What Are You Looking At?

Lu Jue felt somewhat frustrated.

The other man's strength could only be said to be close to Li Zhanting's when he was under the effects of the Crimson Blood Pill.

But compared to Li Zhanting, who had been crazed and knew only how to attack fiercely, this man remained clear-headed, and his footwork was used with uncanny unpredictability.

Every full-force burst Lu Jue unleashed was dissolved by the other man's exquisite footwork. The feeling of having strength but nowhere to use it made his whole body itch.

But it did not matter.

He was no longer the man he used to be.

The resilience granted by the Hundred Tough Fat Armor, combined with the bronze sinews and iron bones tempered by the Iron Bone Stance, formed a double defensive barrier.

After the probing just now, he had discovered that with the other man's strength, unless he landed several punches on the same spot in an extremely short span of time, he could not possibly shake this defense!

In comparison, the other man's footwork was indeed exquisite, and his attacks constantly targeted vital points. But before absolute defense, such flashy techniques were merely a struggle to delay defeat.

This prolonged fight was just the thing to train his weakness in speed.

On the other side, Yan Hao had no idea he had become a whetstone. Fighting Lu Jue was making him miserable beyond words.

Though he wanted to end the battle quickly, Lu Jue's boxing was incomparably refined. The area around his head was sealed so tightly that not even a drop of water could pass through; Yan Hao could find no chance to strike his head.

The gray arena tiles were stamped full of deep footprints beneath his feet. He looked as if he were at ease, but his stamina was actually draining away at a rapid pace.

Maintaining that set of footwork placed an enormous burden on his body. Every shift tugged at his aching, swollen muscles.

More importantly, he had to constantly guard against Lu Jue's seemingly mutual-destruction-style counterattacks. The mental drain was far greater than the physical one.

If this dragged on, he would definitely lose!

Yan Hao's eyes sharpened. He knew he had to take a dangerous gamble.

He had only a few wisps of force nourished in his dantian. He could not use them without restraint.

According to the strict rules of the Quota Competition, force was absolutely forbidden from being used against an opponent's head, heart, and other fatal areas.

Yet within their circle, they had privately discussed a method that skirted the edge of the rules—since they could not directly attack fatal areas, what if they struck the limbs shielding those fatal areas?

In this world, the only ways to effectively resist the invasion of force were either to defend with force of one's own, or to have cultivated an Advanced Grade horizontal hardening art.

By common sense, Advanced Grade techniques were incomparably precious to commoners. Ordinary people would surely prioritize sword arts or boxing arts that could bring about a qualitative transformation.

He was certain that Lu Jue's hardening art was not Advanced Grade!

And now, he only needed to hold out until that perfect moment!

Yan Hao's breathing stretched into a scorching string beside his ears, and his tactics became pure and extreme.

He abandoned all ineffective movements. Every step, every feint, every ounce of strength ultimately transformed into an offensive aimed at Lu Jue's head.

His left hand feinted to draw Lu Jue's attention away, while the fingers of his right hand flashed like lightning, stabbing straight at Lu Jue's right eye!

Lu Jue jerked his head aside while raising his left arm to block, holding firm.

Then, at the instant Yan Hao's old force had faded and his new force had yet to rise, Lu Jue's long-restrained heavy punch finally found an opening. Like a cannonball leaving the barrel, it thundered toward Yan Hao's chest and abdomen!

Boom!

Yan Hao's pupils contracted. He drove his footwork to its limit, his body drifting backward like willow catkins in the wind.

Rrip!

Though he avoided the fist itself, the incomparably fierce wind from the punch was like a tangible scraping blade, savagely grazing across his left ribs.

His clothes tore apart instantly, and burning pain flashed across his skin, as though he had been branded by a red-hot iron bar. Even his ribs ached faintly, nearly knocking the breath out of him.

But Yan Hao endured the pain, spun with the momentum, and chopped another hand strike toward Lu Jue's throat from a vicious angle, forcing Lu Jue to lean back and block.

Smack! Smack! Smack!

The collisions came dense as rain.

Yan Hao's jabs targeted Lu Jue's temples, his hooks swept past his ears, and his fingers threatened his eyes. As if tireless, he performed a high-speed dance of death around Lu Jue's head.

Lu Jue's arms moved in an impenetrable blur, blocking most of the attacks. Every block came with a savage counterattack; his elbows and knees became weapons as well, forcing Yan Hao to keep dodging and preventing him from attacking continuously.

But Yan Hao noticed that when facing repeated pincer attacks at both temples, subtle patterns had begun to appear in Lu Jue's evasions.

Opportunity was born from inertia!

A fierce gleam flashed through Yan Hao's eyes.

During what seemed like an ordinary circling reposition, his body abruptly halted, changing from extreme motion to extreme stillness. Then he suddenly charged forward at a speed three-tenths faster than before!

Abandoning every feint, his right fist shot forth like a venomous snake that had lain dormant for ages, tearing through the air. Its target was not Lu Jue's head, but Lu Jue's left elbow, which he had instinctively raised before his forehead to protect his head!

This punch looked no different from the previous ones, but the few precious wisps of force in Yan Hao's dantian surged out without reservation through the meridians of his arm, gathering at the edge of his fist!

He would use a point to break a surface, using that invincible force to forcibly smash through Lu Jue's arm defense and shock the vulnerable "gate of life" behind it—his head!

At that moment, Yan Hao seemed to see Lu Jue's arm bones shatter, his whole body reeling from the remaining force, dizzy and staggering to the ground!

He seemed to see that, at the instant Lu Jue fell in defeat, Zhao He—who had always treated him with neither warmth nor coldness—would suddenly rise from his seat in the stands. The restraint on his face would be replaced by shock, and unprecedented fiery light would burst from his eyes.

The door to the inner circle of true power, resources, and status was about to be blasted open for Yan Hao alone!

"Your body is strong, but before force—"

A long-suppressed roar burst from his throat. His fist, carrying the conviction of certain victory, slammed down fiercely!

"Break for me!"

"Dong—!!!"

Fist and elbow collided violently!

A dull, heart-stopping boom exploded, like a heavy hammer smashing into a solid steel ingot!

Yet the scene Yan Hao had expected—Lu Jue being sent flying from the impact—never appeared.

Yan Hao only felt his fist, along with his entire right arm, crash into an indestructible wall of steel!

At the moment of impact, a tyrannical rebounding force surged backward along his arm bones. His finger bones, wrist bones, elbow joint, and even shoulder blade seemed to be pierced by countless red-hot steel needles at once, then hammered over and over by heavy iron mallets.

Meanwhile, Lu Jue's body merely retreated half a step. The gray stone tiles beneath his feet gave a faint scrape, so slight it was almost negligible.

That was all.

H-How was this possible!?

Yan Hao's entire right arm had been jolted numb and prickling, nearly devoid of sensation. The resolve and anticipated victory on his face froze in an instant, turning into incredulous horror.

What chilled him to the bone even more was what he saw through the gap between their crossed arms.

A pair of eyes.

There was not the slightest trace of pain or panic in those eyes, only a calm that had long seen through everything, carrying even a hint of boredom.

At that moment, those eyes lifted slightly. A cold gaze pierced through Yan Hao's astonishment, and a calm voice, like thunder exploding beside his ears, rang clearly in his hearing:

"What are you looking at?"