Chapter 13

Romance of Dragons and Snakes Chapter 13

Wang Chao’s mentality was slowly maturing step by step.

“What is Transforming Jin like?” Wang Chao was exceedingly curious and had hoped that sis Chen would demonstrate so that he would be able to have a reference point later.

“Take a good look.” Tang Zichen spoke as she walked towards the mercury and lead balls and grabbed at the balls with both hands and then with a twist of her waist, her hands released an extraordinary amount of power. Crash! The ball began to spin around violently like the blades of an electric fan.

The ball began to roll in place with a loud crackling sound as the ball traveled at high speeds with the mercury inside making a strange sound.

Two minutes later, the sound that Wang Chao could hear reminded him of the Tiger’s Thunder.

“Mercury and lead were the two essential ingredients for ancient alchemists to concoct the pill of immortality. Mercury is quite heavy, but it flows like liquid, making it a mysterious substance and was believed to be compatible with the bone marrow. This ball is the equivalent to a human body, remember that.”

Tang Zichen twisted her arm with an unknown amount of power, causing the mercury filled ball to act like a basketball and bounce up into the air.

Afterwards, Tang Zichen whipped her arm up, causing the ball to jump slightly. When it fell, Tang Zichen switched to her shoulder and used it to touch the ball, spin it once more into the air.

Afterwards, Tang Zichen continued to adjust the amount of power in each of her body parts, whether it was the arm, foot, shoulder, head, back, waist, groin, elbow, knee, or even one of her fingers, the ball continued to spin.

The mercury filled lead ball that Wang Chao could barely even move had been spun around as easily as a basketball in the hands of Tang Zichen. Seeing the godlike abilities of her martial arts, Wang Chao had already been desensitized to it.

Wang Chao could guess that this bigger than a basketball sized ball would be heavier than a 100 kilogram ball thanks to the mercury inside as well.

Pa! Tang Zichen transferred the ball to each joint on her body before finally dropping it back in the trough. After whirling around for a few more revolutions, the ball finally came to a stop.

“The art of moving in Bagua Zhang may be flexible enough, but its strength and your ability at it is not sufficient enough. Starting from today onwards, when you are not striking the sandbag over the water, you will try to spin this ball with your hands. When the time comes that you can make this ball spin to the point of making it bounce, a foundation for your strength will be established.”

From that day on, Wang Chao had yet another assignment. Every day at three AM in the morning, he would practice the horse stance and then use the Mud Wading Step to move around the entire lake Tianxing. Afterwards, he would practice Bagua and perfect the incorporation of the three integrals into the stances. In the evening, he would try and increase his three energies; vitality, Qi, and spirit. Then, Wang Chao would kneel down next to the mercury balls and try to rotate it. Arm, hand, waist and leg, Tang Zichen had made him push at the ball with them all. Then, finally, Wang Chao would spend the rest of the night improving his footwork as well whipping, cutting and jabbing at the sandbag.

Tang Zichen’s ability at martial arts was without limits and her eyes sharp. Even her mind was quick thinking and each word of direction she said had allowed Wang Chao to suddenly see the light.

“Has sis Chen taught many people before?” Wang Chao gradually began to think, there was no way she didn’t.

For another ten days, he practiced. Even on New Years, Wang Chao had phoned home saying he wouldn’t be there. Afterwards, the winter break had finally ended, meaning that Wang Chao had finally needed to leave Tang Zichen’s villa and return to school.

After returning home, he had been thoroughly scolded by his parents, but after seeing that he was alright, they were both endlessly relieved. Strangely, when he had returned home, they realized that Wang Chao had grown from 1.65 meters to 1.75 meters tall and his physique and been much stronger as well. He looked healthy and vibrant with energy with a boundless amount of enthusiasm that contrasted deeply with his past introverted, depressed and wretched appearance.

Wang Chao had weaved a huge lie to his parents in order to put them at ease. Although Wang Chao had made a healthy amount of progress in his martial arts, now that he was back in school, he had no one to practice with. And thanks to the lesson taught to him by officer Cao, he didn’t cause any trouble either.

“Once I have properly learned everything from sis Chen’s martial arts, I will go back and take back my confidence from officer Cao. Fighting anyone else will be meaningless.” Wang Chao thought to himself as he continued to practice by himself.

School matters were especially repetitive, especially as a high school student. The gossip was endlessly boring and nothing new was ever introduced. Wang Chao’s only interest was of his fight with officer Cao so he had sometimes spoke a few words with the class officer and student council member Cao Jingjing to ask about some matters regarding him during his extracurricular time.

In the past, Wang Chao hadn’t dared to strike up a conversation with a girl first. But after taking martial arts, his self confidence had soared to the point where he could speak to them freely without worry.

It could be said that Chinese boxing had transformed Wang Chao’s inherent nature to be more confident. This was truly training Qi into spirit.

A semester quickly went by, but during the term, Wang Chao had secretly practiced every day to polish his skills. Every midnight on Saturday, he would use the Mud Wading step to transverse the highway to Lake Tianxing where Tang Zichen would teach him for another two days.

But in this time, Tang Zichen had only taught Wang Chao Bagua Zhang and nothing else.

Yet Wang Chao said nothing and practiced in silence. His palm strength increased and so did his body. Each time he struck the sandbag, a faint but crisp sound could be heard.

Wang Chao’s movements grew more and more flexible as well. Each step was firm, and by the time summer vacation was about to start, Wang Chao could strike at the sandbags without ever falling.

The temples were slowly bulging, but just at a slow rate unlike the rate from before.

“When the temples are enlarged, that means you have a talent for the basics, but being refined is not an overnight task. If you cannot even reach the basics, then learning is useless.”

“Sis Chen, telling me this now while I’ve been practicing so much, don’t you think it’s a little late?” Wang Chao asked.

“Chinese boxing isn’t like learning acrobatics. If one’s skeletal bones are not properly matured, then they will become deformed. Your age is just perfect. Even Xingyi master Li Cunyi was 20 when he started to learn, and Shang Yunxiang was even older. If the age is too young, then they won’t be able to understand much about the martial arts world.” Tang Zichen reasoned.

Up until even the second semester had ended and summer vacation started, Wang Chao hadn’t said a word and continued to travel to Tang Zichen’s place.

But this time, Tang Zichen was unnaturally serious. “I can only teach you for this last summer vacation. After this, I will have to leave. However, in the past eight months, you have learned a lot and have established a good foundation. I’ve taught you enough for you to learn by yourself now. Whether you can grow into someone strong, that shall be up to destiny and your own determination.”

When Wang Chao had heard this, he grew melancholic. But there was no other choice, and neither could he ask any questions. All he could do was nod his head.

“Good. Starting from today, I will teach you Xingyi Quan.” Tang Zichen spoke.