Romance of Dragons and Snakes

Chapter 96: Complete Enemies

Chapter 96: Complete Enemies

Seeing Ye Xuan finally cease his breathing and his eyes glossing over with the absence of life, Wang Chao finally let out a long sigh towards the sky. Feeling an icy-cold sensation in his arms and legs, Wang Chao loosened the pores and immediately felt his entire body grow wet with sweat.

In his battle with Ye Xuan, Wang Chao had used up the entirety of his spirit and strength to fight. Although the battle hadn’t even been 10 minutes long, the exchanges they had had been instantaneous, numerous, and deadly.

It could even be said that in these scant few minutes, Wang Chao had traveled the road of life and death a hundred times.

This also had to be the most difficult battle he had ever faced in his entire life.

He hadn’t felt such a pressure even when he fought Zhang Wei. In the competition between him and Zhang Wei, it had been a matter of personal business. When it came to his battle with Ye Xuan, not only did he have to fulfill the expectations the organization had for him, but he also had to represent the entire Chinese martial arts world.

Zhang Wei’s return to the Jianghu had been unavoidable; from the very beginning, his drive had been whittled away. Although Wang Chao had showed his skill at the very end, the outcome of the match had been ultimately up to the heavens to judge.

Ye Xuan had been a youth with a power strong enough to engulf everything he touched. Despite being so young, his wisdom and perseverance had been terrifying. Even after his own hand had been reduced to a mangled flesh, Ye Xuan had been able to withstand the pain and retaliate with a swift whip kick.

Even more important, Ye Xuan’s martial arts had been even stronger than Zhang Wei’s.

“In the previous century, perhaps this is what Huo Yunjia had felt when he was on the stage.”

When the moment came for the entire audience to start singing The Great Wall Will Never Fall, Wang Chao had felt some sort of power well up within him and inspired him.

It was this type of inspiration that allowed him to make use of the “Sudden Thrust” to take the upper hand. With the roar of a tiger, Wang Chao had been finally able to strike at Ye Xuan’s weak point and render him harmless until he died.

In the final chopping motion, Wang Chao had brought out all of his inner potential to cross those eight steps and shatter the platform with an indomitable strength.

One could not lose strength in a competition. When strength is lost, the heart grows weaks. And when the heart grows weak, then the will will be ineffective. When the will is ineffective, the body will not work as well as intended.

But because he was in front of this audience, Wang Chao had been given an unparalleled amount of strength.

It was then that Wang Chao had realized. He had understood the reason why so many people had stood out when China had been in pieces. It was because they all had the spirit of the Chinese that inspired them. Ordinarily, this type of inspiration wouldn’t be felt. But at the most crucial moments, this feeling would come exploding out to gather together.

This was the spirit of a dragon.

For an inch of the world, an inch of blood would be given.

“How…how could this happen…” Yagyu Haruko was in utter shock as she looked down at the stage; desperately hoping that whatever she had seen was not true.

In her heart, Ye Xuan was utterly invincible. He was a young grandmaster that could walk forward and kill Buddha or even any god that stood in his way.

But then, this young grandmaster had been killed prematurely by another.

The death of one legend had been the birth of another legend.

The entire coliseum exploded into a tsunami of sound almost as if this was the Olympics, and China had used won the gold medal.

Although the fighting rings were merciless, it was the easiest way to rouse someone’s excitement. This rang especially true when one ethnicity went head to head with another ethnicity. Even though this was a matter of people instead of the government, no matter if this was a legal or illegal fight, a clash of ethnicities would always lead to such an effect.

In the era of peace and security, the hot-blooded passion of the people hadn’t disappeared, it had only retreated to the depths of their hearts.

“Good! Excellent match! Dai Jun and I are convinced that you are the best master of this generation!”

Just after Wang Chao had killed Ye Xuan, Liao Junhua had suddenly regained himself. Against such a display of power, he had been moved as well. However, as a high ranking member of society with a high ranking position, he was far more calm-headed than everyone else and immediately remembered just where he was.

As one of the Three Tigers of Guangdong, Dai Jun was very hard to impress after experiencing hundreds of battles. But his spirit of a martial artist still remained. This victory had caused him to respect and admire Wang Chao from the very bottom of his heart.

As the two walked down, they immediately had people surround Wang Chao so as to avoid any accidents from happening to him.

“What a true man!” A single tall man dressed in leisurely clothing had spoken. Along him, there were several other people that walked with a calmness in their steps.

These men walked in a pace that was well timed with the other, evidently, they were all men from the military.

“This is the senior ranking officer of the Jilin Military District, Officer Xu.” Liao Junhua introduced as Wang Chao nodded his head with a smile.

“You’re just like Huo Yunjia himself! How spectacular!” Officer Xu had been like a child in giddiness. “Back during the Asian Cup of Football between China and Japan, our entire military district were all chanting the national anthem to the TV. But unfortunately, those fucking grandsons of turtles really failed to live up to expectations and lost. I didn’t think that after chanting The Great Wall Will Never Fall you would actually win, how refreshing! Where are you from? Allow me to receive you as my guest tonight!”

“What a fucking great battle!”

In this underground arena, even the military men had thrown away their ordinary personalities and returned to their more crude nature.

“This is Master Wang Chao, the head of the Laoshan School of Internal Martial Arts in Qingdao City.” Liao Junhua introduced Wang Chao with a smile.

By this point, everyone that was familiar with Liao Junhua had gathered around Wang Chao and tried to chat up with him. In an instant, Wang Chao had been elevated to the status of a superstar.

Seeing these people, Wang Chao could see that after singing, they had all been inspired by the song as well. In an instant, they had all been roused to a fighting mood that brought out their inner potential and filled them with power.

There were government officials, business owners, and even white-collared workers. Although some were benevolent and some were corrupt from taking bribes, at this moment, they were all singing together the same song without worry.

“Come, let us drink to our heart’s delight! Allow me to be informal on this day!” Liao Junhua immediately had his men take care of the matters and then follow Wang Chao with an excited expression.

Wang Chao killing Ye Xuan had not only spared him from losing any more face, but it had also prevented Ye Xuan from walking away with any more money. Even if the entire arena had been defeated by him, it wouldn’t be considered much. But what had made him most happy was the fact that Wang Chao had been able to inspire him with power.

“What do you mean by drinking? Why not let him rest?” Zhu Jia walked down and gave Liao Junhua a baleful look. Then, taking out a silk handkerchief, she began to dab away at Wang Chao’s sweaty forehead almost as if she and him were girlfriend boyfriend already.

“Y-you…you killed Ye Xuan-kun…I’ll…I’ll kill you!”

By now, Yagyu Haruko had already found herself by Ye Xuan’s side along with the other Japanese men. Each one had a stony look, but it was not one of concern.

At this moment, after Ye Xuan had shown his might and killed so many people, perhaps the people on the platform admired him, or maybe hated him, or maybe were even envious of him. For not a single one of them had looked at his body.

Now that he had died, he had forfeited all the value he had. Before he had died, those who looked at him with hatred now would have looked at him with admiration.

Life or death, success or failure, one of the two outcomes would dictate one’s worth and reality.

If a genius died, then he simply wasn’t a genius after all. Only those who could survive a journey of self-discipline could be considered to be a genius.

Yagyu Haruko’s eyes had first been sluggish, but when she lifted her head, they focused straight away onto Wang Chao.

Suddenly, she charged towards him as if she was possessed.

Yagyu Haruko was an outstanding youth from the Yagyu family and specialized in both Xingyi Fencing and Xingyiquan. Other than that, she was proficient in Tongbei, Karate, and several other disciplines. From her childhood to her current age at 26, she had fully brought out her potential to the pinnacle of the Clear Jin stage. Despite not being as talented as Ye Xuan was, when she became angry, it was still a terrifying force to fight against.

Bang bang! Two sounds rang out as the two people blocking her path was sent flying away from her kick with a resounding crash.

Yagyu Haruko’s movements had been serpentine-like. Twisting and then turning to kick two people, she drilled through the crowd for several split moments before finally reaching the center where she pounced towards Wang Chao.

“Ha!” Yagyu Haruko was similar to a ninja as she rose high into the air after slinking past the crowd. Her left had had transformed to form a claw before streaking through the air to clutch at Wang Chao’s throat.

Wang Chao’s eyes flashed once before moving a hand to block/

But no one had known that Wang Chao was not Yagyu Haruko’s target. It was a deception meant to divert away attention from her actual goal. Before their arms could even touch, she suddenly turned to grab at Zhu Jia who was standing besides Wang Chao with both arms.

Her hands transformed to form the beaks of a bird before pecking straight for Zhu Jia’s temples.

This had been an utterly fierce move, and with Zhu Jia having no training in martial arts and Wang Chao being utterly tired from his recent match, it was a very dangerous situation.

Yagyu Haruko’s pounce had calculated the fact that Wang Chao would be extremely tired from his battle. With Dai Jun on the other side, he would be unable to provide any assistance. For her life, she was determined to kill Wang Chao.

Just like why the organization had given Wang Chao such a mission, Yagyu Haruko had felt that Wang Chao was a disaster waiting to happen and had to be killed. She moved her fist once as a sign that her attacking Zhu Jia was a second layer deception. She had only wished to wait for Wang Chao to make a move to save Zhu Jia before striking at him like thunder.

“You won’t leave this place alive!”

Liao Junhua’s face had instantly froze over as he spun around. Contracting his body, his leg shot out like a dog passing water. Crack! In an instant, his leg had struck her abdomen.

“Ah!” Yagyu Haruko had no idea that Liao Junhua would be an expert as well. After being sent flying, she had flown over the heads of everyone before skidding to a stop with her being knocked out.

She couldn’t be blamed for this however. Liao Junhua had never shown his strength in public before, even Wang Chao’s source of intelligence hadn’t known about it.

“My leg has severely damaged her intestines. It seems that the Japanese martial arts world has decided to fight with ours. I’m afraid that we will not be able to rest without the death of those on their side.”

Liao Junhua sighed.