A life of pleasure with a car to and from wherever. This had already started to corrupt Zhao Xinglong’s willpower.

Although he was at work training everyday, without being enthralled or engrossed with his martial arts, there was naturally no progression. It was with difficulty that he had managed to maintain his skill from atrophying.

In truth, Wang Chao had once been at such a stage like this. It was only after a long journey to baptize his heart and willpower that he was able to break away from the ostentatious deceptions of the mundane world and maintain his path towards the realm of martial arts.

“Perhaps his defeat will be the thing he needs to turn over a new leaf.”

Wang Chao thought.

“Lina Yanan, Shandong is a large area, where will the dojo be, and how will we publicize it.”

On the airplane, Wang Chao and Lin Yanan sat together. Lin Yanan had long since changed her military uniform for a black business suit that did not hide her pale white skin, long slender legs, and ample breasts. Even her ice cold personality had accentuated her appearance along with the perfume she wore. Anyone that looked at her would instantly start to indulge in their inner fantasies a little.

But even when she sat with Wang Chao, Lin Yanan didn’t sense any lecherous or indecent ideas towards her.

Wang Chao’s eyes had sometimes wandered over to her and lingered for a moment, but Lin Yanan had never once seen any complex emotion in them. Instead, his pupils were as pure as running water.

Needless to say, after practicing martial arts, Wang Chao had cultivated his mind and body to a state of tranquility.

“Right here!” Lin Yanan folded the table down in front of her and placed a map right onto it. Pointing, her finger landed upon a rather beautiful city by the coast side.

“Qingdao?”

“Correct, our dojo will be located in the Laoshan district of Qingdao City!” Lin Yanan nodded her head. In that instant, Wang Chao felt the spirit of Zhang Tong.

They were both proficient business women.

“When the organization handed this mission down, I had already made the proper connections with the tourism department of Qingdao. Within the Laoshan district, I’ve enlarged the temple and formed a large scale martial arts school.

“Laoshan? I thought we would be establishing the school in the urban parts of the city like the Taekwondo and Karate dojos.” Seeing how Lin Yanan was so well prepared, Wang Chao had thought for a moment before asking his question, “If the school is near the mountains, wouldn’t that affect us?”

“That’s where you’re wrong!” Lin Yanan’s finger rapped against Mount Song in Henan. “We Chinese must borrow support from the mountains, historical sites and scenic spots in order to grow. Have you seen the Shaolin Temple? Their stock will sooner be hitting the stock markets even! The CEO of Shaolin Temple, master Yong Xin, is far more impressive or famous than any chairman. He himself is a representative of China even! So how about it! Our model of Chinese martial arts will follow such awe-inspiring might and not follow in the footsteps of Japan and Korea.”

After a moment of pause to breathe, Lin Yanan continued, “Laoshan was famous in the past for its scenery and being the holy lands for Daoism. Pu Songling had been a Daoist priest in Laoshan, need I say more? We will borrow from these famous things and mysteries; and combined with your martial arts and the media to promote the school, it will shake the martial arts world. Although it won’t be comparable to the Shaolin Temple or the Wudang Mountains straight away, it’ll beat the Karate and Taekwondo dojos by a decent amount. Plus, Qingdao is closeby to Korea and Japan. With the city is our fighting grounds, we will contend with the dojos of Taekwondo and Karate. With the organization, we will not be an easy target to bully around either.”

“Fine, Laoshan it is!” Hearing Lin Yanan’s explanation, Wang Chao had thought to the business model of the Shaolin Temple.

“Wushu is one thing. But to commercialize Wushu and earn money and fame is another.” Lin Yanan spoke as she took back the map.

When Wang Chao heard this, he suddenly began to feel gloomy.

“Guoshu was created for the sake of killing, not for performance. But now, I’ve been forced to fall to such a state. Is this not a violation of the principles from what sis Chen taught me?”

As he thought, Wang Chao let out a sigh, “I know that sis Chen’s original intentions were to teach me and leave behind her knowledge. Now that I’ve stepped into the martial arts world, I know just how dangerous it is, but how is the world she walks in?”

“What are you thinking about?” Lin Yanan had realized Wang Chao’s face had grown dark and quizzed him on it.

“Ah…it’s nothing.” Wang Chao closed his eyes to rest. “Whatever I don’t know, I will be relying on you. I will only be able to teach martial arts, the rest will be up to you to take charge.”

With Lin Yanan’s preparations, everything would go smoothly.

Four days later, Wang Chao’s group was at the southern side of the Laoshan mountains where a Daoist temple could be seen.

This was the domain where Daoist temples were in Laoshan. Three sides faced the mountains while one side overlooked to the sea. The trees added an air of mystery and was very spacious. Such a location like this was a prime spot for a cultivator.

When Wang Chao came to this place, he looked around and took in the spectacular sight.

These six temples had been combined into one giant building with over 30 buildings and had an ancient yet elegant appeal to it. It was on this mountain that the Laoshan Daoism Society was located.

This time, Lin Yanan had been able to get a part of the place due to the Qingdao government, the other part was due to the organization. Aside from this, they had also paid a wealthy sum to the Laoshan Daoism Society

The signboard had been raised above the school.

But it didn’t use “Tianxing” as the signboard, instead, an old school board had the words “Laoshan School of Internal Martial Arts”.

After the signboard, Lin Yanan had immediately made use of some money to call Shandong’s television station and spread news of it through the media.

In an hour, the name of “Laoshan School of Internal Martial Arts” had spread throughout the entire province like a tidal wave. Practically everyone within Shandong had heard about it and several people from outside the province even had heard about it.

It was similar to the 1990’s “Brotherhood Military School” whose fame had boomed throughout the news so everyone had heard about it.

Furthermore, the Daoist priests of Laoshan were originally very famous. So when Wang Chao had opened up his school, the advertisements had made him out to be a mysterious figure, making people to believe he was a mysterious Daoist priest that was imparting some sort of secret.

Not even a month later, the fame seekers had practically broken down the doors to get in.

But Wang Chao had never shown his face.

Lin Yanan had already prepared for this earlier and had a Daoist priest that knew martial arts from the Laoshan Daoism Society to serve as the intermediary for the public.

Although Wang Chao’s skill at martial arts was enough for him to be a master, with his age, he was no means photogenic. As a master of martial arts, how would earn respect if they did not have the scholarly look and age of an elder man?

This Daoist priest representative was an expert of the Praying Mantis Boxing, Hong Datong. Originally he had been a master of the Seven Star Praying Mantis Boxing, but because of life troubles, he had been forced to leave his home to become a Daoist priest.

He had been fierce, swift, and unrelenting in his attacks, as expected as an expert.

But compared to Wang Chao, there was a huge contrast.

Wang Chao had estimated him to be a little ways off from Qin Maojiao, Yagyu Haruko, and Miyagi Hanshin. But compared to Zhao Xinglong, they were equally matched.

But this level of martial arts was more than enough to fool those who pointed the camera at them or martial art enthusiasts.

Originally, Hong Datong had been displeased in having Wang Chao as the head of the martial arts school. So when the Daoism Society had told him to help out, he did so unwillingly. On the very first day, he had fought against Wang Chao before being sent flying through the air five meters away by Wang Chao’s Chopping Grab. He had even crashed through the wooden gates to the school, breaking it apart.

After this amazing feat and hearing that Wang Chao had been the one last year to defeat one of the Three Tigers of Guangdong, Zhang Wei, he had been shocked. Convinced of Wang Chao’s might, he had been delighted to act as the intermediary for the public and hoped that he would be allowed to learn from Wang Chao as well.

In just a single month after the school had opened, the news had circulated to practically everyone’s ears.

Within Shandong’s capital city, Ji’nan City.

Within the city on the top floor of a large building.

The floor had a giant transparent glass wall, allowing for one to oversee the entire Ji’nan City.

“Junior Liao, the martial arts world has been quite noisy lately! No matter if you’re from Shandong, or a tyrant from Dongbei, everyone has heard about it! Perhaps you have not heard about it?”

Within the giant office space, a 30 year old man with eyebrows that were almost like unibrows could be seen sitting on a large leather sofa.

His hair was a short three inches that spiked up like a porcupine and energy seemed to burst out from him in an endless amount.

“Senior Dai, you ask me what I know about the martial arts world? I’ve only heard that last year, a youth was able to defeat and cause senior Zhang Wei to leap into the ocean to his death. But other than that? Is there anything else to know about?”

This unibrow man was infact one of the Three Tigers of Guangdong, Dai Jun, a master Xinyi Liuhe.

Sitting right in front of him was the princeling of Shandong, Liao Junhua.

But to think Liao Junhua was actually Dai Jun’s fellow junior disciple! This was something even Wang Chao didn’t have information on!

Dai Jun’s master was currently retired Guoshu master Zhu Hongzhi in Hawaii. In the 1970s, he too had been just as renowned as Taiwanese master Xue Lianxin.