Counterattack

When the words reached Cheng Shun Gong's ears, his entire face began to twitch. Since long ago, that phrase had annoyed him. Once upon a time, those words were carved into his bones, stinging him at every moment.

Can't win, can't win, can't win.

Clearly, before all of this, he also belonged among the geniuses everyone chased after, so why did someone even more dazzling than him have to appear?

The sun only needs one...

He stamped his foot fiercely, the boundless anger having nowhere to vent as if it were about to burst forth from his body. He angrily rushed right in front of Ryuseki, and then his pride forced him to clench his fists with even greater strength. Just like that, he threw a punch toward Ryuseki, whose stance was unsteady.

"You bastard!"

Ryuseki also shouted as he threw a punch, and immediately their fists collided with a dull thud, sounding as if something were splitting apart. Look closer and Cheng Shun Gong's mouth was tilted up slightly in a smug grin.

Ryuseki's gaze instantly changed, and pain at his knuckle joints struck in an instant.

"Ooh-ah..."

The pain made Ryuseki cry out, the agony connecting straight to his heart making his wrists twitch, and slowly blood seeped out between the gaps of their colliding fists.

Because of his cry as well, for a moment the birds on the treetops were startled and scattered in all directions. One by one they flapped their wings, scrambling to fly away, and even the branches swayed back and forth from the vibration.

Ryuseki quickly retracted his fist, looking at the red and swollen spot on his knuckles. The skin had already split open, and the white bone was vaguely exposed, the flesh beneath the skin clearly visible. He raised his head to look at Cheng Shun Gong, only to see him peeling off his glove, and fitted over the fist beneath that glove was precisely a metal brass knuckle set with blunt spikes.

"Damn it, I let my guard down, you actually brought this kind of thing. No wonder that punch just now made your fist feel unusually hard." Ryuseki panted while shaking his hand.

Yet while Ryuseki was complaining, Cheng Shun Gong made another dash forward, and even spoke wildly, "You idiot, wouldn't it be fine to just quietly take a beating. You have to try this kind of physical torment. Your brother is the same, thinking that having a little bit of talent means he can trample on other people's dignity at will? You're simply scum."

"I finally understand. Clearly you lack skill yourself yet you insist on blaming others for not giving you dignity. Dignity is something you fight for yourself. You fool actually insulted my brother over such a trivial matter, trash like you has no qualifications whatsoever to speak of him."

This person Ryuseki raised his head and swung his injured fist toward Cheng Shun Gong, shouting loudly, "Let me teach you how to possess dignity."

"The barking of a toothless dog is very loud, that's because of their inner fear." Cheng Shun Gong answered tauntingly, "Guys without strength like you are just failed stray dogs, you have nothing, just a loud voice for nothing."

"That fits you better than anyone." Ryuseki counter-taunted him back.

However, in the ensuing standoff, Cheng Shun Gong kicked Ryuseki straight in the abdomen, that soft abdomen without any protection. Ryuseki was kicked flying back a distance of several meters just like that.

"Completely incomparable to your brother, I really didn't expect you to turn out this weak." Cheng Shun Gong held his thumb pointing straight down.

No good, too weak. Completely unable to do it...

At that moment, a vigorous and powerful voice appeared in Ryuseki's mind. Ryuseki's head was still a bit dizzy from that last hit, and right then this voice swirled inside his mind.

Completely unable to reach the point of killing him, too weak.

This voice continued, and Ryuseki cleared up a little as well. He vaguely could see Cheng Shun Gong slowly walking toward him.

Since this fellow can't kill him, then I can only step on the little ant before my eyes to death first.

Urged by this voice, Ryuseki shook his head and used his hands to prop up his body as he stood back up.

"You can still stand up!" Cheng Shun Gong stared at Ryuseki and said, "If I beat you half to death, your brother Kouhi certainly won't let it rest, right!"

At this moment, under a slightly dull reaction, Ryuseki vaguely perceived a trace of abnormal change in his body.

"Piece of trash, go to hell!"

With that, Cheng Shun Gong delivered a punch straight to Ryuseki's forehead.

Based on Ryuseki's current sluggish state, he had no time to react at all, and he definitely would have been knocked down by this punch. Yet without his brain issuing a command, he reached out and blocked the punch.

Ryuseki reached out and grabbed Cheng Shun Gong's fist in a death grip, and when Cheng Shun Gong tried to break free, he discovered he couldn't pull away at all. It was as if his fist were wedged into the crevice of a stone, unable to budge even a fraction. Immediately he panicked, watching his fist get grabbed by Ryuseki, he extended his foot to kick fiercely at Ryuseki's abdomen, and then his other fist swung toward Ryuseki's chest as well.

However, Ryuseki didn't budge an inch. He neither let go nor made any extra movements. He just grabbed Cheng Shun Gong's fist in a death grip and refused to let go. And Cheng Shun Gong, who was attacking Ryuseki, could clearly feel that even though he was kicking Ryuseki's abdomen, it felt more like kicking a slab of iron.

"What's wrong with you brat?"

The pupils in Ryuseki's eyes grew lifeless and vacant. He turned his head to look at Cheng Shun Gong, and then the hand grasping Cheng Shun Gong's fist exerted a slight bit of force, whereupon the sensation of shattering bone instantly transmitted through the nerves to his brain. The nerve reflex first caused Cheng Shun Gong's entire body to stiffen up, and within a few seconds after this stiffness passed, his body instantly grew soft. Forget having the strength to counterattack Ryuseki, even standing became difficult, and his limp body began to topple toward the ground.

The pain of shattering bones stimulated his brain, but right now he didn't even have the strength to let out a cry.

"What's wrong? Why aren't you acting arrogant anymore?" Ryuseki asked in an icy tone, "Am I trashy to the extreme? But what about you, being ravaged by me like this?" Seeing that Cheng Shun Gong lacked the strength to answer him, he continued, "I'm only doing this to warn you of one thing: I am stronger than you. I just didn't want to make a move against you earlier, don't misunderstand."

With that, Ryuseki extended his other fist, then smashed it straight into the fist he was holding. For a moment, Cheng Shun Gong's arm could feel as though it were subjected to a powerful impact, his bones beginning to compress rapidly, and then snapping entirely to prop up a protruding lump of flesh and skin on his lower arm.

"How does it feel?" Ryuseki asked coldly, and released the hand he was holding.

Because the excruciating pain of this attack assaulted Cheng Shun Gong's nervous system once more, it was as though it had been activated. His body also regained some strength, but what he did right then was not counterattack, but rather scream.

"Ahhhhhhh!!!!!!"

That forging-press-like agony was extraordinary. The moment he experienced the pain, Cheng Shun Gong already clearly understood one thing: this arm of his was as good as destroyed. However, whether it was because he had prior injury experience and gritted his teeth through the pain, or because the pain had already exceeded the load of his brain causing it to crash in its processing of the pain signals, he used his other uninjured hand to peel off the glove on that arm.

The instant he peeled off the glove, what he saw was blurred flesh and blood along with shattered metal brass knuckles. The fragments of the metal brass knuckles had also scattered and embedded themselves into the flesh. He used his fingers to dig the brass knuckle fragments out of the blurred flesh, and then watched the little kid before him with guarded vigilance.

Something began to appear on Ryuseki's arm, looking just like mist. This mist seemed to be spewing out from his arm.

"I'll let you know the consequences of insulting someone I cherish right now."