Romance of Dragons and Snakes

Chapter 121: The Banquet Before the Shaolin Temple Enters the Stock Market

“What a guy, your fist is so strong, I felt my entire body shake at a single touch of our arms. It was like you forced my entire blood vessels and muscles to shake. I can still feel the ringing in my ears.”

When Zhao Xinglong’s arm made contact with Wang Chao’s, his entire body was sent flying until he slammed into a wall.

When he got up, his entire brain was dizzy. Sparks flew around his eyes and all of his internal organs seemed to have moved from their initial positions. He had even felt a slight puking sensation travel up his throat.

Wang Chao’s “Move, Parry, and Punch” had given him an impression: It was as if he was standing in front of a gigantic drum. With the jolting motion of the drums as it was vigorously beaten, his blood began to boil and he could see stars in his eyes.

“Taichi’s Hammer Jin gives off the impression of a giant bass drum being beaten. Take a look at the performances of Li Yuanba and his giant hammers. With a single swing of his hammer, even if his enemy tries to use their weapon to block it, it will be futile. Upon contact, the hammer will bring out a vibrating force that’ll shatter the guard. It’s express use is of the “Vibration” Jin. When a true grandmaster of Taichi fights, when their fist makes contact and the Jin explodes forth, it will be as if they are bringing out a vibration throughout their body. When you and I crossed fists and you felt your blood boil and saw stars, that was the most gentle result.”

Wang Chao released his fists and loosened his stance, causing his body to grow soft. Without any semblance of strength, when he tried to emulate the hammer fists to beat the drums, the majestic power was not the same as before.

“Then what is most important in this fist?” Zhao Xinglong asked.

“The most important part is when the fists collide. The enemy’s entire body will be shaken and the Jin will be distributed throughout the body.”

Wang Chao walked out from the room and then to the pond right outside the school where fish were bred. Pointing at the calm surface, he spoke to Zhao Xinglong, “When a grandmaster of Taichi uses his fists as a hammer to strike, they don’t place importance on striking at the vital parts. That is because whenever they strike with their Hammer Jin, the shock from the strike will ravage the entire body.”

As he spoke, Wang Chao bent down to the ground and picked up a small stone. Flicking a finger, he tossed it into the pond. With a splashing sound, the stone had caused a wave of ripples to flow outwards with the stone at the epicenter.

“Take a look. This is what the way of breaking out with Jin looks like in principle. However, if one’s martial art is not at a sufficient level, they would not be able to replicate this. When one’s martial arts has truly reached such a level, then no matter where I strike at your body, the bones of your entire body will be shaken to powder.”

“The way of fighting in Taichi is in a circular fashion. This rotation is not soft, but instead, it emits a shock. There is soft and hard Jin in Jin, and similarly, there are a hard rotation, and a soft rotation. When the sounds of a zither is heard, it is a comfortable feeling–that is the sounds of a soft rotation. When the sounds of a drum is heard, it is a bloodcurdling sound that shocks the eardrums and heart–that is the sounds of a hard rotation. Taichi follows this same concept of a hard rotation.”

Wang Chao’s eyebrows narrowed together as he revealed a pitiful expression. “The way of fighting in Taichi emphasizes the “Pounding Hammer”. With the Pounding Jin, the hair explodes upwards and is capable of sending a person flying away. But to truly kill a person, it requires the intent of the “Hammer”. With this intent, the force creates a vibration that can rattle the enemy’s bones and rupture the qi and blood. The way of practicing Taichi is to cultivate health–the soft rotation. The way of fighting is to kill–the hard rotation. If a martial artists were to understand the way of breaking out with the hard rotation, then they could throw away all other variations and dodging. With a single strike to the enemy, no matter where that strike lands, it will defeat the enemy. When Li Yuanba fought, wherever his hammer struck, it would kill regardless of the spot struck. Although he was a fictional person, the principle of a hard rotation was not at all fictional. When Sun Lu-tang learnt Xingyiuan, and Baguazhang, he came to understand the way of breaking out with a hard rotation as his martial arts grew deeper. By then, he understood the true Taichi style, and thus his own discipline came to be known as the Sun Style Taichi.”

Zhao Xinglong suddenly asked, “Is that how it is? In the world of martial arts, Taichi is the profound discipline?”

Wang Chao shook his head, “One style of Taichi is not the same as another. But this hard rotation is all correlated to Taichi. You can see that I am by no means an expert of Taichi. All I can do is practice these fist stances. I can also break out with this hard rotation and strike and spread the power throughout the body. Sun Lu-tang himself did not master Taichi. All he did was borrow the stances of Hao Weizhen’s style of Taichi for his own.”

“So your martial arts has already reached the level of the grandmaster Sun Lutang?” Zhao Xinglong spoke in disbelief.

Breaking out into laughter, Wang Chao answered, “Impossible, understanding is one thing, but applying it into practice is another matter altogether. When I use my fists to break out with the hard rotation Jin, I can disturb your Qi and blood and send your body flying, but I cannot shake your entire body and joints. Naturally, you are a practitioner as well. Your muscles and bones are strong. If an ordinary person were to be hit by my fist today, then their entire body would be a different matter. For men like Yang Luchan and Sun Lu-tang, when they broke out with Jin, it didn’t matter how strong one’s bones and muscles were. Upon contact with their fists, one’s body joints and bones would be completely shattered and blood would spill through all the orifices. To be apt, my martial arts right now is quite shallow still.”

“At a single touch of the fist, it spreads throughout the enemy’s bones and organs? Such a Jin like this, who would even be able to go against such a strike? It doesn’t require hitting a vital part at all.” Zhao Xinglong was astonished.

“That is the pinnacle force of Transforming Jin. Clear Jin explodes, Hidden Jin shocks. It is unfortunate that I can only unleash this hard rotation from just both hands. It isn’t strong enough either, in comparison, this is only a sixth of what the Transforming Jin is capable of.”

“That Chen Aiyang is known as the master of Taichi. How is his usage of the hard rotation Jin?” Zhao Xinglong asked.

“The path Chen Aiyang walks is different from mine. His ‘Fishing Toad Jin’ is a way to practice breathing to strengthen the organs first before strengthening the muscles and bones. I strengthen the muscles and bones with the sounds of thunder first before spreading to the inner organs. His way of fighting emphasizes a whip-like motion like the Chopping Jin. He has not yet reached this level of hard rotation. But even then, my fists of Taichi would not be able to move his bones if we were to fight. If we fought, then I would instead make use of my movements to dodge and strike his vital parts instead.”

These past few days, Wang Chao had brought the lead ball around his body while he was underwater. When it was stormy, the pressure underwater was even greater. No matter how much the water currents struck his body, because of how short of a time duration he was training, his face and genitals was still not capable of breaking out with Hidden Jin.

But, because of the strength of the water currents, his body was able to understand the vibrational power of the hard rotation. In these days, he had relinquished all other disciplines of martial arts from his mind and concentrated solely on five fists of Taichi to practice this type of power.

Being able to understand the shock from the hard rotation to strike at the entire body, Wang Chao had benefitted greatly from the videotape of Chen Aiyang against Tang Zichen.

In that battle, Chen Aiyang’s whip movement and Tang Zichen’s Pounding Hammer had met many times. Whether it was the foot or hand, the amount of power from it was overwhelming.

Afterwards, Chen Aiyang had even told Wang Chao that each time their hands had met, the force from his opponent had caused his eardrums to ring, his eyes to see stars, his joints to feel misplaced, and his blood vessels to begin to rupture.

To paint a better picture, it was as if a person was within a giant metal drum while someone was beating on it from the outside.

If the match had continued, Chen Aiyang had doubts on how long his body could last before it died due to shock.

Although their hands and feet had crossed, the Jin from the enemy had been brought to every single part of his body. The force of the Pounding Hammer of the hard rotation, this was one of the pinnacle skills of Transforming Jin. It was far more deadly than any other ways of breaking out with Jin.

When the hard rotation Jin of Taichi was learnt to the highest levels, then it didn’t matter how much of an expert the enemy was or how strong their muscles and bones were. Without striking at a vital part, one just had to merely touch for the fist to unleash a shocking vibration to damage the enemy’s body and rupture the vessels.

But with his current progress with the five fists of Taichi, both of his hands were now experienced with the hard rotation of Taichi and how to break out with Jin for the both of them. However, its strength wasn’t enough to compare to Li Yuanba. For him, he was able to kill anyone just by striking once no matter where he struck.

Perhaps when he was able to bring out the Hidden Jin throughout his entire body and combine his internal and external body with the sounds of thunder to temper his marrow, organs, bones, blood and skin, he would be able to. When his intent returns to nothing and when he would be able to dodge by instinct, he would be capable of bringing out the full power of the hard rotation of Taichi.

When that time came for his entire body to break out with Jin, then whether it was his shoulder, head, arm, waist, or even crotch, he would be able to kill.

Even using his back would be able to send a ripple of vibrations into his opponent’s body and destroy it.

With Presence, one could intimidate the enemy. A single glance was all it took for a person to lose courage and the will to fight.

“What’re you talking about now?” Just was Wang Chao finished speaking with Zhao Xinglong of the principle of the hard rotation, Lin Yanan walked in.

When Wang Chao saw her enter, he knew straight away that there had to be something that came up.

Ever since the day they came back to Shandong from Singapore, Zhu Jia had gone back to her job at the CCTV station. Since her vacation was up, all she could do was to keep in touch with Wang Chao.

The school Wang Chao had in Laoshan had reached a boiling point in popularity. With publicity being thrown everywhere, plenty of people had wished to learn the craft. Lin Yanan had even went into Qingdao City to create a branch institution.

But even in this school where Wang Chao was nominally the head teacher, he had never shown up to personally teach any disciples.

The teachers of the school were comprised mainly of some high salary martial artists amongst the people. Some were from the Shandong Institute of Guoshu, and Lin Yanan had even scooped out some men from the Taekwondo and Karate dojos.

Sometimes, Zhao Xinglong would make a guest appearance and teach.

The Laoshan School of Internal Martial Arts was currently developing into a business while maintaining a strict amount of cultural influences. It was following the business tactics of the Shaolin Temple as well.

“Take a look at this, do you know what this is?”

Lin Yanan turned over her hand to reveal a gold invitation card. On it was the single word for “Buddha” engraved in a way that would reflect light.

Turning the card over, Wang Chao could see on it, “The Shaolin Temple will enter the stock market tomorrow. We would like to extend an invitation to all of our comrades in the martial arts world, so if Master Wang Chao would please come.”

Inspecting the card, Wang Chao was at a loss for words, “What is going on here?”

Lin Yanan smiled, “It’s written clearly on the card. The Shaolin Temple has finally entered the American NASDAQ. This must be the celebratory banquet to broaden their influence and show off their goodwill. They’ve invited all the people within the martial arts world, meaning this is your invitation card!”

“The Shaolin Temple has entered the American NASDAQ market?” Wang Chao was shocked to hear Lin Yanan’s words. “That is incredible news.”

Lin Yanan was unconvinced, “It’s nothing special. The Shaolin Temple has already tourism, classes, Buddhist gifts and others that were commercialized. In these years, they had even begun to expand into the media world like Hollywood in America. There are many action stars famous for their acrobatic fighting–many of them are from Shaolin Temple. Furthermore, they have the support of many people .Do you really think the abbot of Shaolin is in the National People’s Congress for no reason?”

“The Shandong Institute here has been a subsidiary of the Shaolin Temple. In the past few days, our school has been taking plenty of their business.” Zhao Xinglong spoke.

“Since we have begun to dig into their market, according to logic, someone will definitely come by to challenge us. So why is it that these past few days have been so peaceful? Why send an invite then?” Wang Chao knew that the well known institute was a subsidiary of the Shaolin Temple a long time ago.

“Your fame has already preceded you for being the one to force Zhang Wei into the sea! You even killed the talent of Japan, Ye Xuan. With these two things, you’ve already become well known in the martial arts world. Did you really think that no one knew of you and that you were an obscure nobody? Who would dare come be a challenger? Wouldn’t they be asking for a beating then? You are already considered a master of the martial arts world!”

Lin Yanan spoke bluntly. It was at this point that Wang Chao had realized he was now a master that was well known in the martial arts world

“This time the Shaolin Temple has been the recipient of someone’s support. However, in the recent years, they have been quite close with the Americans. Although it was generally about business, there are some key points that are well worth a second look over. The organization will look over this to make sure soon.” Lin Yanan spoke.

Wang Chao nodded his head in understanding.

The Shaolin Temple was beginning to expand into the media world of the American Hollywood. This was definitely due to the cooperation of several American companies, otherwise, the Shaolin Temple would never dare try to enter themselves. Something in this cooperation sounded quite suspicious. With there being a sudden enter into the stock market, many suspicious points could be seen pointing at it.

“Liao Junhua and Dai Jun have both received invitations as well. Even their master Zhu Hongzhi has sent back an answer.”

“Is there anyone else?” Wang Chao asked.

“There are many, whether they have no name or fame. There will definitely be the corrupt officials, but the martial artists invited will definitely have a reputation to their names.”