Romance of Dragons and Snakes

“Tan Wendong. Age eighteen as of this current year. He is a new student at the Information Institute and is the boss of the ‘Wendong Group’ in the entire city. The ‘Wendong Group’ was formed by him and several other youths when he was fifteen years old. As things developed, his group now has over a hundred people as the pillar, and even more on the outside. The public security bureau has determined that this group is a criminal gang connected with the underworld, but what their crimes are specifically have yet to be concluded.”

Wang Chao was wearing a light-blue set of clothing from where he stood amongst the grass as he stretched out his limbs. His movements as he moved through the stances had not been fast–in fact, it was comparable in speed to the grandmas and grandpas in the park as they practiced Taichi to exercise. However, within Wang Chao’s movements was a hidden charm that could appeal to those who watched him.

For those with keen eyesight, they would perhaps realize something was amiss if they concentrated their eyes onto Wang Chao. While his movements were slow, hidden beneath his clothes was what appeared to be a myriad of small snakes that meandered about his body where his muscles were in every direction.

These ‘snakes’ were in fact his muscles and tendons. During this moment where he would go through the motions slowly, the palpitations of his body was extremely sudden and would resemble that of a snake that was vivid in its motions.

A body slow in motion and muscles and tendons that were the exact opposite. Having one part slow and the other part fast reflected the mysterious notion of yin and yang during these stances.

Right by Wang Chao’s side was Huo Ling’er. In her hands was a sheaf of paper that she would read off one word at a time for Wang Chao to hear. From time to time, her eyes would glance up to observe Wang Chao’s movements.

It was only when she had finished reading off the papers that Wang Chao’s movements began to slow down. But in her eyes, the muscles and tendons under his skin was still beating rapidly. Vapor and mist was exuding forth from his body as if he was a kettle that was boiling a pot of hot water.

Huo Ling’er herself was only four or five steps away from Wang Chao, but even she had felt that her body was growing warmer. To approach this young master in front of her was the same as approaching a giant boiler.

“Master Wang practices his movements so slowly, but his body converted his sweat into vapor from the intensity! I have still a long ways to go before I can reach a level like his.”

Such a thought had led to Huo Ling’er consider her own training. Whenever she practiced on her own time, each one of her strikes would be done without reservation and with fierce strikes. At her best, her body would only sweat rather than let mist rise up from her body.

Using Jin to turn sweat to steam and vapor was something akin to how an Immortal would swallow the clouds to blow out fog. It was an art where the muscles were manipulated to become hard and impenetrable like steel while also manipulating the heart to a precise level.

“This Tan Wendong was unfortunate to be born within a time of peace. If he was born within the chaotic times of the past, then he would be a formidable person no matter where he was. Master, you can see that he is determined to be affiliated with the underworld. If his crimes aren’t concluded just yet and is still undergoing investigation, then that means there’s someone in the government that’s covering for him. He definitely has someone in with him in the government. His age isn’t too far away from mine, the normal university student at this age should only know when to reach out to the food in front of him and open his mouth when it comes. No matter how I see it, he won’t have a far future in the underworld. As soon as the public safety bureau issue an order, he’s as good as done. If you raise him now though, I’m sure with time he’ll become a strong political weapon though.”

Huo Ling’er had given Wang Chao her own hasty analysis of Tan Wendong as soon as she saw Wang Chao wrapping up his workout. As the golden daughter of a rich and powerful family, she was more than aware of the details of how society worked.

“Master, what made you suddenly want to investigate Tan Wendong?”

Moving to practice his stance, Wang Chao let out a single breath of air that was more like a blast rather than an exhale. Practically every blade of grass two steps in front of him had started to sway as a result of it.

As he withdrew his arms, he first ignored the matter with Tan Wendong so that he could repeat his words to Huo Ling’er. “Xingyiquan has twelve stances and the Five Element Boxing. The forms for them are very simple and could be learned in a single day even. In the past, I had only taught you the Chopping Jin of the tiger stance and the Eagle Claw of the eagle stance. We ignored the rest of the stances so that we could focus on these specific ones. And now you have reached a point of purity with them; a point where you are able to strike so that the sound follows the fist. At the same time, this sound has reached a stage where it is in unison with the muscles and bones. You are however not quite there yet where the sounds of thunder can be heard coming from your actions. That much requires just a step longer. I watched how you reacted against those gangsters yesterday. It was an exquisite display and very pragmatic. Even I did not have a talent like that when I was your age, so I can now feel confident in you learning the other stances now.”

Huo Ling’er was actually familiar with all twelve stances, but it was only the tiger and eagle stance that she was trained perfectly in. For the other stances, she was merely at an introductory stage.

“You’ve already learned the figures of the tiger and eagle stance, all that is left for you is to learn the meaning behind them. Xingyiquan is an art where one must see the stance before one can understand the meaning behind it. When you fight with another, be careful not to stick to the rigid routines you were taught. You must follow the instinct of your own fist and fight as you will. Whether it is with the ferocity of a tiger or with the hunting instinct of an eagle high in the sky, anything will do. “Be lost in pleasure.” Remember those four words. You will need to reflect and refine upon this.”

“Be lost in pleasure? That has a dirty meaning behind it.” Huo Ling’er grumbled. “But master, your killing moves, “Assault of Dragon and Snake”, “Flying Horse Treading on Swallow”, and “Cutting Tail of the Crocodile”, those are all forms as well. When you fight to kill, do you not use those as a routine?”

“Fighting styles in a fight were always explosive and violent in nature, but that is not always a good thing. And yet, it matches with this secret and brings out its best side.” Wang Chao brushed at his robes, “Come here, I’ll explain to you the secret to what it means to ‘lose yourself in pleasure’ and then teach you a killing move. The meaning behind this is that in a match, you must not constantly think about trying to kill your opponent. When you cross hands with one another, there will be a moment of clarity. An epiphany. A single moment where you understand what must be done, and from there, your imagination will lead you to the correct path to take. As soon as the heart forget about killing, a killing move will drop into your mind in that one moment before you commit to it.”

And so after he spoke, Wang Chao began to teach Huo Ling’er the combo killing move, “Flying Eagle Striking Ape”.

After he had taught Huo Ling’er the tiger and eagle stances, she was perfect when it came to the natures of both animals. But she was still lacking in the nimbleness and quick-witted nature one should have, so Wang Chao had decided to teach her the monkey stance for now.

The Flying Eagle Striking Ape was a killing move that transitioned from the eagle to the monkey.

In essence, the flying eagle represented the vigorous approach of an eagle in its dive before transforming into the monkey that would leap from branch to branch on a tree before attacking.

“From every strike of a form, it can be practiced through stance training. After learning the tiger and eagle stances, you became able in bringing the Hidden Jin to your arms and strengthened the muscles in the tiger’s den of your hand and the fingers along with it. The moves of the monkey stance emphasizes the face, neck and eyes. When you have learned what it means by the face, you will learn the cleverness behind the monkey stance. For now, you will take to the great sage stance. This stance will look ugly and funny to you, so practice it when no one is around or perhaps late at night.”

To demonstrate the stance, Wang Chao linked both of his knees and feet together and squatted down only slightly. His body was still pointed tall up towards the skies while his hands formed a slight cup as if shielding his eyes from the sun at his knees.

Whilst he stood in this stance, his head and neck didn’t move at all, but his eyes would swivel from the left to the right side. Even his ears would match with the movements of his eyes and shake.

This position was very similar to the Great Sage monkey from the historical classic Journey to the West as he overlooked the road ahead of him with a monster-like appearance.

“The great sage stance moves the ears and eyes. With this stance, the muscles in the ears will affect the tendons in the neck to become even more pliable and strong. Furthermore, your head movement will increase along with the movement of your eyes.”

Shifting back to his normal stance, Wang Chao sighed. “It would have been better if you practiced this stance when you were young. The great sage stance considered amongst the basics of the basics that a four or five year old would start off with. It isn’t like the Three Integrals where you practice as your bones are still growing. Of all the stances, the great sage stance is the easiest to learn and understand. To learn the Three Integrals and then the great sage stance would be akin to putting the cart before the horse; a mistake that I already made.”

This regret of Wang Chao’s was not without reason.

The whole point behind stance training was that the person shouldn’t be moving his body and only his muscles and joints. It was a process that would help one learn by making the most minimalistic of movements. This rudimentary training method was also one of the hardest to understand. Without learning to move the muscles and joints, one would not be able to cross over the threshold to learning martial arts.

However, learning to control the muscles to leap like so was very hard and using the mind to control the tempo at which the muscles leapt at was prohibited.

For example the stance for the eagle claw was to move the hand down slowly while flexing the sinews in the tiger den part of the hand. Just how many people could pull off something like that?

The eyes and ears were amongst the most sensitive parts of a human. Compared to the muscles, they were easier to control. This great sage stance was to stand without moving any part of the body but the eyes and ears to improve the quick-witted nature of the Jin.

Slowly practicing with moving the eyes and ears would help one comprehend the benefits to minimalistic movements and the reasoning behind the palpitations of the muscles.

In the past, the baby boy that played a militaristic part in Chinese opera would have to practice this stance in hopes that they would become quick-witted beyond belief. But the baby boy would not be able to learn the Three Integrals since it required moving the vertebra. The vertebrae was the main pillar to the human body and involved the Conception meridian and the Governing meridian. If one did not wait for the vertebrae to develop to a sufficient amount before attempting the Three Integrals, then a problem would be more than likely to happen.

Wang Chao and Huo Ling’er had both studied martial arts when they were just becoming adults and learned the stances to understand the concepts behind the palpitations of the muscles forcibly. This was without a doubt a sign of their brilliance. No ordinary person would be able to learn in such a manner.

To put this into context; learning the Three Integrals and then learning the great sage stance was the same as learning how to build an atomic bomb before learning general physics.

“We’ll end things here today. I’ll be going back first to take a shower and for a change of clothes before I go look for Tan Wendong. Who knows, perhaps Tan Wendong will become your junior? His martial arts isn’t bad at all. If the two of you were to be compared, then your chances of winning would be fifty-fifty. If you lose, would you not lose face as the senior sister? As your master, I have taught you nothing but the truth, there is nothing I would hide from you in martial arts.”

Teaching Huo Ling’er the “Flying Eagle Striking Ape” killing move and then the “Great Sage Stance” was indeed the fastest route for her to learn martial arts. In the future when he accepted even more disciples, she would still be the senior sister.

“Master, I know that you can see the potential Tang Wendong has. A master will usually only have a few dozen disciples to impart his legacy with and over a hundred students on the outside. As the headmaster of the Laoshan School of Internal Martial Arts, only I and Han Xiaoqing are your genuine disciples. That much, I know as well. But master, are you sure about taking Tan Wendong into our school? I feel that he’s somewhat arrogant, and as the boss of a gang, he’s definitely a big power.”

A small smile escaped Wang Chao’s lips, “There is no future for the boss of a criminal gang. Was it not you that said that? It is only a matter of time before the public safety bureau sends out the order for his arrest. Tan Wendong is a hard to come by genius. It would be a shame for him to be assigned to the firing squad and be force fed lead.”

The Information Institute was considered to be a third-rate university in this city.

Even when the time for class came, the students of the university could be seen wandering in two or threes around the campus. On the university lawn, several couples could be seen engaged in romantic talk or other actions while some other students would be involved in smoking, drinking, or perhaps gambling with cards or mahjong. Seeing a student read a book would be a very rare sight in this school.

This school had also a very noisy business district, so without any proper doors, students could go in and out as they pleased at any point in the day. There were classrooms, and there were the dorms. These dorms were split into two; the bright and gaudy side was filled with women clothing while the other half had the male clothes. As things turned out, the women’s dormitory was directly above the men’s dormitory.

From the information given to Wang Chao, he knew that Tan Wendong was studying at this school. So with a change of his clothes, he sought to find him to see the background of this martial artist gang leader.

But the very moment he stepped onto the university grounds, Wang Chao had the sudden notion that this was not a third-rate university at all. If there was a better word to describe it, it would be that this was a university that was running illegally. With a university like this, it was no wonder that so many criminals would come out from here.

He had asked people on the way of the whereabouts of Tan Wendong. But whenever his name was mentioned, everyone’s faces would scrunch up as if they had heard something dangerous.

“Do you know where Tan Wendong is?” He would ask, but to no avail. At last, he had finally reached the group of eight that were drinking while playing cards. From their appearances, they were the closer to the gangster side of the student spectrum.

“What business do you have with brother Dong? Who are you?” One of the more beefy men had immediately asked. His muscles looked like they were on the verge of bulging out from his shirt.

“I am a friend of Tan Wendong.”

“A friend?” The student gave Wang Chao a baleful eye, “Today’s the birthday of brother Dong’s girl today so he’s over at the Golden Emperor KTV. You’re brother Dong’s friend and you didn’t know that?”

“I see.” Wang Chao murmured before turning around with a lack of interest for the student. Seeing him walk away, the student’s face darkened. Just as he was about to speak out to him, his friends had urged him to hurry up with his turn. Not wishing to lose his money, the student had decided not to chase after Wang Chao.

Hailing a taxi, Wang Chao arrived at the Golden Emperor KTV after a short ride. Stepping out from the taxi, Wang Chao walked to the entrance of the building and was about to walk in when he was stopped by the security guards standing at the entrance. As things turned out, Tan Wendong had reserved the entire building so that even the employees that weren’t inherently necessary to running the building were unable to go in.

At a second glance of his surrounding, Wang Chao had noticed that in the parking lot, there were plenty of cars–police motorbikes included.

“For as young as he is, he’s willing to put up such a celebration for the sake of his girlfriend’s birthday? People always say that the youth of today will overcome the youth of yesterday in the future, but even this is a little too much….”