Chapter 184: An Exchange of Three Nations (1/2)

Chapter 184: An Exchange of Three Nations

“Sis Chen at that time was like this as well.” Seeing Huo Ling’er accomplish her training like this with her breath being exhaled like an arrow, Wang Chao had immediately thought back to the memories of five years before to when he saw Tang Zichen in the park.

Five years ago, her breath had been like an arrow, and it had attracted the curiosity of Wang Chao who hadn’t understood at the time. Every day, he would watch her foolishly. And after a week, Tang Zichen had brought him into the world of Guoshu. From there, his entire life had been changed.

This display Huo Ling’er was putting on was far too similar the one from the past.

Because of that, an inescapable feeling of sorrow and nostalgia began to arise in Wang Chao’s mind.

But then after that, Wang Chao realized that his thoughts of Tang Zichen could not longer be stopped to just that. As if a dam had broke, all of his memories and thoughts came pouring out.

This purple-robed young woman in front of him was starting to look more and more like Tang Zichen from five years ago. Although she had never seen Tang Zichen before, Huo Ling’er still gave off that same feeling of her. Even her personality and influence could be felt from Huo Ling’er.

They were both equally talented and highly skilled in martial arts. They were both spirited and nimble and elegant in nature.

And so Wang Chao was struck silent.

He was a master of martial arts. And after his victory over Nguyễn Hồng Tú in Hong Kong, his name was spread throughout all of the overseas world of martial arts, making him into a person fully deserving of being called a grandmaster and progenitor of his own school of martial arts.

Grandmaster. This too was a title that represented something major. A venerable entity that people would revere and look up to.

This was how Wang Chao was to be seen. His personality was calm and easy, but when he was angry he was like a clap of thunder and a bolt of lightning. With each and every action, with each and every word, every single move he made was in accordance with the natural rhythm of life. Even as he slept or ate, he was one with the world, and one with the Way. With his conduct, he was without a doubt a grandmaster in both presence and word.

Confucius had once said that by the age of seventy, he could follow his heart without overstepping the boundaries of right. These boundaries were rules, but rules were not what was created by man. It was the world that created these natural rules. Should the sun rise up in the sky early in the morning, then man’s heart would rise up with it. As it should in accordance to the rule of the world.

Wang Chao was only just in his twenties, but he had already the air of an elderly person.

But in the end, he was still a human. He was not an emotionless Immortal or a cultivator. A grandmaster of martial arts was still a human. A human with seven emotions and six desires. He could experience happiness, anger, sorrow, and joy. He was also capable of love, hate, like, and animosity. Even more so, he was capable of dating and marrying.

Martial artists were by no means cultivators seeking for enlightenment to become Immortals. As high as their achievements go, they were still mortals tied to the mortal plane.

The brilliant Yang Luchan and the venerable Sun Lu-tang had wives, children, and a household even.

Wang Chao was capable of emotions. Get rid of his achievements in martial arts, and he was nothing different than any other man his age. It was only because he had hidden his emotions very deep that no one was able to see it.

But this moment of regret and despondence had been more than enough to hook out the hidden feelings of sentiment he had stored deep within him.

“Master, what’s wrong? Did I do something wrong, or did something else happen?” As soon as Huo Ling’er finished with her stances, she saw that Wang Chao had looked a little distracted. Staring fixedly at him, she could see that he was not acting as normal and was slightly panicked to notice that.

“Oh, it’s nothing. You did well. Very well in fact.” Snapping out of his daze, Wang Chao had resumed his normal demeanor as if nothing had happened. But now, he was looking at his female disciple in a relatively different light.

Whatever this feeling he was feeling, even he did not know the answer.

“Cough cough cough….” Borrowing the pretense of needing to cough in order to clear his throat, Wang Chao disguised the feelings that were running across his face.

“The monkey stance requires nimbleness. But in its fighting methods, there is a single word that is emphasized, and that word is ‘scratch’. The main target is the face, and there is a way to describe this motion, ‘Monkey scratches at the back of the helmet.’ In battle against another, you circle around the enemy and attack at their head. That is what it means to fight with the monkey stance. The ‘Magpie Stepping on Branch’ that you used is similar to what the ape stance uses to fight. It also goes by the names of ‘Apes and Monkeys Crowding Over Tiger’ or the ‘Rabbit Treading on Eagle’. When the eagle dives downward, the rabbit pretends to be stuck on the crowd. But in the final moment, it springs upwards and uses the eagle to fly over.”

And so Wang Chao begun to correct Huo Ling’er’s ape stance for her.

After getting a detailed explanation from Wang Chao, Huo Ling’er began to try again.

With the extension of a fist, the body was like the bow that released an arrow and like a dragon soaring out from water. With her form, she was exceedingly fast and powerful with her heel exacting the right amount of weight as it stepped forward. Then when she was drew high into the sky with each Dragon Rising Palm Chop, she truly did seem to resemble a dragon from the ninth heavens come descending through the clouds to slam its claws down onto the mountain.

The Dragon Rising required one to arc their vertebrae before unleashing a springing force to compliment the chopping force of the arm. This way, it was far more destructive than the Chopping Jin of the tiger stance while also maintaining a very flexible margin of strength that could be diverted into something else.

After three leaps, a tiger’s might would be diminished. But the Dragon Rising Palm Chop could be done chop after chop, leap after leap without exhaustion.