Romance of Dragons and Snakes

Lin Yanan was a martial artist who had trained in Baguazhang to a level of maturity. Although her claw strength wasn’t enough to shatter a wooden stick, it was more than enough to easily snap the neck of a person.

But the monk Yong Bao looked as if he had felt nothing. He had only turned his head, causing Lin Yanan to feel as if she was grabbing onto the skin of an elephant. Durable yet soft to the touch, her strength was completely useless against it.

At the same time when Yong Bao twisted his neck, Lin Yanan’s palm grew wet as she felt millions of needle stab into it.

“Aiya!” Lin Yanan was startled. She hadn’t thought that her enemy would be able of breaking out with Jin from his neck. Hurriedly withdrawing her hand, her entire body flew up from her seated position and shot forth with her elbow like a spear. With a crashing sound, it came striking towards Yong Bao’s skull.

This strong elbow of Baguazhang was sent towards one of the weakest parts of the human body, the skull. Even the monk Yong Bao could not move with delay like he had done earlier. Stamping onto the brakes fiercely, the entire car came to a sudden stop on the road!

When the car came to a screeching halt, Lin Yanan’s body grew unsettled. As she flew forward, her entire strength was diverted and ended up missing. Yong Bao turned around and brought his tiger-like claw hands towards Lin Yanan’s wrists.

Yong Bao’s tiger claw had brought forth a gust of wind with its fast and furious delivery. With both arms moving in a chain of motions, this was one of the Five Animal Fists of Shaolin, the “Leopard Chain Strike”.

“What’s going on?” Wang Chao watched as Yong Bao struck out. He knew the situation was not looking good, Yong Bao’s skill at martial arts was far beyond what Lin Yanan wa capable of. When the two moved against each other, Wang Chao didn’t know what to expect.

But Yong Bao’s “Leopard Chain Strike” was unbelievably fierce. If it were to hit Lin Yanan’s wrist, then the bones within would be pulverized. Wang Chao couldn’t just sit there blankly and watch it happen.

Bang! Wang Chao’s entire body broke out with Jin so strong that a gust of wind broke out within the car. With a single “Under Elbow Punch”, he struck at Yong Bao’s claw hand.

As the fists slammed against each other, Yong Bao could only feel a jolt of thunder surge into his body and seemed to shake at his blood vessels. As his heart began to quicken, his entire body began to feel pain as if the joints were being misaligned.

Crash! Yong Bao flew forward and came hurtling through the now broken windshield of the car on his way out.

Wang Chao’s “Under Elbow Punch” had been filled with the Jin of the hard rotation and had forced Yong Bao out from the car with speed.

He was using his strength for real this time, unlike when he was experimenting with Zhao Xinglong and Liao Junhua and had only used five percent of his strength.

In an instant, Yong Bao had been knocked straight through the windshield. In the moment Yong Bao flew out the windshield, Wang Chao’s ears trembled as he felt the hair on the back of his head spike up and grow taut. From this, he knew that someone was about to attack from behind.

Needless to say, it was Yong He who was sitting behind them.

Yong He’s hand had been like a beak and pecked at Wang Chao’s temple. Another fist came up to strike at Wang Chao’s head.

Wang Chao’s body crouched down and dodged the strike. With one foot, he kicked out the car door and pulled Lin Yanan out of the car with a fierce hop.

Just as Wang Chao and Lin Yanan escaped from the car, Yong He leapt with them. Yong Bao had stood back up by this point and shook his muscles. Then, the two warrior monks moved to the front and back of Wang Chao and Lin Yanan as a way to block the both of them.

“What is going on? Why did they suddenly attack us?” Wang Chao looked at the two Shaolin monks with narrow eyes and questioned Lin Yanan.

“Yong He and Yong Bao are both warrior monks from Mt. Taishi, just why would they receive us? These two monks have a name that isn’t far from your own; they are from the same generation as the current abbot, Shi Yongxin.” Lin Yanan kneaded an inflamed red hand. This was the same hand that had been struck by Yong Bao’s Hidden Jin after she grabbed his neck.

“Shaolin has Animal Imitation Boxing. Dragon, tiger, leopard, crane, and snake, those five animal shapes are usually learned to complete mastery by five people per generation. The dharma names of these two is in accordance with the five animal fists and their masters. Within the Shaolin Temple, their position is no less than Shi Yongxin. These two today came here with the intent of dealing with us.”

“Oh! Dealing with us?” Wang Chao looked to the two monks.

“You’ve sharp eyes to be able to see through us like that!” Yong Bao stared at Lin Yanan with a strict expression before shouting, “We have been commissioned by Interpol to bring back the terrorists for investigation. You two are terrorists, and Interpol have already been keeping watch on the both of you. Master Wang, it’s almost unbelievable that you were actually the scum of our martial arts world, to be involved in terrorism and assassination!”

“Wha–? Since when was I involved with terrorism and watched by Interpol? Do the monks of the Shaolin Temple have some sort of brain defect?” Wang Chao was stunned at this outrageous claim.

But Lin Yanan wasn’t surprised. “Yong Bao, Yong He, perhaps one of your past disciples, teachers, or disciple of disciples are American? Or perhaps a part of the American police? Even if we were terrorists, we have done nothing wrong to warrant America or Interpol to come to Hong Kong to arrest us. If you coordinate with the American police and the Chinese police were to find out, then we will all miss out on the fruit to eat on!”

“The Americans must have caught onto what we did in Singapore. There’s no way the Americans will let you go now. The Shaolin Temple and foreign powers are definitely working together.. I never thought that their relationship would be this deep through to brazenly capture someone in Hong Kong. If I’m not wrong, then these two monks are driving us towards the secret extraction zone of the Americans rather than the gathering in Shaolin Temple. From there, we will be extracted to a ship with ease. Hong Kong isn’t like the mainlands, it would be very easy for the Americans to emigrate us.”

Wang Chao gave a quick but detailed explanation to Wang Chao.

“Could it be that the stock market act was fact, and the actual goal was for the Shaolin Temple to capture me?” Wang Chao realized.

“No, that’s not it. The Shaolin Temple has truly entered the stock market. The Americans used this timing to have these stupid monks lay a trap to ambush you. The banquet will continue, but you not being there isn’t anything special, yet at the same time, you being there will change nothing.” Lin Yanan’s mind was currently working at high speeds and had deduced the situation nearly 90% way through.

“It was fortunate that I felt something was fishy about this and that these monks weren’t good at covering up their details! Otherwise, we would have been led to the American ambush zone. Even if we had all of the power in the heavens, we wouldn’t be able to run! We would definitely be extracted out of the country. By that time, who knows what kind of treatment awaits us?! From these monks alone, I knew straight away that they had to do with the foreign powers and would be an accomplice! I was careless, I should have planned for this earlier!” Lin Yanan spoke rather bitterly.

Everything had been explained quite clearly.

When the Shaolin Temples reformed and developed for 30-40 years, they had taken on many foreign disciples. Some of them had a very secret relationship.

If there was an American disciple amongst the Shaolin monks, then they could capitalize on this chance to speak to one of the masters and say, “One of the guests you invited is an extremely dangerous terrorist. I hope that you could help us out in secret. There will be plenty of good benefits after it is over.”

After Hong Kong was returned to China, it was still a country divided up into two systems. The people of Hong Kong ruled it, but the government was substantially different than the mainlands. This made several things to be more convenient for the Americans to choose Hong Kong to be the place to kidnap Wang Chao with great success. If it was Shandong, then there was a huge chance of their own persons being kidnapped instead.

“We were in Singapore for a few matters, but we haven’t done anything to warrant the attention of the Americans.” Wang Chao gave a hard look to the monk Yong Bao.

Yong Bao and Yong He’s martial arts was on a higher level than that of Liao Junhua. Their status was even higher as well–it was about the equivalent to the ones in charge of the Arhat Hall in many novels.

They could be considered the top masters of the Shaolin warrior monks. For such a trifling affair that happened in Singapore, were they really going to use their connections to the Shaolin Temple and bring out two expert masters?

Wang Chao didn’t feel that he was worth such interest just yet.

“You have another mystery to your identity.” Lin Yanan bit her lips as she gave Wang Chao a look.

“What mystery is there to me?” Wang Chao had been surprised to hear Lin Yanan speak before a sudden thought occurred to him.

“Could it be….sis Chen?” A single thought flashed through Wang Chao’s mind.

Wang Chao no longer had any free movement after he joined with the organization. His identity was not at all innocent either anymore with the martial arts he had learned from the Tianxing district’s villa.

Before, there was nothing to worry about. But ever since he saw Tang Zichen fight Chen Aiyang and then the series of events afterwards, he had finally felt a small bit of anxiety in his heart.

Tang Zichen was without a doubt a foreign power. Wang Chao on the other hand….in this international game, he was stuck in between in a difficult position.

With Lin Yanan’s declaration, it signified that she had already learned of Tang Zichen’s identity from him.

The other mystery was Tang Zichen. Wang Chao was no idiot, so he realized the situation straight away.

“Oh! I’ve finally managed to make my way into your world.” In that instant, Wang Chao felt an indescribable feeling well up within him, but he didn’t know just what it felt like.

In the instant Wang Chao’s thoughts had vacated his mind, the monk Yong Bao dashed forward with both arms linked together. As his feet traveled a straight line, he flew towards Wang Chao to attack.

From behind, Yong He gave a leap of seven to eight meters. From his robes he took out a small and dainty cell phone and pressed down onto a single key. Clearly, this was a way to send a signal!