The force of his opponent still slowly increased until it hit a certain point, and after about two minutes, it completely stopped.
Currently, Yan Liqiang was feeling quite puzzled due to the fact that the strength of his opponent didn"t seem to be as powerful as he had imagined. That couldn’t be right. Could it be that his opponent was holding back on exerting of his full strength due to the fact that Yan Liqiang was younger than him? But then again, when he saw the expression on his opponent’s face, especially how the veins on his forehead popped out while he was sweating like a pig and huffing and puffing like a bull, it was evident that he was struggling to use every ounce of his strength in his entire body. He wasn’t going to comment on the rest, but the feet of his opponent had already made two small pits on the ground trying to push Yan Liqiang backward.
How could the physical strength of a person with such a large build be so little?
In but a moment, Yan Liqiang was. .h.i.t by a sudden realization. The strength of his opponent was neither weak nor he was holding back, instead, this was the result of Yan Liqiang’s drastic increase in strength after pa.s.sing the Horse Stance stage. On top of that, he could feel his body growing stronger after cultivating the ‘Performing Muscle Tendon Changing and Marrow Cleansing Internal Cultivation Manual’ for only more than half a month but he had never really tested it out. The preface of the manual mentioned that this technique could give rise to divine force upon a person, it also stated that Grandfather Yue Fei could draw a powerful bow of a hundred picul after cultivating it, thus becoming a top figure in the martial world. So perhaps all of that might not just be a bluff after all.
With all of that on his mind, Yan Liqiang suddenly exerted some force into his hands and abruptly pushed outwards. When he did, the force from the bottom of his feet traveled to his hand. That youth who was twice the size of Yan Liqiang was instantly knocked over as if he was being hit by a charging rhinodrake steed. He only felt a wave of tremendous force before his entire body was sent flying out of the boundaries of the white push-wrestling ring, over seven or eight meters in the air, before heavily landing on his back.
The excitement around them suddenly died down as everyone stared towards the ring, stunned. They couldn’t believe that Yan Liqiang’s strength would be so huge as to even be able to send the best soldier amongst them flying out of the ring in an instant. On top of that, he was sent flying over quite a distance. Just how much strength was needed to achieve this?
Yan Liqiang stared at his own palms in amazement. This was the first time his energy fully erupted and he hadn’t expected it to be this violent. At that instant, he only felt as if he had two enormous springs embedded within the bones in his legs. When he exerted force, those enormous springs violently released and sent his opponent flying backward.
That person didn’t really sustain any injuries upon landing on the ground. He just bared his teeth and got up.
Two seconds later, Zhou Yong was the first to react, responding with applause. "AMAZING!" His soldiers followed suit in the applause and loud cheers...
Great confidence rose up from within Yan Liqiang’s heart. He let out a hearty laugh and looked all around him. "My brothers, who else would like to push-wrestle?"
"Four of you go together!"
At Zhou Yong’s command, four men charged out from amongst the crowd of soldiers in the surrounding and entered the ring together, four versus one.
The four soldiers in the ring gave each other a look before charging in together towards Yan Liqiang from one direction in sync. One of them pushed Yan Liqiang against his shoulder as the other pushed against his chest. The third one instantly bent over to hook Yan Liqiang’s calf while the remaining one attached himself to one of Yan Liqiang"s arms, holding on with both hands.
This time, Yan Liqiang no longer planned on just using brute force, instead, opting to utilize his skills. As someone who loved push-wrestling rings, Yan Liqiang knew many various techniques and counters since long ago. His tremendous gain in strength served only to greaten his strength within the wrestling ring, much like adding wings on a tiger[1].
The push-wrestling ring wasn’t wide enough to allow any running and evading within. Therefore, Yan Liqiang wasn’t even bothered by the person who was hooked onto his left calf. Just by taking a step back with his right leg and swinging his body to the side when the other three of them charged towards him, the trio’s synchronized attack was instantly foiled.
The moment he swung his body to the side, the positions of Yan Liqiang and the other four people instantly changed. Yan Liqiang’s back was directly facing towards the two that were pus.h.i.+ng against his chest and shoulder, and he firmly returned the favor of the soldier who was aiming to grab his arm by grasping his wrist instead. While the soldier was slightly stunned, with the wrist he grasped, Yan Liqiang pulled him towards the front in the direction of his exerted force. That person’s body, carried by momentum, rushed out of the ring and fell to the ground, making him the first person to be knocked out.
Although this push-wrestling ring game wasn’t a martial battle, it still required the spontaneous reaction in accordance with circ.u.mstances. This aspect alone made it quite similar to a martial battle.
In a flash, Yan Liqiang’s back and shoulder had already made contact with the four palms that were extending towards him; by leaning into them, he knocked those two soldiers away.
Within this timeframe, his left leg had also been grabbed by a crouching soldier. Grasping onto one’s leg was part of a grappling technique. Hence, that soldier couldn’t help but feel elated when he had managed to get a grasp on Yan Liqiang’s leg. He was just about to stand up and overturn Yan Liqiang, when Yan Liqiang made an unexpected move by extending the leg that he had just latched on, to the front under his crotch. So when he was about to get up to overturn Yan Liqiang, Yan Liqiang had already used his instep under the soldier’s crotch to hook his b.u.t.t.
When the soldier got up, Yan Liqiang just conveniently raised his feet, resulting in that person to be lifted by Yan Liqiang’s leg off from the ground first with his feet dangling in the air.
In the past, Yan Liqiang was definitely incapable of lifting his leg while carrying a person of about seventy or eighty kilograms hanging from it. However, this was not even a difficult feat for the current Yan Liqiang. He raised his leg and like a crane, that soldier was easily lifted.
That soldier held on to Yan Liqiang’s leg, but with both of his feet suddenly being lifted off the ground, his body instantly lost its leverage. Hence, the entire weight of his body was pressed against Yan Liqiang’s leg, like a koala bear hugging on a tree.
In the next second, Yan Liqiang retracted his right foot, not giving a chance for the two fallen soldiers to charge at him, then made a 180-degree turn as his left leg flung out, performing the Thunder Flying Kick of the Roaring Tiger Consecutive Fist technique.
This kick was done not for the sake of kicking someone, but rather to fling someone off. Yan Liqiang was directly using his leg like his hand, hence breaking no rules in the process.
Under the great influence of centrifugal force, the soldier that had been holding onto Yan Liqiang’s leg had an innocent look on his face and his mouth hung agape as he was instantly flung away screaming from Yan Liqiang’s leg. He landed about seven or eight meters outside of the ring and tumbled for another seven or eight times before he could crawl back up.
When his left leg fell to the ground, Yan Liqiang did a beautiful turn. Only two out of the four opponents remained.
The two remaining opponents gave each other a glance before they snarled and charged towards Yan Liqiang. Yan Liqiang didn’t concede, he directly met their charge head-on with force. He took a stride and performed the Horse Step Pus.h.i.+ng Stance of the Roaring Tiger Consecutive Fist technique. He did so while changing his fists to palms, then pressed them against the shoulders of those two soldiers simultaneously before giving them a chance to react. The countenance of the two soldiers instantly contorted as they hurriedly s.h.i.+fted their force to Yan Liqiang’s hands, in an attempt to push them down.
Yan Liqiang smiled, unleas.h.i.+ng the power from his feet. With the push of his palms on each soldier, both of them were sent flying out of the ring at the same time and landed on the ground.
It took less than ten seconds for him to get rid of four people.
"Amazing…" The soldiers that surrounded the push-wrestling ring applauded and cheered at the same time, they were like soccer fans that had just witnessed the scoring of an epic goal.
Compared to the first round, the second round of push-wrestling ring was even more exciting. Yan Liqiang went up against four opponents and managed to end the battle quickly and efficiently, putting on an extremely satisfying show for everyone to watch.
"Hahaha, Master Yan is indeed amazing. I, Old Zhou, would like to give it a try with Master Yan!" The ordinary soldiers in the Weaponsmiths Quarter were no longer qualified to be Yan Liqiang’s opponent. After Zhou Yong witnessed the extraordinary valor of Yan Liqiang, he couldn’t restrain himself from personally coming down to the push-wrestling ring and getting ready to compete with Yan Liqiang.
Zhou Yong was a squad commander who had already pa.s.sed the Horse Stance stage a few years back. In addition to the training in the army over these few years, his martial arts had long surpa.s.sed that of the commoners. This was also the reason why he had managed to get the position of a low-ranking officer.
For Zhou Yong to personally take him on, Yan Liqiang couldn’t ask for more. He had just been thinking of trying his hand with a veteran like Zhou Yong to thoroughly test his strength.
"Hahaha, please go easy on me, Brother Zhou. Don’t make me lose too pathetically…"
"Hahaha, I should be the one asking Master Yan to show some mercy."
The both of them courteously greeted each other before walking into the push-wrestling ring, prepared to fight against each other.
Naturally, Yan Liqiang wouldn’t dare to be reckless when his opponent was Zhou Yong. To be truthful, had it not been for him pa.s.sing the Horse Stance stage, thus reaping great harvests and having his strength increase tremendously over these few days, he wouldn’t even be qualified enough to challenge Zhou Yong with the standard he was at a month ago. If Zhou Yong wanted to push-wrestle with him, others might even think that he was bullying a child.
Both of them circled around each other in the wrestling ring twice. Upon seeing that Zhou Yong was taking the initiative to make a move, Yan Liqiang knew that this was Zhou Yong’s act of courtesy towards him. Hence, he also stopped being reserved and immediately took two strides to move in front of Zhou Yong. When he was close enough to Zhou Yong, he flipped over both of his palms and directly pushed towards Zhou Yong’s chest and abdomen area by lunging forward with the Bow Step Lunge stance of the Tiger Roaring Consecutive Fist technique.
Zhou Yong didn’t back down either. He intended to test out the extent of Yan Liqiang’s strength, so he took a step forward and pushed his palms against Yan Liqiang in a similar manner.
‘Bam…’ Both of their palms collided with each other with pure force and without any fancy tricks.
Zhou Yong"s expression slightly contorted as he sensed the force that had transmitted through Yan Liqiang"s hands. It was so ma.s.sive that it had already exceeded his expectations.
Back when he saw the auspicious form that had appeared during Yan Liqiang’s pa.s.sing of the Horse Stance stage was a rhinodrake steed, he already knew that Yan Liqiang’s strength would definitely be greatly increased. Thus, Zhou Yong had already mentally prepared himself. However, when both of them fought, Yan Liqiang’s strength still registered as a shock to Zhou Yong, who thought he had already mentally prepared himself. Zhou Yong simply didn’t expect the power on Yan Liqiang would be this ma.s.sive. The sensation that he felt on his hands that were pus.h.i.+ng against Yan Liqiang was just like he was trying to push back a strong charging rhinodrake steed. That huge momentum shocked him numb all the way to his shoulders and he almost couldn’t help but take a step back...