Chapter 31

Romance of Dragons and Snakes Chapter 31

Throwing a look across the crimson red desk, Wang Chao could see that Zhang Tong was still looking at him with a smile.

“Hssssh!” Wang Chao let out a long breath of air before expelling the Qi from his mouth. Immediately, he felt no more pressure in his pores, but when he let out the Qi, he grew tired almost instantly.

With a great amount of effort, he stilled his heart and brought his nerves back together. Sensing that one of the bodyguard’s eyes had closed due to his sweat dropping in on it, Wang Chao quickly straightened his back and lashed out a fist like it was an arrow towards the bodyguard’s shoulder.

Although the bodyguard had sweat in his eye, there was no fear. At the same time as Wang Chao, he lashed out with his own fist.

Bang! The two men’s fists struck at the same time with a bone shattering sound. The joint of the bodyguard’s shoulder had been crushed, sending him flying backwards and rolling onto the ground as a result. As he stood back up, his shoulder could only flop in place lifelessly–he would not be fighting with that arm any time soon.

As for Wang Chao, he could only feel a sharp pain as his intestines felt the blow. The pain had been so severe, his breath had been lost and his control over his pores slackened, causing a layer of sweat to appear.

Another large wave of weakness entered his body.

“I’m lucky that this guy’s strength is pretty much gone. Otherwise, this guy’s fist would have been strong enough to destroy my intestines.” Wang Chao had only took this risk after making sure the two bodyguards were spent in energy.

All of a sudden, another bodyguard had quickly flashed behind Wang Chao. His left hand grabbed for Wang Chao’s neck while his right hand wrapped around his chest. Simultaneously, the bodyguard’s knee came up to strike behind Wang Chao.

Against such a thrilling killing move like this, Wang Chao was not panicked. His left hand flew behind as if it was a tail to obstruct the knee as his vertebrae transformed to act like a snake. With a violent twist, his center of gravity flew down to his tailbone and his hair spiked up as Wang Chao began to regain the energy he had lost.

The bodyguard that was trying to grab Wang Chao could only feel as if he was trying to wrestle a writhing python. With such a large amount of strength coming out from Wang Chao, the bodyguard couldn’t help but let out a grunt as he used all of his power!

In that split second, Wang Chao had managed to get a read on his opponent’s potential directional path and immediately issued power by jumping backwards. This course of action had allowed him to counter against the bodyguard’s strength.

But then Wang Chao suddenly changed his direction and tried to go forward with the help of the forward momentum the bodyguard was outputting.

Suddenly, it seemed as if the bodyguard had became a scarecrow after being launched forward into the sky towards the broken shouldered bodyguard.

The bodyguard that had his shoulder broken by Wang Chao had been extremely resilient. After being sent to the ground ,he was able to climb back up, but he hadn’t expected to see the body of his companion come flying at him.

Bang! The two men collided. The broken shoulder bodyguard was sent rolling on the ground with a muffled grunt before quickly scrambling back up.

Just as the bodyguard was scrambling to get up, Wang Chao had already flew viciously at him. With a raised fist, the two made contact before Wang Chao flung the bodyguard away once more.

The other bodyguard that had been thrown had gotten back up by then. But Wang Chao had beaten him to the punch and sent him flying as well.

As was the method for the “Rising Eagle Dropping Rabbit”, when they climb back up, send them falling, and when they fall, continue the process until they don’t rise. After another four or five times, the two bodyguards didn’t get back up. The two had lost all of their strength and could no longer stand.

By this point, Wang Chao had been thoroughly drenched. His clothes looked ragged and he was panting in the center of the room without any movements. Even raising his head was a challenging task.

“Good, very good!” Zhang Tong had been watching intensely as Wang Chao threw the bodyguards around until they couldn’t stand back up. With a sigh in admiration, she spoke to the last one, “Take these two out and give them some money later to recover.”

The bodyguard that had made no move to fight before walked out of the office with both bodyguards supported by his hands.

“How was it?” Zhang Tong waited for Wang Chao to rest up for a moment before asking.

“Amazing, really amazing! I was almost finished back there.” Wang Chao had managed to recover some health before giving his opinion on the fearful fight.

“I’ve heard after they retired from the military, they were considered the second-rate soldiers and were far away from the first-rate ones. But yet these soldiers didn’t take any sort of stimulants either.” Zhang Tong explained as she poured Wang Chao a cup of ginseng and oolong tea.

“Stimulants…” Drinking the warm cup of tea and rejuvenate himself, Wang Chao began to try and recover his strength.

“Correct, if they were to use stimulants, then their strengths would be increased exponentially. However, doping would cause damage to their bodies as well.” Zhang Tong nodded her head as she spoke, “What do you think of this calligraphy?”

The table had a piece of paper that said, “A sword to light the path, and the godly fist to drop all.”

“Haha, the godly fist dropping all, I cannot match up to that. My martial arts has yet to reach such a state.” Wang Chao spoke.

“What I could see from this fight was the fact that bodies were thrown everywhere. This must be the fighting style of Taichi; although I’ve never learned it, I know that after one has mastered Taichi, they can use people to test their Jin, is that true?” Zhang Tong asked.

“Testing with Jin…” Wang Chao began to think before nodding, “At first, one practices Chinese boxing by hitting sandbags then stumps or spears. Afterwards, they will be able to use their Jin against people to truly test their skill. Back during the Republic of China, the predecessor of Yang Luchan, Yang Chengfu had paid a high price of 6 silver yuan a month to be his testing case to practice Jin.” Zhang Tong listened to this explanation for a moment before nodding her head. “Back when I practiced the art of the sword, my master told me that in the end, I would need to practice it with another person. Even the Daoist priests that practice the art of the sword in the Wudang Mountains would leap into the trees to slash at monkeys. What do you think about the bodyguards you just fought?”

“Those two?” Wang Chao thought for a moment, “Those mercenaries are excellent at grabbing and were great for me to use Jin to practice. They were quite the challenge.”

“So that’s your answer. Then why don’t you try again in the future to see how well you can do?” Zhang Tong smiled at him.

“En!?” Wang Chao had a look of doubt on his face.

“Are you thinking about asking me just why I’m offering this to you?” Zhang Tong’s mind was incredibly sharp and had instantly guessed what Wang Chao was thinking. Sticking out two fingers, she spoke, “The first reason is that your skill and attitude really interest me. The second reason is that if I ever come across a problem, I hope that you will come to my aid. It’s that simple.”

“What sort of problem?” Wang Chao asked.

“I don’t know. But you’re an intelligent person, knowing what identity I hold, it won’t be anything peaceful. You shouldn’t worry much, if I need your help, I’d ask you for it first. If you think you can’t help, then I won’t force you. This will be like helping a friend out. If there is an especially hard task that you help someone with, then that is the right thing to do.”

Zhang Tong let out a graceful smile as she spoke with her reasonably fair words.

“To help is to be human, to not help is to not be honest. Got it.” Wang Chao nodded his head before turning around to say goodbye. This fight had drained him of his energy, so he had wanted to head back and rest.

“Don’t be in such a rush, hold on.” Zhang Tong noticed that Wang Chao had wanted to leave and quickly spoke, “I know you’re a third year in high school ready to take the university placement exams. I know that with you practicing martial arts every day, you must not have taken university into heavy consideration. If you have interest, then let me know, I can help you get into any university.”

“University…” Wang Chao shook his head, “It’s a waste of my time.”

“Oh! Then whats your ideal future now, take some sort of project?” Zhang Tong asked.

“My ideal future…” Wang Chao knew that his dream right now was to practice his Chinese boxing until it reached the Transforming Jin stage and then find sis Chen. It was that simple.

But this dream was not something he would dare say to Zhang Tong.

“Do you really not plan on going to university?” Zhang Tong’s voice held some lingering regret to it.

“University is meant to waste your time of youth by living a life of pleasure, just what good is that?” Wang Chao was rather astonished by Zhang Tong’s question.

Zhang Tong let out a sigh, “It’s good to play. Once the time of youth has gone by, it cannot come back. When the time comes when you want to squander money, you cannot. Everyone has a period of time they wish to go back to. If you cannot do something, you may come to regret it later in the future. This is the same as a child thinking about his childhood.”

“But if you don’t realize that now, then forget it. You have your path, and I can only sigh about mine. I’m not in the mood to show you my sword dance, so you can go home now. In the future, feel free to come back and use my bodyguards to practice your Jin.”

Wang Chao nodded his head silently and left the building.