Sixth Round

Having successfully blocked the attack, Lin Ye did not pause for even a moment. He followed through with another step forward, his left fist shooting out like a shadow at his side, still carrying that steady, weighty intent as it struck straight for his opponent's center.

Mountain-Suppressing Fist: Mountain Collapse!

At the punch's destination, the air let out a low whimper.

"Not good!"

The skinny examinee was horrified as he judged the power behind Lin Ye's punch.

If things went badly, someone could die.

He immediately abandoned his plan to keep attacking, forcibly twisting his body and crossing his twin daggers before his chest to block.

Boom!

The muffled impact was like a heavy war drum. In that instant, it was as though he had been struck by a massive hammer. His virtual body shuddered violently, and he could no longer steady his footing. He staggered back seven or eight steps before barely stopping at the edge of the arena. His face flushed red as his Blood Qi churned violently, and his gaze toward Lin Ye was filled with fear.

During the melee, this guy had clearly been slippery as an eel, yet now he was so steady and overbearing.

The contrast left him unable to make sense of it for a moment, his thoughts thrown into confusion.

But Lin Ye had no intention of giving him time to recover. He understood the principle of striking while someone was sick and taking their life.

He used Lost Track Steps, arriving at the edge of the arena like a shadow trailing its owner, and threw a punch.

His fist descended from above, tracing an arc as steady as a mountain suppressing all beneath it.

Mountain-Suppressing Fist: Stabilizing Mountains and Rivers!

As the punch came forth, the skinny examinee felt the circulation of Blood Qi throughout his body become sluggish. An invisible pressure also bore down on his mind, as though he faced not a person, but a mountain slowly pressing down upon him.

That pressure again.

The skinny examinee was somewhat despairing. At this moment, his fighting spirit had nearly been shattered by Lin Ye's Fist Momentum and greatly weakened.

Faced with this move, he could only grit his teeth and take it head-on.

But this time, he had already backed up to the arena's edge. Where else could he retreat?

And so, after forcibly receiving Lin Ye's strike once more, the skinny examinee was jolted off the arena by the force and declared defeated.

[Fifth Round, Victor—Examinee 882]

[Advanced to the Sixth Round]

The referee's electronic voice sounded, officially declaring the match over. After a brief silence, the audience erupted into an even greater roar.

"He won! The examinee on the right won! I really didn't expect that."

"Exactly. The examinee on the left looked pretty fierce earlier, but he went down after just a few exchanges."

"An silver spear with a wax tip."

"Come to think of it, did you see what fist technique that examinee on the right used? Can the Rolling Stone Fist really be that powerful?"

"That's true. His fist technique did look rather similar to the Rolling Stone Fist."

"I didn't see it clearly. It probably wasn't the Rolling Stone Fist, right? Could the Rolling Stone Fist be that strong?"

The spectators who had watched Lin Ye's match began discussing it among themselves. They all felt that Lin Ye's fist technique somewhat resembled the Rolling Stone Fist, yet it did not seem like the Rolling Stone Fist when used.

"Interesting. An examinee has actually comprehended Fist Momentum. No, it would be more accurate to say the embryonic form of Momentum. He is still quite far from true Fist Momentum."

A virtual figure in the audience spoke softly.

Meanwhile, after knocking the skinny examinee from the arena, Lin Ye slowly withdrew his fist and calmed his Blood Qi. He had used his full strength in those punches just now, together with the true intent of the Mountain-Suppressing Fist. The consumption had been considerable, but the results were equally obvious. Examinees at the same level were no match for him.

As for the clamor around him, he paid it no heed.

Whether praise or slander, neither could affect his state of mind.

A moment later, teleportation light flared and carried him away from the arena.

When the teleportation light faded, Lin Ye found himself still standing on an arena similar to the previous one. The virtual spectator stands around him were even more crowded, and the roaring noise, processed by the system, had become a low background hum filled with pressure.

Those who had made it this far were already the true cream of this year's Qingjiang Province Martial Arts Stream examinees. Every match drew immense attention.

His opponent materialized almost at the same time. Lin Ye looked over and saw a man of average build, dressed in a plain white martial arts uniform. His features were ordinary, but his eyes were exceptionally calm. His palms were several degrees broader and thicker than normal, hanging naturally at his sides.

"Damn, I know the examinee on the left."

"What nonsense? Who in Linhai City doesn't know him? Zhou Lang, the top student from our Second High School."

"I heard he has already trained the C-Grade Martial Art, the Nine-Layer Overlapping Wave Palm, to the sixth layer. Is that true?"

"No idea. Supposedly, almost nobody has forced him to use the sixth layer. He rarely even uses the fifth layer."

"Right, and who's that opposite him... I've never seen him before."

"I just checked. It seems he beat an examinee with pretty decent strength, so he does not seem weak either."

"What's there to fear? Zhou Lang's Nine-Layer Overlapping Wave Palm is no joke. The examinee on the right is probably in for a rough time."

Someone in the audience recognized the examinee facing Lin Ye, and discussion immediately broke out.

Listening to the noisy comments from the spectators, Lin Ye also realized that his opponent this time was no simple opponent. His gaze tightened slightly as he began adjusting his condition.

Zhou Lang calmly looked at Lin Ye and gave a slight nod in greeting.

Then, as the countdown in midair ended.

Zhou Lang moved first. He did not charge forward with explosive speed. Instead, his feet slid as though he were walking upon waves, lightly and swiftly closing the distance. His right palm pushed forward, seemingly slow but actually fast.

This palm strike appeared plain and unremarkable, without even a sharp gust of palm wind.

Yet Lin Ye keenly sensed that the air within the palm's reach seemed to have become heavier, and the oppressive feeling was even stronger.

Lin Ye did not dare be careless. Lost Track Steps moved beneath his feet, and his body drifted backward to the left, intending to avoid the opponent's edge and observe the pattern of his moves before responding.

However, Zhou Lang seemed to have anticipated this. His footsteps followed Lin Ye like a shadow, while his palm momentum spread and advanced like rising tides.

At the same time, the palm shadow split into two, sealing off Lin Ye's main avenues of evasion. The dense offensive descended like a vast net.

With no way to evade, he would meet it head-on.

Lin Ye's eyes sharpened. He halted his retreat, sank his center of gravity, and spiraled his right fist out from his waist. Carrying the steady, weighty intent of a mountain, it drove straight toward the center of the seemingly illusory palm shadows.

"Eh!"

Sensing the unusual nature of Lin Ye's fist technique, Zhou Lang gave a surprised cry. Then his two palms shifted from illusion into substance, one above and one below, seeming to seal and close as they precisely met Lin Ye's fist.

Puff!

The impact was muffled rather than earthshaking, but extraordinarily solid.

Lin Ye felt as though his fist had struck a mass of exceptionally resilient deep-sea kelp jelly. At the same time, a flexible, lingering force came from his opponent's palms. It not only dispersed nearly twenty percent of his fist force, but also rebounded along the surface of his fist, forcing him back several steps.

At the same time, Zhou Lang was slightly surprised inwardly.

The sensation of "heaviness" and "suppression" coming from the opponent's fist was quite peculiar. It even caused his soft, flowing palm force to become somewhat sluggish, as though ocean waves had encountered reefs beneath the sea, weakening much of their surging force.

The two separated at the first touch, each taking half a step back. Their gazes both grew more solemn.

With that, the probing was over, and the true clash began.

In the time that followed, Zhou Lang's Layered Wave Palm Technique fully unfolded. The essence of the Nine-Layer Overlapping Wave Palm lay in the word "overlap."

Palm shadows danced through the air. They did not seem fast, yet they advanced layer upon layer. Every palm contained multiple forces—hard or soft, overt or hidden—like ocean waves, one wave not yet calmed before another rose, constantly crashing and wearing away at Lin Ye's Blood Qi.

Meanwhile, Lin Ye pushed both [Lost Track Steps] and [Mountain-Suppressing Fist] to their current limits. While his footwork remained unpredictable, he searched for openings amid his opponent's dense palm shadows, attempting to use the Mountain-Suppressing Fist to break through the unbroken assault.

The Mountain-Suppressing Fist was steady as a mountain. With every punch Lin Ye threw, he sought to use the most condensed fist force to break through his opponent's Layered Wave Palm.

Bang!

Puff!

The sounds of fists and palms colliding rang out without end.

Unfortunately, Lin Ye was the one forced back more often.

Although his fist technique caused his opponent no small amount of trouble, Zhou Lang's Blood Qi Value was clearly superior to his. Lin Ye estimated that Zhou Lang's Blood Qi Value was at least 400+.

"What a pity. If your Blood Qi were a little higher, perhaps I would be the one losing."

After sending Lin Ye staggering back again with a strike, Zhou Lang smiled lightly.

Seeing this, Lin Ye understood a little more and could not help giving a bitter smile.

Zhou Lang no longer concealed his Blood Qi and erupted with his full strength. The palm shadows that had originally been dense and resilient suddenly gained an additional measure of fierce, violent force.

His palms crossed as Blood Qi surged through him. Six layers of force overlapped. With a move of Surging Waves Striking the Shore, his palms struck out in rapid succession. The palm shadows instantly became clear and swift, one layer following another, their force far beyond what Lin Ye could withstand. Even after doing his utmost to block, the damage rate of Lin Ye's body began soaring. Then another palm came sweeping in, and his figure began to dissipate.