Chapter 183: If There is a Student, There is a Teacher! (1/2)

Chapter 183: If There is a Student, There is a Teacher!

A true master of the sword would treat the sword like riding a dragon and soar up without pause so that even a fly or mosquito wouldn’t be able to reach the blade. A master like Lin Tingfeng was so capable with the sword that should a fly come flying past him, he could strike down the left wing without touching the right wing with ease.

Based off an achievement like this, there should be no reason a person would be able to get close to him, let alone catch his blade.

Catching a sword bare handedly wasn’t something that was meant to be done by grabbing onto the blade itself. Rather, it was meant to grab hold of the wrist of the sword wielder when they drew close with a stab or slash.

Lin Tingfeng’s ability with the sword was something that could strike as fast as lightning and withdraw as fine as rain. No matter how strong his opponent was, catching the blade bare handedly was simply not something that could be done with ease. Most wouldn’t even be able to get close to his wrists. By rights, Tang Zichen shouldn’t have been able to draw so close when he struck out.

The difference between man and beast was the fact that humans could create weapons. A practitioner of martial arts had this same distinguishment as well. A practitioner that used a weapon and one that didn’t use one were completely black and white in ability. When Lin Tingfeng wielded a sword, he could strike, stab, slash and chop against an opponent. Flesh and bone was not something that could be so easily used to defend against metal, so the only option left was to dodge. But to dodge the strike was merely just a way to evade the enemy’s strike and not a way to retaliate.

In a battle between experts where victory and defeat had only a hair’s breadths worth of distance, earning the upper hand was extremely vital. To force the enemy into only dodging was to earn the upper hand and great opportunity to win.

It had been unfortunate for him that Tang Zichen had reached a pinnacle of mastery with her Baguazhang. With a single moment, she had been able to not only catch hold of the blade, she had snapped it in half. This was a skill that reached the zenith of what martial arts should be capable of. Even Lin Tingfeng had no other choice but to give up and bow his head to her. It was pointless for him to continue fighting.

His only option to reclaiming the Tortoise and Snake sword was left to Jiang Hai maturing and bettering his own skills to duel Wang Chao for it again now.

“Ai…..” As soon as Lin Tingfeng left, Tang Zichen sat back onto the sofa in the lounge and turned her head upwards. As she looked up, her eyes seemed as if it could penetrate through both the roof and the clouds in the sky to look towards the east where China was.

“Brother of mine, it’s been five years now. You’ve finally made your name known to the world. While you didn’t fail to meet my expectations, this isn’t what I wanted from you. I wanted you to live a life free of worries and in peace. It’s unfortunate to see you continue to walk this path. Sooner or later, you’ll come across me. In one or two years, the two of us will definitely meet. But when we do, you and I will not be able to live as carefree as we used to be. And neither will our brother and sister relationship remain as pure as it was.”

Tang Zichen had an extensive information network with plenty of informants working for her in almost every part of the world. When Wang Chao first became known in China, she had known about it. And even his match with Cheng Shanming, she was privy to the inside details of that match as well.

When Wang Chao began to intersect with the inner government of China by earning a grudge with the Shaolin Temple and earning the nickname of being undefeated in Beijing, she had known about that as well. Her own brother was beginning to shape up into a great master of the generation and was no longer the same malleable and tender youngster she knew before.

Even though she knew about Wang Chao and what he was up to, Tang Zichen had never sought him out. This was because Wang Chao had already been caught up with the affairs of the internal government. If she and Wang Chao were to meet, then troubles would begin to accrue for the both of them. She had still been worried for him however and had managed to deliver her own personal needles to Chen Aiyang through another member of the Hongmen so that Chen Aiyang could help treat her carefully fostered younger brother.

Considering the circumstances with the internal government and Wang Chao’s relationship with them, Tang Zichen knew all about it. Before her younger brother could even create a basis for himself, he had been hastily recruited into the government and made into the public enemy of everyone. His future was not looking too favorable for him.

So thus she had started to plan for an escape route for Wang Chao.

In Tang Zichen’s mind, Wang Chao had already become something like a true younger brother to her.

“Ling’er, you have more talent than I do. But I still don’t wish for you to fight with others unless necessary. In truth, I only wanted you to learn martial arts as a way to educate yourself and have some form of self-defense. I never want you to fight with others in a battle to the death one after another.”

From her mansion in France far far away from Wang Chao, Tang Zichen had not been very happy to see her younger brother earn a name for herself. She wanted him to live peacefully and not like as he was now. Similarly, Wang Chao was not too happy to see his disciple Huo Ling’er use the killing move “Magpie Stepping on Branch” to kill Lee Cheol-han.

Huo Ling’er’s ability to kill Lee Cheol-han with calm-headed thinking, improvisation, and cold-hearted efficiency had been a testament to her skills in martial arts. It had been very shocking to everyone else; Tan Wendong most especially who was now regarding her with even more respect than before. Initially, he had been worried about her wellbeing after she offered to deal his troubles for him.

While she had been the winner of this vicious match, it did not mean to say that she would not be the cold corpse lying on the floor in the next one.

Wang Chao had been the most unwilling in that regard. Huo Ling’er was the heiress of a large family, and yet she was starting to become a second him where he had been thrown into a fight to the death one battle after another.

When Wang Chao himself had embarked on the path of martial arts, he had been embroiled in one duel after another. It had been so much that the amount of lives he claimed were beginning to coil around his legs in numerous strands. Such were the strands that he was beginning to feel trapped. This result was satisfying the old saying that had once been said to him by Zhang Wei, “When in the Jianghu, one cannot move freely.”

Compared to Huo Ling’er, Wang Chao did not have the economical, societal, or personal status that she enjoyed. The only thing he could rely upon was his own fists and skills. Otherwise, he would have long since been reduced to chopped body parts in some abandoned alleyway.