Practical Combat and Superpowers (Please Recommend)

"I felt your spirit..."

Faced with such an opponent, Fang Xing could not help but express his respect. Then he brought his five fingers together, his body bending like a bow, and leaped forward in a single step, crossing several meters to seize the position Phoenix was about to reach. "But if spirit were useful, what would we need matter for?"

Boom!

A thunderous blast rang through the air.

Bow Stance Cannon Fist!

A Cannon Blast Worth Ten Thousand Gold!

The moment Fang Xing became even slightly serious, Phoenix was sent flying back even faster than she had come.

This time, she flew straight off the arena, hit the ground, and fainted.

"Damn, Fang Xing from Class Two isn't human! He actually knocked Phoenix unconscious..."

"I'll remember you. See you in the arena!"

As a pretty girl, Phoenix had no shortage of admirers, and an uproar immediately broke out.

Fang Xing had never cared about the buzzing of such flies.

Hmph. If I hadn't won so cleanly, with her personality and her habit of desperately forcing out a victory even at the cost of injuring herself, she would only have lost worse and been hurt more badly...

He snorted inwardly and stepped down from the arena.

At that moment, even louder cries of alarm came from the neighboring arena.

"So brutal!"

"This... Skin Refinement at its peak? And not ordinary oxhide, either—it's a Copper Skin Martial Artist?"

"That's Cole from Class Two, right? Class Two is seriously lucky, producing one martial arts powerhouse after another!"

"Hm?"

Fang Xing walked toward the neighboring arena and saw Cole roaring with his fists raised. At his feet lay a classmate who had collapsed unconscious.

The student looked utterly miserable, as though he had been run over head-on by a steamroller.

From the conversations around him, Fang Xing learned that during the previous match, Cole had displayed terrifying strength. No matter how his opponent struck him, he remained completely unmoved.

Such defense was absolutely Skin Refinement at its peak, and not ordinary oxhide at that!

Even more frightening was that, after gaining an overwhelming advantage, Cole had been exceptionally ruthless!

"Roar! Roar!"

Cole raised his fists and bellowed like a wild beast.

His slightly bloodshot gaze shifted to Fang Xing. He immediately gave a savage grin and made a throat-slitting gesture.

He's really... arrogant.

Fang Xing folded his arms, his expression icy, utterly unaffected by the provocation.

After all, to Fang Xing, Cole was no different from an ant by the roadside.

People did not get angry with ants. They simply crushed them without a thought!

His second opponent soon arrived: his classmate, Qian Xun.

Qian Xun wore Practice Clothes and still had that pumpkin-head appearance. "Fang, please go easy on me!"

She clearly knew how highly Xia Long regarded Fang Xing, and she also knew she was no match for him.

Even so, she still wanted to challenge her own limits.

"Please!"

Fang Xing raised a hand slightly. Qian Xun leaped into the air, her legs lashing out in succession—it was the Twin Serpent Leg from the Military Body Boxing Twelve Forms!

He merely shifted his hands slightly, spread his palms, and caught her by the ankles.

With a small exertion of force, he tossed Qian Xun off the arena.

"You..."

Qian Xun's face flushed slightly, followed by unconcealed astonishment. "You've reached the peak of Skin Refinement?"

Only defense at that level could take her move so effortlessly.

"Even that idiot Cole has reached the peak of Skin Refinement. Isn't it normal for me to reach this level?"

Fang Xing answered with a smile.

"Then you probably don't know that Cole's family took out loans just to support his martial arts training..."

Qian Xun got up, dusted herself off, and replied with a smile.

"Don't tell me his mother quit her job to take care of him full-time at home, and they also took out a loan to buy a house..."

Fang Xing's expression immediately turned somewhat strange.

Those two things, coupled with crazily investing in a child's upbringing, had definitely been the three great middle-income traps in his previous life.

"How could that be? Louise had originally been a full-time housewife, but later Cole's martial arts expenses became too great, so she had no choice but to go out and find work..."

Qian Xun clearly had not caught Fang Xing's joke and answered seriously.

"That's truly regrettable."

Fang Xing shook his head, but then a voice reached his ears, and his expression immediately changed.

"Ring No. 9, Liu Wei versus Cole!"

"Hm?"

He hurried to the edge of the ring and saw Liu Wei step up. Across from him stood Cole, wearing only a tight vest and looking far more muscular.

"Liu Wei... perfect. You're Fang Xing's best friend, right?"

Cole unhurriedly clenched his fists. His bones ground together with a piercing crack. "Perfect. I'll take you out first, then go kill him!"

"A Xing really was far too merciful not to cripple you back then..."

A chill flashed through Liu Wei's eyes.

"Ahem... you two students may begin."

The teacher in charge of the ring coughed twice speechlessly.

They were only High School Students, yet every one of them talked bigger than the last, constantly shouting about killing and beating people to death. Did they think the martial arts teachers were invisible?

He knew that momentum was important in a martial artist's match, but they still needed to know when to stop.

"Die!"

Cole charged forward like a tank, like a crazed brown bear.

Judging from his footwork and punches, he had clearly learned another fighting technique. His style was completely different from before—vicious beyond belief!

Combined with his perfected Skin Refinement realm, he could absolutely contend for the position of top First Year High School student at Yucai High School!

"Hm? This Cole is pretty good!"

One of the martial arts teachers adjusted his Glasses. "Perfected Skin Refinement, and he's even learned the Black Serpent Fighting Technique. In previous years, he would have been a sure bet for first place in practical combat."

"Hmph..."

Xia Long's ears twitched as he caught the faint conversation from far away. He said disdainfully, "As far as I know, Cole took Black Mamba Serum. This drug may not be classified as contraband, but it's close enough... Looks like his coach is a short-sighted fool too, only focusing on short-term progress while ignoring his future potential and development..."

As the two teachers spoke, on the ring—

Liu Wei had already met Cole head-on. Both of them drew their arms back and threw punches at the same time!

The skin on Cole's fist was rough, faintly tinged blue-black, like an iron hammer.

Before the fist even arrived, the force of the punch was already ferocious.

Liu Wei likewise brought his five fingers together and threw a punch!

But as he swung it out, the muscles in his right arm seemed to come alive, writhing and swelling madly...

Bang!

A thunderous crash rang out!

Cole screamed. His right arm had shattered into several sections!

Not only that, but his entire body flew backward like a cannonball, blasted straight off the ring.

"Hm?"

Even Fang Xing was somewhat surprised by the sight. "Liu Wei actually defeated Cole?"

Although they had not been in much contact recently, the progress Liu Wei had made was simply terrifying.

Whoosh!

Several figures arrived around the ring at speeds too fast for the naked eye to follow, checking Cole's injuries.

"His arm is broken, and so are his ribs... It's a serious injury, but it can be treated."

A female teacher examined Cole's injuries and spoke.

Xia Long stared at the living, writhing muscles on Liu Wei's right arm, his eyes shining slightly. "An Ability User? Liu Wei... you awakened an ability?"

"Yes, a strength-type ability—Activated Muscle!"

Liu Wei answered frankly.

"Not bad. Although this ability has limited potential, it allows you to unleash most of your body's strength... Besides that, it also gives you a huge advantage in refining your skin and flesh. Looking at your realm, you should be close to perfected Skin Refinement, right?"

Xia Long did not hold back his praise. "Work hard... At last, there's a student in my class with hope of getting into university."

Clearly, in Xia Long's eyes, Fang Xing, who had been hiding his abilities until now, might not yet have met that standard.

But Liu Wei, who had awakened the Activated Muscle ability, had reached it!

"Please rest assured, Teacher. I'll work hard."

Liu Wei had become much more composed. He slowly stepped down from the ring, seeming to glance in Fang Xing's direction.

"That idiot Cole... He said he was going to teach me a lesson, but he got eliminated first."

Fang Xing grumbled, then looked toward his next opponent—Ouyang Qianqian.

By an unfortunate coincidence, he had drawn another classmate in the third round, continuing the internal battle.

"Fang, please guide me!"

Ouyang Qianqian was in excellent spirits, clearly having gone through a period of intense training. When she attacked, her Flying Orchid Finger was dense and unending, carrying an added yielding force. She had improved greatly since last time.

"Ouyang, you've improved a lot..."

Fang Xing sighed, directly dropping his defense and taking all eighteen strikes of her finger force head-on.

Clang! Clang!

The finger force, enough to split tendons and dislocate bones, landed on him only to be blocked by an incomparably resilient layer of strength.

Fang Xing felt as though someone were giving him a massage. The places touched by her fingers tingled numbly and were actually rather comfortable.

Hm? Is this another special effect of Jade Skin? Dissipating force?

Generally speaking, if it had been Oxhide or Copper Skin, although he could still have taken Ouyang Qianqian's finger force head-on, he would inevitably have suffered some penetrating damage and recoil.

But Fang Xing merely felt the skin where he had been struck tremble slightly, dispersing the originally highly concentrated finger force.

Ouyang Qianqian unleashed her killing move, yet it achieved nothing. She looked at Fang Xing as though he were a monster. "I've already worked this hard, but I never expected the distance between us to keep growing..."

Her heart darkened somewhat.

Whether it was Fang Xing or Liu Wei, both had made leaps in their martial progress at speeds beyond her imagination!

Compared to them, she, a Natural Human by birth, felt like complete trash!

"I concede!"

Ouyang Qianqian raised her hand to signal the referee teacher, then looked at Fang Xing. "I'll definitely surpass you."