Bu Tao stood in position and swirled his arms slowly, looking like he was forming a qi ball. The kids watched his movement with bated breathe, half expecting fireballs to shoot out.

"This is the first movement of 24-form style," Bu Tao explained, slowly pushing both hands down by his side and releasing his breath to end the movement.

The 24-form style was the most recognizable and accessible form, commonly taught by police academies. Other specialized forms were taught in martial arts schools and dojos.

"Martial arts is about understanding your center of gravity, body linkage, and posture," Bu Tao explained, as his hip and body swayed back. "You must know where your center of gravity is, no matter what posture or position you're in. This is important for balance, which is key to survival against takedowns, or people who want to destroy your center and force you to the ground."

"So we aren't going to learn the 18 Dragon-subduing Palms?" asked Fatty Fang, a bit saddened by the couple of stances Bu Tao was showing them. No fireballs, and it looked like tai chi for old people, was his thought process.

Bu Tao rolled his eyes. "Did you expect me to show you some secret qi moves from some 70s tv shows?"

Most students thought training taijiquan would be cool, but real taijiquan was actually difficult to memorize and extremely difficult to master. The complexity also made it difficult to use for actual combat and even the best trained taijiquan practitioner could not take on a well trained combat fighter. As a result, most people used the simplified version, tai chi, as a health exercise.

Despite all of that, once a practitioner truly learned taijiquan, or any type of trained combat, it could be used to defend against any unarmed and untrained opponent.

"Well it looks cool," Fatty Fang grumbled.

"Do you want to learn martial arts to defend yourself or to look cool?"

"To look cool!" Fatty Fang proudly declared.

Bu Tao slapped his foreword. "You're going to need a lot of work to look cool."

"Can I at least learn what they are doing?" asked Fatty Fang pointing to the fighters in the ring sparring with boxing gloves.

"If you want to jump straight into sanda, that's fine. I can show you the basic stances, punches and kicks afterward. But as a contact sport, you won't be able to do it well until you start sparring."

"I'm notta afraid of a little spar," Fatty Fang clenched his hand into a fist, and pumped downward.

"Well then, I guess I can show you the basics. Sanda incorporates elements of boxing, kicking, wrestling, along with traditional Chinese martial arts elements," Bu Tao explained.

In an orthodox, or right stance position, Bu Tao pivoted his leg and body, channeling the force into a straight jab. "A straight jab looks like a normal punch, but it represents hundreds of years of boxing evolution, constantly using the same simple move over and over again."

He then demonstrated the kicks. "Sanda has many powerful kicks in the arsenal. Like boxing, muay thai kicks have evolved the simple move to a point that is almost lethal. Spin kicks, low sweeps, and sidekicks are traditional martial."

Next, Bu Tao lifted his feet up high, awkwardly putting himself off balance, and he fell to the ground. The kids all laughed, but his stare silenced them immediately.

"Kicks are more powerful than punches, but it creates more opportunity for your opponents to knock you down. In martial arts, you will always fall down, so learning to break your fall is important. When I fell, did you see me twisting to hit the rear instead of my limbs?"

The kids nodded.

"Your butt is always a better cushion than injuring your hands," Bu Tao got up and showed them a ring with two fighters practicing takedowns.

"Takedowns and wrestling elements are mainly from shuai jiao. In actual combat, wrestling is very important. If you can take down an enemy, you're halfway to winning. But since this creates so many quick and boring fights with people trying to clinch and takedown, there's a 5-second clinch rule. If you can't takedown your opponent in 5 seconds, the ref will separate the fighters."

They watched as the coach separated the two fighters after they clinched for a long time, trying to take each other down.

Looking at the kids' dazed and overwhelmed faces, Bu Tao called it a day.

After the initial lesson, Fatty Fang continued training sanda while Li Yun and Bufu learned the basics of taijiquan and other traditional martial arts like shuai jiao, xing yi, baquazhang, and then sanda.

Li Yun was training a lot of styles for fitness purposes, but it also helped him to understand how traditional martial arts styles had evolved into sanda.

Li Yun and Bufu both didn't plan to compete or seriously spar. They didn't like to get hurt or injured.

"I get that you don't want to compete, but what does that have to do with Taoism?" asked Bu Tao.

"The reason why Taoist masters created tai chi in the first place was to live longer," Li Yun explained his reasoning to Bu Tao as to why he didn't like sparring. "Contact sport isn't really the way to go. Do you know what my favorite moves in Tao are?"

"What?" asked Bu Tao.

"Stealth, alertness, strike, retreat, and run," Li Yun replied. "Those are the fundamentals of the Five Animals. Back before there were cameras, the ancients have been studying how predators and prey act in order to survive."

"Right," Bao commented sarcastically, wasn't retreat and run the same thing? He heard it as, "I'm too afraid of pain to fight."

"I know what you're thinking, but hear me out," Li Yun explained. "Real tai chi practitioners don't fight against trained opponents for a good reason. One, trained fighters for military reasons have higher chances of dying early. Police officers and soldiers, for examples, all have higher chances of encountering dangerous situations. Second, trained fighters in combat competitions, on average, have lower lifespan due to constant abuse to the head. Glory, honor and lifespan, are all sorts of immortality, so I'm not saying that one is better than the other, I'm just saying that my Tao involves me living longer."

Bu Tao turned to look at Bufu. "Is your friend always like this?"

"Yep," Bufu replied. "But you have to admit, he has a point."

"He does, but I don't like that he's saying that I have a high chance of dying early."

"If the shoes fit," Li Yun jeered.

Li Yun liked to take the safest route. Even in brawls against bullies, he would always run after a strike, or protect his head and his core body.

"It's okay if you don't want to compete in sanda, but how about competing in martial arts? It's more focused on form, and the pressure of competition will help you perfect it."

Li Yun thought about it, it would be interesting. However, he was still writing the Daozang under old Pei's tutelage. It was already time consuming.

"Not for me either," Bufu replied. "I prefer working on programming."

Bu Tao sighed. He thought it was a shame because Li Yun's taolu and form was really precise and sharp. As for Bufu, he was a bit of a hopeless case.

Bu Tao took the kids out to the gym three days a week after school. Aside from showing them the basics, Bu Tao was usually busy training himself. He wasn't able to get through the city tournament last year, so he was training extra hard to compete. It would be his last opportunity before joining the police academy.

****

"Unfortunately, old Bu was still unable to pass the city tournament, but that was life. He wasn't the hero of the story, and had no system or plot armor to carry him through. Instead, he joined the police academy. -Happy graduation, from your three favorite students."

"These punks!" Bu Tao crumbled and chucked the letter with stylized calligraphy toward the other end of the room. "After everything I've taught you, this is what I get for a graduation present!"

Bu Tao later regretted crumpling the piece of calligraphy from Li Yun.