Master of The Azure Palace Chapter 20: Rising Dragons (5)

Read chapter 20 of Master of The Azure Palace by AzulConVerde on NovelPedia.

A week passed and Lán trained his new techniques diligently, since the Manual of the Sixth Sense required him to be actively paying attention to his surroundings he couldn’t hop into the Azure Palace to speed up his process, so he was learning the techniques the good old fashioned way. Shú was also training, she had managed to crack the code on the bamboo quarterstaff and was slowly learning its techniques. With a little help from Lán, she was on her way to become a talented martial artist in her own right. It was a day before the tournament and Lán and Shú headed to the public training grounds just beneath Mount Hua, they were full with all kinds of martial artists, from those that were competing in the tournament to their teacher or others who wanted to test their metal against a promising new generation. Lán spotted Wing Chun in one of the gazebos surrounding the training area; she seemed to be in a serious martial discussion with other female martial artists. He also spotted Zhou Yefeng skulking in another area, surrounded by his Steel Sword allies. They were looking for Batu; he had seen Shú training outside The Lake Of Seven Immortals and had offered a spar in the training grounds to help her put her theory into practice. They spotted him quickly. He was wearing a Zodog, short-sleeved, open-chested jacket that is used in traditional Mongolian wrestling. He was in the middle of a sparring match with a tall and lanky man who Shú identified as “Thunderfoot” Zhentian. Thunderfoot was living up to his name, he struck at Batu with a flurry of rapid kicks. A front kick that pushed Batu backwards was quickly followed up by a jumping spinning back kick that hit Batu again as he tried to move forwards to gain back some ground. It was a difficult scenario, Thunderfoot understood distance perfectly and was punishing every single advance Batu tried to make. As soon as Batu advanced Thunderfoot delivered a punishing low kick to the side of his knee that made a resounding crack, Batu buckled and fell on one knee, Thunderfoot gave him no rest and immediately went for a roundhouse kick to his face. But it was a faint, Batu had used the opportunity and had moved ever so slightly as he fell on one knee. He caught the kick aimed at his head and swiftly stood up. He went to sweep Thunderfoot's other leg but he countered with an amazing display of skill. Thunderfoot jumped and pivoted in mid air, balancing on the ground with one hand, and delivering another roundhouse to Batu’s head with his free leg. Batu countered just as fast, grabbing the other leg mid air. He spun and launched Thunderfoot backwards. Thunderfoot landed gently on the ground and prepared to move before Batu spoke up. “Ha! Out of bounds! I win!” Batu grinned. Thunderfoot stared at the ground in surprise, Batu had indeed sent him flying very far away. He laughed and accepted his defeat, both fighters shook hands and gave each other words of advice. After their discussion ended Batu spotted Lán and Shú on the bleachers and waved them over. “That was an incredible fight” Lán said “Are you sure you still want to help Shú practice? You must be tired” “No no, that was just a friendly bout” Batu replied “Im practically unscathed” Lán knew that was a half truth, while neither fighter had been completely serious, he knew that if either one of them decided to take the fight up to the next level, it would have been a completely different ending. From what he could see, Lán could tell they were both Intermediate Martial Artists, maybe a breakthrough away from reaching Advanced level. Shú and Batu took their places in the sparring grounds and began to fight. Shú launched an attack with her quarterstaff first, aiming for the same knee Thunderfoot had struck. Batu checked the staff perfectly, it bounced off his leg before he grabbed it with one hand. In one swift motion he grabbed the quartestaff and ripped it from Shú’s grasp before pulling her closer and grabbing her by the shirt. Shú re