I'm Really a Superstar

In the movie studio, many people had their attentions caught by the movements over at the practice area.

“Eh?”

“They’ve already started their practice?”

“The fight sequence has already been choreographed? Have they finished learning it already?”

“It can’t be that fast. Those scenes require the two actors to slowly learn and repeat until they get it right.”

“Let’s go over and take a look. I wonder how Teacher Zhang is handling it. Learning the movements is entirely different from practice sparring with an opponent. To be able to get the effect like they were fighting for real, they have to wear protective gear under their costumes and actually spar hand-to-hand. Otherwise, if they use quick cuts to conceal some actions in the scene, it won’t look too believable anymore. How fast Teacher Zhang can pick up the fighting sequences will affect how quickly our afternoon’s shoot will progress. If he’s slow or can’t pick it up at all, then we might not even be able to finish this afternoon’s planned scene by night time, and that would roll over to the next scene as well.”

Quite a number of the film crew’s staff went over to where they were practicing.

When the director and assistant director saw this, they walked over there to watch as well.

Wang Chengpeng asked the martial arts director, “You’ve already taught them the fight sequence?”

“More or less. I’m letting them try it out first to get a feel for it,” the martial arts director answered.

Very quickly, over 20 people surrounded the practice area. They were basically done with their own tasks and were just waiting for Zhang Ye’s practice to finish so that they could carry on with the filming. Since they had nothing to do, they might as well join in and observe how it all was going. Everyone had surrounded the practice area and formed a circle as they pointed at them, discussing what they were seeing.

In the middle of the practice area.

Zhang Ye and the double were already in position.

Seeing that so many people had gathered around, including the director and assistant director, the double got an adrenaline rush from the attention he was receiving. Having just learned a few moves of the legendary and long-admired martial arts style, Taiji Fist, his desire to perform well in front of all them was swelling. He said, “Teacher Zhang, may the best man win. Watch out, I’ll make the first move now!”

Zhang Ye calmly said, “Come on.”

The martial arts director reminded, “Watch your movements. They must be standard.”

When the double heard this, he immediately committed to a horse stance and followed the instructions that were taught to him earlier. His horse stance was slightly tilted to the front, making his whole body look angled while his hands were even more standardized as his hands were placed straight out in front. In giving an opening form of Taiji Fist, he felt he looked very valiant and was enjoying every moment of it.

Around them, the people’s eyes all brightened up a little. Previously, the role of the descendant of Taiji Fist martial arts style was played by Brother Shui. They had already seen his acting before. But an actor was just an actor at best, especially since Brother Shui was also not a professional martial arts actor, so there was surely a difference when compared to a stunt double who had martial arts skills. From just a move, although Brother Shui’s Taiji Fist opening moves were quite scary and domineering, his aura was just outwardly strong but inwardly brittle. He could only depend on post-production effects to be added, like having some music overlay, the sound of wind moving his clothes, or leaves flying around from the shockwaves whenever his feet landed on the ground, all of which could help to play up his abilities. However, the stunt double in front of them had only made a stance, which was good enough to not need any special effects and still had the oomph factor—this was what real martial arts was about.

But in contrast, when they looked at Zhang Ye?

Zhang Ye also got into a opening form, similar to the one that he showed in the studio earlier which no one knew. There wasn’t much distance between his feet while his hands superficially made some movements without exerting additional strength, like someone could just break his form by tugging at his hands a little. His shoulders were also drooped and that made him look somewhat listless. All in all, his overall form looked terrible!

“What is that stance?”

“Did the martial arts director teach him that?”

“Why does it not look impressive at all?”

“A positive and negative. The difference is too great.”

“Don’t ask for such high standards. The stunt double is a professionally trained martial artist and has some skills while Zhang Ye’s a literary and arts worker, so how can he match up to that?”

“That’s true.”

When the double saw Zhang Ye’s form, he was dumbfounded. What the hell was this?

The martial arts director was also left absolutely speechless by what he saw. This Teacher Zhang! Didn’t he already go through the moves for Taiji Fist several times? Why was he still unable to remember it? Did he forget the opening form? What kind of an opening form was he displaying now then? It looks like it’s incredibly weak and full of openings. Whether it be internal style martial arts or external style martial arts, neither of them would ever have an opening form like yours. If anyone rushed over to attack, you’d be flattened in no time!

“Teacher Zhang, it’s not done that way!” the martial arts director said, and thought to himself that a layman would always be a layman. It was a chore just trying to teach them. He asked him, “Where is the horse stance? Why are you not leaning forward!”

But Zhang Ye did not move.

The stunt double glanced at him and said, “That form of yours won’t do. If I just attack once, you won’t even be able to withstand a strike from me. That opening form is full of weakness. We won’t be able to practice our sparring properly this way.”

The assistant director gave them a word of caution and said, “Please be careful. Don’t get hurt, especially Teacher Zhang. You have to take extreme care not to get hurt, otherwise, there won’t be any more replacement actors to take your place!”

Zhang Ye casually said, “No worries, just come at me.”

“I’m afraid I will hurt you,” the stunt double hesitated.

Zhang Ye laughed and said, “That might not be the case.”

When the stunt double heard him say that, he might just as well abide and said, “Alright then, I’m coming for you!” As his words trailed off, he attacked according to the martial arts director’s teachings. He struck out a palm with a weird trajectory, with a slight feint to make the move look very beautiful. He knew that Zhang Ye would not be able to stop this attack and thus, adjusted his strength and lowered it by 60 or 70%. He put the remaining 30 to 40% of his strength into the attack at Zhang Ye!

The martial arts director praised, “Good movement! That is what they call the Taiji parry!”

Parry?

Zhang Ye could only shake his head in his mind. His arm went up, and suddenly, the form that was full of openings earlier had turned into a different form. Zhang Ye’s hand had already received the attacker’s arms!

Smash!

The two of them collided!

Everyone was staring with their eyes wide open, enjoying what they were seeing. However, a scene they could never have expected happened right before them and it left them all dumbfounded. After the first clash, Zhang Ye was left unmoved from the spot he was standing in while the double who had executed a very beautiful looking technique had lost his balance and stumbled to the side a few steps. He had lost his momentum there and then, and was unable to execute the next move!

The stunt double was a little confused. “This…”

Zhang Ye smiled and thought to himself that what his opponent did was not parrying, but his own move was.

The martial arts director was slightly taken aback at first when he saw this, but quickly smiled and said to the double, “Teacher Zhang still has quite a bit of strength, so you don’t need to hold back too much.”

Only then did the crowd understand. Oh, so it was because the attacker was not being serious.

The double reacted and said, “OK, Teacher Zhang, again!”

He came near Zhang Ye once again, but used his legs instead, this time in a different stance. The strength of the kick was even greater and felt like it would be quite a strong one!

As the kick came flying in!

Zhang Ye blocked it again!

Crash! The fist met with the kick, but no one noticed that a technique had been executed in the few milliseconds when Zhang Ye raised his wrist slightly and bent it a little, which made the double’s center of gravity shift. Because he had put in a lot of power into his attack, he lost his balance greatly as he staggered a few steps away and hurriedly tried to regain his footing. He was already sweating heavily at this moment!

What happened?

What was this situation about?

The double was dumbfounded and wondered why his Taiji Fist did not seem to work. And what was that martial arts style Teacher Zhang Ye was using? Why was he able to negate half of the strength in my attack in such an odd way? Not only did he negate a part of it, it actually felt like he used that negated force against me? Otherwise, why would I have lost my balance? Only those who had experienced it for themselves would be able to understand how terrifying it was. The double was already in a daze and feeling confused. This move by Zhang Ye seemed like martial arts, yet it also did not seem like martial arts. No one had seen such a style before!

Zhang Ye smiled and asked, “Still coming?”

“One more time!” The stunt double was getting a little pissed and still not convinced that he was losing. If his opponent was also a martial arts practitioner, he would definitely be convinced, but right now, this opponent was a literary and arts worker, so it was impossible that he would have such advanced martial arts. He felt that Teacher Little Zhang had definitely just gotten lucky. Chinese martial arts really weren’t as fantastic as the layman thought, since after all it was just a skill consisting of some techniques. As the saying goes, even an old master can be downed by an accidental punch. This was as true as it sounds. Consider a person who knows a little bit of martial arts and a person who doesn’t know martial arts but has great strength. If these two fought, you’d never be too sure who’d win it. Who knows? If your attack was a little too light, your reaction was a little too slow, the ground was a little too rocky, or even if you were just standing in the headwind, all of that could lead to the other person winning. Nothing was absolute at all.

Whoosh!

The double came at him for the third time!

Zhang Ye calmly stood there and took on the attack at a speed that was neither too fast nor too slow. As the stunt double was ready for this, after his move had been parried, he closed in on Zhang Ye. When Zhang Ye saw this, he followed through with the momentum and went near him as well!

With a slight lean of his shoulders.

The double was pushed back four or five paces, wearing an expression of surprise!

“Again!” He was getting a little frustrated!

However, Zhang Ye just smiled and said, “Sure, as you please.”

Hur hur, again? No matter how many times you try, it’s useless!

The double rushed in again, using the Taiji Fist techniques he learned from the martial arts director. What he did not know was that those moves that he had picked up were in fact not Taiji Fist at all. They were not even anything close to Taiji Fist. He was facing Zhang Ye, who was a true Taiji Fist expert, perhaps not an expert if he were in his previous world, but in this world right now, Zhang Ye was the only person who knew Taiji Fist!

A counterfeit of counterfeits style of Taiji Fist coming up against an authentic style of Taiji Fist. This was a gap that couldn’t even be compared!

The stunt double kept attacking!

Zhang Ye kept negating his attacks without breaking a sweat. He was only putting in 10 to 20% effort to deal with him for now as he did not wish to hurt someone or to expose his foundations in Chinese martial arts since he did not fully understand the situation of the martial arts world of this world yet. It was better not to provoke any trouble because of this situation. For now, he was just demonstrating his ability as the only person who knew Taiji Fist in this world, to show the martial arts director and stunt double that Taiji Fist was not as simple as they thought. What they were practicing could not even be called Taiji Fist at all!

Upward deflect!

Side deflect!

High parry!

Low parry!

The double felt trapped in a bog right now, and in front of him was a huge mountain or perhaps a wide river. No matter how he tried, he felt like he was a clay oxen going out into the sea, never to return. He couldn’t at all muster any more strength from his own body!

Wang Chengpeng: “……”

The martial arts director: “……”

The assistant director: “……”

The film crew’s staff around them were all dumbfounded by what they saw!