Romance of Dragons and Snakes

Chapter 58: Chopping Jin of the tiger stance

“Commander Zhou.”

“Commander.”

The twelve doughty looking youths didn’t even spare Wang Chao or Cao Yi a glance and instead stood to attention to the General Zhou behind the two.

Each one of them was in a straight salute.

Returning the salute, Zhou waved his hand, “At ease.”

Relaxing now, the dozen men finally begun to look at Wang Chao and Cao Yi. Measuring up the two, the soldiers began to chat amongst each other.

“So this Zhou person is a commander and major general, he must be a high ranking official.” When Wang Chao heard how the soldiers had called him, he knew that this Zhou person was someone special. But the rankings of the military wasn’t something he was familiar with–the only knowledge he had of it was from the TV.

He never would had thought that a high school student that just recently graduated would have made contact with the military and government.

“The organization has brought you here under my supervision for a special mission, so listen up.” General Zhou smiled. “Come, let me introduce you, this is the provincial public safety chief, Cao Yi. In the future, he will be your immediate superior. The specific details will be up to Chief Cao to speak, do you understand?”

“Understood!” The 12 men spoke out at the same time enthusiastically.

“That’s good. Cao Yi, the people the organization has sent is now yours to pull. Let us hear of your mission.” General Zhou spoke while giving Cao Yi the go ahead.

Giving a knowing nod, Cao Yi stepped forward and gave a greeting, “Hello everyone!”

“Hello, Chief Cao…”

“Hello, chief…”

The cries were sparse and not as enthusiastic as it was just a minute ago.

Narrowing his eyes, Cao Yi cut to the chase, “Everyone here came from the organization, so they must know of the special mission assigned to us. So tell me, what does everyone think about this mission and why we are here?”

“Are we not going to be undercover agents in the underworld? Or fight evil and pretend to be officers? One of the twelve spoke before everyone else roared with laughter.

“What quality! You all haven’t been disciplined at all!” Cao Yi fumed.

“Everyone be quiet!” Seeing Cao Yi grow angry, one of the leading soldiers immediately gave a hand signal, resulting in the entire barrack to grow silent.

The same soldier walked forward, “Chief Cao, it isn’t because we haven’t been disciplined by the organization.We will listen to your command for this mission and accomplish it to the best of our abilities! It’s just that we heard that aren’t even going to be the main force for this, are we not? Are we really going to be handing over the reins to someone that isn’t even a part of the military? We don’t know who chief Cao may have picked, but please open our eyes to what type of person this inferior civilian expert may be.”

Laughing, Cao Yi spoke, “I know that you army men would be reluctant to accept a civilian fighter, but I’ll let you see for yourself. Wang Chao, please come up.”

Wang Chao had naturally abided by Cao Yi’s words and walked forward.

“Haha, it’s this kid?”

“Has he even grown hair down there yet?”

“Hahahaha, are we running out of men in the army or something?”

The entire barracks began to howl with laughter.

Wang Chao knew that he didn’t look outstanding, robust, or even had any noticeable muscles. The only thing about him was that his skin was a golden brown and showed off the toned curvatures of his body.

This difference in physical image to the soldiers was as clear to see as from a cow to a horse. The army soldiers were all excellently built and had muscles that far outstripped what could be seen on Wang Chao’s body. From the outside, Wang Chao was a delicate stick that would snap just from being in the wind.

“I too came from the military, so let me be straightforward with you. I know you egg-headed soldiers won’t accept this, so let’s not waste words and put your skill where your mouth is! Who wants to go up first? If you can win against him, then I will report to the organization and redo the plan!”

Cao Yi’s words had been spoken with excitement, but the next few words spoken were quite sloppy. “Harsh words aside, this mission will be completely serious. This is a mission where there will be the chance of becoming disabled or even killed! This mission was given and started by me, so compete for a position within. If you are injured or killed in action, you will be given a Meritorious Service Medal, second class, or become a martyr to the cause.”

“Hammer, you go up. Careful, you don’t want to accidentally cripple this “Wushu” civilian.” The speaker had spoken the word wushu in a mocking way, as if to emphasize his disdain for Wang Chao.

TL Note: 武术 (Wushu): martial arts as a sport. The soldiers says 舞术 (Wushu): A pun with the word for dance instead of Martial. The soldier is mocking Wang Chao, saying that instead of the already lowly martial arts made for sport, he was learning the Martial Arts made for theatrical performances.

But even Wang Chao could understand the mocking jeer of the soldier. The men from the military generally learned martial arts in a way meant for combat, its true purpose instead of for sport. The majority of martial arts that civilians learned were generally for exercise purposes. Bits and pieces of the fighting method and practice method were combined into one with theatrical exaggerations thrown in haphazardly. With such a muddled mess, there could be no way it could be truly called martial arts.

Thus, those in the military had always looked down on civilian practitioners.

So for him to be recommended by Cao Yi to be their opponent, none of the soldiers could accept this.

Swish! The crowd pulled away in order to form a giant ring as Hammer walked forward to stand three meters away from Wang Chao.

This Hammer was the one Wang Chao saw hitting the steel plate. Each one of his fists were rather strong and fast, showing that he had relentlessly practiced how to fight.

“Hey kid, make your move! Show me how well you can dance with your ‘Wushu’! Will you be showing us a great rhythm and an elegant posture?” Hammer ridiculed. Wrapping both arms against his chest, his entire body began to exude with self confidence.

But Wang Chao didn’t underestimate Hammer. After that one year journey, he had already washed away the impatience and emotional influxes. He wouldn’t see anyone as an enemy straight away, and neither would he be easily taunted by anyone’s words.

Nodding, Wang Chao spoke, “Then I’ll make my move, be careful. When I move, be careful for your life.”

As soon as he spoke, Wang Chao’s backmost leg kicked off while his frontmost leg slid across the ground as if imitating the shape of the crescent moon. His body shot forward with the speed of an arrow shout out from a bow.

In an instant he had rushed two meters closer, leaving only a single step to Hammer.

Shooting forward with his fists aimed at Hammer’s median line, Wang Chao’s fists struck out with Jin. As soon as his right hand extended, it had connected with Hammer’s chest.

When Wang Chao’s arm had traveled through the air, a “crack!” could be heard as if a whip was snapped.

As soon as a single blow was made, the entire audience was stunned.

Wang Chao’s fist had been extraordinarily nimble and strong. With the cracking sound, no one would be able to maintain a strong bravado!

Hammer would have never imagined that such a fragile looking person like Wang Chao would have been able to cause such a blow capable of knocking down a mountain!

Hearing the crack, Hammer could foretell with his fighting experience that this fist would be better to avoid instead of defending against. With a startled jump, his feet dragged him backwards.

It went without saying that Hammer was a specially trained soldier that had a faster reaction time than a regular person. With a quick step backwards, he had been able to move a meter out of the way and completely dodging Wang Chao’s fist.

At the same time, he had took the time to bring up his leg.

The leg had been strong and carried a deadly wind as it aimed for Wang Chao’s chest.

Pa! Wang Chao’s fist opened up and smashed his entire arm against Hammer’s leg as if it was a plank of wood.

Relax the muscles and attack with the pores to break out naturally. If the enemy doesn’t move, then one shouldn’t move either. When the enemy moves, then one should move before him.

When listening to one’s potential movements, it was easy to predict the next strike.

Just as Hammer was moving back, Wang Chao had already “listened” to his muscle’s reaction and knew just what he would do, so he had brought up his arm as an appropriate reaction.

It was like a cage ready for someone to charge into.

As soon as the strike hit his bones, Hammer felt his leg go numb and start to shake. However, because of his quality training, he immediately brought his leg back and retreated.

But Wang Chao didn’t give up and persisted after him!

Spreading both legs, Wang Chao’s posture made him seem larger as his arms moved in a circle as if he was grabbing onto a giant halberd to cleave down onto Hammer.

This was the Chopping Fist Jin of the tiger stance.

Within Xingyi, the tiger stance and the Chopping Fist were almost the one and same. The Chopping Fist Jin required both hands to be wide apart and to expand the lungs in a large and long breath as if ready to cleave a mountain with an axe.

The tiger stance was the same. It required a large imposing stance similar to a tiger prowling down the mountain. With a large shout, the entire mountain would shake and the winds would scatter the clouds.

Now that Wang Chao had learned the Hidden Jin, his body was vigorous and filled with power. With each hit, there would be very few that could defend against his power or escape his Taichi.

Hammer didn’t know what Wang Chao had done, but the way he had suddenly grown larger had made him resemble some sort of axe deity materialized into real life. His heart couldn’t help but feel intimidated as his fighting spirit began to feel defeated.

In a hurry, Hammer threw up both his hands in an attempt to protect his head against Wang Chao’s chop. After that, he would prepare a counter attack.

But what he hadn’t known was that Wang Chao’s Chopping Fist Jin of the tiger stance was far too strong for him to block. Even without the Hidden Jin, the fist would bear down upon Hammer like an extremely heavy weight.

With that chopping motion, Hammer immediately felt an acute sense of pain in his arm at the same time of a cracking sound.

His robust arm had been unexpectedly broken by Wang Chao.