Martial Arts Master

“Champion!” “Champion!” “Champion!”

What began as white noise gradually became the clear chanting that created the enlightening sound torrent rolling through every corner of the arena.

As they witnessed Lou Cheng beat the No.1 seeded fighter through a bitter struggle, the audience recalled how he had systematically beaten his opponents, one by one. Almost everyone believed that he should be the winner of the Youth Championship this session. No matter what the final result was, he was the real champion, the champion in the people’s hearts.

Under this match system, the final result mostly depended on luck and result of lots drawing. However, in the previous matches he had won, showed more of the glory of martial arts!

“Champion!” “Champion!” “Champion!”

Hearing the crowd cheer with such feeling and approval, Lou Cheng had been relaxed and in a pleasant mood, but suddenly he felt anger welling up in his heart and he fumed.

Now that I have gained everyone’s approval in the Youth Tournament, what else could I ask for?

He slowed down and raised his hands to wave at the audience in all directions.

At this moment, I am the king of this arena and the king of this match!

The audience fell silent before breaking out into an even warmer cry,

“Lou Cheng!”

“Champion!”

The cheering became almost like a mantra. Yan Zheke could hear the cheers from inside the restroom, her excitement caused her eyes to shine as bright as stars.

The camera panned around the room, landing on a few beautiful girls, before coming back around and filming more of Lou Cheng and Yan Zheke suddenly had an idea. So, she then took out her phone to send her boyfriend a message.

While surrounded by the sounds of cheering under the shining sun, Lou Cheng indulged in the rush of hot blood and looked around the arena that symbolized his championship.

He would be lying if he said he didn’t want to win, especially after he had advanced to the final round!

Even if I am weaker than Han Zhifei or if I have try my best to beat Zhang Zhutong, which means I will have to consume more energy than Han Zhifei did while he fought against Liu Xunzhen, I still have a chance. I am not going to throw in the towel since I have already come so far!

To be honest, in this final battle, it would be imperative for him to confront Han Zhifei. He had been the best of the four fighters from the last session. At twenty-five years old, he had to fight Han Zhifei now because he wouldn’t get another chance if he missed this match. As the No. 2 seeded fighter, Han Zhifei also carried the expectations of others, so he too felt a lot of pressure.

As for him, he wasn’t really suffering from pressure now because he had already achieved his goal and his ranking is now even better than expected. He’d gotten more bonus points than he had expected. He even received the audience’s adoration and became the uncrowned king in this tournament. So, regardless if he won or lost the match, he wasn’t concerned with other factors. The reason why he wanted to win was only the desire within his heart.

Win or lose I feel no pressure at all.

As he had been fighting Zhang Zhutong, Lou Cheng, whose goal was to only advance to the final round, almost had this kind of feeling, but he still felt a little burden about proving that he didn’t need other attacks.

In fact, the victory didn’t mean a lot to him. Even if he lost, he would likely quit Weibo, forum, and stop talking about this match with his friends. He would then take up reading novels, playing games, watching TV series or programs for a week, or at least until the heat died down. After everything had subsided, he would again start to brush off his failure with victory after victory. However, he knew that Yan Zheke would feel guilty and it would be painful, so, frankly, he bore this pressure for his beloved.

Now, without the burden, he focused purely on the match, and on the martial arts.

As he relaxed his footsteps, Lou Cheng recalled every piece of information about Han Zhifei he remembered.

Male, twenty-five years old, and three years ago, he was a mature fighter for the Professional Eighth Pin. Two years ago, he got a certificate of the Professional Seventh Pin. He also was one of the vice hall masters of “Sage Hall”.

He grew up on the streets and also mingled among the underworld gang. Later he was lucky enough to meet a nice boss who helped him master martial arts. After he received his professional certificate, he gradually changed his bad reputation and took part in the “Sage Hall” where he mastered the “Punch with Virtual Print”. People guessed that the reason he was able to wash his Hands in a Golden Basin without incident and escape the gang was because the boss of the “Sage Hall” was one of the most powerful men of the underworld. He was very mysterious and people only knew that his nickname was “Master Ba”.

Once the “Void Imprint Fist” was mastered and was hit out, all the power in his body would go up and leave no hint regardless the Force Concentration. That was its feature. Also, this punch had the quite extraordinary force which was known as rigid and soft. It didn’t target on the enemy just like a person used this punch to attack mountains across cattle. Right, to attack mountains across cattle was like mountain collapsed while the cattle were not shocked.

Han Zhifei was still far away from the highest level of the “Void Imprint Fist”, but he had mastered some essence of it. He was good at the rigid or the soft changes of force. He also was good at attacking the tendons, vessels, and bones of his opponent invisibly, which could be regarded as the bane of directly practicing martial arts.

Although his strength had also broken through the limits of the human, he could only complete six explosions of power, not as many as Zhang Zhutong had exploded.

…

After he had thought about it, over and over again, he realized dealing with this Han Zhifei would be much more difficult.

He won’t be weaker than Zhang Zhutong by much. I am afraid that the difference between them is like the difference between one hundred and ninety. As for me, if I encounter him in my normal condition, I will probably lose the match, not to mention that I just fought with the No.1 seeded fighter just now. My spirit hasn’t recuperated and my tendons, blood vessels, and muscles are in pain which affects my attack force. However, Han Zhifei’s enemy, Liu Xunzhen, was relatively weak.

But, I still have a chance!

Yesterday, last night to be precise, Han Zhifei’s opponent was the No.3 seeded fighter, Qiushan!

He competed hard and won the match, with such force, that he might have been injured by his opponent!

Even so, the “Sage Hall” wouldn’t be able to completely restore his physical strength within the hour and a half, even if it had some good ways to eliminate fatigue, after that high-intensity battle. He wasn’t likely to recover even 80% of his physical strength.

Unfortunately, while I was trying to rest and recover I missed the battle between Han Zhifei and Liu Xunzhen, so I didn’t see if he’s wounded…

While he thought about this, Lou Cheng walked to the edge of the arena. Taking out his phone he was about to hand it over to the match supervisor.

This is when he checked his phone and saw the message from his girlfriend:

“Han Zhifei has a small wound on his left rib. When he swings with his left fist he is going to be slow. Just now, I, as your sister in martial arts, didn’t forget to watch the game and I never forgot to turn off the sound. Quickly, praise me now~”.

Lou Cheng suddenly thought about the fight where Han Zhifei had used his skills that mixed Force Concentration with the “Punch with Virtual Print” to stop the strong piercing finger force of Qiu Shan last night. He, at that time, looked like nothing was wrong, but he had still been hurt by the finger force.

The corners of his mouth turned up as he replied to Yan Zheke under the staring eyes of the audience.

“Praise Coach Yan! You are witty, cautious and beautiful!”

“Hey, yeah, yeah, look at the spoiled smile of our dear Lou Cheng. He really has a girlfriend ah! (wringing emoji)”. Eternal Nightfall, Yan Xiaoling, found out this fact with her sharp observation skills.

Brahman appeared and ridiculed her sharply, “Unfortunately, your chest is too small to hammer… ”

“Do not say that. An A-cup is also called a chest,” Okamoto’s Fan replied.

Yan Xiaoling said, in a mock rage, “That’s nonsense. Compared to my height, my figure is kind of sexy because of my chest!”

“Oh, right. Lingling is as tall and small as a primary school student, only 4 foot 9 inches in height (manual funny face emoji).” Unparalleled Dragon King also began to make fun of her.

“Wow, God, I am so mad. I’m obviously 5 feet high! How can you erase the two centimeters? Do you have any idea that how important it is!” Yan Xiaoling joked along with the rest.

For them, watching Lou Cheng advance to the final round had achieved their dreams and hopes, so they felt very relaxed and they cared nothing about the victory.

However, Yan Zheke who had stayed in the restroom typed on her phone’s keyboard and replied Lou Cheng with a “turning around proudly” emoji, “Flamboyant!”

She then saw Lou Cheng hand the phone over to the match supervisor. He then walked along the stone stage, step by step, towards the ring before he finally stood under the spotlight.

As the light shone on him, the radio announcer began the other fighter’s introduction for the final round.

“Let’s welcome the second fighter, No. 2 seeded fighter, Han Zhifei!”

“He’s already defeated so many strong enemies in this tournament, including the No.3 and No.9 seeded fighters. Now, he’s going to fight the biggest black horse in this tournament!”

As soon as the announcer spoke the words, the stands burst out into to cheers. They were shouting, “Han Zhifei.”

As a local fighter in Gao Fen and a member of the “Sage Hall”, Han Zhifei had become well-known. Because he participated in the preliminaries as a member of “Sage Hall” and a fighter who was challenging the higher level, he certainly received a lot of support in his half of the home arena.

He walked along the road and ascended the stone stage. At last, he stood in front of Lou Cheng.

They did not speak. They saw the referee as he raised his right hand, as they heard the radio shout,

“The third session of the Youth Tournament Championship Match, the final round, starts now!”

The host cried out the last word which ignited the enthusiasm of the audience. The cheering vuvuzela grew in volume.

The referee waved everyone to attention before he announced,

“The talk time starts now.”

Han Zhifei had a shallow scar on his face and his glare was not very ferocious. He smiled with a serious face,

“I was one of the first people who noticed your potential and power in this tournament.”

“Did you start paying attention to me before or after my match with Xiong Yu?” Lou Cheng asked questions of every opponent, so he naturally knew that both Han Zhifei and Xiong Yu were members of “Sage Hall”.

“Yes. I read your information and then checked the match agenda. Then I cursed, in my heart, whoever had arranged the agenda to where it was set for you and me to battle in the semi-final on the same night! Doesn’t this give a guy like you who has great stamina all the advantages?” Han Zhifei laughed and shook his head, “But, who knows, in the end, it seems that I have the advantage this time. Nothing can be predicted.”

Before Lou Cheng replied, he added, “I’m a little embarrassed, the championship seems to belong to you.”

As he talked about this, he became serious. “I am not about to let you win easily and I am not going to feel stressed out about this thing. Not just because I want to be the champion and be victorious, but also because I want to give you my most significant respect that I can give you and that is to give it my all!”

“What a coincidence! I think so too. I will not easily throw in the towel. I also will not retreat from the challenge. To make every effort to defeat you is the greatest respect I can show you!” Lou Cheng answered just as solemnly.

After they finished exchanging words, they smiled at each other. They had a tacit understanding during this competition.

During the rest of the downtime, they adjusted their state. Lou Cheng quickly came up with a fighting strategy and it was to bank on his opponent not guessing that his stamina hadn’t been completely consumed and that half of his spirit had already been recovered.

Of course, a spirit can’t be measured by data. He could only say that his head had been cleared now and his reaction time hadn’t slowed down.

In addition, because the fighters of Dan stage regarded martial arts as their foundation, as the source that emphasized the spirit and mind, the confrontation of the momentum had become very important!

As he was thinking the time flew by. The referee glanced at the clock. Once again he waved his right hand for attention,

“Begin now!”

With that, the final round began!