novelraw Chapter 3 : Chapter 3
Chapter 3 : Chapter 3
Chapter 3: Oh-ho, Fooled You, Moron!
Li Mu did not answer Li Xiaohong.
Instead, he turned his attention to the fight in the arena.
Sun Long's A-rank talent, "Flame Fan," could produce blazing fire in a fan-shaped area in front of him during close combat.
Its power and range would increase along with his cultivation.
On top of that, it gave him special bonuses when cultivating fire-element internal arts and techniques.
By the later stages, every punch and kick could turn into a sea of fire. It was a terrifying talent.
Although that sparring partner only had a C-rank talent, he was quite skilled in defensive techniques.
Since he did not dare fight back, he could only use Golden Bell Shield as passive defense.
The Golden Bell Shield was heavy and steady, blocking every one of Sun Long's attacks.
Sun Long threw out more than a dozen punches with a clang-clang-clang, yet he still could not break through the continuously reinforced Golden Bell Shield.
His brows immediately drew together in a deep frown.
He could not even break a shield. That was far too humiliating.
So he suddenly sank his stance and gathered his qi, drawing back his right fist like a fully bent bow.
The sparring partner immediately shouted, "Stop!"
The surrounding students watching the fight instantly erupted into chaos.
One after another, they cursed Sun Long for being despicable!
This move, "Armor-Breaking Collapse Punch," was extremely destructive, but in a fast-paced fight it was very difficult to land.
That was because Armor-Breaking Collapse Punch required a specific posture to generate force, and it needed time to charge up.
That was basically the same as forcing yourself into a brief opening. Your opponent would have countless ways to counterattack you.
The other guy was only here as your sparring partner, yet you were actually taking advantage of the fact that he did not dare strike back and using a move like this!
Utterly shameless!
But it was already too late. Sun Long threw a full-power punch, and the Golden Bell Shield shattered on impact.
The sparring partner was swallowed by the flaming force and sent flying backward with a blast.
Amid his screams, he rolled across the ground, smothering the flames on his body, while several students rushed over and beat at him with their clothes a few times to help put out the fire.
By the time someone helped the sparring partner back to his feet, his clothes had been burned through in several places, more than half his hair was gone, and he looked utterly miserable.
Sun Long felt immensely pleased. Tilting his head back, he rolled his neck, looking completely refreshed.
Li Xiaohong stepped forward and said in a mocking tone, "Abyss monsters are not going to stop just because you ask them to."
The sparring partner clenched his fists abruptly, but in the end, he could only swallow the humiliation.
Li Mu sighed inwardly.
This high-martial world truly was cruel.
The gap in status between the strong and the weak was so clear, so natural.
At that moment, Sun Long, who was still rolling his neck, noticed Li Mu.
His eyes lit up at once.
He pointed at Li Mu. "Li Mu."
The one Sun Long wanted to beat most was Li Mu.
Because back when he used to bully those poor students, Li Mu had even warned him before.
Now I am A-rank, while you are F-rank, and you have even been kicked out of the Li family.
Let's see how arrogant you can be now.
"Get over there!" Li Xiaohong barked from the side.
Li Mu was very obedient. First, he walked toward the weapon rack.
Everyone thought he was going to choose a weapon, and they were all rather surprised.
"What is he doing? Is he actually taking a weapon?"
"Has he still not realized his role as a punching bag?"
"Li Mu, do not lose your head. If you just take the beating obediently, it might be lighter. If you resist, you will be seriously injured!"
But Li Mu did not take a weapon. Instead, he picked up a large broom from the edge of the rack.
He pulled a bamboo strip out of it.
He stripped off the twigs and leaves, then gave it a light flick. It sliced through the air with a shrill whistle.
Sun Long merely let out a sneer. He did not care in the slightest whether Li Mu took a weapon or not.
For martial artists, a weapon depended on compatibility with their talent.
A talent like his "Flame Fan" did not work with weapons. At the same time, he disdained using weapons anyway.
Li Mu had already returned to the arena with the bamboo strip in hand.
While choosing the strip just now, Li Mu had already added 50 Triumph Points to Divine Weapon Art.
【Divine Weapon Art: Grants weight to a weapon. Current weight: 50 jin.】
The fifty jin added by Divine Weapon Art was the art's weight, not the weapon's own original weight.
So no matter what weapon Li Mu used, as long as he used Divine Weapon Art, he could give it weight.
Li Mu weighed it in his hand.
Although Li Mu now had Yellow Rank First Grade cultivation,
and fifty jin was something he could lift,
he still could not casually swing it around as a weapon with ease.
It was somewhat strenuous.
So Li Mu did not hesitate for a second and spent 30 Triumph Points to learn "Mountain-Bearing Art."
【Mountain-Bearing Art: Increases strength by one tiger and three oxen.】
There was also a line of sixteen smaller characters after it:
Ten oxen equal one tiger, ten tigers equal one dragon.
Bear mountains and overturn seas, turn heaven and earth upside down!
The moment the strength of one tiger and three oxen entered his body,
Li Mu had only two words for the feeling:
Absolutely terrifying!
In the past, Li Mu had only ever heard the saying that overwhelming strength could crush ten techniques.
At this moment, Li Mu truly experienced it for himself.
He felt as though explosive power filled every inch of his body.
Forget beating Sun Long senseless.
If he could grab Sun Long by the legs, Li Mu felt he could tear him in half!
Before he had even settled his stance, Sun Long had already rushed at him impatiently.
Ever since his father had died, Li Mu had never been well-treated by the Li family.
So naturally, he had never had access to any decent techniques.
Even the internal art known as the root of all martial artists had only been an ordinary basic internal art.
Now, although the Heavenly Immortal Art had replaced his internal art,
Li Mu still had to rely on his other existing techniques.
He activated his movement technique, Nine Steps of Earthwalking, and gave only the slightest shift.
At the very instant he moved, the bamboo strip in his hand lashed out toward Sun Long's wrist.
The fifty jin of Divine Weapon Art had already been attached to the bamboo strip.
Sun Long's fist brushed past Li Mu's chest.
Then, in the very next moment, his wrist felt as though it had been smashed by a heavy hammer. The pain made him cry out miserably.
He staggered back two steps and looked down at his wrist, only to see a bloody welt there, already darkening into bruised purple and swelling at once.
Li Mu, meanwhile, was inwardly amazed. Using techniques now truly was different.
With the Heavenly Immortal Art circulating through his entire body, his broadened meridians let true qi flow smoothly and without obstruction, advancing and withdrawing entirely at will.
Every technique he used carried a natural, seamless feeling!
And his understanding of this technique had reached an outrageous level, as though he were some ancient monster who had studied it for forty or fifty years.
"You dare hurt me?!"
Sun Long's eyes nearly split apart in fury as he forced those words through clenched teeth.
An A-rank talent holder was destined for an extraordinary future.
If you offended someone like that, then someday, when he came after an ordinary martial artist like you, you would not even know how you died.
The people who came here as sparring partners were not only unable to beat him. More importantly, they did not dare lay a hand on him.
"Oh, I dare very much."
Li Mu grinned. Wind rose beneath his feet as the bamboo strip in his hand came whistling toward Sun Long.
This time, it was aimed at his face!
Smack!
With a crisp crack, a bright red welt instantly appeared across Sun Long's face.
With fifty jin behind it, even though Sun Long had superior techniques reinforcing his body, he still felt his brain jolt faintly...
The entire arena fell into dead silence!
Sun Long was shaking with rage. He viciously jerked his head, reached up to touch the bloody welt on his face, and was just about to roar—
Smack! Smack! Smack!
Li Mu's bamboo strip lashed across Sun Long's face like a raging storm, beating all that fury right back down his throat.
Sun Long did not even have time to curse anymore. He threw out wild punches to block and lunged at Li Mu like a mad dog.
Li Mu pushed Nine Steps of Earthwalking to its limit, weaving and dodging within a tiny space as though strolling through a garden.
Yet every strike of the bamboo strip in his hand landed precisely on Sun Long's face.
The students watching all around them exploded.
"Holy hell, Mu is incredible! What kind of heavenly movement technique is that? It is like an old man toying with a child!"
"Why does it look like Nine Steps of Earthwalking to me?"
"Earthwalking my ass. Can your Nine Steps of Earthwalking counterattack the instant you dodge? Which teacher taught you that?"
"Exactly. When I use Nine Steps of Earthwalking, most of my true qi gathers in my lower body. I cannot attack at all!"
"Even though Li Mu had his S-rank talent stolen, he has always been a top student in technique class."
"Looks like he is done putting up with the Li family now."
"When enough is enough, there is no need to endure anymore! Beat the hell out of him! Beautifully done!"
The students gradually grew excited.
Li Mu, meanwhile, felt more and more at home.
The reason Nine Steps of Earthwalking was considered a low-level movement technique was precisely because it gathered qi in the lower body, making it hard to gather qi for offense at the same time.
But after his meridians had been transformed by the Heavenly Immortal Art, they were astonishingly broad, and his qi moved through them freely.
Moreover, he seemed to have gained a deeper understanding of Nine Steps of Earthwalking.
He was no longer restricted by that limitation at all!
An ordinary, low-grade movement technique had been used by Li Mu to an exquisite, almost perfect degree, nimble beyond compare!
Sun Long had become a living target for Li Mu to test his new techniques on.
Not a single strike missed Sun Long's face. Li Mu whipped him until there was hardly a patch of intact flesh left on it!
His entire face had swollen to twice its size, all of it bruised blue and purple!
Li Mu was careful not to slam the weight directly into Sun Long's head too much, lest he knock him unconscious. If that happened, the fun would be over.
"Li Mu! Stop! Stand there and do not move!!"
Li Xiaohong suddenly exploded with a shrill scream!
Watching Sun Long get toyed with by Li Mu like a beaten dog, Li Xiaohong had finally snapped back to her senses.
Pointing at Li Mu, she issued her ultimate command.
The moment she shouted that sentence, all the surrounding students felt a chill run through their hearts!
A bitter, miserable chill!
What did she mean?
Stand there and do not move? In other words, let your boyfriend land a punch to vent his anger?
On what grounds!
Just because your Li family has power?
Even someone stronger than you is not allowed to fight back and must stand there to be hit by you?
Why?!
Yet under the shocked gazes of the students, Li Mu really did stop all of a sudden.
By now, Sun Long no longer cared whether it made him look pathetic for relying on a woman. He had already gone mad with rage!
He had thrown more than a hundred punches and had not even brushed the corner of Li Mu's clothes once.
Humiliation. A colossal humiliation.
All he wanted was to land one solid punch on Li Mu, no matter the consequences!
So the moment Li Mu stood still, Sun Long dropped his stance again, sank his elbow, and drew back his right fist like a fully bent bow.
Armor-Breaking Collapse Punch!
Li Mu made no move to defend at all. If that punch landed, he would definitely be seriously injured.
Sun Long roared as he threw the punch, but Li Mu's sneer rang out in front of him.
"Fooled you, idiot!"
Li Mu suddenly sidestepped, dodging the attack again!
At the same time, the bamboo strip in his hand was infused with an extremely terrifying burst of energy. Spinning once through the air, he swung it in a full arc toward Sun Long's face!