Martial Arts Master

The live broadcast by Songcheng television station cut its scene to both sides of Songcheng University martial arts arena spectators’ stands. The stands were already filled with many people, and most of them were young and bubbly teenagers.

“There’re so many people!” The commentator-aka-host, Fang Juexiao, could not help but exclaim. “Listen, listen to the cheer, and listen to crowd movements. In what way does this look like a low-level preliminary? Even if you said this is a North-South district contest, I believe that the television audience would have believed in you!”

His partner, who was also the guest invited for this tournament, was a 38 years old Dan stage Mighty One. He grinned and said, “I’ve always heard that Songcheng University Martial Arts Club looks average, but today I’m here, I feel that they look really good. It’s just that there aren’t many seats for them, as compared to our home team.”

He’s Songcheng “lifetime” club member, a leading player substitute for the North-South district contest as well as in the Preparation Game. He was a Professional Seventh Pin fighter. Due to his friendly characteristic as well as his cheerful attitude, he was popular with the local district and was often invited as a guest by the television station.

Fang Juexiao flipped through the documents in his hands as he looked in front and commented, “Old Gan, the rumor you heard was right actually, just that it was kinda outdated. Indeed, Songcheng University Martial Arts Club at the district contest of National University Martial Arts Games was a loser a few years back. They were being eliminated every time and soon their popularity plunged. Having hundreds of students attend to watch their official tournament was good enough. Last year, Lin Que joined them and they spent quite an effort to promote their club. Moreover, they’ve consecutively gotten victories after that, so they finally managed to get back some popularity. In the end…”

He paused. As if a book critic, he lightly patted the table, shook his head and said, “In the end, they still failed to charge through the group match stage. At that moment I was thinking, that’s it. For Songcheng University to return its popularity in the martial arts circle, they require at least three years. Who knows Lou Cheng pops out of nowhere this year. Not only is he a talented player, can react fast to last minute’s changes, he knows how to create big news as well. I heard that previously he managed to rescue a student who jumped from the building and created a big woo-ha in school. The news was even printed on the third edition of Songcheng City Newspaper, and published on portals.”

“If that’s the case, won’t Songcheng students be curious? They’ll want to go to the tournament to take a look at how Lou Cheng looks like and how’re his martial arts skills. Furthermore, the Martial Arts Club this year has succeeded in charging through the group match stages and even made Fearless Squad become their defeated opponent. With all these factors, their popularity will be back in no time!”

Gan Le cooperated and added,

“Like what the old saying says: It’s easy to break a chopstick, but they become unbreakable when we put all of them together. With Lou Cheng, Lin Que would no longer be alone. I’ve watched their battle videos previously and I’m really going to say this. I wonder where Coach Shi from Songcheng University found Lou Cheng. Such talent is not easy to find!”

“Furthermore, he and Lin Que are still in their freshman year. Perhaps next year, or the year after next, the difficulty of the preliminaries in Songcheng City division will only depend on one factor, which is whether Songcheng University Martial Arts Club is participating in them.”

“Isn’t that exaggerating?” Fang Juexiao enjoyed this type of conversation topic. Having different views on the topic only made it more interesting!

“I’ve discussed with the members of my club and all of them agreed in unison that Lin Que had reached the threshold for Dan stage. It’s very likely that he’ll go up a level by this year. As for Lou Cheng, as long as he built a solid foundation, leveling up will certainly not be difficult for him, earliest by next year or latest by the year after next. By then, Songcheng Martial Arts Club will have this two Dan stage fighters lead the team. Not to forget that there may be another one to two Professional Ninth Pin fights emerging from the team. By then, won’t they be a hot topic for advancing in the martial arts circle?” Gan Le beamed and said.

Yan Xiaoling, who was currently watching the live broadcast online, typed rapidly on the keyboard and sent a post to the forum,

“Hey, what a shameless commentator we have today. I’m embarrassed at how he kept praising our Lou Cheng and Songcheng University Martial Arts Club. However, I’m going to say this. Please continue, and don’t stop!”

“How about this year? Old Gan, how far do you think Songcheng University Martial Arts Club could go?” Fang Juexiao tried to steer back the topic, in case they’ve strayed and gone out of line.

This was how a well-trained professional host should do.

Gan Le smiled and said, “Well, I dare not guarantee anything, in case I offended anyone and get beaten up. I’d only say, after today’s victory, as long as Songcheng Martial Arts Club don’t stray away from their goal, being the first group to advance will be no problem. After they advanced, it’d depend on their luck in the polling. Honestly, if they were to face with a perfect ‘Fearless Squad” again, they might not win. Sure, they do have players who’re stronger than the members from Fearless Squad, but they have players who’re on par as well.”

“Haha, Old Gan, you’re really a very experienced guest!” Fang Juexiao teased before adding, “That would also mean that for today’s matches, there’ll be at least one team who’s advancing and if the team did really well, they’d immediately obtain 250,000 Chinese yuan from the broadcast revenue as an award. For a martial arts club, that’s considered as profit!”

The eight advancing team would each obtain 250,000 Chinese yuan from the broadcast, and with each advance, they would obtain more. Getting into the top four would give them 350,000 Chinese yuan including a skill on mediation visualizing stance, and getting into the finals would give them 500,000 Chinese yuan including a martial arts skill. The champion would be awarded additional 600,000 Chinese yuan and a Dan stage unique skill paired with visualizing.

Gan Le silently “shot back”.

“If the team just get into the Top Eight, they’ll not profit much.”

“Why?” Fang Juexiao somewhat knew the reason, but he asked in order to satisfy the curiosity of the audience. He then added, “Take the Azure Dragon Squad for instance. They’re formed by four Professional Ninth Pin fighters from four different martial arts schools. They’re paid monthly for a fixed amount, but that can’t be included in the amount received in the preliminaries?”

Gan Le, who was an experienced fighter, revealed the true answer,

“Certainly not. That’s the remuneration for teaching the members and protecting the martial arts school. Since they’ve already participated in the preliminaries, who do they claim for their medical fees? To participate, they need to protect their bodies, who are they going to claim the loss of being unable to fight in other small tournaments? Moreover, martial arts tournaments are somewhat dangerous, so they’ll need to pay insurance for each match. I’m sure for every match they won, they got to pay the insurance company some amount? If you count in all these expenses, the Azure Dragon Squad would already need to spend minimum another 100,000 Chinese yuan for three months of small teams’ tournaments!”

“When you’ve advanced and obtained part of the broadcast revenue, how can you not distribute them to your members as a reward? As a rule, they’ll need to distribute half of the 250,000 Chinese yuan. The remaining half will be used to pay off the cost. It’s really hard to say that they’ve earned any profit.”

“Haiz, it’s due to the popularity of the internet news that the television station started to get generous in giving such cash reward. In the past, one would only get profit from division advancing.”

Fang Juexiao agreed with a nod and said,

“Thank Master Gan for helping us to reveal the mystery beneath it. However, the situation of each group competition is different. Some used 100,000 Chinese yuan to buy three months of advertising, some used the same amount to get rare real combat experience, whereas some volunteered for it without taking a single cent since they don’t have many expenses. Yup, I’m saying Songcheng University Martial Arts Club!”

“Okay, the tournament is about to begin. Let’s have our attention back onto the arena. Regarding the unique competition format, Master Gan and I have said a lot on it, so I’ll no longer elaborate. However, I got to emphasize this. Martial Arts Spirit is about displaying your best qualities, and defeating the strongest opponent!”

“Eh, I saw the referee went on the ring. Guess the 250,000 Chinese yuan worth of match is starting soon!”

…

“Ah? We get money for advancing?” Lou Cheng was shocked upon hearing it and asked Sun Jian who sat beside him.

He didn’t think that battling in preliminaries would earn him money!

Sun Jian lowered his voice and said,

“I heard from the school uncle that if we can advance and get the broadcast fee, the biggest share would be spent on the Martial Arts Club. For instance, if you won 250,000 Chinese yuan, the plan is that the school gets 100,000 Chinese yuan for daily management and maintenance. The coach gets 50,000 Chinese yuan as a reward. Lin Que and you are professional rank fighters, so each get 20,000 Chinese yuan. The substitutes like Li Mao, Yan Zheke, Hua and me, erm, yup I’m a substitute, will each get 10,000 Chinese yuan. Guo Qing will get 5,000 Chinese yuan. Li Xiaowen gets 2,000 Chinese yuan. Specially trained members like Jiang Fusheng, Wu Meng and Cai Zongming gets a thousand each. The remaining will go into Martial Arts Club treasury money, so that we’ll not need to claim from school for any celebration or meals.”

As an Amateur Third Pin fighter, it was likely that Lin Hua can go on stage today.

“20,000 Chinese yuan?” Lou Cheng gasped.

He was still worrying about the money for summer break training for Dan stage and the dating expenses. Never did he expect 20,000 Chinese yuan would fall from the sky!

Even though he still had a personal saving of 12,000 Chinese yuan, but summer break was still a long way to go and there were be many dates in between, who knew how much it would be left by then? This was especially when he was planning to go on a fun trip with Yan Zheke during the weekends!

As for his torn martial arts shoes and daily medicine, Yan Zheke had silently settled them for him. Though when going on dates, Yan Zheke would not always ask him to treat just because he’s the guy and would initiate to pay for her own share. In other aspects, she would nag at him to be thrifty, for she couldn’t bear for him to spend so much.

Cai Zongming happened to discover this matter one day and he agreed to it. He said that if only one party was giving, then this relationship wouldn’t last long. Both parties must know when to give and when to receive, so that they would treasure this relationship.

“20,000 Chinese yuan…” Lou Cheng did not look at himself in the mirror, but he knew his eyes were gleaming with joy.

Previously in the preliminaries, he used his thirst for victory to motivate him to battle. Yet now, in his eyes, Azure Dragon Squad were the people that would help him to earn money and to give him a bright future in advancing to Dan stage. They were ones that could benefit his relationship with Yan Zheke and himself!

Moreover, Azure Dragon Squad had somewhat offended him a little. Due to their special request on the tournament rules, Yan Zheke had requested Lin Hua and Sun Jian to guide her on the things to take note in group attacking yesterday afternoon, which meant no dating this week!

Azure Dragon Squad was the evilest devil of all!

Fight!

We must fight them!

Win!

We must win!

He could feel warm breath coming out of his nostrils as he purposely raised his animosity towards them to the peak. There was no need for any teammate or Coach Shi to agitate him!

Great, I’ve just mastered “Frozen River Diagram” today!

This time, Geezer Shi clapped his hands to wake Yan Zheke and the others up from their mediation. He grinned and said,

“Today the players who’ll be battling are Lin Que, Lou Cheng, Sun Jian, Li Mao, Yan Zheke and Lin Hua!”

Six against three!

…

Inside the guest team locker room, Mo Zicong placed down his phone and stood up. He took a glance at Deng Hua, Zhu Tao and his other teammates, before starting to pump his teammates up.

He closed his eyes and said deeply,

“I know that for this tournament, no one expects us to win. If we don’t request for special competition format, I doubt we’ll win too. Even after we’ve requested for it, the bet also forecasted that we’ll lose.”

After saying that, he pointed outside the locker room and said,

“You all heard that? Everyone is cheering loudly and excitedly outside. It’s obvious that no one treats this as a well-matched battle!”

“Can all of you imagine that? In the pre-tournament commentary, they had already mentioned what Songcheng University Martial Arts Club would do if they win!”

“You know what? Perhaps Songcheng University had already started discussing on how to distribute their money!”

“What does this mean? This means in their eyes, we’re not an azure dragon, but just a loach! A loach which they can torture in whatever way they want, not to mention losing this tournament!”

Slam! All the Azure Dragon Squad team members stood up, looking mad.

This is obviously despising us!

This kind of despising makes one angry to the core!

How can they think of winning even before we start battling? Are they treating us as dead?

Mo Zicong raised his arm and clenched his fist as he shouted,

“Let’s go out, and let them know that we’re not as easy as they think!”

“Let’s go out to tear away their arrogance faces and knock them out!”

“This is our battle to win back our reputation!”

Deng Hua, Zhu Tao and the others instantly followed and shouted,

“Battle to win back our reputation!”

…

In front of the computer, Yan Xiaoling had already changed her sitting posture. She was focusing on the screen and had forgotten to reply the post.

…

At Shanbei University Martial Arts Club, Xu Wannian stayed back and sat beside Peng Leyun. They were sternly and attentively watching the live broadcast.

Did Junior Peng just say that Lou Cheng will be my curse for this lifetime?