You dared challenge our hall just because you were a little faster?
You dared ambush my nephew and beat his face into that state?
The middle-aged man muttered inwardly, then turned to the disciples beside him. "This young man came to spar with Master Ma yesterday, and he wants to spar with him again today. Who wants to warm up with him first and test his skills?"
At once, a dozen young men stopped practicing their moves and gathered around Zeng Shen and the middle-aged man.
As they approached, they whispered among themselves.
"He's the young man who beat the hall master's nephew's face into a pig's head yesterday?"
"So the hall master wants us to teach him a lesson?"
"Looks like it."
Hearing the voices around him, Zeng Shen immediately understood why the middle-aged man's tone had changed. It turned out he was the real master of this Martial Arts Hall.
Then what was Master Ma doing here? The hall's prized treasure? An elder in the house was a treasure, after all?
A young man as fat as Sammo Hung, his face covered in acne, walked up to Zeng Shen and looked him up and down before turning to the middle-aged man. "Hall master, I'd like to spar with him."
The middle-aged man hesitated when he saw this young man, but finally nodded.
"You, come here." The fat young man pointed at Zeng Shen, then headed straight for the middle of the training area where they had been practicing.
"Fatty Zhang beat us to it."
"Fatty Zhang loves beating anyone better-looking than him into a pig's head. This guy's in for it."
"In for what? If he dared come to our Martial Arts Hall, he must have some skills. Otherwise, he wouldn't have beaten Little Li's face into a pig's head and left him unconscious."
"True. I just heard him say he's pretty fast. Fatty Zhang's biggest weakness is his slow speed. He might get the worst of this."
"Slow, huh? Then I'll go straight to five times my speed." Looking at the fat young man and listening to the voices around him, Zeng Shen muttered to himself. He quietly walked into the middle of their training area and stood opposite him. "Get ready. I'm very fast."
"Quit your babbling. Come on!" Fatty Zhang roared impatiently and charged straight at Zeng Shen.
Speed amplification. Zeng Shen silently invoked the skill, and a surge of energy instantly flooded his body, making him feel as light as a swallow.
With a slight shift of his feet, he moved like a phantom, blurring into an afterimage as he dodged Fatty Zhang's charging shoulder tackle.
"Ah, he's so fast!"
The middle-aged man's face filled with shock at Zeng Shen's sidestep.
He was too fast.
While he was still reeling, Fatty Zhang, having missed his target, turned around and charged at Zeng Shen again.
However.
Zeng Shen darted forward. The moment Fatty Zhang charged, he was already behind him, lifting a foot and kicking him in the backside.
Thud...
Carried by his own momentum, Fatty Zhang hit the ground just as hard as he had charged.
The pain immediately made him squeal like a pig.
[The host defeated a stronger opponent, a tier-two fire thrall. Survival points +50.]
Huh? Why wasn't that a first-clear reward? Why only fifty points? Was it because he counted as a minor enemy? Or had Liu Tongtong's first-clear reward counted as the first clear for all followers?
Hearing the notification, Zeng Shen stood where he was as a string of questions flashed through his mind.
All the young men around him stared in astonishment at Zeng Shen and at Fatty Zhang, who was howling on the ground.
They were stunned.
They had never seen speed like Zeng Shen's before. He even seemed twice as fast as their hall master.
"Is that even human speed?"
"Speed is the one thing no martial art can overcome. He's so fast, none of us can beat him."
"Yeah. Are we really going to lose a hall challenge today?"
"If word gets out, can our Martial Arts Hall even stay open in Jinhai City?"
"Hmph, every fighting style has a weakness. If he keeps moving that fast, his body won't be able to take it. We'll fight him one after another and keep draining his stamina. I refuse to believe he can maintain that speed forever."
"A gauntlet? Isn't that a bit underhanded?"
"No. According to the rules passed down by our forebears, anyone who comes to a Martial Arts Hall to spar without an invitation is effectively challenging the hall. We can follow the rules for a hall challenge and fight him one after another."
"All right, I'll go first."
An eager young man walked up to Zeng Shen. "I'll fight you. My name is Li Qing. What should I call you?"
"My name is Shen. Please go easy on me."
"Hah!" Li Qing suddenly shouted and rushed at Zeng Shen at high speed.
He was fast, but Zeng Shen was faster. He dodged directly, then drove a vicious kick into Li Qing's backside before he could react, instantly sending him stumbling and falling face-first to the ground.
[The host defeated a stronger opponent, a tier-three fire thrall. Survival points +100.]
Tier three, a hundred survival points?
Hearing the system notification, Zeng Shen's eyes widened, and a theory about earning survival points by defeating other people's followers immediately came to him.
Could tier one give ten survival points, tier two fifty, tier three a hundred, and tier four a thousand?
"My name is Zhang Erhe."
Another young man walked up to Zeng Shen, intending to wear down his stamina, but he was soon kicked to the ground in exactly the same way.
[The host defeated a stronger opponent, a tier-two fire thrall. Survival points +50.]
"My name is Wang Er."
Another young man appeared before Zeng Shen, but soon...
[The host defeated a stronger opponent, a tier-two fire thrall. Survival points +50.]
"My name is..."
"My name is..."
"My name is..."
[The host defeated a stronger opponent, a tier-three fire thrall. Survival points +100.]
After kicking the last young man to the ground in the same fashion and receiving another notification awarding him a hundred survival points.
Zeng Shen felt rather satisfied.
His trip to this Martial Arts Hall had not been wasted.
Another 1,300 survival points had come pouring in.
Still, to verify something, he looked at the middle-aged man's extremely grim face and hesitated before speaking.
"Hall master, I didn't come to challenge your hall, but I'd like to spar with you. I hope you'll oblige."
The middle-aged man clenched his fists and took a slight, deep breath. Treating Zeng Shen as the greatest opponent of his life, he walked into the middle of the training area, planted himself, and assumed a Taiji Fist stance. "I am Li Zhiyuan, the thirtieth-generation successor of the Lihuo Martial Arts Hall."
"Hall Master Li, here I come."
Zeng Shen cupped his hands in salute, then his body blurred into an afterimage again as he rushed toward Li Zhiyuan and lashed out at his backside with a lightning-fast kick.
But just as the kick was about to land, a large hand appeared at his heel as though it had foreseen his attack. In that instant, if Zeng Shen had not been fast enough to pull his foot back in time.
The middle-aged hall master would have caught his foot.
"That was close. You really do live up to your position as hall master. You aren't as fast as me, but you predicted my attack based on my habits." Zeng Shen swiftly retreated as he spoke to the middle-aged hall master, who remained motionless in his horse stance.
Having failed to catch Zeng Shen's heel, the middle-aged hall master knew his chance was gone. He relaxed his horse stance and said:
"My chance is gone. I concede."