On the path of the Martial Dao, if you don't advance, you fall behind.
Zhao Rui wasn't some peerless genius, nor did he possess a Heaven-defying Technique that would let his Inner Strength grow endlessly even without training.
So even though he was on break, his meditation and Cultivation had to continue.
The Martial Dao is without end!
The night passed uneventfully.
Early the next morning, Zhao Rui woke up at his usual time and hurried to the small grove to practice his fundamentals.
Regulating his Breath, practicing Energy-Introducing and Guiding Essence, he aligned with nature's Innate power and nurtured the Circulation of the heavens.
Zhao Rui exhaled a mouthful of True Qi, which transformed into an invisible Qi Force that shot out more than three meters.
Although its power was extremely low, the ability to achieve Inner Qi Release was already incredibly rare and commendable.
This was also thanks to the Cloud Hand Star-Picking he practiced, which naturally came with a Cloud Attribute, making him more adept at controlling the flow of his Inner Qi.
Zhao Rui trained for about an hour before he saw many young people start to arrive.
Like Zhao Rui, they were all Martial Arts Students. Some were only thirteen or fourteen, just starting middle school.
The Martial Dao was no secret, and some common Martial Arts and Qi Cultivation Methods had long since been made public.
Zhao Rui trained a while longer, then got up and returned home. After quickly washing up, he rode his bike toward the city center.
As a second-tier city, Lincheng City's downtown area was quite prosperous, with towering skyscrapers and shops everywhere.
Zhao Rui stopped in front of a large building, glanced at the eye-catching sign by the entrance, and walked inside.
He soon reached the tenth-floor corridor and was greeted by the sight of several conspicuous signs hanging over a doorway.
"Wende Martial Dao, your essential path to the peak."
"Wende Martial Dao: A century of heritage, creating today's excellence."
Zhao Rui paused for a moment before stepping inside.
A young woman at the front desk, about seventeen or eighteen, saw him enter and stood up to greet him. "Sir, are you here to register?"
"I'm looking for the manager here."
Zhao Rui said.
"Our manager? Please wait a moment."
The young woman picked up her phone and made a call. A moment later, a big, burly man walked over.
"You were looking for me?"
The burly man sized Zhao Rui up and asked.
"Hello, I'm here to apply for the sparring partner position!"
Zhao Rui said, getting straight to the point.
"Sparring partner?"
The burly man was taken aback, his gaze growing more scrutinizing as he looked at Zhao Rui.
"I'm a recent high school graduate. I'm looking for a summer job to earn some money, and I heard the pay for sparring partners is good."
Zhao Rui said with a smile.
"Oh!"
Hearing Zhao Rui's explanation, the burly man nodded. He then tilted his head up slightly and asked, "What's your level, and what do you specialize in?"
"Level 4, specializing in Palm Techniques!"
"Palm Techniques, huh!"
The burly man hesitated for a moment, then took out his phone and made another call.
Zhao Rui wasn't in a hurry and waited quietly. After a little while, the burly man came to and nodded at him. "You're eighteen, right? Our sparring partners have to sign a contract."
"I am. I know!"
Zhao Rui replied readily. Competing in martial arts had its risks, and being a sparring partner was no different.
It wasn't unheard of for someone to accidentally kill or cripple a sparring partner.
"Alright, follow me. We happen to be short on Palm Technique sparring partners right now."
The burly man said as he led the way inside.
"Our business has ten branches in total. This is the Huaiyin Road branch. We currently have ten sparring partners, and we usually get seven or eight jobs a day. We charge based on the number of people and the time. It's three hundred per hour! Overtime is charged by the minute..."
As Zhao Rui listened to the burly man's explanation, his face couldn't help but twitch. 'This sounds just like a foot massage parlor.'
He had known about the sparring partner profession before and was aware of some of the job's duties, but he had no idea this was how they charged.
"No problem!"
'Well, a technician is a technician. A sparring partner's job is to accompany someone, isn't it?'
'Accompanying someone to eat, drink, or dance is the service industry. There's no reason sparring shouldn't be too!'
'No wonder talented Martial Artists are unwilling to be sparring partners. It's a job serving others. How good can it be?'
Once inside the office, the burly man introduced himself as Liu Han.
He was the manager of this branch, and Zhao Rui could contact him directly if anything came up.
After giving a brief overview of the branch, Liu Han began to ask Zhao Rui about his own situation in detail.
After some discussion, Liu Han skipped the trial session and directly had Zhao Rui sign a martial arts sparring partner agreement.
The main contents were regulations and measures concerning safety, such as purchasing insurance and having professional coaches on-site for protection.
After the agreement was signed, Liu Han called over the head of the coaching team, Hou Longfei, and introduced Zhao Rui to him.
Hou Longfei was used to seeing summer job workers like this. After listening to the manager's explanation, he took Zhao Rui to the Martial Arts Arena.
The Martial Arts Arena was located in the deepest part of the building. The space was quite expansive, and the first thing one saw was a huge training ground and several competition rings of varying sizes.
There were protective barriers all around the area.
In the corners of the arena, there was also various exercise equipment, as well as an assortment of unsharpened weapons.
"Perfect. A few students are coming in to train today. You can take one. His strength is relatively weak—he's only Level 3—so control your power."
Hou Longfei picked out a locker for Zhao Rui. After showing him around the arena and the changing rooms for a bit, he assigned him a job.
"Okay, Coach!"
Zhao Rui nodded in agreement and sat down in the rest area on the side of the arena, watching the others train.
There were no fewer than fifty people practicing Martial Arts in the arena, most of them teenagers, following a coach's instructions move by move.
Another group consisted of young adults around his age or older, most of whom were training by themselves.
A few other young men were also resting next to Zhao Rui, some in their thirties, others in their early twenties.
They were all taciturn, acting as if Zhao Rui's arrival had nothing to do with them.
Zhao Rui couldn't be bothered to strike up a conversation either. He sat up straight and began to lightly circulate his qi in meditation, adjusting his Inner Breath.
About half an hour later, Hou Longfei came over, called Zhao Rui to his feet, and led him into the middle of the Martial Arts Arena.
"This is the new sparring partner, Zhao Rui. He's skilled in Palm Techniques. Shao Jie, he'll be your partner today. You can try out your 'hand techniques' on a new person."
'Hand techniques...'
Zhao Rui felt the urge to slap him. 'This is a Palm Technique, not some "hand technique"!'
'Forget it. For the money, for the Advancement Points... I'll endure it.'
After changing into Martial Arts Uniforms and putting on protective gear, the two of them stepped into the ring. The ring was similar in style to the fighting rings of his previous life, but the level of protection was completely different.
Never mind the surrounding posts; even the glass was high-strength, explosion-proof glass. The entire martial arts ring setup was incredibly expensive.
"Taiyi Splitting Light Sword!"
His opponent was still just a half-grown kid, but his every move carried an imposing air. To be a Third-level Martial Artist at his age clearly meant he had excellent talent.
"Taihang Thirteen Palms!"
Announcing one's technique before a sparring match was a form of courtesy, as this wasn't a life-or-death battle, after all.
The purpose of sparring was to help the trainee improve their competitive skills.
As for his opponent using a sword, that was no problem. Weapons and empty-hand combat were two sides of the same coin.
Zhao Rui also had a weapon he often used—a long spear. As the saying goes, "an inch longer is an inch stronger."
However, he didn't use it. For one, the ring was too small. For another, fighting empty-handed against a blade was a skill that martial artists constantly needed to practice.