The first match began in the open space outside the martial arts school gates.
By the customs of the martial arts world, those who came to Challenge a School were unwelcome guests, uninvited visitors. Since they had not been invited, they did not enter the gates.
"Jianxiong Martial Arts School, Zhou You."
"Great Village Fist, Zhang Shiyu."
After both sides announced their affiliations, the fight officially began.
Zhang Shiyu's opening stance was peculiar, as though he were walking through mud. It looked sluggish and dragging, yet it was unbelievably fast.
This was Great Village Fist's foundational leg technique... Mud-Treading Steps.
He flashed into Zhou You's blind spot and immediately struck with a vicious drilling punch aimed straight at the vulnerable spot beneath his armpit.
The armpit was close to the chest. Once it took a blow, the victim would suffer chest tightness and blackness before the eyes—defeat would be inevitable.
"Farmer's tricks."
Wang Jianxiong snorted coldly, without the slightest trace of anger.
Great Village Fist had indeed originated from insights gained through farming, but after developing to this day and absorbing the essence of countless martial arts, it had become a mature fighting system of no small power.
Zhou You was slightly surprised. Then he remembered that his opponent had once been a martial arts school apprentice too. The intensity of Zhang Shiyu's training had been no less than his own, so it was hardly strange that he had some skill.
He immediately threw a punch in return, striking Zhang Shiyu's drilling punch head-on.
Two utterly different currents of Martial Force collided, and the air erupted with a boom.
As if his hand had been scalded, Zhang Shiyu swiftly withdrew his arm. He had never imagined that Zhou You's Martial Force would be so mighty.
This was not strength an apprentice who had only just entered the realm of Martial Force could possess.
He put away his contempt, stepping through Mud-Treading Steps as he flashed behind Zhou You in two or three movements.
But in the next instant, Zhou You used his waist as an axis and twisted his upper body one hundred and eighty degrees, facing him directly.
Wolf's glance, tiger's gaze—the visage of great savagery.
Those eight words surfaced in Zhang Shiyu's mind, followed by a gust of fishy wind rushing into his face.
The two exchanged four or five blows. Zhou You's bones were hard, his strength immense and his strikes heavy; every collision crashed down like mountains toppling and seas overturning.
Zhang Shiyu instinctively thought he had been set up. This Zhou You was not the weakest—he was instead one of the finest apprentices of Jianxiong Martial Arts School.
That Wang bastard was far too sinister. He already held the advantage of fighting on home ground, yet he still resorted to such scheming.
Zhou You's savage fists came roaring straight at him, infused with Martial Force and descending with an overwhelming momentum that could not be resisted.
"Parting grass to seek the snake."
Fury and shock mingled on Zhang Shiyu's face. He spread both hands, tearing apart the gale of force rushing toward him.
Zhou You lunged forward bodily, crashing in with thick, tyrannical force. His shadow instantly blanketed the ground.
"Breaking Ground."
Zhang Shiyu kicked like an iron shovel, easily plunging his foot into the earth and scooping up a large clod of dirt.
Each pellet of soil was infused with Martial Force, falling like raindrops and covering Zhou You's face in an instant.
Zhou You raised his hands to block the rain of dirt, when Zhang Shiyu's voice sounded by his ear. "Great Chaotic Planting."
Swish, swish, swish. Zhang Shiyu's figure darted back and forth through the dust. He was so fast that Zhou You could only catch wisps of afterimages.
In one breath, he accelerated, rapidly circling Zhou You from front to back and left to right.
Mud-Treading Steps was driven at full speed. Zhang Shiyu's figures filled every direction, leaving his enemy unable to predict either his direction or trajectory.
All manner of attacks rained down upon Zhou You like a tempest.
Forehead, chest and abdomen, both shoulders, back—there was simply no way to predict where the next attack would land.
Then, in a sudden instant, the storm of afterimages around him swept away and abruptly converged, while Killing Intent sprang from nothing and burst forth in a flash.
"Sickle Slash—reaping heads like grass."
Among the spectators, Lu Qiang reacted fastest. "Not good, it's a Three-Stage Technique."
Breaking Ground was meant to disrupt his vision, Great Chaotic Planting was meant to shake Zhou You's footing, and this final move was the true killing strike.
One, two, three—three linked moves in total.
This was a set sequence in martial arts, a chain of linked moves, also known as a Three-Stage Technique.
Jianxiong Martial Arts School also had Three-Stage Techniques, but only veteran apprentices with ten years of foundation could cultivate them.
For instance, Xu Ying had mastered a Three-Stage Technique. When he used it, sand and stones flew, and heaven and earth darkened.
Who could have expected that Zhang Shiyu had learned a Three-Stage Technique at such a young age?
Meanwhile, Zhou You had only recently become a full apprentice. He was still in the stage of refining his Martial Force and did not know this ultimate technique.
This match had never been fair from the start.
"Master, Zhou You is probably done for."
Lu Qiang could not help pleading. "Even if he loses, it will not be because he was inferior in battle."
"Don't jump to conclusions. Keep watching!"
Wang Jianxiong, the school master, spoke with crisp brevity.
If Zhou You lost a fight right outside his own gates, Wang Laohu could not afford to lose that face.
Lu Qiang could not help shaking his head, silently mourning Zhou You's fate. No matter how he struggled, he would still lose.
In the fighting ground, Zhang Shiyu's three chained moves had built his momentum to its peak. He raised both arms like sickles and crossed them as they slashed down toward Zhou You's neck.
With Martial Force poured into them, even flesh and blood could wield the might of refined steel.
The severed air streamed through his fingers in thin strands. Reaping heads like grass was no exaggeration.
A tiger's roar exploded from level ground as Zhou You struck back from the brink of death.
"Tiger Offering Libation."
He raised both hands as though lifting a bronze wine vessel. His stance was rock-steady as he blocked Zhang Shiyu's arms from both sides.
The killing power accumulated by the Three-Stage Technique was terrifying. In an instant, it released razor-sharp Martial Force that sliced open the flesh on Zhou You's arms, sending blood gushing out.
Zhang Shiyu was overjoyed. He only needed to circulate his Martial Force; even an iron ingot could be twisted into pulp.
Then his brow furrowed. His hands had been caught by the bones in Zhou You's arms.
His 25 points of defense had granted Zhou You a formidable body, without the slightest weakness from flesh to bones.
"Tiger Tail Kick."
A violent gale that tore through the air rushed straight at him.
Zhou You had exerted force through his lumbar spine. The great tendons in his leg drove his right foot whipping upward, curving around the back of his head and kicking out before his fists could move.
Risking having both arms sheared apart, he had forcibly used them to cover this flying kick that could split stone and pierce wood.
Zhang Shiyu took the kick squarely on the forehead, stars bursting before his eyes. Gritting his teeth, he crossed his arms and tried to shear Zhou You's arms apart.
Zhou You neither dodged nor evaded. He contracted his body in place and actively rammed himself into Zhang Shiyu's embrace.
This threw Zhang Shiyu into a passive position. The killing move of his arms missed, and by the time he tried to draw them inward, it was already too late.
"Tiger Descends the Plains."
Zhou You grabbed Zhang Shiyu around the waist and lunged forward. His feet kicked off the ground as he charged ahead with all his strength.
Amid flying dust, the two shot forward like cannonballs for more than ten meters, crashing directly into the martial arts school wall.
The stone wall, several meters high, collapsed on the spot, broken bricks and shattered tiles pouring across the ground like a stream.
Dust rose from the flat ground like a cloth curtain, obscuring everyone's vision. No one could tell who was still alive.
"Enough, enough."
Seeing this, Zhuang Tie stepped forward, intending to interfere in the match and save his junior brother.
A figure flashed before him. Lu Qiang had arrived in time and swiftly blocked Zhuang Tie's path.
Zhuang Tie knew that his master doted on Zhang Shiyu and feared he would be injured, so he had interfered in his urgency. But Lu Qiang was no slower.
"The victor has not been decided. What are you doing?"
Lu Qiang watched him like a tiger watches its prey. "Go back."
The rubble shifted several times, and a figure struggled to rise.
It was Zhou You!
Zhou You kicked away several bricks blocking his path, then sprang from the ruins and landed on the open ground.
Behind him, Zhang Shiyu rolled onto the ground like a torn sack. After struggling twice, he could no longer move.
He had won this match!
"School Master, I did not fail my mission."
Zhou You cupped his fists toward Wang Jianxiong in salute, taking several heavy breaths.
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