Caught You!

Inside a private training room.

Tang Ning, panting heavily, set her longsword onto the weapon rack beside her. The moment she pulled out her phone, she saw an urgent message from an "informant."

She shot to her feet as if struck by lightning and shouted at Su Li, who was still practicing punches against a specially made iron post ahead of her:

"This is bad! This is bad! My man must've gotten drunk—he's actually challenging Li Zhanting!"

Su Li, who had just returned to the training room, was startled. She withdrew her fist and turned around, looking at her friend with some helplessness.

Her friend Tang Ning was good in every way—beautiful and poised, born into an influential family, elegant in manner. She was the ideal marriage prospect in the eyes of countless descendants of the Great Families.

Of course, that was only the mask she wore in public.

Whenever they were alone, Tang Ning cast off every restraint and became loud and carefree, without the slightest resemblance to a wealthy young lady.

After a brief pause, Su Li analyzed the situation calmly.

"Based on Lu Jue's previous physical data, combined with his record of defeating Zhang Tie yesterday, his fight with Instructor Li is not without a chance of victory.

"Li Zhanting's internal force can support no more than two attacks. In theory, as long as those two attacks miss, Lu Jue's odds of winning can definitely rise to thirty percent. Furthermore, Lu Jue is not an impulsive person. There must be some unrevealed reliance or contingency behind this challenge."

"Oh, stop being so bookish! Just tell me—are you helping or not?" Tang Ning stamped her feet anxiously. Without waiting for an answer, she lunged forward, grabbed Su Li by the wrist, and rushed out the door like a whirlwind.

The two hurried all the way to the training hall, only to find Lu Jue and Li Zhanting facing off in the center of the hall.

Over a hundred students sat in the stands in dead silence, the atmosphere so tense it seemed to have frozen solid.

"Lu Jue, I'll ask you one last time. Are you sure you want to fight me?"

Li Zhanting's voice was low and carried undisguised pressure.

Lu Jue did not answer with words. He directly picked up the duel agreement drafted by the notary, swept his eyes over the terms, and after confirming that everything was correct, dipped his thumb in red ink and decisively pressed down his fingerprint.

"Good, good, good! You brought this upon yourself!"

Li Zhanting gave a savage grin. As his words fell, his body shot out like an arrow loosed from the bow!

He opened with a standard move from Basic Fist Arts—a straight punch aimed directly at Lu Jue's centerline. The punch was simple and fierce, its power condensed rather than scattered, and its speed was astonishing!

Lu Jue's gaze sharpened. He did not dare relax in the slightest as he sank his shoulder and gathered strength to meet it head-on, only to suddenly discover that the other man's footwork was light and drifting, his body swaying unpredictably.

His counterattack missed completely. Not only did it fail to strike anything solid, but because he had put too much force into it, Li Zhanting seized that fleeting opening and struck the muscles of his right arm with a lightning-fast punch!

"Again!"

Enduring the numb ache in his right arm, Lu Jue advanced instead of retreating. He suddenly closed in, attempting to disrupt his opponent's rhythm with close-range pressure.

"You're courting death!"

Li Zhanting pressed his advantage without mercy. He gave a cold shout, and the footwork beneath him changed again!

That footwork was light yet sinister. He no longer moved in straight lines, instead circling Lu Jue from left to right like a ghost clinging to his body.

Every change in direction stirred a faint whistle of wind. His body drifted so unpredictably that no one could possibly tell what he truly intended.

He used the Straight Punch from Basic Fist Arts again, but halfway through the strike, his wrist suddenly flicked. His force instantly shifted from hard to soft, turning the punch into a deflection. He cleverly caught Lu Jue's blocking arm and guided it outward—

At the same time, the true killing move suddenly erupted!

His left fist shot out like a venomous snake leaving its hole, silently driving upward from below to strike straight at Lu Jue's abdomen and dantian!

This move hid substance within feint, and its transformation came so quickly that it caught people utterly off guard.

Though Lu Jue reacted quickly, he was still half a beat too slow. Caught unprepared, he took the blow squarely and staggered back several steps!

A wave of cries rose from the stands. Almost everyone believed he had suffered a heavy injury.

Tang Ning's heart leaped straight into her throat. If Su Li had not stopped her, she would have nearly rushed forward.

However, only Lu Jue himself knew—

The instant Li Zhanting's attack touched his body, it was like a clay ox sinking into the sea. The incomparably tough Hundred Tough Fat Armor beneath his skin rapidly dispersed and neutralized it, stripping away seventy to eighty percent of its force!

The remaining force struck his body, doing no more than making his blood and qi churn slightly and his muscles ache and swell for a brief moment. It soon settled back to normal, without harming his foundation.

As expected, Li Zhanting's strength is far greater than that of Zhang Tie and his ilk, but it's still not enough for me!

Lu Jue made his judgment in an instant, and an almost imperceptible sharp glint flashed deep within his eyes.

The reason he had dared challenge him head-on was precisely because of the absolute defense brought by the Hundred Tough Fat Armor!

Li Zhanting had definitely not held back with that punch yesterday. He had even used internal force, yet it still had not caused Lu Jue much real damage!

If not for that bizarre, unreadable footwork, he could have simply gone over and fought him head-on!

He had to find a way to catch this loach!

Li Zhanting could hit him ten times, and he might not necessarily be harmed.

But as long as he could land one solid punch, he had absolute confidence that Li Zhanting would remember it to the bone for the rest of his life!

For that reason, he had deliberately held back thirty percent of his strength, all to give his opponent a surprise!

As his thoughts raced, Li Zhanting's offensive came surging in again like a violent storm.

His footwork became ever more bizarre, his fists and palms slicing through the air, every move aimed at Lu Jue's vital points.

Bang! Smack! Thud!

The heavy sounds of impact rang out without end.

Lu Jue kept moving and blocking across the arena. Occasionally, those tricky attacks still struck his shoulder blade, arm, or ribs. He appeared to be retreating step by step, able only to defend against Li Zhanting's fierce assault, as though he would completely collapse the very next second.

The discussion in the stands had long since boiled over.

"It's over, it's over! Lu Jue is getting completely crushed!"

"Instructor Li is too ruthless! This is outright domination!"

"I told you, how could an instructor possibly lose to a student?"

Yet the more Li Zhanting fought, the more alarmed he became.

His attacks had clearly landed repeatedly, and the feedback from every fist and palm was solid beyond doubt.

But Lu Jue's body was like a thick, heavy oxhide soaked full of water. It seemed to cave deeply under overwhelming force and teeter on the brink of collapse, only to violently spring back into shape the next moment. It held on stubbornly throughout, impossible to truly crush!

At the sight, Li Zhanting's assault unconsciously slowed by half a beat. His eyes locked onto Lu Jue's "pain-ridden" face, uncertainty churning in his heart.

He knew well that no matter how formidable Hardening Kung Fu was, it could never be flawless.

It was not a perfect barrier that lasted forever. It often possessed an unnoticed "fatal gate" or a limit to what it could endure.

Once that fatal gate was struck precisely, or the assault exceeded its upper limit of endurance, Hardening Kung Fu would collapse and break apart in an instant like a balloon pierced by a needlepoint, revealing its true form.

"Damn it! What kind of wicked Hardening Kung Fu has this guy trained in? He's taken so many heavy blows—by all reason, his defense should have broken completely by now!"

A trace of struggle flashed through Li Zhanting's eyes, only to be replaced at once by even deeper viciousness.

This could not continue!

Before everyone's eyes, he held the upper hand yet could not bring Lu Jue down. He even faintly felt the humiliation of being used as a whetstone by his opponent.

Every second he delayed, his authority as an instructor drained away by another fraction!

Other than the Crimson Blood Pill, he had yet to use the strand of pure internal force he had been nurturing in his dantian.

His original plan had been to continuously wear Lu Jue down with ordinary attacks, break his Hardening Kung Fu, then use that indestructible strand of internal force to deliver a fatal blow!

He would not only defeat Lu Jue on the spot, but thoroughly cripple the foundation of his meridians. Even if Lu Jue could be healed afterward, he would be left with permanent aftereffects and would never be able to advance another step!

But now, his impatience at being unable to win after so long gradually overwhelmed his patience. What he needed was a crushing victory that swept away all resistance like rotten wood, not a war of attrition!

Thus, spotting what seemed to be a tiny opening exposed by Lu Jue's repeated blocks, the blood and qi within his body surged with a roar. That strand of sharp internal force he had carefully nurtured flooded wildly through the meridians of his arm without reservation!

"This is the price for daring to challenge me!"

A savage grin appeared on Li Zhanting's face. His right fist, infused with internal force and carrying the momentum to tear everything apart, smashed solidly into the center of Lu Jue's chest!

He could practically hear the delightful sound of bones shattering!

However—

The scene of utter devastation he had expected did not appear!

At the moment he was struck, Lu Jue's feet sank sharply as though they had grown roots, forcibly grinding the soles of his shoes nearly an inch into the hard floor tiles!

He brutally directed that enormous impact straight into the ground, standing firm like a mountain!

At the same time, a hand as cold as an iron clamp had already locked tightly around Li Zhanting's right arm, which had gone limp and had not yet been withdrawn!

The savage grin on Li Zhanting's face froze instantly, transforming into utter terror.

He jerked his head up and met a pair of eyes cold to the bone.

A grim smile spread across Lu Jue's lips as he slowly spoke several words:

"Finally caught you!"