Chapter 1 The Beginning

Blue Star, July 2, 2081, 13:50. Binhai City, the most prosperous city in Xia Country, was covered in dark clouds, and thunder rumbled, signaling an imminent rainstorm.

"Summer thunderstorms come and go as they please." In a room on the top floor of the Starry Sky Combat Arena, a young man watched the dark clouds and lightning outside through the floor-to-ceiling windows. Raindrops began to patter against the window glass.

The young man walked to the center of the room, placed his hands on the ground, and slowly and steadily began to do a handstand. First, a straight handstand with both hands, then he lifted one hand, turning it into a one-handed handstand with his right hand.

"Hoo...haa..."

The sound of breathing rang in his ears. Xu Jingming felt the tightening of his core muscle groups and the stimulation of his entire body weight on his right arm.

For the first three minutes, his arm felt comfortable, the muscles and bones of his arm were deeply stimulated, but in the fourth minute, the muscles in his palm felt a little cramped and painful. The fifth minute was even more painful, but Xu Jingming was used to it. After persisting for five minutes, he naturally switched to a one-handed handstand with his left hand.

"I wonder if Dad's back is any better today." While doing a one-handed handstand, Xu Jingming's thoughts drifted to his father. His father was sixty years old this year, and his back injury was a chronic problem. Yesterday, he heard his mother say on the phone that his father's back injury had flared up again when he was moving heavy objects...

"I'll go back to my hometown after I'm done with this busy period," Xu Jingming thought.

The one-handed handstand was not a training method taught by the national team, but one his father had taught him when he was a child.

When Xu Jingming was young, he was in poor health, so his father taught him martial arts to strengthen his body, including the "one-armed handstand stance." Because long-term practice had been effective, it had become one of his five daily stance exercises. He practiced through the coldest days of winter and the hottest days of summer. He had been practicing for twenty years, and he would persevere even when sick or injured. He wouldn't stop unless there was a very special reason. As the saying goes, 'Practicing martial arts without practicing basic skills is a waste of time in old age.' This so-called 'skill' is daily basic training.

If he stopped for three to five days, his muscles, bones, and other aspects would decline.

After finishing the one-armed handstand stance, Xu Jingming walked to his desk, sat down, took a few sips of water, and looked at the rainstorm outside the window.

"When the humidity gets heavy, my leg starts to hurt." Xu Jingming looked at his right leg and gently rubbed it. "I've never stopped doing rehabilitative exercises every day, but my right leg... it's not getting any better."

"If my right leg hadn't been injured, I should have had a chance to compete for the world number one spot," Xu Jingming said silently.

Injuries are the most feared thing in the career of every martial arts master. The "broken leg" injury was a nightmare for Xu Jingming.

"Di di di..." Suddenly, a sound rang out.

Xu Jingming raised his head and said, "Xiao Bai, answer the video call."

A light condensed in front of Xu Jingming, forming a two-meter-high screen. In the screen, a burly, fat man was sitting in a car, smiling and shouting, "Old Xu, we've already left the hotel. I estimate we'll arrive at your Starry Sky Combat Arena in about 20 minutes. Haha, it's been over a year since we've seen each other. We have to have a good drink tonight."

"Don't worry, Da Xiong, I've already booked a barbecue restaurant." Xu Jingming saw his childhood friend and said with a smile, "The rain is pretty heavy. Be careful on the road."

"Don't worry, don't worry," the burly, fat man continued. "These kids from the provincial training team all admire you. They want to see your spearmanship. You have to give them some guidance later, so they can understand the gap between them and world-class experts."

"The young people these days are more powerful than the last. It would be good enough if I didn't fall behind," Xu Jingming said with a smile.

"How could you fall behind? I hope you can fall behind. If you fall behind, it means our province has produced another genius," Da Xiong laughed. "Okay, I won't chat anymore. See you later."

"See you later." Xu Jingming swiped his hand, and the screen in mid-air disappeared.

Training the Jiangnan Province training team for ten days and charging a fee of 50,000 Blue Star dollars wouldn't even cover the venue fee. But for the combat arena, being able to train the provincial training team was also an advertisement and could attract more combat enthusiasts to become members of the combat arena.

"Professional athletes have to make money even after they retire," Xu Jingming said as he got up to take a shower and change his clothes.

Combat professional athletes sound glamorous, but in reality, they only earn some "appearance fees" during their peak. There are very few professional athletes in the world who earn over 100 million in their careers. Most professional athletes just make a living.

As for after retirement, it's even harder to make money. Although Xu Jingming was also a world-class martial arts master, his best result in the World Martial Arts Competition was only in the top eight. Income in the combat world is shaped like a pyramid, with only a very small number at the top! The income of the first place is ridiculously high, and the second, third, fourth... decline sharply.

******

Xu Jingming stood at the entrance of the Starry Sky Combat Arena waiting, with a few staff members accompanying him. From afar, he saw an electric bus driving through the rain.

When the electric bus stopped and the door opened, more than ten members of the Jiangnan Province training team got off one after another.

"Da Xiong." Xu Jingming immediately saw the burly, fat man who got off first. That was his good brother, Liu Chongyuan.

"Old Xu." Liu Chongyuan walked over and excitedly hugged Xu Jingming, slapping him hard on the back. Xu Jingming grimaced, but could only treat it as a massage.

Liu Chongyuan was two meters and three centimeters tall, weighed more than one hundred and eighty kilograms, and looked like a standing bear. He was also a professional-level martial arts master back in the day, wielding a shield in one hand and an axe in the other. When his World Martial Arts Alliance score was at its highest, he had reached 39th place, so he was able to secure a position in the Provincial Sports Bureau.

"This is Coach Xu." Liu Chongyuan grinned and said, "The Coach Xu you've all been dreaming about!"

"Xu Jingming!"

"The Gun Demon, Xu Jingming!"

"We're seeing him in person!" The provincial team members were all a little excited. As industry insiders, they naturally admired this senior.

Xu Jingming looked at these team members and seemed to see himself back then.

Young and full of vigor!

Unlike himself, who had wandered through martial arts competitions and could only retire with a body full of injuries.

Xu Jingming smiled and said, "A Chen, take them to choose their weapons."

"Yes, Brother Xu," the young staff member responded.

"Da Xiong, let's go up to the third floor and wait for them first." Xu Jingming and Liu Chongyuan, these two good brothers, happily went up to the third floor first.

...

The Starry Sky Combat Arena's weapon room was five hundred square meters in size, with an astonishing number of cold weapons such as knives, spears, swords, clubs, shields, axes, hammers, and flails. These were all martial arts competition equipment. For example, the knives and swords were not only unsharpened, but also wrapped in a layer of cushioning material to greatly improve safety. Like the spears, the shafts of these competition spears had data on them: length, diameter of the large and small ends, and weight. There were hundreds of spears, lined up against the wall.

"As expected of the Starry Sky Combat Arena, the best combat arena in Binhai City. The weapons are complete," the eleven members of the provincial training team, all of whom used spears, participated in Xu Jingming's training for this reason.

In terms of spearmanship alone, Xu Jingming was recognized as being in the top ten of all professional martial arts masters in history.

The competition spears had clear data, and the eleven members quickly selected their usual weapons.

"This is the first time I've seen Xu Jingming in real life. He looks very ordinary, not as intimidating as he does in videos," a tall man said while trying out a spear.

"He feels a lot thinner than he does in the videos," another young boy said.

"He is thinner," a stocky man nodded and said. "When he hadn't retired, I saw him compete several times in person. According to the World Martial Arts Alliance's publicly available data, he was one meter seventy-eight centimeters tall and weighed ninety-three kilograms. Now he's lost a lot of weight. He probably weighs no more than eighty-five kilograms."

The provincial team members discussed.

They all knew very well that a height of one meter seventy-eight centimeters and a weight of eighty-plus kilograms might be slightly fat for ordinary people. But for professional martial arts masters, with heavy bones and a high muscle ratio, it was a bit thin.

"With a decrease in weight, his strength must have decreased as well."

"I wonder how much strength he still has."

"Some professional athletes give up training after retiring, and their bodies become deformed. Their strength is much worse."

The team members talked among themselves.

"I wanted to see how much of a gap there was between myself and a World Martial Arts Competition contestant, but who knew he would have lost so much weight? I wonder how much of his strength is left," the stocky man said with some reluctance. He had been selected for the national training team once last year, and his goal was the highest-level combat event – the World Martial Arts Competition. He originally had expectations for Xu Jingming, who had twice made it into the World Martial Arts Competition, but now he was somewhat disappointed.

With his weight reduced, how much strength did Xu Jingming have left? Did he still have the domineering and powerful presence of the 'Gun Demon' from back then?

"Even if his strength has declined, his experience is still there," the tall man next to him said with a smile. "It's still enough to give us guidance."

"Maybe he won't even spar with us," the young boy muttered. They had seen many older generation coaches give guidance, but very few would actually spar with them.

******

On the third floor of the Starry Sky Combat Arena, there was a martial arts arena that met international martial arts competition standards. The arena was 20 meters long and 20 meters wide, surrounded by a six-meter-high wire mesh fence.

The provincial training team members walked into the third floor and saw Coach Liu and Xu Jingming standing there.

"Line up," Xu Jingming said familiarly. He had been a member of the Jiangnan Province team back then, before being selected as a key member of the national team.

The eleven team members, each holding a spear, lined up in an orderly fashion.

Perhaps Xu Jingming's strength had been greatly reduced after his retirement, but his past achievements still made these team members admire and respect him, so they were naturally very obedient.

"Starting today, I am your coach. The training camp will last for a total of ten days. Except for today, when the training time is in the afternoon, starting tomorrow, it will be from nine to eleven in the morning," Xu Jingming's eyes swept over them. "I don't want anyone to be late or leave early."

"Yes," the eleven team members responded in unison.

"Good, for our first meeting, let's go down and try your skills first, so I can see your strength," Xu Jingming said. "That way, I can teach you according to your aptitude."

"Go down and try our skills?" The team members looked at each other, both surprised and delighted.

"Spar in the arena?"

"Xu Jingming has the guts to spar?" The team members couldn't hide their joy. Since Xu Jingming dared to do so, it meant that he still maintained most of his peak strength after his retirement.

————

Tomato's new book has been officially released!

The new book has been in preparation for a long time, and I have absolute confidence in it! I also hope everyone will support it.

Daily updates: Tentatively one chapter around 10:00 AM and one chapter around 12:00 PM every day.