Martial Arts Master

“Pan Chengyun? The guy who’s beaten by my cousin?” Yan Zheke’s eyes lifted once trying to remember who her boyfriend’s opponent was.

If Hongluo Martial Arts School had not been mentioned, she definitely would not have remembered what happened then. After all, she was rubbing Lou Cheng’s bruises with ointment in the locker room at that time without seeing for herself the fight between Lin Que and Pan Chengyun. All she knew was her cousin beat his opponent with mere two blows.

“It may well. We read the information of Hongluo Martial Arts School before the fight between Lin Que and him. I have an impression that one of their leading players is Pan So-and-so. It would probably be him.” Lou Cheng smiled.

He gets a fair treat. An ordinary fighter of Amateur First Pin he was when competing with us. In less than three months, he managed to possess professional-to-be strength and advance in group competition…” Yan Zheke enviously said with a tinge of emotion, “The actual combats in the preliminaries helped him a lot.”

“It was a pity that I merely went on stage for three times and gained experience of five actual combats.” She thought.

“It might be attributed to his good luck in grouping.” Lou Cheng answered casually and did not seem to care.

He did not expect their team advancing in preliminaries. So he paid no attention to the details of other rounds of fights, shooting a glance at the results at most. When Songcheng University Martial Arts Club won the competition in a row and showed promise of taking the first place in the match, there was only one opponent left for them, Azure Dragon Squad. Once they won, the results of other fights were of little significance.

In this case, Lou Cheng would rather keep his girlfriend company and work on his studies than follow the fights of Hongluo Squad if his time and energy permitted.

“Right…” Yan Zheke mused and nodded before going into a cute pout intentionally. “But you can’t be negligent anyway. There’s still more than one hour left for you to watch his fight videos in preliminaries. Understand?”

“Yes! Coach Yan is right!” Lou Cheng answered beamingly. They came to two seats far away from the ring hand in hand and started to search for Pan Chengyun’s fight videos respectively.

…

Pan So-and-so, an ordinary fighter of Amateur First Pin, was not searching for the opponent’s information as he always did. He buried his face in hands, full of depression and affliction.

There was no need for him to search for Lou Cheng’s information, whose every fight in preliminaries had been stamped upon his mind. He witnessed Lou Cheng’s progress from an ordinary fighter to top-notch one of Professional Ninth Pin, seeing him grasp Tremor Punch and Ice Sect Force step by step.

How can I defeat him?

How can I defeat him?

In the early preliminaries, Pan Chengyun still had confidence in winning with a sufficient understanding of his opponent. But for now, he had lost every faith before Lou Cheng, for him who was like a mighty fighter of Professional Eighth Pin in Dan stage. He could only put hopes on Lou Cheng’s negligence and underestimating the enemy, accidents before the fight or his poor performance then and there.

Benefiting from the injury of Senior Brother Jiang, I got the opportunity to gain much experience in the preliminaries. If I had not encountered the old enemy and been restrained by her style, I would have won the first place and advanced in the group competition. But my progress appears insignificant in comparison with Lou Cheng’s!

“I have little means of whittling down his Ice Sect Force. No choice but defend against his attack with my body head-on… I can’t take his Tremor Punch more than twice…” Pan Chengyun let a breath out before calming his nerves and starting to think about the upcoming fight.

I won’t give up my Professional Ninth Pin Certificate close at hand!

More than a few competitions were held in and around Songcheng last year, which provided the opportunity for many fighters to go through the qualification review. The number of fighters who achieved the level of Professional Ninth Pin amounted to fifteen in the past one year. It was a rare chance for fighters of real strength. In some extreme cases, there would be just a few number of fighters who were authorized to participate in the Ranking Event of the Professional Ninth Pin, such as the top students in the martial arts school who had acquired the certificates or the competitions that held in the last year was insufficient in number.

The extreme case in the Ranking Event held in Songcheng in the past decades was that only twenty-odd fighters passed the qualification review and fought for two places of Professional Ninth Pin. It made many fighters with professional strength fight recklessly with each other.

I have to keep moving and dogfighting without explosion and collision…

Pan Chengyun made his final decision.

He had no choice but to resort to the style he was not good at!

…

“Eh? He possessed the strength of professional level long ago.” Yan Zheke exclaimed below her breath when watching the videos and turned to Lou Cheng.

She held the tablet with mobile WIFI expressly bought for such circumstances beside her.

“He hid deep his strength. Was he caught unawareness by your cousin’s Meteor force?” Lou Cheng laughed, touching the stubble on his chin.

He would become on full alert to his opponent after knowing Pan Chengyun’s real strength if the fight happened in the past. But for now, Lou Cheng did not bother to care about whether he was of professional strength or not.

“Perhaps…” Yan Zheke moved her eyes and laughed suddenly. “Pan Chengyun may want to catch my cousin’s unawareness. Much to his surprise, he was beaten before bringing his strength into play. He must be depressed and aggrieved…”

She suddenly felt the poor Pan Chengyun was cute with the word “aggrieved” to describe him.

“No matter how aggrieved he was, I have to fight him seriously…” Lou Cheng grinned.

He was fasting-forward the video and stopped it at some scenes.

“What’re you looking at?” Yan Zheke craned her neck, leaned over and asked curiously.

“As you said, Pan Chengyun is most likely to keep moving and dogfighting in the fight with me. So I’m looking into his habitual dodging direction.” Lou Cheng smiled.

It was the very habit problem that his master had told him. Just like he was apt to make the dodge to the left in daily life, if he kept the habit and the like in fights, the opponent might become aware of it and set a trap against him. It might put him in danger. Fortunately, his master had pointed it before he formed a habit in actual combats.

“Habit…” Yan Zheke slightly opened her mouth and came to a realization.

She looked at Lou Cheng’s profile, feeling again her boyfriend’s talent for fighting.

“I have to watch my own habit…” She opened her eyes wide and turned to Lou Cheng’s phone screen. “Any discovery?” she asked.

“Sure!” Lou Cheng felt a little proud. “Pan Chengyun most probably chose to dodge to the right if circumstances permit.”

“Cheng…” Yan Zheke shouted briskly all of a sudden.

“What?” Lou Cheng turned to her and asked confusedly.

“You’re great!” Yan Zheke clapped with a smiling face.

“Hey! Don’t be so exaggerated!” Lou Cheng broke into a laugh.

“I learned it from you!” Yan Zheke pursed her lips and said with a smile.

…

Lou Cheng stepped in the ring at 3 p.m., standing on each side of the referee with Pan Chengyun.

“Honestly, I didn’t know you have reached the professional level.” Lou Cheng said with emotion.

Pan Chengyun nearly came to be full of tears. “You should have known!” he thought.

“I never thought I would run into you in the ring.” Pan Chengyun took a breath, keeping serious and sharp.

Would the God like me to remain the title of Amateur First Pin?

Lou Cheng closed his eyes and started to adjust his physical state without any words to irritate his opponent.

After a while, the referee looked at his electronic watch, raised his right hand and swung it down with a large force before announcing.

“Begin!”

Lou Cheng stamped his feet and straightened his knees. He moved forward as if a fierce wind, shortening the distance with the opponent in a twinkle.

Pan Chengyun was as calm as water. He wiggled his muscles on his back and made a sliding step to the right to avoid a head-on collision with Lou Cheng.

However, Lou Cheng moved his weight to the left with a bounce of his spine, as if a dragon rolling its body. He was even faster than the opponent!

All this was in a second. Pan Chengyun turned out to throw himself into the net. Lou Cheng stepped on the ground violently and swung his lower back swiftly. His fist was about to slam forward.

“Gosh!” Pan Chengyun exclaimed in his heart. All he could do was to bite the bullet. He instantly visualized the image of Flaming Body in his head. His buttocks were subconsciously clenched as he exerted his muscles, pushed his tailbone, spurred his back into a bounce and induced his legs into an abrupt leap to the side.

Lou Cheng did not give up on pursuing. He stepped his feet on the ground, smashing the black bricks, and pounced towards his opponent again simultaneously.

Pan Chengyun perceived Lou Cheng had come very near as soon as his feet landed. He lowered his weight and bloated every muscle to strike the first burst of the Fire-like Invasion Move.

He used the recoil to turn around all of a sudden with his right arm thrusting back as if a spear.

Lou Cheng shook his well-prepared fist with an ice-bound river visualized in his mind. He could feel the cold waves surging in his body.

Bang!

The two fists collided. Lou Cheng wobbled once, while Pan Chengyun felt the cold aura spreading from his arm to the whole body, freezing his muscles and fascia.

His face turned pale and his body trembled unconsciously. He intended to throw out his last strength to dodge the fast and fierce attacks from Lou Cheng, but it turned out impossible because the move of his legs became obviously slower than before.

Lou Cheng shook his arm with the fist reaching out and stopping at Pan Chengyun’s throat. The announcement from the referee came into his ears.

“Lou Cheng wins!”

Pan Chengyun trembled, recalling his failure in the fight with Liu Que, who beat him with mere two attacks too.

Why it’s also two attacks this time despite my hard work in more than two months…

It was an expected victory for Lou Cheng. He showed some relax instead of wild joy this time. After celebrating with Yan Zheke at a distance, Lou Cheng nodded his head to Pan Chengyun and turned around to step down the ring. He did not say anything, because he believed that any word meant harm to Pan Chengyun.

“He indeed dodged to the right…” Yan Zheke took a glance at Pan Chengyun in the ring with a sympathetic look. But she soon let it go and hugged with Lou Cheng to celebrate with her eyes sparkling with excitement.

Lou Cheng had taken the form from the inspector. “His master perhaps didn’t warn him of his habit,” he half-jokingly said.

They cheerfully walked to the office of Martial Artist Association hand in hand without looking back to the ring.

The employee took over the form and found his fight video. After confirming the result, the employee smiled.

“Lou Cheng, as a fighter of Professional Ninth Pin, you automatically become the member of Martial Artist Association. Do you want to withdraw?”

“No.” Lou Cheng was not a fool.

The employee started to read the clauses. “As an official member of Martial Artist Association, you have to pay one thousand yuan as the membership fee. The Association will organize lectures for high-level fighters without a fixed schedule, as well as solve problems for you, for instance, coordinating law resources. In a word, you’ll receive many services.”

“As for your obligation, the first is to protect the reputation of the Association and the second is to cooperate with the Association to serve as a referee in tight-scheduled competitions. Of course, we’ll give you some salary or contribution points of the same value. You can exchange the points for martial arts information collected by the Association, including but not limited to martial arts unique skills.”

“You got any problem with that?”

“No.” Lou Cheng shook his head.

Lou Cheng felt that he had become a real fighter of Professional Ninth Pin after hearing what the employee just said.