Martial Arts Master

The sky was still dark, and the road lamps shone quietly. Lou Cheng woke up early in the morning as usual; in fact he was even ten minutes earlier. This was because he discovered while he was attempting to take off his clothes last night that it would be tough and time consuming to put on his clothes with his right arm inconveniencing him.

Sometime later, he was finally done with his preparation and washing. He sent a message to the sound asleep Yan Zheke ‘complaining tearfully’ about the hardships of the disabled, and slowly jogged to the lake side with the relaxed feelings of someone who had washed away yesterday’s dust, the cold, refreshing that nurtured his lungs, and the silence where everyone was asleep except him. He persevered in the daily training that had become a habit in his life.

When he reached his old haunt, he saw that his master had already been waiting for him already. He hurriedly called him respectfully.

Geezer Shi nodded slightly, “Very good. A soldier doesn’t leave the front line on account of minor wounds. You must remember your perseverance today, for it is the foundation that determines how far you will travel down the path of martial arts.”

“Yes, master.” Lou Cheng answered while holding the same belief himself.

At the same time, he roasted his master inwardly: Master, it’s a bit weird that you spout such genteel words all of a sudden, you know!

Geezer Shi didn’t add anything else and instructed, “You may only practice the still stance and the routine in moving stance that doesn’t involve the arm for the next five days. This is to avoid worsening your injury further.”

Lou Cheng nodded and asked curiously, “Master, does Lin Que really need to recuperate for a whole week and practice nothing at all?”

“Of course. Do you think that my experience all these years are all for nothing? Do you think I would make an error in judgment over such a small wound?” Geezer Shi said impatiently, “This is good for him, however.”

“It is?” Lou Cheng was fully puzzled now.

Geezer Shi chuckled and said, “Lin Que is too stubborn and introverted. He is too tensed and doesn’t know how to relax. Even if he figured out the meaning of ‘withdraw’, he would not be in the right state of mind to master and complete his understanding. Coincidentally, he was injured and had no choice but to stay away from martial arts for a whole week now, so he had to relax his mind and experience life without daily training passively. Of course, he wouldn’t adapt well to idleness at the beginning, and he would feel empty and fidgety. However, he should be able to appreciate the value of ‘stillness’ after a few days. True danqi is a state where one can act or stay still, release or withdraw.”

Master had a very accurate grasp of Lin Que’s problem, I see… Lou Cheng quietly exclaimed on the inside. It truly was a lifetime’s boon for everyone in the martial arts club to be able to meet such a good coach at the final stage of their youth and the most critical moment of improvement of martial arts.

As for himself, he was the lucky one among the lucky.

While holding gratitude in his mind, he piously devoted himself into the practice of martial arts. First, he assumed the Yin-Yang Stance, Condensation Stance and other basic stances several times to remember the past and know the future. Then, he moved with strength and circulated through every movement he knew slowly, training the other parts of his body except his wounded arm.

At the end of his training, he closed his eyes and visualized the sound and image of dense thunder clouds. The visualization triggered a wriggle in his stomach and involved his throat in releasing a series of low, thunderous rumbles from his body. They acted in concert with muscles’ movements, tensing up and exploding outwards non-stop to create soft, rhythmic shockwaves, training his bones bit and bit and indirectly affect the changes inside his bone marrow. This caused his bone marrow to create blood with an even stronger life force that circulated throughout his five viscera and six bowels. They complemented with the thunderous shockwaves directed into his body and sought to improve the strength and ability of each body organ.

After the experience of delivering the ‘Thunder Roar Zen’ passively during the battle against Wei Shengtian, the still stance, visualization and set routine of this martial arts could be considered to have passed the entry phase completely. His training in this aspect was so smooth that he was like a fish in water, and while he needed to wait until his arm recovers and spend some time exploring and testing how to apply external shockwaves in actual combat, he had at least found his direction and opened the door to a new world.

The five viscera and six bowels, and his body organs were all precious treasures of the human body. They were both precise and delicate, and Lou Cheng had to control his training time precisely to avoid exceeding their limits and hurting them. In less than twenty minutes later, he stopped training and opened his eyes.

“Not bad. There’s a bit of charm in your rhythm now. Practice yourself for the next half an hour. I’ll be out enjoying my breakfast.” Geezer Shi nodded, turned away and left at his leisure.

Lou Cheng thought for a moment before he began slow jogging around the lake and performed endurance training.

After the torturous and desperate battle against Fearless Squad, he recognized keenly the importance of stamina and had consciously wanted to improve it further.

Lou Cheng had thought through this very carefully. While he had a reputation for having an abnormal or even bottomless amount of stamina, the extra energy was all provided by the Jindan. If one day the Jindan disappeared, wouldn’t he be right back where he started?

Ultimately, one should not depend on external aid for long. Only the things he had completely internalized could truly be considered his own!

Utilizing the Jindan to improve himself was the true path to follow. He must not put the cart before the horse!

After running for ten minutes. Lou Cheng suddenly saw a familiar figure. Li Mao was standing on top of the stone scenery beside the lake and looking at the light ripples on top of the lake surface.

It couldn’t be that he was too burdened with self-guilt due to excessive anxiety and was planning to drown himself, could he?

Lou Cheng was shocked, and he took a few large steps forwards toward Li Mao until he was close before shouting loudly,

“Senior brother Li Mao?”

Li Mao turned around, and not a hint of self-blame could be found on his square-shaped face at all. Li Mao said in astonishment, “Cheng, why are you here?”

After observing Li Mao for a while, Lou Cheng confirmed that he was imagining things and smiled in return, “I train around here everyday in the early morning. This is the first time you showed up here though, senior brother Li Mao, so I should be the one asking you that question, right?”

A look of realization appeared on Li Mao’s face before he mumbled to himself in a low tone, “As I thought, no one’s success had come without reason…”

While speaking, he jumped off the stone scenery and smiled with a trace of bitterness, “When I thought that I’d be climbing up the preliminaries arena as a leading player next Saturday, I can’t help but feel a little nervous. Last night I tossed and turned but wasn’t able to sleep well, and I woke up way early in the morning. I was thinking to take in some wind beside the lake and calm down my feelings.”

He cast a glance at Lou Cheng and asked curiously, “Aren’t you nervous when you go on stage?”

“Of course I’m nervous. Why won’t I be?” Lou Cheng broke into a laugh, “That being said, when I fought my first challenge tournament I was at Yanling, a place that I’m completely unfamiliar with. No one recognized me there at all, so there’s no such thing as feeling embarrassed even if I lost. When I thought that way, I naturally feel a lot less nervous. When I pre-planned my match and won my first round, I gained a bit of confidence and was able to get used to the atmosphere of a challenge tournament gradually. Now, I can control myself to be suitably tensed only.”

“As for encountering opponents that are stronger than myself – take Wei Shengtian for example – I would always tell myself one thing.”

Li Mao had been listening to him with great interest, and he blurted out, “What is it?”

“I would tell myself: what’s there to be nervous about? You should feel fortunate to be able to meet such a powerful opponent on the arena, and not the battlefield.” Lou Cheng said concisely and comprehensively in what seemed to be lamentation.

Since the Dark Sect Ninth Pin case involved other matters, and Zhang Mingle had slinked off to somewhere and hid himself, the police was in the process of investigating further into the case. Later on, Director Xing called to inform him that he would need to go on court and provide a testimony regarding the time of the incident. At the earliest the testimony would happen on May, and it might even be delayed until somewhere in between his summer break.

To avoid arousing suspicion, he hadn’t even visited Wang Xu once at the hospital until winter break was over…

Li Mao was caught off guard by his statement, and he couldn’t shake the feeling that Lou Cheng’s seemingly ordinary words hid a whole lot of meaning behind them. It wasn’t until a long while later before he inhaled and said, “I can’t help but feel that you’re more mature than I am. Sigh, this anxiety of mine has been a problem for me since a long time ago. I just can’t shake it no matter what. I’m not sure why either.”

“You don’t know why?” Lou Cheng teased him, “And here I thought you’d tell me a sorrowful tale, something like a psychological wound caused by your teacher beating your palm for screwing up your exam. You know, like how the murderers always reveal their sad and tear inducing pasts every time Conan breaks a case apart?”

Li Mao couldn’t hold back a laugh as he said, “I had given it a serious thought myself, but it really doesn’t seem to be an external problem. I’m just the kind of guy who gets nervous easily. I thought that I had overcome much of my anxiety, but as it turns not much has changed at all when I’m actually in the middle of it.”

Lou Cheng thought for a moment before saying, “Senior brother Li, you shouldn’t worry yourself over this too much. In my opinion, a chronic problem like this really can’t just go away all in a sudden. You can only change it bit by bit over one challenge tournament after the other. Plus, it’s pretty normal for you to feel extra nervous for next week’s match. There’s no need blame yourself. We are participating to hone ourselves through real combat and not for the results. When you seize the opportunity and grab a victory for yourself, you will slowly fall in love with challenge tournaments.”

“That makes some sense… so I’ve become even more nervous because I was too anxious to see an improvement immediately?” Li Mao said thoughtfully.

Something flashed across Lou Cheng’s mind, and he suddenly asked, “Senior brother Li, do you have a girlfriend?”

Why do you want to know? Li Mao cast a puzzled glance at Lou Cheng, but he answered honestly, “No, I don’t. I had a crush for my desk-mate once in high school, but unfortunately she didn’t like me and found someone else to be her boyfriend. I was never able to forget about this and walk out of the shadow. So I didn’t dare to chase after and ‘harm’ another girl.”

At this point, he sighed and said, “The reason I joined the martial arts club at the beginning was mainly to find something to pass the time and distract myself. This way, I won’t always recall the past when I’m idle. Sigh, those days are truly sorrowful, disappointing and painful.”

“When half a semester had passed and I’ve almost recovered from the loss, I then participated in martial arts lessons with the purpose of insuring my future work life just like Jiang Fusheng, Li Xiaowen and the others. Hehe, it is getting harder and harder for university students to find a job these days. I have to prepare sooner and better so I won’t land between a rock and a hard place.”

“Back then, I actually felt nothing much for the martial arts club at all. This sentiment lasted until my anxiety lost us the critical match. When I saw Lin Que, Chen Changhua and everyone else’s pained looks, and when I heard Coach Shi encourage me without any blame behind his tone at all, I finally fell in love with this place and its atmosphere. Since then, I really wanted to do a little something for the martial arts club and no longer be a burden to everyone.”

“For the past time I’ve been practicing hard because you guys have improved too quickly and greatly. I am scared that I will be left far, far behind because of a moment’s idleness and not be able to amend the mistakes I’ve made back then any longer.”

Lou Cheng could not help a sigh while he listened to Li Mao’s heartfelt words.

Senior brother Li Mao was one of the more carefree and active special training members in the club, but who knew that he held so many burdens in his heart.

When he was done speaking, Li Mao seemed to feel a lot more relaxed as he asked doubtfully, “Why did you ask if I have a girlfriend or not? Are you going to introduce me someone?”

“No.” Lou Cheng laughed in a low tone, “I was just going to say that senior brother Sun Jian’s girlfriend was watching right next to him, but he isn’t afraid of failure of embarrassment at all. You’re a damned single, who would care if you embarrassed yourself or not? There’s nothing to be nervous about!”

Li Mao instantly looked like he wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry. Lou Cheng clenched his fist and shook it slightly,

“Do your best, senior brother Li Mao!”

Before Li Mao could answer, he turned around and continued his endurance training.

Li Mao was lost in thought for a very, very long time before he finally tightened his fist and told himself,

“Do your best!”

… …

The weekend morning special training quickly passed by. After Lou Cheng and Yan Zheke had eaten lunch, they returned to their respective dormitories and took an afternoon nap to recover their spirits.

When he was about to depart, he stood at the washroom and sorted out his appearance seriously. He was very looking forward to the next date.

Although he was very pleased to be able to practice martial arts, hold hands, watch movies and enjoy delicacies with Yan Zheke, it was a human’s nature to be greedy. Plus, the fact that Yan Zheke said she needed time to get used to being in a relationship when she accepted his confession made him a little nervous. He was always hoping for their relationship to progress and become firmer than before.

I wonder if I can accomplish our first kiss today… Lou Cheng was lost in thought. He touched the chewing gum in his shirt pocket and his first gift to Yan Zheke!