Embrace Rub Step! Charge Step! Rub Kick!

By eight or nine in the morning, people from the other Martial Arts Halls had begun arriving in an endless stream.

This inter-hall tournament was being held at Divine Spear Martial Hall, with a total of eleven Martial Arts Halls participating.

Most of them were merely there to join the excitement. The ones truly competing for superiority were Divine Spear Martial Hall and Sword Inquiry Martial Hall.

After the people from each Martial Arts Hall settled into the guest rooms, the younger disciples began sparring privately. It served as a warm-up before the official matches and a chance to feel each other out.

If the gap was too wide, there was no need to embarrass themselves on the stage.

Huo Yuanhong had little interest in private sparring, so he went alone to the rear courtyard of the Martial Arts Hall and found the steward, Old Xu, who often stayed by his master Li Shuxing's side.

This steward, Old Xu, differed from the others. He did not manage any of the hall's affairs at all and merely held the title of steward in name.

He also had very little presence within the Martial Arts Hall.

Had the Fang Family middle-aged man not told him, Huo Yuanhong would never have known that this ordinary-looking Old Xu was actually a Peak Expert, above Transformation Strength! In actual combat, he was even a match for his master!

More importantly, as the protector of the Baji lineage, Old Xu was responsible for guarding the Seed of Fire in times of crisis. Compared to the other senior masters, he was undoubtedly someone worthy of trust!

"Senior Xu."

Huo Yuanhong entered the courtyard and bowed.

"What brings Disciple Huo here?"

Old Xu was hunched over, his eyes clouded. He seemed like nothing more than an ordinary old man sweeping the grounds, slowly brushing leaves in the courtyard with a battered old broom.

"I want to learn practical combat. I heard that you are formidable in a fight, Elder. Could you offer me some guidance?"

Huo Yuanhong went straight to the point.

"Practical combat?" Old Xu did not even raise his eyelids. Slowly, he said, "Disciple Huo, you have come to the wrong person. This old man is advanced in years and sealed his fists long ago."

Sealing one's fists meant retiring into seclusion to live out one's old age and no longer fighting.

During all the years Old Xu had lived in seclusion at the Martial Arts Hall, he had indeed never made a move, nor had he taught martial arts to anyone.

Even when the Fang Family Patriarch had come to his door with a monster like Wu Yuanchu, he had failed to persuade Old Xu.

"If you want me to teach you, the old rule applies. So long as you can move my body while I use strength at the same realm as yours, I will make an exception and spar with you twice."

Old Xu spoke calmly.

"Is that true?"

Huo Yuanhong smiled.

"It is."

Old Xu's gaze was as still as an ancient well, like a stagnant pool that would never ripple. Even if the sky collapsed, it could not disturb his state of mind.

He had maintained this rule for twenty years. If someone could not move his body, then neither Li Shuxing nor the Fang Family Patriarch would receive any face from him.

Over those twenty years, Peak Experts had come one after another, bringing countless prodigies with them, yet not a single person had managed to make him teach them.

"Very well. Please be careful, Old Xu."

Huo Yuanhong stepped forward and slightly lowered his stance, then...

Tremor Stomp, erupt!

The instant his sole stamped the ground, surging force rose from the earth and blasted into his spine. It merged with the Internal Force erupting from his waist, hips, and arms, then finally gathered all the strength in his body into one point with a vicious elbow strike!

"This is?!"

For the first time, ripples appeared in Old Xu's eyes.

Bang!!!

Amid a muffled impact, elbow struck elbow. Old Xu's body actually swayed slightly, shaken by Huo Yuanhong's elbow at the peak of Manifest Strength.

This was an unbelievable event that had never occurred in twenty years!

One had to know that Old Xu stood above Transformation Strength. Even if he suppressed himself to Manifest Strength, his terrifying realm and methods were not something a young man could shake!

"Your Manifest Strength has actually reached such a level?"

Old Xu slightly raised his head and looked at Huo Yuanhong. A trace of barely perceptible emotion flashed through his eyes.

With such attainment, he was probably not far from true peak...

One had to know that Manifest Strength, this foundational realm, was actually harder to cultivate to its true peak than the Dark Force and Transformation Strength realms that followed. Even Li Shuxing had not reached the peak! Being only a thread away from it already marked one as having the potential of a Martial Saint!

Old Xu suspected that the young man before him was exactly the sort of Martial Saint talent who stood only a thread away from the peak!

Such aptitude could already be called the pinnacle of the human world!

Wu Yuanchu's so-called peak Manifest Strength had actually been achieved through special external methods used by the Fang Family Patriarch. It could only be considered Pseudo-Peak. In terms of actual cultivation, he might not even have been stronger than this young man!

More importantly...

Wu Yuanchu had spent a full three years reaching that level!

But this young man before him...

How long had he been training?

As the person who had brought Huo Yuanhong into the Martial Arts Hall, Old Xu knew better than anyone!

A monster! This was a monster even more gifted than Wu Yuanchu!

"It seems everyone has underestimated you, including your master..."

Old Xu gave Huo Yuanhong a deep look and spoke.

Huo Yuanhong merely smiled without saying more.

"It is only... if you intend to learn practical combat for use in the tournament later, then there is no need..."

"Practical combat cannot be mastered in a few sessions. You would need at least a hundred bouts before seeing results. It would be better to wait until after the tournament, when your master will naturally teach you."

Old Xu shook his head.

"Since Old Xu has never taught it, how do you know this junior cannot learn it?"

Huo Yuanhong smiled.

"If you want to learn, then learn."

As he spoke, Old Xu set down his broom, clasped his hands behind his back, and slowly walked toward the open space in the middle of the courtyard.

For the first time—and in an unprecedented exception—he was teaching martial arts to a young man after sealing his fists for twenty years!

"The key to practical combat lies in footwork. As the saying goes, 'Teach fists but not steps; teach steps and you will be beaten by your disciple.' Only by mastering footwork can you attack when advancing and defend when retreating, transforming from someone who can practice into someone who can fight!"

"You previously learned Elbow Technique from Li Shuxing, so I will use elbow techniques as the foundation and teach you several footwork methods!"

"Embrace Rub Step! Charge Step! Rub Kick!"

"Baji Quan emphasizes, 'Walk as if wading through mud, and let the feet rise no higher than the knees.' Embrace Rub Step is the first half of that saying!"

"The ball of the front foot lands first, and the rear foot immediately follows. The front is empty while the rear is solid, as though dragging your steps through a muddy bog. This footwork is like flowing water winding around stone, using supple rotation to control momentum. It keeps the lower stance stable and provides a fulcrum for Tremor Stomp, while also allowing flexible turns and adjustments in position!"

"As for Charge Step, it resembles Embrace Rub Step, but unlike the latter's softness, Charge Step is pure yang and pure hardness, a sudden advance that breaks defenses! Like a Great Spear charging madly forward, it is meant to rapidly close the distance and breach the opponent's line, then combine with Top Elbow Strike and Iron Mountain Lean for savage close-range attacks!"

"Rub Kick is the latter half of 'Walk as if wading through mud, and let the feet rise no higher than the knees.' Keep the feet below the knees, and your force comes swiftly while your center remains stable. Unlike a high leg lift, it does not easily expose an opening for the enemy to seize. Through brief explosive bursts, it kicks the opponent's ankles and shins, destroying his lower stance and creating opportunities for close-range strikes!"

"This move can also serve as a feint, using a kick to draw the opponent's attention before following with an elbow strike or throw to decide the match in one blow!"

"When surrounded by multiple people, you can also use Rub Kick to swiftly break the deadlock. Kick their shins, retreat with a step, then counterattack with fists and elbows!"

Crash!!!

Old Xu demonstrated with a Rub Kick, sending a brick in the courtyard directly flying apart. His footwork then flowed in succession, as though wading through a mud pit. His lower stance was stable, yet he could turn with nimble flexibility, impossible to predict.

As he moved, the ball of his front foot served as his point of force. Power surged from his waist and hips, driving his rear leg into rapid sweeping kicks. Every strike was short and forceful, plowing up sprays of exploding dirt.

Then, his aura abruptly changed. His entire body suddenly became sharp and fierce, his legs moving rapidly as he advanced.

Charge Step!

As if shrinking the earth into inches, he flashed forward and instantly closed the distance to the wooden dummy in the courtyard's center. Then his two elbows launched into a violent barrage like a storm of wind and rain!

Peak Elbow Strike! Rising Elbow Strike! Smashing Elbow Strike! Pressing Elbow Strike! Horizontal Elbow Strike!...

Combined with knee strikes, Rub Kick sweeps, and tripping hooks, he battered the wooden dummy until it shook violently. Before long, it had been smashed into scattered pieces.

"Amazing!"

Huo Yuanhong watched Old Xu's demonstration in shock. For the first time, he truly saw just how savage and explosive Baji Quan was in combat. Every move was aimed at taking a life!

"The most important thing in practical combat is fighting. You cannot learn merely by watching. You must truly fight!"

"Come! Fight me!"

After demonstrating several times, Old Xu looked at Huo Yuanhong and crooked a finger.

"Good!"

Huo Yuanhong curved his waist and back slightly. Then—Tremor Stomp, erupt! His entire body shot forward like a tightly drawn powerful bow suddenly released, charging straight at Old Xu!

As he rushed forward, his elbow thrust out ahead of him. By the time he reached Old Xu, his arm was held vertically before his chest, driven by the forward momentum of Charge Step as it whistled toward Old Xu's chest.

"Humph!"

Old Xu used Baji Quan's "hum-ha" method of issuing force. His sinews and bones boomed like taut bows snapping as he turned with Embrace Rub Step, slipping sideways past that incomparably fierce elbow.

At the same time, Old Xu's elbow crashed forward with ruthless ferocity, carrying a howling gust as it struck directly toward Huo Yuanhong's chest!

"Hmm?"

Huo Yuanhong's heart stirred. Copying what he had seen, he turned with Embrace Rub Step, erupted with force, and threw out an elbow to meet the strike!

Bang!

The two elbows collided with a dull thud.

"Good! Again!"

Approval appeared in Old Xu's eyes. He was highly satisfied—and even somewhat surprised—by Huo Yuanhong's astonishing learning speed.

Whoosh!

Seeing his elbow strike blocked, Old Xu's right foot suddenly snapped out, kicking toward Huo Yuanhong's shinbone like a venomous snake.

"Humph!"

Huo Yuanhong pivoted his sole and moved with Embrace Rub Step, intending to evade Old Xu's Rub Kick.

But at that moment, his scalp suddenly prickled. Instinctively, he exerted force through his waist and leaned back while violently sweeping an arm across his chest.

Smack!

A swift elbow strike grazed past the tip of his nose. It had come within a hair's breadth of striking his cheek.

A feint!

Old Xu's earlier Rub Kick had merely been a false move to draw his attention. The true killing move had been this elbow strike!

Had Old Xu not just explained feints, leaving him on guard, and had his body's force not become unified after reaching peak Manifest Strength, allowing him to change moves with extreme speed, he would almost certainly have been unable to evade that elbow.

"As expected of an old hand in the martial world. How sinister!"

Huo Yuanhong felt that this trip had been well worth it. Otherwise, if he encountered a feint in a life-and-death battle someday, he might not even know how he had died.

After the first bout ended, Huo Yuanhong rested briefly. Once he had digested the abundant insights, nearly equivalent to fighting three or four hundred matches, he sought out Old Xu again.

Whoosh!

This time, Huo Yuanhong struck first with a Rub Kick. His toes sprang up as he used a feint, kicking toward Old Xu's ankle.

"Copying me?"

A faint smile appeared in Old Xu's eyes. He slightly turned his foot to avoid the vulnerable joint, while simultaneously throwing an elbow straight at Huo Yuanhong, perfectly colliding with Huo Yuanhong's own elbow strike.

But unexpectedly, Old Xu's body swayed slightly, and he nearly staggered backward from that elbow.

It turned out that Huo Yuanhong's earlier Rub Kick had indeed been a feint, but the hooked foot and leg trip amid their crossing legs had been the real move!

At that moment, Old Xu and Huo Yuanhong were meeting elbow against elbow. As Old Xu's lower stance wavered slightly, his force immediately weakened.

"Good lad!" Old Xu was slightly dazed. In that instant, he seemed to see the young Li Shuxing.

Both were so clever, so talented...

Like a blazing sun that forever sang its way forward, possessing limitless potential and an infinitely bright future!

Unlike himself, old and decayed, soon to become a handful of yellow earth.

How wonderful!

A heartfelt smile appeared in Old Xu's eyes. He sank his knees and twisted his waist and hips, immediately dispersing the impact. Then he crashed forward with a Charge Step, continuing the head-on clash...

After the second bout ended, Huo Yuanhong prepared to take his leave.

But unexpectedly, Old Xu called out and stopped him.

"Wait."

"What is it, Old Xu?" Huo Yuanhong turned back in confusion.

"I have nothing better to do, so this old man will spar with you five more times."

Old Xu smiled.

"Thank you, Old Xu!"

Huo Yuanhong's eyes immediately lit up.

For the greater part of the morning that followed, the two fought a round, rested for a while, and continued after Huo Yuanhong had absorbed what he gained.

With the blessing of Martial Path to Divinity's One Part Effort Three Hundred Sixty-Five Parts Harvest, Huo Yuanhong's rate of improvement was incredibly swift.

One bout felt like three hundred and sixty-five bouts, and it was as though he had an automatic analysis running alongside it, allowing him to immediately recognize flaws in the fight and correct them.

He could even deduce ways to break moves and find methods to counter Old Xu's patterns.

In the first bout, with Old Xu deliberately holding back and merely repeating a few simple patterns, Huo Yuanhong could only barely hold on.

By the second bout, Huo Yuanhong was much more composed and could occasionally launch a counterattack or two.

By the third bout, Old Xu no longer dared hold back too much. While maintaining strength comparable to Huo Yuanhong's, he had to continuously alternate Embrace Rub Step and Charge Step just to barely suppress him.

Then came the fourth, fifth, and sixth bouts...

By the final seventh bout, Old Xu gave it his all. He wielded Embrace Rub Step, Charge Step, Rub Kick, and Elbow Technique with miraculous mastery, yet he still nearly failed to suppress Huo Yuanhong. In the end, he was forced to use Entangling Hands to avoid capsizing in a gutter.

After the seven bouts ended, both of them stopped and rested to the side.

"So strong!"

As Huo Yuanhong recalled their earlier exchanges, he was deeply shocked by Old Xu's terrifying practical combat ability.

After every match, he could use the astonishing insights granted by One Part Effort Three Hundred Sixty-Five Parts Harvest to find ways to break Old Xu's patterns.

Yet whenever they fought again, even though Old Xu's previously used patterns were broken one after another, he remained calm and unhurried. Using only simple Embrace Rub Step, Charge Step, Rub Kick, and Elbow Technique, he swiftly adjusted and continued suppressing Huo Yuanhong.

Over seven bouts, Huo Yuanhong had broken Old Xu's patterns dozens of times, yet Old Xu had still remained undefeated.

Embrace Rub Step, Charge Step, Rub Kick, and Elbow Technique—there were only these few moves in total. Yet in Old Xu's hands, they seemed to possess a thousand and a hundred variations, emerging one after another without end.

Turning basic moves into supreme combat methods, transforming decay into the miraculous—nothing could describe it better! This return to simplicity, this great dao in its utmost simplicity, sought neither complexity nor extravagance, only the most efficient means of striking an opponent. It opened Huo Yuanhong's eyes.

But what Huo Yuanhong did not know was that Old Xu was even more shocked than he was.

How could such a prodigy exist in this world?

At the beginning, Old Xu had merely treated it as casual amusement and had not taken it too seriously.

After all, as a Peak Expert who had already shattered that heavenly barrier, even if he deliberately suppressed his strength to Manifest Strength, his reaction speed and seasoned experience were far beyond what any young man could match.

But after nearly suffering a loss in the second match, Old Xu gradually began to take things seriously.

Then came the third match, the fourth, the fifth...

Old Xu's attitude changed from initial casualness to a hint of approval, then seriousness, then solemnity...

By the end, his eyes held nothing but overflowing delight, and the affection he felt was impossible to conceal!

This was the joy of seeing an outstanding successor! The delight of seeing that everything he had learned in his life would have someone to inherit it!

As the guardian of the Baji lineage, he had no descendants, nor did he have an heir.

For most of his life, he had fought and killed against enemies, safeguarding the Baji lineage's inheritance amid storm-tossed chaos, waiting all the while for someone capable of bearing the cauldron like Li Shuxing to rise.

It was also through countless life-and-death battles that he had forged this terrifying, iron-forged fighting style.

During all these years of seclusion in the Martial Arts Hall...

Those peerless geniuses outside, admired and sought after by countless people—Wu Yuanchu, Wang Tianlong, and the like... none had been able to stir even the slightest ripple in his eyes.

Only now, upon seeing Huo Yuanhong, did he reveal a sincere smile and heartfelt fondness.

This young man before him...

Compared to himself in his youth, even compared to Li Shuxing in his youth...

He was even more outstanding! Even more gifted!

"He will definitely reach the very highest heights in the future..."