Book 4, Chapter 179: Defeat In One Punch

Some of the onlookers were shocked when they saw Long Xiang’s transformation. His appearance gave off the feeling that he was no longer human.

Most of the leaders were calm, though, because they knew that martial arts masters could not be treated like normal people.

When the messenger in the airship saw Long Xiang’s appearance, he gulped and snuck a look at Pulabacarl.

Master Pulabacarl is also huge...

Suddenly, the thought of Long Xiang growing so much taller was something he could accept.

Chen Chuan observed his opponent. Long Xiang’s body wasn’t the only part of him that changed. His biofield had also expanded. Clearly, his physical strength had gained a significant boost too.

That was fine, though. When he fought against Wei Guochan, the man had manifested six arms. Chen Chuan couldn’t tell who was stronger, though. Yao Zhiyi had told him that his brand of refined force was the perfect counter for Wei Guochan’s technique focused way of fighting. He had made it hard for Wei Guochan to use his strengths.

Raw power wasn’t the only thing that determined whether a person was strong or not. Their battle tactics and performance also played a large role, but there was also another thing that couldn’t be ignored.

While Chen Chuan watched, Long Xiang clenched his fists. Bright blue light shot out of them. In an instant, the light crossed several hundred meters toward him.

Boom!

Chen Chuan stood still. With a casual fling of his arm, he made the dense spirit flames scatter. Then, he saw Long Xiang closing in on him.

With his eyes fixed on the martial arts master, Chen Chuan kicked forward. This time, though, Long Xiang was ready. He brought his fist up to meet his leg. The bottom of Chen Chuan’s foot slammed into Long Xiang’s fist, and the flickering flames around them melted together.

Long Xiang’s face twisted a bit, as if he was trying to draw out every ounce of energy in his body to push Chen Chuan away, but as his momentum disappeared, he still wasn’t able to do it. Instead, as his refined force grew weaker, a power he couldn’t resist slammed into him, and he was thrown back again.

Once Chen Chuan shoved him away, he spread his arms out and leaned forward.

In real fights, battle performance did play a role, but only when the two participants were similar in terms of strength and speed. If the two differed greatly, it lost all meaning.

Chen Chuan formed an acute angle with the ground, and the leg he used to perform the kick swung back and slammed down on the ground. With that force, he shot behind the airborne Long Xiang. Without even a hint of mercy, he threw his fist forward.

Long Xiang could only somewhat turn his body to the side to avoid Chen Chuan’s attack. However, this didn’t mean that Chen Chuan missed him. He adjusted his body as well, and his fist landed solidly on Long Xiang’s stomach. Two blinding balls of light exploded forth. Long Xiang’s body folded, and he was sent flying back.

Chen Chuan landed. With another stomp, the ground underneath cracked, and he caught up to Long Xiang again. When he was above him, he threw another punch down.

When Long Xiang was hit a second time, the aquamarine flames struggled to defend him. Once Chen Chuan threw his third punch, the light scattered.

Boom!

Dirt and dust exploded upward, and he slammed into the ground.

Chen Chuan landed lightly and looked into the large pit. Despite Long Xiang taking the form of the divine scaled dragon, the only difference Chen Chuan noticed was that he could now let loose and not worry as much about the consequences.

The scattered dirt and shattered stones rolled up and jumped out of the pit. The tremors only stopped after a long while, and scattered dirt covered the area.

Long Xiang lay in the pit with dirt covering most of his body. It looked like his limbs had been welded into the pit itself. One of his arms was bent unnaturally. His stomach, along with his ribs had sunk in, so it looked as if a part of it had been dug out.

The airship crew did their best to stabilize the signal and transfer the video footage back to Central City.

Once the signal cleared up, the people in the city were filled with shock and disbelief. Some even felt their skin crawl.

They had thought that this would be a fight on equal grounds or that Chen Chuan would be at a disadvantage. After all, he had only just reached the Fourth Limit and couldn’t perfectly control his power yet.

They had never expected Long Xiang to be the one to lose. He had been at a disadvantage from the very start. Chen Chuan had practically crushed him.

***

The messenger was sweating bullets. He tugged at his sweat-soaked shirt and turned to Pulabacarl before sucking in a deep breath. Then, he asked tentatively, “Master... did Lead Investigator Chen win?”

“That depends on how far these two intend to bring the fight. Right now, neither won, and neither lost,” Pulabacarl said with a smile.

The messenger was stunned. Even now, the victor had yet to be decided?

Pulabacarl watched Chen Chuan. There was practically no dust on him. He looked almost the same as he did before the start of the fight, so Pulabacarl couldn’t really tell whether Chen Chuan was fighting at full strength.

He sighed. “Lead Investigator Chen has surpassed my expectations. I didn’t think that his foundation would be this solid. It seems like he had gathered a lot of power before he reached the Fourth Limit.”

The messenger didn’t quite understand what he meant, but he noticed movement on the screen, and he turned his attention to it.

***

Something was happening to Long Xiang. Chen Chuan could see tough scales growing on his skin to cover it. His nails also grew sharper and thicker. His body became larger, and all his injuries were healed.

Then, he sat up. Most of his protective gear was damaged, but scales resembling armor covered his body. Certain parts were even twisted in a manner that made it clear that they were made of mutated tissue. It looked like armor from the old era.

When Long Xiang stood up again, he was taller than Chen Chuan while standing in the pit. By now, he was more than six meters tall. His spirit flames had scattered from the exchange of blows earlier, but had now gathered back again. Judging by the intensity of the fire, they were stronger as well. When Long Xiang looked at Chen Chuan again, there was a furious light in them that hadn’t been present before.

Chen Chuan met his gaze calmly.

After a brief standoff, Long Xiang intended to attack again, but before he could move, Chen Chuan vanished. He leapt forward to throw a fist at Long Xiang’s face.

Long Xiang brought his arm up to block it, but the fist pushed his arm back and slammed it into his head. His biofield shattered with a loud crack, and he was thrown back. Before he could regain his footing, a second punch slammed into his chest. Their spirit flames clashed, and the aquamarine flames swayed violently, like they were about to go out in the face of violent wind.

Long Xiang bent his back, though that was entirely against his will. At this point, Chen Chuan delivered his third attack. It was Sanshou’s Coiling Palm Lift. The base of his palm rammed into Long Xiang’s unprotected chin, and he was thrown out of the pit. He flew in an arc before slamming into the ground far away.

Chen Chuan stayed in place for a bit before clenching his fist. White smoke rose from his arm and fist like steam. The golden-white light looked like it was about to get stronger as well.

“Huff... Stop... Hahaha! Stop fighting... Cough... Let’s stop here...”

Long Xiang quickly waved at Chen Chuan for him to stop. The fierce glare in his eyes faded away, and the scales as well as the mutated tissue on his skin disappeared. Slowly, he returned to his original form, and the stretched and tattered clothes hung off of him loosely.

Chen Chuan didn’t continue attacking after seeing this. The white smoke faded away, and only a faint glow remained around him.

Long Xiang took a moment to catch his breath. Once he recovered from his injuries, he sat up and patted his head before laughing. “I was thinking about showing you my form and sparring a bit before calling it quits, but I ended up getting caught in the moment...”

While manifesting his other form could make him stronger, he couldn’t quite control his emotions. That was because his mind would get stronger, and his personality would start resembling that of a scaled dragon. It was a con of this path and a price he had to pay for its power.

He hadn’t expected that he’d be unable to defeat Chen Chuan even like this. It shocked him, but at the same time, he thanked his lucky stars for deciding to be careful and choosing the friendly approach.

When he looked at Chen Chuan again, there was a hint of wariness in his gaze. When they met, he had wanted to guide Chen Chuan a bit as a more experienced martial arts master. Now, he decided that there was no need to do that.

It was all too clear that if it had been a fight to the death, Chen Chuan could have killed him.

Even though Long Xiang hadn’t used his full strength or the refined training faction’s secret techniques, who was to say that Chen Chuan was fighting at full strength? Besides, Chen Chuan was part of the purity faction, so he should have access to its powerful secret techniques too.

“I think the ones watching saw all that they wanted to know. I’m going to ask the municipal government to carry out their promise,” he said sincerely.

Chen Chuan adjusted his hat and nodded. “You should have been unable to fight at full strength today because we had spectators. Let’s spar again in the future, Mr. Long.”

Then, he walked away.

Long Xiang twisted his body a bit, and cracking sounds came from within it. His lips twitched. He watched Chen Chuan leave, then shook his head. This task was too difficult. It almost got him killed. He had to ask the faction to give him more subsidies for this.

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