"Good!"
The crowd below erupted once more in thunderous cheers.
What Zhou Bai had just displayed was visually far more impressive than Li Yan's.
Training monkeys and teasing dogs, climbing poles and walking wires—at temple fairs, the common folk had seen wandering performers play those tricks before.
But this ability to scale walls and vault over roofs was something rare in their eyes. In particular, wherever Zhou Bai passed, he left behind a string of claw marks in the sturdy wooden boards, making them click their tongues in amazement.
Of course, the layman watched the spectacle, while the expert saw the technique.
Only true martial artists knew how astonishing the lower-body skill Li Yan had displayed truly was.
Naturally, those were merely interludes.
Everyone's attention soon returned to the arena.
Even watching a spectacle had its own rules.
Take a condemned criminal at the execution grounds. If he remained silent and had his head chopped off, at most he would send a chill through the crowd. Afterward, people would find it dull.
But if he shouted and cursed as he climbed the execution platform—cursing the imperial court, the corrupt officials, and the damned emperor—and then sang a verse about being a good man again eighteen years later, now that had flavor.
The same went for fighting on an arena platform. One had to see how both sides traded insults before the battle.
Just like modern fighting matches, the two sworn enemies had to be brought together to butt heads and stir up the atmosphere.
Thus, the common folk held their breath and widened their eyes, eager to see how the two would trade barbs. Better yet, perhaps they would reenact a scene from an opera and sing a few lines.
Yet what happened onstage left them somewhat disappointed.
Li Yan and Zhou Bai merely sized each other up, looking coldly at one another without saying a word.
Now that things had reached this point and they had stepped onto the Life and Death Arena, there was nothing left to say.
In Zhou Bai's eyes, this was nothing more than a country bumpkin who did not know the height of heaven or the depth of the earth. Relying on his father's faint reputation, he had come to leech off the Zhou Clan and make a name for himself.
Li Yan, meanwhile, knew that the knot with the Zhou Clan could never be untied.
Quite apart from their previous grievances, his father's death was also connected to Zhou Pan.
Even if Zhou Pan was not the murderer, he was still someone who knew the truth.
The two studied each other, both searching for flaws.
They were both martial artists. Though neither was old, they had trained bitterly since childhood and understood the human body as well as their own hands. Through certain signs, they could tell whether the other had recently suffered a serious injury.
A martial artist's body was worth its weight in gold.
It had to be trained, tested in combat, and carefully nurtured. Once something went wrong, one might reach the end of the road for life, unless one found another path and mastered some vicious trick like the One-Armed Saber.
The Life and Death Arena allowed no courteous restraint.
The moment they discovered an injury, they would attack as though their lives depended on it.
Seeing nothing amiss, Zhou Bai could not be bothered to wait any longer. He gave a slight fist-and-palm salute and said coldly, "I hear you specialize in Red Fist?"
"Come on. Let's exchange a few moves and see how many guts you have, daring to come to Xianyang and provoke my Zhou Clan!"
The moment he said this, Zhou PeiDe, one of the Eight Great Vajras, abruptly changed expression and slammed his palm onto the table. "Nonsense!"
At that moment, everyone saw through Zhou Bai's intentions.
The Zhou Clan's Monkey Fist was also a branch fist of Red Fist. It was only that Zhou Pan had comprehended Through-the-Back Monkey Fist, absorbing the strengths of both schools and carving out a reputation for himself.
Naturally, they had also mastered their mother fist, Red Fist, to a profound level.
The young man was arrogant enough to discard his strengths and use Red Fist to suppress Li Yan.
This was completely different from their previous plan.
A flash of anger also crossed Yuan Qu's eyes, but he forcibly suppressed it and said with a smile, "Eldest Senior Brother, don't get worked up. Zhou Bai has put no less effort into Red Fist. With his aptitude, defeating the other man will be effortless."
"This is the Life and Death Arena! He's gone mad wanting to make a name for himself!"
Zhou PeiDe remained furious. "When we return, I'll definitely confine him. And you—keep him out of the gang's affairs. Stay away from Zhou Bai!"
He held himself in lofty regard. Though Yuan Qu and Zheng HeiBei were nominally his junior brothers, he looked down on them from the bottom of his heart, regarding them merely as servants of the Zhou Clan.
Now that he was enraged, he naturally spoke without restraint.
"Yes, Eldest Senior Brother is right to reprimand me."
Yuan Qu hurriedly bent at the waist and cupped his fists, concealing the venom in his eyes.
Above them, Zhou Bai had already launched his attack.
The ten-meter arena was not large. He drove off with his foot, twisted his body, and closed in on Li Yan in an instant. His left palm rose in a feint while his right hand stabbed straight toward Li Yan's face.
This move, White Tiger Washing Face, had evolved from Red Fist's Six Harmonies Spear.
His arm moved like a spear blossom, leaving only afterimages. It was meant to catch the opponent off guard, striking directly at both eyes and the vital point between the brows.
This was Red Fist—a martial art distilled from the battlefield, with every move drawing blood.
One did not fear a hundred refined moves; one feared a single move honed to perfection.
When this move was trained to its depths, raising one's hand was like a spear blossom exploding with thunder. The enemy could not react in time. Their vision would blur, and they would be dead.
However, Li Yan had been prepared.
He did not retreat in the slightest. He raised his left hand to block and caught Zhou Bai's arm. Then he changed arms and twisted his body, borrowing the strength of his waist and abdomen. His right fist came crashing down from above like a hammer, striking directly toward the Baihui acupoint atop Zhou Bai's head.
Red Fist's opening move: Intercepting Hammer!
It looked like Wild Fists, but it guarded the center and attacked through the center, defending and striking at once.
If it landed, a single punch could smash the opponent's brains to pulp.
Across from him, Zhou Bai had been fed moves by numerous masters since childhood. His experience surpassed Li Yan's. With a slight sidestep, he twisted and changed arms. At the same time, he raised his arms and crossed his fists to block. With a hook, he trapped Li Yan's right wrist.
"Not bad!"
On the distant teahouse balcony, Zhou PeiDe's expression eased considerably.
Red Fist's techniques came from the battlefield, and this hooking hand was exceptionally important.
When two sides clashed with short weapons on the battlefield, a master only needed to give the opponent's arm a gentle tug to make him lose his balance and leave him at their mercy.
The hooking hand worked the same way.
Once the opponent was hooked, all kinds of follow-up variations could be used to defeat him in a single strike.
Sure enough, as Zhou Bai locked onto Li Yan's right wrist, he turned sideways and unleashed a Groin Sweeping Kick, vicious to the extreme.
Li Yan reacted astonishingly fast as well. He countered with a sideways kick, sending Zhou Bai's lower leg flying back.
But the instant they made contact, he realized something was wrong.
Zhou Bai's kick had been soft and weak. It was merely a feint.
When he raised his leg to counterattack, he had already been standing on one foot, his center of gravity unstable.
Sure enough, Zhou Bai bent sideways with the momentum, wrapped both arms around the hollow behind Li Yan's right knee, crossed his hands, and suddenly exerted force.
Sword-Hanging Leg!
This move was ferocious. It could directly rob an enemy of his balance and send him crashing down, after which a follow-up strike could kill him.
Back then, Zhang ShiTong had been sent flying by Li Yan's Flower Hidden Beneath the Leaves precisely because he had been defending against this move.
Without the slightest surprise, Li Yan fell backward.
Zhou Bai's follow-up came right after. He turned sideways and lashed out with a whip kick, timing it perfectly. Just as Li Yan's head was about to hit the ground, it would strike his temple.
At the critical moment, Li Yan's extraordinary fundamentals came into play.
While airborne, he forcibly twisted his waist. As he dodged Zhou Bai's side kick, his legs scissored around Zhou Bai's waist.
This time, he had exerted force halfway through the motion. It was impossible to hoist Zhou Bai up and fling him away as he had at the Zhang Clan Martial Hall.
But Red Fist contained a specialized counter against being knocked down: the Nine Rolls Eighteen Falls.
Borrowing the balance of Zhou Bai's waist, Li Yan planted his left hand on the ground and unleashed a sideways Rabbit Kicking the Eagle, kicking directly at Zhou Bai's leg.
Zhou Bai was rich in experience when dismantling moves. But perhaps because he had been taught too strictly since childhood, his ability to adapt was lacking, leaving him somewhat rigid.
He failed to react to Li Yan's move and was kicked straight off balance.
Li Yan braced himself with his left hand. As his legs came down, he bent them and drove off again, then sprang forward with his body bent low.
This move was called Forcefully Pushing Mount Tai.
Like a fierce tiger pouncing on its prey, Li Yan wrapped his arms around Zhou Bai's waist. After several thudding steps, he drove Zhou Bai to the ground and mounted him sideways at the waist.
His fists were like a chain of cannons, pounding down with a crackling barrage.
Worse still, because the arena was cramped, that charge pushed Zhou Bai to its edge. His chest hung over the side, leaving his waist unable to generate force.
Facing this barrage of cannon punches, Zhou Bai desperately shielded his head. Even so, several punches landed, making stars swim before his eyes as blood sprayed from his nose.
Li Yan showed no mercy in his attacks.
This chain of cannon punches needed to land only once on a vital point to break the opponent's neck.
In the blink of an eye, Zhou Bai had fallen into a disadvantage. As he struggled to defend, fear rose in his heart, but anger outweighed it.
He had intended to use Red Fist to deal with Li Yan, never expecting that although Li Yan was younger than him, his techniques would be so seasoned and vicious, making him lose face before the entire crowd.
Those who practiced martial arts naturally carried a fierce air.
Zhou Bai cultivated Monkey Fist, so he possessed an even wilder nature.
Anger and pain drove him to abandon all restraint. He grabbed Li Yan's clothing and rolled over, sending them both tumbling off the arena.
Many of the watching commoners immediately drew in a sharp breath.
That entire barrage of attacks had given neither side room to retreat. They had met force with force, moving as swiftly as light and shadow, leaving the spectators dazzled.
Who would have thought that in the blink of an eye, things would reach this state?
The arena was more than three zhang high. If they fell from there, would they not be half-dead from the impact?
The watching martial artists of the jianghu, of course, were not worried.
Martial artists trained from childhood. Rolling and dispersing force were basic skills. Let alone three zhang, even a fall from five zhang could be survived with a roll.
Some experts proficient in this art even dared to leap down from city walls.
What made them frown was that the arena's rule was that whoever fell off lost. Could this match end in neither side being victorious?
Yet the matter turned out far differently from what they expected.
The instant Zhou Bai fell, he curled up and assumed a monkey shape. Then, with two hooked claws, he dug into the wood and somehow clung to the wooden wall along the arena's side.
Li Yan's claw skill was inferior to his opponent's, but he had his own way of responding.
He shook his left hand, punched through the wooden board, and seized the splintered gap to halt his fall. Looking at Zhou Bai opposite him, he curled his lips into a cold smile.
"What do you say? Shall we go back up and fight?"
"Get lost!"
With a furious roar, Zhou Bai shot upward. Like an ape, he lunged straight at Li Yan...
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