The limits of the basic fist

Facing the spider silk attack, Lin Hao once again used the sliding step of the Mountain-Subduing Basic Fist.

His figure moved like wind skimming the ground. A half-step sidestep carried him clear of most of the silk coming straight at him.

He did not dodge the remaining three strands sealing off his escape routes. He raised his hand to meet them.

As his palm touched the silk, he used the basic fist's method of generating inch force. Twisting his wrist, he forcibly caught all three strands in his hand, then gave them a savage yank.

The other ends of the strands were still connected to Xia Zhi's fingertips. The tremendous force dragged her two stumbling steps forward, disbelief written all over her face.

Her compound eyes fixed on Lin Hao. "Impossible! Even a martial artist with a combat power of 2.4 couldn't catch my silk barehanded! How could you possibly do it?"

Lin Hao opened his hand, letting the silk fall from his palm, and scoffed. "The reason is simple. My combat power is 5.28."

5.28!

Xia Zhi froze in place, her pupils shrinking to pinpoints.

But after that moment of stunned silence, the shock on her face turned into greed-excited greed.

Her slender tongue, coated in thick saliva, licked the corner of her mouth. "Good. Very good. I've never tasted a human martial arts genius before. Today is the perfect chance to feast on some meat."

She turned toward a shadowy corner at the alley entrance. "Finished? If you have, stop hiding."

As her words fell, Su Xiaoran stepped out.

She held a dense mass of silk in her hands. At some point, she had sealed off the alley's exits, the tops of its walls, and even the space overhead with silk.

The two exchanged a glance, and their bodies began changing simultaneously.

Their sweet-looking human skins sloughed off like molted shells.

Beneath them, glossy black carapaces were revealed.

Their lower bodies became rounded spider abdomens, with eight barbed legs gripping the ground.

Their upper bodies still retained human outlines, but were covered in stiff bristles.

Recalling what he had learned from his textbooks, Lin Hao confirmed that the creatures before him were two Shadow Mimic Spiders.

They specialized in luring prey to their deaths through mimicry, moved quickly, and particularly liked hunting lone human martial artists in pairs.

"So what if your combat power is high?" Xia Zhi's voice brimmed with cruel amusement. "You're just a student whose hair hasn't even grown in yet. Have you ever killed a demonic beast? Have you ever seen a real fight to the death?

Today, we'll give you a good look at what real combat means!"

With that, the two Shadow Mimic Spiders moved at once.

Xia Zhi attacked head-on. Her eight legs kicked off the ground, launching her forward like a cannonball.

She spat dozens of strands of silk from her mouth in three layers, sealing off every space Lin Hao could dodge into as they shot straight for his vital points.

Meanwhile, Su Xiaoran swiftly slipped into the shadows at the corner. Her eight legs raced along the wall toward Lin Hao's blind spot.

Lin Hao steadied his breathing.

Although this was his first time facing a real battle.

He had known from his very first day of practicing martial arts that this day would come sooner or later.

With his limited repertoire, his feet remained in the stance of the Mountain-Subduing Basic Fist.

Facing the web rushing toward him, he used the Blocking Hand Form, holding both arms across his body.

His wrists rotated at a steady speed in the direction of the incoming silk, perfectly diverting all its force.

Using the momentum from that deflection, he sank his waist and hips and drove a Mountain-Breaking Thrust Punch straight at Xia Zhi's oncoming spider abdomen.

Before the wind of his punch reached her, Xia Zhi had already felt its ferocious force. Startled, she hurriedly twisted sideways and raised her two foremost legs to shield herself.

Crack!

A sharp snap rang out.

Those two legs were forcibly smashed apart by this utterly basic Mountain-Breaking Thrust Punch.

The searing pain drew a shrill screech from Xia Zhi.

She could not understand it. This Mountain-Subduing Basic Fist was so commonplace that even novice martial artists disdained spending much time practicing it.

How could it unleash such terrifying force?

Just then, Su Xiaoran moved in the shadows.

Taking advantage of the moment when Xia Zhi held Lin Hao's attention, she circled behind him.

Two legs tipped with venomous stingers shot straight for the vital point in Lin Hao's lower back.

But contrary to her expectations, it was as though Lin Hao had eyes in his back.

After acquiring ten years of experience battling demonic beasts on the border.

Combat had long since been etched into his muscle instincts.

He did not even need to turn his head to know the angle and force of the sneak attack, or the moves that would follow.

Without turning, he sank his center of gravity forward and used the Sinking Abyss Form of the Mountain-Subduing Basic Fist, his entire body seeming to nail itself to the ground.

His waist and hips twisted at an unbelievable angle, just barely avoiding the incoming stingers.

At the same time, his elbow drove backward, using the Mountain-Subduing Basic Fist's body-checking force to smash into Su Xiaoran's spider abdomen.

Thump!

A muffled impact rang out.

Lin Hao's strike did not look particularly powerful, yet it caved in Su Xiaoran's spider abdomen, sending green blood spraying.

Su Xiaoran's spider body flew backward and slammed heavily into the wall.

Xia Zhi's heart jolted at the sight, but she did not panic.

Her years of hunting experience allowed her to endure the agony of her broken legs and spew out a great cloud of poisonous mist the moment Lin Hao knocked Su Xiaoran away.

The poisonous mist immediately spread through the alley.

This venom, refined from her own blood, was an attack that consumed her life essence.

It carried a paralyzing effect.

One breath of the poisonous mist left Lin Hao dizzy, his fingertips tingling with numbness.

Even the qi and blood within his body grew somewhat sluggish.

Most troublesome of all, the poisonous mist obscured his vision.

And just then, countless strands of silk attacked from every direction.

Like a tightening net, they wound around his limbs, waist, and abdomen.

Immediately afterward, Xia Zhi emerged from the poisonous mist.

She raised her legs high, their deadly stingers aimed straight at the heart in Lin Hao's chest.

"So what if you're a genius? You're still going to die at the hands of us sisters!"

Just as the stingers were about to pierce Lin Hao's chest.

With his eyes closed and his breath held, Lin Hao moved.

Even with his sight obscured by poisonous mist, his limbs bound in silk, and venom racing through his meridians.

The instincts honed through ten years amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood on the border still allowed him to detect every point where force acted on the silk.

The inch force of the Mountain-Subduing Basic Fist erupted.

Following the strands of silk, he tightened his force.

Then the strength throughout his body erupted in sequence, following the basic fist's principles of generating force.

Snap! Snap! Snap...

A series of sharp snaps rang out as every strand of silk binding him broke apart.

At the same time, he unleashed a Mountain-Breaking Thrust Punch. Before the stingers could pierce his chest, it slammed into the junction between Xia Zhi's head and thorax.

That junction was a Shadow Mimic Spider's most vulnerable vital point.

"How... how is this possible? I... how could I die to the Mountain-Subduing... Mountain-Subduing Basic Fist, a student's martial skill..."

Shock and bewilderment filled Xia Zhi's face. Everything felt so unreal.

Yet the force of Lin Hao's punch had already penetrated her body.

It blasted the vital junction between her head and thorax to pieces.

Su Xiaoran, who had only just climbed back up from the wall, was nearly scared out of her soul when she saw her older sister killed with a single punch.

She turned and scrambled onto the web, trying to escape.

She felt that what she faced was no human student.

He was nothing less than a human god of slaughter who had fought countless years of war!

But how could Lin Hao possibly give her a chance to escape?