Defense Points

Following the completion of the Tao Te Ching, the system gave him two main missions and a bonus mission. The first mission was to comprehend face reading to a small perfection and the second mission was to copy the Daozang.

During dinner time, he casually asked his parents what face reading and Daozang was.

"The Daozang? You still have the system?" Li Fan curiously asked with a slightly wrinkled forehead.

Li Yun shook his head in denial. He had gained a bit more awareness of what was considered normal.

"Er… Just something that the teacher has mentioned in class," he replied.

Lu Suyin narrowed her eyes in suspicion. "You better go to class! If I hear any complaints from them again, I'll make you clean the storage room."

Li Yun nodded compliantly but internally cursed the teachers for ratting him out. His eyes shifted focus to his father.

"I don't know much, but isn't face reading just looking at faces? As for the Daozang…" Li Fan's voice trailed off, trying to recall where he had it from. He worked in a factory and had little understanding of the Daozang, but what little he knew was enough to scare Li Yun. "I heard on a tv show that the Daozang is a large collection of Taoist texts. The Tao Te Ching and Zhuangzi are considered a part of it, so you sort of read part of it already. Although I think there are 1,400 other books."

"1400?" Li Yun's mind ran wild trying to think how long it would take him to copy all the texts. He was getting faster, but it could take him years to complete the task.

The bonus mission was to complete the nine sets of daoyin exercises to small perfection. Daoyin exercises were a series of positions and movements to cultivate the mind and body, very similarly to taichi and yoga. Some positions were simple. Unfortunately, some of the positions, such as the split position in the Brocade of the Tiger, were difficult to accomplish as Li Yun wasn't in shape, lacking flexibility and core strength.

He had been training with Fatty Fang, but they were both still stocky and slow. It did help that they had to run away every time they encountered the bullies. Fatty Fang was the slowest, and usually ended up in a black and blue state.

"Just think of it as gaining defense points and pain resistance!" Li Yun would say after every losing battle.

Fatty Fang and Bufu glared at Li Yun whenever he told them that. They were always dragged into a mess because of him. After months of cowering and running away, Bufu finally had enough.

"I have an idea," Bufu suggested. "My second cousin Bu Tao knows some martial arts."

"Oh, wow, cool, how come you never mention him?" asked Fatty Fang.

"He's kinda scary."

Bufu got Bu Tao's contact information from his mom, and visited Bu Tao's home the following week. Bufu's mom greeted her cousin, while the kids met Bu Tao in his room.

Bu Tao was average height, but his arms were buff and toned. He had a boxy face and deep eyes, making him look like he was always in serious mode.

"So you really want to learn sanda?" Bu Tao asked the three elementary school kids.

He sized up the two overweight kids and one skinny kid.

"Yep!" they replied in unison. They weren't sure what sanda was, but it must have been some sort of martial arts.

Bu Tao wasn't opposed to teaching them, but sanda wasn't anything to joke around with. Before becoming a standard sport, sanda was a free combat martial art. It was a mixture of different styles and standardized around the 1970s as a response to a lack of practical combat sport. It was useful enough for the government to use it for military training.

"If you guys want to get into shape, you can come to the club to use their equipment, but you don't actually need to learn sanda," said Bu Tao. "If you truly want to learn sanda, just watch the other members first."

Prior to taking them to the club, Bu Tao had asked their parents to sign the application forms to join Yide City Sanda Club. They all signed the form thinking it was a typical martial arts club where a coach trained little kids. However, the Yide City Sanda Club was a bit different.

"This isn't a regular club, but I can't take you guys to the central district since it is a bit far," Bu Tao explained. "Our sister club there has a coach that trains kids your age. We don't have one here since there is little interest in martial arts around this area. Our club mainly caters to more serious practitioners."

"Why aren't there a lot of kids? I thought martial arts are getting more popular," said Bufu.

"Karate and taekwondo are popular. As for Chinese martial arts, after a certain age, most kids tend to give up after a few years," Bu Tao explained.

"Why is that?" Fatty Fang wondered. He didn't want to learn martial arts if it was going to be a waste of time.

"The basics and fundamentals of martial arts are jibengong and taolu. They are more difficult and complex than other forms of martial arts. As a result, it requires a lot of training and repetitions," said Bu Tao. "In other words, it can be a bit boring. Also, most other styles have better marketing like k-drama and movies. It's worse for sanda. Despite being our national sport, there are only 10,000 practitioners."

Fatty Fang and Bufu were a bit hesitant, but Li Yun didn't mind. He was used to repetition as he was also training Daoyin for his mission, an earlier form of taolu.

The club was spacious, but dimly lit and cluttered with mismatched furniture. The smell of tobacco was noticeable at every corner. The main room had three small rings, and one large ring located at the center of the room. The side room housed several old gym equipments.

Bu Tao introduced them to Lui Dashui, who was his coach. He was also the owner of the club who won the local championship ten years ago. He opened the club as a hobby and side job. His main job was running an internet cafe on the first floor. It was rare for the kids to see Lui Dashui as he was usually busy with the internet cafe.

They walked around as Bu Tao introduced them to some members. Most of the members kept to themselves and trained with their respective sparring partners and coaches. Bu Tao ushered them by the side of the ring where a sparring match was about to start between the skinny guy and tattoo guy.

After the ref signaled the match to begin, the toned skinny guy pounded straights and hooks at his opponent. The opponent, marked with a tiger tattoo, blocked and parried, moving back to avoid the impact. Once the skinny guy ran out of combos, the tattooed opponent jabbed and kicked. The skinny guy backed away once the kick connected with his shin, but the tattooed guy quickly followed up with a right hook, pounding him to the side of the ring.

The kids flinched, as though they felt the pain on the side of their face. If they weren't wearing gloves, the kids wondered how bloody the match would have been.

"Some tougher style tournaments use MMA style gloves instead of boxing gloves, but those are usually reserved for professionals," Bu Tao explained.

The coach quickly declared the tattooed guy the winner.

"Woah!" The kids stared in awe with their mouths slightly gaped. "This looks painful."

It wasn't the type of martial arts they were expecting.

"It looks like boxing and kickboxing," Fatty Fang commented.

"Sanda is a modified martial arts that incorporates a lot of styles," said Bu Tao. "Since you're just a beginner, I'll teach you some basics."

After the match, Bu Tao took them to an area with a 3x3 mat.

"Is there a type of martial arts you would like to train first?" asked Bu Tao. "When I started, I trained taijiquan, shuai jiao, and baquazhang."

Fatty Fang and Bufu were both a bit clueless. They had heard of taijiquan, shuai jiao, and baquazhang from watching old wuxia films, but they didn't know what to focus on.

"Taijiquan," Li Yun requested.

Bu Tao nodded.

Li Yun thought taijiquan was best suited to help him complete the bonus mission. He needed to train the forms and movement of the Eight Brocade-Yin and Yang sets and the Five Animal Qigong.