Romance of Dragons and Snakes

Zhu Hongzhi looked at the blade in Huo Ling’ers hands and reached out a hand of his own to touch the blade. Feeling the grain of the sword, he studied the body before observing the inscription on it.

“Brother Liao’s martial arts is refined beyond belief. When I first made my appearance, I was fortunate enough to press hands with him. His Xinyi Liuhe was filled with such essence that I learned plenty from it. However, with his circumstances making him unable to focus on the path of martial arts, there was nothing else that could be done.” Wang Chao looked at the inscription on the sword before changing the topic to talk about the sword. “The sword has been passed down already, there’s nothing I can do about that. Should a soldier come, retaliate with a sword. Should the water flood, build a dam. Ever since my own appearance, I have never been afraid of any challenge despite my age.”

Wang Chao then explained the rest of Jiang Hai’s challenge and form to Zhu Hongzhi, “What is the history behind this sword? I don’t recognize the characters on the sword or even what this sword’s name is? Venerable master Zhu, please impart your wisdom onto me.”

“I see now, Jiang Hai’s studies is still lacking. That cannot be blamed on you.” Zhu Hongzhi spoke after listening to Wang Chao’s match with Jiang Hai. With a nod of his head, he explained, “This is a symbol of inheritance for the Nine Palace Swords style. When Li Jinlin of the Central Guoshu Institute seeked out the master craftsmen of the ‘Wudang Sect’, he had this sword forged. The inscriptions on this sword isn’t the lesser seal script or even the greater seal script, but bird script. And yet, I do not recognize these characters, but I’ve heard its spoken name to be the ‘Tortoise and Snake Sword’. So that must be what those two seal scripts must mean.”

“Tortoise and Snake…..”

When Wang Chao uttered that name, he knew that it was very fitting with the style of Wudang. The Daoist monks of Wudang had once practiced his martial arts in the mountains by observing the tortoise and the snake. By combining the movements of the two, the monks were able to fashion out a style of swordplay that combined the best of both in tribute of the True Warrior Great Deity; which was symbolized by the joining of a tortoise and snake into one image.

TL Note: The tortoise and snake is the symbol of Xuanwu, the Black Tortoise/True Warrior Great Deity and one of the Four Symbols of Chinese Astronomy. As a deity, he is very important in Daoism and martial artists.

Zhu Hongzhi shook his head and tapped his dragon cane to the ground twice, “I can only hope. As we are all martial artists of Chinese descent, we can avoid our animosity and be friends. In the case they come back to look for the honor they have lost, I hope that it will be done in kind rather than a fight to the death. Your martial arts is young and robust, I hope that you will be gentle with your hand.”

Wang Chao gave a forced smile, “When a practitioner of the sword has one in hand, then they would be able to overcome a martial artist that might have been double his skill without a sword. Live by the sword and die by the sword, that is a undoubtedly strong bond. I am only afraid that should I hold back, they will not.”

“To live by the sword and die by the sword is a relic of the past. It is the 21st century by now. Some of these rules may be said even today, but they are not put to practice. I will ask my friend and hope that this situation may be resolved peacefully.” Zhu Hongzhi sighed, causing Wang Chao to think to himself.

“I’ve even more enemies than before now. After my fight with Nguyễn Hồng Tú, the Japanese were already my enemies, but now there is the Indians, the Thai, the Burmese, the Vietnamese, and the drug lords who have all gained hatred for me. The amount of enemies I have now is even more than when the “Little Martial God” Zhou Binglin was at his prime. But even he went into hiding when he was thirty for twenty years, I will undoubtedly not have such a luxury. After losing to me, I think I heard Han Xiaoqing say that Jiang Hai joined some mercenary group overseas for a trial by fire experience. His skill was decent and comparable to Duan Guochao, but his experiences with live combat was severely lacking. With my assault, he had no time to pull out his sword. If it were a true battle to the death, then his death would have been guaranteed. It seems that I’ve gained another opponent however. Zhang Tong’s sword style was learned in France as well by the same school of Li Jinglin. I wonder if there is a connection between her and Jiang Hai? The Wudang fighting and sword-play, I wonder what the inspiration behind that is?”

He didn’t know why, but when Zhu Hongzhi spoke to Wang Chao about this much, he had been comforted by it. Thinking from Zhou Binglin to Jiang Hai to the French Hongmen Society, Wang Chao’s mind then drifted from that to Zhang Tong’s sword style and then to the tortoise and snake style of Wudang martial arts.

The apprenticeship banquet soon passed and Huo Ling’er was now formally under the tutelage of Wang Chao.

In this match, Wang Chao had not put in much arduous effort and had easily suppressed Nguyễn Hồng Tú before killing him. His name would surely improve from here to overseas.

At the same time, he had earned a decent sum from this match. Cao Yi and the others were practically holding onto a plate overflowing with gold. Wang Chao had been promoted once more to own the title of ‘martial instructor commissar’. With just another half year, he would be able to teach a class of special op soldiers.

Ten days quickly went past and was rapidly approaching the New Year. Returning from Hong Kong, Wang Chao had chose to head off to S province H city to visit his home instead of returning to Laoshan.

With his parents at ease, Wang Chao felt at peace as well.

When Wang Chao lived with his family, he would often times spend most of his time with Tang Zichen at the park or at her villa.

There had been a grew pile of snow during the time, making the atmosphere rather festive. But when he walked through the snow-buried fields, Wang Chao could not feel the same mentality he had five years ago when he was nothing more than a high school student.

But even in his days of living at home, he had done plenty and many things much to his pleasure. This had made Wang Chao cherish his moments of having an ordinary life.

Cao Jingjing was on her winter break from Beijing University, and Zhang Tong was still doing her job as a chairman for the Chanel Cosmetics brand. The Tianxing Networking company was grower larger and larger. When it had been founded, everyone was only a minor university student, but now they were all entrepreneurs. Everyone had drastically changed for the better.

On this early morning, the skies were covered with clouds of a dusky red color. The winds were like arrows as snowflakes as large as one’s palm swirled everywhere. The world was a blanket white piece that even in ten years, no other time would be able to compare in snow.

Standing by himself in the second story to Tang Zichen’s villa, Wang Chao stared from outside the glass and out at the falling snow that covered the Tianxing Lake. He could distinctly hear the snowflakes falling and brought him back to when he was walking across the entire nation in the past.

Then, a fiery-red sports car suddenly came into view right outside the villa gates. Coming to a stop, the car opened up to reveal several parasols whose owners were all young women.

Wang Chao could see them all clearly. These females were Zhang Tong, Huo Ling’er, Cao Jingjing, and even Han Xiaoqing.

“Why aren’t you at home celebrating the New Year?” Wang Chao spoke after walking downstairs to open the door and let them in.

“I couldn’t take it at home, so I came to find master. I’ve been training diligently in what master said, but I’ve come across some faults.” Huo Ling’er’s eyebrows knitted together in worry.

“My my, this home decor has a nice taste to it. And these building materials…..” Han Xiaoqing’s eyes swept across Wang Chao’s villa to look. Although she too was a disciple of Wang Chao, she had only a desire for fun and not the seriousness Huo Ling’er had for martial arts. However, Wang Chao had not mind and took her in. Not every disciple would succeed and be extremely dedicated.

But when Han Xiaoqing came, she was the first to realize the peculiarity of the purple and gold patterned stones. Rich and graceful in atmosphere, she was a mistress of the higher class society. At a single glance, she was able to tell that this was an uncommon material that originated from Africa. There was also made and sculpted in a fashion similar to what was found in the ancient tombs of the Egyptian pharaohs and even the tombs of the Arabian kings.

Her eyes had been so shocked at that sight that she couldn’t even hide it.

But Wang Chao was not one that could understand just what purpose the materials served. He could only offer Cao Jingjing and Zhang Tong a seat before asking Huo Ling’er, “What problem has happened?”

“When I practice my stances, my body feels as if there is another layer of skin above the skin of my body. It’s rather uncomfortable and is pretty thick. But when I touch it, I feel nothing as if it was an illusion.” Huo Ling’er voiced her concern.

“You’ve already reached the Hidden Jin stage? That is a sign of rapid and sudden improvement.” Wang Chao’s eyes revealed his curiosity and felt at his own eyebrows with some doubt. “Come with me.”

Leading the front, Wang Chao and the rest walked through a corridor of mirrors before finally arriving at the training room in the back.

The training room was as it was before in the past. The sandbags were still hung from the ceilings, and the water jars were still there. The weapons racks were on the side, but the mercury-filled lead balls were relocated to the school in Laoshan; Wang Chao had no time to bring them back.

“Master, is this your old training room?” Huo Ling’er looked around the rather ancient-looking training room with a wondrous stare. It was at this place that she felt as if she was suddenly transported to a world of Wuxia.

She had not been alone. Han Xiaoqing and Cao Jingjing felt the same while Zhang Tong smiled knowingly.

“Let out a punch with all your strength, got it?”

“Yes!” Huo Ling’er adopted an offensive stance before her arms flew forward and her legs brought her forward so that her fist traveled through the air with an air-breaking sound.

A shrill cry could be heard as Huo Ling’er’s streaked through the air and brought forth a jet stream of air.

A single chop of her fist later, her entire body seemed to have been drenched in sweat. Even more noticeably was the fact that steam could be seen rising from her head as if her entire strength had gone into this one blow.

“As I expected, she is using her mind to break out with Jin. Just a little more, a little step more, and she will be able to control her pores. Then she will truly be able to break out with Hidden Jin and step into the marvelous palace of martial arts.” Wang Chao spoke with satisfaction.

When he first decided to accept Huo Ling’er as a disciple, it was because of her family’s prestige and natural aptitude. She had been willing to follow him because of Ye Xuan’s death at Wang Chao’s hand as well. In the past, Wang Chao had only taught her the basics and fundamentals of the stance training. He had planned for her to strengthen her muscles, bones, ligaments and flesh to be stronger before he would move onto the more advanced movements and killing moves.

According to Wang Chao’s earlier observations, it would take at least a year before Huo Ling’er would be able to formally come into contact with the marvels of Hidden Jin. But having achieved such a fast progress in a few ten days was something that was completely beyond Wang Chao’s calculations.

“When you broke out with Jin, were you not mixing it with the way you do it in Karate? How long have you been practicing Karate, are you trying to combine what I am teaching you with the core tenants of Karate?”

At this question, the atmosphere immediately grew tense as if there was some sort of stifling pressure placed onto the room. Cao Jingjing hadn’t thought that her old classmate would become as serious as her own father.

“Master….I…I…I-” Huo Ling’er began to stammer.

“You needn’t worry. I am not rebuking you.” Wang Chao hurried to ease the expression on his face.

“When I learned Karate in Japan, I also learned Kendo and the way to hone the mind. It is said in Kendo, to abdicate the heart is to make the heart without worry to be able to instantly display your hidden power and kill. After learning the stance training from master, I felt that I was filled with energy everyday. Many of the more difficult movements of Karate became easier for me to do as well. And the parts of my body that weren’t trained before began to grow stronger and more flexible. In total, I’ve spent two years learning Karate and Kendo in America and another year in Japan.”

“Good, very good! But unfortunate, quite unfortunate.” Wang Chao praised before then lamenting, causing people to be confused.

The good was that he had received an excellent disciple. With Huo Ling’er’s rate of improvement, it wouldn’t even take two years before she could become a master of Wushu that could be unparalleled. But the bad news was that with her family, there would be no way she would be able to be the inheritor to Wang Chao’s legacy. For the hidden matches to the death, Wang Chao would need to find another disciple for that.

“You are more or less an expert already. I only begun to teach you formally, but something that should be done in a year was finished within a month. Catching up to Ye Xuan’s level of skill just as quickly wouldn’t be too difficult of a matter either.” Wang Chao spoke.

“I’ve only learned for three years and been with master for several months, is that all that’s needed to become an expert?” Huo Ling’er spoke in surprise. “Does it not require bitter training for a dozen years to become such an expert?”

“As long as the training method is correct and the person is completely enthralled, even one year would be more than enough to become an expert. To train for three years without any achievements only means that one’s talent isn’t sufficient enough, like fishing for three days and repairing the net for two days. The golden age for a person to learn is a single decade. To train diligently in something for ten years without reaching the top or becoming close to it, that means you are not cut out for it. Is there not a phrase for chess, ‘If one is not a grand champion by twenty years, then they are doomed to a life of despair’? You’ve learned Kendo and Karate for three years with some achievements to your name. If you were any slower, then that meant you were taught nothing authentic or you were not diligent in your training. A third choice would be the deficiency of patience. In martial arts, eight years is the maximum for an achievement to occur. All that is left is to cultivate the health and wait for destiny or a timely encounter to stride forward. After all, when man reaches twenty five or six, their heart will begin to think of other things and will no longer on one goal solely. Ten years of training is mediocre for those of martial arts. Learning for twenty years is the mark of an expert. The longer one trains, the more dangerous one becomes. That is what it means to cultivate to become an Immortal, not to cultivate and learn martial arts. Do not think yourself to be young and that you have plenty of time. In truth, there is never enough time. To lax even a little bit is to forever halt your progress upwards.”