Romance of Dragons and Snakes

Chapter 60: On the verge of entering the Southeastern Asia martial arts world

Zhang Wei: A 32 year old man born in Shantou, Guangdong. From elementary school, he learned martial arts and was chosen to be a disciple to Wingchun expert Liang Zhong at the age of 15. After 10 years, he had started his career as a fighter and was once an underground fighter in Hanoi, Vietnam. Later, he killed 12 Muay Thai practitioners and earned a name of one of the three tigers of Guangdong along with Xu Zhen and Dai Jun.

Afterwards, Zhang Wei had continued to gamble within the southeastern asia. Even after a hundred battles, he had never lost one. And after the age of 30, he had begun to seclude himself.

During Zhang Wei’s time, he had first aligned himself with the Zeng clan in Hong Kong. In Vietnam, he had followed the Nguyen in northern Vietnam. Afterwards, he started his own company for sporting goods. However, in the past two years, because of bad finances, it fell upon hard times. It was only after the Ike Corporation that it had made its way back after May.

While Zhang Wei’s martial art had relied mostly on Wingchun, he was talented upon many other disciplines such as Tantui, Pigua, the Big and Small forms of the Flood Style, Labyrinthine Fist, wrestling, boxing, Muay Thai and so on. He had even once traveled to Taiwan to learn Xingyi Quan from master Xue Lianxin for a month.

While the Three Tigers of Guangdong had a reputation for being together, they were not of the same discipline. Xu Zhen was a part of the Tianle Corporation as a stockholder and Dai Jun was a board member of the Casino Lisboa group in Macau.

Within the S province’s military district’s room, all of the information regarding Zhang Wei was in Wang Chao’s hands. There were pictures of all size and detail regarding information on him.

Other than Zhang Wei, there was the information of the other two tigers of Guangdong.

Within this room aside from Wang Chao, there was Cao Yi, Boulder, and several other soldiers.

“Because Zhang Wei fell on bad times, Zhao Jun had been able to buy him using the Ike Corporation!” Wang Chao studied Zhang Wei’s information closely. “It’s clear to see that Zhao Jun wanted to make use of Zhang Wei to open a path into the Southeastern Asian martial arts world and black market.

“Correct, but the Ike Corporation isn’t just Zhao Jun, he is just a stockholder. There are three others who are all sons of the communist officials!” Cao Yi slapped a hand against the table, “A major part of our mission is to find evidence of any illegal activities of these people! Once we grab hold of some evidence, we can use it to crack down on their illegal activities.”

“Captain Cao, this company was surely made for their own use, why don’t we just eliminate them?” A soldier spoke.

“That is up to the organization to determine. As for now, it is beyond the scope of our mission.” Cao Yi spoke coldly.

“Finding evidence and information is a secondary objective in this mission. Our main objective is to change the leaders of the corporation. If they don’t change, then all we can do is try to prevent their illegal wrongdoings or clean up after them.” Wang Chao’s eyes suddenly narrowed as he felt regret for Zhang Wei. “He was a clean martial artist, but he ended up being roped into such a mess, ai!”

Naturally, Wang Chao had realized the dangers of betting; if one lost, then they had the chance of dying.

After Zhang Wei had made his reveal and earned some money, he had retreated into solidarity.Who would have known that after coming across bad times, he would be forced to come out of his isolation?

“It seems the organization is paying attention to Zhao Jun now. As the child of an official, who knows how long he’ll last?” Wang Chao thought after listening to Cao Yi’s directive.

“Zhao Jun, I have an organization behind me. If you wish to fight me, it will be difficult for you.”

Wang Chao suddenly thought how having the organization’s support wasn’t a bad thing. At the very least, they were like a patron to him.

“Alright, Wang Chao, your company has several ten million as its current capital, but I’ll have the organization make things a little more convenient for you. We’ll have a specialized member join your company and have some specialized funds for your company to allow it to grow even faster. This’ll make your identity easier to hide away, Sun Lei! From now on, you will be a member of Tianxing Networking outside of the mission, that is an order!” Cao Yi’s voice held no room for opposition.

“Eh?!” Wang Chao’s heart skipped a beat. From what Cao Yi was saying, it was the equivalent of him directly meddling in with his private company.

“Don’t worry, your company is currently too small for you to enter the Southeast Asia as a major power. The organization will help you increase your company’s worth a thousand times over, but in return you will give 50% of the equity shares to the organization! Your current capital should be around 50 million, but after the organization helps, it’ll be 500 million or even 5 billion! Think about, how much would you earn? Once your company goes big, your personnel and your power as stockholder will still be yours to a degree.” Cao Yi had already long guessed Wang Chao’s way of thinking, “The reason why your business was so successful so far has been because of the organization. Naturally, Zhao Jun had helped as well. His bet with you is an attempt to swallow your company whole even if you win the bet. Without the organization’s help, he’ll manage to do it, I believe that you can understand this much!”

“I can understand that.”

Whether it was a joke or not, Wang Chao had no other option. With the way things were, his mind had already accepted such an outcome.

“Right now the company’s capital should be returned to you. With your signature, we can authorize a hundred million to be sent to your bank account.” Cao Yi spoke.

“How generous this sum of money is! With this, the company would have a harder time not expanding!” Wang Chao didn’t have any special attachments to Tianxing Networking, as it was just some project he had helped out on a whim. From the very beginning, he had only gave out 50,000 RMB to begin with.

“Good, then those will be for the plans for the future.” Cao Yi opened up the television set and began to display several wrestling screens.

“These are some video information regarding Zhang Wei’s fighting technique. Take a look at them. Know yourself, know your enemy, and you will emerge victorious in every battle. Wait for Zhao Jun’s contract to come over, then you’ll go to Guangdong! Then, your Tianxing Networking will be an underground company. Make yourself known and find this person, find him when you get to Guangdong. He will help you prepare to enter the underground fighting world.”

With that, Cao Yi handed Wang Chao a slip of paper with a telephone number on it.

“Remember this number and don’t you let your true identity out. This person isn’t one of ours, he’s merely just someone we know who is connected to the underworld. He doesn’t know of us either!”

Because of the repeated warnings, Wang Chao had made sure to remember it.

“Good, then study up here. If there’s anything let me know first!” Cao Yi walked out of the room.

Wang Chao took out his phone, “Hello, Xiaoxue? It’s me, Wang Chao. Can you write up a loan proposal?”

“Why do we need a loan proposal? You don’t need to ask, you just need to do .How much? Write down a hundred million for now. What, that’ll be difficult? Don’t worry, I can guarantee it won’t be a problem. Make the proposal, and wait for my signature. Afterwards, find a good leader and I can guarantee that we will be prosperous!”

After hanging up the phone, Wang Chao had felt invigorated as if a tiger’s fur had been raised as a banner in front of him.

“With a single signature I am able to create a hundred million? What a feeling. It’s no wonder those rich and wealthy act the way the do. With a simple wave of their brush, a hundred million is made, this could kill someone with the amount!”

“Alright, that’s enough for now. The organization’s money isn’t easily earned either. I’ll first deal with what’s in front of me!”

With that, Wang Chao sighed and cleared away all the distracting thoughts in his mind before looking at the television screen in front of him.

The screen was very clear and was recorded at an elevated stage. On it was Zhang Wei and a youngster fighting against each other.

On the hazy edges, the audience could be seen. However, the camera lens were focused on the ring itself so the audience couldn’t be seen clearly.

At the start, Zhang Wei had started off with a strike with the youngster throwing out an elbow.

When Wang Chao looked, he realized the youngster was using the Eight Extreme Fists’ elbow technique. Zhang Wei himself was moving his fist in a spiral while his shoulder fluctuated up and down, revealing this technique as the Chain Inch Jin.

After several exchanges, Zhang Wei suddenly gave a large shout and tried to flip the youngster down to the ground.

Instead of taking damage, the youngster was like a monkey and flipped himself up right. Sliding in between the legs of Zhang Wei, the youngster appeared on the other side and then smashed at him with his fist.

A fist right at the back of Zhang Wei.

But Zhang Wei hadn’t been knocked down by the blow, instead, he had his back suddenly straightened as if welcoming the blow. Straight away, the youngster’s arm drooped down while his face twisted with pain. Taking a chance at this opportunity, Zhang Wei turned around and smashed his hand against his face, causing the youngster to fly off the stage with a trail of blood before landing on the ground and twitching continuously.

“En! Zhang Wei has mastered the Hidden Jin in his back!”

Wang Chao immediately realized what had happened.

“To be able to reach the Hidden Jin requires a glorious past. I wonder what Zhang Wei had felt in his past in order to reach such a stage.”

Wang Chao had a strange desire to fight him now.