by <unknown>
“I need to think of a method quickly. I must see through his attack pattern!”
Li Yao felt like his body was being crushed underfoot by a crystal rail train coming and going. He was in so much pain that he wished to be dead.
To his astonishment, he was surprised that he knew this type of painful feeling knew quite well and was quite familiar with it. Memory fragments like wisp of debris once again emerged from the depths of his mind.
From within the sea of his mind, memory fragments collided, smashed, conformed, and reorganized, ultimately forming a warped scene.
He suddenly was able to think back to the dream of grandeur, to when he was still a low-level worker at the Hundred Smelting Guild, to when he was being persecuted day and night by the titan with giant iron hammers. It was at this time when he was unable to see through any of the attacks, that an old companion who he had hung out with all around the world told him:
“Ou Yeming. Do you feel that the titan’s iron hammers come at you way too quickly, that you can’t see them clearly? Come, give your next month’s worth of fish fins to this uncle to eat. This uncle will teach you a unique skill! What unique skill you ask? It’s simple... If you can’t see clearly with your eyes facing directly, then tilt them as much as possible to the limit. Use your peripheral vision to see. Your peripheral vision can capture clearer scenes than your direct vision!”
Using one’s peripheral vision?
Li Yao’s thoughts coursed with electricity. He did not have time to think it over, so he squinted his eyes and consciously used his peripheral vision to gaze over his surroundings.
Li Yao saw him!
The smiling clown’s entire body was curled up into a ball. He looked like a lethargic house cat. Right now, he was ducked behind Li Yao’s right rear. All of a sudden, he let loose, and in a flash, the lethargic house cat turned into the embodiment of a malevolent python. A simple strike of a whipping leg swept across at Li Yao’s right tibia!
This strike was like an explosive jet taking off. Not only would the strengthened ceramic sheets on his right leg completely burst, even the bones of his right leg would receive serious effects. Li Yao’s speed would be reduced by at least half. It was possible that he would lose support in his leg entirely!
“That 10,000 credits is mine for sure!” Li Yao bit down on his mushy lips. He mustered nearly every single moving cell in his body. His right calf was like a folded blade. “Swoosh” it had folded up to the inner side of his thigh!
The smiling clown’s attack all of a sudden failed, causing his entire body to lose balance in a flash. The clown had to continue moving half a step forward. This was the first time the clown’s figure was forced into the open.
The offense that was like flowing quicksilver was broken forcibly. It was like the super-fast tempo of a song was forced to come to an end spontaneously.
Li Yao took a step and twisted. He originally wanted to take advantage of his bent leg and give his opponent a hidden kick.
The smiling clown seemed to be able to predict such matters. A strike could not be made since the clown had dodged seven to eight meters away in a flash. The clown looked at Li Yao with a smile that was not quite a smile. The clown’s eyes displayed a hint of astonishment and praise, “In a short 57 seconds, you were able to see through my attack trajectories? Like hidden dragons and crouching tigers, the Underground Ghost Market really does have concealed talent!”
“That... that goes without saying. Do you or do you not want to know which method I used in the end, to be able to see through your attack? It was spoken by my master. It was twenty years ago on a stormy rainy night...” Li Yao breathed heavily like an ox. He was trying with all his might to stall for time.
“Don’t want to!”
The smiling clown cut off the conversation in a completely straightforward manner. Once again he disappeared from where he was standing. This time Li Yao caught sight of the clown’s attack trajectory in the same way. What was weird was that the smiling clown seemed to transform into two separate people. They pounced at Li Yao from both left and right sides simultaneously!
…...
Within the tea room, the bald tattooed man leisurely drank sorghum liquor, gnawed on chicken wings, and hummed to military songs.
A man with a spideresque design on his face suddenly knocked on the door, entering in soon after.
His build was short and stocky with a form that greatly resembled a wall.
“And you are?” The bald tattooed man fixed his gaze onto the stocky man, as he held a chicken wing midair. The chicken bone shook and shook.
……
…...
In the sparring room, two minutes and thirty seconds had passed already!
Li Yao was like a small fishing boat that was being flipped up and down in the raging waves of a stormy seas. One after another, he was hit ruthlessly by an earth-shattering wave, smashing into the abyss. Yet somehow, he was able to once again float back up to the surface after a short moment each time!
Li Yao’s body. He had received Ou Yeming’s powerful spiritual purification and flood of training. Every single muscle fiber, every single cell was incomparably tough and durable. Even though every punch he received gave him a feeling of pain down to his marrow, he still did the utmost to persevere. It was a perseverance of complete insanity. It was only because...
“Dear god. I’ve already been hit by this bastard for a full two and a half minutes with six hundred and twenty fists! If I give up now, wouldn’t all this beating have been in vain?”
Two minutes thirty-one seconds, Two minutes thirty-two seconds...
When every second passed, Li Yao’s conviction to persevere increased firmly by a measure. What was even crazier was that he felt his opponent’s super high speed assault during this time had decreased in speed and strength by a negligible strand. Perhaps, the clown would soon expose some mistakes.
In this two and a half minute interval, he was not just taking a beating like a sandbag. He was paying complete attention, observing his opponent. Even though the smiling clown’s speed was strangely fast at incomparable speeds, he discovered that there was an utterly small habituary pattern in his movements. Every time the clown attacked from the right side, he left leg first would bend slightly once.
This unnecessary movement approximately caused the smiling clown’s speed to be slower by 0.1 seconds.
Li Yao was waiting exactly for this opening!
He was not a buddhist practitioner who would never raise a hand and only take beatings. The strength of his opponent clearly was much much higher, just landing a fist of air would be fine!
Nevertheless, now was not the time. At this time, the opponent still had strength. He was still vigilant, he was still smiling.
It’s fine. Li Yao could wait. He was like a vulture waiting for the most opportune moment to hunt. Living in the Artifact Graveyard for over a dozen years had taught him how to conceal his claws and the importance of patience.
While he was being knocked about, while he ducked his head scampering like a rat, while he wailed like a ghost and howled like a wolf, all this time, Li Yao’s brain still maintained a calloused tranquility. Memory fragments whirled at lightning speeds in the depths of his mind. The scene of the full potential of the Hundred-and-Eight-Hands Chaos Gale Hammer Technique as unleashed by the titan condensed once more in his mind. It had turned clear from fuzziness.
The first move... The second move...
He searched at lightning speed within the weapons storehouse of his memories for the most suitable of “weapons” for this situation.
…...
In the tea room.
The bald tattooed man suddenly stood up, spilling the sorghum liquor onto his body, “You are the ‘Iron Turtle’?”
“Of course I’m the Iron Turtle. Didn’t we get in touch just a while ago? It was you who told me to wear the spider-esque design and come. Is there a problem?” the short stocky man frowned his brows, feeling
at a loss.
“If you are the Iron Turtle, then who the hell is the guy in the sparring room?” the bold tattooed man’s expression turned incomparably strange. He was distracted for a short time, then all of a sudden, he pushed the Iron Turtle aside. With two or three steps, he crossed over to the sparring room’s entrance and turned the handle to the big door.
“Hey Hai! Quickly stay your hand!”
“Three minutes are up!” At practically the same time, Li Yao, with blood all over his face, let out an ear-piercing shriek.
The two had not intended to yell at the same time. It caused the smiling clown’s offensive that was like the moving clouds and flowing water to abruptly stop. The clown subconsciously looked up gazing towards the wall. He discovered that actually only...
Two minutes and fifty-nine seconds had past!
“The time is now!”
Li Yao let out a low roar. He loosened his body, advancing. His right hand stabbed the void. His left fist was concealed behind his body. His fingers pinched causing his bones to produce a chaotic ringing of “ka ka” as his joints protruded, giving a mace-like appearance. Right after, he used his left heel as a pivot point and his entire body rotated 90 degrees at lightning speed. Borrowing an enormous amount of centrifugal force, he took his left fist and threw it out swinging furiously!
“Pow pow pow pow pow pow!” The fist’s spear-like tip had unexpectedly punctured the air, emitting a series of sonic booms! Li Yao’s clenched fist was like a whistling iron hammer as it directly pounded towards the smiling clown!
“Chaos Gale Hammer Technique, The 94th Hand, Murderous Hammering Tornado!”
“Please let him off easy!”
The howling of the bald tattooed man was somewhat mournful when it came from the entrance. However, Li Yao was unable to stay his hand. His clenched fist was at the tip of the smiling clown’s nose. There was approximately a hair-width of distance between his fist and the clown.
Then, the smiling clown changed.
He was still the same person. His eyelashes hadn’t even shook half a brow. 36,000 pores on his entire body seemed to spurt out in a flash a dense air. His aura seemed to contain actual substance. It was like he donned a layer of solid armour. His entire person swelled up a level. From a common martial arts practitioner, he transformed into an exceptional expert!
Li Yao realized at this time that the words “Please let him off easy” was not meant for him.
0.01 seconds later, he had no idea how but his clenched fist changed directions and fiercely smashed upon his own nose, sending him flying over a dozen meters. He was still in mid air without even the time to scream half a shriek, when he completely passed out!
The absolute air that curled around the smiling clown only persisted for half a second before fading without a trace. He changed completely back into the domesticated harmless commoner.
He walked leisurely to Li Yao’s side. Half squatting down, he checked out Li Yao’s breath.
“How is he? It’s nothing right?” the bald tattooed man had ran over without delay, asking somewhat nervously.
“He’s passed out. It appears to be serious, an overtaxing of his strength. It should be fine if we immediately replenish his strength with a strengthening drug.” Fiend Blade Peng Hai felt Li Yao’s nose. He said somewhat surprisingly, “This bastard is quite amazing. He actually made me break my baseline. I exploded out to 4% of my strength.”
Chapter 22: Fed Until Satisfaction |
In the depths of the Militant Wolf Slayers Cultivation Gym.
A recovery pod towered over two meters high within the Gym leader’s private medical treatment room. Looking through the transparent glass observation panel, one could see Li Yao’s naked body submerged in a great quantity of strengthening drugs. His pair of eyes were closed as he bobbed up and down. A large quantity of bubbles curled around his body.
The bald tattooed man and Fiend Blade Peng Hai were standing right in front of the recovery pod. They stared with great interest at the unconscious and unwakeable Li Yao floating within the green liquid drug.
Fiend Blade Peng Hai seemed to have just eaten to satisfaction. His entire face radiated with perfect content as he said, “Old Instructor, this bastard is truly worthy of being called a gold medal sparring partner. Not only did he withstand 3 minutes of my storm-like gale of attacks while I used 3% of my strength, he also surprisingly had enough energy left over to launch a counter-attack at the end. It was really unexpected! I originally thought I could perfectly suppress my strength down to 3%. I never thought that under this bastard’s surprise attack, I would still fail at the end. I was forced to explode out with 1% more power!”
He paused for a moment. Peng Hai still had some words he still wished to express. He licked his lips and said, “This 10,000 credits spent really is way too worth it! Old Instructor, ask for me later to see if he has time tomorrow night. I want three more minutes with him!”
The bald tattooed man scratched and scratched his head. He hesitated for a long time before he replied with an expression of loss on his entire face, “Hey Hai, earlier I wanted to tell you this, but this youngster is not the gold medal sparring partner, Iron Turtle, that I had arranged for you.”
Fiend Blade Peng Hai’s eyebrows jumped up, “He’s not the Iron Turtle? Then who is he? There’s still such an amazing expert in Old Instructor’s gym? That’s not bad!”
The bald tattooed man’s expression turned gloomy as he said, “That’s the problem. This youth is not a member of my gym. I simply don’t know where the hell this guy spawned from. Oh, that’s right. He was wearing the school trousers of your high school. Who knows, he could be a school mate.”
Having said that, the bald tattooed man brought Li Yao’s trouser over and pointed at the school’s crest for Peng Hai to see.
This time, even Fiend Blade Peng Hai was astonished to the point of jumping. With shock, he said, “It can’t be. When I was sparring with this youngster, I could clearly feel out that even though his combat strength wasn’t especially strong, his combat sense was extremely good. He had plenty of combat experience. In that final moment, he brought forth a smell that was violently and imposingly sharp. It was as if he had experienced several thousand years of life or death slaughter, sharpening himself on a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood! Crimson Nimbus Second. When did they produce such a fierce person? How could I not know?!”
Fiend Blade Peng Hai thought back to the time when he saw the students of the Important Class. Although there were a few who had pretty good strength, all of them were flowers grown in greenhouses. Not one of them had endured the onslaught of rain and wind, of trials and tribulations. This youngster with an imposingly sharp air was completely different from them.
Could it be that he was one of the elite graduates of recent years?
“Do you want me to use the special lotion to wash off the spideresque design off his face? Then we can see his appearance and find out his identity,” asked the bald tattooed man somewhat worryingly.
Fiend Blade Peng Hai muttered himself for a moment before shaking his head, “He applied the Pattern Mask Glyph. That means he doesn’t want other people to know his identity. I did not feel any sort of hostility emanating off of this youngster’s body. Even if he was one of my hated enemies, he wouldn’t have assumed this kind of bastard role to come find me. I think there must have been some sort of misunderstanding. Let’s wait till he awakens. Then we can ask him clearly.”
In the Underground Ghost Market, removing someone’s guise without their permission was an extraordinary rash action, with the potential of breeding a kind of unceasing and undying hate. Fiend Blade Peng Hai did not fear making enemies, but he also did not want to disrespect the customs of the Underground Ghost Market.
“I don’t know when this youngster will wake up. For a typical person, staying in the recovery pod for an hour should be enough for them to regain their consciousness. It’s been exactly half-an-hour since this youngster h
as been in here, yet he's still snoring loudly in deep sleep!” The tattooed bald man glanced an eye at Li Yao, having suddenly discovered this very strange thing.
The color of the strengthening drug in the recovery pod became diluted quite a bit just a moment ago. Originally, the deep green colored liquid drug churned along with Li Yao’s body, producing a great quantity of bubbles. At lightning speeds, it turned to a light green color, then to a sky cyan color, then finally it became almost transparent.
The tattooed bald man stared distracted. He walked in front of the recovery pod and brought up a hologram. “Pa Pa” he went on the hologram. After a few taps in rapid succession, a string of digits appeared before his eyes.
“The strengthening drug’s concentration changed from 33% to 14%. It continues to decrease at a lightning fast speed of 1% every minute!”
“That’s enough strengthening drug to restore three to five buff guys that were beaten black and blue back to their original condition. Within an interval of 30 minutes, this youngster surprisingly engulfed it all? That’s impossible!” the bald tattooed man involuntarily cried out in alarm.
From the depth’s of Fiend Blade Peng Hai eyes bubbled forth a radiance that was serene and profound. He muttered saying, “It’s like this youngster’s body had been starved for far too long. Anytime there's the opportunity, his body would impatiently devour ravishingly any nourishments, fully absorbing an entire pod’s worth of strengthening drugs to process! I did not expect this. He surprisingly dragged this type of starved hunger with his body to come spar with me! If his body could ‘eat its fill’, what would he become?”
After muttering to himself for a moment, Fiend Blade Peng Hai wrote down names and dosages of several dozen strengthening drugs on top of the hologram while saying, “Old Instructor, follow the prescription that I am writing here. Recalibrate three standard doses of this blend of strengthening drugs. Add it to the recovery pod.”