Riverheart Park.
This was the favorite dancing spot for the aunties who did square dances at night, but almost no one came here during the day.
Situated in the middle of the river, with no tall buildings around to provide shade, the vicious sun beat directly down on the park. On top of that, it lay in the middle of the Tuo River, where aquatic plants flourished all around. Not only were there countless mosquitoes, each one was fat-headed and big-eared, covered in black stripes. One bite left a pagoda-shaped welt.
"Are you sure about this place?"
Li Changqing and Sun Sheng stood facing each other in the plaza at the center of the park. Li Changqing looked around.
"The greenery here is pretty abundant."
Sun Sheng glanced at him. "I'm already a registered Martial Artist. I have dedicated insurance, so you don't need to worry about not being able to afford the damages."
"That wasn't what I meant..."
"Let's begin."
Sun Sheng spread his legs, extending his left hand forward in a probing stance. Shoulder and hip aligned, elbow and knee aligned, hand and foot aligned.
The signature Xing Yi Quan guarding stance of Jixing Martial Hall.
His vitality began to surge. In Li Changqing's eyes, it transformed into a mottled ferocious tiger, neither quite lying down nor quite standing.
"Xing Yi Quan, huh." Li Changqing also assumed a fighting stance.
His palms held yin and yang, while his feet tread upon heaven and earth.
Sun Sheng frowned tightly. He had never seen Li Changqing's stance before. Though it somewhat resembled the Tai Chi of Chengtian Martial Arts School, it also seemed neither fish nor fowl.
"Get ready. I'm coming."
Without overthinking it, he stepped forward directly.
His right fist lit the fuse.
Cannons roared in unison.
Xing Yi Quan, Cannon Fist!
He visualized gunpowder exploding with his vitality, turning his fist into a cannon and launching a straight punch bursting with explosive power.
A cannon was far fiercer than an old tiger!
Sun Sheng's right fist was like artillery, tearing through the air. His feet stomped down, cracking the plaza beneath him. The immense recoil propelled his body forward like a shell hurtling through the air.
Li Changqing's right hand curved into an arc. He unleashed the Flowing Water True Meaning, and Heaven-Man Resonance instantly connected him with the Tuo River. With the momentum of the surging Yangtze, he embraced all rivers into the sea.
No matter how fierce cannon fire was, could it split rivers and seas?
The cannon fist vanished into the sea like a clay ox, its force neutralized.
Li Changqing's right hand steadily caught Sun Sheng's right fist, making the latter's brows lift slightly.
"Impressive. You actually caught thirty percent of my strength."
"Again!"
Vitality erupted within Sun Sheng. He broke free from Li Changqing's restraint and leaped backward.
His heels sank into the plaza floor.
He placed both hands at his waist, and his chest suddenly expanded.
Sun Sheng swallowed a massive amount of air into his abdomen.
He raised his head and thrust out his chest, like an iron tower standing firm upon a battlefield.
"Next, I'll use fifty percent of my strength. Don't fall."
As soon as the words left his mouth, both fists shot out together.
Xing Yi Quan, Machine Gun Fist!
His fists fell like raindrops. His surging vitality roared like a machine gun, and explosive force propelled his jabs.
Gale-force winds rose on all sides.
Li Changqing remained where he was, his hands cradling an invisible sphere before his chest.
Tai Chi Force unfolded, shifting between hardness and softness.
He absorbed the entire machine-gun barrage.
Tai Chi, Turn Motion into Stillness!
With clouds drifting lightly and winds blowing gently, Sun Sheng's second wave of attacks dissipated into nothing.
"You..." Sun Sheng's lips parted slightly. He had used fifty percent of his strength!
Even a Lower-Rank Six-Star Martial Artist would not have been able to emerge unscathed.
The plaza beneath Sun Sheng's feet had shattered. Yet where Li Changqing stood, the ground remained pristine, without even the slightest crack.
Li Changqing's left and right hands evolved yin and yang. As his palms faced each other, yin and yang inverted.
The Machine Gun Fist he had neutralized with his own boxing suddenly reappeared.
Tai Chi, Turn Stillness into Motion!
"To receive without returning is against courtesy, Sun Sheng. Now it's your turn!" Li Changqing laughed aloud.
Sun Sheng's pupils contracted. Li Changqing pushed both palms forward, and dense vitality burst out through his body.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The machine gun roared as countless blasts of force shot through the air from Li Changqing's palms.
If Sun Sheng's boxing simulated a machine gun, then Li Changqing used vitality to directly unleash a machine-gun barrage capable of tearing apart steel barriers.
Sun Sheng no longer dared remain where he was. He saw it clearly.
This was the Ten-Step Divine Fist!
The hallmark of a Lower-Rank Nine-Star Martial Artist.
Fist force left the body and struck through the air.
Within ten steps, it pierced stone and punched through metal.
"Ha!"
Embracing the Core and Returning Strength—he erupted with the vitality in his dantian for the first time.
He clenched both fists and guarded his chest.
Borrowing the instantaneous mobilization of all his body's strength unleashed by Embracing the Core and Returning Strength.
Xing Yi Quan, Cloud Burst Fist!
"Break!"
Boom!
Vast vitality instantly heated the surrounding air, sending the temperature soaring.
The moisture in the air boiled and transformed into rolling steam.
Through thermal expansion and contraction, combined with the explosive force of vitality leaving his body, it formed a 360-degree spherical shockwave.
The heat radiation released by that intense temperature made Sun Sheng's entire body gleam brilliantly from afar.
With the intent of a fuel-air bomb, he simulated an all-direction explosive fist force with no blind spots.
The vitality machine-gun bullets melted beneath the force.
Scorch marks appeared on Sun Sheng's white training uniform. He took two heavy breaths, then looked at Li Changqing, who remained calm and unruffled before him without pressing his advantage.
"The speed of your improvement really is..."
For a moment, Sun Sheng could not find the words to express his shock.
The last time they met, Li Changqing had merely possessed the strength of a Lower-Rank Two-Star or Three-Star Martial Artist.
Yet after only ten-odd days, he had actually suffered a hidden loss in this exchange.
Li Changqing crossed his hands, and his Tai Chi stance shifted.
"Looks like you won't be able to make it back on time for today's practice match."
Sun Sheng shook his head.
"Even without me, it'll count as a success if your Chengtian Martial Arts School can win even one match."
"No." Li Changqing extended the index and middle fingers of his left hand.
"It could be two matches. At the very least, we've already won one."
Sun Sheng's gaze flickered, and he smiled.
"You've got quite the mouth. In that case, let me see just how much you've improved over these past dozen days."
Boom!
Sun Sheng no longer dared hold back. Qi and blood burst forth from his dantian, driving his Aura to its limit.
"I won't hold back from here on."
"Exactly what I wanted." Li Changqing nodded. His eyes opened, then closed.
Unity of Heaven and Man.
"Who's there?!" Every hair on Sun Sheng's body stood on end. In that instant, he felt countless malicious gazes fall upon him.
Above and below.
Everywhere.
Like a nightmare, as though heaven and earth themselves had cast him aside with a single glance.
Hmm?
Li Changqing raised a brow. Forget it.
He withdrew from the state of Unity of Heaven and Man. Entering Unity of Heaven and Man in the middle of the Tuo River was simply too much of a bully move.
"What was that just now?"
The sensation had lasted only a second, yet it sent Sun Sheng's vigilance soaring to its peak.
Was that him?
Looking at the increasingly mysterious Li Changqing, Sun Sheng suppressed the distracting thoughts in his heart with sheer willpower between breaths.
Whether it was him or not, he only needed to fight.
To battle and triumph was Sun Sheng's creed throughout his life.
"Take this fist!"
He shouted loudly, his boxing upright and majestic—an outward expression of the invincible will in his heart.
Jixing Martial Hall's Xing Yi Quan had been brought to the pinnacle of mastery in his hands.
Sun Sheng's fists were like cannons, his feet rode a warplane. He visualized himself as a towering mecha and threw forth heavy punches.
Bang!
Ten meters away from Li Changqing, Sun Sheng brazenly threw a punch.
Ten-Step Divine Fist!
He knew it too!
Xing Yi Quan, Missile Fist!
Boom—
Airwaves surged. Li Changqing caught the force with one hand and lightly tapped his left foot against the ground, directly transferring all the force into the Tuo River beneath it.
The plaza floor remained completely unscathed.
Using the Ten-Step Divine Fist as cover, Sun Sheng seized the chance to charge before Li Changqing.
He crossed his arms before his chest, gathering strength.
Xing Yi Quan, Cluster Cannon Fist!
This was a higher-level Xing Yi Quan technique than Machine Gun Fist, turning every machine-gun bullet into cannon fire.
While its vitality consumption rose sharply, the power of the boxing technique also climbed to an entirely new level.
Li Changqing's hands worked yin and yang. Within his Dantian, vitality embraced the core and returned strength. The power erupted by his vitality, which had already begun to solidify, reached the threshold of a Lower-Rank Martial Artist.
Tai Chi, Invert Yin Overturn Yang.
It was still the same move.
Sun Sheng saw it clearly, but he discovered in despair that his attack, whose power had multiplied and forced him to erupt with all his strength, was still effortlessly neutralized by Li Changqing using the exact same technique.
The force dissipated.
Li Changqing seized the opportunity to grip Sun Sheng's wrist. His master-level Listening to Strength, combined with natural rhythm, effortlessly grasped the latter's vitality flow before it could change.
This is bad!
Sun Sheng's pupils contracted. He knew perfectly well what it meant to have one's arm caught by a Tai Chi practitioner.
He could not let his center of gravity be controlled!
There was no time to think. His force could not be released, leaving only one method.
Embracing the Core and Returning Strength!
Sun Sheng's vitality instantly contracted into his Dantian, condensing into a round, seemingly perfect core.
Yet within his limbs, faint traces of vitality still flowed.
Ninety-percent Embracing the Core and Returning Strength was ultimately still short by a hair's breadth.
Li Changqing gripped Sun Sheng's wrist. After Embracing the Core and Returning Strength, his center of gravity was undoubtedly in his Dantian.
This was an open scheme.
Sun Sheng was very confident. With his vitality embracing the core, he likewise curled up his body.
In this state.
He was immovable as a mountain, bearing the strength of dragons and elephants.
An open scheme?
The corner of Li Changqing's mouth lifted. He too used Embracing the Core and Returning Strength, and his physique and vitality, surpassing Sun Sheng's, erupted with a thunderous burst.
The next instant.
The smile on Sun Sheng's face froze. His body was actually lifted fiercely by Li Changqing.
Not good!
Giving Sun Sheng no chance at all, Li Changqing raised him over his head the instant his vitality erupted.
Immovable as a mountain, bearing dragons and elephants?
Within his Dantian, vitality transformed into yin and yang. Li Changqing held up the heavens with his head and trod upon the earth with his feet, radiant divine light shining over his body.
Vitality burst from his arms as he hurled Sun Sheng—immovable as a mountain and bearing dragons and elephants—high into the air.
You were the divine elephant; I was the Buddha.
Tai Chi Throwing Style, Sakyamuni Throwing Elephant!
Boom!
The powerful force blended hardness and softness, invading Sun Sheng's body in an instant, destroying his balance and leaving him completely unable to adjust his center of gravity.
Blue Star's gravity, combined with Li Changqing's Tai Chi Force,
smashed Sun Sheng, whose bodily balance was in chaos,
hard into the ground.
Boom!
Dust billowed from the center of the park.
A massive crater was smashed out by Sun Sheng's impact.
His Dan-holding vitality was scattered in an instant by the throw; his tensed muscles were utterly useless.
For a moment, his mind went blank.
"Pwah—"
He opened his mouth and spat blood. With a single strike, he had suffered grave injuries.
Boxing—he could not match him in boxing.
Vitality—he could not match him in vitality.
Even in their final close-range grapple, he had been slammed viciously into the ground.
From every angle, he had failed to find Li Changqing's weakness.
"Cough, cough."
Sun Sheng regained consciousness and climbed up from the ground, blood flowing from his ears and nose.
His training uniform had been shredded into strips of cloth. Li Changqing stood five meters away, his clothes spotless, not even the ground beneath his feet stained with dust.
"You're strong. It's not just your talent—even your strength surpasses mine."
Between ragged breaths, Sun Sheng raised both hands.
"But sadly, your martial arts school cannot give you opportunities worthy of you."
"With your talent, you should go to a better platform."
Li Changqing smiled and shook his head. "I think Chengtian Martial Arts School is quite good. Coach Kang is good too."
"What can they give you?"
"They taught me the Tai Chi cultivation method."
"Just that?" Sun Sheng had adjusted his breathing. He shook his head.
"Today, I lost to you. I, Sun Sheng, admit that you are the strongest."
"But if this were the Youth Cup, you wouldn't be able to defeat me."
"Oh?" Li Changqing raised an eyebrow slightly, only to see Sun Sheng's vitality begin to flow once more.
"Do you know the difference between a Mid-Rank Martial Artist and a Lower-Rank Martial Artist?" Sun Sheng looked at Li Changqing.
"It is Artistic Conception."
"But in truth, one does not have to become a Mid-Rank Martial Artist before coming into contact with Artistic Conception."
Sun Sheng's aura began to change. He looked at Li Changqing and spoke calmly:
"This is the help your martial arts school cannot provide you."
Before you continue