Chapter 404: An arrow at the End of Its Flight
Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
Though their present strength was still at the same level, Lin Que had been fighting for a long time and was now suffering from an accelerated physical decline. On the other side, Jiang Kongchan had just joined in the compet.i.tion and her condition was still at its peak, which would be able to support her to fight for a long time. So it was clear who had the whip hand now.
Thoughts flas.h.i.+ng through Jiang Kongchan’s mind, the girl felt much more confident now, and the burning bravery within her immediately fueled her momentum, which even surpa.s.sed Lin Que’s at the moment. As soon as her right fist swung back, the girl immediately made a forceful explosion in her left shoulder and leaned forward to shake out her upper arm, lower arm, and wrist one by one. After straightening her whole arm with great force, the girl punched directly at Lin Que’s temple.
The moment that Lin Que’s punch was blocked by Jiang Kongchan, he immediately borrowed the strength to step backward and turn his body to face Jiang Kongchan directly. Then he raised his left arm, which was put in front of his chest, to block Jiang Kongchan’s punch while launching another attack.
At that moment, Jiang Kongchan took a step to the left and again flashed to Lou Cheng’s side. Her punch with her left fist was forced to change its route but continued to fly at Lin Que along another route!
The original force that she gathered in her punch had already been used up, so she drove her joints and stretched her fascia to gather another quant.i.ty of force. Then she stretched her fingers to hit Lin Que’s temple with an abrupt explosive force!
It was the Dan-stage version of Wuthering Eight Movements, which mixed the eight movements together and thus made lots of derived moves, among which the most special move was called Wind Step.
Instead of referring to its high speed, it actually meant that the core of this movement was under the fighter’s feet. The user should guide his or her body with footwork and then change the punching direction with body movement, which would fog their opponent’s eyes and make it hard for the poor guy to use Absolute Reaction. Even Dan-stage warriors found it hard to deal with an opponent that suddenly changed directions within a short distance, even if they were able to notice it in time.
Though Jiang Kongchan made sure that Lin Que was tired out, which added to her confidence, she did not let the success go to her head, since Lin Que’s real level was still much higher than hers. She knew that Lin Que was still able to make one, two, or even three counter-attacks; thus she chose the Dan-stage version of Wuthering Eight Movements to fight in the beginning and set traps in her skirmish-fight, leaving Lin Que no chance to attack her back. She was sure that Lin Que would be worn down soon by this war of attrition!
She was fighting like a wolf in sheep’s clothing!
Bang!
When Jiang Kongchan stretched out her five fingers, Lin Que felt a sharp pain in his temple and turned his head sideways to dodge unconsciously. Meanwhile, he swung his elbow and turned his right palm into a blade to hit the key acupoint in Jiang Kongchan’s wrist.
Jiang Kongchan immediately withdrew her left arm, slightly arched her back, and stepped her right foot forward to kick toward Lin Que’s ankle. At the same time, she hid her right fist beside her waist and then punched toward Lin Que’s waist secretly. The series of attacks were connected smoothly like a continuous gust of wind. In fact, her attacks were mostly formed by secret killer moves.
Lin Que took a breath and then s.h.i.+fted his center of gravity to the left side, which helped him to flash sideways and dodge the round-faced girl’s serial attacks.
The moment that Lin Que stepped on the ground with his toes, he turned his body into a dropping meteor and dashed against the girl fiercely.
However, Jiang Kongchan had already stepped her right foot onto the ring and flashed to another side the moment that she missed the target. It was still the tricked set she had been using, the Dan-stage version of Wuthering Eight Movements.
“Great.” Chen Sansheng praised her in the studio. “She really has touched the core of the Wind Sect by herself. Now she is even able to make such great destruction with a normal Wind Sect movement, and there might be no one at the same stage that could surpa.s.s her in the most recent five years, except for Ren Li.”
What he referred to was not the fighters’ strength but their understanding of the core of Martial Arts.
“Yeah, I still remember the day when Ren Li, who was merely an Eighth-Pin fighter then, challenged a warrior stronger than herself. She kept moving like a gust of wind and no one could predict where she would land.” Liu Chang echoed him.
Ren Li was usually not strong enough compared to her opponents, and thus she was used to relying on her fighting skill instead of limited stamina and energy. In her previous matches with Lou Cheng, Ren Li regarded Lou Cheng as an opponent at the same stage as her, and thus did not treat him seriously and fought directly against him to gain the upper hand.
When the host and the special guest were still discussing it, Jiang Kongchan and Lin Que had exchanged lots of movements while continuing to move in the ring, making continuous cracking sounds.
“But Lin Que can’t persist for a long time.” Chen Sansheng tut-tutted. “No matter whether he intended to show the white feather in front of Jiang Kongchan and confuse her, he should now change his fighting style, or he will eventually be worn out by Jiang Kongchan.”
That round-faced girl had been fighting in a patient and careful way without any sign of relenting.
As his voice faded, Jiang Kongchan dodged Lin Que’s attack with a sliding step and then flashed to his back, where she shook out her right arm to strike the back of Lin Que’s head. Her movement was so quick and fierce that it tore the airflow.
However, Lin Que did not react to her attack in the usual manner. Instead, he lowered his head and stepped forward with his left foot.
An opportunity!
As an experienced warrior, Jiang Kongchan immediately noticed Lin Que’s flaw and decided to take advantage of it. Instinctually, she made a forceful explosion in her shoulder and swung her elbow out to punch toward the back of Lin Que’s neck within that short distance.
Lin Que had made such a perfect pose for her, so she could not help but give him a punch!
At that moment, Lin Que suddenly withdrew his Qi, blood, force, spirit, and all the other senses as he stepped heavily onto the ground. In an instant, all of the protective facets within and outside of his body disappeared!
Then, without hesitation, he made an explosion in his Dantian and drove all of that force into his neck, making it swell immediately as if a snake had turned into a horrible Chinese dragon!
Bang!
Jiang Kongchan felt as if her punch landed on a ball filled with water that could not be broken or bored into at all.
At that moment, Lin Que suddenly raised his head, straightened his neck, and bounced Jiang Kongchan’s fist back, destroying all her intentions to pour more force into it and launch a further attack.
Meanwhile, he shook his whole body to drive all of his borrowed and initial force into his right foot and then stepped heavily onto the ground.
The 16th move of the Fighting Sect, Earth Cracking!
Clang!
Jiang Kongchan, who was unable to escape in time, felt the ring under her feet shaking. A huge fissure appeared on the ground, which was still expanding and spewing out a horrible force flood. Jiang Kongchan could no longer keep her balance and was about to fall back.
“Too bad!” Jiang Kongchan said to herself. Daring not to hide her real strength, she immediately drove all her Qi and blood to flow back in order to keep her balance. Then she tightened the muscles in her arm and gave Lin Que a blast punch, making a thunderous sound.
At this urgent moment, she chose to attack him back instead of defending herself!
On the other side, Lin Que immediately bounced back and turned around to throw his right arm toward Jiang Kongchan with great force.
Bang!
In the echoing, dull thud, Lin Que was unable to resist the Dan-stage explosion of Jiang Kongchan, though he had borrowed some force to block it. It seemed that he was about to take steps backward.
However, he suddenly shook his muscles and fascia, withdrew his Qi, blood, and spirit and then made a Force Concentration connected with the skill of Yin-yang Twist!
Boom! Taking half a step forward, Lin Que swung his arm at a high speed and then threw it at his opponent in the exploding sound of airflow.
“I should hold on for a while and wait for another one of Lin Que’s Dan-Stage explosions…” While thinking of it, Jiang Kongchan had no choice but to make the same Force Concentration and drive her left fist with Double Explosion to throw it at Lin Que.
Bang!
As the cracking sound became louder, Jiang Kongchan took steps backward, which showed that she was still a little weaker than Lin Que, who had borrowed some strength. Then the girl took the opportunity to bend her back and flashed several meters backward like a gust of wind.
Of course, Lin Que would not let go of this opportunity. He immediately raised both hands, visualized ancient characters in his mind, and announced in his deep voice,
“Attainment!”
While Lin Que’s voice was still echoing in the ring, he had already flashed to Jiang Kongchan and stopped in front of her. Then he again withdrew all his Qi, blood, force, spirit, and all the other senses to make a punch as if a dropping meteor finally collided with the earth.
When he breaks Jiang Kongchan’s defense with this attack, his Doomed Death would begin to work!
Jiang Kongchan had already made a Double Explosion and was now unable to withdraw all the force into his Dantian within a short time. Taking a deep breath, she adjusted all her muscles, fascia, and organs and then visualized the corresponding scene in her mind.
Crack! She blocked Lin Que’s attack with a normal movement.
Bam!
As if a bomb suddenly exploded near them, a strong airflow appeared to block Jiang Kongchan’s attack. Struggling to pierce into the airflow, Jiang Kongchan narrowly blocked Lin Que’s fist.
Blue tendons and vessels soon appeared in her arm as she was no longer able to resist Lin Que’s horrible force. The moment her arm was bounced away, Jiang Kongchan soon lost her stance and began retreating while trembling.
When Lin Que was about to take a sliding step and punch at the girl with another Doomed Death, he got a sudden feeling of weakness, as if all his energy and stamina were hemorrhaging quickly!
Is it… the force of the Plague Sect?
Has she mastered her own force?
Jiang Kongchan had just reached the Dan Stage two months ago without any supernatural ability. Even if she could have gotten access to a special force, there could not have been enough time for her to master it. In other words, her performance proved that she was not majoring in the Wind Sect and minoring in the Plague Sect. Instead, the Plague Sect was her real major!
With pupillary constriction in both of his eyes, Lin Que felt that he was tired out and unable to gather strength in his muscles. He could not even take steps forward within a short period.
Considering his physical abilities, even though he had used up most of his energy and stamina in the previous match, he should still be able to defuse a Plague Sect force like this at the beginning of this round and prevent it from injuring him badly with a single Force Concentration. However, after making three Dan Stage explosions, he was now at his limit and could no longer resist such a horrible force.
Though he could bear the pain, he was unable to keep fighting while suffering from such a debuff!
Besides, he could not defuse the effect of Jiang Kongchan’s force with Force Concentration for the moment, because he needed to make another Double Explosion to manage it! However, he could no longer make any serial explosions after the previous three Dan Stage explosions.
When Lin Que was forced to stop, Jiang Kongchan immediately adjusted her body condition with the skill of mercurial balance and soon got her balance back. But she did not use skirmish-fighting this time after stopping her steps. Instead, she bounced forward to flash to Lin Que’s side and took the rare opportunity to kick him her right foot.
When Lin Que narrowly blocked her kick with his leg, Jiang Kongchan again jumped into the air and launched a series of kicks at Lin Que.
The 27th move of the Ice Sect, Whirlwind!
Crack, Crack, Crack! Lin Que was too weak to get any chance to make a Force Concentration, and his stance was soon broken by Jiang Kongchan.
The referee pushed Jiang Kongchan’s shoulder down in time to stop her serial kicks and then announced,
“Third Round. Jiang Kongchan wins!”
“Well, it seems that Jiang Kongchan actually majors in the Plague Sect. If she had majored in the Wind Sect, Lin Que would have still been able to pull himself through and defeat her with Doomed Death. Plague Sect force, it is really a surprise!” Chen Sansheng sighed. “Now Songcheng University is in danger. Though Jiang Kongchan used up much of her energy, she was still able to make at least one Dan Stage explosion and several explosions with the Plague-Sect force. So it was very difficult for a top Professional-Ninth-Pin fighter to defeat her.”
The ability to use force was a symbol of the Seventh Pin. As long as Jiang Kongchan’s physical quality was up to standard, there was a great possibility for her to get a certification of Seventh Pin. As a result, Chen Sansheng did not think Songcheng University was able to be the winner.