Cosmic Professional Gladiator

Earth.
July 2, 2081, 13:50.

Clouds and rumbling thunder gathered over the most prosperous city in China—Binhai City.
A storm was brewing.

1

The weather is so unpredictable in the summer. In a room on the top floor of the Cosmos Center, a young man looked at the dark clouds and lightning through the floor-to-ceiling windows before raindrops began to patter on the glass windows.

The young man walked to the center of the room and placed his hands on the ground before slowly and steadily doing an inverted handstand.
He first straightened his arms and retracted one hand before completing a single-hand handstand with his right hand.

3

“Hu~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~”

The sound of breathing rang in his ears.
Xu Jingming felt the muscles in his core tighten and also felt his entire body’s weight burdening his right arm.

1

In the first three minutes, his arm felt very comfortable, and his arm muscles and bones felt the deep stimulus.
But at the fourth minute, his palm muscles started to throb with pain—it became torturous.
It worsened in the fifth minute, but Xu Jingming was already used to it.
After persisting for five minutes, he very naturally switched to doing the handstand with his left hand.

I wonder if Dad’s back has gotten any better today. Xu Jingming’s thoughts wandered as he held the handstand; he thought of his sixty-year-old father that suffered from a chronic back injury.
Yesterday, he heard from his mother that his father had aggravated his back injury when moving heavy objects…

1

I’ll pay a visit when I’m done with everything that’s on my plate, Xu Jingming thought.

His father had taught him the single-hand handstand when he was young; it wasn’t part of the national team’s training regiment.

Xu Jingming didn’t enjoy good health in his youth, so his father taught him martial arts to strengthen his body—one of them was the ‘one-armed inversion.’ As the effects from long-term practice showed, it became one of the five main stances he practiced daily.
He practiced all year round and had persevered for 20 years—even when he was sick or injured.
He didn’t take a break unless there was some special reason.
As the saying goes, the practice of martial arts without doing basic training was a waste of time and energy.

3

Just a few days’ break was sufficient for the ligaments, bones, and muscles to decline.

1

Xu Jingming walked over to the desk and sat down after he finished his inversion training.
He drank a few mouthfuls of water and watched the rain outside.

My leg starts to hurt once it becomes humid. Xu Jingming looked at his right leg and massaged it gently. I haven’t stopped physiotherapy for a single day, but my right leg… just won’t recover.

“If my right leg wasn’t injured, I probably stand a chance of becoming number one in the world,” Xu Jingming said softly.

Every martial art expert feared injuries the most throughout their career.
To Xu Jingming, breaking his leg was a nightmare.

5

Beep! Beep! Beep!

Xu Jingming looked up and said, “White, answer the video call.”

1

Light gathered in front of Xu Jingming and condensed into a two-meter tall projection—a tall and stout fatty in a bus.
He laughed and shouted, “Old Xu, we’ve already set off from the hotel.
We’ll probably arrive at Cosmos in about 20 minutes.
Haha, it’s been a year since we last met, right? Let’s have a good drink tonight.”

“Don’t worry, Bear.
I’ve already reserved a barbecue restaurant.” Xu Jingming smiled at his childhood friend and exhorted.
“Drive safely.”

“Chill, man.” The stocky fatty continued, “This batch of kids from the provincial team idolize you.
They want to take a glimpse of your spearmanship.
You have to give them some pointers and let them understand the gap between them and a world-class expert.”

“Young folks these days are getting better and better with each passing generation.
I’ll count myself lucky if I don’t screw up,” Xu Jingming said with a chuckle.

4

“How can you screw up? I would love for that to happen; it’ll mean that my provincial team has produced another genius.” The fatty laughed.
“Alright, I’ll talk to you later.”

“See you later.” Xu Jingming waved his hand, and the projection in the air disappeared.

The Jiangnan provincial team’s training spanned ten days, and the fee was 50,000 yuan.
In fact, this couldn’t even cover the venue fees.
However, a combat center being used for the provincial team’s training was also a form of advertisement.
This attracted more combat enthusiasts to join the center.

Professional gladiators need to put food on the table even after they retire. Xu Jingming got up, went to shower, and changed his clothes.

Although being a professional gladiator sounded impressive, they only earned a few ‘appearance fees’ at their peak in reality.
Very few in the world earned more than a hundred million their entire career; most professional gladiators only made enough for a living.

Earning money after retirement became even harder.
Although Xu Jingming was also a world-class martial arts expert, his best show was getting into the top eight at the World Martial Arts Tournament.

Income of the martial arts world was pyramidal, and very few stood atop the pyramid! First place received a ridiculously high income, but income plummeted from second place onward.

3

******

Xu Jingming waited at the entrance of Cosmos Center with a few staff members.
From afar, he saw an electric bus driving over in the rain.

When the electric bus came to a halt, the doors opened, and more than ten people from the Jiangnan provincial team alighted.

1

“Bear.” Xu Jingming saw the big fatty who got off the bus first.
It was his good friend, Liu Chongyuan.

“Old Xu.” Liu Chongyuan walked over excitedly, hugged Xu Jingming, and slapped him on the back.