Romance of Dragons and Snakes

Chapter 179: A Man’s Name and a Tree’s Shadow

“Eh? Hey Li, did you see that? Could’ve sworn that a gust of wind blew in just now, and a person came walking past us. Or am I going blind?” One of the two bodyguards to the KTV building suddenly asked the other.

“You sure you’re not going blind? What person was there?”

In the time that the two bodyguards were talking, Wang Chao had already entered the KTV building and into the karaoke hall Tan Wendong had reserved for his girlfriend. Even with a precursory glance around, Wang Chao had to admit that Tan Wendong was great at planning things.

For the sake of celebrating his girlfriend’s birthday, he had thrown a great party and hired some people to act as the stereotypical bodyguards for the VIP gang leader and guests. While these bodyguards could stop the police, they couldn’t possibly stop Wang Chao.

He had taken advantage of when the two bodyguards had laxed their attention span before moving past the doors with the movements of the “Snake Scuttling Rat Scattering” technique. A single swish of his feet and a shake of his body had been all that was needed for him to blow past them without even a shadow to be seen. With how Wang Chao had scuttled past them, there was no way the two of them would have seen him.

For a person who practiced martial arts, they could move their bodies to extreme speeds. Moving a dozen meters in an instant and with such speed that even the human eye couldn’t register them was not an exaggeration.

The hero Du Xinwu had once put on a display like this before for the military junta. There had been an instance within a small room where two people were drinking tea and chatting to one another. Just as the junta had raised the cup of tea up to drink, Du Xinwu had already disappeared from the room without a trace. Even the doors didn’t look like it had been touched even.

And straight from the room on the other side, Du Xinwu had walked out. The junta had been surprised to no end and thought that Du Xinwu had learned the art of invisibility and wall phasing.

What had actually happened was when the junta had taken that moment to drink his tea, Du Xinwu had used the “Leopard climbing tree” to leap out from the window.

The paws of a cat had a pad that would allow for graceful and silent leaping and landing. For a martial artist, their arms and legs would be trained to a degree where they could replicate the muscles of a cat. With a leap of the body, they could land and roll in the way a cat would in an instant and trick the senses of even a human.

Under the eyes of many, Xue Dian had been able to fly from one side of a eight seater table to the other side in the time it took to slam the table. He had repeated this achievement many times, but not a single one of the observers were able tell how he managed to do it and had thought it was magic. Even a practitioner with the well-trained eye could see the brief moment of movement if he focused all of his attention on Xue Dian.

Wang Chao was a person whose martial arts has reached a stage of silence. This was comparable in level to the masters of Guoshu of the past. So in a single moment, he would definitely be able to cross over into the KTV building without much difficulty.

Upon entering the KTV building and walking up the third floor, Wang Chao was able to hear the slightest sounds of singing along with the happy sounds of a woman. Straining his ears, Wang Chao was able to discern the voice of Tan Wendong from inside. Following the voice, Wang Chao walked to the largest room and pushed open the door.

It had only taken five seconds before all sound from within the room came to a complete stop.

At a glance, Wang Chao could see Tan Wendong sitting at the sofa in the center. By his side was a picturesque-looking girl that wore black clothes and had a delicate figure–this was clearly his girlfriend.

Aside from Tan Wendong and his girlfriend, there was also Wind, Cloud, Thunder, and Fire. On the other side, a plain cloth wearing police woman could be seen with a visor on her hand and another male police officer by her side.

“Tan Wendong, I’ve heard that you’ve gotten rid of one of boss Hong’s hands?” The policewoman asked. “You might have been lenient and helped us greatly this time to help put a stop to the drug trade from Vietnam, but what you’re doing is still illegal nonetheless. As long as I find some sort of proof, I’ll definitely be the one to personally escort you to prison in handcuffs.”

“Yea yea, you’ve said that plenty of times.” Tan Wendong spoke lazily from where he laid on the sofa; he hadn’t wished to move even a single finger due to his position even. “Today’s the birthday of my girl, so let’s stop and forget about all this talk. We’re friends, so we should be happy today.”

“Hmph!” The officer forced a small smile. Catching movement from the corner of her eye, she turned to look at Wang Chao who had just opened the door, “Who might this be, a friend of yours, Wendong?”

When Tan Wendong saw Wang Chao, his entire body flew up as straight as an arrow while remaining seated to glare at Wang Chao like a hungry wolf staring down his prey.

“You! What are you doing here, you trying to cause trouble for brother Dong?” Wind and Cloud had both leapt up to their feet nervously. “How did you come in here anyways?” That memory from when Wang Chao had cut apart Tan Wendong’s weapon with two fingers had been fresh in their minds.

“No reason at all, I’m just here to talk.” Wang Chao waved his hand in a gesture of goodwill. Slowly walking into the room, he sat down onto the empty sofa to the side of Tan Wendong.

“Ah, today is the birthday of your girlfriend.” It was almost as if Wang Chao was a lifelong friend of Tan Wendong. At the same time he was talking, he had already fished out a pricy looking box. “This is a birthday present.”

“Eh?” Tan Wendong’s girlfriend hesitated to take it from him at first, but when she saw the nod her boyfriend gave her, she took the box and gingerly opened the box. Upon the unboxing, she saw a platinum sapphire ring twinkling in the light back to her embedded in the box–it was clearly from an expensive brand.

This ring was merely something that Wang Chao had bought with his credit card at a jewelry store on the way to the building.

“Isn’t an expensive gift like this a little too much for the occasion?” Tan Wendong’s keen eyes had immediately realized that this ring had to be considerably expensive and was perhaps several ten thousand RMB in price.

“Too much? No no, how could it be anything but fitting?” Wang Chao’s eyes had twinkled as he observed Tan Wendong.

When Wang Chao had gifted the extremely expensive platinum sapphire ring as a birthday present, the male and female police officers had looked to each other in shock.

Tan Wendong had instead stared at Wang Chao a little longer before shifting to an even more comfortable position on the sofa once more, “Don’t expect a reward for something that doesn’t deserve one. Did you have something you want from me?”

“There is indeed.” Wang Chao smiled.

“Then say it, why don’t you?” Tan Wendong spoke lazily. “Your skills is better than mine own–ten times over even. I saw you in those military uniforms, you must be high on the pecking order. What matter could you possibly want this little Wendong to do for you?”

“There’s no future to being in a gang. You are a young but talented one with plenty of potential. To mix with a criminal gang and deal in crime as an unemployed member of society like this would be a waste.” Wang Chao suddenly felt as if he was acting in some sort of movie or novel where the hero would try to sway the demon king to “Drop the knife and become a Buddha”.

Tan Wendong hadn’t moved from his spot, but there had been a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes on his face. “From what it sounds like, you’re trying to buy me to follow you? Coming here and naming a price would be beneficial to you I bet, and buying me wouldn’t be too hard with your power. But, don’t you think that a single ring like this is far too little?”

When Wang Chao heard Tan Wendong reply to him, he felt that this youth had been far too into the underworld and had inherited the ruthless and crafty nature of the sort. In a more chaotic world, he would definitely be the king of the area.

But in an era of peace, being ruthless like that would be pointless. A time of chaos might have called for such a figure, but for a time of peace, a person like that would be useless.

“I’m not trying to buy you. I am merely trying to give you a chance to pursue your studies.” Wang Chao spoke. “Your talent in martial arts is absolutely outstanding. In my over twenty years of life, I have never seen someone as outstanding as you are; even being called a genius wouldn’t be an apt description. With some time and dedication, then you will definitely become a powerful martial artist. I don’t wish to see you walk the path of the underworld, would it be possible for you to turn back?”

“You want brother Dong to stop his career as a boss and give up all that he worked for? Who do you think you are, the premier?!” Another youth to the side had exploded out in anger towards Wang Chao.

“I am the headmaster of the Laoshan School of Internal Martial Arts.” Wang Chao hadn’t bothered to look at the one who spoke and instead continued to face Tan Wendong to give a response.

“What? The headmaster of the Laoshan School of Internal Martial Arts? Are you master Wang Chao then?” Suddenly, the female police officer to the side had cried out in surprise when she heard Wang Chao mention his school.

“How do you know me, has my name preceded me?” Wang Chao turned around to look at the officer. He had felt slightly suspicious; his name was famous in the world of martial arts, but outsiders wouldn’t know about him. Just like how any Go player would know Lee Chang-ho, those who weren’t familiar with Go would even recognize that name.

“You are the very same master Wang Chao that fought and killed master the nak muay Nguyễn Hồng Tú in Hong Kong using the crocodile stance, correct? I’m Fang Bei!” This police officer had spoken with such excitement that her words were barely incoherent.

“Wendong, he’s master Wang Chao! The last time we worked together, we managed to capture the druglord Tai Jiu; the subordinate of the warlord Zha Jun from the Golden Triangle. He was one of the soldiers taught by Nguyễn Hồng Tú.”

At one point, Tan Wendong had worked with the police for a mutual strike of the onto the drug market and its people from Vietnam. With the police, they were able to confront the drug lord Tai Jiu. After three days had passed, plenty of the armed police had been killed before they managed to shoot at Tai Jiu and capture him alive. During that time, Tan Wendong had been the one that fought him.

This Tai Jiu had indeed been one of the men that Nguyễn Hồng Tú had trained.

Nguyễn Hồng Tú’s death at Wang Chao’s hand had made its way to some of the members of the armed police that dealt with that specific part of southeast Asia. Fang Bei had been one of those people in the know.

Tan Wendong sold drugs as part of his business, but he had still partnered with the armed police to land a crucial strike onto the foreign drug trade. It was a rather unimaginable thing to think about, but when one took a closer look at the facts, cooperation was only natural.

“Are you the number one martial artist in southeast Asia, master Wang Chao?” Tan Wendong spoke seriously. Now that he knew Wang Chao’s identity, he was more respectful in how he called him.

“I don’t dare claim the title of number one, but I am indeed Wang Chao. Will you learn martial arts under me then? Life in a criminal gang has no future as I’ve said.” Wang Chao spoke politely. He as of right now stood on equal footing with the grandmasters such as Zhu Hongzhi and Hsueh Lien-hsin. Although he wasn’t much older than Tan Wendong in age, he still held the title of senior.

Tan Wendong was a person who loved martial arts. If he didn’t, then he wouldn’t have brought his skill in it to such a degree. Wang Chao had been able to see that aspect of Tan Wendong as well as the desire to improve. As long as there was a grandmaster that taught him, then Tan Wendong’s potential would never stop.

Any single person that loved martial arts would definitely seize the chance to improve his studies given the chance.

“I have an older cousin whose skill in Tantui is far beyond mine. But he was never able to rely on it to earn his keep and went into soccer. And now, he is a member of the national soccer team with a good life to live. From young, I learned martial arts as well, but I wasn’t able to use it to earn my meals either. Master Wang, you tell me to earnestly learn martial arts, but I fear that has no future either. If I cannot survive while trying to live righteously, how could I do this? Am I to just learn martial arts my entire life?”

Tan Wendong had suddenly asked.

“Even I don’t rely on martial arts to live my life. I have found my own company for that.” Wang Chao smiled. “I\nN truth, you are a genius, and I hope that you will join with me to further our studies. But if you learn martial arts with me, you cannot live a life as a criminal like this.”

“Wendong, you really can’t keep going on like this! The higher ups have already heard rumors of you and are prepared to keep the order for the sake of society. With a single point of the finger, they could have you executed at a moment’s notice! I keep telling you this, but you never listen, even I can’t help you forever you know! Master Wang has given you a chance to study with him–that’s an unbelievable opportunity! You can’t just pass this up.” Fang Bei spoke up urgently. “Master Wang has even connections with the military!”

“Master Wang, I have seen your achievements with martial arts before, and I too would like to learn under you. But this is a matter that I want to think about.” Tan Wendong replied.

“No worries, no worries at all. I’ll be at the Infantry School as a military instructor for the next two months. If you ever come to a decision, then just find me there.” Wang Chao replied before walking out.

As soon as he walked out from the building, Fang Bei came running out after him, “Master Wang Chao, please wait one moment. Would I be able to speak to you for a moment?”

“Hm?” Wang Chao asked, “What is it?”

Biting her lips for a moment, Fang Bei finally spoke, “I wanted to talk to you about Wendong. You have to make sure he separates himself from the criminal world!”