Joining the Sparring Partner Group

Chapter 17: Joining the Sparring Partner Group

The path of Martial Arts is one of constant advancement; to stand still is to fall behind.

Zhao Rui wasn't one of those top-tier geniuses or someone with heaven-defying cultivation methods, where his Internal Energy would increase ceaselessly even without practice.

So, even though it was vacation, he still had to meditate and cultivate as usual.

Martial arts are endless!

The night passed without incident!

The next morning, Zhao Rui, as always, woke up early and headed to the small grove to practice his fundamental skills.

Regulating his breath, guiding Qi to its source, merging with nature's innate power, and cultivating the cycle of the Heavenly Circuit.

Zhao Rui exhaled a breath of True Qi, which transformed into an invisible force, shooting out over three meters.

Although its power was extremely low, being able to project inner qi externally was already incredibly rare and valuable.

This was also thanks to the Cloud Hand Plucks Stars he practiced, which naturally came with a cloud-qi attribute, making the circulation of Internal Energy even more skillful.

Zhao Rui trained for about an hour and then saw many young people arriving.

Like Zhao Rui, they were all Martial Arts Students, some only thirteen or fourteen years old, just starting junior high.

Martial arts weren't a secret; some common martial arts and Qi cultivation methods had long been made public.

Zhao Rui trained for a while longer, then got up and returned home. After a simple wash-up, he rode his bike to the city center.

As a second-tier city, Lin City's urban area was quite prosperous, with towering buildings and countless shops.

Zhao Rui arrived in front of a large building. He glanced at the conspicuous GG sign at the entrance and stepped inside.

Soon, he reached the tenth-floor corridor and saw several eye-catching GG signs hanging at the entrance.

"Wende Martial Way, your necessary path to the peak."

"Wende Martial Way, a century of accumulation, creating today's extraordinary."

Zhao Rui paused briefly before stepping inside.

A young girl at the front desk, about seventeen or eighteen, saw him enter and stood up to greet him, "Sir, are you here to register?"

"I'd like to see your manager," Zhao Rui said.

"Looking for our manager? Please wait a moment."

The girl picked up her phone and made a call. Soon, a burly man, tall and strong, walked over.

"You looking for me?" the burly man asked, sizing Zhao Rui up and down.

"Hello, I'm here to apply for a sparring partner position!" Zhao Rui said directly.

"Sparring partner?" The burly man was taken aback, his gaze on Zhao Rui becoming more scrutinizing.

"I'm a Gaokao graduate, looking for a job during the summer vacation to earn some money. I heard sparring partners are paid well," Zhao Rui said with a smile.

"Oh!" Hearing Zhao Rui's explanation, the burly man nodded, then slightly raised his head and asked, "What's your rank, and what's your main discipline?"

"Level four, main discipline is palm techniques!"

"Palm techniques, huh!" The burly man hesitated, then took out his phone and made another call.

Zhao Rui didn't rush, waiting quietly. After a while, the burly man came back to his senses, nodded at him, and said, "You're eighteen, right? We need to sign an agreement to be a sparring partner."

"I am, I know!" Zhao Rui replied readily. Sparring carried risks, and being a sparring partner was no different. It wasn't uncommon for someone to accidentally kill or cripple a sparring partner.

"Alright, follow me. We happen to be short on palm technique sparring partners recently," the burly man said as he walked inside.

"Our establishment has ten branches in total. This is the Huaiyin Road branch. We currently have ten sparring partners, and we can usually get seven or eight gigs a day. The pricing is calculated based on the number of people and time. Three hundred per hour! Anything over the hour is charged by the minute..."

Zhao Rui's face twitched slightly as he listened to the burly man's introduction. It sounded just like a foot massage parlor. He had only known about the sparring partner profession before and some of the job content, but he hadn't known about the billing method.

"No problem!" A technician is a technician, after all. A sparring partner also "accompanies," doesn't he!

Being paid to eat, drink, and dance is a service industry, that makes no sense. Being a Sparring Partner shouldn't be any different!

No wonder talented Martial Artists are unwilling to be Sparring Partners. It's a job serving others; how could it be a good job!

Upon entering the office, the burly man introduced himself as Liu Han.

He was the manager of this branch and said Zhao Rui could contact him directly if he had any issues.

After a brief introduction to the establishment, the burly man began to inquire in detail about Zhao Rui's situation.

Following a period of communication, the burly man skipped the trial phase and directly signed a Martial Way Sparring Partner agreement with Zhao Rui.

The main content involved regulations and measures concerning safety, such as purchasing insurance and providing professional coaches for on-site protection, among other things.

After the agreement was signed, Liu Han called over Hou Longfei, the head of the coaching team, and introduced Zhao Rui to him.

Hou Longfei was accustomed to these kinds of summer jobs. After hearing the manager's account, he took Zhao Rui to the training hall.

The training hall was located at the very back of the building. The entire space was quite spacious, with a large training floor and several competition areas of varying sizes immediately visible.

There were protective facilities all around the venue.

In the corners of the area, there were various training equipment and several blunt weapons.

"Perfect timing, a few students are coming for training today. You can take one of them. He's relatively weak, only a Level 3 Martial Artist, so control your strength."

Hou Longfei selected a locker for Zhao Rui. After showing him around the venue and the changing rooms, he assigned him a job.

"Understood, Coach!"

Zhao Rui nodded in agreement and sat in the rest area by the side of the hall, observing the training scene.

There were no less than fifty people practicing martial arts in the hall, mostly teenagers, performing movements in unison with their coaches.

There was also a portion of youths his age or older, most of whom trained on their own.

Several other youths were sitting next to Zhao Rui, also resting. Some were in their thirties, others in their early twenties.

They were all silent, as if Zhao Rui's arrival had nothing to do with them.

Zhao Rui wasn't bothered by their silence and sat up straight, circulating his energy to meditate and adjust his breathing.

About half an hour later, Hou Longfei walked over, called Zhao Rui up, and led him into the training hall.

"This is our new Sparring Partner, Zhao Rui. He's skilled in palm techniques. Shaojie, he'll be your Sparring Partner today. You should try out a new technique too."

"Technique..."

Zhao Rui felt like slapping him. I'm skilled in palm techniques, not just 'techniques'!

Never mind, it's for the money, for the advancement points. I'll endure it!

After changing into his Martial Way uniform and putting on his protective gear, the two went up to the arena. This arena was similar in style to the fighting rings of his previous life, but the level of protection was entirely different.

Let alone the surrounding pillars, even the glass was high-strength, explosion-proof glass. The entire Martial Way arena was quite expensive.

"Taiyi Light Splitting Sword!"

The student he was sparring with was still a half-grown kid, but his every move was filled with momentum. At his age, he was already a Level 3 Martial Artist, clearly possessing exceptional talent.

"Taihang Thirteen Palms!"

Announcing one's techniques before sparring was a form of courtesy, as it wasn't a fight to the death.

The purpose of a Sparring Partner was to help the trainee improve their competitive skill.

It was fine that the opponent used a sword; weapons and unarmed combat were intrinsically linked.

Zhao Rui also had a preferred weapon, the spear. As the saying goes, an inch longer is an inch stronger.

However, he didn't use it. Firstly, the arena was too small. Secondly, facing a blade unarmed was a skill that Martial Artists often needed to practice.