The most important aspect of staff techniques was basic staff work, which was far more practical than flashy moves. Her staff techniques were something she had figured out and practiced on her own for over ten years.
As for why she chose to practice the staff, it was mainly because she used to watch Journey to the West as a child. Who wouldn't want to be Sun Wukong, the Great Sage Equal to Heaven?
Back when it aired during summer and winter breaks, she loved holding a stick while watching TV, learning staff techniques from it. The first thing she learned was twirling the staff—it looked cool. She followed the monkey's twirls, with one hand and both hands, paying close attention to the details. After twirling it a few times, she got the hang of it; it wasn't hard.
She learned from start to finish. Except for some high-difficulty moves, she had learned most staff techniques: sweeping, spinning, chopping, swinging, parrying up, and so on.
Staff techniques covered almost all generic offensive and defensive methods for melee cold weapons. Mastering staff techniques allowed one to quickly grasp the martial arts systems of other cold weapons—sabers, spears, swords, halberds, axes, battleaxes, hooks, and forks. As long as it wasn't a flexible weapon, one could train for it using a staff.
Thus, when she sparred with swords against Fang Heng and the others and said she had a foundation, she hadn't been talking nonsense.
Lin Yue watched the two on stage whose sword and saber clashed. The sword was light while the saber was heavy; since the sword wasn't a step faster than the saber, it was clearly suppressed by the saber's force, requiring far more effort to block the heavy broadsaber, which only left the sword wielder more passive upon blocking.
In the end, the saber defeated the sword.
When the stage defense phase began, no one stepped up at first. Lin Yue stood up, pushed off with her toes, leaped onto the arena stage, and cupped her hands in greeting.
"Guiwu Sect, Lin Ze."
"Lingdao Sect, Zhao Qiang."
The referee noted down their names, flipped the hourglass to keep time, and the match began.
Lin Yue held her staff with both hands, facing her opponent sideways. As the heavy saber swung up—a slow saber versus a swift staff, a sweeping staff clearing a wide area—she stepped into a bow stance and thrust her staff forward to attack. Her opponent raised his saber vertically to block, then chopped downward. Lin Yue stepped back to dodge, sweeping her staff at his legs from left to right. Her opponent turned to evade, using the momentum to chop upward with his saber. She blocked downward with her staff horizontally, suppressing his force, pushed off her toes to leap into the air, and delivered an aerial chop...
As time ran short, the broadsaber turned fierce and aggressive. The long staff whistled through the air as Lin Yue unleashed a rapid volley of staff strikes, forcing her opponent to reveal a flaw. Tapping his knee and striking his wrist, a strike hit the acupoint on his saber-holding hand; the weapon fell, and the staff tip rested against his throat.
"Guiwu Sect, Lin Ze wins!"
As the voice fell, Lin Yue pulled back her staff and cupped her hands to the burly man who was picking up his saber. Looking somewhat crestfallen, the burly man still returned the gesture and dejectedly walked off the stage.
During the defense phase, while no one else stepped onto the stage, Lin Yue adjusted her breathing. To her, her opponent's speed had still been slow, and she could guess the general trajectory of his moves. She could actually have defeated him within half a stick of incense, but she chose to drag it out until the end.
In the first match, everyone concealed their true strength.
"Lin Ze!"
Someone shouted her name loudly. Lin Yue looked toward the voice and saw Hong Ying waving to her from below the stage. Fang Yu was also there with bright eyes, looking like she had passed her round as well.
Lin Yue smiled at them. As she turned back toward the arena, her eyes caught sight of that bright-eyed yet idle young man. He had his head tilted, looking at her with a playful expression. Lin Yue didn't linger her gaze, dropping it onto the swordsman who had jumped up to challenge her.
The opponent announced his name, and the match began. After trading blows with Lin Yue for a bit, he switched to a two-handed grip on his sword. He had clearly felt the power behind her staff technique—holding the sword with one hand was a bit too light, making a two-handed grip far safer.
At the very last moment before the hourglass ran out, Lin Yue struck him to the ground with a sweep of her staff, successfully advancing to the next round.
Just as Lin Yue stepped off the stage, the group gathered around her. Fang Heng raised his hand to pat her shoulder and jerked his chin up.
"Brother Lin, you were hiding your strength all along!"
Lin Yue smiled. "Pure luck, pure luck."
Hong Ying shoved him aside, wrapped an arm around Lin Yue, and said to Fang Heng, "Of course! Our Lin Ze is a formidable fighter!"
"He kicked me last time, and my back still hurts!"
"Serves you right!"
Fang Heng took a slap to his back. "Hiss, I don't want this sister anymore! Why is she always going against her brother?"
"Then I'll go be Lin Ze's sister!"
"Sigh! Don't call me brother from now on..."
"Let's go, it's noon. Let's go eat first."
"Fang Heng!"
"See if I don't beat you to death!"
The group pushed their way out of the crowd. Just as they reached an open area, a white figure suddenly darted out from the side and charged straight at Lin Yue, the wind from a fist rushing toward her face. Her eyes widened, and she immediately retreated to dodge. Before she could gain her footing, another fist came flying at her.
The crowd scattered as everyone saw the young man named Li Le, whom they had seen the day before, attacking Lin Yue. His strikes were lightning fast; Lin Yue gritted her teeth, her face turning somewhat pale as she blocked and dodged, struggling to cope with the onslaught.
In just a few breaths and within a few exchanges, the young man held a hand blade right in front of Lin Yue's neck.
"Hey! What are you doing? Why are you suddenly hitting people out of nowhere?"
Fang Heng and the others ran over, drawing their swords and pointing them at Li Le.
"This isn't an arena stage! Fighting outside the arena stages is strictly forbidden at the Martial Arts Convention!" Hong Ying said with a stern expression, her blade tip aimed at Li Le's neck.
Li Le ignored them. Looking at the young man, he raised an eyebrow. Seeing that the other party made no further move, he withdrew his hand blade. "Are you a disciple of the Guiwu Sect?"
He hadn't seen the other party execute the footwork of the Guiwu Technique, not even during his sudden ambush just now.
Lin Yue gave a light smile. "Are you not, sir?"
Li Le glanced at the smiling youth before him and scoffed, "I am indeed! Who says I'm not?"
"I am the eldest disciple of the ninth generation of the Guiwu Sect, having studied under Sect Master Song Jiqing, and am now the Sect Master of the Guiwu Sect. You registered for the Martial Arts Convention using my martial uncle's name and announced our sect's name, so why didn't you use our sect's techniques?"
Lin Yue was stunned. That guy was actually the sect master! How had he managed to find a disciple who clearly looked so extraordinary?
He couldn't possibly be his biological son.
"Did he pick you up off the street?"
The young man's expression froze before filling with gloom and resentment. "Of course! Otherwise, why would someone as outstanding as me join a tiny sect that ranks dead last, can't even assemble five people for a sect competition, and is so poor it has to beg for food?"
"If he had picked me up a step later, I might have become the adopted son and disciple of the Quanzhen Sect Master! With my talent, I would have long since walked unrivaled beneath the heavens!"
Hearing this, the group carefully sized up the person before them, shifting their attention away from his face to notice other details.
The wooden hairpin binding his hair looked like something sold at street stalls—a few copper coins for a bunch. He wore a plain white cotton robe without any decorations, and the reason it was so white was that it had been washed until faded; it even seemed to be the exact same one he wore the day before.
His slender fingers had distinct joints but were covered in calluses. His skin was wheat-toned, and he was quite thin; what they had thought was a personal stylistic choice turned out to be from not eating his fill. Fortunately, his broad frame gave him a tall appearance, and a closer look revealed faint dark circles under his eyes. It was only because of his handsome facial features that people unconsciously overlooked all this.
Stripping away that filter: he lived in the mountains, had no money, no background, no scholarship, and no job. Aside from his face and his martial arts, what else did he have? He had to earn everything himself, squeaky clean in his poverty.
The group's gazes instantly shifted from envy, jealousy, and resentment to sympathy and sighs. That proud, lazy, and indifferent demeanor had merely been a facade to cover up reality!
Lin Yue imperceptibly stepped back half a pace and let out a sigh. "Alas, when my father was forty, he was caught in a landslide on a mountain road and died. My mother passed away soon after from grief. To bury them both, I sold my house and borrowed money everywhere, and I still haven't paid it all back."
The young man froze for a moment, snapped back to reality, and asked, "What do you mean by that?"
"Who do you think I am?" He pointed to himself, then looked up at the sky with a sneer. "I am the Sect Master of the Guiwu Sect, the youngest champion of the Martial Arts Convention, a legend of the jianghu! Were you... insulting me just now?"
"I was merely sharing my father's situation. Might I ask what brings you to find me?"
Li Le took a deep breath, restoring his nonchalant posture. "Since someone actually used the name of my Guiwu Sect to join the competition, naturally I came to see what skills you possess. For your age, you're decent enough. How is your mastery of the Guiwu Technique?"
"Mediocre."
"Makes sense. The Guiwu Technique is difficult to master. My master had pretty good natural talent, yet after forty-plus years of practice, he only reached grand mastery, enabling him to leap across leaves. If it were an ordinary person, they wouldn't master it in a lifetime. At your age, I had already reached grand mastery, so you'll definitely need to practice for a few more years."
Lin Yue lowered her eyes. Inner energy techniques were difficult to master and slow to progress; achieving mastery took at least a decade or several decades. The better the technique, the more it consumed time and natural talent.
According to him, Song Jiqing took over forty years to reach grand mastery—an ordinary person's hair would be gray by the time they mastered it! If one doesn't display their glory before others while young, what's the point of coming out into the world when one is old and almost in the grave? If she didn't have the time to endure and learn through trial and error, she too would prefer to choose another technique.
"Although your father was a disciple of the Guiwu Sect, he never returned to the sect even once. As his descendant, after the Martial Arts Convention ends, pay a visit back to the mountain peak in your father's stead."
Lin Yue raised an eyebrow and nodded. "Alright, if I have time, I'll go take a look."
"If there's nothing else, I'll be off."
Li Le nodded. Watching the group walk away into the distance, he let out a sigh. "That old man was right—city folks are so pragmatic!"
It was just money anyway. Once he became the champion of the martial arts convention, what would he have to worry about?
Rate on N.U.
