Wolf Fang Wind, Still Water Without Waves!

Thunderous cheers echoed throughout the entire martial arts tournament arena.

Under the spotlights, two men stood at opposite ends of the ring.

Yamcha wore a fitted martial arts outfit, his expression grave.

He took a deep breath, calming the excitement and tension in his heart.

The man opposite him, Lin Xuan, still looked utterly unconcerned, as though he had not come to compete, but merely to take a stroll.

But Yamcha did not dare underestimate him in the slightest.

Those two strange victories in the preliminaries had already left a deep impression on Yamcha.

"Mr. Lin Xuan!"

Yamcha gave Lin Xuan a solemn bow, his voice ringing loud and clear.

"Thank you for your guidance before. It is my honor to face you in the ring today! I will give it my all and seek your instruction in the martial arts!"

The heartfelt respect in his words took the audience by surprise.

Master Roshi, seated among the contestants, stroked his white beard and nodded approvingly.

"This kid Yamcha has a good temperament."

Lin Xuan merely looked at him calmly and gave a slight nod in response.

"The match begins!"

At the announcer's command, Yamcha's aura changed.

He hesitated no longer, lowering his stance slightly as he assumed the opening posture of the Wolf Fang Fist.

"Oh! Contestant Yamcha has taken the opening stance of his signature technique—the Wolf Fang Fist!" the announcer cried excitedly.

The moment he finished speaking, Yamcha vanished from where he stood.

The next second, he became a blurred shadow and appeared before Lin Xuan in an instant.

"Take this! Wolf Fang Fist!"

With a loud shout, Yamcha's hands turned into countless white afterimages, engulfing Lin Xuan from every direction.

Every strike carried a piercing whistle through the air. The force of his fists was so fierce that even the air at the edge of the ring seemed to distort.

Fast!

Too fast!

The audience could see only a dazzling blur of white fist shadows. They could not tell which were real and which were fake.

"So strong! Is this the power of the Desert Lone Wolf?"

"That speed... you can't even see it!"

"How is Lin Xuan supposed to dodge? He's completely surrounded!"

Even Son Goku, seated among the contestants, could not help widening his eyes, his face brimming with excitement. "What fast punches! Yamcha's gotten so much stronger than before!"

Krillin's palms were slick with sweat. He felt that if he were standing in that ring, he would not be able to withstand that technique.

Yet Lin Xuan, at the center of the attack, made a move that no one could understand.

He did not move.

He did not even raise his hands, which remained clasped behind his back.

Only when the dense barrage was about to strike him did his body begin to sway gently, with the smallest of movements.

He shifted half an inch to the left, and one of Yamcha's claw strikes brushed past his ribs.

His shoulder dipped slightly, and several fist shadows howled past his ears.

With a light tap of his toe, he drifted backward less than three feet, neatly evading Yamcha's following sweep kick.

A very strange scene unfolded in the ring.

Yamcha's attacks came wave after wave, full of force and momentum, drawing constant cheers from the crowd.

Yet Lin Xuan never moved beyond a three-foot radius around himself. Every dodge was perfectly timed, as though he was not avoiding Yamcha at all, but Yamcha's fists were actively going around him.

His relaxed demeanor stood in stark contrast to Yamcha's ferocious, all-out assault.

The atmosphere in the arena gradually shifted from cheers for Yamcha into an eerie silence.

Everyone was dumbfounded.

If once was a coincidence and twice was luck, then how could one explain dozens—hundreds—of perfect evasions?

"H-how is he doing that?"

"Yamcha's fists always seem to miss him by just a tiny bit!"

"This guy... is he toying with Yamcha?"

On the ring, no one understood that terrifying feeling better than Yamcha himself.

Every punch he threw contained all his strength, every angle carefully calculated.

But no matter how he sped up or changed his moves, his opponent always stayed half a step ahead, appearing where his attacks could not reach.

He felt like a fool. No matter how hard he tried, he could only hit empty air.

That sense of helplessness left him feeling deeply stifled.

"Something's not right..."

In the contestants' area, Master Roshi stared intently through his sunglasses at every subtle movement Lin Xuan made. The approval on his face had turned into extreme shock.

"Sir, what's wrong? Lin Xuan is incredible!" Krillin exclaimed beside him.

Master Roshi did not answer. His throat had gone dry, and his heart was filled with shock.

Outsiders watched the spectacle; experts saw the craft.

Others only saw Lin Xuan dodging, but he understood.

That was not dodging!

He was guiding and neutralizing!

Every sidestep and every retreat Lin Xuan made carried an invisible, exquisitely controlled force.

That force would precisely deflect the wind from Yamcha's punches, causing the attacks that followed to deviate ever so slightly.

The faster Yamcha moved and the harder he struck, the more that deviation was amplified.

His own strength and speed were clashing against each other!

As a result, every one of his attacks was actually consuming far more stamina!

Using the opponent's own strength to defeat them!

What an unfathomably profound realm of martial arts!

This had already transcended mere techniques—it was the embodiment of the martial way!

Master Roshi felt as though his centuries of martial arts knowledge were being shattered bit by bit before this young man.

"Pant... pant..."

On the arena stage, Yamcha's movements finally began to slow.

Sweat covered his forehead, his breathing grew ragged, and his lightning-fast fists now showed obvious pauses.

His body felt as heavy as lead, and his stamina was draining far too unnaturally.

An opening appeared.

It was the instant after he threw a straight punch, when his old force had just been spent and his new force had yet to arise.

Lin Xuan, who had been passively evading and guiding him all this time, finally made his move.

He did not launch any fierce counterattack.

He merely stepped forward. His figure flashed, and he slipped inside Yamcha's guard.

Then, with two fingers held like a sword, he lightly tapped the wrist of Yamcha's extended fist.

The movement was very light.

Tap.

A soft sound rang out.

Yamcha only felt his wrist go numb. A strange vibration raced up his arm and spread through his entire body in an instant.

The punch he had thrown with all his strength had its force completely scattered by that single tap.

His balance was utterly broken.

Yamcha staggered back two steps, his face full of disbelief.

He looked down at the hand that was still trembling faintly, then raised his head to look at Lin Xuan, who had withdrawn his fingers and remained as calm as ever.

The enormous gap in strength lay before him.

He had lost.

Completely and utterly.

After a brief daze, Yamcha's face showed no dejection or unwillingness.

Instead, there was the clarity of sudden understanding and reverence for a higher realm.

"Go with the flow... use force to counter force!"

He muttered to himself, finally understanding the meaning of those words.

He gave Lin Xuan a smile of wholehearted admiration, then turned and leaped cleanly off the arena.

"I concede!"

Standing below the stage, he bowed deeply once more to Lin Xuan above.

"Thank you for your guidance, Mr. Lin Xuan!"

This string of actions left both the referee and the host staring in stunned silence.

The entire audience erupted into an uproar. They had yet to recover from that miraculous dodge when the battle had already ended.

"Uh... contestant Yamcha has voluntarily jumped off the ring and conceded... so... the winner of this match is—Lin Xuan!"

The referee stood there in a daze for a long while before finally raising Lin Xuan's arm high.

After a brief silence, thunderous applause and cheers erupted throughout the arena.

Though many people had not understood what had happened, that did not stop them from paying tribute to the thrilling duel.

Lin Xuan calmly walked off the ring and returned to the contestants' area.

Son Goku and Krillin immediately gathered around him, their faces full of excitement and admiration.

Just then, the host's voice rang out across the arena once more, drawing everyone's attention.

"Thank you to both contestants for that wonderful match! Next up is the second match of our semifinals!"

"This will be a battle between fellow disciples!"

"The competitors are—disciples of the Turtle School! Son Goku—versus—Krillin!"