Romance of Dragons and Snakes

Chapter 189: Lion’s Roar

The entire auditorium had immediately started to explode with the sounds of heckling for Yong Xiaolong. Each one of the students had been furious at him as if he was a dishonest monk that had committed an atrocity to both his faith and the world.

Even Yong Xiaolong had been completely caught off guard by the students’ reactions and turned stark pale in the face.

When Wang Chao saw what had happened, he looked as if he realized something and looked to the four officers behind him.

Sure enough, each one of them were giving a smile that didn’t quite reach their eyes as they smiled at Yong Xiaolong. The expression on their faces had been similar to a person at the zoo looking at the monkey in their fake habitat. It was a mixture of schadenfreude and playfulness.

“It was these four that caused the jeering to start. To be able to cause the thousand students start crying out like this is proof of their popularity. Their friends in this school are plenty I’d bet, and the roots into the infrastructure are deep. It’s fortunate that they came to me to test their skills straight away. If I didn’t mention my relationship with elder Li, being an instructor would have been an impossibility.”

Wang Chao had immediately realized that this had been incited by Liu Qing and the other three.

But Liu Qing and the other three hadn’t said anything at all. Not even a finger had been moved, so it had to be an eye signal of some sort. Perhaps they had done some sort of gesture when no one was looking to start the incitement. This much was enough to say that the influence these four had on the general populace of the place was far deeper than a roundworm in the body of an ill person.

Wang Chao was skilled in martial arts, and his ranking in the military was relatively high as well. But when it came to his approachability and ability to control and command the students of the school paled vastly in comparison to these four officers.

“Hmph!” Yong Xiaolong knew that he was in an unfavorable situation and moved to calm his emotions right away. Glaring at the four officers behind Wang Chao, he began to let out a loud rumble from his nose.

“Rrrr….rrrrrrrrr….” From Yong Xiaolong’s chest, a rising bump rose up past his throat with a frightening bulge. His throat had immediately swelled up to a degree that was frightening to look at.

A sight like this looked as if his breath had originated from his belly and was threatening to explode out from his throat.

There had been a tremendous volume to this short growl. It was a bit like the rolling thunders in the sky and filled the entire room with its crackling noise. And because of the amplification of the auditorium, the sound had been ten times all the louder. Several of the students had felt their eardrums rupture at the sound and stars enter their vision as a result. Their previous belligerent attitudes had been thoroughly shaken and their resolve broken down.

After the growl, Yong Xiaolong had quietly rode out the remaining growl and lifted his feet to walk. When he approached the students, each one of them had immediately gave way to let him walk out from the auditorium.

And so the ruckus that had been started by the students had came to a screeching halt.

The Shaolin monk had so easily reversed the unfavorable situation he had been in with a single roar and left the area.

Wang Chao had done the same once before when he stepped into the Ministry of State Security. To intimidate the people there, he had used the Pounding Fist to cause resonance in the building and shake it. Like the violin and the cello in the orchestra playing the same song, they did so with a different pitch.

“No wonder the Shaolin Temple is considered a great sect of martial arts if they have someone like that.”

Wang Chao had been the only one from the crowd that had not been affected by Yong Xiaolong’s roar. Seeing him leave, Wang Chao had offered no resistance.

The art of Shaolin emphasized the usage of the voice and sound to increase and strengthen themselves. There were techniques to attack the enemy called “Sound Attacks”.

Sound attacks were simple in concept. They were meant to be done explosively and out of the blue.

If two people fought for example, one of them could let out a heart-stopping shout to catch the other person off-guard. It could even stop the heart of the other person momentarily, and in the more dire situations, it could cause death.

Author note: Dear readers. Please don’t attempt this at home as it is very dangerous.

But not to a practitioner.

To the practitioner, they tempered themselves throughout the body. Their lungs could take in a tremendous amount of air and could expel it at a volume ten times louder than what the normal person was capable of. In the midst of battle, one could let loose a loud shout near the ears of their enemy to instantly burst their eardrums.

Author note: The regular person cannot maintain a loud shout for long periods of time and will become hoarse in the throat if done too harshly. One needs to be practiced in using their voices, such as the opera singers of the past and present. Their voices can reach unbelievable heights to outstanding effects, but only through practice.

Even if the sudden shout wasn’t enough to break the eardrums, it would still do to shatter their concentration. And to lose their concentration was tantamount to losing their life.

Of the many unimaginable and outrageous ways to Chinese martial arts, the hands and fight were not the only methods. The head, shoulder, waist, crotch, and so on could be used.

In the course of battle, one wouldn’t know what killed them after they died.

Even amongst the “Assault of Dragons and Snakes” that Tang Zichen had founded, there was a single form, the “Dragon’s Shout”. In a short instance upon contact with the enemy, there would be an explosive shout that would make itself known to the eardrums of the enemy. Like in the Classics of the Fist, where the “sound follows the fist”, this action complemented that saying perfectly.

Even when Bruce Lee fought, he would let out a loud shout “Ataaa!”. This was similar in concept.

But for someone like Wang Chao who practiced and honed his hand at martial arts, it could be said that he had reached the “Golden Elixir” or “great achievement” in terms of Daoist alchemy. A single move of the hand or foot could so easily finish off a person without the need to using the voice for a surprise victory.

But not fighting with the voice was also done for a reason that the Japanese had caused.

Some Japanese martial art schools once integrated sound attacks with their fighting styles. In the end, it became common to have them shout out their moves a they attacked. This had been seen as a rather disgraceful move to many practitioners, causing them to slowly give up sound attacks. Wang Chao had been merely a follower of tradition.

“Well, instructor Yong and I were merely just demonstrating an application of grappling techniques. When you go back, please reflect and ruminate on it. Class is dismissed for today.”

After Yong Xiaolong had left, Wang Chao had cleared his throat to catch the attention of those who were still stunned by Yong Xiaolong.

“What a man this Yong Xiaolong is. I daresay he won’t be an easy one to deal with. We only wanted to put him in a tight situation, but then he goes and crushes the scene. Duan Guochao has nothing on him in intensity, you should be careful around him, instructor Wang. I’ll go ask around the institute to see what in the world they were thinking in hiring this monk as an instructor.”

After the students had all left, Liu Qing spoke to Wang Chao about his next step.

“I’m a little hesitant about his art in hidden weaponry. At close distance, hidden weaponry can be far more fearful than a small calibre pistol. It is far more flexible and can be done with a flick of a finger to be accomplished. This is something that can win a battle at a moment’s notice.” Wang Chao thought as he took out the coin from the wall.

Crack! Following the slight cracking sounds from the cement walls, Wang Chao dug out the three embedded coins.

These were a single yuan coins and were made of a rather hard alloy. But when Wang Chao retrieved them, he could see that they were bent and distorted practically in half–showcasing just how strong Yong Xiaolong’s strength was.

“Master, do you know how to use hidden weaponry too?” Huo Ling’er stared at the bent coins. “I once got to see master Ma Hongjun in Hồng Kong showcase his skills with darts before. In two second, he managed to hit five coins and extinguish a candle ten meters away.”

“Using darts requires specialized hand training, but not only are coins easy to carry, they are far more convenient. It’s generally the first-pick option I see most people that train in hidden weaponry use. When I was overseas, I was able to see several people that could use a coin with far better accuracy and usage than a pistol. But Yong Xiaolong was simply much faster and stronger than they were. I didn’t even see him use it.”

Liu Qing had been quite analytical of the sight and could see that from the bent coin Wang Chao had in his hand, Yong Xiaolong was extremely proficient in the art of hidden weaponry.

“In my entire lifetime, I have never learned how to use hidden weapons. I don’t plan on doing so either. I don’t even use a weapon in general. That isn’t to say they are dishonest means of fighting, but hidden weaponry is like using a gun. Grow too dependent on them and it will become easy to neglect the skills in one’s arms and legs.”

In the five years of martial arts Wang Chao lived, he had never once stopped his practices, and that was what allowed him to become a master who underwent a transformation in his martial arts. Because of his wholehearted approach, he had given up all other subsidiary matters relating to life aside from what pertained to martial arts and practiced diligently. Pure, profound, and proficient. These three words were not at all irrelevant to his revelations in his studies.

“Hey! Isn’t that saying I neglected my martial arts for some time before when I learned the Baguazhang art of the crescent moon knives? Against people, they’re rather strong–even if I’m up against two other experts, I’d be able to win. But coming to think about it, what difference is there in using a gun? It’s strong and doesn’t require much training to be of use. If we want pure power, why not just use an attack helicopter or use a rocket launcher? No amount of experts would be a match for that.”

Liu Qing sighed to himself as he thought about the time he had met a fork in the road when it came to his pursuit in true combat strength.

Ring Ring Ring!!!!! The ringtone to a cellphone went off.

Fishing out her phone, Huo Ling’er took the call. “Master, it’s Lin Yanan. There’s something the matter at the school.” She spoke after listening.

Wang Chao would often give his phone to Huo Ling’er to hold, so he had to take her phone and listen for himself.

His face twisted up with a questioning look as he thought to himself, “Did the Shaolin Temple send Yong Xiaolong to test the waters? What is going on, an exchange of martial arts between China, Korea, and Japan? The Goju-ryu Karate, Jangbaek style Taekwondo, and Shaolin martial arts? Those are schools that all hold grudges with me.”

At the capital of South Korea, and airplane had only just landed down before a young woman wearing purple robes and sunglasses disembarked. At her side were several other rather beautiful but toned women. Upon disembarking, they had all gotten in a car and drove off to enter the city.

“Do we know where Choi Jang Baek and Yoshida Miyagi are?” Tang Zichen asked the woman besides her.

“Yes. These two are currently both at a dojo. Aside from their meals, they spend the day exchanging martial arts and then take a two hour stroll around the parts to the city.” The woman replied prudently.

“Their martial arts haven’t deteriorated, but old age has made them reckless.” Tang Zichen laughed. “These two experts have learned the quintessence I suppose. I’ll leave the preparations to you then.”

Author Note: Tang Zichen and Wang Chao will finally be meeting. I hope everyone will be looking forward to the following scene; I too hope that I’ll be able to write up something good. My job as an author in Shanghai has ended, so I can go home and write even more chapters now.