Martial Arts Master

Seeing Lou Cheng like this, Li Mao couldn’t contain himself. “Junior brother Lou, there’s no need to be so nervous. Getting too nervous will affect your performance and make your movements stiff and your punches inaccurate. Of course, you need to be a little nervous during a competition. There’s a saying that we have in the business: with a small hit of adrenaline, the true fighters will reach the perfect level of ‘tense, but not panicked’. Bah, I can’t do it though. When I join any Amateur Ranking Event, I’m so nervous that my whole body shakes. Fortunately, the few opponents that I’ve run into are either too weak or more nervous than I am.”

This was a senior brother sharing his experiences! Lou Cheng looked at Li Mao with appreciation and marked it in his mind. Afterward, he took a deep breath, calmed himself, and adopted Li Mao’s fighting stance, with both his legs firmly in place and his back straight as an arrow, as if he were a wildcat waiting to pounce.

Li Mao also adopted his fighting stance and calmly said, “I’ll give you some feint training.”

When he finished speaking, he stepped up, slammed his foot down, twisted his waist, made a fist with his right hand and attacked the front of Lou Cheng’s neck. This was the simplest ‘Direct Attack on Vital Part’ style.

Seeing this, Lou Cheng subconsciously evaded and promptly ducked to the side. However, at that moment, his foot suddenly slipped and he lost his balance. There wasn’t enough time to even use the Yin-Yang Stance to regain his balance and he fell to the ground.

He didn’t know when, but Li Mao’s right foot had already caught up with him and gave him a soft kick. Not a malicious kick, but just enough to cut him off in the direction that he had tried to dodge.

“During a competition, it’s not that you shouldn’t dodge, and it’s not that you must be tough and durable, but you must pay attention to your footwork and to the opponents’ movements. Falling over yourself is a classic move. A moment ago you forgot your own identity as a fighter. That seemed like an average person dodging; your footwork became sloppy, your eyes were only on my fist.” Li Mao stretched out his right hand and pulled Lou Cheng up while referring to all of the things he had done wrong. “Think about all of that for a moment, and then we’ll continue.”

Lou Cheng pondered quietly, reflecting on the moves he had just made. Keeping in mind his shortcomings, he went on to adopt his fighting stance again.

This time, confronted by Li Mao’s power and quick footwork, Lou Cheng opened his eyes wide, paying attention to his every move.

Would it be the right fist or the left?

Kick or elbow to the back of the neck?

If it were the right fist, how can I use my feet to dodge it?

If it were the left fist, will I have an opportunity to strike back?

…

An idea flashed through Lou Cheng’s heart; he’d come up with a countermeasure. However, there wasn’t enough time to think it through, as Li Mao was already close to him. His feet came up in a circle, yet stuck close to the front of his body, and after hitting him with an elbow, retreated two steps. Even though the hits weren’t that hard, it made his stomach sink, and he felt a pain there.

In the midst of everything, he became confused and was completely at a loss. It was even worse than that from the first match, he couldn’t even dodge!

How was this possible? Lou Cheng was dumbfounded.

Li Mao turned his body and said with a smile. “Although normally we can think quite fast, in just one second there can be so many thoughts, and our body is unable to keep up with our brain. During a competition, frequently it’s the brain that can’t keep up with the body. It overthinks and hesitates too long, unable to come to a decision, to the point where it’s crippled and at a complete loss. This is the significance of training your mind, even more than training your body. To take all of your current circumstances and internalize them as instinct, you have to determine which places to observe and quickly make a decision. Junior brother Lou, there’s no need to worry. All pair exercises are like this the first time around. I originally was more pitiful than you.”

“Sometimes it’s easy to rely too much on your imagination and think that competition is elementary.” Lou Cheng laughed at himself, starting to see where his weaknesses were.

Once more, he got up and adopted a fighting stance, and Li Mao reverted to an old standby. He stepped up and threw a punch, utilizing the power all the way from his feet, past his waist, and up his back, using his backbone as a conduit.

Lou Cheng drew what he had learned from the preceding two lessons. He reached a decision and in a flash lowered his body and threw himself at Li Mao’s legs.

Suddenly, he felt a strike on his back, and Li Mao turned his fist into an open palm and pushed down.

Lou Cheng’s body was already moving forward with such force that even this gentle push was enough to send him falling to the ground like a dog eating dirt.

“Not bad. You maintained your footwork and made a decision very quickly. It’s just that you lack experience, and your ability to adapt to sudden changes is insufficient.” As Li Mao commended Lou Cheng, he again held out his hand and pulled him up.

Lou Cheng’s mood wasn’t sullen. He could see it was evident that improving oneself was a lifetime pursuit. It was important that he had to throw himself into training more intensely, over and over again. As long as he got rid of his earlier surface-level understanding and used the proper footwork and punching techniques, he could gradually become a true fighter.

…

“Class is about to end, one last time.” Li Mao could see the electric clock hanging on the wall of the Martial Arts arena.

Lou Cheng nodded, and in his mind went through everything once again, all of the previous lessons and training, seeing if there was any first strike that he could pull off.

He stood with his legs firm and focused his energy on his Jindan, half entering the Remain in One state of meditation, paying attention to his body’s subtle responses while at the same time maintaining his focus on Li Mao.

Li Mao grinned at Lou Cheng’s seriousness, and once again rushed forward.

Lou Cheng’s body pivoted, shifting his center of balance to the right side. Afterward, he abruptly reached out, tightening up his abdominal muscles into a tight strand, and once again quickly adjusted his center of gravity, changing directions to the left side.

Alternating his step, he dodged Li Mao’s fist. Then Li Mao’s right kick headed toward his left side, which left an opening.

An opportunity!

Li Mao’s right foot still had not withdrawn, and his balance wasn’t steady, this truly was an opportunity!

Lou Cheng leaned toward Li Mao, lowered his shoulder, and copying Chen Changhua from yesterday, pushed his foot forward. With the power of an ox, he shoved himself at the enemy.

Li Mao saw this and in a flurry with the help of his right foot kicked out, jumped back a step, and then using both hands in the Apparent Close Up method, blocked the move.

Bang!

Lou Cheng hit his opponent, but could only knock Li Mao back a single step. Lou Cheng was then grabbed on the shoulder by Li Mao’s palm. Stretching out his left foot, Li Mao bogged Lou Cheng down and threw him to the ground.

Bam!

Lou Cheng fell to the ground, but his face was filled with joy instead of pain, for he had performed the previous move perfectly.

“Hey now, this is the first time during sparring that a newbie nearly made a Senior Brother like me fall like a Shipwreck in a Ditch,” Li Mao grinned, coming up and offering his hand to Lou Cheng. “It’s just that you still don’t have enough power, and couldn’t break my balance.”

Lou Cheng clapped the dust off himself and said with a smile, “The main thing is that Senior Brother has used this move too much, so I was able to come up with a few ideas.”

While he had started training quite a while ago, it was evident there was always room to improve, as Brother Li Mao seemingly also had not found his way to utilize the Yin-Yang Stance technique.

“Class dismissed, everyone go home. Be sure to talk to your mothers.” At this time, Geezer Shi’s whistled sharply and yelled out, “Remember to be on time tomorrow.”

“Alright, let’s go hit the showers and head back.” Li Mao pointed at Lin Que, who had just entered the locker room.

In a Martial Arts Club, the locker room was a hallowed place. Only if you had proper qualifications, were you permitted to enter and use the facilities. Lou Cheng would not be able to enter if he hadn’t participated in the special training.

–Each kind of Martial Arts Club was set up through school funding, so regardless of whether it was the exercise area or a strength training gymnasium, they were open to all of the school’s teachers and students. The locker room was the only exception, which was kept from unauthorized persons. Of course, although the exercise area and strength training gymnasium were open to the public, they also had time restrictions, and one must try not to disturb the Martial Arts Club member’s physical training.

After the practice was over, Lou Cheng didn’t want to stay too close to Li Mao. He turned his head toward Yan Zheke, and saw that she had gotten acquainted with Guo Qing and was heading toward the locker room amusedly. Around them, quite a few male classmates stared at them like hungry lions eyeing their prey, but didn’t dare approach them.

No wonder Casanova had said when he first approached her that he’d already surpassed 80% of his rivals – 80% of them didn’t even dare make the first move and only stared from afar, playing out all kinds of dramas and emotions in their minds.

Giving Li Mao a hint, Lou Cheng quickened his pace and caught up with Yan Zheke and Guo Qing. Pretending to be out of breath he said, “Hey, what’s up? How was the practice?”

Only ten members had come to the special training. Guo Qing had seen Lou Cheng and Yan Zheke together earlier, so she just gazed at them happily instead of feeling surprised. As for Li Mao, standing behind Lou Cheng, he shook his head and sighed at the fact that men nowadays would always put women above all else, and slowly headed toward the men’s locker room not far away.

Yan Zheke pursed her lips and said with a smile. “I’m okay. You’re the one who’s not doing so well! We saw you being beaten that whole time.”

“Ah yeah, it was my first time doing pair exercise, so I got a bit flustered.” In the middle of talking, Lou Cheng suddenly frowned his eyebrows. Now that he thought about it, he could feel that his body had all kinds of aches and pains, almost certainly caused by the bumps and bruises he’d gotten during the training a moment ago.

“It certainly looks that way,” Yan Zheke said with a crooked smile. “Are you sore all over?”

“Yes.” Lou Cheng replied honestly.

“And you don’t have any ointment for those bruises?” Yan Zheke pursed her lips and said with a smile.

“Indeed I don’t.” Lou Cheng nodded in honesty.

Yan Zheke lifted her chin slightly and looked around. “I just knew you men wouldn’t remember to bring these kinds of things. You only remember them when you need them.”

“Hey, how else could we call ourselves tough guys?” Lou Cheng laughed.

Yan Zheke burst into a laugh, which highlighted her internal charm, and said, “Wait a moment, I just happen to have an extra jar of ointment, which is produced by a distinguished martial arts family. Your bruises will be gone by tomorrow.”

“Okay, cool!” Lou Cheng suddenly and unexpectedly was over the moon with joy.

Watching Yan Zheke and Guo Qing enter the women’s locker room, Lou Cheng had an urge to start singing. He proudly laughed and laughed…

Grinning from ear to ear, he suddenly felt something was off, as if there was a mysterious gaze staring at him in the surroundings.

Turning around, he realized they were the boys who didn’t dare to strike up a conversation earlier.

Hehe… only relying on cordiality would get someone so far. “In two days it might not even be worth coming to the special training…” Lou Cheng criticized them internally.

A few minutes later, Yan Zheke came out holding a dark brown glass jar and handed it to Lou Cheng. “Apply this anywhere there’s a bruise, and then rub the area for about five minutes.”

Taking the ointment, Lou Cheng deliberately and with an exaggerated tone said, “Thank you, thank you, I’m not worthy of classmate Yan Zheke’s benevolence!”

Yan Zheke waved her hand. “No need to thank me, that’ll be 30 yuan.”

“Eh?” Lou Cheng suddenly stopped, his face frozen.

Yan Zheke smiled again and her eyes lit up, “Just kidding! You’re so gullible, haha!”

Her smile was infectious, and Lou Cheng didn’t feel awkward. After a few moments of chit-chatting, they both parted ways and went back to their respective locker rooms.

The locker room was quite big. Just inside the entrance, there were three metal benches leaning against the wall. They were meant for Martial Arts Club members to relax and chat, setting up in rows for competitions, as well as a place for discussing the competition. On the corresponding wall, there were dozens of lockers. Lin Que, Chen Changhua, and amateur rank members who were undergoing special training all had their dedicated lockers. As for Lou Cheng, he had to wait to use a shelf which no one was using at the moment.

Passing through this area, you could see individual partitions, and in between each partition, there was a row of showers, each with a small shelf where you could hang your clothes and place shampoo as well as other products. On the farthest end, there were three squat toilets installed.

As the splashing sounds of the showers carried on, Lou Cheng chose a shower stall and was about to enter, but then Lin Que came from the side, scrubbing his hair as he moved forward.

Lou Cheng reflexively nodded his head to greet him. Lin Que also nodded his head slightly but said nothing.

“Lin Que doesn’t seem to be that imposing…” Lou Cheng shook his head, entered the shower, removed his clothes and turned the faucet.

Not having to go to the school’s washroom and line up… was great!

When he finished washing up, he took the jar of ointment and was unable to stop himself from smiling as he started to apply it.

…

In the evening, Lou Cheng finished classes and went back to the dormitory. After washing his face, he felt like relaxing a little. He added Cai Zongming, Qin Mo, Tang Wen, and Qiu Zhigao together in an online group and they played a fighting game together. As he lay on the bed, he again messaged Yan Zheke and chatted for a while he waited for his turn. The whole day had gone so perfectly!

In the midst of all this entertainment, his phone suddenly rang. As he took it out to look, he could see it was an unfamiliar number.

“Who’s this?” Lou Cheng answered it hesitantly.

“Hey, Lou Cheng, you should be in bed. Get ready to go to sleep.” A deep, raspy voice came through.

“Ugh… yep… it’s Geezer Shi…” Lou Cheng thought to himself. “Alright, got it.”

“Damn, even calling to monitor when I go to sleep!”

“This day just wouldn’t end!”