Romance of Dragons and Snakes

Chapter 68: Reaching the stage where “sound follows the fist”

In the middle of the room, the snake and cat were fighting.

The snake remained unmoving from its spot as it lifted its triangular head up. The scales of its body continued to rub against each other. Hisssss! The snake’s forked tongue flicked in and out of its mouth with a hissing sound.

The cat’s hair was standing on its end, looking more like a hedgehog.

Its back was like a bowstring with all four limbs planted on the ground. As it leapt into the air, it was like a gentle feather, but its mouth was uttering a fierce hiss as it clawed at the snake again and again.

Every single claw struck out quickly while it moved in a manner similar to Bagua Zhang. As its paws stalked to the side, it then shot out like a spear with a fierce hop and thunder like sound.

Bagua styled movement and Xingyi styled fighting. This was been naturally reflected within the cat’s body.

When Wang Chao had first learned the Three Integrals, it had been when he stepped on the tail of a cat and observed its reaction. But now he was looking at the cat once more to gain a deeper understanding of the tiger stance.

However this time, he was also observing the essence of the snake.

In Wang Chao’s eyes, the snake’s muscles had transform into his own muscles and its scales his own tail. With each movement from the snake, he found it similar to the movements of the snake stance.

External practitioners focused on the muscles and bones while internal practitioners tempered their bodies as well as the skin.

Animals would naturally make use of their own fur.

Seeing the cat and snake fight, Wang Chao felt it synchronizing with his own martial arts as well as the ideology of Guo Yunshen on the realms of martial arts.

“Refining essence into Qi….refining Qi into spirit…so it was like that. Refining Qi into spirit not only changes one’s character, but the most important thing is that it changes the manner of one’s fighting technique!”

“It is when is when the manner of one’s fighting technique changes that it could be considered to have transformed Qi into spirit. To have both body and soul changed is what it truly means to practice Xingyi.”

In the past, Wang Chao’s movements, figure, and stance, while they had form, it was learned from Tang Zichen in a textbook like fashion. So while he had form, it did not have spirit. So in theory, he was like a shell and not a master of the fist.

Although he had baptized his soul and reached the Hidden Jin stage, his circulation of Jin and his comprehension of the actual movements of the body was lacking.

That was why Guo Yunshen had categorized movement to be different from Jin in its own stand alone category.

Rumors had it that Wong Fei Hung could release the sounds of a tiger’s roar and a crane’s cry when moving.

When Wang Chao heard this the first time, he had thought it all to be just drivel and never thought about it again.

“A master is a master.” Wang Chao thought as he admired his precursors.

He had been completely engrossed in his attempt to study the essence of the fist and did not step out of the room for many days. Everyday, he would watched the cat and snake fight and observe their movements.

The snake and cat had been wild in nature and very warlike in order to fight for their survival. However, Wang Chao had been vigilant; whenever there was a fatal blow to be struck, Wang Chao would divide the two.

The cat and snake would fight for half an hour valiantly. And if both sides suffered injuries, then they would stay motionless for a moment before dropping any intent on fighting to split away. But on the next day, Wang Chao would instigate them once more to start up their fighting spirits.

For half an hour every day, Wang Chao would watch the two animals fight. But after the day ended, Wang Chao would reflect upon how the two animals issued power, the cat’s pounce and the snake’s swaying.

Gradually, the two distinct movements had slowly harmonized with each other in his mind.

When Wang Chao practiced the tiger stance, the pouncing movement of the cat had appeared in his mind, allowing him to feel as if he had transformed into that cat.

When he pounced, his footsteps had been quick, nimble and flitted across the ground. When he lashed out with his hands, there was a thunder like sound that accompanied his lightning quick movements. In his soft movements there was a hard lining, but within this hard lining there was a soft touch.

When Wang Chao practiced the Drilling Fist of the snake stance, he had felt himself transforming into a snake. His muscles had transformed into the scales of the skin as he issued power and his fists had became the head of the snake. Swaying side to side and striking like a dart, there was no difference from his strikes to that of the snake. His arm had been serpentine in movement and had even spiralled around in a hypnotic manner.

The Chopping Jin of the tiger stance and the Drilling Jin of the snake stance.

When the two stances harmonized to issue power, Wang Chao felt his own movements being guided by the spirits of the cat and snake.

Gradually, Wang Chao’s tiger style attacks had a light echo to it as if there was the sound of a tiger’s roar somewhere.

And when he used the Drilling Jin of the snake stance, his arms had twisted and swayed with the breathing tempo of his muscles. It had synchronized with the beating of his heart and truly imitated how a snake would move.

A tiger’s roar and a snake’s hiss. Not even trying to imitate their sounds, whenever Wang Chao struck out, his body had imitated the movements of the animals and naturally let out this sound.

Within a falsehood was truth, and in truth there was falsehood. Within form there was intent, and in that intent spirit laid hidden.

Finally after half a month, he had mastered the spirit and intent of the tiger and snake stance.

This was what the classics of martial arts said to be when the “sound follows the fist”.

When it came to the other Jin of the other stances, Wang Chao still found himself at the stage where his form had lacked spirit.

But when it came to the tiger and snake stance, he could be considered to have reached the stage of that a master.

“Eh? Boulder, did the cat not kill the snake yesterday? Or did we not skin the snake and ate it for stew?” Axe asked Boulder as they passed by the room, only to hear several sounds. Hiss! Hisss! Hissssss!

The sound was extremely distinct and convincing. Anyone that heard the sound would believe that there was a snake currently residing within the room.

“What a big snake for its hisses to be that loud. It’s probably bigger than the snake we caught last time, goddamn!”

Boulder nodded his head in agreement.

After fighting in the jungles near the borders of China and India, they had been familiarized with snakes. With just their sound, they could tell just how large a snake was.

“Wang Chao has been training everyday in that room. Unless it’s for a meal, he doesn’t come out. It’s no wonder that at such a young age, he’s stronger than us in terms of fighting. But still, the snake from before was killed, did he buy a new snake? For a python of this size, it has to be a protected species! Even in the black markets of Guangdong, those are hard to buy since the larger the snake, the tastier it is!”

Boulder and Axe opened the door to the room.

The room was empty without a single snake in sight. Instead, they could only see Wang Chao swaying and striding with his arm extending in the manner of a snake.

Every movement he made had been accompanied by a hissing sound, causing Boulder and Axe to clearly think that there was a snake.

“There was clearly a snake, but even after entering the room, it’s not there? How bizarre. This guy’s making such a similar sound. What if…what if he has become a person who can transform into a snake?”

When Boulder and Axe saw this sight in front of them, they couldn’t help but look at each other in surprise.

Their way of thinking had been similar to Qin Maojiao half a month ago, the both of them had thought Wang Chao was some sort of monster.

In the past, masters of martial arts had observed animals move in the deepest parts of the forest and use their movements to temper their spirits and martial arts. But when an ordinary person discovered them, they had thought them to either be an Immortal, or a monster. After returning home, rumors had naturally spread.

Naturally, the sound would follow the fist, this was the stage where Guo Yunshen said to train Qi into spirit. If one were to advance in this step and have the sound come from within before being concealed and returned to its primal state of nothingness. This was what it meant to refine spirit back to nothing.

Roar! Hou! As the two watched, Wang Chao continued with his stances. After finishing off the snake stance, he had went into the tiger stance and started to let out the roar of a tiger as he struck.

After the stances, he came to a stop at the center of the room and began to calm himself. Opening up his mouth, a steady wisp of smoke began to exit his mouth.

Aside from the lower back, the chest and back where the lungs were located was emitting heat slowly.

“Eh?! This is the sign that the Hidden Jin has reached my back and lower back.”

Wang Chao understood this clearly since it had been written by Tang Zichen in the True Record of Guoshu: the Drilling Jin of a fist required the twisting of one’s waist and temper the kidneys. If one were to learn Hidden Jin in this area, then their breath would stabilize during this time and the Hidden Jin would travel through into the lower back and near the waist. During this time, the stance should not waver or be stopped in panic.

Even the tiger stance was of the same way. The tiger stance’s Chopping Jin was a bit similar to gymnastics way of strengthening their chest in order for it to toughen it up.

Wang Chao had learned the tiger and snake stance to the stage of where the “sound follows the fist” had blended with the Hidden Jin. After half a month with the right conditions, he had finally refined his back, chest, and even the lower back so that it was far more sensitive to Hidden Jin than before.

With time and constant practice, the Hidden Jin would definitely reach those three spots sooner or later.

“How marvelous!” Boulder and Axe had cried out in praise as soon as Wang Chao finished.

“This shouldn’t be that rare, but I’m curious then, does the army really not have any experts? Out of all the fighters, snipers, technologists, or demolition experts, do they not know this?” Wang Chao asked.

These soldiers had learned many things to an excellent degree. Boulder and the others were all expert snipers, specialists in demolition, hackers, and even better wrestlers than Wang Chao. Being called the PRC army did not suit them, instead, they were better called the army of the heavens.

“Uhm…actually…” When Boulder heard Wang Chao’s question, he began to think back to his memories. “Several years ago when I was training in Beijing, there was a retired martial artist. He was jumping around the place and scratching wildly with the sounds of a monkey. At that time, I thought him to be funny and thought he was doing some sort of acrobatics and paid no more attention to it. But thinking about it now, it was really quite magical.”

“That is an expert of the Monkey Fist, but you liken it to being a sideshow…” Wang Chao had taken his words a little offended, but he could see how Boulder had thought that way.

Amongst the martial art disciplines, the monkey styled ones were the most unsightly. If one were to reach the spirit and form stage with it, then they would be as nimble and quick as a monkey. All four limbs would be devastating and unpredictable in its attempt to claw the face and gouge the eyes. Its killing potential was huge, and very little would be an opponent for an expert who has reached the Hidden Jin stage with the monkey stance.

But at the same time, this style of fighting was very unappealing to others.

Back in the Republic of China time, a Wushu expert and Monkey Fist expert had fought each other only to end with the Wushu expert having his face smashed in.

After all, those who have been able to bring the Hidden Jin to their face were those who have reached the Transforming Jin stage.

The two hardest places for the Hidden Jin to reach was the face and five inches below the lower abdomen.

Author note: Three inches below the lower abdomen is the dantian. Everyone should know what’s five inches below then.

To learn the monkey stance of Xingyi would lead to the same effect as the Monkey Fist.

In actuality, when Wang Chao killed Qin Maojiao, his White Ape style Tongbei Quan had not yet reached a stage of self-enthrallment. But his speed was still utterly inconceivable. If it were not for Wang Chao showing his hidden potential and release the roar of a tiger, then the battle would have been much more intense.

“So what does the organization say? There’s still half a month until my fight with Zhang Wei.” Wang Chao asked.

“The organization sent us some new information a few days ago just to tell you to focus on martial arts and nothing else. The organization will send people to take care of the underground fighting rings.” Boulder spoke.

“However, after you killed Qin Maojiao, Xu Zhen had made some movements. But we’ve made some inquiries and so your true identity has yet to be revealed. In two days we’ll make the preparations to head to Chaozhou.”

They did not mention that the third day after Qin Maojiao’s death, Xu Zhen had been told of the news and instantly flew from Hong Kong to Guangdong City.

Even Chen Bin had given a call to her brother Chen Aiyang.

“Big brother? I’ve met a strong expert of Xingyi and even in the art of the sword. He’s killed Qin Maojiao, and he was quite good when I tested him!”