Martial Arts Master

The grove was wreathed in the early morning mist. Lou Cheng glanced at Jiang Fei, who was practicing the standing stance with his eyes closed. He rubbed his thumb and forefinger, sparking a small orange flame flickering in the bleak breeze.

Pang!

His arm shook with tight muscles and lashed out as if a whip, rending the air and sending out the sound of wind. And then the flame died out…

The flame was blown out by the airflow!

“The flame is too tiny and weak to keep steady. I have to integrate it into the attack to take the enemy unawares.” Lou Cheng confirmed a previous guess.

He named his Power of Blaze “lighter”. This was not just for fun; they shared the same characteristic. A physical move was indispensable to accelerate the internal force streaming to spark the flame, just like a flicking move necessary to catch the light.

Lou Cheng usually rubbed his fingers to spark the flame, which was obviously inappropriate in actual combat. It would be helpless unless fighting conditions were very favorable for him.

After thinking for a while, Lou Cheng intended to combine the force-launching of normal attack with the sparking of flame. He made a slight adjustment, raised his right arm, and twisted his waist to launch a downward cut with fist.

The flame burnt, covering the front surface of his fist, but went out during the downward cut because of the airflow…

Lou Cheng embarrassedly scratched his head and glanced at Jiang Fei again. He breathed a sigh of relief, realizing that Jiang Fei was concentrating on his practice and did not notice the dead flame. It was a shame to show the semi-finished skill before anyone!

Lou Cheng pondered over it, analyzing the causes of his failure. He noticed that the force was generally launched when the fist was ready to strike out. That is to say, the flame was sparked at the very beginning of throwing the punch. The problem was that the flame was still too weak to endure the blow of the airflow from the opposite direction for a long while.

“Launch the force when the fist is very close to the opponent. That’s the abrupt explosive force? It should work to combine it with the flame… ” Lou Cheng thought it over. He shook his arm and stroked it out as if a spear. It was until he launched the abrupt explosive force that he tried to speed up the streaming heat flow within his body.

Pang!

A flame burnt with a sharp crack, covering the surface of his fist to hit the target.

Although the flame wavered and then quickly died out, Lou Cheng grinned with pleasure. The goal was basically obtained!

The weak flame would not do harm to the opponent or ignite his clothes. Yet, it would still hurt and rattle the opponent to burn him with it in the very nick of time. The opponent’s fault was exactly the fighter’s opportunity!

There was chance for him to defeat the opponents of the Professional Ninth Pin again if he could manipulate the Power of Blaze well. However, the flame should be used as a last resort, because his opponents would be alert to the technique once it gave them a beating.

Lou Cheng formed some idea about how to strengthen the Power of Blaze after pondering over it for more than one day. That was to improve his physique!

He did not have the physique for the Burn Force released from the Jindan currently, which almost killed him last time. Things would be going differently if his physique was as magnificent as that of a fighter of the Professional Ninth Pin or Danqi stage. When he was able to bear the boomerang of the Jindan, he could attempt to absorb its Ice Force and Burn Force. The process of solving the hidden trouble while improving his physique was surely dangerous. He had to be very cautious not to draw forth exceeding force. It was a matter of life and death.

Bringing himself from thoughts back to the exercise, Lou Cheng practiced the 24 Blizzard Strikes several times, attempting to integrate the Power of Blaze into the abrupt explosive force. When basically grasping the skill, he looked at Jiang Fei and smiled. “How’s the practice?” he said. “Can you feel the concealment of spirit and qi?”

Jiang Fei opened his eyes and said with a devastated crying face, “Not yet!”

However, he soon pretended to be angry. “It’s all your fault! You made such noise! How can I meditate?”

“An old monk is able to meditate while the newly-wed is entering the bridal chamber next to him,” Lou Cheng teased. “Let’s have breakfast and then go home. You’ve reach your utmost limit today.”

Jiang Fei breathed a sigh of relief, “Will it take great perseverance for me to get up tomorrow because of sore muscles?”

Lou Cheng smiled. “You’ll feel sore in a while, not tomorrow morning. It’ll be fine after practicing for a few days when you adapt to the training rhythm.”

When they passed by the place where the disciples of the Gushan Martial Arts School were training, Qin Rui suddenly called out loud:

“Fatty Jiang! Lou Cheng!”

They stopped, seeing Qin Rui trotting along with a big smile. “Could you do me a favor?”

“For what? What can two poor schoolboys do for you?” Jiang Fei was quick-witted, so it was impossible to make him borrow money.

Qin Rui said with a gentle smile, “Not a big deal. You are helping to organize the class reunion, Fatty Jiang?”

“Yes, so?” Both Jiang Fei and Lou Cheng were confused about what exactly Qin Rui would request of them.

Qin Rui pointed at the members of the Gushan Martial Arts School.

“The disciples of the Mingwei Martial Arts School gave us a letter of challenge just now. They wanna learn from each other and gain combat experience, so as not to lose the face of Xiushan in the preliminaries. They set the time the day after tomorrow, and we set the place. I suggested the North Courtyard of the Conference Villa of the Spring Scenery Field in view of the class reunion that day. Could you ask the monitor to organize our classmates to come to cheer for us?”

Jiang Fei suddenly understood his intention. “You wanna push yourself forward before the classmates?”

“A little bit…” Qin Rui smiled awkwardly. “I mainly wanna advertise our team participating in the preliminaries next year. The manager of the foundation would decide the winner according to the candidates’ popularity if our scores are close. Be reassured, please. The match is in the North Courtyard. We won’t disturb the reunion in the South Courtyard.”

There was a martial arts stadium in the North Courtyard of the Conference Villa of the Spring Scenery Field while some recreation facilities in the South Courtyard.

Jiang Fei got a rough idea of Qin Rui’s intention. He did not give his promise directly. “I’ll tell the monitor about your request. But I can’t guarantee she’ll agree to it. Anyway, who will care about the monitor after graduation? I suggest that you invite the classmates to watch your match then. I guess there must be many willing to watch the match and cheer for you.”

The monitor was Qiu Hailin, the organizer of the class reunion.

“Right! Mr. Wu will be there that day. As a crazy fan of martial arts, he will definitely want to see it. Since the head teacher takes the lead, there must be many classmates following him to cheer for you,” Lou Cheng added.

Lou Cheng identified with Qin Rui’s desire for the cheering and applause. He gained his desire of hearing the audience cheering his name in the Warrior Sage Challenge Tournament. Moreover, he received an extra gift—— The first “come on” from Yan Zheke won much cheering and applause!

It seemed that Qin Rui wanted to reach out to touch them, but he managed to resist the impulse and smiled. “OK, I’ll come to invite our classmates to watch the match… Well, there’s a mistake. I’m already in the reunion and don’t need to ‘come to it’. I’ll be there… ”

After that funny line, Qin Riu said goodbye to both Lou Cheng and Jiang Fei and trotted back to the training team.

Looking at Qin Rui’s back, Jiang Fei murmured to himself, “What a narcissist…”

“Not that bad. It’s natural for anyone to do so,” Lou Cheng said in favor of Qin Rui.

After a few of steps, Jiang Fei turned around and joked along. “Cheng, how about you jumping on the ring and beating all opponents? The one in the limelight will be you. Your strength is not weaker than theirs, right? ”

“Am I crazy?” Lou Cheng said with a sneer, “Why do I meddle in their match? Their target is the preliminaries while mine is the National University Martial Arts Competitions. One does not interfere with the other’s business just like the well water does not intrude into the river water.”

Lou Cheng and Jiang Fei chatted and laughed walking out of the Park. They had braised pork noodles and other snacks at a breakfast stall.

“How will we get back?” Jiang Fei asked as he wiped his mouth.

Lou Cheng answered with a smirk. “We’ll run back!”

The face of Jiang Fei immediately turned pale. “Brother Cheng. No! Master Cheng, It’ll kill me to run another ten kilometers!”

“Don’t be such a coward. I’m only kidding.” Lou Cheng took out of his phone and booked a car online.

Jiang Fei sighed in relief. “I have to believe what you are saying. When you told me we were running to the People’s Park of Sanli Pavilion, I believed you were joking. Well , the truth was…”

…

Back home, Lou Cheng refreshed himself with a shower and felt that his cold, which was caused by the boomerang, had gone completely. He turned on the computer, logged into QQ, and checked his E-mail box to see whether Geezer Shi had sent him the videos and other materials.

Apparently, Geezer Shi did not get up early without training his disciple.

Lou Cheng did not seem to care. He clicked on Yan Zheke’s profile and sent a muscle emoji. “I feel powerful and energetic again after the morning exercise!”

Yan Zheke sent him a laughter emoji with its mouth covered by its hands. “You’re not Lou Daiyu anymore. Disappointed!”

“By the way, Coach Yan. I wanna seek some advice from you.” Lou Cheng sent a pair of piercing eyes.

“Say it! My good mood now is your chance!” Yan Zheke sent an emoji of a curling finger.

Lou Cheng replied a smirk. “You know that I got the prize of 15 thousand RMB. Apart from treating you to a nice dinner and a trip in Songcheng, I’d like to give a present to my mom and dad respectively. It’s the first present I bought for them with the money earned by myself. Some advice for the present?”

Lou Cheng tried to involve Yan Zheke in his private affairs to promote their intimacy.

Of course, he indeed did not have any idea of what to buy for his parents.

Yan Zheke sent a stunned dog emoji. “I never see your parents and have no idea what their hobbies are. How can I give you constructive advice? You’d better offer some choices and then I’ll give you some suggestions.”

Lou Cheng thought for a while. “How about clothes?”

“Not bad.” Yan Zheke sent a pondering emoji with its hands crossed under its chin. “There is a problem. Do you know your parents’ size? XL or XXL? their waist line?”

Lou Cheng seemed frozen and sent an ellipsis. “…”

“I do know… So, the daughter is more considerate than the son.” Yan Zheke sent back an emoji sighing with its palms facing up.

“Hehe, I wanna have a daughter too,” Lou Cheng followed.

They chatted for a while on the topic of son and daughter before they continued to discuss the presents for Lou Cheng’s parents. Lou Cheng asked, “How about asking my parents directly?”

“Um, no surprise at all! Are they at home? You can have a look at their wardrobe to see what kind of clothes they need. Of course, the presents are not necessarily very expensive, being overcoats and the like. You have to budget the use of your prize. When your martial arts level reaches the Danqi stage, you’ll need to spend a small fortune on the tonic medicine.” Yan Zheke advised Lou Cheng with a righteous looking emoji.

“Coach Yan is right!” Lou Cheng answered with excitement. He came to the master bedroom and opened the wardrobe.

Um… How long has the jacket been worn by dad? I remember it was there when I was a pupil…

His woolen sweater had many pills, and some parts were nearly worn out…

Mom’s thermal underwear looked very old. How long had it been worn?

Lou Cheng looked at their clothes one by one, which he had never paid attention to before. He always thought that his parents’ old clothes would be replaced by new ones after their living conditions got better, just like his had.

The truth was, as he saw, that they lived a very frugal existence, which involved just buying themselves a few suits of clothing for social activities. Yet, they were willing to spend every single coin on their son…

Most clothes in their wardrobe had be worn for many years. They grudgingly bought new clothes for themselves only if the old ones could not be sewn up again.

Lou Cheng took a deep breath while his eyes turned red. He settled down, feeling sorry for his mom and dad.

Lou Cheng kept the size and other information in mind and came back to his room. He sent a message to Yan Zheke.

“I wanna buy my dad a woolen sweater and my mom two suits of thermal underwear…”

After receiving the information of size, Yan Zheke selected several styles for him. “I think these are good. You can make a choice and buy one in the local store. It might be a little bit more expensive than buying it online. Anyway, you’re newly rich (squint action). I’ve to mention that the express delivery will resume work after the Spring Festival. How sad it is… ”

Yan Zheke went for her martial arts training after dealing with Lou Cheng’s request. Lou Cheng played an online game for a while. Suddenly, he heard the door open and heard a familiar cough.

Mom and dad came back!