Deadly Acupoint Striking

"Hold him down!"

Seeing Ye Chen struggle without stop, his body twisting violently as his hands and feet thrashed desperately, Saint Adams, who held a branding iron, impatiently ordered the people beside him.

Everyone piled on, forcefully pinning Ye Chen down. Ye Chen cried out like a madman, "No! I'm terrified of pain!"

Saint Adams was immensely pleased with himself and sneered disdainfully. "Heh heh... Ghost, it's useless even if you scream yourself hoarse. Just accept your fate."

"All right, then I won't scream."

Yet Ye Chen suddenly blurted out those words, catching all the Dragon People in the room off guard. Even Saint Adams froze.

Everyone stared at Ye Chen in disbelief. Even those holding Hancock down turned to look at him.

Tears streamed from Hancock's eyes. Even if she died, she would rather die than have that slave mark, one that could never be erased for the rest of her life, branded onto her body.

No normal person would say something like that.

Ye Chen should have struggled desperately and screamed his lungs out. After all, that was a red-hot branding iron.

But just as the branding iron was about to be pressed onto him, Ye Chen suddenly became eerily calm, because he had already thought of a solution.

Acupoint striking. Ye Chen had practiced Acupoint Striking in Freezing Hell before. He had always worried that the guards were too formidable for him to handle, but just now, he had reviewed every martial art he knew in his mind. The only method that could work and catch them off guard was Acupoint Striking!

To strike acupoints, he had to catch them by surprise!

"Ghost, what did you just say?"

Saint Adams felt that he must have misheard. After all, no normal person should have said such a thing. At a time like this, Ye Chen's calmness only made the Dragon People find him even more unbelievable, so he asked again.

"All right, then I won't scream!" Ye Chen said again calmly, smiling as he looked at the branding iron still glowing red in Saint Adams's hand.

Silence. A ghostly silence filled the entire torture chamber.

Other than Ye Chen, who could sense the aura of some beast beyond the stone wall, there was no sound at all. Everyone had even stopped breathing.

Saint Adams stared blankly at Ye Chen with wide eyes, as though he had seen a ghost. They had tortured countless slaves, too many to number.

Yet not one of them had been like Ye Chen—first screaming in terror, then suddenly becoming so calm and composed, as if someone else, not Ye Chen, was about to be branded with the hot iron.

"Hey, you dropped your branding iron!" Seeing Saint Adams's wrist trembling, Ye Chen teased him with a grin.

Saint Adams subconsciously looked down. The branding iron was still in his hand, though his wrist truly was trembling. He wanted to calm himself, but Ye Chen's behavior made it impossible for him to settle down.

In the instant everyone was distracted, Ye Chen's right hand suddenly broke free. He flicked it toward Saint Adams. The attack came so suddenly that the Dragon People restraining Ye Chen had no chance to react. Saint Adams could not dodge in time and only felt his wrist jerk violently. The red-hot branding iron slipped from his hand and landed squarely on the top of his foot.

Sizzle... The top of Saint Adams's foot was instantly charred black.

With that single hit, Saint Charles let out a miserable howl and sprang up from the ground. The top of his entire right foot was mangled and bloody, green smoke sizzling from it, with even stark white bone exposed. The gruesome sight left the surrounding Dragon People stunned.

In truth, it had all happened in an instant. From Ye Chen speaking, to striking, to the branding iron falling onto Saint Adams's foot, it had taken no more than the blink of an eye.

Everyone in the room was stunned, unable even to understand what had happened. Once all eyes were drawn to Saint Adams, Ye Chen vaulted to the floor in a fish leap. Then, with a tap of his toes, he pounced on the two guards like a gale.

The two Dragon guards were the strongest fighters in the room. If he did not deal with them first, then once they came to their senses, Ye Chen would be the one in trouble.

Ye Chen struck with lightning speed and ruthless force. Reaching the two men, he concentrated his strength at his fingertips and fiercely struck their Yintang and temple acupoints. The two stood motionless as though frozen by a spell, then collapsed weakly in pain. Worried that they might shout and raise the alarm, Ye Chen struck their mute acupoints again.

After taking care of the two guards, Ye Chen turned and charged at the Dragon People who were still standing there dumbfounded, like a tiger entering a flock of sheep.

The kind of Acupoint Striking in martial arts stories that left people unable to move did not actually exist. Chinese martial arts were vast and profound, and the most formidable among them were Shaolin's Seventy-Two Supreme Arts. Shaolin's Acupoint Striking techniques were further divided into eleven stunning acupoints, one crippling acupoint, and six fatal acupoints. Ultimately, they involved making the body's meridians suddenly endure several times their normal limit of force, obstructing the circulation of blood and energy or even collapsing the meridians, temporarily or permanently robbing a person of the ability to fight back. This allowed one to subdue an enemy instantly and achieve victory by surprise.

Acupoint Striking required not only a thorough knowledge of the body's acupoints, but also steady, precise, and ruthless strikes that left opponents unable to guard against them, ensuring every blow hit its mark.

Acupoint Striking could be performed with fingers or through other means, such as fists, elbows, knees, or weapons. Ye Chen had not yet mastered it, but he had already figured out the body's main acupoints. Combined with the Eagle Claw Technique he had trained arduously for several months, his finger strength was exceptionally fierce. Dealing with these Dragon People took almost no effort at all.

If he could not strike accurately, could he not still cripple them? That was Ye Chen's approach.

The temples, Yintang, the glabella, and the Xin Jing acupoint were all critical fatal points. As long as he struck them with all his strength, he was bound to achieve remarkable results. Ye Chen did not bother with restraint. Even if he crippled or killed someone, he did not care.

Other than Saint Adams, who was still rolling on the ground and howling, everyone else was subdued by Ye Chen in no time. However, his strikes were too heavy, and his technique was unrefined. Some had fainted, while others lay sprawled on the ground. The two strongest guards, for example, had taken vicious blows to their temples and twitched nonstop like two heaps of mud, suffering pain worse than death. When they looked at Ye Chen, their eyes held shock and fury—but above all, fear.

Yet no matter how they opened their mouths, their lips merely moved mechanically. Not a single word came out.

Hearing the screams coming from the torture chamber, the guards in the corridor did not grow suspicious. Instead, they laughed smugly. "See? No matter who goes in there, they all end up like this. What wonderfully pleasant sounds."

"Exactly! They're screaming their hearts out. It's downright soothing to hear. I bet I can drink a few more ounces tonight. Huh? Why hasn't that girl screamed yet?"

One of the guards muttered in confusion, but as soon as he finished speaking, Hancock's scream drifted out as well.