paranoianovel Chapter 71 Street Fighting
Chapter 71 Street Fighting
"Congratulations, you have successfully passed the test."
"That kid Quan Feng also knocked on the door last night."
"Eternal night has fallen, and our power has greatly increased."
Lin Mu bowed to Zhao Hu and looked up at the sky.
A sliver of bluish-gray had already appeared on the eastern horizon, and the morning light slanted in from the moon gate.
"Is it about to start at the training ground?"
"That's right, today's competition is the round of 30 to 16."
Lin Mu nodded and strode out of the Zhao family's backyard.
As soon as the sun climbed over the city wall crenellations, the drill ground was already packed with people.
There were even more townspeople watching today than on the first day. It was hard to even find a place to stand on the earthen slope. Taking advantage of the situation, Old Wang, who sells sesame cakes, added two more steamers to his donkey cart.
When Lin Mu entered the training ground, it was already teeming with people.
Quan Feng was already standing on the east side of the arena.
White robe, ponytail, and still holding half a foxtail grass in her mouth.
He saw Lin Mu walk onto the stage, spit the foxtail grass on the ground, and slightly raise the corner of his mouth.
"You've reached the Transformation Realm?"
"Um."
"That's fair." Quan Feng drew the short sword from his waist, twirled it between his fingers, and the blade gleamed coldly white in the morning light.
The referee waved.
The two moved at the same time.
Zhenshan Fist versus Changfeng Fist, Bengjin versus Chuantianjin, the two fists collided in mid-air with a muffled sound like a drumbeat.
Two shallow pits were simultaneously blasted open on the rammed earth ground beneath their feet, sending debris flying everywhere.
Quan Feng lowered his body and thrust his left fist out from under his ribs, the explosive force building up layer by layer, each punch heavier than the last.
Lin Mu dodged to the side, his palm slicing diagonally across Quan Feng's fist, deflecting the force of the attack slightly.
At the same time, he sensed a slight deformation of the airflow three inches behind him and struck back with his left elbow, deflecting Quan Feng's punch that came from behind.
The two exchanged blows on the ring, the muffled thuds of their fists and feet colliding as dense as a downpour hitting a tin roof.
Even in the thirtieth round, Quan Feng still had that lazy smile on his lips.
In the fiftieth round, that smile disappeared at some point.
By the seventieth round, his breathing had become erratic, and sweat was streaming down his ponytail.
Lin Mu's chest was also heaving violently, and he had consumed more than half of his vital energy.
The two men slowed down their punches and kicks, but each punch still carried the unique heaviness of neutralizing internal energy.
In the eightieth round, Quan Feng punched Lin Mu in the chest, but suddenly changed direction midway, turning the punch into a slash, heading straight for the Jianjing acupoint.
Lin Mu was hit instantly and flew out of the field like a kite with a broken string.
"Quan Fengsheng."
Quan Feng leaped a few times and arrived beside Lin Mu: "Why didn't you use your full strength?"
As he brushed past me, he lowered his voice and said, "We'll fight again tomorrow. I am Black Impermanence."
Quan Feng raised an eyebrow slightly.
In another performance in the afternoon, Lin Mu returned to the stage wearing the Black Impermanence mask.
His opponent was a rogue cultivator from another town, skilled in internal energy cultivation, and he was defeated after only a dozen or so moves.
Black Impermanence successfully advanced to the top 16.
Tomorrow is the round of 16, a chaotic battle to reach the quarterfinals.
......
As evening fell, Lin Mu swaggered out of the inner city gate.
Instead of walking back to the main street closest to the courtyard, he deliberately took a detour through a gloomy alleyway rarely visited by people.
The alley was narrow, with old, abandoned houses on both sides. The walls were covered with withered vines, and the bluestone slabs underfoot were pitted and uneven from the rain.
The night wind blew in from the alley entrance, making the withered vines rustle.
He stopped in the middle of the alley, the moonlight casting a long shadow on the uneven stone slabs, like a drawn sword.
"Come out."
A white figure emerged silently from the shadows at the alley entrance.
Yan Hua's expression was as cold as iron, and his powerful aura made the air slightly stagnant, causing the withered vines on the wall to tremble.
"They're quite bold, knowing they're being followed yet still daring to walk through alleys."
Yan Hua slammed his left foot into the ground, his body shooting into the narrow alley like an arrow, his right palm aimed straight for Lin Mu's throat.
The edge of his palm was wrapped in a transformative force, and a sharp whistling sound exploded in the air.
Lin Mu dodged to the side, and the force of the attack struck Yan Hua's wrist. The two forces clashed in mid-air, causing the withered vines on the alley wall to shatter.
His mental energy filled a foot of space around him, allowing him to anticipate and detect every palm strike Yan Hua made.
The fist precedes the intention, and the fist precedes the intention. It is no longer the crushing force of neutral force against hidden force, but a head-on collision between two neutral force martial artists.
The bluestone slabs in the narrow alley were cracked inch by inch by the force of the two people's feet, and the old lime on the walls of the abandoned house was shaken down by the air blast, flying like snow in the moonlight.
The two fought evenly, with neither able to gain the upper hand.
It wasn't until the twentieth round that Yan Hua suddenly changed his tactics.
His arms jerked, and extremely fine and dense dark gold patterns suddenly appeared on his entire right arm.
Each line, like a living snake, meandered down his skin, from his wrist to his shoulder, then climbed up his spine, finally condensing into nine tiny, dark gold dots at the back of his neck, forming a circle of nine totems.
His speed and power more than doubled in that instant. When his right fist was thrown out, the dark gold patterns on his fist shone brightly, and a sharp sonic boom exploded in the air.
Lin Mu didn't hesitate and met the attack with a punch.
The two fists collided, and he was so shaken that he staggered back seven steps, his heel smashing through an abandoned stone pillar at the end of the alley.
Yan Hua gave him no chance to breathe, his figure closing in like a shadow, his dark gold fists raining down like a storm.
Every punch that landed on his body left a tearing wound.
Moments later, blood began to trickle from the corner of his mouth.
He no longer held back, meeting Yan Hua's dark gold fist head-on with a punch of his own.
The two fists collided.
The dark gold patterns and golden fist energy exploded into a visible ripple, shattering all the dilapidated windows of the abandoned houses on both sides of the alley. Wood chips flew like snow in the moonlight.
Yan Hua's bloodline power dimmed suddenly under the impact of the fist, and nine dark golden light spots flickered violently at the back of his neck.
He was blasted away, his back slamming into the alley wall, leaving a dent in the brick surface.
He looked down at his bleeding fist, then looked up at Lin Mu, and the murderous intent in his eyes suddenly froze.
He discovered that his prey had suddenly grown fangs.
Lin Mu didn't give him time to react.
Before he could catch his breath, I stepped forward, raised my right leg, thrust my hip forward, and launched my calf out – Whip Kick: Wild Dance.
Leg shadows rained down on Yan Hua like a storm, each kick heavier and more ferocious than the last, each kick carrying a spiraling explosive force.
Yan Hua convulsed violently in the shadow of the legs, blood gushing from his mouth and nose, and dark golden patterns flashing wildly beneath his skin.
The great demon bloodline was fighting desperately, but the force of the punch had already shattered his meridians and foundation, and the bloodline's regenerative ability could not keep up with the speed at which the injury was spreading.
His struggles grew weaker and weaker until he finally lay motionless in the pile of broken bricks.
Lin Mu stepped on his cervical spine, shoving his head deep into the broken bricks.
The alleyway quieted down.
Lin Mu stopped and looked down at Yan Hua—his white clothes were soaked in blood, his face was buried in the broken bricks, and the nine dark gold patterns on the back of his neck had all gone out. He looked as if all his life had been drained away.
He moved silently with his swift steps, and his figure quickly disappeared at the alley entrance.
On the blood-stained bluestone slab, a white-clad, mangled body lay silently amidst the rubble.
At first, there was only the sound of the wind.
Then, a very faint, fine dark gold pattern on the chest of the mutilated body suddenly lit up, like a candle flame bent by the wind, flickering crookedly before going out.
Then it flashed again, this time brighter than before, the lines climbing from the chest to the neck, and the second line began to shimmer as well.
Article 3.
Article 4.
......
The nine dark gold lines that had been extinguished lit up again, their flashing increasing in speed and density.
The last nine dark golden lights suddenly reignited on the back of his neck, circling around like nine cold, eerie snake eyes opening simultaneously in the darkness.