Romance of Dragons and Snakes

Wang Chao’s eyes quickly gathered onto the monk.

The beard of this monk had been very long, but it had been well groomed and his forehead was a smooth white with a slight red hue. His eyes flashed brightly and the skin on his hands were pliable and tough without any signs of aging. Clearly, he had reached the Hidden Jin stage as well and practiced enough to keep his skin in good condition.

When a person first starts to practice, they temper the muscles, bones, and skin. Any hard style martial arts would naturally form calluses on the hands and kill the skin. If one were to learn Hidden Jin, then the strength of the pores would multiply, and the life force of the skin would grow even stronger. After another stage, the dead skin would fall off and the new skin would be born anew over it.

The wounds incurred by the axemen hired by Zhao Jun had left behind a terrifying centipede like scar on the back of Wang Chao in the past.

But after he had learned the tiger stance, eagle stance, dragon stance, and snake stance so that the Hidden Jin had spread through to his arms, back, chest, waist, and legs, the centipede scar on his back had slowly healed. In the end, the dead skin had fell off, leaving behind perfect skin.

“Let’s go, there’s no point staying here any longer then.”Lin Yanan had ignored the monk’s words and drew close to Wang Chao. “It looks like the friends of Zhang Wei are truly afraid of an enemy of Zhang Wei coming to eliminate any problem before it happens. With Zhang Wei’s family gone overseas, any obligations and manners you have are now fulfilled. There’s no point causing any more trouble, let’s go.” She whispered.

Lin Yanan didn’t want to cause any trouble with Leung Jingmen or the monk and had wished to leave.

“If you don’t speak the truth, you will not leave!” The bearded monk’s eyes flashed as he took a step forward. His hands extended forward before coming at Lin Yanan’s wrist.

His forefingers pinched together to form a blade while his thumb and pinky fingers closed together. With a gentle but swift movement, he had already made contact with Lin Yanan’s clothing.

Startled, Lin Yanan had found herself with no time to dodge. Despite her being fast, the monk had been far too fast for her. Furthermore, there had been no wind with his strikes, making it seem as if it was unable to be predicted in its movements and to escape his grasp.

“What are you doing?”

Wang Chao gave a gentle cough, there would be no way for him to not act against the monk. With a single jab of his fist that rumbled with thunder as the muscles moved as one, the fist pressed against the monk’s hand.

“The Five Thunders, your inner organs and muscles act as one?! How is that possible?” The monk’s ear twitched as he brought his hand away, realizing that he could not defend against Wang Chao’s fist. If he tried, then his hand would be broken from the force within Wang Chao’s fist.

To release thunder was said to be when a Daoist monk would truly be considered to be called a Daoist spiritual master. The Thunder Magics were one of the most amazing powers of Daoism. In popular legends, a spiritual master that had learned the Thunder Magics would be able to subdue demons, intimidate heretics, call upon the winds and rain, turn beans to soldiers, to ride the clouds and mist, and to be omnipotent.

Naturally, these were only myths that were told generation to generation without ever understanding it.

However, for a practitioner to release a thunder-like sound, this could be said to be an act of god that no ordinary person would understand.

Frightened, the Daoist monk quickly took back his fist and slid backwards. This movement had been exquisite and quite similar to the way a practitioner of Bagua would move.

When Leung Jingmen saw Wang Chao take action, he too had taken a step back in fright.

“Who are you? How did you attain such a level of martial arts?” As the Daoist monk moved back, his eyes looked at Wang Chao with fear and surprise.

By now, the villagers around the stone bridge had finally taken notice of the commotion and had gathered around them like a ring.

Those youths who were practicing their fists earlier had instantly surrounded Wang Chao, Zhu Jia, and Lin Yanan.

Wang Chao looked at the people around him with furrowed eyebrows. He hadn’t thought that a trip to see Zhang Wei’s family would cause such an event.

“What are you doing surrounding him, hurry up and move!” When the monks saw how eager the youths were to fight, he nervously let out an angry shout.

The monk was fully aware that Wang Chao’s single palm strike just then was enough to kill him as easily as an ant.

“I am a disciple from the Wudang Jiugong Sword School. My family name is Gan. Might this one ask where this master has come from, and why reasons you have for looking for Zhang Wei? Master Zhang Wei lost a gamble and was forced to die by jumping into the ocean and his family has already left for overseas.”

The tone of the monk had changed straight away.

“I am the one that master Zhang Wei fought in that gamble. I came here today purely to see if I could help his family.” Wang Chao had given his answer some thought. Lying would do him no good here. Instead of spouting lies with loopholes, it would be better to come clean. He was a just and honorable person and did not wish to speak in circles.

The entire Wudang mountains had many Daoist temples and even more monks hidden away to train in martial arts. There were many different schools, and even Chen Aiyang’s “Fishing Toad Jin” came from the Wudang school “Golden Toad Sect” as a way to cultivate the health.

These schools weren’t the same as the ones depicted in the martial art novels. There were no eldest disciple, second disciple, third disciple, fourth disciple, the son of a disciple, or any chivalrous person living as a traveling performance. The many schools of Wudang oftentimes had only just one person who would learn a specific style of martial arts and cultivation method. If there was no one to learn it, then it would die out.

“So it is! I knew a malicious person would come here! It is fortunate that we’ve prepared for this and sent Zhang Wei’s wife and child overseas. Don’t even think about using your Hidden Jin to cripple the son before he grows older. But, I had no idea that at such a young age, a talented person like you would have such a malicious heart? You forced Zhang Wei to jump to his death, and now you wish to do harm to his child! I am a martial artist as well, and although I wouldn’t try to provoke you on a normal basis, this is a situation where I cannot back away! No matter how strong you are, I am the senior student to Zhang Wei, I cannot just escape my duties. Come take your strike then!”

After Leung Jingmen had learnt of Zhang Wei’s death, he made his preparations and deals to have Zhang Wei’s family sent overseas with more than enough money to hide.

Zhang Wei had many enemies, some of them experts capable of Hidden Jin. Despite people not so willing to brazenly commit murder in today’s legal system, using Hidden Jin to harm a child would manifest itself many days later. Through this method, even the police would find it nearly impossible to understand what had happened.

Just like how Wang Chao used Hidden Jin in his Eagle Claw to injure Miyagi Hanshin, it took six days for Miyagi’s kidney to undergo necrosis and result in him urinating blood.

With how Wang Chao and the two others came visiting with their words not matching their actions, Leung Jingmen’s reaction to the revealing of their statuses was only naturally. It would be even weirder for him to believe that Wang Chao had wanted to help Zhang Wei’s family.

A person shows up out from nowhere after killing a man. That same person says he wishes to help the family of the person he killed, but he had always dodged the main question. It didn’t take much to guess that this person was up to no good.

From the situation around him, Wang Chao knew that there had been a misunderstanding. But trying to run his mouth to explain the situation wouldn’t do him any good now.

“A fight is unavoidable it seems. With so many villagers here, if we aren’t careful, then they’ll smash our car and make it hard for us to leave. Then I’ll defeat these two and establish my strength so that we can straighten things out.”

Taking in his surroundings, Wang Chao had instantly made an analysis and made a plan in accordance.

When one’s martial art was good, then their eyes and thinking would be just as strong. If one didn’t have a sharp thinking mind, then their martial arts was inversely not as good.

“I did not come here to cause trouble; I only wish to see if I could help master Zhang Wei’s family with anything. But as things stand now, you do not trust me. We are martial artist, let us settle this as how martial artists should. This way, whomever the winner is whoever gets their way.”

“Come then!” Leung Jingmen didn’t draw back from the challenge and spoke to the monk, “Master Gan, please support me.”

“No need, the two of you should come up together.” Wang Chao’s eyes lit up. Now that he was capable of breaking out with thunder, he wanted to know just how strong his body had become. These two martial artist experts right in front of him would provide an excellent battle. But the most crucial matter was that if he fought against one of the two, the other could potentially pose a danger to Zhu Jia or Lin Yanan. It was best to fight one against two then.

“Eh?!” Leung Jingmen and the monk looked at each other skeptically.

“That’s fine then if you say so. With you capable of Thunder Magic and your muscles and bones working together, the two of us against you is a sufficient match up.” The priest let out a sigh in relief.

Wang Chao looked at the monk’s reaction in surprise. He had thought that at his proposal for the two of them to fight him, they would be furious and humiliated.

But who would have known that the other side would instead agree to the challenge.

“What a guy, he was already anticipating a two against one fight.” Wang Chao didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “But that’s true. With today’s society, who would follow the rules of the Wulin of the past? They aren’t the rules of a match, so the majority fighting the minority is something to be happy about.”

“Fine, let me take a drink of water first!” Monk Gan spoke with a bright eye before holding out a hand. Straight away, the youths all looked at each other with a strange look. Then, one of them immediately ran off to the nearby store to buy a bottle of mineral spring water.

A bottle of mineral spring water held more of it than a regular bottle of water. Twisting off the cap, the monk began to drink the entire bottle until not even a single drop of water was left in it.

“Come then!’ After the monk finished drinking, Leung Jingmen immediately gave a loud shout. Whirling around, his foot stepped towards Wang Chao while his hand whipped around like a spinning top to strike at Wang Chao’s front.

This was the fierce and strong “Whip Fist” of Hung Ga. With the revolution of the body, the arms acted as a conduit for strength to make the bones as strong as iron.

Leung Jingmen was the older student compared to Zhang Wei. His Hung Ga and Wingchun were both exquisite and purely trained, making him no weaker than Zhang Wei.

Just as Leung Jingmen made his move, the priest suddenly opened his mouth and spat out a fierce jet of water just like a high-pressure water pistol. Not only was it strong, it had flew towards Wang Chao in an instant!

This jet of water had a surprisingly fast velocity to it!

In the same moment he spat out the water, the priest began to make his move. Stepping towards Wang Chao’s right side, his finger flashed out like the point of a sword to strike at Wang Chao’s acupuncture point on the waist.

These two men’s simultaneous strikes were synchronized with each other almost seamlessly in a way that would make it almost impossible to defend against.

“Ah!” Lin Yanan let out a startled breath as her heart leapt into her throat. Never could she imagine that the water from the monk’s mouth would be capable of such a strike!

She had clearly seen the monk drink the monk swallow the water instead of holding it in his mouth. But he still managed to spit it back out. This could only demonstrate that the enemy had an extremely fine amount of control over his inner organs!

In between the two men’s strikes, the more amazing feat had actually been that jet of water!

With the velocity that the jet of water was traveling at, if it were to hit Wang Chao’s eyes, then he would surely take damage, and perhaps even go blind!

This had meant the enemy was quite strong if he was able to spit out something at such speed! This was a very different style of martial arts that Wang Chao had seen in the Wulin before.

But in the previous year, Wang Chao had spat out some blood in order to fight Zhang Wei in the same fashion!

And today, within the hometown of Zhang Wei, the monk would use a similar style of surprise attack!

Was this the will of the Heavens? The way of Heaven is fair, but the guilty would not be able to escape for long.

But what bad luck! In this unseen world of spirits, there was no such thing as the existence of the Will of Heaven. This was a materialistic world. In an instant, Wang Chao covered his eyes with a hand while the other hand chopped downwards with the thundering sounds of a tiger against Leung Jingmen’s “Whip Fist”!

Pa! Leung Jingmen’s fist met Wang Chao’s Chopping Fist head on. Straight away, Leung Jingmen felt as if he had been struck by lightning. Feeling slightly paralyzed, he immediately drew back.

While he was very skilled in martial arts, just how would he be able to defend himself against the thunder that Wang Chao could bring out with his Jin!

At the same time, when the water struck Wang Chao’s hand, there had been a stinging sensation almost as if an actual arrow had struck him.

“What a strong set of lungs!” Wang Chao sighed to himself before bringing both hands down to his ribs. With an eagle-like screech, he grabbed onto the monk’s fingers.

In shock, the monk immediately shook his wrists and began to follow one of the powers of the sword. A drop, a rise, and a twist! Changing one after another, he bursted with all his strength! At the end, he had successfully escaped Wang Chao’s Eagle Claw.

Then the monk leapt back! As Wang Chao advanced forward like a serpentine dragon springing outwards. As the monk retreated ten steps, Wang Chao advanced ten steps with him, making it seem as if they were one!

“Down you go!” At this loss of composure of the monk, Wang Chao managed to pierce through the monk’s defenses. With a single Returning Body Palm, Wang Chao sent the monk flying through the air like a ragdoll down into the waters below the bridge.

At the same time, Leung Jingmen had charged up the bridge. At the moment Wang Chao threw the monk down, he flowed straight into the next pattern. In an instant, he appeared right in front of Leung Jingmen and struck out with another chop.

Intimidated by the strength in Wang Chao’s chop, Leung Jingmen retreated in fear of a clash of fists.

But Wang Chao pressed forward with his footwork moving as fast as an arrow. No matter how much Leung Jingmen retreated, Wang Chao would stick to him.

Growing flustered, Leung Jingmen had met the same faith as the monk and was thrown into the waters below with Wang Chao’s Returning Body Palm.

“Ai! Your skill is pure, and even Zhang Wei would not be your superior. It is only unfortunate that you lack actual combat experience. In a true match of life and death, you are a far ways away from master Zhang Wei.”

Wang Chao sighed before following Zhu Jia and Lin Yanan onto the car. Now that he had proved his strength, no one in the village would dare go against him.