Romance of Dragons and Snakes

Chapter 175: The Young Boss of a Criminal Syndicate

Crash! The doors had immediately broke apart as several young but brash looking men flew in and surrounded Huo Ling’er. The unfortunate guy who had been hit in the face by Huo Ling’er had even made a single sound from where he was and remained motionless on the ground. Whether he was alive or dead, no one knew.

“Fucker, how dare you attack our brother? Let’s take this bitch!”

“Don’t let anyone in the room get off scot free either, beat them!”

“The boss is currently negotiating in the other room. Have some of our men tie them all up and see who they are. Don’t delay the matter.”

There had been forty to fifty people within this cramped aisleway. And with the servants seeing this sight, each and every single one of them were so frightened out of their minds that they couldn’t even find which where to go to hide.

From a dozen of them, some of them had carried some barstools, some held an empty bottle, and some had even carried a fruit knife. From the looks of things, they were all gangsters.

“This place is a fancy establishment with good food. So why are there so many hoodlums here? What kind of hoodlums should even show up here? In Hong Kong, only the food stalls would have these problems.”

The very first young gangster that came in had teeth that had yellowed from bad care. With a cuss at Huo Ling’er, he threw out a slap with one hand and a hand to grab at her hair.

Needless to say, this young man wasn’t a practitioner of martial arts. But he understood how to fight to some degree and was quick with his movements. From the looks of things, he was quite practiced at this too.

Bringing up her left hand, Huo Ling’er had deflected the slap while forming a U-shaped grab with her right arm like a hook. As her muscles bulged outwards, it had instantaneously grabbed at the hand coming for her hair yanked at it hard as if pulling at the tail of a cow.

Crack! A loud cracking sound could be heard from the gangster’s arm as he tumbled to the ground. With a cry, the man grabbed at his arm in pain and fought no more.

These two movements were from the monkey stance of Xingyiquan. The “Single-hand Rope Tug” and the “Yank the Cow Tail”. With these two and the combined force of inertia, the joints would not be able to endure it. Grab and tug and then pull back even more to break them. From the way Huo Ling’er fought, she looked like the textbook example of self defense.

At the same time she had pulled back, she managed to evade the other people who came at her. In a single moment, she had dodged three bottles, two kicks, and a barstool.

Be flexible in the face of danger and forego style in favor of nimbleness. That was the secret to fighting.

Even Wang Chao was full of praise for her at her choice of counters. There were plenty of counters to the course of action the gangster had chosen, like using the monkey stance to squat down and deliver an uppercut.

There was also spreading your arms wide and using the “Bear Strikes Tree”.

There was also the “Seafloor Leg” where one would kick at the opponent’s abdomen swiftly to send them flying, and so on.

This specific method on the other hand was only useful against a single person, but it allowed for the user to avoid being surrounded.

In this act of evading and injuring, she had broken free of the potential trap. In the current situation, this was the best choice to make.

In a one on one match, there was no need for this improvisation. As long as one used complicated but speedy movements that obscured the true motive within the false actions, then they would be able to win over their opponent without much harm.

This was the difference between the two fights.

As soon as she had disposed of one person, she flashed on over to the next closest person and sent them flying with a kick. Then arching her back so that it fell to the floor, her feet began to sweep out and slam into the waists of those around her. From the outside looked as if they had slipped on the banana, and in the next moment, the ones who had been hit head had swapped places with his feet as his body spun in the air along with another five people that had fell prey to Huo Ling’er’s attack.

This particular move was known as the “Black Dragon Spiralling Up Pillar”. Classified as a drop, spin, roll and leaping move, it was considered inapplicable to use in an actual fight.

This was a move that was meant to attack those around the user. But its strength wasn’t even enough to harm anyone, especially another practitioner. An attack from the legs like this would be like the sting of a mosquito.

But in a fight against many where the opponents were weak, it showed its true strength there.

The gangsters who had rushed at her were not that tolerant to pain and had been struck in the face or cheeks by her feet. With such a searing amount of pain, some of them had spat out blood, some had spat out their teeth. After being struck in the mouth, their gums had been jolted loose.

Springing back up from the ground like a carp, Huo Ling’er had watched the four people on the ground and the six people who had been struck by her feet run back to the door. With blood dripping from their mouths and teeth falling from their gums, they might have had the strength to continue fighting, but they didn’t dare to continue, so Huo Ling’er dusted off her hands in accomplishment.

“A fighting style like that is quite efficient. If it were us, we wouldn’t be able of accomplishing the task at hand half as fast.” Liu Qing, Gao Jun, Zhang Kai, and Fang Wei had been amazed to see just how fast Huo Ling’er had finished up the battle.

They might have been experts in killing and warfare to a degree where these gangsters wouldn’t be a problem, but they wouldn’t have been able to be as decisive as Huo Ling’er had been should it have been them.

It wasn’t that Huo Ling’er was better than them in martial arts. It was just that the way she had decided to fight was one of the most effective measures in that scenario.

For example, using the palm to kill a mosquito would be more cost-effective than using an anti-tank missile. Needless to say, the anti-tank missile was stronger than the palm.

“I’ve picked up a gem.” Wang Chao thought to himself.

“But what’s going on for this to even happen? I am sure I heard a gun in the next room over, are two criminal gangs negotiating on something? Is the law and order here that bad?” Wang Chao didn’t bother to eye the spectacle in front of him and instead twitched his ears so that they listened closely to the sounds coming from the next room over.

Liu Qing and the others followed suit.

The rooms in this place were separated by the walls with a decent level of soundproofing. But because the people were talking quite loudly and because Wang Chao’s ability to hear was better than most, he was able to hear more than what he should have been.

“Just five hundred kilometers southwest from here is the border to Myanmar, so it’s only natural that the security here wouldn’t be too good. But to openly negotiate in this restaurant with so many gangsters gathered around? That’s a rare sight.” Liu Qing explained.

At the same time in the next room over.

There was a single rectangle table situated in the center of the room, but instead of food, there were only drinks to be seen. By one side of the table was a dark-skinned man with a toothpick in his mouth and a large gold necklace hanging around his neck.

Behind him were two rather malevolent bodyguards with their hands around their guns and had pointed them at the people in front.

“Brat, your pubes haven’t even grown yet and you think you can talk business with me? Don’t think that I won’t shoot you to death where you stand.” The man spat out his toothpick.

“Boss Hong, your actions last year in the dance halls cost us about sixty percent of our business, don’t you think that was a little too much?” Even up against two guns, the ones in front of the man hadn’t flinched and had instead felt around his own waist.

In front of boss Hong was a young man who wasn’t even in his thirties and dressed in white sportswear. Right behind him stood another four youths that were empty handed, but even they weren’t afraid in the face of a gun.

“Brat, the fact that I came here today was already more than I should have done! Until your balls drop, what more can you even talk about this? Go back and study in school and graduate early for a nice job for your mommy and daddy to be proud in. Their investment in you would be ruined otherwise.” The man spoke. “From now on, I will be taking control of all the karaoke and dance halls in this area. Your men can still do business, but you’ll be giving us a protection fee of eighty percent of course. The time for baby talk is over.”

With that, the man clapped his hands for one of the gangsters to come in.

“Take care of these five kids.” The man spoke to him.

“Boss Hong, the people in the next room over….” The gangster immediately whispered to him.

“What? What about them?” The man narrowed his eyes.

“I don’t know, but I think they’re people from the military academy. I’ve told the others to stop, but some of our men are already injured, and one of them is seriously hurt. If you could take a look….”

“What? I’ll go on over to take a look. A conflict with the armed police from that academy has to be avoided at all costs. What the fuck did you do, I told you to bring some people here without disturbing anyone. How did you fuck this up?”

“Boss, please don’t worry. I called fifty of our brothers over; with the two gunners we have, they’ll be enough to take care of these brats.”

Then only silence could be heard from the next room over. The door to their own room had opened to reveal the gold-necklace wearing man–it was Boss Hong.

When the man entered, his eyes swept over the six. And when he saw the military uniform Gao Jun and the others wore, his eyes twinkled for a moment before he clasped his hands together. “If my men were too loud just now, please excuse us for that. Please allow me to pick up your bill today for disturbing you all.”

Wang Chao gave a look to Liu Qing. When Huo Ling’er had injured those men, he and the others were prepared to fight or perhaps call in for some men to come and arrest the gangsters. But when the boss had spoken with polite words instead of fists, a fight had been avoided.

“My apologies for the disturbance.” The man then looked back to his own men, “Go on with your business and don’t cause a disturbance.”

“He has good eyes.” Liu Qing noted with a smile after the man walked out.

“Hm, has a fight broken out in the neighboring room?” As soon as Wang Chao spoke, the situation within the other room had changed drastically. When boss Hong had left the room, the youth that had been held at gunpoint had immediately whipped his hand out from his waist. There had been a series of metallic clinks when a single thin chain came flying out without warning!

At the head of the chain was a sharp and shiny spear. In the next moment, it had cleanly sliced off the finger of one of the gunners, spraying blood everywhere and forcing him to drop his gun.

The other person holding the gun had been startled, but he hesitated to fire off his gun. To open fire within a city would alert the cops firstly, and these guns were mainly for deterrence rather than usage.

In this hesitation, the youngster had whipped his hand so that the spear had altered directions and pierced straight through the man’s hand so that he too had dropped his gun.

This youngster was using something called the chain whip. It was in a category of its own rather than being under a blade, spear, sword, or staff. The chain whip was composed of a series of chains as thick wide as two fingers and had a dart attached at its end. In the hands of an expert, it was an art, in the hands of a beginner, harm would befall the user rather than the enemy.

A chain whip was very easy and convenient to carry, and the youth had used it as a belt. In its time of need, the youth would only need to loosen and shake his hand for the the chain whip to come flying out like a maddened serpent. He too was a practitioner.

In two quick movements, the youngster had already disposed of the gun threats. Leaping over the table, he had kicked both the gun into the wall. “Pick them up, if you see anything in their eyes, shoot them!”

From behind, the four other youngsters behind him picked up the guns. “Get out!” He commanded the gangsters.

Quickly dodging out of sight, the gangsters had immediately let them out from the room.

After dealing with Wang Chao, boss Hong had already arrived at the entrance of the stairwell to head down. In a swift movement, the youngster with the chain whip had lashed out so that the chin had quickly flashed on over and coiled around the man’s neck. With a vicious tug, the man had been pulled to the ground.

“My my, how scary the younger generation are. This youth isn’t even an adult yet and it seems that he is already the boss of a criminal gang. And his usage of the chain whip isn’t bad. It is fierce and ruthless even.”

When Wang Chao saw this, he had been surprised.

He had heard what happened in the next room over with clarity. Both boss Hong and this youth were seemingly part of two different criminal organizations and were trying to control the business that would normally take place within karaoke rooms and dance halls. That much was normal. In a small city like this, these type of gangs cropped up everywhere like bamboo after the spring rain.

But Wang Chao didn’t expect to see that one of these gang heads would be a young youth.

“There were rumors from two days ago that a seventeen year old youth from Guangdong had managed to become the owner of ten different prostitutes. I didn’t believe it at first, but now that I see this youngster, his technique is heads above the others. Does he have a teacher? If not, then this is a sapling worth growing; a disciple that is worth training to uphold my school. But I should observe for now instead of repeating the mistake Zhou Binglin had done.”

From the very moment Wang Chao had seen this youth start to fight with his chain whip, Wang Chao had felt that this youth was very much worth being a disciple he could train.

Huo Ling’er had talent, but she was in the end tied down by her family. But this youth was the boss of a gang; they were supposed to kill in any case.

Wang Chao wasn’t as rash as Zhou Binglin was. So while he had taken notice of this youth, he would first try to learn the situation.

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