The referee's shrill whistle cut through the tense air of the Black Boxing Arena like Death's scythe.
The instant it sounded, Jiang Yue moved.
His opponent could unleash nearly eight hundred kilograms of force under normal conditions. Five or six years of conditioning had turned his flesh into solid armor, and he was more than twice Jiang Yue's size!
Scar had just taken the impact of Shen Qing's Hidden Power, so he had suffered some damage. But his vast reserves of Blood Energy remained.
By any conventional measure, the odds were firmly on the veteran Scar's side.
"I can't fight a war of attrition."
Cold calculation and ruthless resolve flashed through Jiang Yue's deep-set eyes.
He knew his maximum punching force was 718 kilograms. If he tried to circle and wear Scar down, Scar's massive frame would crowd him out. Worse, Scar clearly had more Blood Energy. A drawn-out fight made no sense.
Besides, Scar had just withstood Shen Qing's Ancient Martial Arts killing move. He looked unhurt, but the flow of energy within him had to be overexcited and dangerously unstable.
That was Jiang Yue's only opening!
No dodging! No retreating!
He would meet speed with speed, trade blows with all-out violence, and finish Scar off!
Just as everyone expected Jiang Yue to use his smaller size to circle Scar, as Old Cripple had done, Jiang Yue charged.
Instead of opening the distance, he drove his legs down so hard that the alloy floor buckled beneath his feet. The recoil launched him like a cannonball straight into Scar's striking range!
No probing. No maneuvering.
In the first second, the fight erupted into a brutal, all-out clash!
"You're dead!"
Seeing Jiang Yue dare to fight him up close, Scar bared his teeth in a vicious grin. His fist, as large as a cooking pot, tore through the air with a piercing boom and smashed toward Jiang Yue's chest.
Faced with a blow that could break an ordinary Quasi-Martial Artist's ribs, Jiang Yue's eyes stayed cold. He abandoned every attempt to block or defend!
He braced his chest to take the punch. At the same time, his right arm drew back like a bowstring, then drove a heavy straight punch at Scar's face!
Bang! Bang!
Two dull impacts, like sledgehammers striking thick leather and steel plate, rang out almost together!
Scar's fist struck Jiang Yue square in the chest. Jiang Yue grunted, and a thread of dark-red blood spilled from the corner of his mouth.
But Smooth Breath's perfect Force Unloading and Tough Skin's monstrous resistance spread the impact through his entire skeleton. Somehow, he endured what should have been a fatal blow!
Scar had not escaped unscathed either. Jiang Yue's fist slammed into his hard brow ridge, splitting the skin and sending blood streaming down his face!
"Come on!!"
Scar's savagery surged. Roaring, he swung both fists.
Bang bang bang bang bang—!
In just ten seconds, a barrage of thunderous impacts erupted across the ring!
The two fought like meat grinders gone out of control. They cast aside all defense, trading a punch to the shoulder for a punch to the jaw!
At point-blank range, they hammered each other with dozens of heavy blows!
Blood flew! Sweat and blood mingled beneath the bright lights above the ring, forming a glaring red mist!
The new recruits below stared, stunned.
After a brief, stunned silence, the recruits erupted into frenzied cheers that shot toward the ceiling and nearly lifted the roof off the arena!
"Jiang Yue, you're a beast!!"
"My god... he's going blow for blow with Scar?!"
This was Scar! The notorious Heavy Bulldozer of Floating Continent 17's Veteran Camp!
Jiang Yue looked slight and weighed far less, yet he dared to brawl with Scar at close range. Through ten seconds of furious exchanges, he had stood like a steel spike driven into the ring, refusing to yield a single step!
Across from them, the veterans who had been waiting to collect their winnings found their cocky smiles frozen in place.
Sweat covered Baldy and Red Hair's foreheads. They stared at Jiang Yue as if he were a monster. "What the hell... what is that kid made of?!"
"Scar's landed more than a dozen clean hits. Anyone else's bones would be dust by now, so how has he barely even flinched?!"
They had no idea how much punishment Jiang Yue's nascent Tough Skin could withstand!
"This kid..."
In the ring, the longer Scar fought, the more alarmed he became. An inexplicable chill crept over him.
His eight-hundred-kilogram punches were his pride, but striking Jiang Yue never gave him the satisfying crunch of breaking bone. It felt like punching an impossibly tough rubber tire!
At the instant of contact, some strange rhythm within Jiang Yue's body dispersed more than half the force!
He's tough as hell! But what kind of freak is he?!
As a hardened veteran, Scar felt a humiliation unlike anything he had known.
He was a hulking powerhouse with eight hundred kilograms of punching force. How could he fail to put down a scrawny new recruit in a straight exchange?!
"Get the hell out of my ring!!!"
Scar lost his temper completely.
He decided to end the pointless exchange. With a deafening roar, he sucked in a breath. Every muscle swelled to its limit as he poured all his Blood Energy and eight hundred kilograms of devastating force into his right fist!
The punch seemed to drain the air around it. Like Mount Tai crashing down, it drove toward Jiang Yue's face on a deadly gust of wind!
It was the very blow that had broken both of Shen Qing's arms!
"Oh no!"
Below the ring, Shen Qing, leaning against the wire mesh, felt his heart leap into his throat as his pupils contracted.
That was the move that had defeated him. No one there knew better how terrifying Scar's all-or-nothing punch was!
He can't block it! No defense can stop that! It'll shatter the bones in his hands! Shen Qing screamed inwardly, the veins in his forehead bulging.
Yet as the fist came down like a meteor, Jiang Yue's eyes remained as still and dark as deep water.
He did not retreat.
He did not dodge.
He did not even cross his arms to block!
"He's dropped his guard?!" The veterans below were ecstatic.
But Shen Qing's eyes widened in shock. He understood. He finally understood Jiang Yue's utterly reckless plan!
Jiang Yue had not given up on defense. He had deliberately left himself wide open to secure the perfect point of attack!
Dodging and blocking would never break this deadlock. His only choice was to trade injury for injury, life for life!
The instant Scar threw his punch, Jiang Yue would strike the vulnerable point below his navel and disrupt the already unstable source of his power!
Is he really going to use that move?! Can he execute Inch Power after hearing the theory just once?! Shen Qing stopped breathing.
In the ring.
The savage wind of Scar's punch stung Jiang Yue's face. Everyone watched.
Jiang Yue's right arm, hanging at his waist, suddenly drew inward at a strange, almost unnatural angle.
The power did not come from his arm!
It came from his spine! From his hips!
A rapid series of cracks ran along Jiang Yue's spine like bursting beans. Power surged up from the soles of his feet, through his body, and into the tiny space around his right fist, compressed there by his extraordinary control!
Scar's fist was less than half a foot from his face.
Jiang Yue's right fist shot upward, leaving a sharp, whistling blur as it drove toward the unguarded point below Scar's navel!
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