Things were running quite smoothly ever since Zhang Yong decided to train Yang Yi. In fact, Zhang Yong had opened a whole new world for Yang Yi. It was a world of professional killers and soldiers, a world where people used all their strength and wits to figure out ways of taking lives more efficiently.
Yang Yi was starting to get the sense that he had found the right teacher. However, he became much more nervous and less excited when he moved his belongings to the new cell.
The cell was quite small. There was a bunk bed sitting in the corner and barely enough space for one person to move around. That being said, it was still quite enough space for Yang Yi's training. As soon as Yang Yi laid his sheet on his new bed, Zhang Yong, who was already laying on his bed started giving out training instructions.
"Come on, show me any moves that you can do," Zhang Yong ordered as he quickly laid out on the upper half of the bunk bed.
"What? I don't know any moves," Yang Yi said timidly.
"What can you do then?"
"Uh, do you know Danny's blood brothers?"
"I know some of them."
"Ah Jiang taught me some combat techniques."
"Ah Jiang? Sure, then just show me what you learned from him."
Since Zhang Yong asked, Yang Yi quickly did a set of moves he learned from Ah Jiang. As expected of Yang Yi, he didn't miss any part of the sequencing that was taught to him, "This is the kind of combat technique they teach in the army. Your posture is good, but there's no power in it."
"Yeah, that's what Ah Jiang said," Yang Yi said as he nodded, "And another thing he said was that, even though I can remember every move in the right sequence, I don't know how to combine them effectively in a real fight."
Zhang Yong nodded, "That happens all the time with beginners. For now, you need to build core strength, but you can't just do strength training. We'll start training Martial Arts as well."
Martial Arts?
Yang Yi paused for a bit as he thought he'd heard Zhang Yong wrong.
"Martial Arts? Not combat?" Yang Yi said and narrowed his eyes.
"What about it?"
"I thought Martial Arts was just for show…"
Zhang Yong took a long, deep breath. He then quickly jumped down from his bed and looked straight into Yang Yi's eyes.
"Why would you say that? Where did you get the idea that Martial Arts is fake?" Zhang Yong asked in a rather threatening voice.
"No, I don't necessarily believe that... it's just…" Yang Yi said in a smaller voice, "You don't see any good fighters practicing Martial Arts these days…"
Zhang Yong crossed his arms in silence. After not saying anything for a moment, he eventually nodded his head for a bit, "You aren't wrong. Nowadays, Martial Arts only appears in legends but ceases to show its real form in practical situations. Even if Martial Arts does make an appearance in one of those fighting tournaments, it's really just kickboxing rather than traditional Chinese martial arts. Drunken style, the Praying Mantis, and many other styles. You don't see them in any real fights these days."
Yang Yi nodded, but Zhang Yong shook his head.
"Do you see what the problem lies?" Zhang Yong asked.
"No."
Zhang Yong crossed his arms and asked with a serious tone, "Let me ask you something: Why did our ancestors practice Martial Arts?"
"Was it some sort of exercise routine?" Yang Yi quickly answered, but found soon after that Zhang Yong was giving him a condescending look. It was almost like Yang Yi said something unexpectedly stupid.
"Uh, no. I mean," Yang Yi changed his answer, "Of course, they did it to neutralize their enemies more efficiently. Well, that's what Martial Arts was for most of the time."
"Indeed." Zhang Yong nodded, "It doesn't matter if we're talking about punches or kicks. Martial Arts was meant to kill since the day it was invented. Martial Arts is often mistaken as a style which is limited to only utilizing your arms and legs, but the real stuff is within cold weapons like swords, spears, and whatnot. You don't see much Wushu these days because, well, humans have progressed past that."
Yang Yi decided to keep nodding and let Zhang Yong keep explaining. Yang Yi didn't want to make himself sound stupid again.
"A weapon is a more efficient killing tool than a bare fist. But when you don't have a weapon, your fists become your last and most reliable weapon. But remember, most reliable doesn't mean the best in this case."
"Sure."
"Think about it. Back then in ancient times, when wars and crime were much more common, people practiced Martial Arts either for killing or for self-protection. But what's the good of learning how to wield a sword nowadays apart from making your muscles look bigger? Yes, there are more people training in martial arts nowadays, but the percentage of real martial artists has drastically declined. Do you get what I mean?"
"Yeah, I do. You're right."
"It's not that Martial Arts is fake, it's just that it isn't meant for this era. That's why it's impossible to see Martial Arts inside a fighting ring these days."
"But if that's the case," Yang Yi interrupted as soon as he saw an opening to talk, "Why is it that nowadays, most people don't even acknowledge Martial Arts as an actual fighting technique? I mean, even if the real stuff has only been passed down to a very small fraction of the total population, shouldn't we still be able to see them in practice at some point?"
Zhang Yong smiled, "You still don't get it. What you see in the rings are combat techniques. Martial Arts was meant for killing since the day it was invented."
"Oh, that's what it is! Martial Arts was never meant to be used inside a fighting ring!" Yang Yi clapped his hands as he finally understood what Zhang Yong had been trying to say all along.
"Real Martial Arts has no moves sequence!" Zhang Yong raised and clenched his fist, "We don't give fancy names to our techniques and put them on display for a show! If you expect to fight while coming up with fancy names for what you do, how about you go look for another way to defend yourself?"
As Zhang Yong dropped his fist, he continued speaking as he threw a pride-filled look at Yang Yi, "What Ah Jiang taught you was for one-on-one combat. If your opponents were amateurs, you should be able to take down three of them easily. But what I'm about to teach you should make you capable enough to overcome at least three to five decent fighters, or more than ten inexperienced fighters. But believe me when I say this: if you want to win easily against a strong opponent, or guarantee that you will survive against tens or hundreds of enemies, you must commit to real Martial Arts training!"
To summarize what Zhang Yong said, what Ah Jiang taught Yang Yi was for the sake of simply taking down his enemies, but what he was about to learn next was focused on killing his enemies.
"Alright, I'll practice Martial Arts. No complaints from me," Yang Yi said compliantly as he was finally convinced.
"Good. Real Martial Arts has no choreography and no fancy techniques. Also, you need a partner to spar with. You can only learn real Martial Arts from real fights," Zhang Yong said, then smiled. "You are lucky you get to train under someone as good as me. For now, I'm going to choose a style that suits you the most."
"Wow, sweet! What style suits me the most?" Yang Yi said enthusiastically.
"Some are better at boxing. Others are fit for kickboxing. There are also others who are better off doing Tai-chi or wrestling. We don't know what's best for you yet, but we'll start testing with Wing Chun because it's what I'm best at."
As Zhang Yong said that, he took a step back and got into a fighting posture. It was a standard Wing Chun stance, in which Zhang Yong had both of his arms pointed towards Yang Yi, both of his palms open and his knees slightly bent forward.
"Just attack me however you want," Zhang Yong said confidently, "Show me the worst that you can do. Don't hold back. You're not good enough to hurt me yet."