Romance of Dragons and Snakes

Chapter 111: The Fist of Wang Chao That Has Become One With the Universe

“Bang!” Yagyu Suimei had been sent flying due to Cheng Shanming’s lightning quick palm strike. His body struck the walls of the lounge before softly falling off like an advertisement banner falling down from the notice board.

On the floor, Yagyu Suimei struggled for a moment to stare at Cheng Shanming in total shock. Clearly, he had not believed that Cheng Shanming would be able to knock him down in such a short amount of time.

“Brother Yagyu!” Xu Zhen cried out in shock from the sides before hurrying on over to support him up from the ground.

Cheng Shanming had intentionally lowered the force in his palm strike. In the end, Yagyu Suimei had suffered from a fracture in both arms and his chest, but his inner organs were fine. Thus, he would survive.

But Yagyu Suimei was no longer as young as he was before. In the past, such a wound like this would easily heal without trouble. But now that he was an elder in age, a wound like this would never heal to the point before he received it. In the end, it could be said that Cheng Shanming’s strike had utterly halted the forward advancement of Yagyu Suimei’s path of martial arts.

“Y-…yo-you….” Yagyu Suimei’s face had been malicious, but the pain he felt had caused his face to twist up in pain and rendered him unable to finish what he was trying to say.

“How ‘bout it! Did you still wish to come forward?” Cheng Shanming’s words boomed out loud like a god giving an order. Folding his arms across his chest, Cheng Shanming’s beard gently floated in the wind.

At this point Xu Zhen could see just how outrageously strong Cheng Shanming was. He had no desire to fight with him since while Yagyu Suimei was indeed his friend, but they were both using each other for a mutual profit in the end.

“This Cheng-style Baguazhang is truly strong. With a single strike, he forced a person to become like a wall scroll with perfection. The following match will truly be between a tiger and a dragon! It’ll be fine if I have someone tend to Yagyu’s wounds. This competition is something I cannot afford to miss because of him.”

In an instant, Xu Zhen had made up his mind. Calling for his own men to take Yagyu Suimei away, he drew back without another word and sat down on the sofa in order to wait for the next development.

Wang Chao’s martial art was especially strong, that much Xu Zhen could admit. After Wang Chao’s battle with Zhang Wei, Xu Zhen had reconsidered his thoughts in regards to the battle. Each time he thought back to it, he had thought that if it were he that fought Wang Chao, the outcome of the match would be unclear to him.

Xu Zhen was a master of martial arts. Similarly, he had a company to support with an identity well worth hundreds of millions of RMB. For the sake of both, he was unwilling to truly challenge Wang Chao in revenge for his disciple. Thus, he continued to put off his vengeance time after time. When today came, he had observed Wang Chao’s spirit and watched his expressions. Ultimately, he had realized that Wang Chao’s skill at martial arts had improved by leaps and bounds, causing him to feel all the more apprehensive on challenging him.

As soon as Cheng Shanming made his move, Xu Zhen hadn’t been the only one who had observed him. In that moment, Wang Chao and Chen Aiyang had both realized Cheng Shanming’s true strength!

“Fighting a person as if hanging a wall scroll”! This was a sign of one reaching the Transforming Jin stage. The Clear and Hidden Jin join together to couple hardness and softness together. Back in the late Qing and early period of the Republic of China, the expert of Guoshu, Li Cunyi had once said, “Jin is categorized into four things. Hard Clear Jin, hard Hidden Jin, soft Clear Jin, and soft Hidden Jin. When all four are achieved, Transforming Jin is obtained.”

When Wang Chao achieved the ability to emit the sounds of thunder, his bones and muscles had been strengthened like an ox or horse and could contend with a tiger or leopard. The ability to kill like a tiger or leopard, and the ability to be as strong as an ox or horse. Each fist, each leg, both had the power of almost a ton. His Clear Jin had been at its pinnacle. His muscles and bones had been tempered to their limits. With both fists and both feet, they were like iron in hardness and like rattan in softness.

His Clear Jin had reached a level of having both hardness and softness aid each other. Hard Clear Jin and soft Clear Jin, he had mastered both.

Hidden Jin was separated into soft and hard as well. hard Clear Jin was like a needle when used and could penetrate a boulder. With a palm, the Jin would leave behind an indent on an iron plate.

The soft Hidden Jin could be manipulated to be flexible or stiff. The needle-like Hidden Jin could move on it’s own like a snake entering a hole. When the Jin struck the acupoint of a person, it would be deep or shallow, heavy or light. Against a human, it could rob them of their lie. At the same time, the soft Hidden Jin could be used to unclog the blood vessels and prolong a person’s life.

In accordance to these four types of Jin, Wang Chao had currently mastered three of them. His soft Hidden Jin had not yet been perfect throughout his entire body. It is mentioned in Taichi, “A feather cannot be added, and a fly cannot alight.” Wang Chao had not yet mastered this concept.

But he was slowly reaching a maturing point with this. At the very least, both of his arms were completely able of using the soft Hidden Jin to a degree.

If a fly were to land on top of either of his arms, then it would be killed for sure with his Hidden Jin. However, if it were to land elsewhere, like his head, face, or back, then he would be helpless.

A fly was extremely sensitive. Even if one’s skin were to make the most minute of shakes, then it would know and fly away instantly. But if one were to learn soft Hidden Jin to the state of natural perfection, then a fly’s sensitivity would not be fast enough for it to dodge the Hidden Jin.

If an expert of Transforming Jin were to fight someone, their arms and legs could be said to be electrified. Upon contact, the Clear and Hidden Jin could be used simultaneously to assault the enemy and cause their body to become numb.

Xue Dian from the Tianjing Guoshu Institute had once said, “When one’s martial arts is high enough, they will be able to generate electricity to fight.” His words were not lies.

But this Cheng Shanming. His three palm strikes had emitted the sounds of thunder like a drum before they had even struck.

In his strike, Cheng Shanming had struck his enemy so that he had stuck to the wall like a wall scroll. This was a clear sign that he had command over the soft Clear and Hidden Jin and hard Clear and Hidden Jin. Wang Chao could easily conclude that in terms of Jin, Cheng Shanming was higher than him.

“What a fellow. He is truly an expert and is well deserving to be the legacy of elder Cheng Tinghua. For the Cheng sect of Bagua to have such a person, they have truly been revived. His guoshu is exquisite. For him to travel abroad, the leaves has sprouted while the tree of his homeland has truly withered.”

After seeing Cheng Shanming’s strike, Wang Chao had finally understood Cheng Tinghua when he spoke of the Chinese all over the world. He had said that amongst the overseas Chinese, there were all sorts of crouching tigers and hidden dragons to be seen.

Yagyu Suimei’s skill at martial arts was practically on par with Xu Zhen and was naturally not a match for a man like Cheng Shanming who was an expert of Transforming Jin. If someone from the Japanese martial arts world wanted to fight him, then only the top three would be able to manage.

“If you please.” Cheng Shanming recollected himself after crippling Yagyu Suimei almost as if he was doing something extremely insignificant. Without any worry, he turned around to lock eyes with Wang Chao.

“Master Cheng, please advise me!”

All three energies of Wang Chao had been fully focused onto Cheng Shanming. The entire world seemed to have lost its color as his eyes focused entirely onto the traditional expert of the Cheng Sect of Bagua.

TL Note: The three energies refer to essence, Qi, and spirit.

At a moment’s notice, Wang Chao broke out with Jin, his body trembling like a bear preparing to battle or a rooster ruffling its feathers.

Hi entire body rumbled with the sounds of thunder with a crackling sound as if a series of firecrackers was being set off.

From his head to vertebrae to hip bone to thighs to knees to ankles to toes and his arms to his fingers, every joint had gave the crackling sound of thunder.

A gust of wind could be felt rolling away from his body.

This type of might and tremendous explosive burst of force had caused everyone to be startled. Everyone had been shocked to see this refine youth seemingly began to transform into a humanoid robot from all the sound.

When Chen Libo saw Wang Chao’s action, he thought back to the day they met with astonishment. “If I had really made a move on that day, then with such a strength like this, a measly seven or eight meters wouldn’t be enough for a gun to even kill him.”

When Xu Zhen saw the power that Wang Chao was exuding, his heart had suddenly flipped over. “Thunder? He has attained such a stage of martial arts? It is fortunate that I didn’t challenge him, otherwise, my death would be absolute! It seems that my personal vengeance for my disciple will be impossible.”

An amateur saw the results, an expert saw the process. Zhao Jun, who was right by Xu Zhen’s side was no martial artist. But when he saw the aura that Wang Chao was exuding, he had been startled. “Just who is this guy, he’s practically a human version of a Gundam! Just how many guns would it take to kill such a person? If I had a submachine gun, would that even be enough to kill him?”

Wang Chao’s “Rooster Ruffling Feathers” had instantly displayed his strength for the room to see as he built up his strength. Even Cheng Shanming had grown serious in the face of it.

Not giving himself time to rest after that,Wang Chao burst into action as soon as the sounds of thunder reached a maximum. Combined with the gasps of the spectators and the unbelievable aura he had, Wang Chao’s foot carried a tornado like gust with it. With a forward march, he had closed the gap between him and Cheng Shanming in the blink of an eye.

Both arms rose up in the style of the Pounding Fist of the horse stance with the cracking sound of thunder accompanying it.

If it could be said that Wang Chao’s “Rooster Ruffling Feathers” had a muffled sound of thunder, then this Pounding Fist of the horse stance had a world-breaking sound of thunder explode from it. The entire lounge echoed with the sound almost as if Wang Chao’s fist had exploded the air itself.

Cheng Shanming instantly felt the wind blowing into his face before the fist had even reached him. The wind and thunder sounds had made it to him first, causing his skin and pores to shiver.

In his eyes, his enemy’s Pounding Fist of the horse stance was no ordinary fist. It wasn’t the tremendously fierce hard Jin that was the scary part, but the inspiration that was mixed into it.

In the moment Wang Chao attacked, he had cleverly tricked Cheng Shanming that the gasps of every spectator had instead been the hostility of his enemy. In that moment, Cheng Shanming had believed everyone watching him was his enemy.

With everyone’s hostility, Wang Chao’s strength had intensified his Pounding Fist. His inspiration and spirit had reached a height that could not be surpassed!

With the inspiration of his fist, Wang Chao suddenly felt the natural order of the heavens, the power of the earth, and the harmony of man. In his fist, Wang Chao felt one with the universe.

With such skill, this was no longer just a powerful strike of hard Jin! This was a strike that contained the pinnacle of the Way!

“How fierce!” In an instant, Cheng Shanming’s mind give birth to the notion that he should temporarily move back.

But Cheng Shangming was a supreme master of Baguazhang. He was about an eighth as strong as Cheng Tinghua had been perhaps and was considered to be an outstanding master of martial arts within the Chinese Association of Canada. With countless of disciples, a veteran of hundreds of battle, and rich in battle experience, he was as close as he could be to being invulnerable. At the same time the thought of retreating welled up in his mind, he instantly quashed the notion back down.

His body moved in response. Both arms were brought up in a horizontal fashion in an attempt to intercept Wang Chao’s wrist.

Bang! Cheng Shanming’s palms and Wang Chao’s fist collided together powerfully with a sound reminiscent of a cannonball. The air around them vibrated with sound in a manner that made anyone close enough feel as if a refreshing gust of wind had hit them in the face.

Cheng Shanming’s hand had been instantly forced apart when he made contact with Wang Chao’s fist during its moment of being one with the universe.

But! Although his hands had been forced apart, his entire body did not retreat or stop moving. Instead, he twisted his waist and turned his body so that his shoulder was now facing Wang Chao like a spear. In the next moment, he charged at Wang Chao so that his shoulder blade was locked onto Wang Chao’s collarbone!

At the same time, both of his hands which were blown away earlier came swirling back under his rib in a drill-like fashion. Such nimbleness like this had been superhuman in feat like two steel wires coming back like a whip.

Both palms cut across each other with a strength that carried firmness within softness and similar to a steel wire coiling and cutting. His shoulder had been like the tip of a spear with its frightening speed down the middle of Wang Chao with an domineering amount of power.

His palms were like a bladed whip and his body like a spear. His movements had the sounds of thunder, and Cheng Shanming’s attack had somehow managed to fuse Bajiquan and Xingyiquan in it without imbalancing the strike.

Wang Chao’s fist had contained the three energies within it and had also infused the atmosphere around him into it to form a fist that was one with the universe. This had resulted in giving Cheng Shanming a sense of pressure as if the entire room was his enemy and rattled his spirit. For it to be enough to force such an expert to think of retreating even a little, it could be said that out of everything Wang Chao taught himself, this fist was the one he was proud of the most.

In the instant of this one fist, a feeling of uncontested bravery surged through Wang Chao’s heart. His entire body began to feel inspiration at a level higher than he had ever felt.

If Cheng Shanming were to retreat, then Wang Chao would press forward and attack. Even if his opponent was stronger than him, he would be trampled by him. In the end, his opponent would be defeated.

But Cheng Shangming was truly worthy of being called a supreme master. At the same time he felt the need to retreat, he had quashed the notion in a split-second! Because of his profound skills, this secretive change had been enough for Cheng Shanming to take the upper hand!

Bang! In the moment after Wang Chao had thrown off Cheng Shanming’s hands, they had came back at him from both sides. With an arching of his back, Wang Chao’s left elbow protruded outwards in an attempt to ram into Cheng Shanming’s collarbone. In the next instant, his elbow had clashed with Cheng Shanming’s shoulder which had been aimed at his own collarbone.

At the same time, Wang Chao’s right fist continued with the Pounding Fist of the horse stance and rode the explosive force towards Cheng Shanming’s face.