The two of them completely abandoned dodging and blocking. Like trapped beasts in an arena, they turned instead to the most primal, most savage method—trading wounds for wounds, blood for blood!
Bang! Bam! Thud!
The heart-pounding sounds of heavy impacts rang out in a dense barrage like torrential rain, every blow landing solidly upon the other's body!
Lu Jue's Training Clothes had long since been shattered apart, exposing the lean, powerful body beneath, covered in blue-purple bruises.
Every one of his opponent's heavy blows made his muscles convulse violently and his sinews and bones hum.
Even with Hundred Tough Fat Armor protecting him, under such a storm-like barrage, the immense force still penetrated layer by layer, shaking his internal organs.
Pfft!
He suddenly coughed up a mouthful of blood. Scarlet droplets splattered across the ground, yet his gaze remained cold and sharp. From beginning to end, he had not uttered a single groan!
Li Zhanting was faring no better!
Though he had gained berserk strength and dulled most of his pain through the medicinal power of the Crimson Blood Pill, his body was still flesh and blood. Lu Jue's heavy fists crashed into his body one after another like sledgehammers!
Crack!
A faint yet distinct sound of bone fracturing rang out!
A small section of Li Zhanting's chest visibly caved in. His ribs had clearly broken!
Yet he seemed utterly unaware of it. His attack movements only warped and stalled for an instant before being swallowed by even crazier bloodlust. Roaring, he continued to charge forward!
The students in the seats had long since gone pale, their palms icy cold.
What lay before them had already surpassed the bounds of a spar. It was a bloody, violent spectacle so overwhelming that none of them even dared to breathe too loudly.
How was this still a battle they could possibly imagine at their level?
Even clashes between the top ten students in their year usually valued decorum, stopping at the proper point.
But this battle before them was like two Calamity Beasts that had broken free of their shackles, venting their most savage strength in the most primitive struggle!
Every collision shook the soul, every smear of blood was horrifying to behold!
It felt like a well-behaved child seeing the true face of a forbidden film for the first time in his life—trembling with an indescribable shock mixed in. He wanted to look away, yet the primal aesthetics of violence nailed him firmly in place, leaving his mind and spirit quaking.
On the field.
The two clashed fiercely for another dozen exchanges. Flesh and blood flew as fists and kicks met, and several more vicious wounds appeared on each of them.
After one head-on exchange of fists, a gleam flashed through Li Zhanting's crimson eyes. He actually used his shoulder blade to take one of Lu Jue's whip kicks head-on.
Ignoring the shattering of his own bones, he rode the force of the impact and violently rammed into Lu Jue's embrace!
Li Zhanting's blood-red eyes were almost pressed against Lu Jue's face. The most frenzied flames burned within them as his fists shot out wildly like springs!
The first punch!
It smashed heavily into the center of Lu Jue's chest, producing a muffled thud!
The second punch!
It crashed into the same spot almost without pause, carrying even heavier, fiercer force!
Just as Lu Jue staggered backward, his blood and vitality churning throughout his body and his guard thrown wide open—
Li Zhanting's third punch came!
The trajectory of this punch was incomparably tricky. Rather than striking straight ahead, it swept upward in a bizarre arc and smashed directly into Lu Jue's temple!
"Hahaha! I found it! I found it! The fatal weak point of your Hardening Kung Fu is your head, isn't it!?"
A trace of morbid excitement seeped through Li Zhanting's hoarse, crazed roar.
Just moments ago, as the Crimson Blood Pill's medicinal power began to fade, his mind had unexpectedly regained a brief measure of clarity.
A neglected detail suddenly surfaced!
—From the beginning of the battle until now, even during their most frenzied exchanges of mutual injury, Lu Jue had always deliberately protected his head!
The "fatal weak point" of Hardening Kung Fu was often hidden in concealed places such as the armpits, groin, or lower back. It would never be so blatantly exposed atop the head.
"What is this supposed to be? The most dangerous place is the safest place? Your Hardening Kung Fu is nothing special!"
"Lowborn people like you should obediently stay beneath our feet!"
Bam!
Lu Jue flew backward like a puppet with its strings cut, crashing heavily onto the ground and kicking up a cloud of dust.
He had never practiced any Hardening Kung Fu. Naturally, he had no so-called fatal weak point.
It was simply that there was less fat around his head, making it difficult for Hundred Tough Fat Armor to fully display its protective effect. It had become the weakest link in his entire body.
In an instant, his vision went black. His entire skull felt as though it were being split down the middle by a red-hot iron saw!
Pain!
A tidal wave of agony instantly submerged his consciousness!
He fiercely bit down on the tip of his tongue. The taste of blood exploded in his mouth, and he forcibly maintained a thread of clarity through the pain.
His vision blurred and twisted, yet fragments of memory surged forth beyond his control—
At this moment,
He seemed to see his younger self, exhausting his strength time and again under the blazing sun to temper his foundations. After finally earning an acceptance letter from a martial arts school, reality immediately poured cold water over him—apparently, as long as one slipped the examiner a bribe, even someone with terrible aptitude would receive a green light all the way through the exam.
He saw his nearly obsessive cultivation at martial arts school. While others relied on family background and talent to effortlessly break through bottlenecks and advance a thousand miles in a day, he could only squeeze every minute to its limit, using multiplied time and sweat to bridge that enormous gulf.
He saw the moment that government order was issued several days ago, when it felt as though the entire world had collapsed beneath his feet, and despair dragged him into an icy abyss.
He saw the injustice of this world. People like Zhang Yang and Li Zhanting could live in fine clothes and rich food solely because of their birth, enjoying the finest resources with shortcuts paved all along their martial paths. Meanwhile, countless commoner children like him could spill blood and sacrifice their dignity, yet still struggle to gain even a narrow crack through which to rise.
Did it hurt?
The tearing agony at his temple still raged.
But compared to his physical wounds, it was the unwillingness carved into his bones long ago that truly burned his heart and gnawed at his marrow.
He had endured such a long road already. How could he possibly fall here!?
If he could not even defeat Li Zhanting, how would he face those true geniuses in the future?
How would he carve out a path of his own in this world, so tightly controlled by Influential families and the Great Families!?
All the defiance and fury he had kept suppressed transformed at this moment into a searing will, forcibly dragging him back from the brink of unconsciousness.
"Hah..."
A long exhalation surged from his chest. His body, which had curled up from the agonizing pain, suddenly straightened. Every vertebra let out explosive cracks under unbearable strain, yet he still rose upright again with extraordinary resolve.
He swayed as though about to fall, yet in the end, he did not!
Li Zhanting's heart suddenly jolted. The look in his opponent's eyes actually made him feel a chill. That was not the gaze of someone on the verge of collapse—it was like a terrifying Calamity Beast that had been thoroughly enraged and was ready to tear everything apart.
At that moment, Su Li suddenly stepped out from the crowd and placed herself between them.
"Gentlemen, your bodies have already reached their limits. Shall we stop here and consider this a draw?"
Li Zhanting spat out a mouthful of bloody saliva. "What kind of joke is that? How could I possibly tie with this guy!"
Lu Jue wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and gave Su Li a chilling smile.
"Fight!"
Before you continue