Romance of Dragons and Snakes

Chapter 181: The Younger Jianghu and the Older Jianghu (First)

This meteor hammer looked to be roughly ten to fifteen kilograms in weight due to its iron construct. Even the chains themselves were far heavier-looking than the ones Tan Wendong used. It was more crude, more vigorous, and even more powerful. The very first impression that such a weapon gave any one person that a single swing of this weapon could kill.

The meteor hammer was considered to be a ‘surprise weapon’ along with Tan Wendong’s chain whip in the times of antiquity. It was not often used even then, let alone the modern era of cold weaponry.

Tan Wendong’s chain whip was something that could be easily secured on a person like a belt while also being able to be utilized at a moment’s notice to fight.

But this meteor hammer that had been concealed within the backpack was something that was excessive even in a match of martial arts.

And yet a weapon like this was being used by a Taekwondoin from Korea. Such a sight had been enough for Wang Chao to do a double take.

This Taekwondoin was sloppy in his attire, but even that couldn’t hide the brilliant gleam of courage in his eyes.

Under Wang Chao’s insightful eye, Lee Cheol-han’s four limbs were all muscular and bluish in color in his veins. A latent power could be seen in his relaxed stance as if those muscles were gluten instead.

Muscles like those were ones that could loosen to a stage of mastery. The more relaxed they could get their muscles, the more they could contract it when they want. For a Taekwondoin, their leg strength would become practically explosive. This was similar to what Taichi was practiced for, and generally not for Taekwondo.

“Choi Jangbaek was said to have been with Zhou Binglin during the nineties. Every year it’s firewood for both, and every month it’s rice. As the saying goes, to bask in the benefits of another’s action is to be repaid in kind, and to enjoy the food of another is to be repaid with words. No matter how, Zhou Binglin would naturally give Choi Jangbaek the secrets to his art. Even when he taught Nguyễn Hồng Tú, he had taught the genuine art of Taichi. Choi Jangbaek would of course want to learn the quintessence of what the Sun-style Taichi is, and perhaps this disciple has learned Taichi from him as well? Who was the one that said foreigners couldn’t learn Chinese martial arts? Whether it is taught or stolen, one could learn martial arts just as well as any other.”

Wang Chao hadn’t been baffled by Choi Jangbaek’s course of action. Going to Vietnam as a teacher and starting his own style and curriculum abroad was a way to also open up the market and expand his influence. Something like this wasn’t rare at all.

Nguyễn Hồng Tú’s Yoga-style Muay Thai was something that was very marketable in Southeast Asia. He had found many a students amongst the drug pushers and the military. Choi Jangbaek had long since knew of Nguyễn Hồng Tú’s joint venture and how he had managed to corner the market in Thailand, Myanmar, Vietnam, Cambodia, and the other countries. Although Nguyễn Hồng Tú was dead now, his business was still here. As the one who had funded him, Choi Jangbaek would be the very first person that’d know that he could now push his own school of Taekwondo in the Vietnamese and beyond.

Everything mentioned above was something that Wang Chao himself was aware of. In essence, he himself had done Choi Jangbaek a huge favor. If Wang Chao didn’t kill Nguyễn Hồng Tú, then Choi Jangbaek would have never the opportunity to seize the markets that the Nak Muay had been monopolizing.

Just as a martial artist, Lee Cheol-han was making himself known as a very superior one.

The amount of people learning Taekwondo since youth was actually a decent amount. In comparison, the amount of people learning the martial arts that were prevalent in Chinese martial arts was pitiful. It was also even harder to find a talented practitioner from those who did. For Wang Chao, finding a single outstanding youth was hard enough. For Choi Jangbaek, a superior specimen like Lee Cheol-han was a dime a dozen and could be found without much effort.

“How about it? Tan Wendong, are you willing to fight me? If you aren’t confident in yourself, then I’d be more than willing to take your chain whip then.

Lee Cheol-han’s eyes rose up as well as the meteor hammer in his arms. The muscles in his arms grew taut as he lifted them up before then loosening as if the very act of lifting the meteor hammers was the same as lifting balloons.

His words had been egotistical and revealed the valor that could often be found in a youngster. Pride and confidence, that was the lifeblood of youth.

“That’s right, Tan Wendong. Fight with Lee Cheol-han. If you win, then we’ll consider the injury you gave boss Hong to be a moot point. But if you lose, then….hehehe….” Bao À Minh stared surreptitiously at Wang Chao’s group.

“Fine, where shall we fight?” Unexpectedly, the one who had answered was not Tan Wendong, but Huo Ling’er.

“You?” The fact that it had been a woman that answered instead of Tan Wendong had not been what Lee Cheol-han had expected.

“I’ll fight you instead. I’ve never used a weapon like this before, but like you said before, you’ll take my junior’s chain whip into your open hands. If so, then I’ll take your two lumps of metal into mine own. Brat, you’re only so old and yet you lug around that lump of metal in your backpack to find someone to fight?”

Huo Ling’er’s words were spoken slowly, but each syllable had been enunciated with great clarity so that even Lee Cheol-han could understand with his stiff mastery over the Chinese language.

Even Lee Cheol-han had realized the meaning behind her words, causing his eyes to burn with a furious anger. His facial muscles had twitched rather spasmodically before he let out a string of Korean curses one word at a time. Finally, he managed to speak out in response to her, “Fine! I’ll wait for you by the sandbank near the river outside the city limits!”

Tossing his meteor hammer into his backpack, Lee Cheol-han walked straight out of the building.

“We’ll come with you. With us around, we won’t have to worry about any ambushes.” Liu Qing warned Wang Chao.

Wang Chao had done nothing at all when his disciple had taken action. Instead of saying something, he had only nodded his head as if to agree to follow behind Huo Ling’er and Tan Wendong.

He would allow his own disciples do their own fighting.

Bao À Minh had watched as everyone followed Lee Cheol-han out of the restaurant and towards the outskirts of the city without moving from his spot at all. Just several minutes later when everyone else was out of sight, he began to smile sinisterly.

“Is everything prepared?” He asked his men.

“Everything’s done. We’ll definitely be making sure that kid Tan Wendong won’t be leaving alive. Boss Hong will be watching that kid lose both his hands and feet.”

Soon, that party had left the restaurant as well on their own minibus to drive off towards the outskirts of the city.

On the outskirts of the city was a wriggling river that flowed to the southwest at a nice and slow pace. It was a tranquil scene without any dregs of pollution to be seen in it at all. And standing on top of the soft sandbanks next to the river was Lee Cheol-han who was just putting down his backpack.

“When I fight, I never use my weapon against a bare handed person. If you’re not willing to use a weapon, then I’ll fight bare handed too. When I beat you, I’ll fight your junior with weapons next.”

Lee Cheol-han hadn’t bothered to open the backpack containing his meteor hammer and instead stood at the ready with his right hand extended outwards so he could beckon at her with his forefinger.

Huo Ling’er had only smiled coldly as she strode forward.

When two people wish to fight, then they would fight. There was no need to waste time with words.

Just as the two were about to meet each other with their stances however, several minibuses suddenly came speeding down towards the sandbanks. From the cars, thirty or so people came flooding out to surround the place.

“Don’t you move! This is my fight!” Lee Cheol-han barked. Those men were clearly from the Hanoi gang with Bao À Minh leading the group.

“No worries, my pal, I’m just here to cheer you on. Really, we’re just afraid that those people there will jump you all at once. With us here, you can focus on teaching them a lesson, we won’t move a muscle!” Bao À Minh waved his hand to reassure Lee Cheol-han while also ordering his men to step back. Just ominously, the sound of a bullet being loaded into the chamber could be heard.

Huo Ling’er had seen the entire spectacle, but because her master Wang Chao was behind her, she wouldn’t fear any one of these thirty gangsters at all. Even with a gun, they were not to be feared.

And so she had been able to give her Korean opponent a calm-headed look.

Tan Wendong had only just entered Wang Chao’s tutelage and did not want to intrude on his senior’s limelight, so he did not say a word.

With the atmosphere finally resettling, Lee Cheol-han shifted into his own stance. One fist was clenched at the waist while the other hand was extended outwards–the official opening stance of Taekwondo.

But what made his stance deviate drastically from the Taekwondo stance was the fact that his legs were not as taut as they should be. Instead, they were steel constructs that were bent slightly at the knee while spread far apart as if there was an invisible ball being held in between them. His back muscles were most noticeable as several of the more keen-eyed observers could see them slightly rippling.

“From top to bottom, his entire body is relaxed and bent like a spring ready to be sprung. His posture is seated, but standing at the same time and embraces the dantian. And finally, his back muscles moves like a fan. This is the clearly the spirit and intent of internal martial arts. But he shows it in the stance of Taekwondo.”

In the past, when one learned the ‘Crane Spreading Wing’ art from Taichi to a point of mastery, then when they walked, the muscles on the back would be similar to when a crane walks with its wings spread out.

In such a stance, the practitioner could easily rotate the Jin within his body and walk as if flying with the speed of lightning. Not only would the opponent be at a loss, the opponent wouldn’t be able to run away either.

Long time ago, Bruce Lee had once fought an opponent who knew he couldn’t win and began to run away. Giving chase, Bruce Lee ran after him, turning the fight into a sprinting race. Vexed and frustrated by the lack of being unable to do anything about that, he had finally had his master, Yip Man, teach him the art of Wing Chun. With practice, Bruce Lee had learnt the art to perfection and was similar to a crane. After that, he was able to chase down any opponent and beat them down.

The ‘Crane Spreading Wing’ from Taichi was different to the Crane style Wing Chun in many areas, but fundamentally, they were the same in concept. A violin and cello are played differently, but the tunes they play are no different to one another. Taichi and Wing Chun were similar in this respect.

Liu Qing had been startled to see Lee Cheol-han’s stance as well and mentioned it to Wang Chao. He too was an expert and could see that while on the surface, Lee Cheol-han’s stance screamed Taekwondo, but underneath, the spirit and intent of Taichi’s “Crane Spreading Wing” could clearly be seen.

“Choi Jang Baek fused Taichi together with Taekwondo into one to form his own ‘Baekdu style Taekwondo’. Truly, he is a man worthy of being a grandmaster and progenitor of his own school. But a man like this is far too intelligent and far too dangerous. With his influence as such, it’ll be hard to deal with him.”

Just from what he could see from Lee Cheol-han’s stance, Wang Chao was able to dig out Choi Jang Baek’s influence from it.

This Choi Jang Baek was quite similar to the founder of Kyokushin Karate, Mas Oyama, the founder of Shotokan Karate, Gichin Funakoshi, and the founder of Aikido, Morihei Ueshiba. While each one of them had learnt of Chinese martial arts in some way whether it was by stealing, by learning, by taking, or elsewise, they had managed to synthesize it into Japanese martial arts to form their own schools and gain fame. Whatever murky history they had, their achievements in martial arts bridged past and future together to form a school of martial arts that would last the ages. As far as achievements go in martial arts, they were all fully deserving to be called grandmasters.

Figures like this couldn’t be compared to the ones who only knew murder and blood like Nguyễn Hồng Tú. In this aspect, even a hundred Nguyễn Hồng Tú couldn’t even compare to the Korean Choi Jang Baek.

And so Nguyễn Hồng Tú had taken the bullet for him.

Wang Chao had opened up a martial arts school in Laoshan and was only starting to increase his own fame. With the series of conflicts with Taekwondo that would occur in the future and the previous events as well, him and Choi Jang Baek were already like water and fire.

With their stances displayed–whether it was Huo Ling’er or Lee Cheol-han–the both of them had seen each other’s skill and had thus become cautious. Neither of the two had decided to make the first move.

For five minutes, there had been a standstill. Then, unable to remain still any longer, Huo Ling’er lashed out. Her feet strode across the ground one step after another with the fluidity of running water and her hands were as if they were carrying wind itself. Opening wide, her arms dropped precisely down onto Lee Cheol-han’s forehead to split it open.

Her arm was like a whip in motion but like an axe ready to split apart whatever was under it. It was a grand delivery that was ruthless in its intention, and from the outside, her fingers gleamed as if they were made of sharp metal.

Lee Cheol-han’s observed the incoming strike and moved his arm up in a horizontal bar to flick the chop aside. Borrowing the magnitude of the flicking motion, he had been able to deflect Huo Ling’er’s chop. At the same time of his deflection, his right foot shot straight out with the curvature of a whip to strike Huo Ling’er’s temple.

This high whip kick carried with it the fierce fighting methods of Taekwondo. Compared to the internal martial arts of Chinese tradition where the feet would never lift higher than the knee cap, this was completely different in tradition.

In the entirety of Chinese martial arts, the majority of them didn’t emphasize much on high kicks and jumping. There were exceptions however, such as Tantui where the arms were as good as decorations while the legs did all of the fighting. With them being able to use their hands to defend themselves, their legs were open to all sorts of movements. If the high kick failed to land, they still had a plethora of methods with their arms to spiral off into a new pattern of movements.

The Taekwondo of the “Iron Fist Hwarang” was the same. With the high kick came a multitude of killing intent and methods.

Lee Cheol-han’s kick was excellently aimed. No matter how well Huo Ling’er trained her body, if the kick landed, her brain would be jolted.

Huo Ling’er’s ear twitched as she felt the wind approach. Glancing off to the side, she had been only able to see the blurry image of Lee Cheol-han’s foot coming at her! His kicks were extremely fast!

But thanks to her practice with the Monkey Fist and the “Sage Stance” in particular, her eyesight and hearing ability was elevated to their limits. Her eyes could see the surrounding area with greater clarity, and even this kick would not be able to escape them. With mind and body agreeing on the next action, her legs collapsed so that she would fall into a semi-squatting position. From her height of 1.7 meters, she fell down to just shy of 1.1 meter so that the kick would hit nothing but air.

She had squatted to evade, and now she would counterattack. Her fist flew up to strike at Lee Cheol-han’s crotch!

Her action had been ruthless, but Lee Cheol-han’s high kick had left his crotch wide open. Naturally, with that, the genitals began wide open as a hole in one’s defense. This was the common problem in most arts that practiced the high kick.

But Lee Cheol-han felt as if he knew that this hole in his defense would be struck at and quickly brought his leg down to clamp it together with the other. The other fist that had been lying in wait by his waist immediately smashed down onto the fist that Huo Ling’er was bringing up.

His high kick hadn’t yet reached its peak point and so it had been an easy matter to bring it down swiftly. The holes in his own defense was clear to him as well as the hole had been intentionally exposed to his opponent to draw her in like casting the bait onto the hook.

Huo Ling’er striking at his crotch and his fist slamming down onto it looked as if it had been a planned and orchestrated action that had been done over a thousand times with how smoothly he had reacted to it.

This was one of the follow ups mentioned before.

His fist that he brought down was like iron and could shatter a brick into several pieces with it. Lee Cheol-han’s intention with this fist was to meet her arm head on and shatter it into pieces as well.

If he couldn’t break her arm apart, then he could still swivel in with his legs and scissor her arm in between, With Taekwondo’s twisting movements with the leg, he could snap her arm afterwards.

This ability of being able to have so many variations of how to attack had caused an expert like Liu Qing to have his heart leap into his throat.

In a battle of martial arts, the tides of victory could sway towards one side or another in an infinitesimal amount of ways and make it hard to predict. Just like in Zhang Wei’s match against Wang Chao, the insightful Hsieh Lien-hsin and Chen Aiyang had found it hard to predict the victory as well. Whether it was Lee Cheol-han or Huo Ling’er, they were both youngsters with great talent and swift hands. It was more than enough for Liu Qing to break out into cold sweat out of worry for Huo Ling’er.

This would be the very first time Wang Chao saw the Baekdu school of Taekwondo as well. He had never imagined that Lee Cheol-han’s kick would be able to change so rapidly and follow up with a ruthless killing strike.

But Huo Ling’er had been calm the entire time. Her eyes had frosted over as if they were the tips of an iceberg and was without emotion. Even though she herself was a second away from death, she would be indifferent to the matter. When she had studied Kendo and the art of the instant, she had been in the Zen and tried to imagine her heart as the cold moon. Aloof and without worry.

No more than just one inch away before her fist would strike Lee Cheol-han’s fist, the back of Huo Ling’er’s hand suddenly spread out to form the eagle’s claw! Her shoulder joint gave a minute twitch as her arm inched upwards to pass over his fist. And then, with a burst of strength, her hand clenched onto the wrist of the fist that passed and seized onto it!

This explosive extension of the hand and shoulder movement was similar to what was taught in Chin Na. Similarly, it was akin to catching a fish in murky waters with your hands. The most important thing was the sensitivity of the hand and the five fingers being spread out in it. On the very moment the fingers feel the scale of a fish, it would immediately lash out and snatch the fish out of the water!

As such, the idiom ‘a fish in troubled waters’ came from this very concept.

At the same time Lee Cheol-han’s fist was seized, his leg had already grappled onto her arm as well.

In this one moment, Huo Ling’er looked as if she was grabbing onto a fish straight from between Lee Cheol-han’s feet!

It had been with confidence that Lee Cheol-han slammed his fist down on Huo Ling’er’s fist after his high kick. But it had been unexpected to see his own wrist seized. Hanging on a thread to life, he had tried to twist Huo Ling’er’s arm, but when she yanked his hand, his plan had been trashed. And in the next moment, everything went downhill for him.

When his hand was yanked, his entire body was forced towards her. But thanks to his trained body, Lee Cheol-han had brought his other fist out to strike at her face.

Huo Ling’er had her other hand form an eagle claw as well however and did not allow for him a chance to counterattack. With this eagle claw, she seized onto the other hand as well.

With both of Lee Cheol-han’s arms captured, Huo Ling’er had borrowed the next step by pouncing up with both knees together to slam ruthlessly into Lee Cheol-han’s chest with her kneecaps.

“Monkey’s Hanging Mark” correlated the knees to a mark that would be left on the chest of an opponent. All in all, this was a killing move that was ruthless in its aftereffects.

Lee Cheol-han had seen what Huo Ling’er was planning, but because of the fact that both of his arms were captured, he could only step back. His leg strength was exceptional in speed however, and his ligaments were like steel in itself. Bringing his leg up, he had managed to block Huo Ling’er from fully unleashing the attack in midair.

Unfortunately, Huo Ling’er had been planning on this before her knee could make contact with Lee Cheol-han’s leg. Yanking both of his arms backwards and stretching her vertebrae, she had managed to reposition herself so that instead of slamming her knees into him, she would kick off of him with her feet.

“Lee Cheol-han’s done for.” Liu Qing remarked when he saw what Huo Ling’er had done. Closing his eyes, he spoke, “What she’s using is similar to the Golden Eagle Tossing Wolf move I used the other day, but it’s more like Rabbit Stepping on Eagle to me. Is this ‘Monkey Leaping over Pouncing Tiger’? Master Wang Chao, your disciple….how do I say….is better than I was at her age.”

Bang! Lee Cheol-han had been struck by Huo Ling’er’s foot and was thrusted into even more trouble with both arms still seized and his leg hurt from his leap. In fact, the sound of bones being snapped could be heard while his arms were pulled out from their sockets. But then, with a final kick off from Huo Ling’er, he had been sent flying four to five meters away before falling to the ground. It was there he gave a final gasp for life before taking the beckoning hand of death.

Huo Ling’er had killed Lee Cheol-han by kicking off on him. Propelling herself away, she landed right by Wang Chao’s side, “What a guy. I said only a few things, and he decides to give up his meteor hammer. What an idiot.”

Wang Chao had said nothing in regards to that and asked instead, “Just now you used the eagle claw to capture him, and then the ‘Monkey Hanging Mark’ afterwards to lead into the Flying Eagle Striking Ape. I’ve taught you that much, but that last kick you did was a grappling technique from Baguazhang, the ‘Golden Eagle Tossing Wolf’. It also goes by the name, ‘Magpie Stepping on Branch’. This is a move that borrows the strength from another while in midair to instantly transmit Jin from the vertebrae to the leg. This technique is a genuine serial killing move, how did you learn it?”

“It’s called ‘Magpie Stepping on Branch?’ Huo Ling’er questioned. “Back when you were fighting with brother Liu Qing, I took a look at it and mixed in the Flying Eagle Striking Ape killing move with it just to see how it would work”

“Ling’er, your future achievements will most likely be better than mine own.” Wang Chao sighed. Looking to Tan Wendong, he saw the look of mixed admiration on it.

“We’ll talk later then.”

Just barely after he finished speaking, Wang Chao’s figure tilted to the side before disappearing. In the next second, he had disarmed the several gunners, causing their firearms to clatter to the ground. The world champion of the hundred meter dash could travel a little more than a meter per second, but Wang Chao’s explosive speed had been even faster. The gunners hadn’t even realized he had moved.

At the same time, Liu Qing and the others had leapt into action as well. There weren’t many gunners amongst the thirty gangsters, but how could even they contend with experts such as Liu Qing and Wang Chao? Not even three minutes later, all of the gangsters were down on the ground.

“Let that Bao person save Lee Cheol-han.” Wang Chao spoke as they all left the area.

At the same time Wang Chao was dealing with this matter with his disciple Tan Wendong, Tang Zichen was simultaneously being reported to of what Wang Chao had been doing from her ancient manor in France.

“Sister Chen, The Israeli army this year has managed to produce a new model of the Desert Eagle–its recoil is substantially lower than the previous models, but the fire rate, firepower, and range wasn’t changed at all.”

There were several young women wearing camo suits that were well fitted to their slim bodies. In front of them, a single mahogany chair could be seen with a table in front of it. On that table was a rather intrepid-looking pistol.

“Order ten thousand of them for now.” A woman with purple robes spoke from her seat on the chair; it was Tang Zichen. “Things like these shouldn’t be mass imported all at once and keep some funds on hand. That is the strategy on buying weapons of war. Recently, the royal family of Saudi Arabia has been asking for some Apache Attack Helicopters and some air-to-surface guided missiles. Hurry and go get some of those. They’ve already bought thirty-six models which can fight in eight kilometer backwind from China, what are they doing asking for more?”

While Tang Zichen was thinking to herself, another woman with a well-proportioned body and marked face walked in. “Sister Zhen, Lin Tingfeng is looking for you, will you meet with him?”

“Lin Tingfeng? Why’s he asking to see me?”

“He said that it relates to the disciple he has in China, Jiang Hai. His disciple lost his sword to your brother, sister Chen. That sword is the symbol of the Wudang Nine Palace Sword style, and he wants it back. Sister Chen, since when did you have a younger brother?”

“Hm?” A glint of light flashed through Tang Zichen’s eyes. “Let me see now. That’s a senior elder of the global Hongmen Society. I don’t make an appearance in the outside world often, but for a senior figure like him, I’ll make an exception. Lin Tingfeng was someone that I met when I was learning martial arts long time ago, so he is something like a senior I suppose. But a history like this is in the past however, the me of now has gone thousands of meters away from where I was.”

“Sister Chen, since when did you have a brother?”

The other woman asked again in curiosity.

“You’ll find out in the future. Right now let us take a walk to where Lin Tingfeng is.”

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