Chapter 166: The Times of Youth Are the Most Urgent Times (1/2)
Chapter 166: The Times of Youth Are the Most Urgent Times
“The authority of the French Hongmen Society is quite influential. My old friend was a descendant of the Wudang Sect and Nine Palace Swords school. His sword style emphasizes that every man has a single sword. When the sword dies, the man dies. To steal the sword is the same as ruining their reputation as well as slapping their faces. This sword is a well known sword, meaning a problem like this would be difficult to resolve. That particular school of swordplay had numerous of disciples all around. Jiang Hai was quite talented as well and was considered to be the next inheritor of the Nine Palace Swords style. Unfortunately, Liao Junhua’s talent was of the same as his, but because of the politics, Liao Junhua wouldn’t be able to reach the next realm of martial arts.”
Zhu Hongzhi looked at the blade in Huo Ling’ers hands and reached out a hand of his own to touch the blade. Feeling the grain of the sword, he studied the body before observing the inscription on it.
“Brother Liao’s martial arts is refined beyond belief. When I first made my appearance, I was fortunate enough to press hands with him. His Xinyi Liuhe was filled with such essence that I learned plenty from it. However, with his circumstances making him unable to focus on the path of martial arts, there was nothing else that could be done.” Wang Chao looked at the inscription on the sword before changing the topic to talk about the sword. “The sword has been passed down already, there’s nothing I can do about that. Should a soldier come, retaliate with a sword. Should the water flood, build a dam. Ever since my own appearance, I have never been afraid of any challenge despite my age.”
Wang Chao then explained the rest of Jiang Hai’s challenge and form to Zhu Hongzhi, “What is the history behind this sword? I don’t recognize the characters on the sword or even what this sword’s name is? Venerable master Zhu, please impart your wisdom onto me.”
“I see now, Jiang Hai’s studies is still lacking. That cannot be blamed on you.” Zhu Hongzhi spoke after listening to Wang Chao’s match with Jiang Hai. With a nod of his head, he explained, “This is a symbol of inheritance for the Nine Palace Swords style. When Li Jinlin of the Central Guoshu Institute seeked out the master craftsmen of the ‘Wudang Sect’, he had this sword forged. The inscriptions on this sword isn’t the lesser seal script or even the greater seal script, but bird script. And yet, I do not recognize these characters, but I’ve heard its spoken name to be the ‘Tortoise and Snake Sword’. So that must be what those two seal scripts must mean.”
“Tortoise and Snake…..”
When Wang Chao uttered that name, he knew that it was very fitting with the style of Wudang. The Daoist monks of Wudang had once practiced his martial arts in the mountains by observing the tortoise and the snake. By combining the movements of the two, the monks were able to fashion out a style of swordplay that combined the best of both in tribute of the True Warrior Great Deity; which was symbolized by the joining of a tortoise and snake into one image.
TL Note: The tortoise and snake is the symbol of Xuanwu, the Black Tortoise/True Warrior Great Deity and one of the Four Symbols of Chinese Astronomy. As a deity, he is very important in Daoism and martial artists.
Zhu Hongzhi shook his head and tapped his dragon cane to the ground twice, “I can only hope. As we are all martial artists of Chinese descent, we can avoid our animosity and be friends. In the case they come back to look for the honor they have lost, I hope that it will be done in kind rather than a fight to the death. Your martial arts is young and robust, I hope that you will be gentle with your hand.”
Wang Chao gave a forced smile, “When a practitioner of the sword has one in hand, then they would be able to overcome a martial artist that might have been double his skill without a sword. Live by the sword and die by the sword, that is a undoubtedly strong bond. I am only afraid that should I hold back, they will not.”
“To live by the sword and die by the sword is a relic of the past. It is the 21st century by now. Some of these rules may be said even today, but they are not put to practice. I will ask my friend and hope that this situation may be resolved peacefully.” Zhu Hongzhi sighed, causing Wang Chao to think to himself.
“I’ve even more enemies than before now. After my fight with Nguyễn Hồng Tú, the Japanese were already my enemies, but now there is the Indians, the Thai, the Burmese, the Vietnamese, and the drug lords who have all gained hatred for me. The amount of enemies I have now is even more than when the “Little Martial God” Zhou Binglin was at his prime. But even he went into hiding when he was thirty for twenty years, I will undoubtedly not have such a luxury. After losing to me, I think I heard Han Xiaoqing say that Jiang Hai joined some mercenary group overseas for a trial by fire experience. His skill was decent and comparable to Duan Guochao, but his experiences with live combat was severely lacking. With my assault, he had no time to pull out his sword. If it were a true battle to the death, then his death would have been guaranteed. It seems that I’ve gained another opponent however. Zhang Tong’s sword style was learned in France as well by the same school of Li Jinglin. I wonder if there is a connection between her and Jiang Hai? The Wudang fighting and sword-play, I wonder what the inspiration behind that is?”
He didn’t know why, but when Zhu Hongzhi spoke to Wang Chao about this much, he had been comforted by it. Thinking from Zhou Binglin to Jiang Hai to the French Hongmen Society, Wang Chao’s mind then drifted from that to Zhang Tong’s sword style and then to the tortoise and snake style of Wudang martial arts.
The apprenticeship banquet soon passed and Huo Ling’er was now formally under the tutelage of Wang Chao.
In this match, Wang Chao had not put in much arduous effort and had easily suppressed Nguyễn Hồng Tú before killing him. His name would surely improve from here to overseas.
At the same time, he had earned a decent sum from this match. Cao Yi and the others were practically holding onto a plate overflowing with gold. Wang Chao had been promoted once more to own the title of ‘martial instructor commissar’. With just another half year, he would be able to teach a class of special op soldiers.
Ten days quickly went past and was rapidly approaching the New Year. Returning from Hong Kong, Wang Chao had chose to head off to S province H city to visit his home instead of returning to Laoshan.
With his parents at ease, Wang Chao felt at peace as well.
When Wang Chao lived with his family, he would often times spend most of his time with Tang Zichen at the park or at her villa.
There had been a grew pile of snow during the time, making the atmosphere rather festive. But when he walked through the snow-buried fields, Wang Chao could not feel the same mentality he had five years ago when he was nothing more than a high school student.
But even in his days of living at home, he had done plenty and many things much to his pleasure. This had made Wang Chao cherish his moments of having an ordinary life.
Cao Jingjing was on her winter break from Beijing University, and Zhang Tong was still doing her job as a chairman for the Chanel Cosmetics brand. The Tianxing Networking company was grower larger and larger. When it had been founded, everyone was only a minor university student, but now they were all entrepreneurs. Everyone had drastically changed for the better.
On this early morning, the skies were covered with clouds of a dusky red color. The winds were like arrows as snowflakes as large as one’s palm swirled everywhere. The world was a blanket white piece that even in ten years, no other time would be able to compare in snow.
Standing by himself in the second story to Tang Zichen’s villa, Wang Chao stared from outside the glass and out at the falling snow that covered the Tianxing Lake. He could distinctly hear the snowflakes falling and brought him back to when he was walking across the entire nation in the past.
Then, a fiery-red sports car suddenly came into view right outside the villa gates. Coming to a stop, the car opened up to reveal several parasols whose owners were all young women.
Wang Chao could see them all clearly. These females were Zhang Tong, Huo Ling’er, Cao Jingjing, and even Han Xiaoqing.
“Why aren’t you at home celebrating the New Year?” Wang Chao spoke after walking downstairs to open the door and let them in.