Chapter 185: The Dragon Within the Shaolin (One) (1/2)

Chapter 185: The Dragon Within the Shaolin (One)

Miyagi Yoshida was a grandmaster martial artist of the Japanese Goju-ryu Karate. As he was now, he was in his forties. But he was still an active figure in the Japanese world of martial arts as one of the thirty or forty masters. His name was second only to Iga Minamoto and was basically considered one of the few only martial artists that could genuinely fight.

He was a man of many disciples and many dojos in places such as Europe and America. In the markets, his Goju-ryu Karate was on par with the two major Shotokan Karate and Kyokushin Karate styles.

In this current moment, the grandmaster of the Goju-ryu Karate was currently meeting with the “Iron Fist Hwarang” Choi Jang Baek along with their disciples to discuss and plan the very first transnational exchange of martial arts. This time, Miyagi Yoshida had brought his disciples to Seoul so that the two schools could exchange some pointers with one another.

For a school of students to truly improve, an exchange of pointers like this was inevitable.

“Mister Jang Baek, I’ve heard you’ve managed to obtain the quintessence of the Sun style Taichi recently. It’s no wonder then that my disciples lost more than they won today in our visit to Seoul. When lady Sun Jianyun came to Japan to teach her art, I was fortunate enough to bear witness to it. If I could describe her in motion, she would be considered a godhand. Her death was an unfortunate one, and her art was considered lost.”

Miyagi Yoshida’s shoulders were irregularly broad and looked to be packed with muscles that made a bulge in his sakura kimono look like wings.

This was the zenith of the Goju-ryu Karate. Upon this zenith, one would naturally have the sign of a crane showing its wings.

Goju-ryu Karate was a school of Karate that Miyagi Chōjun had founded by his studies of Shuri-te and a combination of the principles of the White Crane style found in the Wubei Zhi. In the case one fought against another, the hand and the foot acts together to strike like thunder while the back muscles moved fast enough to spark wind. With the muscles of the waist and legs, they could stare down and pounce at their enemy with unbelievable speed. The most remarkable aspect of Goju-ryu Karate was that the hands, when forming a knife hand, could peel at the skin while the legs had the strength to be like a shovel. With this magnitude of power, the art of Goju-ryu was often enough to earn them the crown of kicking styled Karate.

“Let’s not talk about that.” Choi Jang Baek was seated in an upright manner that made him look like he was meditating. “The disciple of the Laoshan Internal Fist had one of my more talented second dan disciples, Lee Cheol-han into a cripple while he was in the southwest parts of China. I’ve heard before in the past that a member of your Miyagi family, Hanshin I believe? He was killed three years ago by Wang Chao, correct?”

“That is true.” Miyagi Yoshida’s eyes grew cold. “And it is for that reason why I’ve agreed to bring my disciples to Seoul today to listen to you. My only fear is that this meeting of ours might attract the united wrath of the entire community of the Chinese world of martial arts. You must know that aside from Laoshan, Shandong and the rest of Northeast China still has the Shaolin Temple.”

“The Shaolin Temple has some grievances with the Laoshan school as well. This time, I’ll be having the Shaolin join us in this exchange. It was because of Wang Chao that their introduction into the Hong Kong stock market wasn’t a major success. If I bring those two groups into this exchange, they will not unite against us. Whilst headmaster Wang Chao is an extremely talented martial artist, he is what–a few years old into this business? His disciples are strong, but even he has only one or two of them. That is nothing to be afraid about.”

Originally, Choi Jang Baek had made Nguyễn Hồng Tú as his gun against Wang Chao. It had been a test to see Wang Chao’s skill, and the result had been that Choi Jang Baek himself was no longer sure of his chances of winning.

He was caution at its finest. Even before it rained, Choi Jang Baek was the type to have his umbrella out and ready and would never do anything he wasn’t sure of. But Wang Chao had been like the boat that rises with the tide. As the headmaster of the Laoshan School of Internal Martial Arts, his influence had spread throughout Shandong and through the straits to reach even Korea. It had caused even the Jangbaek style Taekwondo a considerable amount of negative business.

A few days ago, he had brought a few of his more talented disciples into Vietnam to teach and spread his business. But when he heard that Lee Cheol-han had been crippled by Huo Ling’er while he was in China, Choi Jang Baek had been utterly furious.

Lee Cheol-han had been a youngster of formidable potential–but all of that had gone to waste. It was with grievance and anger that he had invited the Miyagi family, whom of which had also hatred for Wang Chao. He had even sent an envelope with some of his own funds to the Shaolin Temple so that they could take part as well. Everything was so he could bully the disciples of the Laoshan school.

It would serve as a nail into the coffin that was Wang Chao’s name.

The warrior monks from the Shaolin Temple would often make trips to the Americas and Europe. Each time, the mass media, newspaper, and followers would introduce them to the world and cause a tremendous amount of popularity for them.

If Choi Jang Baek led his disciples from Korean to Shandong, all he would have to do is to send an envelope to Wang Chao and the head of the Shaolin Temple in Shandong to receive them. From there, the media would take the rest of the work and cause a surge of interest from the general populace.

In the 1990s, there had been a group of Shaolin warrior monks that traveled to Europe to put on a show. And as a result, a wave of interest had been started for the study of Chinese martial arts.

In the 1970s, many masters of Japanese Karate had been sent to Europe to perform and fight in the events. The result had been a surge in interest for Karate dojos in the European market.

It was because of influences like these that even now, many westerners were under the illusion that whether a person was Japanese or Chinese, they were strong in martial arts. They had also believed that of these two ethnicities, they had surely a mysterious power in their bodies.