Chapter 198: Brewing Storm XIV
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
"Jie expert!" a shriek escaped from one of the handsome fighters at the seat, shattering the dead silent of the spectator area.
Jie expert, the advanced form of the one in combats, possesses a kind of unique ability, like that attack from Rui Bing on Ye Chong back then, where he could feel being constricted by something. That was none other than a type of pressure exerted on his mentality, his body was as sound as one could imagine.
Jie experts were uncommon. And according to records, their abilities were even more uncommon, bizarre one could comment as.
Jie expert? Jie expert! They really exist! Every fighter on the ground stood up. Ever since the fall of their era, Jie expert had become the myth of their field. One mere fighter from a mere dojo could never have a chance to see a Jie expert in his or her entire life, although most likely they were just unaware of their existence. The population of Jie experts was far more motivating than they imagined. It was not surprising since this was an era where pilots flew in flocks on their mechs at the sky. The number had grown scarce, especially when their martial art techniques could be put hardly in other purposes than fighting itself. In the end martial arts practitioners would only be the bodyguards of some public figures. Moreover, these experts were isolated by nature, they would hide their abilities from people. So folks like spectators there might spend their entire life of not seeing the true practitioner like the Jie expert.
A battle between the Jie experts was already not something common one could see even during the prime time of martial artists. Such occasion on the stage currently was something once a hundred years probably.
The right palm of Zuo Ling transformed into a peculiar dark green which began spreading to his arms at a discernible rate.
Lan Yixing lowered his legs, squatted slightly, with his eyes on Zuo Ling.
He screamed! The air vibrated in waves, rolling over the surrounding. The definition of the cameras was great enough to capture the details of the waves.
The practitioners in their helmet were breathing in fear for one scream from a Jie expert could be this earth shattering.
The folks on the spectator’s area was stupefied as if they were viewing an action film made out of CGI.
Ye Chong’s pupils shrunk drastically, as his eyes could discern that wriggling movement of Lan Yixing’s muscles on his thigh even underneath the tightened pants.
Lan Yixing’s legs charged up.
W-
It’s too fast! It was astonishing even for a running man like Ye Chong as he realized with his speed he could at most touch the afterimages of Lan Yixing.
Lan Yixing launched himself like a cannonball and came before Zuo Ling in split seconds. That dark greenness of his palm had only grown over his elbow.
One violent punch! No technique, merely strength and velocity, coming from Lan Yixing under that enlarged arm of his wobbling vigorously. Ye Chong wondered if he could even take that punch in whole piece.
Zuo Ling clearly did not reckon such velocity from a middle aged man like Lan Yixing.
In panic his right palm slashed nothing as his body backed off swiftly.
Clink! A sound of hitting the metal resounded in the place, in the heart of the people.
Zuo Ling clumsily backed off. His face completely drained. That punch did not land with no harm. Ye Chong was in disbelief however, as that very punch Lan Yixing had pulled, judging by its impulsive force, could shatter even a door of titanium, let alone a fleshy arm. But… But Zuo Ling’s right arm was still intact. Ye Chong raised his brows.
Lan Yixing did not perform his next move immediately as he stood still before Zuo Ling, staring at that greenish right arm of his, "So this is one of the techniques your family has developed from Lan family’s muscle control I supposed. Such a shame that your family had never obtained the complete text, what they have speculated was a total mess."
His voice trailed off as he jumped forward, although he did not reuse that peculiar technique of his just now. Ye Chong supposed that technique to be rather consuming to Lan Yixing.
Well, the master was in fact a master, afterall. He did a few normal moves, of masterly execution. Every move was performed flawlessly on spot, with that muscles of his waving in minuscule scope. Producing an explosive strength even on the micro level, it wowed Ye Chong.
Zuo Ling only regained his consciousness by then. He wielded that eerie looking arm of his glowing in dark green, the left arm at his back to be ready for any cheating move coming from the back. His style was as hard as Lan Yixing, as his knuckle was launched. The exchange of fists and kicks started once more, a satisfying sight to the practitioners on their seat. Those advanced practitioners however were in worry as the competition had become a competition of blood in their eyes. They feared the match would not end till one of them had their blood spilling on the ground and collapsed. If there was casualty right on the first day of the tournament, the tournament would be impacted negatively.
Hua Tiankai got up from his seat first off. Being the host of the tournament this time, he shall never allow casualty to happen. He walked to Rui Bing, who felt his movement from the back as she sprang up from her seat upon realizing it was her uncle.
"Bing my girl, they are going to hurt themselves if this goes on. I want them to stop the match right now, but I think they would not be convinced so easily, so I would like you to give this uncle of yours a little help," stated Hua Tiankai.
"Okay," she nodded her head.
"Hey, Sister Bing…" Wei Yuan snugged upon her at the side, "Tag me along." Of course he would not miss the opportunity to watch the martial arts exchange in closeup, especially when he could watch his runner-up idol, Sister Bing (of course the first would be always YC) in action. He would kill just to get there.
The field had transformed into something else right at the moment.
Lan Yixing’s knuckles had the velocity increased strenuously, that it felt like a carbon copy of his ultimate before, only it behaved more partially and abruptly in silence.
The afterimages, in Ye Chong’s eyes, had reappeared. He anticipated the acceleration this time. As he was watching the match from a unique angle, he could clearly discern the fists of Lan Yixing, which the bundles of muscles squirmed like a group of snakes on his shoulder, all towards his arm. They squirmed so quickly that it felt like speed of lightning compared to the obvious charging-up action Lan Yixing performed before.
The fist directly hit on Zuo Ling’s chest as he failed to dodge. Crack. Ye Chong could hear the bones breaking.
The applause at the spectator’s area had transfigured into uncontrollable shrieks of fear. Right when they assumed Zuo Ling to be a gone case of the match, that left arm hidden behind his back finally came into action. That hammer-fist Lan Yixing landed on his chest, his eyes lustered as his chest softened dramatically like bog. Lan Yixing was confused by that sensation, it was as if he was smashing on a knead of dough.
Lan Yixing’s punch was still mightier, even if Zuo Ling had relaxed his muscles significantly. He whimpered in pain as he held his left arm wrapped upon Lan Yixing’s right hand like a strap of vines.
Such reflexivity. He broke the laws of anatomy and had somehow transformed into a mollusk.
The green color on his face flashed as his left arm of constriction also turned as dark green as the right arm. Snap! The right hand of Lan Yixing had been distorted. Ye Chong who knew something about the human anatomy could tell, the bones underneath the bundles of his muscle had been splintered.
Lan Yixing whimpered as his left hand launched upon Zuo Ling’s throat.
Zuo Ling also performed the same trick this old fox used. Wham, both of their palms struck together. Their bodies backed off in whimpers. Zuo Ling’s left arm which constricted Lan Yixing had literally impaired his right arm. They were close.
And then, they demonstrated a classic example of close-combats with bare hands, except it was bare hand, rather than bare hands.
"Hah! What’s up with Lan family? What’s up with the technique being a mess? The Zuos aren’t something you pesky little family could comprehend!" Zuo Ling’s hands moved rapidly as he teased in pride, although he did in fact have that price to flaunt. Jie experts were scarce by nature and for one Jie expert of his age while possessing more than one ability, he was probably the only one. As Lan Yixing had mentioned before, that hardening technique performed by Zuo Ling was in fact a technique coming from the Lan family’s microchips his ancestor has plundered. It was a definition of their deduction over the information they snatched. And the head of the Zuos was well-aware of the issue behind the technique. So the head eventually invented a softening technique as a counter to cover up the holes. Zuo Ling was undoubtedly the genius of it for he blended both the abilities in one.
The combination of muscular hardness and tenderness was the killer move for him. But he was still too young for he lacked understanding on the overall process of combats, as well as his control over it. He was incompetent to an experienced fighter like Lan Yixing who had spent the past decades on muscle controls, which led to such situation where both of them were wounded by each other in the end.
Well, technically, Lan Yixing had a worse injury. Zuo Ling was unharmed other than that fractured his rib while maintaining the upper hand in the match. Lan Yixing… technically had lost his right arm, which harshly halved his forces. And his right arm was still under the constriction by the foe. Bone-piercing pain could be felt even at the slightest movement he made, which caused him unable to formulate any kind of moves effectively.
The words from Zuo Ling were painful to his ears as they struck to the depth of his heart. His eyes clouded by wrath out of sudden. He was not a talker to begin with so he responded with silence, however his eyes had convinced Zuo Ling that he would not stay on the upper hand for long.
Ye Chong also captured that expression in his eyes, "Shang!" Screamed Ye Chong frantically in his head.
His body shrouded away like an arrow launched from the bow, all the way towards Lan Yixing and Zuo Ling. Shang who had been his most impeccable partner the whole time had interrupted every transmission of signal at the place.
"Let’s go!" Rui Bing shouted as he grabbed Wei Yuan in her hands and ran all the way down the field with Huan Tiankai who also reacted promptly behind.
It was almost when Rui Bing and Hua tiankai made their moves, the signal was cut off and the screen on every projector, every helmet went blank. The spectators at the intensity went silent. The staff who were in charge of the streaming on the Virtual world confusingly noticed their screen being blank as well.
It took a few seconds for those practitioners to react on the happening as one of them somehow shouted, "We are going there to watch!" And people started rumbling off their seats and ran all the way to the field.
A strange kind of feeling reverberated in Ye Chong for some reason.