Compared to the outrage of everyone from Iron Mountain Hall, most of the spectators around the arena held their breath, staring without blinking.
In a fight to the death, victory and defeat were often decided in the blink of an eye. Xiong Wu's seemingly underhanded move had been highly effective, creating a fleeting opening.
That first punch was heavy and forceful, aimed straight at a vital point. If Chen Yue reacted even a moment too slowly or lost his composure, he might suffer a devastating injury on the spot—or even be killed outright!
However, just as Xiong Wu's fist, as large as a clay pot, was about to strike Chen Yue's head, Chen Yue moved!
He seemed to have anticipated the ambush. His gaze, which had been drawn to the flash of the blade, instantly snapped back. He didn't retreat or dodge widely, because that would surrender the initiative completely and leave him at the mercy of Xiong Wu's relentless barrage of heavy punches.
Chen Yue's left arm flicked up like a soft whip, shooting from low to high at an incredibly tricky angle. Instead of meeting the heavy punch head-on, he struck with pinpoint precision at the junction between Xiong Wu's right wrist and forearm.
That was a key point where Xiong Wu's arm generated power.
"Thump!"
A dull impact rang out. Xiong Wu felt the tremendous force driving his right arm forward suddenly falter. His entire arm went numb and sore, and half the power he had built up in his fist was knocked away.
The punch aimed at Chen Yue's temple was involuntarily deflected, whistling past his left ear.
His attack missed. Xiong Wu's massive frame pitched forward slightly with its own momentum, leaving his center wide open!
Chen Yue didn't withdraw his left hand after blocking. He drove a step forward, lowered and twisted his waist, and gathered all his strength into his right shoulder. It was the most powerful, explosive close-range killing move in Iron Mountain Fist: Iron Mountain Lean!
This charge drew on the surging inner breath unleashed by the full force of Mountain-Crushing Art, as well as the strength of every muscle and bone in his body. It was devastatingly powerful.
At the critical moment, Xiong Wu's wealth of combat experience saved his life. With a furious roar, he threw his left arm across his chest like a gate bar!
"Thump!"
Another heart-stopping thud!
Chen Yue's shoulder slammed into Xiong Wu's hastily raised left arm. Xiong Wu felt an immense force crash over him like a landslide. His left arm screamed with pain, as though it were about to snap, and his footing gave way. He stumbled back three great steps.
Each step left cracks in the arena's thick wooden boards. His blood and breath roiled in his chest, and his face flushed red in an instant.
Chen Yue's charge had been blocked, and the force rebounded against him. Yet he didn't retreat to dissipate it as an ordinary person would.
His feet drummed across the boards in a strange rhythm. His waist twisted sharply again, taut as a drawn bowstring. Using the rebound, he abruptly transformed his backward momentum into the force for a second charge.
He had mastered the essence of Treading Mountains and Rivers: borrowing force and redirecting it, flowing on without pause!
His body barely slowed. Chen Yue stayed close, pressing after the retreating Xiong Wu and closing the gap again.
His right fist shot up from his waist like a venomous dragon emerging from its lair, accompanied by a piercing whistle through the air. The Crushing Fist burst forward like a cannonball, aimed straight at Xiong Wu's face, which had tilted back slightly in shock.
Before the fist even reached him, its fierce wind had already raised the hairs on Xiong Wu's face!
Xiong Wu's pupils shrank. Horror surged through him.
He had never imagined that his carefully planned opening attack would not only fail, but be countered in the blink of an eye.
Chen Yue's reaction speed, his grasp of the opening, and the terrifying power he had unleashed had all far exceeded Xiong Wu's expectations. How could this be a Pearl Diver who had practiced martial arts for barely a month?
Rage and shock together roused the beast in Xiong Wu. He refused to believe he could lose in a contest of pure strength to a mere kid!
A savage light flashed in Xiong Wu's eyes. With a beastlike roar, he charged instead of retreating. His right fist, which had just begun to recover feeling, gathered all his strength. He neither dodged nor flinched, meeting Chen Yue's incoming fist with an equally unadorned, crushing punch.
He would meet force with force and turn the tide in one blow!
If Chen Yue showed even a trace of hesitation or fear, if his punch faltered in the slightest, Xiong Wu could immediately overwhelm him with his superior strength and turn the battle around completely!
Facing Xiong Wu's desperate clash, a cold glint blazed in Chen Yue's eyes. He didn't retreat at all. Instead, he drove Mountain-Crushing Art to its limit.
The inner breath in his dantian surged like boiling magma, rushing through his meridians and flooding into his right arm before gathering at his fist.
A faint, dark sheen, almost metallic, glimmered across the surface of his fist. It was the sign of inner breath compressed to its utmost and blood and qi driven to their peak.
"BOOM!!!"
Their fists collided. The sound was no longer the dull smack of flesh against flesh, but a muffled blast like two chunks of raw iron smashing together. A violent wave of air burst outward from the point of impact, sweeping up dust from the arena.
"Crack!"
Right after the blast came the unmistakable sound of bone breaking!
"Ugh!"
The vicious grin on Xiong Wu's face froze, replaced by overwhelming pain and disbelieving horror. He let out a shrill scream.
The bone-breaking sound had come from his right hand!
In their head-on clash, Xiong Wu's fist—the one he had boasted could shatter stone tablets—along with the bones in his wrist and forearm, had been smashed to pieces by Chen Yue's punch, twisted out of shape!
A stabbing pain washed over Xiong Wu's nerves like a tide. His right arm hung like a snapped dead branch, limp and crookedly bent backward, utterly useless in battle.
But even after shattering Xiong Wu's arm bones, Chen Yue's right fist seemed not to have spent its momentum. It continued forward with crushing force, slamming toward Xiong Wu's face, contorted with pain.
At death's door, Xiong Wu showed the viciousness of a desperado.
He endured the agony of his shattered right arm. A crazed look flashed in his eyes as he swung his left arm like a thick iron whip, aiming a savage blow at Chen Yue's right temple. He didn't care if he took Chen Yue's punch, so long as he could drag him to hell with him!
Seeing Xiong Wu sweep in with his left arm, Chen Yue's punch changed course in a split second, impossible as it seemed. His right fist had been about to strike Xiong Wu's face, but at the last instant it snapped aside and smashed into the elbow joint of Xiong Wu's sweeping arm.
"Crack!"
A sharp snap rang out. Xiong Wu's sweeping left arm was abruptly stopped and knocked out of shape, most of the force behind his desperate attack scattered.
Chen Yue used the rebound from that punch to drive forward with another step of Treading Mountains and Rivers. The distance between them shrank to nothing.
At the same time, Chen Yue bent his left arm, turning his hard elbow into an unstoppable iron spike. Carried by the momentum of his charge, it tore through the air and drove toward Xiong Wu's chin with thunderous force.
If this Heart-Piercing Elbow landed cleanly, it would shatter his jaw. The force would surge upward, possibly snapping his neck and killing him on the spot.
By then, Xiong Wu's right arm was useless and his left had been intercepted. His first burst of strength was spent, his next had yet to gather, and his body was still leaning back, off balance. Faced with this killing elbow, he had nowhere to dodge and nothing with which to block!
Before you continue