Fist to Flesh!

Sun Zhen's eyes grew burning hot. His purple robes billowed without any wind, snapping fiercely in midair. Li Guanqi shrugged. "In that case, I'll play with you for a bit." As he spoke, he did not reveal his true cultivation level, instead holding it at the peak of the middle Void Refining Realm, on par with his opponent. Li Guanqi gazed at the man with an inscrutable look. Truth be told, among cultivators of the same realm, he rarely encountered anyone as young as himself. Even Ye Feng and Cao Yan had reached their current heights only by leaning on the Great Xia Sword Sect, extraordinary talent, and inhuman willpower. Even so, the aura Sun Zhen displayed was far deeper and thicker than that of Ye Feng and the others. One glance was enough to tell he possessed an extraordinarily solid foundation and had never rushed his breakthroughs. A pair of scarlet-gold gloves materialized over Sun Zhen's hands. Clearly, he did not intend to fight to the death just yet. Li Guanqi's eyes remained enigmatic. He rolled his wrists, and as his blood and qi surged within, what sounded like a dragon's roar resonated from his body! The man started at the sound, but Li Guanqi had already vanished from before his eyes! *Thud!* A terrifying, muffled boom rang out. The ground beneath Li Guanqi's feet caved inward by several zhang, and the entire main sect hall of Baizhang Prison began to wobble precariously. Everyone took to the air just as the purple-gold palace collapsed with a deafening crash. Off to the side, Wei Qian clutched his severed arm and looked down at the ruins, a pang of heartache flashing through his eyes. Yet faced with two colossal powerhouses locked in combat, he dared not utter a single word. Qianqiusui hovered on the other side of the sky, keeping her distance from Wei Qian. If he harbored any malicious thoughts, she wouldn't even have time to flee. *Boom!* Two figures slammed violently together. Their movements were blindingly fast, their fists raining down like a torrential storm. In the blink of an eye, hundreds of blows had been traded! *Bang! Bang! Bang!* Fist clashed against fist, kicking up howling astral winds! Rifts tore through the surrounding space as the two blurred into motion. Constantly shifting positions, every part of their bodies became a lethal weapon. Sun Zhen shifted from fist to fingers, his five digits slicing like blades as he swept across Li Guanqi's eyes in a cloud-hand arc. Li Guanqi shifted his footwork, snapping backward by three inches. The moment he evaded the strike, he whipped his fist over in a backhanded chop, slamming it squarely into Sun Zhen's collarbone. *Crack!* The collarbone snapped. Spiritual light flared beneath Sun Zhen's feet as he shot backward by more than a zhang. He cursed under his breath, "Damn it! He's blind!" Whenever he fought someone in the past, that cloud-hand strike would inevitably force the opponent to shut their eyes. Even if it failed to blind them, it would seize the initiative. But Li Guanqi was blind to begin with... That trick had backfired completely. Sun Zhen shoved his right palm upward against his collarbone, snapping the bone back into place. Through his senses, Li Guanqi was already bearing down on him like a swimming dragon, dual fists thrusting straight for his face. With no time to think, Sun Zhen lunged forward instead of retreating! Blood and qi surged as his muscles bulged. His left foot planted forward in an empty stance. Body following his hips, his right foot stepped in deep, and he drove his right elbow forward in a brutal leaning strike! The ferocious elbow smash blasted Li Guanqi's fists aside, leaving two burning, bloody gashes across his forearms. Li Guanqi jolted his fists, and his right knee shot upward in a savage drive beneath the elbow. The force was so immense that the surrounding void abruptly caved in! Cracks spiderwebbed through the air. Sun Zhen was launched backward by the sheer ferocity of that rising knee! The exchange of hand-to-hand combat left the onlookers' hearts pounding with terror. Every breath brought a flurry of phantom blows, and the seamless transitions between maneuvers broadened everyone's horizons. Li Guanqi stood rooted in place, slightly trembling. His right knee had nearly been crippled by that strike. His kneecap was riddled with hairline fractures! That close-range elbow strike had been blindingly fast, blowing past his guard and aiming straight for his chest. If it had landed flush, his heart likely would have exploded! Furthermore, the moment the man noticed his knee rising to intercept, he had converted his forward momentum into a downward smash! Li Guanqi's expression turned far more solemn. This opponent was putting considerable pressure on him... Both men confined their immense power to the space of inches, making the fight look like a brawl between mortal martial artists. Yet only they knew how perilous those few seconds had truly been. *Whoosh!* After a brief pause of several breaths, the two charged each other once more! Li Guanqi's boxing style was fierce, wide, and sweeping, whereas Sun Zhen's technique was orderly, fluid, and versatile. Paired with nimble footwork, he fought Li Guanqi to a standstill, conceding very little ground. After half an incense stick burned down, both of their robes were shredded to tatters. Sun Zhen's face was covered in blood, his nose broken and flattened. Li Guanqi's cheeks were scored with bloody gashes from astral winds, his entire body covered in bruises. Sun Zhen's chest heaved violently. Biting his fingertip, he slashed it across his left arm! The clear streak of blood twisted slightly, and the man's skin began to harden like stone. "Li Wuji! Enough playing around. It's time you showed some real skill!" "Ancient Method: Mountain Chart!" *Hum!* In an instant, the void across a thousand zhang seemed weighed down by colossal mountains. The suffocating, heavy pressure made it impossible for the onlookers to breathe, prompting them to fly even farther away. Li Guanqi, however, stood motionless on the spot and muttered in his sea of consciousness. "Sword spirit, how about teaching me a fist technique?" "This fist-to-flesh feeling is actually pretty satisfying..." The moment his thought finished, a flash of inspiration surfaced in Li Guanqi's mind—a boxing art known as *Firmament Shatterer*! Watching Sun Zhen charge toward him, Li Guanqi muttered under his breath, "Giving it to me right now? I don't exactly have the time for this!" Yet even as he spoke, he was already beginning to comprehend the Firmament Shatterer technique. The core formula of *Firmament Shatterer* contained the essence of the boxing style. It began with a thousand-layered wave, converged into the might of ten thousand mountains, and ultimately attained the realm of shattering the firmament with the fury of thunder. *Heart clear as a mirror, inner and outer unified; by the might of the fist, tear through the void and shatter the highest heavens!* The essence of the entire technique comprised only three punches, which made Li Guanqi's eyes light up. *Flowing clouds shift to shadows; shatter the firmament, tear the void.* *Gather profundity within; reveal sharpness without.* *Heart like still water; intent like falling snow.* *Move like thunder; spirit piercing the vast expanse!* *A thousand waves surge; fists rise like the tide!* *Ten thousand mountains descend; momentum like the sky collapsing!* *Ten thousand bolts of thunder; a fist to cleave the heavens!* Before he could contemplate it further, Sun Zhen, empowered by his body-tempering secret art, had already closed the distance! He stepped forward and threw a straight, thunderous punch! Eyes closed, Li Guanqi tilted his head and swayed his upper body to evade. A piercing sonic boom tore through the air, the whipped-up gale tossing his hair and gouging bleeding cuts into his ear. Sun Zhen slammed his foot against the void in a vicious, sweeping scoop aimed low. Li Guanqi lifted his leg to evade, then lashed out with a front kick toward the man's chest. Yet Sun Zhen seemed prepared. Pulling his arms back in a crescent embrace, he locked onto Li Guanqi's left leg. His right leg, having missed the low sweep, whipped across to scythe toward Li Guanqi's ankle! Li Guanqi gave a cold inward snort. Twisting his body, he flipped upside down in midair, his left palm lightly bracing against the void as his right leg whipped through the air like a whip! Dragon Elephant Prison-Suppressing Art unleashed to the fifth tier! This midair roundhouse sliced through the void like a mountain-cleaving greataxe, arriving in the span of a single breath! *Boom! Bang!* The kick landed flush against Sun Zhen's neck. The colossal impact blasted him backward, his body blurring into a streak of afterimages before plummeting from the sky and crashing violently into the earth below! Li Guanqi cursed in annoyance. "Did you really think your body tempering could compare to mine?" Shaking his head, he pushed the Dragon Elephant Prison-Suppressing Art straight to its absolute peak! The void around Li Guanqi shuddered and fractured, unable to bear the immense force. Having just gleaned the first fist of Firmament Shatterer, Li Guanqi squeezed his knuckles, looked down at Sun Zhen lying in the deep crater, and crooked a finger at him. "Come on. Let's keep going."