Chapter 56: Breakthrough Before the Fight
At the proctor’s signal from the sidelines, Yang Shen forced himself to focus.
This was a test, after all.
Winning was impossible, but he had to display his best form...
Perhaps it was Huo Jun’s slightly unhinged smile, but instead of being intimidated, Yang Shen’s mind grew a little calmer.
With a determined look, he assumed his stance. "Huo, if you would."
He’d thought a True Gang expert like Huo Jun would let him make the first, probing move. Instead, Huo Jun grinned, flashing a set of steel-like teeth. "Then I won’t hold back!"
With that, he shot forward!
If "soaring over" was a figure of speech for a low-level Martial Artist, for a True Gang Realm expert, it was a literal description.
Huo Jun’s feet barely skimmed the ground. Propelled by his Gang Qi, he shot forward like an arrow loosed from a bow!
Although Yang Shen didn’t have a deep understanding of realms above Innate, this couldn’t be the display of someone who had "just entered the True Gang Realm."
A wild smile on his face, Huo Jun swept a powerful whip kick toward him.
In that split second, Yang Shen saw that Huo Jun wasn’t completely insane. He wasn’t actually using the full power of the True Gang Realm to make a student explode with a single kick.
Yang Shen had no doubt that if his opponent got serious, someone at the Bone Training Realm would instantly become a firework of flesh and blood.
So, Yang Shen attempted a block and was sent sliding several meters sideways.
’So strong. A complete overpowering force... But he’s clearly holding back. He didn’t use Gang Qi, either. That rush was just to create pressure!’
’At least this Madman remembers it’s an exam. His theatrics are just terrifying...’
His fists moved faster than his mind. The instinct of the Rising Sun Fist Intent drove Yang Shen to counterattack, surging forward to sweep the leg Huo Jun was balancing on in a Golden Chicken Standalone.
But Huo Jun clearly anticipated his move. His right leg stomped down violently.
’No good... A direct block will shatter my leg.’
With a loud BANG, the ground where Huo Jun stomped cracked apart!
Yang Shen’s eyelid twitched, but his movements were swift. He coiled his body as he twisted.
Reducing his moment of inertia, he conserved angular momentum and instantly doubled the speed of his spin.
Then, a spinning back elbow! Powered by physics, Martial Arts, and Cultivation!
A hybrid damage strike! Its power far exceeded what someone at the mid-stage of Bone Training should possess.
Moreover, his response was both agile and ingenious!
Yet Huo Jun caught the elbow firmly with one hand.
"Good! But not good enough!"
Gripping Yang Shen’s elbow like a steel vise, Huo Jun threw a sharp knee strike. Yang Shen barely managed to block it with both hands.
Within a hair’s breadth of each other, they exchanged a flurry of dazzling punches and kicks. In the blink of an eye, over a dozen moves had passed.
Amazingly, they had moved no more than three meters in total from their starting positions.
The proctor watched, his scalp tingling. Forget the power difference; just the sheer density of their exchange, a seamless flurry of attacks and counters...
It felt like if you tossed in a bag of flour, it would come out the other side as a handful of noodles.
The pressure and danger were palpable!
He hurried to check that the high-speed camera was working properly. It would be impossible to grade this if it wasn’t filmed.
Yang Shen was under immense pressure. He found that no matter how hard he fought, Huo Jun would simply raise his own level to match.
That was to be expected. The man was a grandmaster with reserves as deep as an abyss.
’But, man! This is a test!’
Yang Shen thought Huo Jun would settle at a certain level just to gauge his performance, but instead, Huo Jun kept raising the stakes, on and on, without end.
Even if Liu Yuankui himself were here, he’d have to say, ’There’s a limit to a joke!’
Two minutes later, Yang Shen realized a grim problem.
Given their current high-frequency, close-quarters combat, if he were to pull back or fail to keep up with Huo Jun...
...he would likely be seriously injured!
Huo Jun chuckled. "Yang, your focus is wavering. Looks like the pressure isn’t enough. You still have time to think about other things?"
As he spoke, his speed increased another notch.
’This Madman!’ Yang Shen cursed internally.
He had already pushed his skills and the Rising Sun Fist Intent to their absolute limit. He felt that even Xu Bamboo wouldn’t have been able to last this long against Huo Jun.
But Huo Jun just kept gradually increasing the pressure!
Gradually, even his successful blocks were met with piercing pain. The thought of backing down began to sprout in his mind.
’In a fight I know I can’t win, maybe it’s better to just take a hit and be done with it.’
’How bad could the injury be? It’s not like he’ll kill me, right?’
Huo Jun’s eyes seemed to pierce right through to Yang Shen’s thoughts, or perhaps he sensed it in the hesitation of his Fist Technique.
"Yang, you still don’t get it..."
His face, covered in graying stubble, suddenly shot out from between the flurry of limbs, almost nose-to-nose with Yang Shen. "Think that just because this is a test, no one can die?"
Yang Shen faltered. His technique fell into disarray, and he instantly took several hits. Sharp pain shot through him.
Even with only one hand, Huo Jun was more than he could handle! They were separated by three whole major realms!
Yang Shen’s heart sank to the depths.
Huo Jun continued, "Think you’re young? That I wouldn’t dare to strike a killing blow?"
The already terrifying fists grew even more powerful. Yang Shen could still keep up, but the pain was beginning to interfere with his movements.
"Think you can just run away? That since you know you’re no match for me, there’s no point in persisting."
An opening appeared in Yang Shen’s defense. An iron fist grazed him. He hadn’t dodged it completely, and it sliced open the corner of his brow.
"Yang, you dare to kill, but is it only because you think you yourself can’t be killed?!"
"Show me some of that courage you had back then!"
With a sudden, heavy kick, Yang Shen was sent flying backward, his feet gouging two long furrows in the ground.
And with that, their close-quarters battle came to an end.
Huo Jun stood his ground, not giving chase. He just watched Yang Shen coldly. "I’ll give you a choice now. You can run. Treat this as nothing more than a monthly exam."
"Or, you can treat it as a stepping stone for your own advancement. The choice is yours."
Yang Shen gasped for breath. The boundary line of the test area was right behind his heels. All he had to do was take half a step back...
...and the suffocating pressure would end.
’It’s just a test. Why get so worked up?’
’Every organ in my body is screaming in pain!’
’After those hundreds of exchanges just now, my score can’t be low...’
Yang Shen suddenly understood what this guy was trying to do. This Madman wasn’t satisfied with the current state of Martial Arts Education.
He felt that the current approach—saddling students with debt, letting them suffer countless injuries, and depriving them of sleep—was still far too gentle.
He wanted him to transcend the mindset of "grades," "college exams," and "being a student," and instead face this with the pure mentality of a Martial Artist.
A student faces only grades and scores, but a Martial Artist does not.
The thing was, if it were anyone else pulling this stunt, Yang Shen would’ve told them to shove it. But with a Madman like Huo Jun, he didn’t dare take the risk.
’Maybe if I back down, it’ll all be over for today...’
’But this Madman is going to be my gym teacher for the next two months! He’ll make my life a living hell!’
The proctor on the sidelines spoke up. "Yang, you can call a stop. You’ll still get a score—a very high one."
Yang Shen touched the blood at the corner of his brow, watching the red smear across his fingertip.
He took a deep breath, his gaze turning cold and hard. "No. I haven’t lost yet."
One cultivates the Immortal Dao to seek eternal life.
One forges the body through Martial Arts to be hailed a hero.
Why can’t one be both an immortal and a hero?
But no matter which path Yang Shen walked, "struggle" was the underlying theme. The Qi Cultivation Guiding Technique itself said that even Cultivation was a struggle against the heavens for the Dao!
Huo Jun might be a madman, but he was right about one thing.
A mentality of "A high score is good enough" or "Just passing is a victory" was not something a Cultivator, a Martial Artist, or any young person should be satisfied with.
A young man needs spirit. A Cultivator needs spirit. A Martial Artist needs spirit.
Yang Shen took these three spirits into himself. Amidst the searing pain, the young man assumed his opening stance once more.
"Yang Shen of the Jianghuai Yang Family. I ask for your guidance."
Even a clay doll has a spark of anger! To say nothing of the future lord of the Immortal Race!
A student might only want a grade.
But he, Yang Shen, wanted more!
Huo Jun laughed. "Not bad! The Jianghuai Yang Family? I’ll remember that! Come!"
Yang Shen attacked, his speed exploding to its absolute limit.
A long stride to strike the heart! A sinking elbow to crush the throat! A cross-step to lock the knee!
A piercing fist to shatter the jaw! A back press to break the arm! A twisting wrist to snap the collarbone!
More extreme than before. Swifter than before.
Yang Shen no longer thought about "performing for a grade," or "when this would end." He even stopped thinking about the gap in power between him and Huo Jun.
He had only one thought: Fight!
The muffled thuds of their exchange echoed across the entire field.
Huo Jun continued to increase the pressure, releasing his power bit by bit, only to soon discover that Yang Shen’s rate of improvement was even faster than his own!
A gratified smile spread across the Madman’s face.
"Yes! That’s it! That’s it!"
Unbeknownst to him, a warmth began to slowly rise from within Yang Shen’s body.
It was the Rising Sun Fist Intent, and it was the young man’s will to fight.
His Qi and Blood Value—the "source" material compacted within his limbs and bones—was being mobilized bit by bit. It was as if it wanted to help him, struggling to break free from its cocoon.
The situation in testing area four had attracted a lot of attention. After all, every other area looked normal, while here, the two of them looked like they were fighting in a bizarre, triple-speed video, dazzling all who watched.
Many students who had finished their own exams began to gather and watch.
"What’s going on? Did two of the proctors start fighting?"
"What are you talking about? One of them is a student!"
"Holy crap, who’s that badass? Is it the top student, Xu Bamboo?"
"Dude... if you can’t see, just get glasses. It’s not embarrassing. Can you not even tell a guy from a girl?"
At the edge of the field, Director Liang raised his head and looked over.
He seemed to sense something familiar...
Yang Shen seemed to have entered a state of extreme focus, a state of no-self. He kept pace with Huo Jun’s speed and matched his gradually increasing pressure.
Until, at a certain moment, he realized that Huo Jun’s incremental increases in power—like squeezing out toothpaste—could no longer keep up with his own rate of improvement.
It wasn’t that he was stronger than Huo Jun, but that his progress had surpassed Huo Jun’s predictions.
Finally, after a certain exchange, Yang Shen’s fist became a claw, tightly gripping Huo Jun’s right hand—the only one he was using.
With lightning-fast reflexes, he seized the fleeting opening and shot his left fist toward his opponent’s face.
If this punch landed, it would be the first and only time he had landed a clean hit on his opponent during the entire battle.
In the next moment, however, an inexplicable resistance wrapped around Yang Shen’s fist.
VMMM~!
The heavy blow stopped dead in mid-air, as if it had hit a wall of air!
His mind blank, Yang Shen tried to change his attack, only to find his entire body bound... unable to move an inch.
Gang Qi!
He immediately began to struggle, but Huo Jun stepped back, leaving Yang Shen frozen in place.
The Madman touched his own cheek, as if a faint warmth lingered there, even though Yang Shen’s fist hadn’t made contact.
Huo Jun paused for a moment, then smiled with satisfaction. "Excellent! Forcing me to use my Gang Qi to defend—you should be proud of that."
"If we were to continue, I’m afraid I might lose control and actually kill a promising seedling like you."
Yang Shen frowned slightly, trying to determine if it was a trick.
But Huo Jun pointed to Yang Shen’s hand. "Can you feel it? Is there anything different about your fist?"
Only then did Yang Shen shift his focus... and look at the surface of his fist.
He could see faint wisps of steam rising from it...
His fist was burning, scalding hot!
It was as if a flame lay hidden within, waiting to rise...
"Source" and Spiritual Qi are fundamentally the same. On the Cultivation Side, it is manipulated through countless wondrous Immortal Techniques, but within the body of a Martial Artist, it is not nearly as active or nimble.
But it’s not impossible.
The Rising Sun will inevitably rise, firm and unstoppable.
In the heat of this battle, Yang Shen’s Fist Intent had actually transformed!
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