Fist Like the Wind

"Tang Yu! Brother Tang, please spare me! I can give you lots and lots of money—one million! Ten million! As long as you let me go, I promise I won't trouble you again. I'll give you as much money as you want!"

Zhou Kang knelt on the ground, endlessly kowtowing and begging for forgiveness, hoping Tang Yu would spare his life.

Bang!

Tang Yu raised his hand and struck him dead with a single palm. The smile vanished from his face. "Choose a better life in your next reincarnation."

Tang Yu did not even need to dispose of the body. The wolves, jackals, tigers, and leopards in the mountains had long been waiting after catching the scent of blood. Only Tang Yu's overwhelming killing intent had kept them from approaching. Once he left, they would tear the corpse apart and devour it. As Zhou Kang's body collapsed to the ground, a yellowed ancient manual slipped from his clothes. Four bold, powerful characters were written across it: Great Collapse Fist. The strokes were forceful and imposing, striking fear into one's heart at a glance; it was clearly the work of a master. Tang Yu did not open it, simply putting it away before continuing forward.

He sprinted for more than a hundred kilometers in a row. Along the way, he encountered several ferocious mutant beasts, but none were particularly formidable. Tang Yu could not be bothered with them and simply dashed past. Gradually, the trees in the forest became sparser, yet they grew even taller, often reaching fifty or sixty meters and blotting out the sky. It was impossible to tell whether the day was clear or overcast.

Suddenly, his wrist vibrated. Tang Yu stopped, and a voice sounded in his mind. "Where are you? Why can't I locate you?"

The wristbands could be used to locate one another. Finding familiar people would make survival easier. This wristband was clearly a product of cutting-edge technology; it could actually transmit voices directly into one's mind through radio waves. It was simply incredible.

With a thought, Tang Yu sent Meng Xuanxuan a message as well, telling her that there had been no signal where he had been earlier. He did not say anything else.

When he checked their locations, he found that they were more than three hundred kilometers apart. Meng Xuanxuan was at his seven o'clock direction, and Tang Yu immediately headed that way.

"Xia Linlin, what are you doing here?" Meng Xuanxuan frowned when she saw Xia Linlin suddenly appear before her, clearly displeased.

Upon hearing Meng Xuanxuan's words, Xia Linlin showed no expression. She merely gave her a cool glance. "I really don't know what's so good about you that Tang Yu actually likes you."

Back then, she had chased after Tang Yu, yet she still had not managed to get together with him. Meanwhile, Meng Xuanxuan had publicly announced at the academy that Tang Yu was her boyfriend, and Tang Yu had not denied it. How could Xia Linlin possibly accept that?

Xia Linlin was confident that she was no worse than Meng Xuanxuan in any respect, so why had the outcome been completely different? How could Xia Linlin know that Meng Xuanxuan had only managed to win Tang Yu over by taking advantage of the fact that he had seen her naked? The thought alone made her deeply uncomfortable.

"Hmph! Of course he wouldn't like a woman as vicious as you!" Meng Xuanxuan snorted.

"Don't think I won't dare kill you just because you're the young miss of Dream Domain Network!" Xia Linlin narrowed her phoenix eyes. Her voice was cold, but her words brimmed with chilling killing intent. Even from more than ten meters away, Meng Xuanxuan could not help shuddering. Just how many people had she killed to cultivate such terrifying killing intent?

Hearing Xia Linlin's words, Meng Xuanxuan's temper flared. She had been pampered since childhood; how could she tolerate such words? She was about to explode when an inexplicable smile suddenly rose at the corner of her lips.

"Xia Linlin, do you want to know why Tang Yu agreed to become my boyfriend?"

Sure enough, upon hearing this, Xia Linlin's willow-leaf brows nearly drew together. She said nothing and simply waited for Meng Xuanxuan to continue.

"Because you provoked him. Otherwise, with that blockhead of his, what do you think would have happened?"

Swish!

Before Meng Xuanxuan had even finished speaking, Xia Linlin somehow drew a flexible sword. Its blade was three feet three inches long and two fingers wide, thin as a cicada's wing and incomparably light. Yet its edge gleamed with cold light, made all the more chilling by the dappled sunlight filtering through the treetops.

The distance of more than ten meters vanished in an instant, leaving no time to dodge. Just as the sword was about to pierce Meng Xuanxuan, a furious shout rang out.

"Stop!"

Tang Yu had rushed nonstop toward Meng Xuanxuan's location. From far away, he had seen her talking with another woman. As he drew near, he saw Xia Linlin thrust her weapon at Meng Xuanxuan.

At Tang Yu's furious shout, Xia Linlin forcibly stopped herself. The tension in Meng Xuanxuan's heart finally eased. In truth, even if Xia Linlin's sword had truly struck, Meng Xuanxuan was certain she would have been unharmed. But since it had not fallen, there was no need to waste that item.

Xia Linlin's gaze had always been like autumn water, still and without ripples. Yet when she turned to look at Tang Yu, a trace of complicated emotion flashed across her face. Their relationship had already grown distant, and after what had happened today, Xia Linlin knew that even being friends in the future would be impossible.

"Miss Xia certainly has impressive methods, bringing a weapon in here," Tang Yu said as he walked to Meng Xuanxuan's side. Once he confirmed she was unharmed, his gaze settled on Xia Linlin.

He had never expected Xia Linlin to attack Meng Xuanxuan. After witnessing that scene, the last trace of goodwill he had held toward Xia Linlin vanished completely.

"Tang Yu, you know I couldn't hurt Meng—"

"So what? You still attacked her, didn't you?" Xia Linlin wanted to explain, but Tang Yu cut her off directly.

"Are you still holding a grudge over what happened before? Tang Yu, I had reasons I couldn't speak of!" Rarely, a pleading look appeared on Xia Linlin's face, but Tang Yu did not see it.

"Xuanxuan, let's go!"

"Mm!" Meng Xuanxuan turned back and glanced at Xia Linlin, giving her a victorious smile before linking her arm through Tang Yu's. Together, they disappeared from Xia Linlin's sight.

Watching the two leave, Xia Linlin flicked the ancient sword in her hand. It instantly coiled around her waist.

So much had happened in just two days. Tang Yu had thought the days ahead would be even more thrilling, but it seemed he had been wrong. Nothing major happened during the remaining thirteen days. He and Meng Xuanxuan safely endured until the end of military training. During that time, they also found Mu Xueyuan and Lu Xiaoqian. On the second-to-last day, Fang Zheng found Tang Yu as well.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh...

Gales howled past their ears. All the students had lined up in order and boarded one after another, with Tang Yu and the others following. The scenery outside the cabin shifted rapidly, and within an hour, they had arrived at the central plaza of the Asian Military Academy. Below them was a dense sea of people.

Meng Xuanxuan had originally wanted to take Tang Yu back to Mars to meet her father, but Tang Yu refused. There was still some time before summer vacation ended, and he intended to use it to properly absorb the combat experience he had accumulated.

Lincheng Estate, Number Twenty-One. In Tang Yu's training room, he held the Great Collapse Fist manual in his hands. Merely looking at the four vigorous, dragon-like characters—Great Collapse Fist—was enough to stir the soul.

He definitely needed to study this martial arts manual carefully. Its two core techniques, the Collapse technique and the Ruin technique, were exceptionally profound. They were supreme arts comprehended by an ancestor of the Zhou Family during the Great Cataclysm, based on the cycles of life and death among Earth's creatures in that era. Both the circulation of force and the conversion of primal energy within them were exceedingly intricate.

As he continued reading, it seemed that a martial artist at an extremely high level of Divine Transformation had infused the manual with their spiritual power and supreme martial will. At first glance, Tang Yu's mind drew inward, his spiritual power and willpower becoming incomparably focused. Gradually, he felt as if his consciousness had been drawn into the yellowed book, roaming through a world of martial arts.

Stars fell, suns were born and died, and all living things lived and perished... Suddenly, the blurry scenes began to sharpen. Volcanoes erupted, earthquakes and tsunamis raged, and everywhere was an apocalyptic sight. At that moment, two characters appeared in Tang Yu's mind: Collapse and Ruin. Like imprints of memory, they were deeply branded into his soul.

In a daze, the two characters transformed into two figures that began exchanging moves. Every strike and stance was exquisitely profound. With casual gestures, the figure formed from the Collapse technique caused volcanoes to cave in and floodwaters to break apart. When the figure formed from the Ruin technique made a move, vegetation withered and flourished, while living creatures were devastated. The two figures seemed born solely for destruction—to destroy all things, shatter all things, ruin all things.

At last, the two figures transformed back into the characters Collapse and Ruin, sinking into the depths of Tang Yu's brow and circling the black crystal.

All kinds of insights flowed through his heart. Suddenly, Tang Yu stood up. Even when the manual slipped from his hand, he did not react. He threw a punch, drawing in the air as currents swirled around his fist with a whooshing sound. It was as though a fierce wind had suddenly risen within the training room.

This was the kind of momentum only an expert with a gene count close to three hundred could create, yet Tang Yu had achieved it with a gene count of only one hundred and fifty.

Once one's gene count exceeded three hundred, it would no longer be as simple as generating fist wind and stirring the air. A gene count above three hundred greatly improved the body's functions, allowing a person to enter a semi-fasting state where going ten days or even half a month without food or water would not matter. With a single punch, they could directly produce an explosive airburst. Tang Yu had not yet reached that realm, but even so, now that he could generate fist wind and stir the air currents, he feared no expert with combat power below three thousand.