Lui Dashui was surprised by the result, but thinking back to when they were little, Li Yun had always been better at evasion and counters. He also had a good sense of what the next attack would be and use it to formulate a plan to take down the enemy. It was typical for Li Yun to drain the opponents of their stamina and then counter-attack to swiftly stun the person.

“Dr. Li, you sure could have been a great fighter if you had stuck with it,” Lui Dashui said as he laughed loudly. “Are you sure you need my guidelines? It’s like you never even left the gym.”

After college, Li Yun had been using Zuowang in a variety of competitions. It was interesting and fascinating. Not only that, it didn’t require him to be in a position of too much pain.

Thinking about pain, Li Yun winced, “Damn! Couldn’t you punch lighter in a spar!?”

Li Yun complained, rubbing on his sore arms and knees. It was ironic that he was putting poison into his body regularly and now he was complaining about physical pain. He wasn’t sure if there would be any lasting impact on his body, but he could tell from the way his body was patching up the sore spots that his body was a lot stronger than before.

No pain no gain wasn’t just a regular saying. It was how muscles were built, by constantly breaking down and rebuilding stronger muscles.

“Said the guy who almost pummeled me to death,” Fatty Fang barked back as he rubbed the side of his hip and stretched his spine from side to side.

Li Yun had struck Fatty Fang in the back where the lungs and heart were located. The blow temporarily constricted the cardiac and breathing function of both organs, causing Fatty Fang to blank out for a few seconds.

“You’re being overdramatic, you had the worst beating,” Li Yun said as he looked around the room. “I remember you guys have a bo staff here.”

“Are you serious?” Fatty Fang wasn’t an expert on weaponry, but Li Yun had done a lot of wushu with different weaponry. A lot of people complained that Olympic-style Wushu was comparable to dancing, but Fatty Fang didn’t want to be at the receiving end of the stick.

“Perfect timing, Guhan can assist you with that,” said Lui Dashui. “Do you want to wear protective gear?”

Li Yun looked to a young college student who had just arrived. Lui Dashui introduced them. Guhan was also trained in classical wushu before he started learning sanda and could use three different types of weapons.

“Guhan, Li Yun also trained in classical Wushu style when he was middle school, so don’t look down on him just because he hasn’t been training in a while,” Lui Dashui warned.

“Coach, he just took down Brother Fang,” Guhan didn’t understand why his coach had to warn him.

One of the first things people learned in martial arts was never to underestimate the opponents. It wasn’t just a matter of winning or losing, but as many people took wushu for self-defense, it was a matter of life and death. Guhan took the protective gear and started to wear them.

“Dr. Li, you’re not going to wear anything?” asked Lui Dashui in quite a bit of shock.

Li Yun was always the one who requested to wear as much protective gear and padding as possible.

“If I hurt myself, I can probably treat it?” Li Yun felt like his body could take a couple of hits. The only thing he decided to wear was the headgear.

With a bo staff in hand, Li Yun spun it around once. It felt so much lighter than he had imagined. He had watched a lot of fencing matches, but staff, swords, and many basic weapons were difficult to train because it wasn’t a common competition.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

He was able to find ways to watch live feeds of matches from historical European Martial Arts, but due to the nature of weapons, it was extremely difficult to train. There were too many paddings and the fights were often too short to understand the nature of weapons.

The best way to learn was probably to be kidnapped by a shady underground assassin organization and train in battle royal style. Yes, people would die, but it was usually the best method to train people in weapons.

Li Yun was only a simple doctor, there were only so many ways for him to train weapons such as staff. Unfortunately, other types of weapons were not allowed. Even if Li Yun used a paring knife, he doubted there were people who would even want to spar with him.

As the stage was set for the sparring match, both Li Yun and Zhuhai paced around the mat and gauged each other movements. The mat area was much bigger than the ring, giving them more movability and fighting style. The two adversaries were complete strangers, so it was difficult to understand how one would act. Judging from the tallness and leanness of Guhan, it was possible he was a dexterity and form expert. Wushu competitions were based on form.

Li Yun waited for Guhan to attack first, but it also looked like Guhan was waiting for Li Yun to attack first. For the two cautious fighters, they paced around in a circle and watched the opponent carefully.

“Brother Dashui, where did you find this kid?” Li Yun spoke out loudly. “Why is it always some bullied kid?”

Lui Dashui roared out with laughter. “He stopped three years ago to sign up. Don’t take him lightly just because he’s a freshman!”

“Gee, where do they grow them these days!” Li Yun looked at Guhan’s 193 cm frame and 85 kg of mostly muscle.

Li Yun was 80 kg and shorter, so his disadvantage wasn’t just reach, but weight and fighting force. Fatty Fang looked more threatening with his mature face, 198 cm, and 100kg. The only problem with Fatty Fang was he was much slower. The way Guhan was pacing around, he looked much more nimble.

“You’re not going to attack first?” Li Yun taunted as he prodded mindlessly with the bo staff, but he was adjusting to the length and weight.

Guhan ignored the taunt and retained his guard stance.

“You’re not going to go very far being on the defense all the time,” Li Yun taunted again.

Lui Dashui and Fatty Fang both laugh, “It takes one to know one!”

“Hey, things change, who said I’m always on defense first?” Li Yun asked, and then quickly swung from the right as hard as possible.

Guhan, being already in guard position, saw it coming quickly on his left, and held his staff stationary to block the incoming attack. As soon as the hit connected, Guhan jumped back to reduce the impact. Once he regained a good distance in between them, his eyes turned sharper.

“Damn! Are you sure you haven’t been working out?” Lui Dahsui could hear the echo of the staff clashing from afar.

Guhan looked at his arms, slightly vibrating from the aftereffect of blocking Li Yun’s attack. He tightened his grip on the staff.

“If you don’t start attacking, you’re not going to last long,” Li Yun’s warning wasn’t just to get Guhan to attack, he was being serious.

At that moment, Guhan began to attack with Li Yun continuously blocking.

“When did little Yun get so good at this?” asked Lui Dashui. “I thought he didn’t like sparring.”

“Li Yun has always been working out on his own, so I could never tell what he’s up to,” Fatty Fang replied. “You know out of the three of us, Li Yun always had better fighting IQ. The only problem was getting him to fight.”

Lui Dashui nodded. Li Yun was afraid of getting physically injured, but seeing him fighting Guhan with only a simple headgear felt like being in a twilight zone.

“Why is he training?” Lui Dashui wondered.

Fatty Fang had heard that Li Yun was planning something, but he wasn’t sure of the reason. After a few bouts around the mat, Guhan was sweating profusely, but he wasn’t giving up.

“Giving up isn’t a bad thing,” Li Yun said to the heaving Guhan.

Guhan was the type of person who would not submit unless he was knocked out. The problem with that playing style was that people like that didn’t live long. The risk of developing chronic traumatic brain injury was a lot higher. He was resolved to continue.

A furious slew of attacks with different patterns radiated from Guhan. He threw in a couple of thrusts to throw Li Yun off, but Li Yun easily deflected it with his own staff. As they were exchanging blows, Guhan wasn’t able to figure out why Li Yun wasn’t attacking. There were times his stances were so off-balanced that Li Yun could have taken the advantage to knock him down.

Just as Guhan was thinking, Li Yun immediately attacked, striking both the arms and then at the bo staff, forcing it to fly out of Guhan’s hand and into the wall. The bo staff bounced off the wall and also the wooden floor. The clattering of the staff echoed throughout the gym where everyone surrounding the mat had stopped talking to comprehend what had happened. Li Yun’s movement was so fast that everyone wanted to see the security camera for the replay.

“I think that settles it,” said Lui Dashui.