Romance of Dragons and Snakes

“People say that the Jews were an outstanding race, but us Chinese aren’t that far off either. Furthermore, we Chinese have our own homelands and a culture that has towered over the east for thousands of years without collapsing.”

The sea wind gave chilling sensation as it blew across the seaside villa hidden by a forest.

Occasionally, a raindrop fell to the ground while the sea was covered with a mist–making it seem more like an artistic dream.

Liao Junhua stood in the middle of a large pavilion and happily felt the sea breeze gently pelt his face with water vapor.

“Jia Jia, the documentary you want to film, it is something that practically cannot be accomplished. Even the dangers in Iraq pale in comparison to this.”

“I’m not afraid.” Zhu Jia spoke up stubbornly as she looked at Wang Chao from the side.

“Okay okay. Changing her mind on something like this cannot be done overnight. It should be taken one step at a time to allow you to accept.” Wang Chao stepped forward, “Chief Liao, let us talk about martial arts. Jia Jia’s work is quite unpleasant with some sorrow to it.”

“What realm of martial arts has senior Zhu reached?”

Wang Chao suddenly turned around to ask.

“My master reached the realm of Transforming Jin in his prime. His mind and will had reached a level of emptiness as well. As long as his ear could hear, he would be able to see. No matter how fast a move was, he would be able to dodge. This once included a single time where bullets flew everywhere. When he was on that battlefield, not a single one hit him.”

“His mind and will has practiced to the level where the spirit returns to nothing, this is the stage where experience blends into one’s perception.”

Wang Chao thought for moment, “Elder Sun narrated in True Narration of Xingyi that this was a single layer realm that leads to the state of nothing. ‘No sight, no sound, yet aware to dodge.’ Did senior Zhu reach such a stage?”

“The state of nothing is the pinnacle of Chinese Boxing. It is also the summit of the cultivation of the heart and mind.” Liao Junhua laughed, “Didn’t Elder Sun say in his book that he had only met four people who had attained such a realm? Li Luoneng of Xingyi Quan, Dong Haichuan of Bagua, Yang Luchan of Taichi, and Wu Yuxiang. Each one of them were men of foresight and could tell when trouble would arrive before it could even start. My master has already reached his later years, but he has not yet achieved such a state. He has most likely not perfected his state of mind and will. For one to wish to reach the state of nothing, that will require chance. There are times that even cultivation will not help the body.”

“That isn’t bad. In the Doctrine of the Mean of the Confucians, it is said that ‘It is characteristic of the most entire sincerity to be able to foreknow.’. Throughout history, there had been Confucian scholars that have cultivated their health to the absolute peak. Despite having so little strength that even a chicken could evade them, they were still prophetic in their abilities and could evade danger.” Wang Chao spoke. His mind and spirit were like that of a newborn as it glowed red and bright from the light.

Although today had been a misty type of day, Wang Chao could still sense the sun that was rising high into the sky behind the clouds. His mind and will had synchronized with the rhythmic tempo of the sun and moon. Whenever he broke out with Jin now, it would be by instinct rather than deliberation.

“The things at the peak are for the grandmasters to talk about as if they are everyday topics. To us, the more we talk about it, the more complicated it becomes. Like the farmers in the 1960s, they had no understanding of the moon. Instead, they had mistaken it to be the Immortal Chang’e. My current state compared to the grandmasters is equivalent to those of the farmers. But I can see that you’ve understood something. Is there a rhythm to the changes in the spirit and personality?”

Liao Junhua had already talked to Wang Chao for the entire day and had noticed that Wang Chao had been vigorous in the morning, guarded in the afternoon, a leisured excitement at dusk, and then quiet at night. This pattern to the changes in the spirit and personality was quite curious to him.

“Take the quintessence of the sun and moon. That is nothing more than the basics of the theory of cultivation.”

When it came to friends who were martial artists, Wang Chao was very genuine and held nothing back with them. The path to improvement was blind and required the guidance of others. But in the end, it still required the person to move by themselves.

While Qingdao was drizzling and hazy in the morning, Singapore was bright and lively.

Chen Aiyang stood underneath the shade of a nearby tree and slowly went through one of the stances for Taichi.

His movements had been smooth and thorough as he moved from left to right and right to left as in a smooth manner as if he was a water droplet.

Sunshine had sprayed through the trees and left behind a motley of bright spots on the ground below. As his body moved around and through them, they resembled the the flashing light of a golden scale.

Gugu, gugu, gugu.

A series of ox like bellows mixed in with the croaking of a toad could be heard from his abdomen, chest, and the entire body.

This was Taichi’s secret method of refining the marrow, “Fishing Toad Jin”.

As Chen Aiyang struck, the sounds of the “Ox Toad” grew louder and louder until even the sparrows on the trees had been frightened enough to take off.

Suddenly, his entire body flew upwards towards the nearest tree. Without using his hand or leg, his entire body resembled that of a cat without a tail and hugged the tree.

This was a move in Taichi called “Leopard Cat Up the Tree”. Under his demonstration, he had truly transformed into a giant leopard cat.

Moving up and down the three thrice times, he threw himself upwards once more and formed a circle with both hands. As one hand extended, the other receded. In an accurate movement of his hand, he had grabbed a sparrow that was just about to ascend into the sky gently before falling back down.

His movements had been fast and astonishing to see.

After grabbing the sparrow, he gently unclenched his fist. Straight away, the sparrow began to flap its wings in preparation to fly away, but whenever the sparrow was about to flap its wings, Chen Aiyang’s hand would break out with a soft amount of Hidden Jin, counteracting aginst the sparrow’s upwards momentum.

Then, Chen Aiyang would shake his hand so that the sparrow would move to his shoulder.

Moving around Chen Aiyang’s body, the sparrow had continued to stick to him in panic. Each time it tried to fly, Chen Aiyang would move in the same direction and use Hidden Jin to prevent it from doing so.

Gradually after a while, it seemed as if the sparrow would be forever stuck with Chen Aiyang.

Then, the riveting sound of a toad’s croaking could be heard from Chen Aiyang, knocking out the sparrow.

Chen Aiyang gently shook the sparrow twice, causing it to reawaken. With a ruffling of its wings, it had instantly disappeared back into the trees.

“Congratulations, master. You’ve finally brought the Jin of Taichi all around your body and reached the stage of Transforming Jin.”

From afar, a single sturdy looking man came walking forward.

This man was rather round in the face with thin eyebrows. But his bones and body structure looked as if it was chiseled to reveal the sharpness of his body muscles.

He was Chen Aiyang’s able-bodied assistant and also expert of Wingchun, Tantui, and Hong style Longfist martial artist, Lin Liqiang.

“It was just last year that I was able to talk to master Wang who was able to defeat Zhang Wei. His understanding of martial arts was quite deep and allowed me to be enlightened. It is only now that I was able to make the last connection and achieve the higher layers of understanding. Ah, today is the day the elder is discharged from the hospital, is there any news?” Chen Aiyang asked.

“I only just received the news this morning. I heard that Chen Xin who had only just returned from America last night went missing. No one has a clue on where he has disappeared off too.” Lin Liqiang spoke of Chen Xin as if he was beneath him.

“Within a family, there will always be the spoiled child. It is impossible for them all to be the cream of the crop.” Cehn Aiyang used the fountain nearby to wash his hands. “Nevermind him, he probably ran off somewhere to enjoy himself. The elder won’t care for him either. Come, let us head to the headquarters.”

Within the giant halls of the Chenshi Corporation’s headquarters sat a wheelchaired old man with white hair. He was quite slim in stature and his eyes were deep set. But occasionally, a powerful gleam could be seen from them.

A single middle aged woman pushed his wheelchair while four steadfast individuals followed her. Aside from them, there were another 10 Chenshi Corporation employees.

This elder was the leader of the Chenshi Corporation, Chen Libo.

“Has Aiyang, A’Li, or Daquan and the others arrived yet?” Chen Libo asked in an elderly voice.

“Their car has just parked outside, they’ll be here soon.” Another elder of the Chenshi Corporation spoke.

“Ah, we’ll wait for them then; there’s no need to head up first.” Chen Libo looked at the dazzling halls and the respectful looks of everyone around him. Closing his eyes gently, no one knew just what he was thinking about.

Just at that moment, the gentle footsteps of someone could be heard, causing Chen Libo to open his eyes once more.

Chen Aiyang had already entered the building.

“Ah, Aiyang, it’s you. Come on over and let your great uncle take a look at you.” Despite the power struggle between the younger generations, it was clear to see that Chen Libo was appreciative of Chen Aiyang.

“Mister Thomas, please come in, our great uncle is in here.”

Just at that moment, the sound of another party coming in through the doors could be heard. It was Thomas and Chen Li. Chen Daquan had arrived as well at the same time as another mysterious purple dressed woman.

“Ah, Mr. Chen, congratulations on your swift recovery!”

Thomas immediately cried out in greeting towards Chen Libo when he walked in. He was an important figure of the European Union leadership conference and business partners with the Chenshi Corporation for many years; so both Thomas and Chen Libo had met each other before.

“Mr. Thomas? What business have you here in Singapore?” Chen Libo gave a half rise from his wheelchair as etiquette would dictate, but there was a sheen of suspicion in his eyes.

“Today is the reunion of my family. Would it be possible for Mr. Thomas to wait for a moment? I will arrange for a rest for you. And in the afternoon, we will talk about our business, would lunch work?”

“No no no, Mr. Chen, you needn’t be so suspicious. I didn’t come here today to interfere with your family reunion, I had another business in mind. My instructor heard that the Chen family had a martial art master by the name of Chen Aiyang who was an expert in fighting. My instructor was excited to see him and wanted to compare notes. I am only just the guide. The matter is that simple, it was only just by coincidence that your family reunion was happening at the moment, do you happen to know where Mr. Chen Aiyang is?”

Chen Aiyang had already reached the Transforming Jin stage and could differentiate between the strong and the weak with ease. With a single look, he focused onto the purple dressed woman.

But when he felt the aura of the woman, he couldn’t see how strong she was. “She has to be a practitioner who reached the Hidden Jin stage at the very least. Could it be that Chen Li brought her here as an attempt to defeat me in public and right in front of the elder?”

In an instant, Chen Aiyang had realized the plot Chen Li was planning for him.

If he were to be defeated, then his name and reputation would plummet. The elder had wanted to appoint him as his successor, but if he lost, then the title would be reconsidered.

“So it is a fellow martial artist that wished to compare notes, we don’t need to reschedule then. We can start now.” Chen Aiyang spoke. After he had become famous, these challenges were normal and whether or not if they were impolite could be taken care of afterwards.

When it came to the field of martial arts, he was very confident. In the eyes of Chen Libo, he himself was a Taichi grandmaster.

“Very well, Aiyang has quite the elegance.” Chen Libo could only praise Chen Aiyang for his inspiring voice.

“Have everyone move away and push me to the second floor. Let this elder take a look at this martial arts competition. Those employees with nothing to do should wait outside.”

As Chen Libo spoke, the entire hall had cleared out.

“Instructor, shall we start?” Thomas spoke quietly.

“You should go up as well.” The purple dressed woman cleaned her finernail with a pitying look. Immediately, everyone had cleared away to the second floor, leaving only Chen Aiyang and her on the floor.

“For practitioners, reaching the Transforming Jin stage requires aptitude, talent, a master to learn from, hard work and a good amount of luck. For someone to reach that stage by their 30s, that is the sign of a genius. With another 8 to 10 years, you would have become a grandmaster, how unfortunate.”

“Oh!” When the purple dressed woman spoke, Chen Aiyang had felt something wrong. His eyebrows narrowed and his heart grew suspicious as his body grew tense. “What is your name?”

“My family name is Tang.” Make your move.” This woman was the master who had taught Wang Chao day and night–Tang Zichen. It was unfortunate that during this battle, Wang Chao was countless of miles away without knowledge of this.

Chen Aiyang didn’t spare any words afterwards. In a competition, it was taboo to be panicked beforehand.

“Fine!” Expelling a single burst of air from his nose, Chen Aiyang suddenly made his move. His entire body seemed as if he was a giant bullfrog leaping through the tallgrass. In an instant, he had bounded 8 meters forward and arrived at Tang Zichen’s front with a single arm already preparing to lash out.

His entire body flew through the air with a whistling sound as if he was a runaway train. With a great gust of wind accompanying him, even the people on the second floor could feel it.

As his arm came whipping down, pa! The entire air began to explode with sound as if the tires to a car was popped.

If such a vigorous and bold attack were to be blocked, then they would seriously be blown away.

Training Taichi taught one to be soft, but in the world, they were number one in ferocity.

Being soft raises firmness. The more one learned to be soft, the more they would be able to bring forth firmness.

On the second floor, Chen Li was shocked. There was without a doubt that even if there was a steel reinforced bar right in front of him, Chen Aiyang’s arm would shatter it.

Up against such a heavy arm like this, Tang Zichen had made no move to dodge at all. Instead, she sucked in her breath and begun to shrink in size. Her two feet had begun to break out with Jin, fracturing the ground beneath it.

The entirety of the Chenshi Corporation was made from marble with steel reinforced bars and cement. The typhoons in Southeast Asia was extremely fierce; just last year, the buildings by the shoreline of Indonesia had been utterly destroyed by it.

Tang Zichen’s hand formed a fist in the same form as Taichi’s move, “Soaring Fist”

The Jin from this could not be blocked. With her fist being equally strong, the force had been like a cannonball shot out from a cannon. The resulting explosion had been enough to cause the people on the second floor to stagger.

The Soaring Fist blow was flying upwards to meet Chen Aiyang’s downward whip movement.

As the two sides met, Chen Aiyang’s body shook before he sunk deeper into the ground. Without time to even breathe, he brought both arms down to lash out once more violently.

This single whip movement had been very smooth and was comparable to two maces in strength.

By the time his arms had been only a little over a meter above the ground, the strong gust of wind from his fists had already slapped against it. There was a whip like sound from the impact as if there was an invisible whip that had been used.

Even when Baji grandmaster Li Shuwen had practiced his fists, he could shatter the ground before his hand had reach nearly 2 meters above it. That had meant that he was swift and his use of Jin had been extremely explosive.

When it came to Chen Aiyang’s whipping power, he was close to such a power as well.

This was what it meant to be in a competition where the physical limits of the body were broken.

Up against a power like this from Chen Aiyang, Tang Zichen began to circulate the Jin around her body and leapt back 8 to 9 meters towards the door. Then, with a flurry of wind she darted forward with both hands like hammers as she contended with Chen Aiyang’s strike once again.

Tang Zichen’s fist had been extremely fierce with an explosive wind that brought out a crackling sound like thunder.

The sound of thunder follows the fists!

Her power had unexpectedly overshadowed Chen Aiyang’s.

“How could there be such an amazing person?” Chen Aiyang had thought as he brought his whip arm against her fist in amazement. Hurriedly, he changed his stance by opening his fists and forming a circle. Within firmness was softness, as was Taichi’s way of diverting Jin.

But no one would have guessed that Tang Zichen was even faster than he was to the point to the point where it seemed as if she was a precog.

With a single step, her body seemed as if it stuck to the ground as she walked with an unusual movement that was not as it appeared. Quickly, she had retreated five meters before slinging forward again.

Incomparably fast and strong, each step Tang Zichen took the ground beneath her had shattered with the stones flying up from the impact as if she was a steam roller speeding through the area.

As the fragments flew into the air, her feet continued to move at a rapid pace as if she was trying to form a sandstorm.

Chen Aiyang hadn’t bothered to block and instead tried to backpedal away.

Like a sudden whirlwind, Tang Zichen shot forth with her spear-like fist in an attempt to strike at Chen Aiyang’s chest.

Chen Aiyang hurriedly threw his body to the side as his senses went into overdrive. His Qi rose to his temples, and with a flash of his eyes, he concentrated onto Tang Zichen’s arm. This was one of the highest skills of Chinese Boxing, an attack with the eyes!

In the eyes of Chen Aiyang, a skill like this would momentarily weaken the enemy’s strength by a decent amount. In his heart he knew that the enemy’s strength wasn’t actually weakening, but that his own perception in his eyes had quickened instantaneously.

In that split second, Chen Aiyang’s body had loosened as he drew his abdomen back, arched his vertebrae, and shifted backwards. In that very instant, there had been a single inch of change.

That was the most crucial of an inch. Chen Aiyang knew that Tang Zichen’s jabbing strike, no matter how it used Jin, whether it be through the joints or through her fingers, it required an inch of space or else it would miss.

Sure enough, Tang Zichen’s fist suddenly opened up to form a three finger point similar to that of a sword with a deadly point.

However, at the crucial point of the strike, there was a single inch left to Chen Aiyang’s chest!

Chen Aiyang was a master of martial arts who could tell the circulation of Jin within the human body. Whether it grew in a certain area of shrunk, he could tell. And now that the Qi was gathered to his eyes, his perception was even more sharp. Tang Zichen’s skill was likewise high, but she could not break the limits of the human body.

But, just as Chen Aiyang had thought that he had dodged and prepared his counterattack, there was a sudden stinging pain in his chest! It was almost as if he was stung by a needle and had brought his breathing to a momentary pause.

“She didn’t hit me, why was I affected? Did her Hidden Jin strike at an acupuncture point? Impossible! Is she the reincarnation of Yang Luchan?”

Chen Aiyang had stopped moving for that one instance. There was a single finger sized hole in his clothes with sweat dripping from it. Almost as if it was a drop of sulfuric acid, the clothes where the hole was in had been reduced to powder.

His chest had burnt as if someone had stabbed him with a dagger. He couldn’t move or risk having a burning pain in his chest.

“External practitioners use their joints to carry that one inch more, but internal practitioners need not such a method to produce that one extra inch. If given some ten years, I would not be able to control you so easily. Within the Chinese, the death of a martial artist like yours would be too unfortunate. Practice your Hidden Jin. entering the Transforming Jin is difficult, but it is still only a doorway.” Tang Zichen spoke, but she did not continue to attack.

“Thomas, we’re going!”

After giving a gentle cough, Tang Zichen suddenly whirled around. And with a single phrase, she walked out.

Chen Aiyang could only watch the back of her purple dress as she left.