After Li Hansha and Fang Hansong exchanged fist-and-palm salutes, they stood facing each other, eyes locked. Everyone in the martial arts school held their breath. Just as they could bear it no longer, the two men moved almost simultaneously.
Screech!
Fang Hansong looked like an unremarkable janitor in his fifties or sixties, but his chest swelled as he let out a piercing crane cry. A distinct stream of white breath shot from his mouth, and he lunged forward like a crane in flight, crossing ten meters in an instant.
Fang Hansong's sleeves pulled taut around his arms. His palms struck like blades, and his fists like a steel crane's sharp beak. Driven by his Internal Force, his palms could easily shatter marble, while his Wing Chun Phoenix Eye Finger could punch straight through an iron plate.
Feeling the fierce wind rush toward him, Li Hansha laughed. His back and waist bent like a drawn crossbow. Against Fang Hansong, a Transformation Grandmaster of Wing Chun White Crane Fist swooping in like a hunting crane, he answered with nothing more than a simple lunging punch.
Bang, bang, bang...
Fists met palms and fingers at least ten times in the space of a breath. Each collision of tremendous force cracked like thunder, loud enough to make anyone who did not know better think someone was setting off firecrackers.
That first exchange alone left everyone in the school dazzled. With their current ability to track movement, they could barely follow either man's techniques. All they saw were afterimages.
His first assault thwarted, Fang Hansong kicked off the ground and spread his arms like a crane opening its wings. His aged frame moved at astonishing speed, nearly becoming a streak of white as he circled Li Hansha. Slashing palms, punches, and thrusting fingers targeted vital points all over his opponent's body.
Wing Chun White Crane Fist combined the strengths of Wing Chun and White Crane Fist. Yet in action, it was murderous and vicious, far from the graceful, ethereal image its name suggested.
In the hands of a Transformation Grandmaster like Fang Hansong, Internal Force surged through every move. His fingers darted at eyes, his palms struck at temples, his fists hammered at throats, and his feet kicked at kidneys. His attacks were savage.
Li Hansha drew a deep breath and stamped down. The silicone mat beneath his foot shattered along with the hard concrete floor.
His waist rose and fell like a galloping warhorse. The muscles of one hand knotted into a tiger's claw, while the other formed a nimble crane's beak. Each hand took a different form: the crane was agile, the tiger fierce. Together, they struck as one in the Tiger Crane Dual Form.
Roar!
With a tiger's roar, Li Hansha turned and charged at Fang Hesong.
The roar, driven from his chest by Internal Force, left everyone in the school with ringing ears. Before they could react, a white figure and a black one collided under their startled gazes.
Once Core Condensation Gang Qi was unleashed in earnest, all the Internal Force and blood vitality gathered throughout the body erupted at a single point. For an instant, it struck with the violence of a high-explosive bomb. Combined with the Tiger Crane Dual Form, the resulting power was overwhelming.
Li Hansha's black figure drove Fang Hansong back. His fists were wild and domineering, every blow roaring out like a cannonball. Each time they collided, the force spilling outward cracked the silicone mats and the hard concrete beneath them, as though someone were smashing the floor with a hammer weighing hundreds of pounds.
Crack, crack...
Fang Hansong retreated ten steps in a row, leaving a clear line of footprints in the concrete floor. The damage showed just how powerful those blows were.
After taking ten punches, Fang Hansong grunted. He could hold out no longer and flew backward like a sandbag, slamming into the wall behind him. Li Hansha followed like a bird in flight. His left hand darted out like a crane's beak, tearing through the air with a shriek like a crane's cry.
Screech!
His left hand punched straight through the solid concrete wall. Fragments of cement burst outward, leaving a clean hole in which faint finger marks were visible.
Li Hansha stood while Fang Hansong sat on the ground. The winner was obvious.
"Your Internal Force, blood vitality, and intent are united as one. When you move, it's like a volcano erupting. I never imagined there was a Pillaring Grandmaster as young as you in this world. Someone like you comes along once in a century. I'm getting old. I have to admit defeat..."
Fang Hansong sighed and conceded without hesitation.
Li Hansha placed a hand on his shoulder and pulled him up. "Your Wing Chun White Crane Fist left a deep impression on me, Master Fang. I admire it. That was only a sparring match. We both seek the martial path, and the coming upheaval of heaven and earth—and the struggle that follows—matter far more."
The two had gone from fighting fiercely to making peace in the blink of an eye, as though they had not been the ones battling moments before. Everyone in the school stared in wonder, unable to understand how experts thought.
With the match over, everyone looked at the distinct footprints spreading through the concrete like a spiderweb, then at the finger marks in the wall. The place looked as though an excavator had torn through it. They could not help drawing sharp breaths.
Could humans really do this? They were terrifying, like Fierce Beasts in human form! Reinforced concrete was as fragile as tofu in their hands!
As the school's owner, Fang Xiu stared wide-eyed at the damage their fight had caused. She felt as though a mysterious door called "National Martial Arts" was opening before her. Wing Chun White Crane Fist could be this powerful? How had she never realized it before?!
In Sun Na's livestream, the chat went wild. Virtual rockets shot up the screen, drawing even more viewers.
"Are they really human? That's insane!" "Concrete is like tofu in their hands! Can National Martial Arts really take people this far?!" "They're so strong! All I could see were afterimages. I couldn't even make out their moves!" "That unassuming old janitor at the martial arts school really was a hidden master! Incredible!" "A Pillaring Grandmaster is terrifying..."
Before anyone there could react, Li Hansha saluted Fang Hansong and took his leave.
"Now that our match is over, I'll be going. I hope we'll have another chance to spar when we meet again."
With that, Li Hansha turned and headed outside without hesitation.
Sun Na and her best friend Pan Xiaoli hurried after him. Sun Na ended the livestream, and they called out,
"Hey, master! Wait for us..."
Li Hansha had arrived suddenly and left just as quickly, leaving everyone in the school bewildered. It seemed he had come solely to spar. Now that he had accomplished that, he simply turned and walked away without a moment's delay.
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