"Where'd this idiot come from..."
Ye Li couldn't be bothered to answer the challenge from behind him!
His trait wasn't Master of the Way of Forbearance, and he had no talent for turning the other cheek!
Since their relationship had already soured from the start, he might as well treat Li Xi like some stray dog by the roadside and ignore him completely!
Li Xi was asking for death!
If he ever had the chance, Ye Li would kick Li Xi to death!
Thinking this, Ye Li silently turned his head. He looked at the sullen-faced youth before him, said nothing, and walked around him toward the door.
But at that moment, Ye Li's indifference was like a fine needle, piercing the anger Li Xi had been nursing for some time.
"I'm talking to you! Are you deaf?"
A roar came from behind him. Li Xi sprang into motion, the five fingers of his right hand curled like hooks as he viciously clawed at Ye Li's shoulder joint, a gust of sinister wind accompanying the blow!
His finger strikes were sharp and fierce. It was clearly a deft technique from the Mara Hand, meant to wrench apart a person's tendons and bones!
"You dirt-poor peasant! You've been nowhere to be seen for days while training. What sort of shameful secret are you hiding?"
"Once I've got you in my hands, everything will become clear!"
Li Xi's voice was brimming with barely suppressed anger, but more than that, he was furious that someone he'd always looked down on, a lowly nobody, had surpassed him!
Though Ye Li had his back to him, he'd grown wary the moment his opponent approached.
His shoulder muscles instantly tensed like iron, and his arm swept back as if he had eyes in the back of his head!
"Smack!"
Arm and claw collided with a heavy thud of flesh against flesh.
Li Xi felt a tremendous force surge toward him. His finger bones shuddered, and the impact sent him staggering slightly.
Ye Li used the force to propel himself half a step forward, then whirled around. His gaze had already turned as cold as a frozen abyss.
If this had happened online, Ye Li would usually have responded to trolls with "Typical keyboard warrior behavior" and a quick "block, mute, and ban."
But this was a real-life confrontation.
I just learned martial arts! You think you can bully me?
I'll beat you until that old Feng goes flying!
Without saying a word, he answered with his fists!
He drove off the ground. The blue bricks cracked beneath his feet, leaving a shallow imprint as he shot forward like an arrow!
His right fist clenched tight, sinews and bones popping. With a whistle that tore through the air, it shot straight for Li Xi's face!
Li Xi's pupils contracted. The Quick Eyes and Nimble Hands trait kicked into full gear!
His thoughts accelerated in an instant, tracking the fist's trajectory.
He jerked backward, evading the punch by a hair's breadth. The knuckles skimmed past the tip of his nose, and the gust of wind scraped his skin raw.
"Boom!"
Ye Li's fist slammed into the wall behind Li Xi!
The hard bricks cracked on impact, sending fragments flying!
A clear fist-shaped imprint appeared in the wall.
"This commoner... actually dared to attack me!"
Disbelief flashed through Li Xi's eyes. He hadn't expected the peasant to fight back!
If he hadn't dodged that punch fast enough, he'd have been left with far more than a bruised and swollen face.
"This guy's trait is... Quick Eyes and Nimble Hands!"
"No wonder he dodged my punch!"
Now that conflict had arisen, Ye Li was naturally not the sort to sit back and wait for death.
Know yourself and know your enemy. He'd already asked Wang Xian and Zhao Yan about Li Xi's traits.
Now that they were fighting, the details of Li Xi's trait surfaced in Ye Li's mind.
Quick Eyes and Nimble Hands (Green): Thinking and reaction speed increased by 50%. The user could respond to anything with thoughts more nimble than those of ordinary people!
In the early stages of cultivation, this trait was more versatile in combat, comprehension, and daily life than the Exceptional Cunning Ye Li was pretending to have.
But the trait wasn't without its drawbacks.
For instance, people who possessed it were often impatient, and had little tolerance for dealing with others!
From Li Xi's perspective, he'd just patiently waited for Ye Li for seven or eight seconds. Yet the guy had deliberately ignored him the whole time, dragging his feet. It had stoked his fury!
Ye Li's thoughts had barely turned once when Li Xi launched his counterattack.
"You're asking for death!"
Li Xi barked, dropping his weight instantly as his legs rooted into the ground like an old tree.
Riding the momentum of his dodge, he pressed forward instead of retreating. His body dipped at an unnatural angle, and his arms shot out like two venomous snakes emerging from their holes. His fingers curled into claws and plunged toward Ye Li's flanks!
This move was called Monkey Scoops the Moon!
If it landed, his finger strength would be enough to crush Ye Li's kidneys and cripple him!
The wind buffeted Ye Li's face, and a bone-chilling cold prickled across his vulnerable ribs!
Ye Li's heart jolted. His right leg rose like a steel whip, launching a vicious Heart-Piercing Kick without warning, straight at Li Xi's chest and abdomen!
A leg was longer than an arm! Though the kick came later, it was faster—and its force was as heavy as a mountain!
If Li Xi didn't dodge, forget scooping the moon. His whole body would be kicked into the wall!
"Hmph!"
Seeing this, Li Xi had no choice but to force a change of tactics.
Quick Eyes and Nimble Hands let him easily catch on to Ye Li's intentions.
He twisted his waist, spinning sharply to the side like a top!
Ye Li's Heart-Piercing Kick swept past his clothes with a whoosh, then crashed into the wall, cracking more bricks.
Having dodged the kick, Li Xi's eyes grew even more vicious.
His hands, which had been scooping for the moon, thrust forward, changing the move into Peach Crusher.
The mid-attack change sent a chill over Ye Li's groin. He slammed both hands downward!
Under Li Xi's astonished gaze, Ye Li pinned both his arms precisely. The attack veered off course, missing his crotch by a mere half-inch.
"He blocked me again? How is that possible! Could this guy's reactions be faster than mine?"
The thought raced through Li Xi's mind, but in the middle of a fight, he couldn't spare the attention to consider it.
Instinctively, his arms flicked out like darting serpents, boneless and supple in midair. They traced two arcs, one high and one low, snapping toward Ye Li's left eye and throat.
The first would blind him; the second would kill him. Both were deadly attacks!
But Ye Li was ready. His arms were as solid as city walls, and he met the strikes with his hardest points: his elbows.
"Thump! Crack!"
Two sharp sounds rang out almost simultaneously!
The first was the dull impact of the collision!
The second was the faint crack of Li Xi's finger bones giving way beneath the tremendous force!
"Gah!"
Li Xi cried out in agony. Pain drilled through his ten fingers, and his attack crumbled instantly.
But how could Ye Li let this fleeting opportunity slip by?
His face was cold as a blade. His hands hooked around Li Xi's fractured wrists, then jerked them up and twisted!
"Crack!"
The sickening sound of bones wrenching out of place rang clear!
Ye Li twisted Li Xi's arms behind his back at a horribly contorted angle!
The agony made Li Xi's vision go black, and his body bent forward against his will.
"Kneel!"
Ye Li's low shout rang out like thunder!
He raised his left knee and drove it like a siege hammer into Li Xi's lower back, with the force of a thousand catties!
An irresistible force coursed through his entire body, as if molten iron had been poured over him.
"Thud!"
The overwhelming force pierced through him from top to bottom!
Li Xi's legs were struck as if by a heavy hammer. His knees groaned beneath the unbearable strain, and they could no longer support him. His legs buckled, and both knees slammed into the hard ground!
Humiliation!
What tormented him more than the pain was the humiliation of kneeling!
He, a heaven's favored son, had actually been beaten to his knees by a dirt-poor peasant!
He had been forced to kneel in humiliation before the very peasant he'd never even deigned to look at...
Before he could recover from the brutal reality, a fierce wrenching pain shot through his arms. Ye Li's right leg pressed down harder and harder.
"You... what are you doing?!"
Li Xi cried out in terror, but Ye Li couldn't be bothered to waste words on him. Gripping his arms, he drove his left leg forward.
"Crack—"
Amid an unbearable scream, Li Xi's arm joints were torn apart. His arms hung limp like those of a dead dog whose neck had been broken.
Only then did Ye Li finally relax.
In just a few short breaths, cold sweat had soaked his entire back.
After all, he'd spent more than twenty years living in the modern world and had never fought anyone like this. Even with the proper preparations, he still hadn't felt confident.
The gap between them in physical strength wasn't all that great, and Li Xi had pills to help him, martial arts training, and a trait that aided him in battle.
If Ye Li had focused only on improving his physical strength, he really might have ended up on the losing end.
His gaze fell on the panel:
Nine Chapters Fist Manual(3/500)
This was the martial art Instructor Feng had given him to pair with the Exceptional Cunning trait for combat. It contained a great many detailed moves.
Though he didn't have Exceptional Cunning,
he'd only practiced it carelessly twice, yet thanks to World-Shocking Wisdom, he'd committed every attack and killing move to memory. They were etched into his mind like instinct, impossible to forget.
His response had been crude and somewhat rushed, but his opponent wasn't some martial arts expert either.
A pair of smiling tigers, a pair of Black-Horned Sharks—they were a perfect match!
The moment Li Xi raised a hand, Ye Li had instinctively counterattacked.
His reactions were no worse than those of his opponent, who possessed a green trait.
Ye Li looked at the wrecked room, thought for a moment, then turned toward Li Xi's bed as Li Xi stared at him with wide eyes.
"This guy's a second-generation martial artist. I'll pick a couple of Body-Tempering Pills off his bed and try them."
"But I still need to think about how I'll handle things when the Law Enforcement Hall comes around."