"Is that for real? A stone that big, shattered with one punch?"
"That's a prop, right? There's no way a person's fist could be that hard, or that powerful."
"Exactly. They brought out a fake stone and hired a few plants to fool us, didn't they?"
The crowd below was first astonished, then filled with skepticism.
A few people from other martial arts schools even started stirring up trouble behind the scenes.
Seeing the crowd's reaction, Teng Qingshan wasn't angry. "Everyone, please stay calm. If you have doubts, feel free to come up onstage. Today, the Xingyi Sect welcomes any martial arts school that wants to challenge us. And from now on, we'll welcome anyone who wants to challenge us, every single day. If I lose even once, the Xingyi Sect will close its doors on the spot!"
At those words,
the spectators below fell silent.
"Young man, you've got quite a mouth on you. You welcome anyone to challenge you, and you'll shut down if you lose even once?"
Suddenly,
a deep, powerful voice rang out from below. A broad-shouldered, burly middle-aged man leaped onto the ring.
"I'm Guo Tao, the owner of Yi'an Martial Arts School. I hadn't planned to come up and challenge you today, but after what you just said, if my school doesn't respond, outsiders will think I'm afraid of you."
"That's Master Guo!"
"I heard he punched out over a thousand kilograms of force with ease a while back! This is going to be good."
Someone in the crowd recognized him, and people began whispering among themselves.
"So you're Master Guo. It's an honor." Dressed in white, Teng Qingshan smiled and clasped his hands.
"Enough talk. Between Martial Artists, fists decide everything. Once I've dealt with you, I have to go back and teach my students." Guo Tao sounded completely unconcerned.
In his view, there was a good chance the huge stone Teng Qingshan had just shattered was a prop. As a master of Crushing Fist in Xingyi Fist, even when he went all out, he could only muster a little over a thousand kilograms of force. Against a boulder like that, if it were real, he'd only be able to leave a small crack.
To shatter it completely, you'd need an Internal Martial Arts Grandmaster—and even then, only after pushing your transformed body to its limit.
But Teng Qingshan didn't look a day over twenty.
A twenty-year-old Grandmaster?
What a joke!
Back in his youth, Guo Tao had also earned a reputation as a "prodigy."
He'd reached master level in his twenties, but now, in his forties, he was still only a master...
And now some young man had appeared out of nowhere. Was he supposed to be a Grandmaster?
Guo Tao certainly didn't believe it!
"Master Guo, you're as impatient as ever. Well, let's begin."
Teng Qingshan gestured for him to make the first move.
There wasn't a hint of tension on his face.
"Young man, take this!"
As he spoke, Guo Tao launched straight into the Crushing Fist he'd spent half his life perfecting!
The ring wasn't very large, only about ten meters across.
Guo Tao charged with all his might, reaching Teng Qingshan in less than a second. His right fist shot forward!
Whoosh!
His fist cut through the air with a gust of wind. Its fierce momentum startled the spectators below.
Guo Tao, a master, had poured forty years of skill into that punch!
But in the next moment,
Teng Qingshan simply shifted to the left, dodging Guo Tao's attack. Then he clenched his right hand into a fist and struck Guo Tao's shoulder. The punch looked incredibly slow, yet somehow impossibly fast.
Boom!!!
The seemingly effortless punch landed on Guo Tao.
In an instant, Guo Tao was sent flying like a punching bag.
Whoa!!!
"Master Guo is flying!"
"That punch was brutal!"
"Is that what Xingyi Fist can do?"
The crowd erupted in chatter.
Guo Tao had been knocked right off the ring. Still dazed, he felt Teng Qingshan effortlessly neutralize the force in his body.
Fortunately, Teng Qingshan had held back, using only as much force as Guo Tao himself could muster. He'd only knocked him away.
After all, Guo Tao was a Xingyi Fist master who'd trained hard for many years. It would've been a shame to cripple or kill him.
"Cough, cough, cough!"
Guo Tao struggled to his feet, his face flushing red and then paling. In the end, he clasped his hands toward the ring. "Sect Master Teng, you're impressive. I, Guo Tao, admit defeat!"
Then Guo Tao waved for his stunned students to follow him, and left.
"Master Guo was sent flying with a single punch and admitted defeat without hesitation. Looks like the Xingyi Sect is the real deal. I was planning to find a martial arts school to train at anyway, so I'll choose the Xingyi Sect! And Sect Master Teng is so handsome, too..."
A tall, elegantly dressed city beauty with the air of a mature woman, Lin Menglan, thought excitedly.
She'd been lucky enough to survive the Virus, and had wanted for a long time to find a martial arts school that taught real skills.
Now it seemed the Xingyi Sect, not far from her home, was just the place.
At that moment, many others shared Lin Menglan's thoughts.
They gazed at Teng Qingshan onstage with excitement and admiration as he stood there smiling calmly, waiting for the "challenge" segment to end so they could sign up.
"Master, should we still challenge them?"
At the edge of the crowd, a young man respectfully asked the elderly man beside him.
"This young man is quite skilled. He's worth my while."
The old man dressed in black smiled. He then easily pushed his way through the packed crowd and sprang lightly onto the ring.
"I'm Dong Hongchang. I know a little Baguazhang. I'd appreciate Sect Master Teng's instruction!"
"That's Dong Hongchang!"
The middle-aged spectators who were older and knew a little about the martial arts world were all shocked.
When Dong Hongchang was young, he'd been Yangzhou City's foremost traditional martial arts expert!
With his Baguazhang, he'd been unbeatable throughout Yangzhou.
But later, Dong Hongchang had vanished from the scene. No one had expected him to appear again now.
As the people below discussed it,
the others learned that the seemingly unremarkable old man onstage was actually so powerful.
The crowd watched the ring with even greater anticipation.
Looking at Dong Hongchang, who was at least sixty but still full of vigor, Teng Qingshan finally felt a little interest.
If he wasn't mistaken, the old man before him was a Baguazhang Grandmaster!
His stance was rock-solid with every movement. Even when he jumped, his blood and vitality were abundant, and his eyes were bright and sharp.
"Please, Elder Dong." Teng Qingshan had keen hearing and had caught what people were saying about the old man.
"Young man, not bad. You make the first move. The Baguazhang of my Dong Lineage is best suited to defense. If you can break through it, then I'll have lost." Dong Hongchang smiled.
"Elder Dong, you should make the first move. I'm afraid that if I strike, you won't get another chance to fight back," Teng Qingshan said calmly.
Though he respected the man as a Baguazhang Grandmaster in his sixties, among Martial Artists, fists had always done the talking. Since they were standing in the ring, they had to decide who was stronger.
Besides, today was the Xingyi Sect's opening day and the day it began accepting students. Teng Qingshan would take every challenger seriously.
He wouldn't hurt anyone, but he would win cleanly and decisively.
"Young man, then I won't hold back!"
Dong Hongchang's eyes narrowed, and his entire presence changed in an instant.
Then he blurred into motion. As he closed in on Teng Qingshan, his hands lashed out as fast as lightning.
"As expected of Grandmaster Dong! He's still so fast at his age!"
The spectators below saw only a flash of black. Dong Hongchang had crossed several meters and reached Teng Qingshan in an instant.
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