Martial Arts Master

Lou Cheng was stunned upon hearing it. He tried to recall seriously about the things he’d told Fatty Jiang and discovered that indeed, he had not reminded him not to mention about his steep advancement in martial arts. He had merely asked him to forget about the fight with that bunch of thugs.

Since Fatty Jiang had “admitted his mistake,” the surrounding people burst into friendly laughter, as if they’ve finally found another entertainment other than the martial arts competition.

Forget it, I haven’t plan to conceal the fact that my martial arts level is close to the professional level anyway. Since I might enter the final for the National University Martial Arts Competitions in the future, I won’t be able to keep it a secret then as there is going to be satellite television broadcast on it. Just that it is not necessary for me to take the initiative to mention it in front of my high school classmates. If I were to meet anyone and said, “Hey, I’ve recently awakened my martial arts potential and in less than six months, not only had I obtained the strength of a professional, but I’ve also defeated two Mighty Ones that are of Ninth Pin.” That will be too flaunting and high-profile, superficial and way too embarrassing…

Damn it, isn’t this thinking same as what Fatty Jiang had just meant…

A thought flashed through Lou Cheng’s mind. He restored his calmness and was completely at ease with the stares around him. He was not preparing to do any explanation, nor intending to prove to them. He’ll just let them believe in what they wanted to believe in.

“Your feeling never seems to be accurate, Fatty Jiang… ” Qiu Hailin mocked, her eyes swept over Lou Cheng and added, “Oh, then should we call you Master Lou now?”

Cao Lele also joined in and said, “I felt so honored that I’ve actually shared the same desk with a Master for two years!”

Seeing that most of the classmates were giving more or less the same attitude towards what he’d just said, Fatty Jiang became anxious and started to argue with them. Suddenly, Lou Cheng spoke up, his expression looked very serious,

“No, you should not call me that!”

Cao Lele, Cheng Qili, Du Liyu and the others were stunned, and thought that they had probably gone over the line. Just then, Qiu Hailin subconsciously asked, “Why?”

Lou Cheng suddenly burst into laughter,

“I am not that old, address me as young swordsman! Understand? Young swordsman Lou! ”

Hahaha! Everyone burst into laughter. Jiang Fei’s body fats were trembling vigorously as he bent forward and leaned backward, laughing and said, “Damn you Cheng, you are getting funnier.”

Qiu Hailin, who was also laughing crazily, glanced at the person beside her and said, “Lele, was Cheng such a “joker” in the past?”

Since she was currently studying at Capital University, she had learned a few local slangs.

Cao Lele wiped the tears of joy from the corner of her eyes. “Even though he wasn’t an introvert at that time, but neither was he this cheerful. He’s really funny.”

The laughter lasted for a while before the disciples from Gushan Martial Arts School and Mingwei Martial Arts School had their attentions back onto the arena. Gathering together to tell tales and shoot the bull were too substandard for them!

Just then, Dai Linfeng returned from the other side of the arena, his face appeared gloomy. It was as if he had understood that he had fallen into a trap, while the chairman of the foundation, Wei Renjie, had no choice but shook his head. He whispered a few words to Old Wu who sat beside him, stood up, then made a gesture to Lou Cheng and remarked,

“Unexpectedly, there seems to be someone among us today who is versed in both studies and martial arts. Lou Cheng, come over here and let’s have a chat.”

It seemed like the remarks provided by Lou Cheng for the previous battle was heard not only by his nearby classmates, but also by some of the disciples from the two schools who were trained to have accurate hearing skill and sharp eyesight, as well as by the school owners who were of Professional Ninth Pin. Due to the noisy environment, Wei Renjie had not noticed. However, he did manage to overhear Fatty Jiang’s conversation in that loud voice, which sparked his curiosity, thus he asked Old Wu about Lou Cheng’s name, school and other information in details.

The moment Wei Renjie’s words were out, there were about two to three hundreds of pairs of eyes looking at Lou Cheng, making him the focus of the stadium. Qiu Hailin, Cao Lele, Du Liyu and the others had strange looks on their faces while concealing their concerns. They were worried that Wei Renjie would take their big talks and nonsensical jokes for real by treating Lou Cheng as an expert, ending up making a joke of themselves and caused them problems. Whereas for Tao Xiaofei and the disciples from the two schools looked as if they were taking pleasure from the situation. Who asked them to talk big? Now it’s time for them to suffer from the consequences.

The disciple from Mingwei Martial Arts School, Yao Kang, who was always on the phone, found the situation interesting and spoke to someone about it on QQ for fun.

Lou Cheng deliberately “glared” at Jiang Fei before leaving his seat and walked towards the first row. He didn’t have the slightest fear towards the chairman of the foundation, nor was he in awe of him.

Since he had yet stepped into the society, high positions such as officers and leaders were unfamiliar and fuzzy to him. He felt that it was reasonable for him to be afraid of people such as the counselors, lecturers, professors, principal, his martial arts master, and be in awe of the Mighty ones in martial arts. As for other people, as long as he didn’t need their help, he believed that there was no need for him to be afraid of them, for newborn calves were never fear of tigers!

“Nice to meet you, Chairman.” He greeted politely.

Wei Renjie pointed at Old Wu and Teacher Xin, chortled and said, “The two teachers were praising you just now, saying that you were very hardworking and had put in a lot of effort to obtain great results although you were falling behind everyone in the beginning. Hence you got into Songcheng University. Not bad, God helps those who help themselves. During my time when I tried to enter Xiushan No.1 Middle School from a rural junior high school, I was also lagging behind the world. While other students had six years of foreign language education, I had only three years. Other students had already started studying on senior high school’s syllabus, yet I had difficulties in understanding any of them. However, I believe as long as one is willing to push oneself, work hard, and with the right method, one would be able to succeed as well.”

Without waiting for Lou Cheng’s response, Wei Renjie gave up a seat to him, gestured him to sit down, and casually added, “Heard that you’ve joined the Songcheng University Martial Arts Club, what’s your level now?”

Lou Cheng thought for a while before answering “factually”, “I’ve only trained for a semester.”

Yeah, just for a semester. As for what’s my outcome, that’s a separate matter!

Meanwhile, the referee announced the beginning of the second match. The winner of the previous match, Zhou Zhengyao from Mingwei Martial Arts School, continued with the battle. His opponent was another one of Amateur First Pin from Gushan Martial Arts School, Kong Feiyue.

Wei Renjie asked as he was watching the match, “How are you feeling after training for a semester? Do you participate in real combat often?”

He already knew from Old Wu that Lou Cheng was a newbie in martial arts, and doubted that training for only a semester could bring him far. He understood that the students were just talking big and shooting the bull just now. The reason why he had invited Lou Cheng to come over was mainly to ask him about other matters.

“Our coach was specially invited by our principal. He was a Mighty Ones and was said to be physically invulnerable in the past. He is very professional in his teaching, for example, the Still Stance, he managed to let us understand the essence of it through jokes. As for real combats, I definitely don’t have much experience,” answered Lou Cheng honestly.

Upon hearing that the coach for Songcheng University Martial Arts Club was a Mighty Ones who used to be physically invulnerable, Wei Renjie seemed very interested. He grinned and commented, “Student Lou Cheng, could you share with me in details about how your coach usually arranged your training sessions and prepared you all for actual combat before joining the University Martial Arts Competitions? I was thinking years after the leadership and chief commander for the preliminaries are confirmed, we’ll organize a mass training and actual combat practice to prepare for the next preliminaries. Thus I would like to consult you about the training experience in Songcheng University Martial Arts Club. Let’s take this opportunity to interact and share ideas.”

Seeing that his attitude was pleasant, Lou Cheng arranged his thoughts before answering,

“We normally need to attend classes, so we would only train from 8 a.m. to noon every day. However, according to our coach, the training can at most extend by another two to three hours, or we will easily injure ourselves should we continue to train when we are exhausted.”

He continued, “Every time during our training, we’ll practice in this order: Still Stance, Moving Stance, strength training at the gymnasium, footwork practice, fighting tactics training, then pair work drilling and practice.”

“As for actual combat, before participating in the District University Martial Arts Competitions, the leading player, and the substitute will compete in a real combat under our coach’s supervision. Usually, he will also allow us to participate in some nearby challenge tournaments for more experiences,” added Lou Cheng.

…

Wei Renjie listened attentively and requested his secretary to note down certain details at times. After Lou Cheng was done, he said, “Not bad not bad, it’s worth to learn from Songcheng University Martial Arts Club experience.”

He then pinpointed on certain areas to ask. Lou Cheng would factually answer what he knew, and would honestly confess should he be unclear about some areas, not making up any stories in his response. By the time they finished discussing on this topic, the match on stage had also ended. After a round of fierce battle, Zhou Zhengyao had defeated Kong Feiyue, but since Zhou Zhengyao had consecutively fought for two matches, he was exhausted and initiated to quit from the contest.

In the third match, Shen Jinsong from Mingwei Martial Arts School versus Qin Rui from Gushan Martial Arts School. The former was of Amateur First Pin, while the latter was of Amateur Second Pin.

“Good luck, Qin Rui!” Under Qiu Hailin’s lead, the students of Class 4 shouted and cheered loudly, which enabled Wei Renjie to keep in mind of this name directly, yet caused Qin Rui to slightly tremble with fear in the arena.

“He’d advanced pretty fast as well… ” Lou Cheng thought to himself as he cheered for his classmate.

At the beginning of the second semester of the third year in high school, Qin Rui had just passed the ranking event and obtained Amateur Fourth Pin. Yet in less than 11 months, he had advanced by two Pin. This proved that he was indeed talented and hardworking. In addition, he was big and strong, where he had an advantage in the Amateur ranking.

After a fierce battle, Shen Jinsong, who was at a disadvantage regarding body size, had merely defeated the 1.9 meters tall Qin Rui. This outcome had disappointed Lou Cheng and other classmates, since they were Qin Rui’s close friends.

After losing three matches, the people from Gushan Martial Arts School were very upset. The potential of both schools should be on par, but when things went wrong for their leading player, Dai Linfeng, it was only natural for them to suffer from a complete loss. Nevertheless, they still had to gather in front of Wei Renjie with the people from Mingwei Martial Arts School to accept the outcome.

After a long and magnificent speech, Wei Renjie took a glance at Lou Cheng who was beside him. A smile suddenly crossed his face. He pointed at Zhou Zhengyao from Mingwei Martial Arts School and said,

“My friend, Zhou, you had indeed cut a dash today. Here with me is a student who is versed in both studies and martial arts, but it seems like he is lack of actual combat practices. Since the referee is still here, how about you provide him with some guidance?”

He was very satisfied with Lou Cheng’s honest answers to his questions previously, thus was hoping to help him gain some actual combat experience.

“Er… ” Lou Cheng found this funny yet upsetting. “Am I even lack of such useless battle experience?”

Just then, Jiang Fei, who was behind them, started to cheer him on. He was very confident in Lou Cheng, after all Cheng would not lie. Since he said that he had the strength of Amateur First or Second Pin, it must be true. Even if he couldn’t defeat Zhou Zhengyao, a battle with him could let the classmates acknowledge “Super Cheng’s” power!

On the other hand, Tao Xiaofei and the others started to heckle as they were hoping to watch a “good show” from the battle.

Zhou Zhengyao thought it was absurd and couldn’t hide his laughter, yet he couldn’t disrespect Wei Renjie’s decision. He walked towards Lou Cheng, extended his hand and introduced himself, “I’m Zhou Zhengyao, and how do I address you?”

“I’m Lou Cheng.” Since things had come to this situation, Lou Cheng had nothing more to worry about. He will fight this battle.

Anyway it would be difficult for Wang Xu’s enemy to suspect him, since the both of them hadn’t contacted each other for more than three years. Even if they knew that his martial arts was good, chances for them to relate Wang Xu with him were low, as there were way too many people who were more suspicious than himself!

After the handshake, Zhou Zhengyao pointed towards to arena and said gentlemanly,

“You first.”

Seeing the two of them walking towards the arena, the disciple who kept playing his phone, Yao Kang, from Mingwei Martial Arts School saw the reply from his online friend, “Perhaps that guy is really an expert?”

“An expert?” Yao Kang smelt a rat and conveniently opened his browser, went to the web search engine and typed “Lou Cheng”.

After a click, the search result appeared. He gasped all of a sudden, because there was “Lou Cheng” private forum in the search result!

“Don’t tell me that’s him?” Yao Kang clicked in and saw the two IDs, “Eternal Nightfall” and “Brahman”, all over the forum. Under the forum title, there was an eye-catching photo, which showed exactly that guy!

As Yao Kang’s face started to turn green slightly, he then discovered a video in one of the posts. He immediately clicked in and chose to view it.

Lou Cheng VS Ye Youting

While watching the video, his face turned pale and he started to perspire heavily in the cold winter. Without thinking much, he shouted,

“Senior Zhou, don’t compete!”

All of a sudden, everyone kept silent as they stared blankly at him in astonishment, as if they were all looking at a lunatic.