Superb adaptability to the dark world!

Bai Yushan displayed extraordinary talent for combat. Even though his fighting stance looked loose to Chen Qingquan, like the brawling of thugs in streets and alleyways, his combat talent was anything but ordinary.

His body moved as nimbly as a loach inside the octagonal cage. When the burly man's iron hammer came crashing down, he twisted aside, and the hammerhead brushed his clothes before smashing a crater into the ground. Seizing the opening, he closed in and drove his knee toward the man's abdomen. Electricity burst across his knee, and the man doubled over and staggered back two steps.

The burly man unleashed his Soul Skill. The yellow light on his iron hammer blazed, and the hammerhead swept across with afterimages trailing behind it.

Bai Yushan leaned backward. The hammerhead swept just above the tip of his nose, its fierce wind whipping his hair back. He planted both hands on the ground, flipped backward onto his feet, then immediately charged again.

The iron hammer came crashing down again. Bai Yushan neither dodged nor ducked, meeting it head-on with his electricity-wreathed right fist.

Boom!

Fist met hammer. Electricity collided with yellow Soul Power, sending light bursting in every direction.

Bai Yushan swayed, and so did the burly man. Both retreated at once, then charged at once.

Clang after clang rang out without pause, like iron being forged. Bai Yushan pounded the iron hammer with punch after punch, while the burly man swung it at him again and again. Every strike held their full strength, and every collision sent sparks flying.

The burly man's Soul Skill continued to work, making his iron hammer stronger and faster. Yet in Bai Yushan's eyes, his movements were as slow as a turtle's. Bai Yushan could clearly see the hammer's trajectory and anticipate every detail of where it would land, then choose the least strenuous way to block and the deadliest angle to counterattack.

He was using this man's iron hammer to grow accustomed to his own strength!

It was like a game, giving the man hope, yet always leaving him just that little bit short!

After several exchanges, the burly man's breathing grew heavier and his arms grew leaden. His Soul Power was draining rapidly, and the yellow light on the iron hammer began to dim. Meanwhile, Bai Yushan grew faster and faster, his electricity increasingly wild.

The burly man raised his iron hammer again and swung it at Bai Yushan with the last of his strength. This was his strongest strike, and his last. The hammerhead crashed down with a sound of rushing air, tearing through it with a piercing howl.

Bai Yushan did not meet it.

He slipped sideways. The hammer missed and smashed a large crater into the ground, scattering broken stones. Carried forward by his excessive force, the burly man stumbled a step, leaving his entire back exposed to Bai Yushan.

Bai Yushan clenched his right fist. All the electricity surged into it, and he drove a punch into the back of the man's head.

The burly man's eyes rolled back. His body pitched forward, and he landed face-first on the ground. The iron hammer rolled from his hand and struck the ground with a dull thud. He twitched twice and tried to get up, but his arms gave way after briefly propping him up.

Bai Yushan planted a foot on his head, grinding his face into the broken stones on the ground.

"All that struggling, and nothing but openings. I'm genuinely curious-what exactly made you think you had any right to stand here?"

Muffled, incoherent groans escaped the burly man's mouth. His fingers clawed at the ground twice, then he stopped moving altogether.

Bai Yushan raised his head and looked around.

The spectator stands were so silent that not even a crow or sparrow could be heard. Everyone was watching him, their excited, frenzied, sick expressions frozen on their faces like still photographs.

Bai Yushan waved toward those outside the cage.

"Send someone in! Send someone good!"

His voice echoed through the quiet octagonal cage, carrying provocation and madness.

Someone in the stands stood up, only to sit back down. Someone else took two steps forward, then retreated.

No one dared enter the ring. That two-meter-tall burly man, a Two-Ring Soul Grandmaster, had not lasted even ten exchanges against this six-year-old child. People like them, who did not even have a Soul Ring, would only be going to their deaths.

Chen Qingquan sat in his seat, watching the little boy in the black mask inside the octagonal cage, his mind in turmoil.

Never in his wildest dreams could he have imagined this. He had clearly intended to bring Bai Yushan here to see just how dark this so-called darkness could be.

He had wanted Bai Yushan to understand that his philosophy, his belief in strength alone, was wrong!

If this world had nothing but strength, it would bring only violence, desire, and depravity!

But what had reality turned out to be?

After glimpsing just the tip of the iceberg of this dark quagmire, Bai Yushan had leaped straight in with an unprecedentedly perfect dive, displaying extraordinary adaptability and even plunging all the way to the bottom!

Chen Qingquan closed his eyes.

He remembered Bai Yushan training on the field, remembered that child doing handstand push-ups, squats, and pull-ups beneath the blazing sun, electricity dancing over his body and sweat streaming down it.

That child never complained, never uttered a word about hardship. He simply repeated those movements again and again, like a machine that never stopped.

He remembered Bai Yushan in class, sleeping with his head on his desk, unable to muster interest in anything. But when he had asked the child why he trained so hard, the child had said something.

"Because I want to become stronger."

"And after you become stronger?"

"Once I'm stronger, I can do anything I want."

Chen Qingquan had thought nothing of it at the time, assuming it was only a child's joke. But now he understood that the child had been serious. He truly believed strength was everything, that with strength, he could do whatever he pleased.

And now, in this underground bare-knuckle arena, Bai Yushan was proving that very point.

He had defeated the burly man, and so no one in the stands dared mock him anymore. He had subdued everyone with strength, shutting the mouths of those who had just been clamoring to beat him to death.

Was this not precisely what strength brought?

Chen Qingquan gave a bitter smile.

He had wanted Bai Yushan to see darkness, but what Bai Yushan saw was not how frightening darkness was, but how controllable it was. He had discovered the rules of the dark world and adapted to them faster than anyone else.

No one cared about Chen Qingquan.

Those who came here were either desperate outlaws who had drifted into the area or sailors who had arrived aboard cargo ships after being cooped up at sea for months.

This place harbored filth and sheltered corruption, reeked of foul smoke and miasma, and encompassed every ugliness. They worshipped violence, pursued desire, and yearned to sink into depravity.

They did not care who Chen Qingquan was, did not care about his reasoning, and did not care what he wanted to teach that child. They cared only about the little boy in the octagonal cage, only about whether he could bring them more thrilling fights.

Bai Yushan stood in the octagonal cage, electricity beginning to dance over his body.

Blue-white arcs sprang from his skin and roamed all over his body, crackling and snapping. His hair stood on end, his eyes beneath the mask shone like two stars, and his lips spread into a crazed grin.

Under the unseen disturbances of the magnetic field and Bai Yushan's incitement, the entire crowd began to grow feverish.

Someone stood up, waving his arms and shouting, "Send someone in! Send someone in!"

A second person stood and joined the shouting. A third, a fourth-more and more people rose to their feet. Their voices merged into a torrent that echoed throughout the underground bare-knuckle arena.