Martial Arts Master

The sky was foggy, and the sun itself looked a little cold today. Songcheng University Martial Arts Club was heading towards a bus parked at the side of the road with Geezer Shi in the lead. Lou Cheng carried his luggage and dragged Yan Zheke’s little luggage with his left hand. His right hand was clasped with the girl’s hand, warming her tender palm. They walked at the end of the line and whispered sweet nothings to each other, discussing today’s fighting style.

The bus driver opened the driver’s door and welcomed them passionately.

“You are Songcheng University Martial Arts Club, right? Are you Coach Shi? I’m Cui, the guy who had you a call just now. I’m responsible for sending you guys over to the arena.”

Geezer Shi brought up his call log and gave him a look. After confirming their identities, he let out a soft laugh and said, “Yimo organized themselves pretty well I see. I old man thought we’d have to hitch a lift ourselves.”

The outcome was also the puzzlement and pleasant surprise for Lou Cheng and the others. They did not think that there would be specialized welcoming personnel at the station!

The driver said full of smiles, “You give too much praise, Coach Shi. This’s a grand occasion for the martial arts world of Yimo. We finally see hope to get out of the divisions of the preliminaries, so everyone is pretty passionate today. The government has purposely sent people over to coordinate and organize things.”

“That’s true… You Yimo folks have an incredibly rich atmosphere in martial arts, and if we are to speak of overall strength, you have the hope to fight for the top eight spot of the final stage of the preliminaries. The only problem you have is that, tsk, there are too many martial arts school and family inherited martial arts. No one is willing to submit to the other, and so they could only participate as separate entities in the competitions.” Geezer Shi did know a little something about Yimo.

The driver nodded vigorously and said, “You are too right, Coach Shi! If Invincible Wei hadn’t shown up to start the organization; challenging one martial arts school after another and taking down those seniors and reputable fighters, we Yimo would still be as scattered as a sheet of loose sand. Sigh, even then, ‘Fearless Squad’ had only gathered at best fifty to sixty percent of talent in one place. If our entire martial arts world were to work together, we would have at least 2 experts of Dan stages and 5 or 6 ones of Professional Ninth Pin!”

“Invincible Wei?” beside Geezer Shi, Sun Jian asked in surprise and curiosity.

The driver chuckled and said, “Wei Shengtian had always been pretty famous here local wise. He won all of his battles as the challenger too, so it could be said that he no longer had a match in the entire Yimo. Therefore, we gave him the nickname ‘Invincible Wei.’ Do excuse us. Alright, please get up the bus quickly. It’s pretty cold outside.”

Invincible Wei… while listening to this title, Lou Cheng was suddenly overwhelmed by emotions and yearned to have himself a title like this too.

Yimo governed over three regions and seven counties. Their total population was over five million, and their folkways were leaned towards the intrepid. They had many martial arts school and inheritance too. The mere thought that there was a man who could beat every local fighter in Yimo without a loss and was called Invincible amidst five million people was both fascinating and heroic-sounding.

Plus, I have a small goal of my own. I’d join forces with Lin Que and take down this ‘Invincible Wei’!

This place feels almost the same as us Xiushan. There should be a secret government organization there too.” Yan Zheke moved her mouth beside Lou Cheng’s ear and whispered in a small voice. She was also walking along the corridor to the back row.

Lou Cheng felt an itch in his heart as he felt the girl’s breath brushing past his ear. Therefore, he pressed closer to Yan Zheke to whisper, “You are right, Coach Yan! However, our martial arts atmosphere in Xiushan is incomparable to Yimo’s, and our fighters’ strength is behind theirs too. We are more obedient and respectful to the government…”

While breathing, he noticed that Yan Zheke’s cute and delicate ear slowly turning red and a little translucent. It was incredibly attractive.

“Don’t come so near to my ear!” Yan Zheke gave him a soft pound before dashing into the seat beside the window.

Lou Cheng sniggered to himself on the inside and took the seat beside the girl for himself without any hesitation at all. He ignored Guo Qing’s ‘aggrieved’ gaze at him.

This time, only the leading players and substitutes who participated in the preliminaries had come on this ‘expedition’ to beat Yimo. The only other special training member who followed them was Li Xiaowen, who was responsible for logistics. Since the school did not allow for reimbursement of transport fare, and this match was obviously one without hope for ultimate victory, Cai Zongming and the others could not be bothered to be on the move constantly and thus, chose to stay at school.

Yan Zheke suddenly let out a soft laugh after she was seated and glanced at Geezer Shi in front of them. Then, she lowered her head and spoke with a voice as soft as a mosquito’s, “Speaking of which, to this day we didn’t know what Coach Shi’s full name is. We just keep calling him Coach Shi.”

“Eh?” Lou Cheng inhaled a cold breath at her words. “She’s right!”

Half a year had passed, and yet he, the direct disciple still knew nothing about his own master’s full name. He was a little too inattentive, wasn’t he?

He repented his sin seriously for a moment before deciding to fetch his master’s ticket for him when they were on the return journey. He would take a peek at his identity card!

This wasn’t something that he could ask directly. If his master retorted with “I can’t believe you still didn’t know!”, and then he would have to find a hole to hide himself in!

It was at this moment the bus started its engine, and the driver spoke up with a chuckle, “In reality, I have another reason to welcome you today. If you guys try to head in yourself, not only will you not be able to enter the arena probably, you may be put in danger too.”

“Can’t enter the arena? May be put in danger?” Lou Cheng and the others looked at each other in puzzlement. Geezer Shi was the only experienced person who knew about this and was thus not surprised. He took out his little wine pot and happily began to drink.

“Why can’t we go in ourselves?” Guo Qing asked in a loud voice.

The driver chuckled. “You’ll understand later.”

This wait was twenty minutes long. When the bus arrived outside Yimo City martial arts arena, Lou Cheng saw huge groups of people outside the building. Some were holding little trumpets and blowing it cheerfully, causing the sound to resound throughout the area. Some were hitting the steel fence and other objects nearby, causing a rhythmic pounding sound, looking like they had a lot of excess energy… even at a glance there looked to be several thousands of people outside!

When there were more than ten thousand people at one place, they would look like their numbers were endless. The several thousands of people at the empty space outside the martial arts arena were giving the students of Songcheng University Martial Arts Club a similar feeling. They had all subconsciously held their breaths inside.

Once the crowd awaiting entry noticed the bus driving towards the side entrance, they immediately understood that it was the challenger Songcheng University Martial Arts Club. In an instant, countless audiences rushed over and surrounded the two sides of the bus, leaving behind only a narrow passage in between them. This caused the bus to trod forwards at a snail’s pace.

Many faces were pressed next to the bus’s windows and they opened their mouths and shouted,

“Get out of here!”

“Get out of here!”

“Get out of here, you leech from Songcheng!”

“Get out of here, your hairless brats!”

The voices penetrated the windows and deafened the ears. Countless mouths opened and closed, revealing the red tongues and white teeth inside. The sight had intimidated Sun Jian, Li Mao and the others who hadn’t experienced too much of the world. Facing with the sudden change, they felt as if they were in an apocalypse where they could only rely on the fragile bus to resist against countless zombies. They felt as if their little ‘boat’ would capsize at any moment and result in them becoming ‘devoured.’

“Idiot, believe it or not, we’ll end you!”

“Clench your butt and get out of here!”

The crowd grew more and more numerous, and the waves of shouts and swearings rose and subsided like waves. Some people were doing it in great delight, while some people were doing it to vent the emotions they normally kept repressed inside their hearts to the point where even their faces had become distorted. They looked scary enough to scare a child to tears.

It was completely silent inside the car. Everyone including Lou Cheng was a little frightened by this. This was something they had never experienced before, and they had the feeling that the people outside would turn into zombies over one brief argument.

Suddenly, someone rushed beside the slow moving bus and slapped the window intensely with both hands. The window he chose was none other than the one beside Yan Zheke’s face!

Thump! Thump! Thump!

The sound of rattling glass frightened Yan Zheke so much that she shrank backward and broke out of her trance. She let out a soft cry. The moment Lou Cheng saw this, he forgot his fear and squeezed his way beside the window. He blocked the sight and stood protectively before the girl behind him, staring bravely and firmly right at the man hitting the window. He was poised to attack at any moment.

The man slapping the window was startled by the icy gaze staring at him, and for some reason, he lost a part of his courage. And so he lifted two thumbs instead and turned them down in a scornful gesture.

Lou Cheng was unmoved as he stood guard beside the window. He stretched his left hand back and gripped Yan Zheke’s soft arm, feeling her heartbeat slowly returning to the norm.

A long while later, the bus finally reached the side entrance. The security guards rushed over and isolated them from the crowd, escorting Songcheng University Martial Arts Club’s people down the bus and straight to the locker room.

It was only then Li Mao and the others recovered and said with lingering fear,

“It’s just a preliminary match. Isn’t that going a little overboard…”

Hongluo Martial Arts School’s home atmosphere was practically kindergarten kids playing house as compared to Yimo’s.

The bus driver who accompanied them to the outside of the locker room smiled and said,

“Didn’t I tell you earlier? This’s a grand occasion for us Yimo martial arts world!”

Lou Cheng and Yan Zheke glanced into each other’s eyes once, feeling both a tinge of sweetness and relief at the same time.

Different away-game venue styles truly were so different from one another!

…

Yimo martial arts enthusiasts who failed to purchase a ticket all turned on their televisions on time and watched its live broadcast.

The host said full of smiles, “I’d like to thank the reporters at the front who delivered this scene back to us. It had my blood pumping just now. Yimo’s martial arts atmosphere really is pretty good, and everyone is so filled with passion towards the preliminaries this time.”

“Alright. We’ve invited a heavyweight guest caster today, and he shall complete the televised and internet live broadcast of this match with us. He’s none other than the famous martial arts commentator, He Xiaowei!”

He Xiaowei’s body was round like a Maitreya, and he had a thick beard beneath his chin. Not only did he not look scary, he even looked a little cute too.

“A good day to everyone who’s receiving this live broadcast. I’m your old friend, He Xiaowei.” He made a bow first before walking beside the host and sitting down.

“Xiaowei, what do you think about today’s match?” the host said smilingly.

For this preliminaries, Yimo City had allocated sufficient resources to invite even the nation-famous commentator to their city.

He Xiaowei chuckled.

“What could I think? A stomp of course, this’s just a stomp!”

“I don’t know if Qiu Yang could participate in the match later, but if he could then this match is 200% a stomp! Even if he couldn’t, with Wei Shengtian and Dong Yi around victory is practically in the bag already!”

“There’s absolutely no way to turn around a match like this. I refuse to believe that Songcheng University Martial Arts Club could turn this around!”

…

The referee walked up the stage as time pushed forwards and was about to hit 2:30 p.m. Meanwhile, the crowd had all entered the arena already and taking up rows of seat. The vast crowd numbered over ten thousand.

When they saw the referee arriving, the crowd at one side of the spectator’s grandstand immediately shouted in an organized fashion,

“Yimo!”

The crowd on another spectator’s grandstand shouted loudly in unison,

“Invincible Wei!”

Yimo the Invincible Wei!

…

Inside the away team’s locker room, Lou Cheng and the others were startled and awakened by the passionate shouts.

Inside the home team’s locker room, Dong Yi wrapped white bandages around his wrist while sighing ruefully at Wei Shengtian.

“What an enviable treatment.”

“Brother Dong, as long as you work hard and ascend to Dan stage, there’ll be such a day for you too.” Wei Shengtian half closed his eyes and enjoyed the roars supporting him.

Dong Yi shook his head and smiled bitterly. “With you at the front, when will my turn ever come?”

He came to a pause after saying this before letting out a sigh, saying,

“That, you’ll eventually leave this little circle in Yimo someday.”

Wei Shengtian did not answer him. He inhaled deeply and said,

“Today, I’ll take vanguard and give them no delusions of victory.”

…

“You heard that? Are you envious? Are you afraid?” Geezer Shi glanced across the room once calmly.

Sun Jian could not help but said, “An atmosphere like this could practically kill someone.”

“Unfortunately, your strengths aren’t sufficient just yet. Otherwise, if you could beat their fighters in such an atmosphere, and if you could beat them so hard that the entire arena falls silent and stifle all of their shouts behind their mouths, now that, it is what I call pleasure.” Geezer Shi chuckled. “Improve faster. I’ll be waiting for this day!”

His words made Lou Cheng and everyone else feel incredibly pumped. The mere imagination of such a scene caused their bodies to become filled with shiver and desires.

It was at this moment Geezer Shi looked at Lin Que and smiled faintly.

“We’re the weaker team, so we must do our best from the very beginning. Fight to win one or two matches and make us look good. You’re the captain, so you’ll head up first.”

“You may meet Wei Shengtian directly at his best condition. Are you afraid?”

Lin Que abruptly looked up and stared straight into Geezer Shi’s eyes. His hands subconsciously tightened.

“I’m not afraid!”