Chapter 124 - Strategizing About the Dojo

While anticipating tomorrow, Lin Yao gradually fell asleep.

The next day, as the weather forecast had predicted, there was no rain in the sky. However, heavy clouds obstructed the sky and blocked most of the sun.

‘Sigh… Why isn’t it a bright, sunny sky?’

Lin Yao sighed when he discovered that it was a cloudy day. In order to better absorb solar energy, he even took off his Type VII Electric Current Stimulation Combat Suit, which he had been wearing all the time. He then stood shirtless outside the room of the training ground to bask in the sun.

As he stood under the layers of clouds with a naked upper body, Lin Yao’s cells were akin to a starving, thirsty desert devouring solar energy greedily.

As he gradually replenished the solar energy in his body, the Body of Light was activated bit by bit, and Light Adjustment slowly began to work again.

‘I feel good now.’

Three hours later, at 11 o’clock in the morning, Instructor Tu Hong got a chartered bus to pick up the students of the top class.

“The individual competition and team competition will be held in the morning and in the afternoon respectively. Then, the individual competition and team competition will be held on alternate days. We’re counting on you guys to make the school proud. Well, there’s also the Bodhi Leaf as a reward. Whether you get it will be up to you.”

Standing on the platform, Instructor Tu Hong gave a short speech to motivate the students. Afterward, everyone boarded the bus. However, Instructor Tu’s face turned wry when he saw Lin Yao.

“Why are you shirtless? Put on your clothes.”

“I can’t. I need to accumulate strength.”

Even after basking in the sun for three hours, Lin Yao’s body hadn’t accumulated enough solar energy to fill itself. The additional basic qualities of his Body of Light had only reached 70%. Lin Yao didn’t know if this was because the quality of his cells had improved due to his strengthened physique.

In addition to filling his body, he was also prepared to accumulate enough energy to fill the Sun God Pattern on his chest. This was necessary, as tomorrow would also be a rainy day according to the weather forecast. This implied that if he didn’t accumulate enough solar energy today, his strength tomorrow would be similar to the strength of an intermediate martial artist who had mastered the profound meaning of military boxing. It would be difficult for him to beat an advanced martial artist who had mastered the profound meaning then.

Lin Yao didn’t look like he was joking, so although Tu Hong opened his mouth, he didn’t say a word in the end.

“Forget it. Please watch yourself.”

Feeling helpless, Tu Hong returned to the bus. Lin Yao also found a window seat and sat down.

Then, the group sped toward the stadium located in the city center.

Of course, it would be more appropriate to call the destination a dojo rather than a stadium. Since the revival of martial arts, very few people had been interested in watching sports. Even if they were, the sports games they watched were Kung Fu Football, Killer Tennis, or things like that.

This kind of sport was popular among some audiences, but more people preferred fist fights. However, China was very strict with its regulations. If serious injuries were to occur during random fights, the victor would be jailed and the loser would be hospitalized.

The city government was afraid of fights and injuries and yet wanted to encourage the martial artists to unleash their potential and vigor. To allow martial artists to accumulate battle experiences, the city government had built a large stadium with numerous arenas and professional referees in the city center. In addition, the city’s First People’s Hospital was right next to it. This could be called the holy place of duels in Ninghai City, and it was also the favorite place of some energetic youths.

The Ninghai City Youth Competition was also being hosted there.

When the group arrived, Lin Yao discovered that a massive crowd had come. There were tens of thousands of people in the stadium to watch this grand event, and an anchor from the city’s television station was hosting the show.

“There are so many people and luxury cars.”

“Of course. This is a grand event in Ninghai City. Everyone who has the time will come. As for the luxury cars… all the geniuses who are here to participate in the competition are the future of Ninghai City. I wish them all the best! I heard the rich will sponsor those who perform exceedingly well during the competition. Oh, they might even be looking for sons-in-law.”

“Hey, are you right about that group of young ladies?”

“I think so. Their get-ups are very expensive…”

“They are so beautiful.”

The heated atmosphere, the cheerleaders clad in revealing clothing, the rumors about rich men recruiting sons-in-law, and the gathered young beauties had made everyone feel excited.

This atmosphere had also aroused the fighting spirit in Lin Yao’s heart.

At the same time, he attracted countless gazes upon alighting from the bus.

People could not help it. A shirtless man had suddenly appeared among the crowd, and this naturally made countless people stare at him.

What made many boys jealous was the gazes of some girls, which were fixed on Lin Yao’s muscular, perfect body.

“He’s so handsome.”

“Why is this happening? I feel peaceful and secure just by looking at him.”

“I have the same feeling too. I was cross earlier, but I felt happy as soon as I saw him.”

“His chest and abdominal muscles are so beautiful. I really feel like touching them.”

“Hey, he’s handsome but too sloppy. Why is he shirtless in public? He’s definitely a scumbag.”

…

Lin Yao was slightly embarrassed upon noticing the attention and discussions of other people. However, upon looking at the thick clouds in the sky and considering that tomorrow would also be a rainy day, he realized he had to accumulate light energy in his body. Therefore, although he was the subject of criticism, he endured it all.

Ignoring the discussions, Lin Yao followed the group of Ninghai No. 4 High School and headed toward the inside of the stadium. What left Lin Yao speechless was that Instructor Tu Hong, who was afraid the team members would lose their way, was holding up a sign with the words ‘Ninghai No. 4 High School’. He looked like a tour guide, and Lin Yao had a feeling that he was there for a performance and not a competition.

‘Forget it, I should be more optimistic. In my past life, the participating teams in the Olympics also held the national flag and wore team uniforms. It isn’t embarrassing if everyone does this together.’

With Instructor Tu Hong leading the way, Lin Yao and the group quickly set foot in the venue. While they were entering the place, No. 2 High School, No. 3 High School, and some disciples from the dojos also entered the competition venue, holding their signs.

Lin Yao was still very concerned about the dojos. Amongst the major forces in the country, the strongest were certainly the national forces—the military, the armed police, the special departments, and the Abnormal Ability Department. These belonged to the official armed forces.

However, although the government was powerful and huge, it couldn’t possibly gather all the geniuses. Some people always scattered outside, as they were unwilling to be restricted.

The cultivation of martial arts required resources. Therefore, there were hardly any hidden martial artists in China. The scattered martial artists in the civilian population would form security teams to protect the caravans as they traveled in the wilderness or various mystic realms. Some of them would form adventure groups to search for treasures in the mystic realms, and some had constructed dojos in various major cities to teach martial arts.

Among the many martial artists in the civilian population, two types were the most powerful—the adventure groups and the dojo federations.

Most of the martial artists would join the former. Anyone could assign regular missions to the adventure groups, and some martial artists who would like to advance would accept the missions to attain resources.

However, most of the adventure groups operated in the mystic realms of the strange world or in small countries. They were rarely active in the land of China.

There was no choice. The main function of the adventure group was to search for materials and resources as well as to solve problems. However, by default, the unowned property in the land of China belonged to the government. In addition, people who had difficulties didn’t need to spend money to find adventure groups to solve their problems. Their best solution was to look for the police. Therefore, the adventure groups were almost useless in the land of China.

However, the dojo federations were different. Grooming children had always been the most important goal of China.

Many interests and hobbies cultivated during the age of science and technology were useless, but countless people were still willing to spend a huge sum of money to cultivate their children’s interests, such as piano, painting, music, and so on…

Now, martial arts training was akin to the imperial examination in ancient times. It could lengthen one’s lifespan and upgrade one’s social status. As a result, families were more zealous when it came to martial arts. If the parents were zealous, there would be many dojos, which were akin to private classes.

In China, children’s education was the top priority of the country and every single family. Schools and dojos were the two methods available to groom children. The former was a public resource, whereas the latter was a private one.

At the same time, the schools were not opposed to the dojos.

After all, school education needed to consider the interests of everyone, and differentiated education was not possible.

The dojos would be called sects or used like tuition classes. They were a supplement to formal school education. After school, the fairly wealthy families would always send their children to the dojos for lessons.

‘A good dojo is indeed very lucrative. As the saying goes, earning the money of women and children is the easiest. Rich families don’t mind spending money on their children’s education at all.’

Lin Yao was a very good example. To ensure that he had a good starting point, his parents had depleted the family’s savings when they had found out that Lin Yao needed money to buy a tree and fruit. If Lin Yao hadn’t stopped them, they would have gone and borrowed money… No, they’d still borrowed a little bit of money from relatives and friends after Lin Yao had stopped them. This went to show how much the parents in China valued education. They would rather forgo their life’s savings than sacrifice their child’s education. This made Lin Yao feel very tempted.

‘Money is also very useful to me. The city leaders forbade me from joining the night patrols and entering the mysterious land because they’re worried about my safety. In order to make a contribution and increase my value, I can only help mankind through social security. However, I can only do that much on my own. If I had assets equivalent to those of Jack Ma[1] or Poly Ma[2], my contribution value would exceed a million yuan per minute.’

Money was of great use to Lin Yao, and he had also set goals related to the dojos.

Of course, he was not planning to start a dojo. Although this was also very profitable, he didn’t have the qualifications to do that. Lin Yao was planning to cooperate with the dojos.

Dojos made money on the premise that they were famous and recognized by others. Nobody would be willing to go to ordinary dojos.

What was the best way for a dojo that taught martial arts to become famous? First, the owner of the dojo had to be famous enough to garner everyone’s affirmation. Second, the dojo should be able to groom and produce geniuses and disciples that could bring honor to it.

In fact, the latter was more important than the former. After all, a powerful individual might not necessarily be a good teacher.

It was easy to guess Lin Yao’s thoughts upon knowing this.

He planned to cooperate with some dojos by being their ambassador after getting a ranking at this competition.

‘The Bodhi Leaf is an opportunity to apply for diamond resources and cooperate with the dojos to strike it rich… I can gain a lot from this competition. However, this is on the premise that I will win. I must win… No one recognizes a loser.’

As he thought about the rewards of the competition, Lin Yao’s fighting spirit also increased gradually. At that moment, he had already adopted a winning mentality and would not allow himself to fail.

However, Lin Yao was not the only one who yearned for victory. Besides the three advanced martial artists of Ninghai No. 4 High School, Lin Yao discovered a few elites from the other two schools who posed a threat to him as he headed toward the competition venue.

In addition to the elites from the schools, Lin Yao also felt pressured by the true disciples groomed by the various major dojos.

‘As far as advanced martial artists are concerned, there are three from No. 2 High School, four from No. 3 High School, and five from the dojos. Along with the three from our class, 15 advanced martial artists are participating in this competition.’

[1] Jack Ma is a Chinese business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. He is the co-founder and former executive chairman of Alibaba Group, a multinational technology conglomerate.

[2] Poly Ma, also known as Ma Huateng, is a Chinese billionaire and business magnate. He is the founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Tencent, Asia’s most valuable company, one of the largest Internet and technology companies, and one of the biggest investment, gaming, and entertainment conglomerates in the world.