Chapter 3 : Chapter 3
Chapter 3: Oho, Fooled You, Idiot!
Li Mu did not answer Li Xiaohong.
Instead, he turned his gaze to the fight in the arena.
Sun Long’s A-rank talent, Flame Fan, allowed blazing fire to appear in a fan-shaped area in front of him during close combat.
Its power and range would increase along with his cultivation.
And it also provided special bonuses to fire-element internal arts and martial techniques.
In the later stages, every punch and kick could turn into a sea of flames. It was extremely terrifying.
Although that sparring partner only had a C-rank talent, he had considerable understanding when it came to defensive techniques.
Since he did not dare fight back, all he could do was use Golden Bell Shield for passive defense.
The Golden Bell Shield was thick and steady, blocking all of Sun Long’s attacks.
Sun Long hammered away with clanging blows for more than a dozen punches, yet still failed to break through the continuously reinforced Golden Bell Shield around the sparring partner.
His brows immediately furrowed deeply.
If he could not even break the shield, that would be far too humiliating.
So he suddenly sank his stance and gathered his qi, drawing back his right fist like a bow pulled into a full moon.
The sparring partner instantly roared, “Stop!”
The students watching around them immediately erupted into an uproar.
One after another, they cursed Sun Long for being despicable!
This move, Armor-Shattering Burst Fist, was extremely destructive, but it was very difficult to land in a fast-paced fight.
That was because Armor-Shattering Burst Fist required a specific power-release posture, and it also needed time to charge up.
That was equivalent to forcing yourself into a momentary hard opening, giving your opponent countless ways to counterattack.
The other person was only serving as your sparring partner, yet you were actually using this move because you knew he did not dare retaliate!
Utterly shameless!
But it was already too late. Sun Long threw out a full-powered punch, and the Golden Bell Shield exploded on impact.
The sparring partner was swallowed by a burst of flaming force and blasted backward with a bang.
Amid screams of pain, the sparring partner rolled on the ground to extinguish the flames on his body, and several classmates even rushed over to beat at the fire with their clothes.
By the time the sparring partner was helped back to his feet, his clothes had already been burned through in multiple places, more than half his hair was gone, and he looked utterly miserable.
Sun Long felt incredibly refreshed. He lifted his chin and rolled his neck, his whole expression one of complete satisfaction.
Meanwhile, Li Xiaohong stepped forward and said in a mocking tone, “Abyss monsters won’t stop just because you ask them to.”
The sparring partner clenched his fists fiercely, but in the end, he could only swallow his anger and say nothing.
Li Mu sighed inwardly.
This high-martial world really was cruel.
The difference in status between the strong and the weak was that clear and that natural.
Just then, the neck-rolling Sun Long spotted Li Mu.
His eyes lit up.
He pointed at Li Mu. “Li Mu.”
The one Sun Long had wanted to beat the most was Li Mu.
Because back when he used to bully those poor students, Li Mu had even warned him before.
Now I’m A-rank, and you’re F-rank, and you’ve even been thrown out of the Li family.
Let’s see how arrogant you can still be.
“Get over there!” Li Xiaohong barked from the side.
Li Mu was very obedient. He first walked over to the weapon rack.
Everyone thought he was going to choose a weapon, and all of them were somewhat surprised.
“What’s he trying to do? Is he going to take a weapon?”
“Hasn’t he still realized that he’s just a punching bag?”
“Li Mu, don’t be stupid. If you just obediently take the beating, it’ll be lighter. If you resist, you’ll end up seriously injured!”
But Li Mu did not take a weapon. Instead, he picked up a large broom from the edge of the weapon rack.
He pulled a bamboo switch out of the broom.
After stripping away the branches and leaves, he gave it a light flick, and it let out a sharp whistle through the air.
Sun Long merely sneered. He did not care in the slightest whether Li Mu took up a weapon or not.
For martial artists, the usefulness of a weapon depended on how well it matched their talent.
A talent like his Flame Fan could not make use of weapons, and at the same time, he disdained using them anyway.
Li Mu had already returned to the center of the arena holding the bamboo switch.
While selecting the bamboo switch just now, Li Mu had already added 50 Victory Points to Divine Weapon Art.
[Divine Weapon Art: Grants weight to a weapon. Current weight: 50 jin.]
These fifty jin were weight added by Divine Weapon Art, not the weapon’s own weight.
So no matter what weapon Li Mu used, as long as he applied Divine Weapon Art, he could give it weight.
Li Mu weighed it in his hand.
Although Li Mu currently had Yellow Rank, First Grade cultivation, he could still lift fifty jin.
But he still could not casually swing it around as a weapon with complete ease.
It took some effort.
So Li Mu unhesitatingly spent 30 Victory Points to learn Mountain-Bearing Art.
[Mountain-Bearing Art: Increases strength by the power of one tiger and three oxen.]
Below that was an additional sixteen-character explanation:
Ten oxen make one tiger, ten tigers make one dragon.
Bear mountains and overturn seas, flip heaven and earth!
The moment the strength of one tiger and three oxen surged into his body, Li Mu felt only two words:
Terrifying!
Before, Li Mu had only heard the saying that overwhelming strength could crush ten techniques.
At this moment, he truly understood it.
He only felt that his entire body was filled with explosive power.
Forget just beating Sun Long badly.
If he could grab both of Sun Long’s legs, Li Mu felt like he could tear him in half!
Before he had even fully steadied himself, Sun Long had already charged over impatiently.
Ever since his father died, Li Mu had not been particularly welcome in the Li family.
So he had never really obtained any decent techniques.
He did not even possess a proper internal art, which was known as the source of a martial artist. All he had was a basic mortal-grade internal art.
Now, although the Celestial Immortal Art had replaced his internal art,
Li Mu still had to use his other martial techniques.
He activated the movement technique Earth-Walking Nine Steps and made only a light sidestep.
At the same moment he shifted, the bamboo switch in his hand lashed out toward Sun Long’s wrist.
The fifty-jin weight of Divine Weapon Art had long since been attached to the bamboo switch.
Sun Long’s fist grazed past Li Mu’s chest.
Then, in the next instant, his wrist felt as though it had been struck by a heavy hammer, and he let out a scream of pain.
He stumbled back two steps and looked down at his wrist, only to see a bloody welt there. It was already bruising black and purple, swelling up instantly.
Li Mu, on the other hand, was amazed. Sure enough, using techniques now felt completely different.
The Celestial Immortal Art circulated through his whole body. His broad meridians allowed his true qi to flow freely and smoothly, advancing and withdrawing at will.
Releasing any technique gave him a feeling of seamless natural perfection!
His understanding of this movement art had also reached an outrageous level, as though he were some old monster who had studied it for forty or fifty years.
“You dare injure me??”
Sun Long’s eyes nearly split apart with fury as he forced the words out through clenched teeth.
An A-rank talent bearer was destined for an extraordinary future.
If you offended him, then when the time came, dealing with an ordinary martial artist like you would be so easy that you would not even know how you died.
These sparring partners were not simply unable to beat him. They were even more afraid to lay a hand on him.
“Oh, I really do dare.”
Li Mu bared his teeth in a grin. Wind rose beneath his feet, and the bamboo switch in his hand whistled through the air as it lashed toward Sun Long.
This time, it was aimed at his face!
Smack!
With a crisp crack, a bright red welt instantly appeared on Sun Long’s face.
Fifty jin landing on his face—even though Sun Long had enhanced his body with a high-grade technique, he still felt his brain ring slightly...
The entire arena fell silent!
Sun Long trembled with rage. He viciously shook 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 switch lashed across Sun Long’s face like a storm of wind and rain, forcibly beating all that blazing anger back down his throat.
Sun Long did not even have time to curse again. He wildly threw out punches to block and lunged at Li Mu like a mad dog.
Li Mu drove Earth-Walking Nine Steps to its limit, weaving and dodging within inches of space as though strolling leisurely through a courtyard.
Yet every strike of the bamboo switch in his hand landed with precision on Sun Long’s face.
The students watching around them completely exploded.
“Holy hell, that’s our freak Li Mu! What kind of godly movement technique is this? It’s like an old man toying with a child!”
“Why does it look like Earth-Walking Nine Steps to me?”
“Earth-Walking my ass. Can your Earth-Walking Nine Steps counterattack in the instant of dodging? What teacher taught you that?”
“Exactly. When I use Earth-Walking Nine Steps, most of my true qi gathers in my lower body. There’s no way I can attack at all!”
“Even though Li Mu had his S-rank talent stolen, he was always one of the top students in techniques class.”
“Looks like he’s finally done putting up with the Li family?”
“When there’s nothing left to endure, then there’s no need to endure anymore! Beat the hell out of him! Well done!”
The students gradually grew excited.
And Li Mu became even more at ease.
The reason Earth-Walking Nine Steps was considered a low-level movement technique was precisely because it condensed qi into the lower body, making it difficult to gather qi for attacks.
But after Li Mu’s internal art had been remolded by the Celestial Immortal Art, his meridians had become abnormally broad, and his qi circulated with complete ease.
And it seemed that he had also gained a deeper level of understanding of Earth-Walking Nine Steps.
He was no longer bound by that limitation at all!
A mortal-grade general-purpose movement technique had been used by Li Mu to an exquisite, razor-sharp perfection, nimble to the extreme!
Sun Long had become a living target for him to test out his new cultivation method on.
Every strike stayed aimed at Sun Long’s face, beating him until there was not a single patch of intact flesh left on it!
His whole face had swollen to twice its size, all of it bruised blue and purple!
Li Mu made sure not to smash his head too heavily with the added weight, lest he pass out. If that happened, then the fun would be over.
“Li Mu! Stop! Stand right there and don’t move!!”
Li Xiaohong suddenly let out a shrill scream!
Watching Sun Long being toyed with and abused by Li Mu like a beaten dog, Li Xiaohong had finally snapped back to her senses.
She pointed at Li Mu and issued her ultimate command.
The moment she shouted that, all the surrounding students felt their hearts turn cold!
A bleak kind of cold!
What did she mean by that?
Stand there and don’t move? So her meaning was that her boyfriend should be allowed to land a punch to vent his anger?
On what grounds!
Just because your Li family has power and influence?
Someone stronger than you is not even allowed to fight back, and instead has to stand there and let you hit him?
Why??
But under the shocked gaze of all the students, Li Mu really did suddenly stop.
At that moment, Sun Long no longer cared whether he was borrowing a woman’s power or not. He had already gone mad with rage!
He had thrown more than a hundred punches and had not even managed to touch the corner of Li Mu’s clothes once.
Humiliation. A humiliation so great it reached the heavens.
All he wanted was to give Li Mu one solid punch, consequences be damned!
So, taking advantage of Li Mu standing still, he once again sank his body, dropped his elbow, and drew back his right fist like a bow pulled to the full moon.
Armor-Shattering Burst Fist!
Li Mu did not put up any defense at all. If this punch landed, he would definitely be seriously injured.
Sun Long roared as he punched, but a sneer came from directly in front of him.
“Fooled you, idiot!”
Li Mu suddenly sidestepped and dodged his attack once again!
At the same time, an extremely terrifying force poured into the bamboo switch in his hand. Spinning once through the air, he swung it in a full circle and lashed it viciously toward Sun Long’s face!