Romance of Dragons and Snakes

Chapter 176: Hidden Jin of the Iron Finger

The chain whip was a strange weapon that use the chains and the spear in conjunction to attack. The user would be able to send it flying with a toss of a hand to stab into something. With another shake, the whip can be called back. The chain whip was conceptually the same as the rope dart.

If a practitioner were to use the chain whip to perfection, then a single throw of the whip could be as straight as a spear and could accurately stab at any desired location.

The master practitioners of the past would often be able to dip their clothes into water and swing it around as if it were a spear or staff. That was the same principle as a chain whip.

Using cloth to be a staff or spear required two exceptionally strong arms that could move quickly and furiously.

A chain whip required the same thing. When using Jin, the whip was like a spear. The point on the whip would be the spearhead, and with a shake, it could strike straight through a wooden stake with ease.

Used gently, and it could be as soft as rattan. At a strike, it would constrict and bind with the potential to kill.

A weapon like this was convenient to carry unlike a blade, spear, sword, or staff. It could be kept at hand and be taken out just as easily.

In the present era, no one would carry a blade with them. No one would be brazen enough to carry a long spear or staff or else risk being considered a nutcase. Throughout all of the matches Wang Chao had been in, he had seen many people from the Wulin, but only one of them had used a weapon, and that was Jiang Hai. Jiang Hai had specifically came out to challenge Wang Chao as well, so he hadn’t brought out his sword for nothing either.

But while it was easy to carry around, a chain whip was not very easy to use. Tossing it about with the spear flying everywhere, if it did not hit the enemy, then it was possible to hurt oneself. Wang Chao had seen those who practiced the sword and those who practiced the saber, but when it came to the stranger ones like these, he had never. Not even once in the past had he seen a user of one, and he hadn’t ever heard of anyone either.

So it was quite hard to believe that during his lunchtime, Wang Chao would come across such a youth whose ability with the chain whip was astonishingly fast. In his hands, the chain whip was like a silver snake that darted in and out.

A person who could use the chain whip to such a degree like this would most definitely understand the path of hard and soft Jin. With a simple shake, they would be able to alternate between hard and soft Jin at any given point. In a battle of martial arts, such a feat was rather terrifying.

It was in that moment Wang Chao knew that this youth was without a doubt a youth with genius capabilities.

One might ask what was most important in the 21st century. It would without a doubt be talent. When Wang Chao looked at this youth, he was far more talented than Ye Xuan; so Wang Chao had swiftly came to the conclusion that he wanted to take this youth into his own wing to nurture.

He was not as rash as Zhou Binglin however and loved to lecture the young generation. When Zhou Binglin saw a youth, he wanted to test his moral character. Before teaching, he would have to deliberately humiliate him and see how much the youth would be able to tolerate.

The conduct of Zhou Binglin was similar to Feng Qingyang of Mt Hua. When he saw a youth training on the mountains, he had mistaken him to be Linghu Chong. Because of his love for teaching and deliberately humiliating people to test one’s character, he wanted to see if they would be worthy of the Dugu Nine Swords.

But what he didn’t expect was to see that the youth was not Linghu Chong, but the ‘God of Sword’ Ximen Chuixue. As a result, blood had been spilt.

“Perhaps when Zhou Binglin was looking at me in the forest, I was that youth. A love for rash actions and no thought, I cannot make a repeat of the same mistakes.”

This youth was clearly the boss of a criminal gang that bought and sold drugs. There was nothing much to say about this matter. In correspondence to the martial virtues, a true martial artist would not be such a person like that. But the even in the past, those who practiced martial arts belongs to one of the Three Religions and the Nine Schools. In the eyes of normal society, they weren’t much better than hoodlums.

The martial artists of the Hongmen Society were like this, but even they were regarded as criminals.

While Wang Chao did think for a moment about teaching this youth, accepting him as a disciple would require further observation before an arrangement could be made. If this youth was willing to offend the entire world and shy away from no crime, then no matter how much of a genius he was, it wouldn’t be worth it.

It also wasn’t sure if he had a master or was the inheritor of some sort of discipline. Furthermore, the youth was also likely of not wanting to be Wang Chao’s apprentice.

Having him as an apprentice was not an impossibility. The youth’s genius had attracted the attention of Wang Chao by a decent amount. However, he hadn’t been the only one impressed. Liu Qing, Zhang Kai, Gao Jun and Fang Wei had all seen this youth with the same amount of astonishment that was extremely apparent on their faces.

“Huu, huuu, aigh! We can talk about this, we can definitely talk about this….” Boss Hong had gone red from exertion the moment the whip had coiled around his neck. Not only was he red in the face, but he was terrified down to his bones. His subordinates had been held up by the two guns of the other side, scaring them shitless and forcing them to scamper out of the way. In a single moment, the fifty gangsters had cleared out of the place with only Wang Chao and his group, boss Hong, and the youth and his four.

But the youngster with the chain whip had completely ignored the captured man to look at Wang Chao and Liu Qing. His own senses had told him that these six figures were not people to be trifled with.

This youngster had red lips and white teeth with sharp eyebrows and a slightly long jaw that revealed hints of of silver in his teeth. Wearing white sportswear, he gave off a rather cool and handsome demeanor. But he wasn’t as soft in attitude from what one might expect to see from the television or novels; on the contrary, he was rather soldierly in demeanor.

An image like this was practically the Prince Charming of every love-yearning girl’s dreams. Similarly, he would be a first-choice pick for any mistress.

“Boss Hong, I invited you here today for a peaceful business talk, not for fighting. And yet, you still decided to break the rules by bringing guns and having so many people come here. Do you take us to be easy people to bully because of our age? Have you never heard of how I, Tan Wendong, managed to survive within The Path?” The youth spoke coldly, “I won’t kill you, in today’s era, the punishment for murder is something I’m all too aware with. I have never killed anyone either. But if I don’t teach you a lesson, then people will think I’ve gone soft. And that’s something The Path can’t know about. Well then, how about a muscle? Drugs will fix that soon enough.”

“N-no!” Boss Hong shook his head violently before his mouth was blocked off by Tan Wendong. Wendong had been very efficient and immediately plunged the point of his chain whip across the boss’ wrist!

Blood flew everywhere as the boss’ body convulsed wildly. But because of the gag, no sound came out from his mouth.

When Wang Chao saw how Tan Wendong had carefully sliced the tendons, his eyebrows had rose slightly, feeling that this youth was frankly quite impressive.

“In our line of work, once is once and twice is twice. Leave out a line, boss Hong, and you will forever reflect upon it. If you don’t learn from this and try my hand again, then it won’t be just a muscle, but your eyes next time.

After he had carved out one of the tendons, Tan Wendong slapped the man on the face, “Thunder. Fire, escort boss Hong to the hospital. Wind, Cloud, let’s return to the school. We’ve a birthday party we can’t afford to be late to.”

“Yes, brother Dong.”

The four men behind Tan Wendong were clearly all very capable men. Upon receiving their orders, they had immediately carried boss Hong out.

“Wind, Cloud, Thunder, and Fire. Four generals and a single boss, and yet they are still students. How unbelievable is this? Are we in some sort of drama or novel?”

In the span of several minutes in which this series of events had happened, Huo Ling’er had seen and heard plenty of things. Not only were these gangsters still students studying in school, but the names Wind, Cloud, Thunder, and Fire, it was a right mess and nearly cringeworthy.

“Brother Dong! This girl’s mocking us! Is she…” One of the four had clearly heard what Huo Ling’er said and glared at her.

“Don’t cause trouble. The rules of The Path is what it is. These people aren’t of The Path. Look at their clothes, they’re clearly from the Southwest Infantry School. Let’s go.”

Giving another glance at Wang Chao and the others, Tan Wendong took his leave.

“One moment.” Wang Chao stopped them.

“What do you want? What! What!” Feng and Yun had immediately spoke out at the same time as the youngster with a howl.

“Oy.” Tan Wendong waved his hand to symbolize that they shouldn’t be causing trouble. Fiddling with the chain whip, the youngster spoke, “Brother, we have nothing to do with each other. The People’s Army is for external affairs only. If you want to arrest me, then you’ll need the armed police or public security.”

“Eh!” Wang Chao gave two steps forward. “We indeed have no relationship with one another. While I am of the army, arresting a gangster or two is not my responsibility, so you wouldn’t need to worry. When you used your chain whip just now, I could see that your legwork resembles the movements from Tantui. Which school might you be from? I too am a practitioner, that’s all.”

“If we have nothing to do with each other, then there’s no point to asking.” Tan Wendong studied Wang Chao briefly. Looking at his temples, he hadn’t sensed any traces of his temples being drummed up. On another look, Tan Wendong hadn’t seen any calluses or any extraordinary muscles on his hands–especially in between the web of his forefinger and thumb. This was unlike what one would have as a martial artist. But the people behind him, Huo Ling’er, Gao Jun, Zhang Kai and Fang Wei, they were all quite noticeably robust.

“Six people. One female, three males. They’re experts. The girl’s slightly weaker, but the other males look like they know some martial arts, but not much; they should still be adept at fighting. But this one right in front of me, he doesn’t look outstanding at all. He’s probably learned one or two things; or else he wouldn’t have spoke out to begin with.”

In an instant, Tan Wendong had made his judgement and determined Wang Chao to be a person that didn’t know martial arts.

Wang Chao was a practitioner that would look like a civilian in times of peace. Without the eye of a grandmaster, it was impossible to differentiate him.

Until Guan Yu opened his eyes, he would not kill. Until the most crucial moment, the final boss would not show its final form.

“You can walk your uptight and moral path, I will walk my narrow path. We are gangsters, you are soldiers, neither of us two should be connected. It’d best if we don’t fight either.” Tan Wendong spoke after making his judgement.

“No contact with one another…” Wang Chao had felt that this Tan Wendong had quite the character to him. Wang Chao had seen plenty of strong youths, but this was the very first one with such a character. And with this skill, he was at the very least of the same level of strength as Ye Xuan. If Ye Xuan was a genius of the Japanese martial arts world, then it went without question that this Tan Wendong was a genius of the Chinese martial arts world.

“How noisy you are, and bothersome too!” Tan Wendong’s eyes narrowed. With a shake of his hand, the chain whip transformed into a silver snake and shot towards Wang Chao’s leg.

He had originally planned on having the chain whip stab in front of Wang Chao’s leg to scare him so that they would leave him alone and avoid any trouble.

Just as the tip of the whip was about to embed itself an inch away from his foot, Wang Chao’s foot slid inwards as if readying himself to do a somersault. Then with the inwards kick seen oftenly in soccer, he kicked away the chain whip.

“What strong legs, I misjudged him.” Tan Wendong’s eyes immediately lit up brightly when he saw that. Looking at his chain whip, he immediately yanked it back. As it arced backwards, he shook his hand so that as if it was a silver spear, it came flying towards Wang Chao’s shoulder.

With a lean of his shoulder, Wang Chao dodged the tip.

Controlling the chain whip from far away, Tan Wendong would constantly shake his hand whenever his whip failed to hit. His white sportswear would crackle along with his chain as it moved with the ferocity of a viper. With each fail, it would scuttle backwards and eventually find its way coiled around Wang Chao’s leg.

This youth’s hand with the chain whip had truly been amazing.

However, there would be no way that Wang Chao would let him coil the whip around his leg. Lifting up his leg, he made use of the “Rooster Lifting Leg” and the “Cross Turn” to bring the chain whip upwards. Then with a forward extension of his leg like a fish being fished up, he hooked up the chain.

At this, it seemed as if Wang Chao had kicked up the part of the area where the heart was.

Startled, Tan Wendong yanked the chain back to him. There had been people that grabbed hold of his chain once. But in the moment after, Tan Wendong would yank the chain so that the other person would be pulled forward as well before the chain whip sliced through them and then he would continue to send it piercing through his enemy’s body.

This chain whip of was his was made of steel and was thus several times stronger than iron as a result. It would not be broken easily.

But he did not expect to see that in the moment he yanked it back, Wang Chao had held out two fingers as if they were scissors. Then as if cutting a piece of string, the steel chain had snapped in half.

“Iron Finger Hidden Jin!” The youth cried out.