Romance of Dragons and Snakes

In an instant, Wang Chao had pressed himself to the ground almost as if he was doing a pushup. His hands bent at an angle as he crawled forward along with his knees in a reckless charge.

By the time the male and female gunners had stepped out of the black car, Wang Chao had already made his move. Moving in a serpentine motion, his arms and legs crawled across the ground with his chest extremely close to it. Just like how the scales of a snake would slither and slide, his body had contorted just like how a real python would slither over the ground.

Shua shua shua! His speed was absolutely astounding and gave everyone the feeling that a startled snake had suddenly darted out from the grass with a whooshing sound.

Legend has it that when a snake grows extremely strong, their entire body could stand up and their tail would act like a leg. At that moment, the snake could brace itself from even against the wind.

Although it was a legend, Wang Chao’s movements of “Snake Probing Through Grass” and “Wind Supporting Snake” were used to their maximum efficiency. His arms, legs, elbow, knee, abdomen, and chest were used in conjunction and lent strength to one another in order to scuttle over the ground as if aided by the “wind”.

And so his face had dodged the three bullets by a slight amount.

This could be said to illustrate that fact that not only was Wang Chao faste than the bullets, his eyes were extremely acute along with his reactions. In the instant the male and female shot their guns, he had seen through their firing path. In that split second where the bullets were shot out, he had darted away out of their range.

These forms of “Snake Probing Through Grass” and “Wind Supporting Snake” were a variation of the snake stance. It lied in between the practicing methods and fighting methods, but it could be used as a way to practice a technique against an opponent.

But the amount of times this could be used against an opponent was rare due to the fact that scuttling across the ground was an incredibly odd move. It was meant to dodge an attack from above right after being thrown to the ground.

It was equivalent in practicality along with the “Kip Up”, “Rising Windmill”, and “Bridge”. Only at a specific situation would these moves save one’s life.

But these two forms of the snake stances were even harder to learn than the “Kip Up” and “Rising Windmill”.

Almost effortlessly, Wang Chao had blew past seven meters towards the shooters. The bullets had barely grazed by his skin and exploded behind him in a fireworks appearance without actually hitting his body.

“A well-done snake stance! Be careful!” Yong Bao immediately saw the similarity of Wang Chao’s movements to that of a four-legged gecko that was scuttling forward at an explosive speed. Growing close to the Yong He who was on the ground some distance away, Yong He immediately let out a startled cry.

“Bang!” Wang Chao tilted his head to the side, but his nose had smelt the burning smell of metal and gunpowder very clearly.

Another bullet had practically taken off the skin of his nose.

The monk Yong He was still on the ground with both of his eyes wide opened. His monk robes were thoroughly drenched, seemingly looking powerless to maintain his strength.

His leg had been struck by Wang Chao’s “Elbow Point Punch” and smashed his bones into pieces. Even his flesh, muscles, and skin had been smashed into a circular wound as if a steam roller had gone over it.

Using the “Five Hammers of Taichi” to couple the soft Clear and Hidden Jin together into a hard rotation, his strength had been overwhelming, a feat that very few could accomplish. Even a steel plank would be smashed apart by his fist if struck by such a blow.

In practicing Taichi, one could achieve an unparalleled amount of softness. Once this softness was perfected in practice, it would nurture the way to the fierce hardness used in fighting.

When practicing, the lighter and more loose it was, the better. When fighting, the fiercer and more smashing , the better.

Originally Wang Chao was not capable of such a sufficient mastery of the domineering techniques of hard style, but because of his practice underwater, his knowledge of the surrounding areas in Xingyiquan had allowed his body to experience and understand the artistic realm Sun Lu-tang himself had once experienced.

Sun Lu-tang was a grandmaster of Xingyiquan, but after he had learned the use of force through a comprehensive mastery of the surrounding areas, he had learned the stances of “Pounding Hammer” in Taichi. From there, he was able to display a path of hardness with his Xingyiquan as well. After exchanging notes with a teacher of Taichi, Hao Weizhen, Sun Lu-tang had learned the stances of Taichi.

And after Wang Chao had exchanged notes with Chen Aiyang of the Li Style, he had gained the essence of Taichi.

Furthermore, Tang Zichen had taught Wang Chao the essence of Taichi as well. She had written in the True Record of Guoshu several stances of Taichi. First was the “Three Whips” stances, the “Single Whip”, the “Double Whip”, and the “Open and Closed Whip”. Second was the “Five Hammers”. Third was the “Seven Pounds” with the “Inner Pound”, “Chain Pound”, “Soaring Pound”, and Groundbreaking Pound”, etcetera.

Because his martial arts wasn’t pure, he didn’t practice these moves often in fear that he would learn the move in appearance, but not in substance.

The three fighting stances of Taichi were the “Whip”, “Hammer”, and “Pound”. For those without enough strength, they would not be able to convey the might of the three. They would only be able to perform a series of rather comical stances, turning “Martial Techniques” into “Dancing Techniques”.

TL Note: Martial Technique and Dancing Techniques is a pun. Both are spelt Wushu.

The “Pounding Jin” for example, when a fist strikes out, it must be like a cannon and release a recoil. At a burst, the power would jolt through the legs and into the ground, similar to that of an actual cannonfire.

Those who practiced Taichi to fight were innumerable, but those who had reached such a height were far and few. Amongst a crowd of ten million, only one or two of them would be at such a level.

For those without sufficient strength, they would only be able to cultivate health with Taichi. If they tried to fight, defeat was inevitable.

There had been many examples throughout society. One man who had practiced Taichi for 3-4 years was beaten by a man who fought with mixed martial arts for one year and a half to the point where the parents weren’t able to recognize his face.

In the last year, Wang Chao had learned the essence of Xingyiquan to the point where thunder followed his fist. He hadn’t dared used his Taichi to fight against others, however. That was due to the fact that his martial arts was not pure and he did not yet learn the essence of Taichi.

“A practitioner of Taichi does not leave for ten years” was the very embodiment of this reasoning.

The methods of “Leveraging a thousand with four hundred”, “Pushing Hands”, or “Listening Jin” were ways to practice sensibility and technique.

In an actual battle, one that wished to win with stealth would be a guerilla warfare expert in a large scale battle to ensure a ridiculously easy victory.

If one were to only learn techniques for several years, it would be strange if they weren’t beaten to a pulp if they tried to fight someone.

Yang Luchan’s nickname as “Yang the Invincible” was not because he had only used the way of pushing hands to defeat people, or to listen to Jin to send people to the ground. It was because it was unknown just how many people his hands had cudgeled to death, or how many bones he had beaten and broken, or how many inner organs he had destroyed to earn the title.

Those students who secretly trained on sandbags and lifted barbells during the Republic of China in the Central Guoshu Institute were stronger than anyone else.

Yong He’s leg strength may be terrifying with the Shaolin’s leg technique “Iron Stamp”, which could easily shatter a boulder, but in front of Wang Chao’s devastatingly hard Hammer Jin, that iron may as well be tofu.

Wang Chao’s usage of the snake stance was enough to dodge four bullets. But he was able to tell that the male and female were both expert gunners and so he had tried his best to scuttle and move over the ground in a way that it would be hard for the two gunners to hit him. If he were to stop or take a breather now, then he would immediately be force fed several shelled peanuts.

“My ‘Snake Probing Through Grass’ and ‘Wind Supporting Snake’ allows me to move forward 20 meters in an instant, but I will need to take another breath after those 20 meters and stop. If I stop….I have to find a scapegoat!”

As he was scuttling forward, Wang Chao’s mind was revolving with thought. In an instant, he had moved to where Yong He was. Twisting his body, both hands grabbed onto Yong He’s throat and turned so that he was behind Yong He’s back. His entire body was now covered just like a little baby.

The gunshots stopped straight away.

That was because when Wang Chao contracted his body behind Yong He, the male and female had only seen Yong He drop painfully to the ground. Wang Chao had disappeared into thin air, even his clothes couldn’t be seen.

“What an amazing Monkey Contracting Body.”

When Wang Chao shrunk his body so that it could hide behind Yong He, even the monk couldn’t help but sigh in admiration and jealousy. For one who’s skill has reached perfection like that, their martial arts was undoubtedly at a very high level.

“The girl over there!”

The female foreigner with fair hair had spoken out in fluent Chinese. As she spoke, the hand holding her gun pointed towards Lin Yanan and fired.

Lin Yanan had already ran far away, but she was not yet out of firing range. When the gun was fired, Wang Chao’s eyes followed the bullet to where Lin Yanan was.

Bang! Lin Yanan’s body leaned to the side as her arm was struck, causing her to tumble onto the road. With a nimble roll, she fell down the mountain path and disappeared behind a large boulder.

Seeing the turn of events, Wang Chao’s heart loosened for a moment. Their opponents were using a low caliber bullet, meaning that the wound wouldn’t be too big. Despite it leaving behind a hole, Lin Yanan had undergone special training and martial arts, so the gunshot wouldn’t be anything bad provided she wiped the blood away.

“She’s hit! She won’t be able to run far, let’s go!” The male spoke loudly as he went in to chase.

“No need! This is the big catch here. We have to deal with him together, just because the night is long doesn’t mean you can dream just as much!” The American woman spoke; she had used a Chinese idiom, meaning that she was clearly educated in China.

“Mister Wang, you can’t escape!” The American woman suddenly spoke up loudly before turning to face Yong He and Wang Chao right behind him, “Come on out now.”

But Wang Chao remained silent behind Yong He as if he wasn’t even there.

Even his breathing couldn’t be heard.

Yong Bao, the man, and woman could only see Yong He sitting on the ground with his eyes closed shut, his face a waxen yellow, and his lips beginning to crack due to the loss of blood.

“Ming, Wang Chao couldn’t have run off just now, right?” The American spoke with confusion.

“Definitely not. He’s still behind master Yong He, but his technique is so clever so that neither sound or sight can be detected. We can’t see him from here.” The male now called Ming spoke out.

“Ah Ming! Is he really a terrorist? Why is his martial arts so strong then? Yong He’s leg has been crippled! What are you going to do?” Yong He’s eyes flashed suspiciously as he asked Ah Ming.

“Teacher, we didn’t lie, though? He is classified as a member of a secret spy organization in the European Union. There is an even more terrifying person above him who defeated Chen Aiyang in Singapore last month. When it comes to Chen Aiyang’s name, I am sure teacher knows him. I came to invite you two this time is because his martial arts is unbelievably strong. However, just how did you let our plans fail apart and failed to bring him to the ambush point?”

Ah Ming spoke up with slanted eyes. Moving his body, he leapt up towards the mountain path to find Wang Chao from the side.

At the same time, the American girl had started on the opposite side. Yong Bao leapt up as well towards Yong He.

Three people, one from the left, one from the right, and one straight towards Wang Chao who was hiding right behind the defeated Yong He!

“Crap!” Wang Chao knew that the American girl and Ah Ming were both expert gunners. Although they weren’t at the same level of strength as Cheng Shanming, they weren’t bad either so his chances of escaping were slim to none. “If it were just one person, then I could probably escape. But with two gunners and a Shaolin monk, that’ll be too difficult.”

In that instant, Wang Chao’s side had already been in range of gunfire.

“Hai!” Wang Chao grabbed onto Yong He’s robe and raised him 1.8 meters up. Lifting up the 200 pound monk like a scarecrow, Wang Chao began to revolve the monk his body while he pounced onto the road towards the American.

“Don’t shoot!”

Yong Bao shouted out loud, but the american girl hadn’t hesitated for even a moment as she let out a shot. As a special service agent, her cold-hearted nature without any apprehension was very noticeable.

Bang! A single round made its way into Yong He’s body. Afterwards, the American woman let out another round, but Wang Chao had seemingly disappeared while Yong He’s body crumpled to the ground after another gunshot.

“Shit!”

Out of the corner of her eye, the American saw a glimmer along with something making a sound behind her. Turning around, she lifted her gun to shoot again!

But Wang Chao was already up close next to her chest. Holding her tightly on the waist with both arms and sweeping her legs, he picked her up from the ground as easily as plucking a flower. Then just like a beautiful snake, her body began to contort around Wang Chao’s body.

“Hngh!” She let out a muffled grunt as the bones in her gun hand was snapped by Wang Chao. As her gun fell to the ground, her body was lifted in the air so that her hidden wasp knife, syringe, and other concealed weaponry was shaken out.

Wang Chao’s sweeping technique with his Returning Body Palm had caused her to be sent flying away like a ragdoll afterwards. As a result, her entire skeletal system was temporarily paralyzed and was unable to do anything for that moment.

This was a method people would use when grabbing onto a snake. When the snake was grabbed, shake its body so that the bones would be jolted, and it would be powerless to do a thing.

Wang Chao knew that as a foreign spy, this American viper would definitely not be limited to just a gun. Her body had to have several other items so he had made use of this snake shaking method to dispose of her.

Otherwise, if he was injected with poison or stabbed with something, that would be a great shame for him. The methods a spy had–especially a female spy, Wang Chao was all too knowledgeable about it due to Boulder.