"Brother Sun, I've had a look at things. Why don't you just forfeit?" The final match of the quarterfinals hadn't even started yet, but Huang Donglai was already trying to talk Sun Yixie into bowing out.
"Huh?" Sun Yixie curled his lip and glared at Huang Donglai. "Motherfucker. Huang, you bastard, are you coming over before my match to talk up the other side again?"
"Aiya, your brother is only looking out for you," Huang Donglai said with earnest gravity. "See for yourself... Little Master Chun Kong and Lin Yuancheng have already met in the semifinals on the left side of the bracket. Over on your right side, Heroine Song has secured one of the top four spots, and the remaining one will go to whoever wins between you and Liu Yikong. Tell me, out of those four, which one can you beat?"
Hearing this, Sun Yixie's expression shifted slightly. Deep down, he knew full well he couldn't beat any of them, but he refused to back down. Feigning calm, he scoffed, "Hmph... All I can say is—I can put up a fight."
"Give it a rest, will you? Fight my ass." Who knew Sun Yixie better than Huang Donglai? One word and he could tell his friend was just being stubborn. "Seriously, take some brotherly advice. Your performance up to now has been decent, and everyone thinks you actually have some real skill. But these four people aren't opponents you can handle by playing dirty. Even if it were me in peak condition, I'd probably get wiped out in seconds. If you go up there and fight, you might just be exposed for what you really are."
"Hmph..." Sun Yixie had originally felt a bit intimidated, but Huang Donglai's prodding had the opposite effect, easing his nerves. He figured he was going to lose either way, so why not go all out? "If that's what you're saying, then I'm definitely fighting! I want to see for myself—we're all human flesh and bone, nobody has three heads and six arms, so just how much better can they be than me?"
As they were talking, the announcer on the platform called the contenders up, and Sun Yixie immediately grabbed his trident and strode over.
Huang Donglai merely lay there, watching Brother Sun ascend the stage with a look that said, *Brother, I've done all I can for you.*
On the other side, Liu Yikong leaped onto the challenge arena in response.
His lightness skill was entirely different from Guo Cong's. Guo Cong had projected an aura like crashing thunder and immovable Mount Tai, but Liu Yikong gave the impression of drifting snow and floating willow catkins, landing without a whisper.
When he leaped onto the stage, both his takeoff and his landing were utterly soundless. Visually, one could not detect any exertion in his jump at all, as if he were not using lightness skill, but rather some supernatural ability to float through the air.
"Please," Liu Yikong said after coming to a halt, cupping his fists in salutation to Sun Yixie first.
Behold this young hero: clad in pristine white robes, a scimitar at his waist, his long hair unpinned and cascading softly to his shoulders. His expression was calm as still water and gentle as jade, his features exceptionally handsome and refined, exuding an effortless elegance with every glance.
At this stage of the martial exam, all the participants had made their appearances, and it was no exaggeration to say that if looks alone decided the matter, Liu Yikong had already won.
Needless to say, facing an opponent whose very face carried built-in mockery, Sun Yixie was only fired up all the more.
"Please!" For this match, Sun Yixie finally held his trident right from the start, adopting a stance that signaled a direct clash of weapons.
Brother Sun's skill with weapons had yet to be displayed, and the spectators below the stage were brimming with anticipation.
Liu Yikong's expression, on the other hand, remained placid. He seemed utterly uninterested in Sun Yixie's martial arts; he merely drew the scimitar at his waist at an unhurried pace, settled into a casual posture, and showed not the slightest hint of fighting spirit in his eyes.
It wasn't that Liu Yikong looked down on Sun Yixie; he genuinely just disliked it...
He disliked practicing martial arts, and he disliked fighting others even more.
From childhood he had held no interest in such things, yet he had no choice, for his father was Liu Jingkong, the Flying Crane of Mount Cang.
It was said that ancestors of the Liu family had once served as imperial guards to the Dali royal house, possessing two secret martial arts passed down within the family: a quasi-first-rate saber technique, the Flying Crane Saber Technique, and a pinnacle lightness skill, the Firmament Soaring Technique.
The Liu family had long sustained its standing in the martial world on these two arts; they were not only their bread and butter, but also a vital family legacy.
Thus, as a descendant of the Liu family, one was born with two missions: first, father a son to carry on the family line; second, pass the Liu family's martial arts to that son, and make sure he handed those same two missions down to his own son.
By the time it reached this generation, Liu Yikong happened to be an only son—and the only son of an only son for four consecutive generations. That meant within three generations, he couldn't find a single male relative even in the collateral branches. Consequently, whether he possessed the interest or liked it or not, he had to inherit his ancestors' mantle.
The greater irony was... he was remarkably gifted in martial arts.
Only eighteen years old, he had already attained ninety percent of his father's mastery in lightness skill; in that single discipline, many sect leaders present might not have been his equal.
Among the younger generation, Huang Donglai was also known for his lightness skill, but compared to Liu Yikong, he fell quite short. After all, the Huang Clan had their Three Excellences and did not focus on lightness skill alone, and on its own merits, the Huang family's lightness skill was not as profound as the Firmament Soaring Technique.
The Huang Clan's lightness skill emphasized variations in body movement and footwork, pursuing instantaneous bursts of speed and bewildering the opponent—vividly speaking, it leaned heavily into standing long jumps and rapid side-to-side zigzags. The Firmament Soaring Technique, by contrast, was the purest form of lightness skill, an art that trampled Newton's grave and abandoned earthly science... at its ultimate stage, one could step on one's own left foot with one's right to alter direction midair or even ascend to the heavens in defiance of gravity.
Furthermore, Liu Yikong's saber technique was quite respectable.
Though the Flying Crane Saber Technique was not overwhelmingly sublime, when paired with a nimble scimitar and executed through the Liu family's lightness skill, its potency easily reached a first-rate level.
Of course, if Miss Song of Shendao Mountain Villa were to evaluate it, the style would be deemed inferior; with her understanding of the blade, merely observing a few forms would allow her to dismantle the Flying Crane Saber Technique completely. Thus, even if Liu Yikong were to advance past this bout, he would almost certainly be no match for Song Zhixiu in the semifinals.
Regardless, the fight had to be fought. Before coming here, Liu Yikong's father had instructed him to do his utmost to bring honor to the family; even if he were to lose, he had to lose gracefully.
*Shing—*
In the flash of an eye, though Liu Yikong's draw appeared deliberate, the split second the scimitar's blade was about to clear the scabbard, he burst forward in an explosive sprint.
To the ringing unsheathing of the blade, the bright silver scimitar flashed with chilly radiance under the sun, tracing a mesmerizing arc of light across the spectators' vision.
Before Sun Yixie could even register the move, a slash struck across his ribs.
Liu Yikong's figure had already flashed past to his rear, smoothly sheathing his weapon as he coolly said, "Is that enough?"
*Clang!—*
Before the words had even settled, the trident in Sun Yixie's hands whirled around in a sweeping blow, slamming hard into Liu Yikong's back. The impact sent him stumbling forward several paces, nearly tumbling off the arena.
*What the fuck?* In that moment, pain was secondary; the shock coursing through Liu Yikong's mind was what truly overwhelmed him.
He had assumed that the single slash had already settled the outcome. The force he applied had been calibrated precisely to inflict a wound that wasn't critically deep, but one that would tear further and bleed continuously if combat went on. Furthermore, his opponent hadn't even been able to react when struck, which proved beyond doubt that slitting his throat would have taken no more than a flick of the wrist.
Liu Yikong assumed... any normal person with an ounce of sense or pride would have conceded.
Never in his wildest dreams did he imagine that Sun Yixie, this bastard, would not only keep fighting, but would swing his trident before his opponent had even finished posing.
"Tsk..." Liu Yikong suppressed the ache and clicked his tongue.
Steadily planting his feet, he swiftly pivoted, but in that very instant, a flurry of trident shadows came plastering right toward his face.
"Ahhh—eat my Duodenum!" Sun Yixie bellowed nonsensical technique names while thrusting his trident in rapid-fire succession at Liu Yikong, who had been pushed back to the arena's edge.
The people of Da Ming had no clue what a "duodenum" was, and by ear alone they couldn't even tell whether he meant an intestine, a length, or a payback... yet nobody lingered on the name.
The spectators below the stage were far more concerned with whether Liu Yikong would be finished off by Sun Yixie due to his earlier carelessness.
After all, apart from a tiny few, no one knew Sun Yixie wore the Body-Protecting Armor. Because his robes were loose, the slash Liu Yikong opened had not exposed what was underneath. Consequently, most people surmised that Sun Yixie had escaped injury through some hardened external martial art or clever evasive maneuver, while others suspected Liu Yikong had overplayed his hand and misjudged the distance, leaving the cut too shallow.
In short, everyone felt Sun Yixie's retaliatory strike was completely fair game. Liu Yikong had turned his back mid-fight to show off and speak, leaving an opening; an opponent was under no obligation to hold back while you delivered a speech.
Only Liu Yikong was left utterly bewildered. His hand had clearly registered the tactile feedback of the blade biting in, and the force behind it had been spot-on. How could this guy surnamed Sun not be bleeding or injured, and instead come charging back full of vigor? Could he know the Iron Cloth Shirt?
Thinking as he dodged, Liu Yikong relied on his peerless lightness skill. Far from being driven off the stage, he maneuvered and weaved gradually to the flank, circling back toward the center of the arena.
Under the relentless assault of trident points, Liu Yikong resembled a willow catkin drifting on the breeze. He had no need to draw his saber to parry; by the sheer agility of subtle, floating shifts in posture, he fluidly evaded every blow.
In truth, had Sun Yixie possessed even slightly refined halberd skills, it wouldn't have been like this. Unfortunately, the Sun Clan's supreme art, the Four Seas Dragon Seeking Halberd, required the practitioner to train standing in waist-deep seawater to make progress, so Sun Yixie had shelved it and never practiced. Right now, his weapon work was nothing more than wildly flailing about.
*What is up with this guy...?* The more Liu Yikong dodged, the stranger it felt. He suddenly felt like he was fighting a layman who knew no martial arts whatsoever. Yet this was already the quarterfinals of the Youth Heroes Assembly; making it this far could not possibly be mere luck.
Doubt breeds hesitation.
Hesitation leads to defeat.
"Hah!" Right as Liu Yikong hesitated, Sun Yixie suddenly leaped half a zhang into the air, cocked his arm like a javelin thrower, and hurled the trident straight at his opponent.
Forget Liu Yikong—even the spectators below found the move comical. *You couldn't hit him while holding the thing, so what makes you think throwing it will land?*
Sure enough, Liu Yikong merely shifted half a step and gave a slight twist of his frame, effortlessly dodging the thrown trident. Having left Sun Yixie's hand, the weapon buried itself diagonally into the arena floor, leaving him barehanded.
Seeing the opponent's barrage grind to a halt after that desperate toss, Liu Yikong thought: *I won't waste any more time tangling with him. Better to be a bit firmer, graze his collarbone with a slash, and put an end to the bout. It's not an injury that won't heal anyway, just one that will take a month or two—a little longer.*
With that thought, he spoke. "Brother Sun..." Looking at Sun Yixie, he placed his hand back on the hilt of his scimitar. As their gazes locked, he stated in a low voice, "...Pardon the offense!"
As the word "offense" left his lips, Liu Yikong tapped his toe against the floor and surged forward over a zhang.
Fast. His blade was fast, but his person was faster still.
In all the world's martial arts, speed alone is invincible.
The gust of the blade swept past fiercely, rustling the fallen leaves on the stage into flight.
Sun Yixie stood rigid. It seemed that, just as when he had been struck before, he was incapable of mounting any reaction.
And yet...
This time, react he did.
Armed with the experience from the first slash, Sun Yixie had seen through it: when Liu Yikong unleashed that lightning-fast rushing charge, he could only strike the middle and upper body. Because the reach of a scimitar was relatively short, keeping his posture unchanged meant he couldn't reach the lower body at all. If he insisted on aiming low, he would have to drastically alter his rushing stance, which would inevitably degrade his sprinting speed. And without that advantage in speed, the charge lost all its purpose; he would be better off fighting from a standstill.
This was indeed one of the flaws in the Flying Crane Saber Technique.
Herein lay the difference between a quasi-first-rate saber technique and a true first-rate one. A first-rate saber art might not be entirely devoid of flaws, but they were scarce, difficult to spot in short order, and tough to exploit even once detected.
A quasi-first-rate art, on the other hand, could match a first-rate art in raw power, but might harbor one or more glaring weaknesses—and once exposed, it was easily targeted.
Though Sun Yixie's speed could not match his opponent's blade, having identified the flaw, he could act preemptively in response...
In that second, Sun Yixie suddenly dropped low. Instead of retreating, he lunged forward into Liu Yikong's assault, hugging the floor as he dove straight for the man's ankles.
This move was a form from the Dragon Dog Fist—Enduring Humiliation to Scrape By. Broadly speaking... it amounted to hurling one's entire body weight into wrapping around the opponent's shins and dragging them down to the floor.
As mentioned before, although this martial art was far from dashing in both name and form, one had to admit it was exceedingly practical and effective.
Liu Yikong had never anticipated such a trick. Not only did his high strike miss entirely, but his own momentum caused him to trip right over Sun Yixie. Still, Young Hero Liu was not about to eat dirt; as he pitched forward face-first, he simply braced with a single hand and rebounded as lightly as a balloon touching down, preparing to swiftly reset his stance.
How could Sun Yixie give him such an opening? He immediately followed with "Dragon Hound Ascends to Heaven," flipping into a handstand with his legs spread, spinning his legs like helicopter blades in a flurry of rotational kicks. At the same time, his hands maintained an iron grip on his opponent's shins, leaving Liu Yikong with nowhere to flee.
Liu Yikong blocked with his left hand, cleanly deflecting the kick aimed at his face, while his right hand whipped the scimitar around to slash at the hollow behind Sun Yixie's other knee.
Sun Yixie was no fool either. Knowing full well that a curved blade held an advantage in close quarters, he was already on guard; before the blade could slice him, he bent and kicked his leg out to knock the strike aside. Seizing the opening as Liu Yikong raised his arm, Sun Yixie slipped a foot beneath the man's armpit and twisted his ankle with both hands, smoothly locking him into an ankle lock from Xiequandao.
Trapped in this joint lock, Liu Yikong was forced to go down with Sun Yixie, but with a weapon in hand, he feared nothing. Relieving the pressure on his joint as he hit the ground, Liu Yikong flipped the scimitar from his right hand to his left, shifted his posture slightly, and raised the blade in another sweeping slash, once again forcing Sun Yixie to break the grapple.
Sun Yixie scrambled away like a monkey, his hand catching the shaft of the trident he had planted earlier. With a pull and a roll, he broke free of the scuffle and sprang atop the butt of the shaft, perching in a crouch over a meter off the ground.
Having fought to this point, Liu Yikong genuinely felt a sliver of admiration. This back-and-forth contest, where bodies were played like chess pieces move for move, actually sparked a trace of interest in martial dueling within him for the very first time in his life.
Yet the victor remained undecided; now was not the time for such thoughts.
A breath later, Liu Yikong executed a carp leap, springing to his feet. Keeping his eyes fixed on Sun Yixie perched above, he gripped his saber and charged once more.
Just at that moment...
Sun Yixie shifted his body. A beam of brilliant, golden autumn afternoon sunlight struck down from right behind him.
Normally, Liu Yikong would have had the sun at his back, and he wouldn't go out of his way to look up at the sun anyway. But now their positions had switched, and Sun Yixie was perched right on the butt of the angled trident shaft, looking down from above. It was as if Sun Yixie had deliberately lured Liu Yikong into this precise spot and angle, momentarily shielding the sunlight with his body to create a sudden flash of contrasting light...
*Damn it!* Pierced by the glare, Liu Yikong instinctively shut his eyes, thinking to himself that things had gone wrong.
Sun Yixie had waited for this moment for ages. Letting out a barking laugh, he roared, "Haha! Solar Flare!"
The audience below was stunned. *Blinding someone with the sun actually gets a technique name?!*
Yet Sun Yixie's combo wasn't over. Capitalizing on the brief moment Liu Yikong was blinded, he charged down from above, unleashing "Flying Dog in the Sky" followed immediately by "Death Charge," beating Liu Yikong back step after step until he was completely unable to fend him off.
Finally, their clash reached the platform's edge once more. Sun Yixie locked his arms around his opponent's waist and bellowed, "Longevity Equal to Heaven and Earth!" before dragging Liu Yikong down with him off the stage.
In the end, pinned beneath Brother Sun's "Mount Tai Body Slam," the young hero Liu, who had hit the ground first, lay there... and surrendered all resistance.
Liu Yikong wasn't heavily injured. It wasn't that he couldn't fight on—he simply didn't want to anymore...
In a sense, he truly was bested. Regardless of what Sun Yixie's actual martial skills were, the fact that he had been driven off the platform in such an ungraceful, disheveled state made him feel that refusing to concede would only mean losing his composure and bringing shame upon the Liu family.
And so... Sun Yixie advanced another round, claiming a spot among the top four.
And his opponent for the next round would be the sole female heroine among the quarterfinalists—the eldest young miss of Liaodong's Shendao Mountain Villa, Song Zhixiu, the "Peak-Ascending Saber."
Chapter 51