Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
Since this was an official preliminaries match, the large screens within the martial arts arena all lit up in succession even though the match only qualified for recorded broadcast without backup. This was so that the audiences could clearly see the arena from many angles and the home team seats near the arena.
“Eh, where’s our martial arts club’s coach? I remember that it was an old man...”
“The guy sitting in the coach’s seat seems to be a student...”
“No way, was there a personnel change? I’m sure I saw the previous coach when I walked by yesterday...”
“Look closer, I keep having the feeling that that student coach looks familiar...”
The spectator’s grandstand was bustling with noisy and disorderly discussions, but none of them could enter Lou Cheng’s ears. He was listening to Li Xiaowen’s report on the opponent’s active players and lineup order.
“Qian Ruoyu is first, Feng Shaokun is second, Jiang Dingyi is third...” Lou Cheng quietly spoke their names once in his head and let out a small sigh of relief on the inside.
Although there was no distinction between man and woman in a martial arts competition, and he understood and accepted that physical contact such as fists and legs between participants was perfectly normal, he still felt a tinge of dissatisfaction when he recalled that Yan Zheke would be gripping her opponent’s wrist or be gripped by her opponent when using the listening skill. The fact that her first opponent was a girl was literally the best case scenario. When this match was over, her next opponent wouldn’t dare to give her the chance to use the listening skill anymore.
– It was not a problem attacking an opponent’s vital spots in a martial arts competition, but intentionally committing immoral acts was a different matter altogether. A fighter who does this would be rejected by the entire martial arts circle for ruining a fighter’s image.
While thinking, Lou Cheng pulled Yan Zheke to him and smiled faintly, “Do you want to win swiftly, or do you want to train your real combat ability further?”
When Yan Zheke sensed her boyfriend’s firm and confident attitude, the slight tremble running inside her body subsided as she pursed her lips and smiled, “How should I fight if I want to win swiftly? And how should I fight if I want to train my real combat ability?”
“You’ve seen Qian Ruoyu’s match videos before, and we’ve discussed about this too. She doesn’t lack real combat experience, but all of the matches she fought in were either smooth victories or clean defeats. She had not encountered many situations that took her by surprise. Therefore, she will most likely make a mistake if you can give her a surprise.” Lou Cheng coughed once and gave direct instructions in the manner of a coach.
Yan Zheke’s beautiful eyes looked up once before she said, “So, the way to swift victory is to surprise her with the ability to pull back my center of gravity and do my best to create an opportunity to win? As for the way to train my real combat abilities, I should reserve part of my strength and trade blows with her, is that correct?”
“More or less.” Lou Cheng smiled once and said, “However, it is a fact that anything can happen in real combat. The enemy may not necessarily give you the chance to familiarize yourself, and regardless of how much we’ve talked about this, ultimately you should rely on firsthand judgment and performance. Personally, I would suggest that you don’t hold back at all.”
It was at this moment the referee announced,
“The third round of the Songcheng division preliminaries, Songcheng University Martial Arts Club versus Dream Squad.”
“Round one, Yan Zheke versus Qian Ruoyu!”
Lou Cheng seized the last opportunity to advise her just as Yan Zheke about to walk up the arena. He lowered his voice and instructed briefly,
“If there are no available opportunities, then sell Qian Ruoyu an opening and allow her to use Tai Chi Hand Wrap on you. Try and compete listening skill with her!”
“I’ve observed her, and I find that she is very confident in her listening skills and is very eager to test it. However, it is obvious she isn’t able to enter in meditation just yet. She is entirely reliant on the characteristic of her martial arts and the pushing hands training she performs daily. She is somewhat behind you in this regard and thus you can control her here.”
“After defeating Qian Ruoyu, the next opponent to follow would be her knight in shining armor, Feng Shaokun. He would want to win back his beloved girl’s pride and fight radically in response. This gives you the opportunity to unleash 24 Blizzard Strikes. When you’ve finished a full cycle, he would be at the end of his ropes even if he didn’t go down to your attack. This is also the best opportunity for senior brother Li Mao to join into the battle.”
Yan Zheke listened closely as her eyes occasionally flashed with insight. She seemed to be digesting Lou Cheng’s words.
While Yan Zheke’s family had a long history, her accumulation of knowledge was far greater than Lou Cheng’s, and she was able to speak clearly and logically when she analyzed matches and provided opinions in the past, they were ultimately all idle theorizing. She couldn’t help but feel a little worried and distrustful of her own judgment and preparations when she actually had to step into the battlefield herself. Unlike Lou Cheng who was an old hand and was capable of analyzing calmly and handling the details, Yan Zheke’s mind was currently a mess.
When Yan Zheke heard her boyfriend giving her his explanation vividly and carefully, she gradually grew a bit more certainty in herself and nodded slightly to his words. She gave him a faint smile, pursed her lips and was about to start walking to the arena.
“Ke.” Suddenly, Lou Cheng called after her in a soft voice.
“Mm?” Yan Zheke turned her head halfway to look at him in confusion.
Lou Cheng lifted the corners of his mouth and smiled gently, “This time it is my turn to cheer for you...”
He suddenly tightened his fists and shook them once,
“We’ll win!”
Yan Zheke’s eyes immediately turned gentle as she smiled beautifully,
“I think this is the first time someone cheered for me like this.”
After she said this, she turned around and took step after step up the stone stairs. By now the tremble running in her body had stopped, and not a bit of hesitation could be seen from her footsteps at all.
When she went up the arena, and her figure was fully and clearly enlarged on the screens, both sides of the spectator’s grandstand suddenly fell silent.
No one expected that Songcheng University Martial Arts Club’s first player was such a beautiful girl. She was elegant and attractive, and had bright eyes, white teeth and a beautiful glow around her.
While Qian Ruoyu could be considered a known beauty who was tender, beautiful and brimming with youth, her radiance was immediately outshone the second she stood on the opposite side of Yan Zheke. She paled so much in comparison to Yan Zheke that she looked like a random passerby on the street.
“No way, there’s such a beautiful girl in Songcheng University Martial Arts Club? And they’re willing to let her go up the arena and fight?” Yu Qiao instantly betrayed Dream Squad and said this while feeling sorry for Yan Zheke.
Both Jiang Dingyi and Feng Shaokun both felt as if they’d been stunned by the girl’s radiance even though they had fallen in love with Qian Ruoyu and became obsessed with her for many years. They asked themselves and figured that they might feel constrained and subconsciously give quarter if they were the ones who had to fight her. They might also be tempted to flaunt their abilities and show off their martial arts skills. Of course, these thoughts were all under the assumption that Qian Ruoyu was not watching from the sidelines.
Above the arena, Qian Ruoyu’s heart immediately tightened the second she saw Yan Zheke. An unspeakable sense of danger assaulted her senses, and she felt as if she had already fallen into a disadvantage and her status was already on the verge of collapsing.
She gnashed her teeth furiously and planned to turn the tables through martial strength.
“You have three-minute talk time.” the referee announced.
“I’ve seen your data before. It seems like you haven’t participated in a ranking event or fought on an arena, haven’t you? This is your first time fighting a real battle, isn’t it?” Qian Ruoyu wasn’t stupid. She used the fact that her opponent was a first timer and tried to make her nervous.
While bouncing Lou Cheng’s cheer and analysis inside her own head, Yan Zheke answered carelessly,
“Yeah, but all things have their upsides and downsides. At the very least, you don’t know everything about me at all.”
She smiled faintly and smoothed out the tension between her eyebrows completely.
So what if this is my first real battle? My boyfriend had easily taken out his opponent during his first real battle!
Right now beneath the arena, Lou Cheng hadn’t walked back to the coach’s seat and actually walked closer to the arena instead. He wanted to watch the match in close range.
To him, Yan Zheke’s battle made him even more nervous than his own battle. He was worried that she might be hurt, wronged, or subjected to some unexpected incident.
He could control every element in his battles, but now he could only watch and do nothing after giving her his advice. Everything else was on Yan Zheke’s performance on stage now.
No one knew how she would perform on stage!
Lou Cheng hid his nervousness on the inside and wore a calm mask on his face. His wrapped his arms before his chest and stood right beside the arena, watching quietly.
“Wow, that coach looks a little cool...”
“I can’t believe you have the mind to look at the coach. Which faculty does that girl belong to?”
“I remember running into her on the street one time and ran into an electrical pole because I stole a glance at her...”
“She seems to have a boyfriend; I often see her eating together with a guy at the cafeteria. Wait, I think that guy is the coach! God dammit, does he not understand the saying that one shouldn’t lay a hand on their neighbors?”
“Maybe that was exactly what he was aiming to do!”
Before this, Yan Zheke didn’t stand out despite her beauty because there were plenty of beauties among tens of thousands of students. There were also other girls who were no less beautiful than her. She also never hosted a welcoming evening party or showed herself off in anyway before, so she definitely couldn’t be considered well known. Only those who were in the same faculty, martial arts club, dormitory and course would know that such a girl existed. As for the rest of the people, they would at best cast her a few glances when they encountered her on the road by accident. The second they turned their heads they would forget about her for homework and games.
“Lou Cheng sure knows how to put on a pose and act cool...” Li Liantong snickered and said to Shi Xiangyang.
Shi Xiangyang guessed, I think he’s worried about Ke. His boyfriend power is at max right now!”
While everyone was gossiping with each other, the three minutes talk time approached the end. Qian Ruoyu wasn’t able to affect outstanding student Yan Zheke’s emotions despite all of her efforts. In fact, she was angered by Yan Zheke instead for looking at her as if she was a dropout, and she planned to teach her opponent a good lesson.
Yan Zheke didn’t know about Qian Ruoyu’s thoughts. The reason she was examining her all this time was because she remembered Qian Ruoyu’s melodramatic love affairs with the other two boys. She wanted to get a clear look of the party involved.
The referee waved down his right hand and shouted, “Begin!”
Yan Zheke had already made up her mind to reserve her strength, familiarize herself with the battlefield and get used to real combat as soon as possible. Therefore, after she had approached her opponent in a few steps, she twisted her back and started right off with a Mountain Blast Punch.
Qian Ruoyu exerted force into her two legs and punched out with her left fist. As if she was beating a drum, she aimed at Yan Zheke’s wrist area.
Bang! Yan Zheke’s strength was slightly weaker than Qian Ruoyu, and her body wobbled once after the clash. It was at this moment Qian Ruoyu relaxed her shoulders and exerted strength purely from her back alone. She turned her left arm into something like a hand wrap, moving and causing Yan Zheke’s right fist to sway out of the way. She also pulled her until Yan Zheke subconsciously moved her center of gravity forwards.
Seizing this opportunity, Qian Ruoyu took half a step forwards and pressed her right fist rapidly. She aimed directly at her opponent’s exposed opening at the center.
This tai chi fighting style immediately caused Yan Zheke’s position to become precarious.
Yan Zheke’s heart clenched, but thankfully she hadn’t panicked due to long periods of training. Her back suddenly wriggled like a dragon turning on its back, forcefully pulling her center of gravity back to herself. Moreover, she seized the opportunity to use her left leg as a fulcrum, spin around and slip to Qian Ruoyu’s right side. With her back facing towards the opponent, she barely avoided the forward punch.
It was difficult for her to observe the situation with her back against her opponent. Even if she were to use an elbow strike, she could easily fall into a counter attack. Without bothering to stay, Yan Zheke spun again and arrived behind Qian Ruoyu. She raised her right arm and cut downwards with her fist.
Cheng was very right about this. My opponent didn’t give me the opportunity to get familiarize myself at all. She had forced me to use the method to pull back my center of gravity from the beginning...
Is this what a real battle looks like?