Romance of Dragons and Snakes

Chapter 27: Mastering the Jin perfectly

After beating the fourth degree black belt Taekwondo expert Li Feng and the sixth degree black belt Liu Wenjun, Wang Chao felt a whole new level of understanding in his martial arts. This was especially true in regards to Taichi’s way of listening to Jin. Feeling for a person’s center of gravity was yet another skill that would prove to be invaluable in a real combat situation.

Right now it was about time for winter vacation. Only a year had passed, but Wang Chao had already experienced such a world shaking transformation.

A year ago, he had been a regular high school student and was especially reserved. A year later, he had learned martial arts to a good degree and had entered the occupation world of the white collars who were usually paid 50,000 RMB a month. This was something that he would have never dreamed of.

All of these achievements had been accomplished thanks to his fortunate encounter with Tang Zichen. After her patient but strict guidance, he had came to be the person he was now.

Unfortunately, the beautiful woman that was both his elder sister and mentor had disappeared away into the water as if a goddess or an Immortal.

Wang Chao could always remember that summer night where the sun was setting and the night was rising. The sight where sis Chen had tread the water before disappearing without a trace, it felt as if everything had been a dream.

It was only after he had explored the world of martial arts that he felt this sensation was actually true. However, each time he had made a step forward in his martial arts, he thought about sis Chen for a moment before making another leap forward. In the end, it had gotten the point where every move had led to him thinking about finding her.

Yet he also knew that this was not a realistic thought. He had heard from sis Chen before and could tell that she came from outside China and was involved within a dangerous secret. Wang Chao didn’t even have the money or strength travel outside of China. And even if he did, with the world so wide, how would he find her?

Wang Chao had even thought about looking for information in regards to the residents of the Tianxing district, but there had been no hints That was because all of the residents within this district were all wealthy and influential people, so the information would not be made public. Plus, the real estate company in charge was an overseas branch, meaning he was all the more powerless to be able to gather any information.

With no other options, Wang Chao could only do one thing. As he practiced his martial arts, he would have to think hard about the words she had said to him to counteract his thoughts.

“Even if I saw sis Chen now, my martial arts is still extremely far away from the realm of spirit transformation. Would I even be able to help her? Every single battle so far has been fought relying on what I already know, I have to get more fighting experience. Unfortunately, for the past few days that I have been working as an instructor and overseer, why hasn’t there been even a single challenger?”

After tasting the sweet euphoria that was battling, Wang Chao had wished to use those chances to improve his martial arts to become as high of an expert as he could. But it had been 10 days since he had signed his paper and became an instructor and not a single challenger had came.

However, he had spent several days going around the dojo and compared notes with several of the other black belt instructors.

But even those instructors weren’t a match for him. Ever since he understood the complexity that was the listening Jin of Taichi, each time he had grappled with his enemy, he could feel their center of gravity and throw them in any direction accordingly.

This method had also given Wang Chao the added benefit of being able to understand the inner nerves, muscles, and joints of the human body.

A few days later, the Taekwondo dojo instructors were all afraid of him. Each time they saw him, they quickly tried to find an excuse to leave. While it was true that the ground of the fighting grounds were soft and the carpet even softer, being thrown about wasn’t something that anyone would be happy about. Furthermore, when Wang Chao would throw a person to the ground, it wasn’t by any ordinary means. When he used the Rotating Body Palm, his entire vertebrae, waist, leg and shoulder distributed power evenly and sent the person soaring high into the air before falling back down onto the ground quite heavily.

To anyone watching, this was a spectacular fight, but for those who were swung to the ground, this was painful beyond belief.

Like Li Feng, when the three female instructors tried to spar with Wang Chao. After being thrown just once, their eyes were filled with tears.

But Li Feng was never seen again. It was almost as if he had resigned and never came back to the dojo.

“Could this guy be planning for revenge 10 years later and is training hard somewhere else?” Wang Chao thought as he tried to think about Li Feng’s personality.

Although there was no combat, it wasn’t all that bad still. The Taekwondo dojo was tailor made for business and had many beautiful female receptionists as well as many other female college students working there. Half of the male students that came to study were all thanks to these women. Although Wang Chao was around 18 years old now, he was already nearing the age where males would feel extremely sensitive to women. However, Wang Chao had no such feelings with Tang Zichen as his “Immortal sister”. The second reason was that he was deeply engrossed in martial arts and did not stray from the path. There was no time for leisure time.

Because there was no one else to fight, after another 10 days, Wang Chao stopped patrolling the dojo. Instead, he continued to stay within Tang Zichen’s villa and practiced martial arts every day. In his spare time, he would find resources on Guoshu and read to further his comprehension.

Guoshu had its golden age during the final moments of the Song Dynasty. In that time, Sun Yat-sen and Feng Yuxiang led the spearhead that expanded the world of Chinese boxing to bring raise to a great power. With the government’s support, a vigorous expansion had taken place; in less than a hundred years, many top notch martial artists had emerged.

But once the People’s Republic of China had been established, the movement had died down as Guoshu slowly withered away to what it was now.

“The scholarly brings disorder by the use of the brush, and the chivalrous uses force to violate the law. In an equal world, the regulations on killing people with martial arts will flourish with the chivalrous. In a peaceful world, they will grow silent. This is something that has proved true throughout history.”

Wang Chao continued to read the information regarding Guoshu and studied the texts from the experts before him before reading up on their philosophies.

In his hand was a book labeled The Study of Bagua Zhang. This was a book that Wang Chao had paid extra attention to, and when he had came by a chapter that was labeled, “Style of the Burning Yang and Sealed Yin”, Wang Chao delved into it and began to see similarities with his own understanding of Bagua.

Every palm within Bagua had two types of Jin. One was the Clear Jin which was named the Burning Yang and the Hidden Jin which was named the Sealed Yin. The Clear Jin had six Yang points; the hand, foot, waist, leg, vertebrae, and head. Each one had to coordinate with each other. As for the Hidden Jin, there was the six Yin; the heart, intention, Qi, spirit, the five visceras, and the meridians which also must coordinate.

This Study of Bagua Zhang had been written by one of the supreme masters of the Republic of China, Sun Lu-tang. It had used many Daoist terminology to describe and explain Chinese boxing with unbelievably profound words and had given no specific training methods. There was only one simple basis that anyone who understood the terminology and had carefully studied the texts would be able to understand and integrate within themselves.

“This must be what they mean by having no path is not the same as not being passed on, and having no teacher does not mean it is not nonsensical.” Wang Chao finished up the Study of Bagua Zhang and then picked up another book. This one was labeled the True Narration of Xingyi and after looking up references to the other masters, Wang Chao could only sigh.

For those who walked the path of a scholar, if there was no book, there could be no information to be passed on. If there was only books without the guidance of a master, then the knowledge learned would be the same as not learned.

It was only under the previous guidance of Tang Zichen that Wang Chao had been able to understand the meaning and experiences written within the book.

After finishing up the rest of the books and information he had on hand, Wang Chao felt as if he had made yet another advancement in the world of Chinese boxing. Walking to the back of the house, he jumped onto the vats of water to practice his Bagua. Sure enough, he felt that this time’s drill was far smoother than before. His footwork had been calm and steady, his hands had weaved in and out like the leaves within a gale of wind. At the same time, his hands had cleverly integrated some of the strong fierceness found in Xingyi Quan.

“If I were to apply some vegetable oil to the water vats, would I fall?”

As he struck the sandbags, a sudden thought had popped up in his mind about how to make his practice even harder.

With this new thought in mind, Wang Chao immediately headed for the kitchens where he grabbed a few buckets of cooking oil before slathering it onto the vats of water until it shined with the sauce. Taking off his shoes, he carefully stood back onto the vat.

Sure enough, the slipperiness of the vats was astounding to see. The moment he had settled on top of the vat, Wang Chao felt his stance grow unsteady. His feet were nearly on the verge of slipping, and then with a sudden bang, he fell off.

Fortunately, his leg strength was strong enough for him to leap into the air before landing safely on the ground in order to avoid injuring himself.

“Good, this is a challenge!” Wang Chao was overjoyed. Jumping back onto the vat and exerting pressure onto his toes, he managed to cling to the vat as he tauted the muscles in his legs with all the muscles he could use.

It went without saying that after some time, he had made some improvements. Slowly but surely, he had grasped control of the vat, and with each footwork he made, it grew more and more steady.

After two days from when Wang Chao began, he had fallen several times. But with time, he had fallen less and less.

With his increased understanding of how to move and distribute his weight, he had begun to move faster and faster. Now, he was capable of moving with the same fluidity of when the vat hadn’t been greased.

“Would I be able to hit the sandbags like this now?” Wang Chao wondered.

Bang! Wang Chao’s palm slammed against the sandbag and felt a vibration go through his legs, causing him to hurry to steady himself once more. But his body had struck against another sandbag and sent him flying to the ground.

Needless to say, the greased up vat of oil was far more difficult to practice martial arts than before.

This time, Wang Chao had returned to practicing once more while falling to the ground. The only difference this time was that there was no sis Chen here to lead him.

But the Wang Chao of today was much more mature than the past. Trying to compare the two now was impossible. Even after falling, he hadn’t sustained any damages.

Continuing onwards for half a month, Wang Chao had continued to eat, sleep, and practice on top of the water vats. Aside from Bagua, he had practiced both Xingyi and the Assault of Dragon and Snake.

Gradually, Wang Chao’s feet could feel the greased vats with ease. His legs could move about the vat while his hands struck the sandbag without falling down even once. Instead of falling, he grew even more nimble and could stay on top of the vat without feeling a disturbance in his movements even as he iterated through 12 of the Xingyi stances.

Finally, Wang Chao began to feel that with each turn, his joints and muscles within the body began to have a pinching feeling as if something had penetrated into him.

“Aha, this must be having the Jin obey when one feels this sensation. This has to be when one reaches the upper levels of the Clear Jin stage.”

The winter break had quickly went by with Wang Chao being completely engrossed in martial arts. he had only returned once to give his parents 5000 RMB and said that it was his salary, causing his parents to be overjoyed at his success.

Even up to the very last few days of the winter break, Wang Chao had continued to practice on the vats. In the final day, no matter how much he had moved, there had been no chance of falling.

Planting his feet on the ground, Wang Chao felt completely as ease before striking downwards once. Pa! A crisp sound range through the air.

Having practiced perfectly, his entire body was perfectly full of power, allowing his strikes to be crisp in sound.

“Why is it in this entire winter break, there has been no challenger at all?” Tomorrow would be the official end to the winter break, and so Wang Chao was prepared to head back home when all of a sudden, his cellphone began to ring.

Picking up his phone, the icy tone of Li Wanji could be heard, “Hurry up and come to the dojo!”

When he heard this, Wang Chao knew that this could only mean one thing. Hanging up the phone, he immediately called for a taxi and drove over to the dojo. In these two months, Li Wanji had always made timely payments without any defaults. Wang Chao would naturally try not to neglect his duties either.

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