Chapter 138 Training the Team

Xu Jingming looked at their expressions and guessed what these young people were thinking. He smiled and said, "I've looked at your profiles. Currently, there are a total of eleven spear users in the Jiangnan Province team, and all of you are here. Three of you are high school students who were specially recruited. The three of you youngsters, come up one by one and put on your armor."

Martial arts competitions required full armor, helmets, and even neck protection—nothing could be omitted.

Cold weapon combat, even with unsharpened weapons wrapped in cushioning material, still had terrifying impact. Without professional equipment, people could die.

Xu Jingming also donned his armor and helmet, looking at the team members through the mesh of his visor.

"Everyone, enter the arena." Xu Jingming, spear in hand, walked through the iron mesh gate into the arena. The eleven team members and their leader, Coach Liu, followed.

"Everyone else, stand to the side. Feng Yu, you're up first. Liu Hao, prepare yourself," Xu Jingming said.

A formal competition arena should only have two combatants. However, this was just a guidance match. A space of twenty by twenty meters was more than enough for Xu Jingming to guide the provincial team members, so he allowed the other members to observe up close. Without the wire mesh obstructing the view, they could see more clearly.

"Watch carefully. If your spearmanship is even half as good as Coach Xu's, you'll be able to make it into the World Martial Arts Tournament," Coach Liu Chongyuan said. The other team members held their breaths, watching intently. It was a rare opportunity to see a master like Spear Demon Xu Jingming in action up close.

A young man, also in armor and holding a spear, walked to face Xu Jingming, ten meters apart.

"Referee system, activate," Xu Jingming said.

A beam of light descended from above the arena, coalescing into a giant face that looked down and announced, "The match begins."

Nowadays, martial arts competitions used intelligent referees. The intelligent referee cameras could slow down footage by a thousand times to accurately judge every action, and so far, there had never been an error.

"Come on," Xu Jingming said, looking at the young Feng Yu. Specially recruited high school students were generally weaker; they were recruited for their potential and cultivated.

"Coach, be careful! Many competitors can't withstand a single thrust from me when I compete," the youthful Feng Yu said confidently.

"If you have the ability, try touching me first," Xu Jingming teased.

Feng Yu confidently took a sudden step forward, moving extremely fast and fiercely. In just a few steps, he closed the distance. His forward momentum transitioned into a thrust of his spear, the air whistling as it moved.

Feng Yu practiced this advancing thrust five hundred times every day, each time with all his might. Having started practicing the spear at the age of twelve, he had been at it for five years. Now, this thrust was as fast as a phantom image and could pierce through thick armor! Even with competition spears—with rounded tips and cushioning material—the impact still carried over eight hundred pounds of force.

"Boom!" The sound of the spear tearing through the air was clearly audible, but Xu Jingming only took a single step back.

The tip of the spear stopped twenty centimeters from Xu Jingming, never touching him at all.

"Huh?" Feng Yu was slightly taken aback. Immediately, his spearmanship changed, becoming a flurry of jabs aimed at Xu Jingming.

Each jab was a potentially dangerous attack, but Xu Jingming, like a cat, simply moved to evade every single thrust.

"A high school student from the provincial team…" Xu Jingming recalled his own youthful days; he had been just as inexperienced back then.

"Isn't he supposed to have a serious leg injury, with very weak footwork? How come I can't touch him? Each time, I'm only twenty or thirty centimeters away," Feng Yu thought, unwilling, as he repeatedly attacked. His spearmanship was dazzling, but he couldn't touch Xu Jingming at all.

After dozens of thrusts, Xu Jingming, who had been constantly moving, made his first move. He raised his spear, and the moment it touched Feng Yu's angrily thrust spear, the shadow of Xu Jingming's spear blurred for a moment, suddenly unleashing a terrifying burst of power.

"Bang!"

The muffled sound of impact was the sound of the spear shafts colliding. The spear in Feng Yu's hand was sent flying.

Feng Yu's eyes widened. His hands, which had been gripping the spear, were trembling. He stared blankly at the spear that had fallen to the ground some distance away. "I have at least two hundred pounds of grip strength in one hand. How could I have let go so easily?"

He had been holding the spear with both hands, but with just one collision of the shafts, his hands went numb, and the spear flew away.

"A bit flashy. Your footwork is weak, and your spearmanship is mediocre," Xu Jingming commented. This kind of opponent wasn't even worth him wearing full armor, but martial arts competitions didn't allow for carelessness; a moment of carelessness could lead to a lifetime of regret.

"I don't really understand spearmanship," Coach Liu Chongyuan said with a laugh. "But this kid's footwork is indeed weak. To us, it's like watching slow motion."

Feng Yu looked at Xu Jingming with some confusion. "Coach, even if my footwork is weak, how can I not touch you at all when I'm wielding a spear that's over two meters long?"

"Your arms and the spear are only so long. The maximum attack range is fixed," Xu Jingming explained. "Based on your footwork, I can determine the maximum range your spear can reach. By maintaining a certain distance, I can ensure you can't touch me at all. This is a basic skill for professional players."

"The maximum attack range is fixed? If I maintain my distance, he can't touch me?" Feng Yu muttered. He had felt it just now; Xu Jingming's movements were simple, but no matter how hard he tried, he just couldn't touch him.

"The essence of footwork lies in three things: neural reflexes, spatial awareness, and control of body balance," Xu Jingming said. "You're very rough in all three areas. Like Coach Liu said, your footwork is like slow motion to a professional."

"This kid was just recruited into the provincial team after finishing his college entrance exam," Liu Chongyuan said from the side. "He's got a lot of wild habits. He needs to work hard on his footwork."

Feng Yu immediately asked, "Coach Xu, what problems do I have with my spearmanship?"

He admitted that his footwork was weak.

But he was most confident in his spearmanship.

"Your spearmanship… strictly speaking, only that first thrust, where you concentrated all the force of your forward momentum into that one strike, is at a professional level. The other thrusts, strikes, parries, and so on are all very weak," Xu Jingming said. Weapon combat was not child's play; it was the most dangerous form of combat. Serious injuries and disabilities sometimes happened. Since he was their coach, he had to point out their problems clearly.

The other ten team members felt the pressure from Xu Jingming, and they were also eager to try.

…

"Bang." The spear in the second high school student's hand was also sent flying the moment it touched Xu Jingming's spear. Even though he had prepared himself, trying hard to grip it tightly and dissipate the force, it was useless.

…

"Bang!" "Bang!" "Bang!" "Bang!" "Bang!" "Bang!"…

One spear after another flew away!

The provincial team members were all dumbfounded.

Even the two veterans, Huang Feng and Zhang Qi, who had participated in national training camps, were powerless against Xu Jingming.

Among them, only Zhang Qi forced Xu Jingming to make two moves! The first strike knocked Zhang Qi's spear aside, but Zhang Qi managed to hold onto it, preventing it from flying away. However, this left his defenses wide open, and Xu Jingming's second strike pierced Zhang Qi's chest. The impact caused the armor to light up red, indicating that Zhang Qi had lost!

Against the other team members, Xu Jingming only made one move—a defensive parry—and their spears were sent flying; they couldn't hold onto them at all.

"Is this the Spear Demon?"

"The World Martial Arts Tournament has been held for nearly thirty years. In terms of spearmanship, Xu Jingming is recognized as being in the top ten of all professional players in history. I had imagined it, but after fighting him, I realized the gap is too big!"

"Spear Demon Xu Jingming's most famous move is the 'Shadowless Thrust,' but he doesn't even need to use that kind of ultimate technique against us."

"If our spearmanship could reach half his level, it would be enough to make it into the World Martial Arts Tournament, right?"

The team members' eyes were excited and fanatical.

Only by experiencing it firsthand could they understand how terrifying the spearmanship of a historical top ten player was. They even felt that Spear Demon Xu Jingming was still at his peak strength, or perhaps even stronger than he was at his peak!

Two hours later.

"Today's initial training session should have made everyone clear about their own shortcomings," Xu Jingming said, looking at the provincial team members. The team members were all excited and fanatical, feeling that this training was really worth it.

"In the next nine days, we will focus on one basic training item each day. After the training camp ends, you must continue to practice daily. Spearmanship requires years of practice to naturally transfer the force of your entire body into each strike. It requires comprehension and diligent practice," Xu Jingming said.

"Yes, Coach," the eleven team members replied in unison, clearly convinced and worshipful of Xu Jingming.

"Alright, dismissed," Xu Jingming nodded.

"You guys take the car back to the hotel first," Coach Liu Chongyuan instructed from the side.

"Okay," the team members put down their weapons and left in groups of twos and threes.

"A'Chen, take Coach Liu to sit for a while," Xu Jingming said. "Da Xiong, I'm all sweaty. I'm going to take a shower and change my clothes. We'll meet downstairs later. The barbecue restaurant next to our martial arts hall is my favorite barbecue restaurant in Binhai City."

"Oh? Then I must try it," Liu Chongyuan, who was built like a bear, said with anticipation. Professional players like them trained hard and ate a lot, and they all loved meat.

Xu Jingming hurried off to shower. Two hours of training, even as a coach, had left him completely soaked. But he was used to it. In martial arts training, it was common for clothes to get soaked, be wrung out, get soaked again, and be wrung out again.

…

After Xu Jingming washed up and changed into a short-sleeved shirt and loose pants, he walked out and saw a middle-aged man smoking outside the door.

"Senior Brother, what brings you here?" Xu Jingming said with surprise and a smile. The man before him was Fang Xinglong, the owner of Xingkong Martial Arts Hall! Xingkong Martial Arts Hall was a first-class martial arts hall in Binhai City, with a construction area of over 11,000 square meters. Xu Jingming, as a professional martial artist, couldn't afford such a large investment; he had been invited to be the head coach.

Fang Xinglong's main business was selling liquor. He was a boss worth billions who loved martial arts weapon combat and was willing to spend money. He was quite famous in martial arts circles and had also become a disciple of "Fierce Tiger" Liu Hai.

Since the creation of the World Martial Arts Tournament nearly thirty years ago, Liu Hai had been the head coach of the national team for a full twenty years. Most of the national team members had to call him Master.

At the time of the first World Martial Arts Tournament, Liu Hai was already forty-five years old. As an older generation martial arts master, he was overjoyed to discover such a tournament. He competed in five consecutive World Martial Arts Tournaments, fighting against masters from all over the world! In the early days, because the protection rules were not perfect, the competitions were more dangerous than they were now. Liu Hai had won two third places, two second places, and one world first place! After winning the world first place, he announced his retirement. He became the head coach of the national team at the age of fifty and retired at the age of seventy.

Xu Jingming had been a core member of the national team and Liu Hai's beloved disciple. Fang Xinglong was an amateur player, but he loved combat and had also tried to become a disciple of Liu Hai.

"Jingming," Fang Xinglong said, taking a drag on his cigarette and glancing at his good brother. "Did you offend someone?"