119: Chapter 116 A Martial Artist's Honor Is Above All Else

There are too many factors to consider, such as identity, status, and benefits. After all, why would one fight if there is no benefit?

Would you just end up making a name for the challenger instead?

Of course, malicious challenges existed in the past, for instance, when a challenger had high martial arts skills and was confident they could take everyone down.

Such a person would make a name for themselves, but it was equivalent to killing the entire family of that martial arts School's master.

The School master would definitely fight for their life; if they could not win, it meant death.

In the past, if a martial arts School lost its reputation and was bullied like that, it was as good as finished.

If one's livelihood was smashed, one would naturally fight to the death. Furthermore, if the School master died, the entire family would harbor deep hatred toward the challenger.

This caused many grudges, but such challenges to a School were still in the minority.

The reason they are more common in modern times is that people today have more options; if they cannot make it in this profession, they can always make a living doing something else.

There are even some fake Great Masters who, after being exposed, can still continue to rake in money by relying on their haters.

And as far as Li Changsheng knows, according to the rules of the past, arranging a fight was divided into private and public.

Private fights were meant to stop at a touch. Usually, there was an introduction by an acquaintance, and it was often a senior guiding a Junior, or both parties admired each other and wanted to spar.

Such arranged fights would not be made public, and outsiders were forbidden from watching.

Because according to the sayings of the past, this was called not mixing in other messy things. We are fighting, not performing, and we are not street performers. The nature is different, and both sides can fight with more peace of mind.

Just like in the first Ip Man movie, the challenge between Master Ye and a School master was private. Regardless of who won or lost, both men could save Face.

It was just that later, someone did not follow the rules; secretly watching was one thing, but they even went around spreading it everywhere.

The movie actually did not portray it reasonably. Secretly watching is an extremely despicable act in the circles of martial artists, equivalent to stealing teachings, for which you could even be killed.

But public fights were different; a public fight was a battle for honor, staking everything. The winner takes all, and the loser gets nothing.

Honor is extremely important to martial artists. In the past, the group of Martial Masters including Sun Lutang were once employed by warlords, receiving a salary of one thousand silver dollars every month.

Why could they get such high pay? It was all because of their reputation! If your reputation is great and you have true ability, then you deserve to earn that much.

Like that nationwide Traditional Martial Arts public competition in Shanghai, the fact that people were killed in succession right from the start was precisely because of honor.

That was at the beginning of the Xia Kingdom. There had been consecutive wars, and the martial arts circle even experienced a gap in generations; the strong of that generation were either old or dead.

The younger generation, for the sake of their School's honor, all pushed themselves to make a name for themselves at that public competition. As a result, before the competition even ended, fifteen people remained on the arena floor forever.

This is also why Li Changsheng is very troubled by the second stage of the Grandmaster path.

Li Changsheng has not come into contact with many Dark Power experts; currently, there are only Elder Zhang and the Daoist Priest.

However, these two would almost certainly never challenge anyone; that is for sure.

"I could actually ask Elder Zhang to spar with me, and he should agree. However, would I be bullying an old comrade a bit?"

Moreover, Li Changsheng felt that if he fought Elder Zhang, he definitely could not use his full strength, otherwise the old man would definitely not be able to withstand it.

He had sensed it last time; after sparring with Elder Zhang, the old man did not say anything on the surface, but secretly applied ointment in private, and his hands and feet were somewhat swollen.

Li Changsheng felt quite embarrassed, but Elder Zhang was tough. However, after that time, Li Changsheng did not dare to truly fight Elder Zhang again.

"Fists fear the young and strong" is not just empty talk. Even if one practices Internal Martial Arts to the level of Zhang Sanfeng, it is normal for Qi and blood to decline. Fighting ordinary people is certainly no problem, and one can fight some who have trained, but fighting against someone young and vigorous with Visible Power or even Dark Power is purely nonsense.

"It seems I need to go out more. Staying here, I won't run into any Dark Power experts. If I meet more people and build some connections, maybe a private fight could be arranged."

Li Changsheng felt that this was the only way for now; it is impossible to just stay at home and have a dignified Dark Power expert come to you on their own.

That makes no sense. Martial artists who reach this level all have some pride; in the past, they could have opened a School and taken on disciples.

In this day and age, it is even more incredible.

Li Changsheng does not know how many Dark Power experts there are in the country now, but thinking about it carefully, there certainly cannot be too many.

After all, Wudang Mountain is considered one of the three major birthplaces of Internal Martial Arts in the country and can even represent a major Boxing style. Such an existence, which is almost at the level of a leader of a Boxing category, only has one Dark Power expert.

As far as Li Changsheng knows, it seems that many Boxing Schools have experienced a generational gap. For some styles, Visible Power might be the Peak, and Dark Power may have long since disappeared into the long river of history.

"I hope the entire Xia Kingdom can still scrape together four Dark Power experts who can fight."

"Can fight" means the other party must at least be forty years old or younger.

Take the Daoist Priest for example; it seems he only stepped into Dark Power in his thirties or forties, and he is already considered a very talented person. If he were to live in seclusion for another period, he would be forty or fifty by the time he came out, and then he would be in no shape to fight.

The decline of Traditional Martial Arts might also be due to this reason. The era of fighting and killing is long gone, and there are far too few people nowadays willing to settle down and learn Traditional Martial Arts.

The key point is that even cultivating to Visible Power is not very useful. On the arena floor, under the restrictions of the rules, wearing gloves greatly reduces lethality.

If they are still just practicing behind closed doors without much real combat experience, they are not even as good as professional boxers when they get on the arena floor.

In Li Changsheng's view, Monk Yihu is at the Visible Power level, likely at the stage where intent moves and power is released, and his strength is slightly inferior to Chen Shixing's.

But if they were on a professional arena, Li Changsheng thinks Chen Shixing would most likely not be able to beat Yihu.

It is not that Chen Shixing is inferior to Yihu, but that Yihu is accustomed to the arena. Chen Shixing has not only never fought in a Boxing arena, but his own actual combat experience, in Li Changsheng's view, is still quite immature.

The Dark Power level can indeed display a significant standard on the arena floor; even through gloves, they can still deal substantial damage.

"If I go on the arena floor to challenge them myself, it wouldn't be too much to take on some Wulin Feng champion, would it?"

Li Changsheng gave a self-deprecating smile. He had watched Wulin Feng; hmm... how should he put it? Some of them indeed had some skills, but they were still within the rules, and the truly real stuff could still not be revealed.

For the next few days, Li Changsheng spent his time slowly honing his Xingyi Fist.

In the past, Xingyi was also called Xinyi.

In the circles of martial artists, the Xingyi Sect used to have the most rules.

This was mainly because, since the early Qing Dynasty, Xingyi Fist spread widely in the north. Over hundreds of years, many famous Xingyi masters emerged. Later, after the Xia Kingdom was established, Xingyi was even listed as a nationwide performance and competition favorite.

It has spread to many places around the world.

Xingyi Fist takes the Five Elements Fist—Splitting, Crushing, Drilling, Pounding, and Crossing—and the Twelve Shape Fists—Dragon, Tiger, Monkey, Horse, Rooster, Sparrow Hawk, Swallow, Snake, Alligator, Tai, Eagle, and Bear—as its basic Boxing techniques, and its stance training is based on the Trinity Stance.