With this episode, the venue"s atmosphere became rather awkward! Although the saying went: "Listen to advice and you won"t starve," weren"t you still too easily talked out of it by us? Didn"t you say that you would be fighting for the dignity of the small sects and non-affiliates? That you"d go into the fight even if you knew you would die? Weren"t you not going to give in to the large sects" despotism? Your sister! Where exactly do your principles lie? Why did you choose to turn around just because others politely tried to talk you out of the challenge! You, you"re totally going against the grain of martial arts routines!
Zhang Ye walked cool as a cuc.u.mber back to his seat. He did not consider this event to be of any importance.
Liu Yizhang wiped away his sweat and said, "Bro Chen, w-why did you come back?"
Contrary to expectations, Zhang Ye gave a look of astonishment and said, "Didn"t you guys tell me to walk away from the fight?"
Liu Yizhang: "…"
Liu Yiquan: "…"
Li Quanneng: "…"
Yan Hui: "..."
We did try to talk you out of it!
But no one was expecting you to agree so readily!
But with Zhang Ye saying that, they could not find any other reasons to reply to him, because they had really shouted for him to walk away from the fight!
Whatever!
You win!
The Eight Trigrams School"s disciples looked at one another.
Song Jiao said with exasperation, "That Chen Zhen, why does it seem like he"s kinda shameless?"
Xu Fan was also dumbfounded. "It"s not that he seems that way, but that he"s actually kinda shameless!"
Zhao Yunlong said, "Take away the "kinda." He"s just shameless!"
Lu Yuhu said in a speechless manner, "Why do I find that person so familiar?"
With the crowd there, they could not even see "Chen Zhen" clearly, much less spot a little girl like Chenchen.
The Huashan Sect"s Fan Wen, who was already ready to go in the dueling area, furrowed his brows in anger. "Chen Zhen, do you intend to duel me or not? What"s the meaning of this?"
The large sects were angered too!
Especially the Huashan Sect"s disciples, who felt that their martial sect"s senior had gotten played, making all of them infuriated.
When Grandmaster Chen Xi heard the commotion over here, he also frowned and swept his gaze to Zhang Ye.
"Shameless!"
"Say so if you"re afraid!"
"Hey Chen, I bet you"re just afraid to fight!"
"You just can"t beat our Martial Uncle Fan! Stop finding excuses!"
"If you"re skilled enough, you should step forward!"
"Right, if you"re skilled enough, come out and fight!"
"Chen Zhen, let me ask you a simple question: Do you have the courage to exchange blows with our Martial Uncle Fan?!"
"Our master has already said that he"d give you an advantage, but you"re still afraid of taking on the challenge?"
"Come out!"
"Come out!"
"Come forward if you"re so skilled!"
The Huashan Sect kept goading him from their side!
But Zhang Ye was unmoved. He was neither embarra.s.sed nor nervous and was completely untroubled by them. Instead, he started chatting, a smile on his face, with Liu Yiquan who was seated beside him. "Look at how wonderful the fight over at section three of the dueling area is."
Liu Yiquan grunted, "Ah."
Zhang Ye asked, "Which martial sect is that person from?"
Liu Yiquan answered, "Uh, it looks like the Xingyi Fist."
Another Huashan Sect disciple called out, "Not brave enough to challenge my martial uncle? Chen Zhen, do you have the courage to challenge me instead, then?! This won"t be considered bullying, right?"
"Second Senior Bro!"
"Go get him, Second Senior Bro!"
"Destroy him!"
"Right, destroy him!"
"That Chen Zhen is super infuriating!"
Yan Hui was afraid that he would be on the losing end, so reminded, "That is the Huashan Sect"s second senior brother. He"s one of the most outstanding disciples of this generation. Compared to the Zhou Family Style"s Fourth Bro Zhou, he"s way better than him, so you must be careful!"
But as it turned out, Zhang Ye was still chattering away with Liu Yiquan, as though he had heard nothing. He even conveniently turned around to Yan Hui to ask, "Eh, Bro Yan, what style of martial arts do you practice?"
Yan Hui: "…"
The surrounding people: "…"
The conversation went on until Liu Yiquan and Yan Hui could no longer keep a straight face, yet Zhang Ye was still as indifferent and calm as ever. This made Liu Yiquan, Liu Yizhang, and a number of the surrounding non-affiliates and small sect disciples feel extreme admiration for him! Bro Chen Zhen"s skin is really G.o.dd.a.m.n thick! This was also a skill that most people did not have!
The Huashan Sect"s disciples shouted until their voices turned hoa.r.s.e!
Fan Wen was so angry that he just returned to his seat!
The Huashan Sect"s second senior brother also looked extremely angry!
But Zhang Ye remained in his place. No matter how his opponents tried to draw him in, he did not step forward. Why would he want to duel? Earlier, in the match with Fourth Bro Zhou, Zhang Ye only did it because he had wanted to test his skills in a real fight. Moreover, after watching so many matches, he had gained a slight understanding of his personal power. He had also gained a deeper understanding of the entire Chinese martial arts world"s standards and the division of ranks for the experts, so why would he still bother with dueling anyone? It wasn"t like he was here to fight anyway! Oh, just because you guys shouted and tried to incite me, I must step forward to duel you guys? Do you think I"m an idiot? Do you know how much this bro is worth? This bro can command an appearance fee of over a million RMB just by appearing in an interview. Can you people pay me such a sum?
A fellow like Zhang Ye was not someone from the martial arts community anyway. All he knew was that he had to sneak into the enemy"s camp today to make a mess of things. But as for the rules of the Chinese martial arts world, or whatever honor or dignity, he did not care for any of that! As a result, he would naturally feel that this wasn"t something to be embarra.s.sed about!
The large sects could watch no longer.
"Forget about him!"
"What kind of a hero is that!"
"He"s a disgrace to our martial arts world!"
He"s even afraid of accepting a challenge?"
"How infuriating! I"ve never come across such a ruffian before!"
"Why did the National Martial Arts Conference invite someone like him to partic.i.p.ate?"
"In so many conferences, there has never before been someone who didn"t accept a challenge! He is the first!"
A lot of those from the large sects glared at Zhang Ye with contempt, looking very uncomfortable with being labeled together with him as members of the Chinese martial arts world. All of them were indignant at Zhang Ye for the Huashan Sect!
The Huashan Sect leader, Chen Xi, spoke, "Quiet down, everyone."
With that, all the large sects and Huashan Sect"s disciples did not utter another word. They looked up and realized that all the matches had ended and that there was no one else who came forward to issue a challenge to anyone!
Everyone was startled and knew that the main event was starting soon!
In the blink of an eye, the entire venue fell silent. They no longer cared about denouncing "Chen Zhen."
Chen Xi stood up. "Is there anyone else?"
No one answered.
Chen Xi asked again, "Let me ask again, is there anyone else?"
Still, there was no answer.
Only then did Chen Xi nod his head and signaled with his hand for the ten National Martial Arts a.s.sociation"s referees to get out of the ring and stand to the side. Then, quite a few National Martial Arts a.s.sociation"s employees came into the ring to clear the area and put the weaponry back on their racks. A female employee picked up the brick that Zhang Ye had taken from somewhere and took a long, hesitating look around before she finally just threw it somewhere onto the ground.
The second round of events at the Martial Arts Conference ended.
Liu Yiquan looked up into the ring.
Zhang Ye raised his head.
Chenchen scowled.
The Zhou Family Style"s disciples clenched their fists.
The Eight Trigrams School"s disciples looked to the ring.
"It"s beginning!"
"It"s time for official business!"
"How do you think they will fight to settle their differences?"
"I don"t know!"
"A battle of grandmasters, it"ll be really wonderful to watch!"
"Yeah, it"s a once-in-a-lifetime battle!"
"This year"s National Martial Arts Conference certainly won"t be like the ones before it. The events of today will be immortalized for future generations, and as witnesses to it, we truly should feel honored!"
"How exciting!"
"Let"s see how this feud will be settled!"
"Supporting the Zhou Family! Grandmaster Rao has definitely crossed the line this time. She is openly provoking our martial arts world by upsetting the norms. The National Martial Arts a.s.sociation definitely won"t let this go!"
Amid everyone"s gaze, the inc.u.mbent leader of the Zhou Family Style School, Zhou Tianpeng, finally opened his eyes. His eyes were clear, as though he had been preparing a long time for this moment. It felt like a sharp sword suddenly being unsheathed. He stood up and strode toward the fight ring, then suddenly kicked off the ground and launched himself into the air before landing in the ring that was around 1.4 meters tall. He did this without any effort at all, but landed inside the wooden ring with a loud crash and violently shook it. The dust particles swirled up against the glow of the sun upon impact!
"Great kung fu!"
"Beautiful!"
"Grandmaster Zhou"s skills have advanced greatly!"
"He"s indeed worthy of the t.i.tle of grandmaster!"
For most jump and land moves, this wouldn"t seem unusual in the eyes of a real expert. As they say, "Laypersons watch the buzz, while professionals examine the skill." But at this moment, the Huashan Sect"s Fan Wen was a little astonished. In his opinion, compared to the Grandmaster Zhou he had seen a few years back, even though Zhou Tianpeng had aged by a little, his martial arts skills did not seem to have regressed one bit. In fact, it even looked like he had improved. Reaching the level of grandmaster was the pinnacle of Chinese martial arts. But there was also a division of strength among the grandmasters. For example, their Huashan Sect leader, Chen Xi—who was also Fan Wen"s senior brother—would be considered the weakest of the five grandmasters when it came down to their martial arts skills. Meanwhile, Rao Aimin was the strongest of the five. Several years ago, Zhou Tianpeng was supposedly at the level between them, a little stronger than his senior brother but a little weaker than Rao Aimin. However, that was a comparison from those days. Today, it was more difficult to determine who was the strongest of the grandmasters. Besides, how could people like him judge the martial arts of these grandmasters? There was no way he could a.s.sess their skills at his level. He could only get a general feel of how it might be!
For instance, the way that Grandmaster Zhou Tianpeng made his appearance today clearly gave many people the feeling that his martial arts were much better than a few years back.
It was probably the same for Chen Xi since internal style martial artists usually improved over time.
The only unknown was whether Rao Aimin"s skills had regressed during this time. In the past few years, no one had seen Rao Aimin, nor knew where she had gone, nor what she had done. In the past six months of challenging the Zhou Family Style School"s training halls, it was comparable to using a cannon to kill mosquitoes. The Zhou Family Style"s disciples were obviously not worthy of Rao Aimin to exercise her efforts on and stood basically no chance against her. Therefore, Rao Aimin"s current martial arts skills were still a mystery to everyone, including to the two grandmasters Zhou Tianpeng and Chen Xi!
The venue was enveloped in silence!
Zhou Tianpeng was in the ring. His expression this time was no longer the same as when he had stood there earlier. The aura he gave off was utterly different from before. This time, he did not even hold a microphone and just projected his voice to speak. Even so, every word that he spoke was loud and crisp. No matter where someone sat, they could still hear him very clearly!
Zhou Tianpeng said, "Dear friends and colleagues of our national martial arts world, the previous events have all come to an end. It is a little shameful to say this, but the next event has to do with me settling a personal feud with a certain someone!"
"There"s nothing to be shameful about!"
"Grandmaster Zhou, just announce it!"
"Right, everyone is here as your witness!"
The Kongtong Sect, the Huashan Sect, the Iron Palm Sect, and all the other martial sects were very supportive!
Zhou Tianpeng nodded and said, "Alright, then I shall first give my thanks to everyone present. I am sure that everyone has already heard something about the cause of this issue. As a grandmaster, Rao Aimin has gone around abusing her powers against my juniors, bullying my Zhou Family Style"s disciples, and tearing down my training halls. This has brought about great losses to the Zhou Family! Ignoring economic losses, which are secondary, it has hurt our Zhou Family Style"s reputation. That is something I won"t tolerate!"
Numerous shouts suddenly rang out from the audience.
The Huashan Sect: "Supporting Old Master Zhou!"
The Kongtong Sect: "Supporting Grandmaster Zhou!"
The Kunlun Sect: "Supporting Vice President Zhou!"
"Intolerable! No need to keep tolerating!"
"The Eight Trigrams School has gone too far!"
"Grandmaster Zhou is big-hearted and did not argue with you people in the past, yet you people still don"t know where to draw the line? Going around the entire country to bring down the Zhou Family Style"s training halls? If this can be tolerated, then what would be intolerable?!"
"This is too despicable!"
Many of those from the large sects were looking angrily in the direction of the Eight Trigrams School.
The Eight Trigrams School"s disciples were irritated by this.
Lu Yuhu shouted, "Have you people forgotten about the blood debt of my Senior Sister"s little sister and brother-in-law?"
The Huashan Sect"s Fan Wen said bluntly, "That was just a very normal match in which they willingly put their lives on the line."
Song Jiao said furiously, "Quit your f.u.c.king bulls.h.i.+tting! Old Crook Zhou"s son has committed so many evil deeds and used martial arts to bully others. Our Senior Sister"s little sister had only agreed to a deathmatch with him to settle their feud. But when Old Crook Zhou saw that his son was about to meet his end, he interfered in the match to save him, dealing some injuries to my Senior Sister"s little sister and brother-in-law. Let me ask you then, who were the ones bullying the weak there? Let me ask you again, who did not follow the rules of our martial arts world? How are you going to repay this debt?"
The Huashan Sect"s Second Senior Bro harrumphed. "And who witnessed that?"
A deputy leader of the Kongtong Sect scoffed, "Ridiculous. That"s complete nonsense!"
The Kunlun Sect leader said, "Grandmaster Zhou is a big-hearted man, how could he possibly do something like that? What you heard were just rumors within the martial arts community and should not be taken seriously. Even if Grandmaster Zhou had hurt those two, it must have been during a normal match. They died a year later, so how can you place the blame on Grandmaster Zhou for their deaths?"
Zhao Yunlong said angrily, "Sect Leader of Kunlun, don"t you dare pretend like you don"t know a thing! Don"t you know what concealed power is? When one gets struck by concealed power, their insides suffer irreparable damage!"
Master Sun, from an Iron Palm branch, repeatedly shook his head. "Where"s the proof? The evidence? You keep addressing him as Old Crook Zhou. Do you have any manners?"
Actually, no one could relate the event that happened many years ago too clearly and there were all sorts of rumors flying around. But whatever the truth, one could easily guess what had really happened. All they knew was that Zhou Tianpeng"s son was indeed not a good person and Zhou Tianpeng had also fought with Rao Aimin"s sister and brother-in-law. As for the details, n.o.body really knew about them.
The Eight Trigrams School"s people started arguing with the large sects!
The small sects and non-affiliates did not say anything and only whispered among themselves.
"Grandmaster Zhou"s son was indeed…"
"Oh, I know. You don"t need to mention that."
"My opinion about this is pretty close to the Eight Trigrams School"s version of events."
"I heard that there were witnesses to the incident, but no one said anything about it afterwards."
"Shhh, be quiet. Don"t let anyone hear you."
"We can only speculate among ourselves, but that person is still a grandmaster after all."
"Why do the large sects seem so united?"
"Who knows if they"d already discussed their stand before this!"
"Let"s just watch how it turns out. Don"t talk anymore."
"Yeah, it"s not something that we can really do anything about either."
"It"s a fight between G.o.ds!"
At the other end, the two sides were still arguing!
The large sects shouted, "Rao Aimin is a tumor within our martial arts world!"
The Eight Trigrams School shouted back, "Old Crook Zhou is despicable and shameless!"
"Bullying and injuring so many of the Zhou Family Style"s disciples, who is the shameless one here? If you"re so good, you should have brought this up to Grandmaster Zhou directly. Why did you have to injure so many of the Zhou Family Style"s disciples?"
"Our Eldest Senior Sis has issued countless challenges to Zhou Tianpeng in the past half a year, but he dared not answer to her challenges due to his guilt! He did not even dare to step out of his hole. How else can she bring it up to him then? All those years ago, when Zhou Tianpeng injured our Senior Sister"s little sister and brother-in-law, she went to confront the Zhou Family about it. When Zhou Tianpeng realized that the situation was not to his advantage, he even teamed up with the Huashan Sect leader to take her on and defeated her. So how can you still have the cheek to say that?"
"That"s because Rao Aimin had nothing better to do. Her sister and brother-in-law"s business had nothing to do with Grandmaster Zhou at all, yet she came looking for trouble. That in and of itself was already her fault for coming to confront others with no good reason, so who cares if the grandmasters teamed up? If a thief breaks into your house, you"re not even allowed to retaliate?"
"Bulls.h.i.+t!"
The Zhou Family Style School"s disciples cut in, "That incident from all those years ago was due to her sister and brother-in-law being less skilled, yet they still agreed to the deathmatch. Since they were responsible for their own lives, what else is there left to argue about!"
The Eight Trigrams School"s disciples were so angry that they were trembling!
The large sects had the numerical advantage. With every one of them just saying something, it was more than enough to drown them out, and even the guilty could be presented as innocent. Moreover, judging from their unity, it seemed like those from the large sects had already discussed this prior to the conference!
Over there.
Chenchen was also trembling!
The large sects and the Zhou Family Style"s disciples were speaking about Chenchen"s dead parents without a care in the world, and some people even spoke with acrimony of them. There was also someone from the Zhou Family Style who said that they "deserved it for losing"!
Zhang Ye"s face sank when he heard that. He clutched Chenchen"s little hand, but found that it was ice-cold as she clenched her fist tightly.
Suddenly, the Huashan Sect leader stepped forward.
Grandmaster Chen Xi walked up into the ring and looked down, speaking loudly, "Let me say a few words!"
Only then did the large sects put down their hands, which they had been pointing at the Eight Trigrams School. They looked over and waited for this other grandmaster to speak. Chen Xi was representing the National Martial Arts a.s.sociation as the organizer and also was in charge of this event today!
They heard Chen Xi say, "Today"s National Martial Arts Conference was called in advance, mainly because we wanted to settle this issue between the Zhou Family and Rao Aimin. As a bystander, I largely understand the entire situation. Right now, I would like to talk about the following with everyone. Has anyone here heard of the Taiji Fist from over a hundred years ago?"
The Taiji Fist?
Zhang Ye narrowed his eyes.
The people below the ring were taken aback.
"I"ve heard of it!"
"Of course I"ve heard about it!"
"I heard my master talk about it once before!"
"Yeah. That"s a very famous internal style!"
"A pity that it"s already been lost for over a hundred years!"
Chen Xi looked at everyone and narrated, "There are still some historical records about the time when the Taiji Fist first appeared during the Qing dynasty. It pushed internal styles to a pinnacle at that time. Some of the large sects might not be strangers to this name, as a lot of masters and veterans from that time have pa.s.sed down many legends and stories regarding the Taiji Fist by word of mouth. However, it was exactly this internal style, which had such a colorful history, whose legacy was lost over a hundred years ago. This intangible cultural a.s.set of our martial arts world did not get pa.s.sed down and it is a heartache both for me and for our martial arts world!"
The Huashan Sect"s Fan Wen sighed, "Hai, what a pity!"
The Kunlun Sect"s deputy leader also gave a light sigh. "How brilliant would the grandmaster of Taiji be at that time? But to this day, this martial arts style did not even get pa.s.sed down to our time!"
Liu Yiquan said excitedly, "They"re talking about Taiji Fist!"
Li Quanneng could only sigh, "I"ve heard of it too. It"s such a pity!"
Zhang Ye gave both of them a look but did not say anything.
When the Taiji Fist was mentioned, the Zhou Family Style"s disciples also had looks of yearning on their faces!
When an ordinary person hears about Taiji, they might not think of it as a fighting style. Many people did not even know what the Taiji Fist was. But within the Chinese martial arts world, everyone had long heard about the Taiji Fist. Some of the real experts and veterans in the martial sects all knew about the legend and brilliance of the Taiji Fist from all those years ago, and knew just how powerful this style of martial arts was. There had been many people who had tried to recreate the Taiji Fist from the written records and oral accounts of those who had witnessed it before, and if they could even recreate 10 to 20% of it, it would have been good enough. However, no one had been able to do it so far, because this was not a martial arts form that followed a strict form. It wasn"t like practicing sets that one would for external styles but an internal style martial arts that focused on the application of force, breathing techniques, and the flow of qi, which were all practiced differently from external styles. There was basically no way to recreate it to its original form by simply using bits and pieces of unconfirmed records. Therefore, many people gave up on doing so anymore and the Taiji Fist was just used as an example of a legendary martial arts style in the Chinese martial arts world to be pa.s.sed down generation by generation. The martial arts community could only hear about the brilliance of the Taiji Fist but were regrettably unable to witness the rebirth of this style of martial arts!
Zhou Tianpeng also revealed a slight tinge of regret. "Hai."
Chen Xi continued, "The times now are different. Our martial arts world has entered a new chapter in its history. We have our own new set of rules and regulations, and the National Martial Arts a.s.sociation will not tolerate those who break them. A feud between martial sects? Bullying others with martial arts? These are both prohibited activities within our martial arts world! We cannot allow the tragedy of the Taiji Fist to happen again and let those martial arts styles, which have existed for hundreds of years, slip out of our hands! Otherwise, we will be sinners to our national martial arts world. We will be sinners to our nation!"
This speech stoked the anger of many people!
"Right!"
"Grandmaster Chen has put it very well!"
"We have to protect our martial arts heritage!"
"This is the legacy of our nation!"
"The Taiji Fist has already been lost. We cannot allow the Zhou Family Style to disappear as well!"
"By doing what Rao Aimin did, she is basically trying to force the extermination of their school!"
"Compared to the injuries suffered by those Zhou Family Style"s disciples, the protection of our Chinese martial arts legacy is much more important! Rao Aimin is trying to end all these decades of the Zhou Family Style"s legacy! This is even more vicious than ending one"s family line!"
"This is too much!"
"Intolerable!"
"We must definitely punish such behavior!"
"Denounce Rao Aimin!"
"Drive Rao Aimin out of our martial arts world!"
"We can"t let her continue acting arrogant like that!"
"Right, we cannot allow the Zhou Family Style to become the second Taiji Fist!"
"Everyone, let"s stand together! Strip Rao Aimin of her martial arts!"
"Destroy Rao Aimin!"
Everyone was freely expressing their anger!
Besides the Zhou Family, many of those from the large sects followed along and shouted!
In the end, even those small sects who had much to gain from the subsidy that Zhou Tianpeng was offering, and a small group of non-affiliates, had unknowingly followed along and started shouting when they heard that!
"Protect our martial arts heritage!"
"Supporting Grandmaster Zhou!"
"Drive Rao Aimin out of our martial arts world!"
"The martial arts community has no place for such a grandmaster!"
"Right, our martial arts world does not need a grandmaster like that. Everyone, let"s stand united in denouncing Treacherous Rao!"
"Denounce Treacherous Rao!"