This bout was Sun Yixie's first time making a move before fellow members of the martial world. Given the various rumors he had generated previously and his strength that had remained an eternal mystery, this clash had undoubtedly become the focal match of the second round.
Brother Sun himself felt no pressure at all, but his opponent was under immense pressure; after all, the man had no idea what to expect...
The opponent pitted against him this round was named Li Yuan, a twelfth-generation disciple of the Iron Fist Sect.
This Iron Fist Sect could be considered a fairly middling sect in today's martial world. Its first-generation sect leader had trained at Shaolin, originally a secular disciple of Mount Song's Shaolin Temple. Later, he passed the Bronze Men Formation and descended the mountain to make his own way in the jianghu. Several years after that, building upon the Shaolin Five Forms Fist, he comprehended a twenty-four-form "Eight Forms Fist," whereupon he established his own sect and took on disciples.
Passed down to the present day, the Iron Fist Sect had nearly a century of history.
Among the twelfth-generation disciples, Li Yuan was undoubtedly gifted with higher talent and the best martial arts; however, he had not been practicing martial arts for very long. He had only begun practicing at age eleven, meaning that by this year, he had only trained for seven years.
That is to say, assuming he began generating internal force after about six months or a year into his training, then judging purely by martial cultivation, Li Yuan was genuinely not as strong as Sun Yixie.
For the "five years of internal force" Sun Yixie had gotten for free earlier came from Iron Monk Yihuai—extremely pure, orthodox Chan Buddhist internal force. Add to that the enhancement of his Reversing Heaven and Earth Formula, and the actual might he could exert was bound to be vastly superior to the five years of cultivation a normal young person attained from scratch.
If you listeners still don't understand, I'll sum it up using the concept mentioned earlier: Brother Sun's internal energy boasted high "purity."
Of course, a martial contest is not merely a contest of internal energy; techniques are also crucial.
In *The Smiling, Proud Wanderer*, virtually all the opponents Linghu Chong encountered had internal energy superior to his, yet by relying on the Nine Swords of Dugu, he frequently overcame the strong from a position of weakness. That was because in that world, the Nine Swords of Dugu was the ultimate answer to the "Sharp Sword Realm," remaining invincible in technique by "overcoming form with formlessness."
Applying this to the duel between Li Yuan and Sun Yixie, although Li Yuan suffered a slight disadvantage in internal force, as long as he held an edge in technique, he still had a chance at victory.
"For this bout, Li Yuan of the Iron Fist Sect faces Sun Yixie of Hangzhou!"
With an announcement from the host, the duel was about to begin.
This lad Li Yuan had thick eyebrows, large eyes, a straight nose, and a square jaw—an appearance that looked spirited and sharp. Today, he wore a crisp white martial tunic with a red sash tied at his waist, neat and nimble. The moment he heard his name called from the stage, he dashed forward in a single stride, stomped off the ground, and flew onto the challenge arena.
On the other side, when Sun Yixie, who was slumping in a "recliner," heard his name called to take the stage, he lazily scooped up the trident propped beside his chair, and then bellowed toward the arena:
"Aaaargh—!"
Just as everyone thought he was about to display some astonishing lightness skill, they saw... this fellow jog forward two steps, plant the trident into the ground, and perform a "pole vault," barely managing to swing himself from his original spot onto the stage with the trident's support.
Witnessing this spectacle, the spectating martial artists all wore bewildered expressions, unable to tell whether he was deliberately concealing his strength or merely playing dumb.
On the judges' bench, however, Shen Youran's expression did not change in the slightest—he remained firmly convinced that Sun Yixie was concealing his strength.
The reason Sect Leader Shen harbored such a misunderstanding was that Sun Yixie had told him long ago: "This little brother once received 'guidance' from Iron Monk Yihuai in a Mountain God Temple, and was fortunate enough to have a few years of cultivation imparted by the senior."
This explanation was, of course, something Sun and Huang had agreed upon beforehand, half-truth and half-fabrication. Through this ambiguous description, beyond explaining why Sun Yixie had suddenly acquired several years of internal force, it also allowed them to attribute every martial arts technique Sun Yixie used from then on to Yihuai's teachings, thereby concealing the fact that the Sun Clan possessed other peerless martial arts... In any case, as long as Shen Youran never met Yihuai in person, there was no way to verify their story.
"Brother, please." After stepping onto the stage, Sun Yixie immediately set the trident down again, and only then cupped his bare hands in a salute to greet his opponent.
Li Yuan was already confused and under pressure regarding his opponent's strength; now, seeing that the other had discarded his weapon and intended to fight barehanded, he grew even more nervous.
"Please." But courtesy still had to be observed. Li Yuan immediately returned the salute, followed by stepping back half a pace and settling into his stance.
Sun Yixie narrowed his small eyes and swept a glance over Li Yuan, discerning from his expression and bearing that his heart was wavering. Smiling inwardly, he turned sideways and struck a stance as well.
Behold: Sun Yixie had his left foot forward and his right foot behind, his lead toe stepping forward slightly past the shoulder line, his center of gravity seemingly leaning slightly forward yet actually held along the central axis of his body; his left shoulder was slightly lowered, left fist held before him like a shield, right shoulder relaxed, right fist clenched with the knuckles roughly level with his chin, forearm guarding his chest.
This exceptionally refined stance—ubiquitous in modern mixed martial arts—was utterly unprecedented in the martial world of Da Ming, for it diverged fundamentally from ancient martial arts rooted in the horse stance.
"Hiss... What kind of stance is that?"
"Sect Leader Wang, what do you make of this?"
"It's the first time I've ever seen it either... This... this makes no sense at all."
"Absurd! Without sinking into a horse stance, where does the power come from? Won't he topple over from a single blow?"
Sun Yixie had not even made a move yet; merely striking an opening stance threw the crowd of martial world elders below into heated discussion, especially the masters renowned for fist and palm arts, who reacted just like a group of ancient astronomy enthusiasts hearing about heliocentrism for the first time.
On the stage, Li Yuan was even more baffled. He wondered what kind of fist art this guy surnamed Sun was trying to use. Was he sure he wasn't just here to clown around?
As a matter of fact, he wasn't...
This stance was something Sun Yixie had worked out based on his memories from another universe of a few manga and highlight reels of combat sports competitions, combined with a bit of practical training.
He had discovered that using this posture as a basic opening stance allowed him to bring out the best in his Dragon Dog Fist, which excelled in unorthodox tricks.
It had to be said that while Sun Yixie was slower than average on the orthodox path of diligent study and bitter training, when it came to forging crooked, underhanded paths out of his own understanding... he was truly a monstrous genius.
In the next second, upon the arena, Sun Yixie struck first. As if teleporting, he closed the distance to Li Yuan in a flash.
Backed by internal force, he could spring forward in a bizarre manner impossible for modern mixed martial artists—not only at staggering speed, but maintaining his exact stance after the movement.
This peculiar technique, melding ancient and modern to harness the best of both, caught Li Yuan completely off guard.
Li Yuan was just about to throw a punch to counter, only to find... the toe of Sun Yixie's left foot suddenly stomped down onto one of his feet. Immediately following that, Sun Yixie's right fist shot out like lightning in a jab that struck Li Yuan square in the face.
This was also an insight Brother Sun had gained during his own training: in this stance, as long as the toe, shoulder, and eye remained aligned, wherever the lead toe could step, his punch was guaranteed to reach.
"What the fuck?" Li Yuan was left completely dazed after being hit. Although the punch wasn't heavy, such lightning-fast striking was something he had never seen before, and stepping on his foot like that... was likewise unseen in orthodox martial routines rooted in horse stances.
*Smack!*
By the time Li Yuan's counter landed, Sun Yixie had already pulled his foot back with the momentum, raising his left forearm like a shield to block. Using the force of his opponent's blow, he sprang backward, effortlessly deflecting the power of Li Yuan's attack and putting distance between them once more.
Li Yuan had delivered this move in haste to begin with; add to that having his foot stomped on and taking a fist to the face, the strike carried only sixty to seventy percent of its power. Now that it had been neutralized like this, his effort had gone entirely to waste. Meanwhile, the punch he had taken to the face still throbbed faintly, dealing a heavy blow to his confidence.
"Heh..." After exchanging that single move, Sun Yixie could not help chuckling, thinking to himself that this opponent wasn't much after all; it seemed he was simply too strong.
Yet his smile vanished quickly, because after that brief exchange, Li Yuan was no longer confused. He straightforwardly placed himself in the position of the "underdog," and immediately resolved to unleash his trump card.
*Thud, thud, thud...*
A breath later, hurried footsteps echoed across the arena. Immediately afterward, Li Yuan channeled all the energy in his body and leaped skyward into midair, diving diagonally down toward Sun Yixie in a lethal pounce.
The so-called Eight Forms Fist had added the swallow, elephant, and rat to the foundation of the five forms—tiger, crane, dragon, snake, and monkey. Among them, the twenty-fourth form, "Perils Abound," was the final killer move of the art. Because this move was launched on the premise of "sacrificing oneself," it was generally brought out only in a desperate bid when one knew one was outmatched in martial skill.
Right now, Li Yuan intended to pop his ultimate move right away and go all out against Brother Sun.
Never did he expect that the moment he initiated his move, Sun Yixie had already read the signs in his eyes that this fellow was about to risk his life. Thus, in that critical split second, Brother Sun did something nobody anticipated.
He... actually picked up the trident he had discarded at the edge of the arena earlier.
Seeing this move, Li Yuan was fucking shocked, but it was already too late. He was already suspended in midair; pulling back his attack was impossible.
And so, on his way down, this poor brother was swatted out of the air by a sweep of the trident from Sun Yixie, who had already retreated to the arena's edge, crashing straight down off the stage and tumbling head over heels.
Naturally, Sun Yixie had pulled his strike, hitting not with the sharp edge of the trident but with its flat surface, striking like someone swatting with a flyswatter. Consequently, Li Yuan merely lay there on the ground for a while after landing, suffering no torn flesh or broken bones.
Unfortunately, Li Yuan no longer had the strength to fight on.
When the host stepped forward to announce the result of this bout, many people wanted to curse Sun Yixie as despicable and shameless. But upon closer reflection... it seemed Sun Yixie had never stated from the start that he intended to fight barehanded. He had merely brought the trident onto the stage and set it on the ground temporarily; he had never said he wouldn't use it. It was just that his initial "pole vault" and the act of putting down the trident had led everyone, Li Yuan included, to misunderstand his intentions.
Thus, even though many felt this fellow's victory was somewhat ignoble, they could only accept it; after all, he hadn't broken any rules.
Just like that, Sun Yixie cleared the second round with utter ease. Moreover, he still hadn't revealed much of his martial arts, and his strength... remained an enigma.
Chapter 45