Cross Punch and a Gruesome Sight (Please Follow)

'Cross Punch' and 'a Gruesome Sight' (Please Follow). A Life and Death Arena was different from a Sparring Fight. No referee would explain the rules to you.

As the signal marking the start of the Life and Death Arena sounded—

Chen Mu moved with astonishing speed. Without probing his opponent, he threw a punch straight at Sickle's head.

The punch whistled through the air like a crane in flight; its force was obvious.

Bang!

The sound of muscles colliding rang out. Sickle felt waves of soreness shoot through his forearm.

"What tremendous strength!"

His expression changed abruptly, and the disdain on his face vanished.

Chen Mu's strength differed drastically from his assessment of him.

Still, he did not panic. The experience of countless life-and-death battles allowed him to calm down instantly.

His moves became extremely insidious, targeting Chen Mu's eyes, ears, and groin with vicious strikes.

Those were areas difficult for anyone unfamiliar with bare-knuckle combat to defend, but Sickle had clearly picked the wrong opponent.

Chen Mu was not some ignorant hothead. On the contrary, his fighting skill, like Sickle's, was at the Proficiency Level.

The muscles across Chen Mu's body were sharply defined. With every movement, they bulged and contracted as though breathing.

The exchanges between the two gradually sped up.

The sound of their feet striking the marble arena grew increasingly intense.

The continuous bang, bang, bang of close-quarters combat echoed out.

One move, two moves, three moves—Chen Mu launched every strike at incredible speed.

At first, Sickle blocked them easily, but as the attacks piled up, his movements gradually began to slow.

Meanwhile, Chen Mu's speed did not change in the slightest.

His heavy fists mercilessly kept striking toward Sickle's vital points.

Chen Mu's blows provoked Sickle's anger. It felt as though the positions of hunter and prey had reversed.

He was now like a mouse being toyed with by a cat.

"Cross Punch!"

In the next moment, Sickle roared inwardly.

In the brief gap between exchanges, the ever-defensive Sickle launched a punch.

Even the air seemed to burst beneath that blow.

Chen Mu seemed to feel Sickle's incoming fist vibrating.

"A Quasi-Knight Skill!"

That was right. Knight Skills relying solely on technique rather than qi were known as Quasi-Knight Skills.

The Lionheart Slash Chen Mu had mastered was also a Quasi-Knight Skill.

Yet Sickle's killing move, which had always served him so well in the Life and Death Arena, was actually useless against Chen Mu.

Because he did not know that Chen Mu was already a Formal Knight.

Seeing Chen Mu throw a straight punch to meet his own, Sickle was instantly overjoyed.

But in the next instant, the crisp crack from his arm and the searing pain that shot straight into his mind sent that joy flying out of his head.

"Ah!"

The fracture of his arm bones drew a bloodcurdling scream from him.

The spectators watching the Life and Death Arena from the stands erupted into an uproar.

"That looked like Sickle's ultimate move, the Great Strength Punch, but Lionheart blocked it so easily. Sickle was the one who got hurt instead."

"How is that possible? That was a Knight Skill. Could Lionheart's punch just now have contained some special technique as well?"

Discussion broke out everywhere. Even William, who had been preparing to intervene from the front row, relaxed again.

Others could not see it clearly, but William understood exactly what had happened.

There was nothing special about Chen Mu's move. It had simply been a crushing advantage in strength.

No matter how many tricks you had, I would break them with sheer force.

"Is Natural Super Strength really this terrifying? Young Master's Natural Super Strength seems a little unusual. I should ask the master about it when we return."

The power to overwhelm a Quasi-Knight Skill with an ordinary bare fist was already infinitely close to that of a Formal Knight.

That was why William felt somewhat doubtful.

"You're not—"

If those in the stands had only seen the general picture, then Sickle, who was fighting Chen Mu directly, felt it most clearly.

Chen Mu was definitely not a Quasi-Knight. Sickle had honed this Cross Punch for more than ten years.

No one knew the strength behind it better than he did. Even Formal Knights would gain no advantage against this move.

He instinctively opened his mouth to say something, but Chen Mu, who naturally understood what he meant, would not let him speak.

He closed in and threw an uppercut.

Sickle, his arm broken, tried to block it, but Chen Mu was too fast. He was still a beat too slow.

In the next moment, Chen Mu's uppercut struck him squarely on the jaw.

His body was sent flying several meters away.

He landed flat on his back, blood spraying from his mouth and splattering into droplets across the marble arena.

At that moment, Chen Mu had effectively secured victory.

But would he spare Sickle? Obviously not.

Chen Mu stepped forward and straddled Sickle, whose face was twisted in fury.

"Kill me, pretty boy. Bastard. Trash."

Sickle's face was filled with venom.

He knew he would not survive, so he tried to provoke Chen Mu with words and make his death quicker.

But Chen Mu clearly had no intention of granting his wish.

A cruel smile appeared on his face as he raised his right fist high.

In the next moment, his heavy fist came down and slammed into Sickle's cheek.

Several of Sickle's teeth were smashed apart inside his mouth. Unable to spit them out, he could only swallow them.

Blood began to spatter as Chen Mu punched Sickle's face again and again.

Sickle's mouth was battered open, his lips split and turned outward, blood streaming down.

Countless teeth were broken and swallowed down his throat.

The venom in Sickle's eyes had long since vanished. The only emotion remaining in them was fear.

The spectators in the stands could no longer bear to watch.

What kind of grudge was this, to knock out every single tooth in his opponent's mouth?

"I said I would smash your mouth, then beat you to death."

"Kill... me..."

Sickle no longer possessed his former arrogance. His eyes held only pleading and begging.

A tear slid from the corner of his eye. He had never expected that after fighting for that great figure his entire life, he would end up like this.

Chen Mu's eyes remained cold and calm.

In the next moment, his heavy fist swung out once more, knocking out Sickle's last remaining teeth.

By then, Chen Mu had thrown seventeen punches.

Sickle's mouth was now completely empty. Nothing remained but mangled flesh.

Chen Mu raised his fist again. As Sickle lay on the ground and saw the fist hanging in the air above him, the pleading in his eyes disappeared, replaced by an expression of relief.

The heavy fist fell onto Sickle's forehead. The sound of his brow bone cracking rang out, followed by a spray of blood.

Chen Mu stood and tore a strip of cloth from Sickle's clothes, silently wiping the blood from his fist.

Quite a bit of blood had also stained the muscles of his upper body, but none of it was his. Its owner was now dead, and his corpse was a gruesome sight.

There was not a single patch of intact flesh left on Sickle's face. Chen Mu had beaten him to death with his fists, one blow at a time.

"L-Lionheart wins."

The attendant announcing Chen Mu's victory was trembling as well, afraid that Chen Mu might go berserk and beat him to death too.

Hearing the announcement, Chen Mu's expression did not change. He lightly tossed the bloodstained strip of cloth onto Sickle's face.

Then, after several moments of silence, screams and cheers that shook the skies erupted from the stands.

"Lionheart! Lionheart!"

Countless noble spectators shouted Chen Mu's name in wild excitement.

There was a trace of fanaticism in their eyes.

Most of the people who came here admired the strong. Without question, Chen Mu had not only killed Sickle in this Life and Death Arena, but also conquered countless spectators.

As for Sickle, who had died such a miserable death in this Life and Death Arena, no one cared.

Who was Sickle? Sorry, never heard of him.

Of course, except for that so-called great figure behind Sickle.

Listening to the shouts and cheers around him, Chen Mu slowly exhaled the pent-up breath in his chest.

At that moment, he felt better than ever before.

Please keep reading~