Romance of Dragons and Snakes

Chapter 184: An Exchange of Three Nations

“Sis Chen at that time was like this as well.” Seeing Huo Ling’er accomplish her training like this with her breath being exhaled like an arrow, Wang Chao had immediately thought back to the memories of five years before to when he saw Tang Zichen in the park.

Five years ago, her breath had been like an arrow, and it had attracted the curiosity of Wang Chao who hadn’t understood at the time. Every day, he would watch her foolishly. And after a week, Tang Zichen had brought him into the world of Guoshu. From there, his entire life had been changed.

This display Huo Ling’er was putting on was far too similar the one from the past.

Because of that, an inescapable feeling of sorrow and nostalgia began to arise in Wang Chao’s mind.

But then after that, Wang Chao realized that his thoughts of Tang Zichen could not longer be stopped to just that. As if a dam had broke, all of his memories and thoughts came pouring out.

This purple-robed young woman in front of him was starting to look more and more like Tang Zichen from five years ago. Although she had never seen Tang Zichen before, Huo Ling’er still gave off that same feeling of her. Even her personality and influence could be felt from Huo Ling’er.

They were both equally talented and highly skilled in martial arts. They were both spirited and nimble and elegant in nature.

And so Wang Chao was struck silent.

He was a master of martial arts. And after his victory over Nguyễn Hồng Tú in Hong Kong, his name was spread throughout all of the overseas world of martial arts, making him into a person fully deserving of being called a grandmaster and progenitor of his own school of martial arts.

Grandmaster. This too was a title that represented something major. A venerable entity that people would revere and look up to.

This was how Wang Chao was to be seen. His personality was calm and easy, but when he was angry he was like a clap of thunder and a bolt of lightning. With each and every action, with each and every word, every single move he made was in accordance with the natural rhythm of life. Even as he slept or ate, he was one with the world, and one with the Way. With his conduct, he was without a doubt a grandmaster in both presence and word.

Confucius had once said that by the age of seventy, he could follow his heart without overstepping the boundaries of right. These boundaries were rules, but rules were not what was created by man. It was the world that created these natural rules. Should the sun rise up in the sky early in the morning, then man’s heart would rise up with it. As it should in accordance to the rule of the world.

Wang Chao was only just in his twenties, but he had already the air of an elderly person.

But in the end, he was still a human. He was not an emotionless Immortal or a cultivator. A grandmaster of martial arts was still a human. A human with seven emotions and six desires. He could experience happiness, anger, sorrow, and joy. He was also capable of love, hate, like, and animosity. Even more so, he was capable of dating and marrying.

Martial artists were by no means cultivators seeking for enlightenment to become Immortals. As high as their achievements go, they were still mortals tied to the mortal plane.

The brilliant Yang Luchan and the venerable Sun Lu-tang had wives, children, and a household even.

Wang Chao was capable of emotions. Get rid of his achievements in martial arts, and he was nothing different than any other man his age. It was only because he had hidden his emotions very deep that no one was able to see it.

But this moment of regret and despondence had been more than enough to hook out the hidden feelings of sentiment he had stored deep within him.

“Master, what’s wrong? Did I do something wrong, or did something else happen?” As soon as Huo Ling’er finished with her stances, she saw that Wang Chao had looked a little distracted. Staring fixedly at him, she could see that he was not acting as normal and was slightly panicked to notice that.

“Oh, it’s nothing. You did well. Very well in fact.” Snapping out of his daze, Wang Chao had resumed his normal demeanor as if nothing had happened. But now, he was looking at his female disciple in a relatively different light.

Whatever this feeling he was feeling, even he did not know the answer.

“Cough cough cough….” Borrowing the pretense of needing to cough in order to clear his throat, Wang Chao disguised the feelings that were running across his face.

“The monkey stance requires nimbleness. But in its fighting methods, there is a single word that is emphasized, and that word is ‘scratch’. The main target is the face, and there is a way to describe this motion, ‘Monkey scratches at the back of the helmet.’ In battle against another, you circle around the enemy and attack at their head. That is what it means to fight with the monkey stance. The ‘Magpie Stepping on Branch’ that you used is similar to what the ape stance uses to fight. It also goes by the names of ‘Apes and Monkeys Crowding Over Tiger’ or the ‘Rabbit Treading on Eagle’. When the eagle dives downward, the rabbit pretends to be stuck on the crowd. But in the final moment, it springs upwards and uses the eagle to fly over.”

And so Wang Chao begun to correct Huo Ling’er’s ape stance for her.

After getting a detailed explanation from Wang Chao, Huo Ling’er began to try again.

With the extension of a fist, the body was like the bow that released an arrow and like a dragon soaring out from water. With her form, she was exceedingly fast and powerful with her heel exacting the right amount of weight as it stepped forward. Then when she was drew high into the sky with each Dragon Rising Palm Chop, she truly did seem to resemble a dragon from the ninth heavens come descending through the clouds to slam its claws down onto the mountain.

The Dragon Rising required one to arc their vertebrae before unleashing a springing force to compliment the chopping force of the arm. This way, it was far more destructive than the Chopping Jin of the tiger stance while also maintaining a very flexible margin of strength that could be diverted into something else.

After three leaps, a tiger’s might would be diminished. But the Dragon Rising Palm Chop could be done chop after chop, leap after leap without exhaustion.

“Since when did you learn a move from the dragon stance?” Upon seeing this rise and chop, Wang Chao immediately imitated the motions of a monkey and nimbly maneuvered behind Huo Ling’er’s side. With two hands, he quickly reached out to scratch out Huo Ling’er’s face.

His forefingers came to a stop just right on top of her eyelids. All he need was a single push of his fingers and her eyeballs would be immediately gouged out.

Huo Ling’er was strong, but against Wang Chao, a single move would all that would be needed to finish it. Wang Chao’s usage of the monkey stance could be considered to be as if he was an actual monkey that was leaping to and from from branch to branch with the utmost dexterity.

But the student would soon overcome the teacher, and there the student would become the teacher.

“It’s something I took from Lee Cheol-han. When I saw his high kick, I managed to gleam some information from it.” Huo Ling’er spoke. “His high kick had a great deal of leg strength. But about half of its power wasn’t fully used so that it could transition into something else if needed. It was far more fiercer than an actual leg whip, so I managed to gleam something from it. This Dragon Rising Palm Chop, is that what it’s called? It can be done again and again without pause.”

When it came to Huo Ling’er’s ability at deduction, Wang Chao was no stranger to it. But even now, he was starting to feel the very same vibe from her he had felt from Tang Zichen long time ago.

In this one moment actually, he had mistook her to be Tang Zichen.

It was a very new sensation. And a warm one that brought a sense of odd agitation.

“The Dragon Rising Arm Chop is indeed like that. Within the reality of the move is a bluff waiting to be shown, and any variation can be made from it.” Wang Chao nodded his head to confirm her perspective.

“Ah, master. You said that the ‘Magpie Stepping on Branch’ is a fighting method of the ape stance while the monkey stance requires nimbles to scratch at the face. Aside from that, what other differences is there between monkey and ape?”

“The monkey is flexible, nimble, and quick. Dodging must be done quickly, skillfully, and deceptively. Being nimble is merely a cornerstone to the ape stance. With the ape stance, you must be forceful, violent, and steady. The ape places importance in stepping and striking. It is an evolution of the monkey stance. It is similar to how there is the eagle stance and the hawk stance.

Author note: The hawk is of the same family of the eagle and was once said to be the vulture. Its claws were sharp as it ate at its dead prey, but its wings were also capable of covering and slapping. In some ways, it is a stance that is far more violent than the eagle stance. To put Lee Cheol-han into submission by bursting with Jin at the joints of the body would be an example of its practice.

“The hawk stance has a grappling technique where one emits Jin at the joints in a way that matches with the eagle claw. This type of grappling technique ensures a safe capture of the enemy. But it is also very violent and cannot be used repeatedly. Even in practice, one must make sure that the ligaments at the joints won’t be torn. It is dangerous, and if the body isn’t at a point where the entire body is like steel, it cannot be used.”

Wang Chao thought back to the part in Tang Zichen’s A True Record of Guoshu, where it had talked about the hawk stance in detail. There was a single form in particular that had plenty of room for variation, the “Vulture Dividing Corpse”. In the Assault of Dragons and Snake, there was also a similar move like that. But after Wang Chao had learned it, he had never bothered to use it in a real life battle.

But today, he was prepared to teach it to Huo Ling’er.

South Korea, Seoul.

In a single courtyard that was built in the manner of the old Korean courtyards, there sat a single well-built middle-aged man in a hanbok by the side of a room.

On the other side was an equally-aged man wearing a Japanese kimono.

Outside the wooden doors to the room were wooden boards that led to the stairs to the open courtyards.

The room itself was split into two sides. On both sides sat a dozen men or so.

These dozen men were either kneeling or sitting in a crossed-legged fashion, but not a single one of them moved an inch. They instead were listening to the two men inside listen–they were clearly the followers of the two.

The middle-aged Korean was the progenitor of the Jang Baek style Taekwondo, the “Iron Fist Hwarang” Choi Jang Baek.

“Master Yoshida, I’ve invested the money into this fighting exchange between China, Japan, and Korea. I wish to see a friendly exchange of pointers in between the disciples of my Jang Baek style Taekwondo with your Goju-ryu Karate, the Shaolin Temple, and the Laoshan School of Internal Martial Arts. What might you mean by this then?”

The Japanese martial artist named Yoshida blinked his eyes, “The Laoshan School of Internal Martial Arts. Their name has gotten big recently. And their headmaster is but yet a youngster, but master Iga Minamoto says that after witnessing his match, that youngster would be a formidable opponent…..”

“And that is why I suggested this exchange between our disciples to share pointers.” Choi Jang Baek interrupted him.

“Hai, I understand that.” Yoshida spoke.

An exchange of martial arts between schools and sects were a long standing tradition that weren’t uncommon at all. Many masters would often take part in it since it was essentially a competition of strength.

Take the warrior monks of the Shaolin Temple for example. They have once spread out through the world to take part in many exchanges with all sorts of events. The Russian wrestling team, the Chinese Sanda Competitions, these monks had fought in many to exchange just as many pointers.

An exchange like this was a way for a master to expand their influence many times over.