Romance of Dragons and Snakes

Chapter 154: It’s Hard to Remain At the Top

“Pft!”

Victory had been determined after a single exchange and separation. Wang Chao spat out another mouthful of blood with a pale face. There was no color to his face now, making him resemble one of those youths that hadn’t seen the light of the sun for years, ill and deathly pale.

Zhou Binglin’s “Bending the Bow to Shoot the Twin Paws of the Tiger” had used up his entire life’s worth of strength from his vertebrae, waist, and leg. Both fists had been like Jiao Long rising from the ocean. With a burst of power, his fists had shocked Wang Chao’s internal organs, causing his intestines to become injured.

A serious injury like this, even with Wang Chao having a strong body due to the Transforming Jin, he would not be able to withstand it.

The hard Jin of Taichi could shock something at its highest level of mastery. In the hands of a person, it could injure the internal organs and bones of a person.

With a little strength, shock could be applied.

With Zhou Binglin’s dozens of years of martial art experience, his two fists could cause a stone to shatter into bits and pieces without there being any major pieces left.

His martial arts had already made major achievements since the age of 20.

At the age of 30, he hadn’t atrophied in strength and instead maintained his position at the top. This was needless to say a good example of his well cultivation of health and martial arts.

His skill right now was the same strength he had when he was 20.

This battle had only consisted of two exchanges. But it could be said that both sides had sustained damages after showing their intent and all of their strength.

“Cough cough, cough cough.” As he coughed out blood, Wang Chao felt extremely sickly as he struggled to breathe without fainting.

“Rip his clothes and tie it around his shoulder, it might help him.” Wang Chao let out another breath of air and sat down on his butt. There were stars in his vision as he grunted. Taking out his cell phone, he dialed in several digits for an international call.

“Wang Chao? Is that you?” A masculine voice could be heard from the other side. It was a very familiar one, because this person was Chen Aiyang.

“I’m in Beijing. I’ve had my internal organs damaged in a match, could you come over?”

When Wang Chao was injured, he had thought about how he couldn’t even touch the other person now. If something were to happen and he was challenged to a match, the one that would lose and die here would be him.

He had become well known through fighting. A man of the water would most likely die in the water. A man of the fist would die because of the fist as well. When Chen Aiyang was injured, Wang Chao had taken his place in a match. And now that he himself was injured, having Chen Aiyang help protect him was a reasonable request.

Sure enough, when Chen Aiyang heard his request, there was a brief moment of stunned silence. “I’ll make the preparations right away to come over as soon as I can.”

As Wang Chao spoke, Cao Jingjing had finally summoned her courage and help bandage up Zhou Binglin’s shoulder. Using his clothes to tie it up, she wrapped the strips around the neck to tighten it. From the looks of things, she looked like she herself was injured.

Because Wang Chao was teaching Cao Jingjing martial arts, they were in a rather seclusive area. It was particularly hard to get here, the average passerby would need to go past several shrubbery and corners in order to get here.

Corners like these were generally places where couples would look for to get intimate. Because of their battle, no person had been here.

“Why isn’t he bleeding! He’s not breathing, is he dead or something?”

When she was binding his wounds, Zhou Binglin’s shoulder had suddenly gone rigid and the blood had stopped bleeding from there. Plus, his breathing and heart beat had essentially gone to zero. Not even a sound could be heard from him.

“Our martial arts have reached a pinnacle where we can our muscles and blood vessels. Even if we were shot, we could take out the bullet and still lessen the heart rate so as to lessen the blood flow.” Wang Chao breathed out. “Call your dad. If something like this makes its way into the public eyes, ai! I can’t even walk right now.”

Cao Jingjing immediately pulled out her phone to make the call.

“You and Wang Chao are together, why? What happened? Where are you?” After several succinct words, Cao Jingjing had explained the situation to her father, “I’ll make the phone calls and get some people there. You all just stay right there and don’t move. Don’t let anyone see you.”

Ten minutes after hanging up the phone, four rather doughty looking men had suddenly shown up. Upon seeing the three people gathered, they had wasted no words and immediately took out several stretchers. Both Zhou Binglin and Wang Chao were both placed on top of the stretcher. These men were moving so fast that it seemed as if they were flying. With just a few minutes, they had exited the place and been placed on top of a car that immediately zoomed towards a hospital.

Wang Chao could relax here now and go to sleep blissfully.

After an unknown amount of time, Wang Chao had found himself in pain all over. His entire interior of his body seemed as if it was burning without relief.

“Don’t move, your internal organs were all shocked. The lightest touch could cause another injury and make it even harder to recover.”

“Master Chen, is that you? How did you know I would be here?” Wang Chao opened his eyes to look at Chen Aiyang.

Chen Aiyang wore a black business suit with golden glasses. He clearly resembled a scholarly businessman and not like the Taichi master he was normally seen to be.

“It was your friend that helped pick up your phone for you and tell me which hospital you were in. When I came, it was fortunate that your friend had spoken in detail about the situation.” Chen Aiyang’s face grew serious, “Who did you fight with to get into such a state? When I took a look at your body, I could see that your martial arts has reached the Transforming Jin stage. Even if you fought me, I wouldn’t be able to win against you so conveniently. Your fighting style is exquisite beyond belief, it’s hard for me to believe that you could be injured to this state.”

“Ai! I fought against an expert because of our intents. In the end, neither side won.” Wang Chao sighed.

“What expert?” Chen Aiyang handed Wang Chao a cup of water to let him drink two sips.

“Zhou Binglin of the Sun Style Taichi. Have you heard of him before?” Wang Chao propped himself up carefully.

“Zhou Binglin of the Sun Style Taichi….” Chen Aiyang’s eyes flickered for a moment as he thought, “That man, I’ve heard of him before. 20 years ago, he was well known in the Southeast Asian district of Hong Kong, Thailand, Myanmar, Korea, and Taiwan for his many matches. Even Xue Lianxin of Taiwan had once been challenged by him once. He was in his twenties and almost his thirties at that time. But before he could even reach his thirties, he suddenly stopped fighting and hide himself in Beijing. This man had fought with my master before. His Taichi is robust and is focused on the fighting aspects, not the flowery movements meant for performance. He has killed or crippled many well known figures and is a super-figure. In his youth, his skill at martial arts was even better than mine. But according to this, he should be in his fifties by now and in no shape to be fighting. Could it be that even in his fifties, he’s still able to fight as if he was 20?”

“He can. Even in his fifties, he fights as if he was in his prime state of his twenties. Sun Style Taichi, it has given him the ability to discipline and cultivate his life with the way of the Confucians. He was 30 when he became well known. And after his thirties, he vanished without a trace and quietly cultivated his health to remain at the top of his strength.” Wang Chao closed his eyes and thought back to the match he just had.

“Just how did you come into conflict?” Chen Aiyang asked, “From what I saw, his injuries aren’t light either. Your fighting style was quite fierce. If he could injure you without being injured himself, then he would be a one-of-a-kind figure in this world.”

“You jest.” Wang Chao’s lips curled into a pained smile before he explained what had happened. “I was teaching someone how to do the posture training when I discovered him hidden in secret by the side. I had originally thought he was an expert that had chanced upon this place in his attempt to train. If he saw and left, then that would be it. Who would have known that even after ten minutes, he wouldn’t leave. And from there, this happened. I thought that with his eyes, he would be able to see that I was an expert and wouldn’t need to stay around. He had to be deliberately challenging me, and so I spoke some hard words to him as well. From there, we had started to fight because of our reputations. In this battle of intent, it would be wrong not to do so.”

Chen Aiyang closed his eyes in amazement, “You’ve already caused quite a stir here several days ago by fighting several experts of martial arts. I have a few friends in Beijing and so I know a little bit about what happened. But even this situation is not an easy one to absolve. They are all well known figures, and you are the founder of your own style and school. There was no friendliness between you two, and so there was no need to appear to be weak. But they had to be curious as well. To have you break their honor and then take away their face, not making a move after you announced yourself wouldn’t do either.”

Wang Chao shook his head, “I am still a youth whose fiery heart has yet to even out. My skill has increased, and I have stepped into the realm of Transforming Jin and found it hard to resist the urge to test it out. Thinking back to it, we could have just pressed hands, what need was there for a fight to the death? We were not forced to a point of no return, were we?”

“No. You forged yourself a path of fighting in Beijing. Sooner or later, the two of you would have found each other and fought. A match in private is better than one that meets the eyes of many. In a public match, to lose a single move is to lose everything.”

Chen Aiyang looked at Wang Chao for a very long time before saying, “And you have too much pressure on you, that is your sore point. I have been burdened by my family, and thus, my martial arts will never improve from this point on. Maintaining my current skill would be decent enough, let alone improve. And yet the events you are wrapped up is far greater than mine. Or at least, that is what I think. Your martial arts right now can be said to be at its peak. If you do not let go of these burdens, I’m afraid you will end up like me. Unable to improve, and hard to maintain your skill.”

“If you continue like this, then by the time you are thirty, it’ll be a mystery just how much you will retain.”

“Obtaining the Way is easy, cultivating the Way is difficult.” Wang Chao closed his eyes. “Turtle Floating in the Water and the Cutting Tail of the Crocodile. These two moves have made major achievements after my step into the Transforming Jin despite me never using them before. I know these two moves follow the way of ‘dividing the muscles and misplacing the bones’ in Chin Na, and makes up for the shortcomings of Xingyiquan. A single move can end a life, but I still cannot bear to use it in an actual fight and see its might. This means my heart has not yet fully matured. I have obtained the Way, but I have not yet cultivated it.”

“I cannot let go of my burdens, but I don’t know if you will be able to.” Chen Aiyang compared his situation to Wang Chao’s. The two of them hadn’t associated with each other for a long time, but Wang Chao had traveled thousands of miles from Shandong to Singapore at the very moment he heard Chen Aiyang had been injured. So the feelings between the two had made them very close friends who had gone through many tribulations together.

So when Wang Chao had called him, Chen Aiyang had put down everything at once to go to Beijing.

“Zhou Binglin’s arm can be reattached, but it will never be at the same power as before. His martial arts has been cut in half at the very least, his life will be in danger after this.” Chen Aiyang spoke.

“Why is that?”

“We are well known experts, where would we not come across combat? What place would not have someone seeking our lives? Zhou Binglin definitely doesn’t have very few enemies. And after he fought you and was heavily injured, the people who he had troubled before won’t leave their grudges end in the past for sure. They will seek to steal his martial arts learnt from the Sun School of Taichi, and see that he is finished. He has some disciples in Beijing most likely, but they did not inherit his legacy and only know enough to play for sport. No one will would be able to fight in his stead.”

“The way I see things, you should find several disciples with talent after you recover and pass your legacy down to two or three of them to help keep up your appearances. Although you are young, a match is nonetheless dangerous. After the peak passes, then the everyday troubles and the problems you have started in the past will come back. The world is huge, and the number of young experts are many along with your enemies. Although you were forced, an enemy is an enemy either way. No one will care that you were forced into it, they will not forgive you.”

When Wang Chao heard the words ‘teach a disciple’, the image of Huo Ling’er had immediately came to mind.

The girl he had met in Hong Kong had a decent amount of aptitude. Otherwise, Wang Chao wouldn’t have used such simple words to teach the essence of internal martial arts to her.

“Perhaps, just perhaps I need to take in a disciple. Reaching the peak takes years but only a moment to pass.”

“Qin Maojiao, Zhang Wei, Yong He, Yong Bao, Duan Guochao, Ye Xuan, and now Zhou Binglin. Then there is also the masters of Yiquan. At least with Ye Xuan, I had no qualms with killing him. The others had been involuntary.”

Wang Chao thought back to each fight he had in his mind. With each fight he had fought involuntarily or not, his hands had taken another life and added another layer of burden onto him. It was in most particular when he had been promoted to a major general–it was unknown if it was because of Tang Zichen or not.

Ever since he had learned of Tang Zichen back in Singapore and then Lin Yanan saying that the organization had investigated his personal background, Wang Chao knew that he was involved in a mess of trouble that he might not be able to free himself from.

These burdens were like a giant boulder that he held above his head.

“Your internal injuries this time is very serious. Even as proficient I am in the art of healing, it would take a very long time for you to heal with my daily medical help and your cultivation of the health. But in this time, if there is anyone that wishes to challenge you, I will help stand in your place.” Chen Aiyang took out a set of acupuncture and moxibustion from the side.

Chen Aiyang was an expert at the stage of Transforming Jin and was also an expert in the art of healing. He knew the human body like the back of his hand, and with his care and treatment, Wang Chao wasn’t worried about his injuries.

“Do you happen to know why Zhou Binglin doesn’t have an inheritor?” Wang Chao suddenly asked.

“Zhou Binglin sees himself in very high regards. He was even willing to challenge Xue Lianxin despite a disciple taking the challenge in Xue Lianxin’s stead and ending it on an indecisive note. In the end, as a youth, he was quite arrogant. His aptitude in the Sun Style of Taichi was decent, but moral standing was not passed down. Perhaps when he saw you, a youth with decent skill, he was willing to deliberately test your moral character by provoking you. He would be able to see if you would stand up for it by then. Or perhaps he had no malicious intent and didn’t think that things would progress to such a step. But you have your own status and tradition to pass on. What he did was indeed quite rash.”

“Zhou Binglin’s skill in martial arts is many times better than the group of military instructors you met at the Yiquan dojo. After cultivating his health to his fifties, he was able to maintain his strength. A feat like that is not easy.” Wang Chao sucked in a deep breath.

“The Sun School of Tachi had their own region. But the Sun School and the PRC sports and physical culture commission had came across a problem. The Sun School wished to continue their study on actual combat, and the commission wished for them to lean towards performance. With the Sun School having no influential officials to back them, there was a conflict and so there were very few inheritors. Perhaps Zhou Binglin was one of them.” Chen Aiyang took out a shiny long needle and pressed it into Wang Chao’s waist with a slow action.

“This situation is preposterous. It seems I have not fully washed away the vicious currents from within my body. Until Zhou Binglin recovers, I will take his place in case anyone wishes to find sport with him.” Wang Chao spoke.

“That won’t be necessary. If you take his place, he will not feel grateful. From here on out, you and him are enemies until the death. His disciples will take revenge on you for him.You must be careful and try not to kill every single one or try to be too much. I would also suggest you not bother about helping him, you can’t even move by yourself independently. You’ve killed Duan Guochao and destroyed the fame of the Shaolin Temple. You’ve also defeated a group of military instructors in Beijing. And now with your defeat of Zhou Binglin, you will become well known in Beijing. What happens next, you should take in disciples and gain a network. Teach some disciples and let them fight in your stead. If in the future you are still forced to fight, try to evade it as best as you can. Do not reveal your best martial arts, avoid hurting people, and don’t get any new enemies.”

“You’ve made a name for yourself, you don’t need to fight any more. Using the martial code of conduct to speak, should you ever come across this same situation, you should avoid it. Turn to the art of performance and get rid of the vicious currents you had while making a name for yourself.”

“Ai! After making a name for myself, there is still the martial code of conduct to speak of!” Wang Chao had thought about those words helplessly. He thought about the name he had made for himself, and how he was considered the number one amongst the arm.

Suddenly, the single image of a person appeared in his mind. This person held a spear and bottle gourd in hand. Wearing a bamboo hat, he stood in the darkness of the night with snow falling behind him amidst the fire in the background.

This was “Panther Head”, Lin Chong.

The martial arts instructor for 800,000 imperial guards. What a title that was.

A fame like his was similar to the fame Wang Chao had right now.

Under the heavens, just who was the true grandmaster, and who was the true hero?

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