All Techniques Except Life-or-Death Ones May Be Used

Chen Chuan watched his opponent. This was not ordinary training; to avoid getting hurt and to win the match, he decided to use the power of his Second Self.

Thanks to his progress over the past few days, the duration of their overlap had increased again. It now lasted roughly fifty-five seconds.

That time was not fixed. If he suffered blows and used the Second Self to transfer away the damage and pain, the overlap time would be reduced accordingly.

So he had to end the fight as quickly as possible.

The longer it dragged on, the lower his chances of victory.

By now, he had already devised a tactic.

Ding Shuo stared at Chen Chuan for a while. From his breathing, he could tell Chen Chuan had also mastered a Breathing Method. Excited, he tapped his fists together.

At last, an opponent with a little substance. Now he could put on a performance before Mr. Qi.

After the two clasped fists in salute, Ding Shuo was still the one to seize the initiative. He stepped in and drove a punch straight at Chen Chuan's face.

Chen Chuan did not dodge at all. He answered head-on with a high whip kick!

He had used this very move to kick down Dan Xiong during the entrance exam, so he had paid special attention to practicing it. The instant the kick flew out, his Second Self overlapped with him. With a whoosh, even the grass beneath his feet fluttered into the air.

The kick was incredibly fast, striking after yet arriving before. Ding Shuo's pupils contracted. Fortunately, he had remembered to guard his head even while attacking, and his arm muscles tightened in time. With a smack, the powerful blow sent him staggering several steps sideways, and he could not help shaking out his arm.

Having landed the kick, Chen Chuan did not let the chance slip away. He immediately pressed forward. Ding Shuo was not someone who liked defending, and he fearlessly tried to launch a counterattack. But Chen Chuan kicked again, whipping up a fierce Force Wind. Ding Shuo's movement was interrupted once more. Forced to block in haste, he was kicked sideways, looking rather bedraggled.

Those watching suddenly felt a sense of familiarity. Wasn't this a replay of Ding Shuo's fight against Lu Ke just now? Only the lead role had changed.

Mr. Qi looked surprised. Turning to the burly middle-aged man behind him, he said, "This young man is formidable."

The burly middle-aged man said, "His footwork and force generation look convincing, but they're still somewhat raw. His muscle coordination hasn't fully taken shape either. He probably hasn't trained for long. But he's strong, fast, and his reactions aren't bad. He even knows the basics of a Breathing Method. He has natural talent. So long as this young man's stamina holds out, Ding Shuo will have a hard time winning."

Mr. Qi smiled. "Is that so? A talented young man, then." There did not seem to be the slightest concern in his tone that Ding Shuo might lose this fight.

Ding Shuo hated being suppressed. He tried several times to counterattack, but none succeeded. Once, he accidentally left an opening and Chen Chuan kicked him in the side ribs, making him grimace in pain. No matter how hard-headed he was, he now knew he could not beat Chen Chuan head-on. He could only maintain his defense and wait for Chen Chuan to reveal a flaw during an attack, or for his stamina to fail, before striking back.

After a string of kicks, Chen Chuan saw that Ding Shuo's attention was almost entirely focused on guarding against attacks from below. He felt the time had come. He slightly raised his knee, as if preparing to use another kicking technique. Ding Shuo instinctively raised a hand, but Chen Chuan suddenly dipped low and reached both hands forward, taking the posture of a level change.

Ding Shuo shuddered. He realized something was wrong. Chen Chuan's earlier string of kicks had surely been intended to form a habitual impression in him; his real aim was to win with a takedown. It was already too late for Ding Shuo to lower his center of gravity. But then he noticed with delight that Chen Chuan seemed to have fumbled the transition between movements, slowing his rhythm by a beat.

An opportunity!

Sometimes the body reacted faster than the mind. Rather than retreating and lowering his center of gravity, Ding Shuo drove a knee straight toward Chen Chuan's head.

Chen Chuan lunged forward instead, meeting it with his forehead. That knee strike carried tremendous force; against anyone else, the fight could have been declared over. But with the Second Self transferring the damage away, his body did not even sway. Then his prepared rear hand blasted out, his fist smashing solidly into Ding Shuo's face! Ding Shuo gave a muffled grunt. His vision went dark and his nose stung. If not for his well-developed neck muscles and the impact resistance provided by his Breathing Method, that punch might have knocked him down.

Chen Chuan did not stop after landing the punch. He pushed off the ground and reached up with both hands, trying to clinch Ding Shuo around the neck, while raising his knee below. It was clearly going to be a neck clinch and knee strike.

Ding Shuo's vision was blurry, and he could not see his opponent clearly. Yet his experience told him danger was bearing down on him, and every hair on his body stood on end. With a sharp "Hey!" he expelled a short, forceful breath from his chest, spreading both hands outward at once. In that instant, it seemed as though the air itself exploded!

Before Chen Chuan's hands could close, he felt them forcibly blasted apart by a tremendous force! Seeing this, Yu Gang thought, Hm, Sleeve Shaking Strength...

With his hands split apart, Chen Chuan lost his point of support in front of him, and his knee strike also lost its force. His movement paused unbidden.

After using that move, Ding Shuo seemed unable to launch another attack immediately either. Perhaps afraid Chen Chuan would press in again, he hurriedly retreated, quickly opening the distance between them.

He took several hard breaths, then could not help glancing at Chen Chuan, who stood not far away. He was also astonished that Chen Chuan seemed utterly unaffected after taking that knee. Then he suddenly felt warmth beneath his nose. He touched it, and blood trickled down. His heart immediately flared with anger.

More than the pain, what humiliated him was losing face in front of Mr. Qi.

Chen Chuan looked at Ding Shuo as well. He had not expected his opponent to possess such a strange method of force generation. More importantly, he had put everything into that last punch. If it had been Lu Ke, he would definitely have gone down. Yet aside from some bruising on his face, this man seemed to have suffered no other effects. He was still lively as ever, and even his nosebleed stopped shortly after it began. His recovery and resistance to blows were outrageously good.

Thoughts turned in Chen Chuan's mind as he considered how to fight next.

Although the Second Self had overlapped with him only while he made moves for most of the time just now, it had still been used for around fifteen seconds. And he estimated that taking that blow had reduced the overlap time by another five or six seconds. Just like that, a third of his usable time had vanished.

But this man was so tough that Chen Chuan doubted even landing several more successful hits would necessarily rob him of his ability to fight.

Fortunately, this was neither a fighting arena nor a life-and-death contest. To win, he did not necessarily have to knock his opponent down. Perhaps there was a condition he could use now...

He quickly settled on a strategy, then took a deep breath.

Ding Shuo instantly grew wary. When someone who possessed a Breathing Method changed their breathing while still full of stamina, it was very likely the prelude to an explosive burst.

Chen Chuan stamped down and suddenly charged forward. This time, his sprint was incredibly fast. He had looked far away one instant, only to arrive right before Ding Shuo the next. His fists and kicks came crashing in like a raging storm.

Ding Shuo hurriedly dodged and blocked. He only felt the opponent's fists and feet raining down upon him like raindrops, yet he still gritted his teeth and endured.

And if one looked closely, the reddened patches of skin where he had been struck faded again after just one or two breaths.

Mr. Qi watched without blinking. Though he himself was not skilled at fighting, he could still tell that the turning point of victory and defeat would come after Chen Chuan's current offensive ended.

After attacking continuously for more than ten seconds, Chen Chuan threw a straight punch down the centerline. This strike did not seem particularly powerful, but as he withdrew his hand, he hooked Ding Shuo's wrist and pulled back, tugging the latter's entire body off balance.

Anyone knowledgeable could recognize it as the Hooking Capture Hand from the Great Unrestrained Hands, a technique specifically used to disrupt an enemy's center of gravity and wrench them off balance.

Ding Shuo's body was pulled along. He hurriedly tried to exert force again to shake free of the hold, but Chen Chuan's earlier punches and kicks had all been groundwork, meant to create this very opportunity. As he tugged Ding Shuo, he stepped in and reached out with a Coiling Palm Thrust, slamming the heel of his palm into Ding Shuo's chin. Ding Shuo's reaction was indeed swift. Just before being hit, he pressed four fingers downward against the crook of Chen Chuan's elbow, preventing the full force from being released. Yet the remaining force of the palm still drove his head upward.

Chen Chuan suddenly stepped back. As he withdrew his hand, his five fingers closed together and lightly swept across Ding Shuo's throat. Then he voluntarily retreated a fair distance, lowered his guard, and looked toward Mr. Qi and the others.

Seeing what he did, Ding Shuo was taken aback. Dissatisfied, he said, "What do you mean? It's not over yet!"

The burly middle-aged man whispered a few words into Mr. Qi's ear. Mr. Qi nodded slightly, then looked at Yu Gang. "Teacher Yu, we lost."

Ding Shuo froze. He looked at the burly middle-aged man, suppressing the anger in his heart as he raised his voice. "It isn't over. How did we lose?"

In an unhurried tone, the burly middle-aged man said, "That final move from this young man was the Curtain-Ripping Hand from the Righteous Unrestrained Hands. If he had exerted force at that time, your throat would have been torn apart. Therefore, he won."

Ding Shuo snapped angrily, "Bullshit! I already had hold of his elbow crook. How could he still exert force?"

"I am certain he could," the burly middle-aged man said.

Still unconvinced, Ding Shuo glared at Chen Chuan. "I don't believe it unless he shows me!"

Expressionless, the burly middle-aged man said, "If this had been a fight to the death, your life would already be gone. You would not have a second chance to verify it."

Ding Shuo wanted to curse. If this had been a life-and-death fight, damn it, I wouldn't have fought like this either.

Hearing this, Chen Chuan relaxed slightly. He knew he had won his gamble.

Given Ding Shuo's resistance to blows, it would have been difficult to win through sheer force. But since they had agreed beforehand to stop at the point of contact, there was room to work within that.

What counted as stopping at the point of contact? It meant a winning or killing technique reached a vital area, but was pulled back in time.

By that rule, whether or not he had truly mastered a technique capable of killing his opponent did not matter. So long as he touched those areas under reasonable circumstances, it could be considered "stopping at the point."

Of course, that depended on whether Mr. Qi and the others truly meant what they said or were merely paying lip service. If they shamelessly refused to acknowledge it, there was nothing he could do. No matter what, it had been worth trying.

Thankfully, it seemed these people still cared about saving face.

Yu Gang pondered for a moment. Under everyone's gaze, he stepped forward until he stood before Mr. Qi, then clasped his fists. "Mr. Qi, give me half a year. Once I have dealt with a few matters, if your association still welcomes me by then, I will join it."