Romance of Dragons and Snakes

Chapter 29: The trail of clues left behind by Zhang Tong

“Youngsters are exuberant in both mental and physical fortitude. Loving to battle fiercely is no oddity. But to not be arrogant after a win and instead sympathize with the loser, and then giving money? He is truly modest, and his words of reason flow from his mouth like water. What a modest nobleman; gentle like jade, a matured youth. He has already the fledgling state of mind to become a master. His future will definitely not be limited.”

At the first moment of contact Zhang Tong had with Wang Chao, she had felt that he was a youth with a decent skill of martial arts, but she had only been interested in him. This was merely one of her interests, like when Zhao Xinglong had appeared, she had taken interest in him too. But when she saw just how liberally Wang Chao had given his money to Zhao Xinglong, she felt a shock go through her heart. From there, her interest had transformed to become admiration.

“Hm? What is sis Zhang Tong thinking about?”

After watching Zhao Xinglong leave, Wang Chao thought back to the battle he just had. It was only know that he could truly appreciate how terrifying Zhao Xinglong was. If he had not spent so much time practicing his entire body, footwork, strength, and posture to the stage of Clear Jin, he would not have been an opponent for him.

Zhao Xinglong had also an abundant amount of fighting experience. In the final moments, he had been able to issue power through the use of Tongbei to strike out viciously and explosively. Even as Wang Chao thought about it now, he began to feel some fear from it.

Fortunately the Assault of Dragon and Snake style had been exquisite. Using the snake form to evade and get up close, then the dragon form to carry the crotch and then the Returning Body Palm to swing his way to victory! But even with Zhao Xinglong falling to the ground, he could still climb back up since he did not yet lose his fighting spirit. If this had been a fight to the death, there would still be a fight. It was only when one falls dead that the other is the victor.

When discussing power and skill, Wang Chao felt that his own strength compared to the iron elbow of Zhao Xinglong was still lacking.

Zhao Xinglong’s ability with his inner Jin had even advanced to such a stage where his skin was like iron and his pores like pellets. After his pores had been sealed, Wang Chao had been unable to listen to his Jin and get a feel for his center of gravity.

“I’ve only fought against wrestling experts in the past like officer Cao, Li Feng, and Liu Wenjun. But officer Cao is still quite amazing with him hiding his true strength. However, he isn’t as scary as Zhao Xinglong. Compared to him, Zhao Xinglong’s strength is something that doesn’t come around often. That battle was quite a valuable one.”

As he thought about Zhao Xinglong as an opponent, another zap of lightning ran through his head, shocking him away. Seeing how Zhang Tong was looking at him, Wang Chao couldn’t help but ask her a question.

“En?!” ZHang Tong was instantly brought back to awareness. With a dainty smile, she looked back to Wang Chao, “I was just thinking about how odd this was. You are a third year about to graduate high school, meaning that you’re not even 18 years old yet. But your words sound like they belong to a wisened person. Youth are supposed to be youthful, hot-blooded and full of acute spirit, but you have none of that. I’d say that’s a bit odd.”

Zhang Tong’s words were spoken from her heart, and so she eagerly awaited for Wang Chao’s response.

“Is sis Zhang talking what I just did?” Wang Chao finally understood the meaning behind her words. “That’s nothing, I recently read a book of the history of the martial art masters. Each one of them lamented about how the path of martial arts was difficult, and the majority of them were hard-pressed by how to live. Even if they were undefeated as martial artists, if they had no other support, then they would only be able to live a wretched life. Zhao Xinglong is a strong martial artist, if he were to give up martial arts for the sake of supporting himself, that would be a shame. Besides, it was just some money I had idling around, if I can make a difference, I should make the difference then. Compared to Taekwondo, Chinese boxing has really declined and withered away. If it went on, then I would be able to find no one else. I have no girlfriend and am alone already, so money is not much use. This has nothing to do with being mature. The elder generation of masters were all like this as well, I feel that as one who walks the road of martial arts, this attitude should be necessary.”

“En, this type of thinking is definitely a sign of being mature.” Zhang Tong laughed. “When you and Zhao Xinglong were competing, I thought it was rather spectacular. What about you?”

“It was a narrow victory, but if this was an underground fight to the death, I don’t know who would have won.” Wang Chao spoke. “He has practiced martial arts longer than I have, and his experience is well beyond mine. With those two advantages, I can’t hope to say I could beat him as I am now.”

“Wait for the future to compare notes, it’s too early to say you cannot improve to beat him. The fist fears growing weak, and the elderly do not cheat the youth. You cannot say clearly who will be the winner so easily then.” Zhang Tong could see where Wang Chao was getting at. “I have several amazing bodyguards who are all practitioners as well, are you interested in sparring with them?”

Zhang Tong had placed the bait, all that was left was to wait for Wang Chao to take it.

If there was a chance for actual combat, there would be no way for Wang Chao to decline. Immediately, he replied, “I can’t think of anything better.”

“Let’s go then, I’ll take you!” Zhang Tong paid the restaurant bill and then left the restaurant with Wang Chao. In an instant, she had drove the two of them down the road into the downtown portion of the city.

It had taken them around half an hour before they finally arrived at a luxurious building. This area was S province’s most flourishing commercial street.

This official building had been even more grand than the Taekwondo dojo. With the reinforced glass and high beam steel structure, it gave off that modern city feel. Even the people walking on the streets next to it had a city feel to them as they bustled about.

The moment when Zhang Tong had stopped the car in front of the building, three men wearing black suits and earphones suddenly appeared out of nowhere with expressions as cold as ice.

“Chief Zhang!” The first most male looked at Wang Chao with an odd expression before looking away.

“Take the car around the back, then come back up.” Zhang Tong nodded her head as she gave an order. Leaving the car, she let the the bodyguard drive the car down to the garage of the building.

“Let’s go!” Zhang Tong gave Wang Chao a smile before walking with the remaining two bodyguards into the elevator within the building.

When Wang Chao saw the three bodyguards, he had immediately measured their strengths, They looked like the typical bodyguard in their black suits and earphones, but when Wang Chao looked at their hands, he felt that they were similar to Cao Yi’s hands. The knuckles were equal in height and brown in color. But the one difference between Cao Yi and them was that their eyes were exceptionally cold. They had even given off an unfriendly air around them.

This type of aura would make any regular person feel that it was dangerous to be too close to them.

But this feeling had only served to make Wang Chao feel more cautious around them.

“They are all retired military men that became mercenaries for hire. Trained in Africa with a stringent schedule, they are adept in the art of killing and spy methods. Their cruel training had forced them to give up their emotions, so they are extremely terrifying to fight. Do you still wish to fight against them?”

As the elevator stopped, Zhang Tong gave a single question to Wang Chao.

“Mercenaries?” Wang Chao was stunned before a thought popped up in his mind. “I’ve read in the True Record of Guoshu that there were other places that trained mercenaries in the art of killing. They might be related to sis Chen…”

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