chsdbacks Chapter 79 Testing
Chapter 79 Testing
Ma Cheng stopped talking and charged forward again.
The two exchanged seven or eight more moves, each one a direct clash.
Ma Cheng's Iron Sand Palm was indeed formidable, its power fierce and capable of creating craters in the sand with each strike. However, Lin Yan's bones were harder, his blood and energy were stronger, and his stamina was greater.
After exchanging more than a dozen blows, Ma Cheng's palm strikes began to weaken.
His palm was in unbearable pain. Iron Palm is a practice of internal strength, unlike martial artists who improve their physical strength through techniques during the Body Tempering Realm. If he continued to fight head-on like this, his palm bones would probably be cracked.
Lin Yan had been waiting for this moment.
Ma Cheng struck again, but Lin Yan didn't catch it. Instead, he dodged to the side, grabbed Ma Cheng's right wrist with his left hand and pulled it outward, while pressing his right palm onto Ma Cheng's shoulder joint.
Layered waves, triple.
Ma Cheng's right arm hung limply, and his shoulder was dislocated.
He grunted, and tried to retaliate with his left palm, but Lin Yan had already retreated.
"You lost," Lin Yan said.
Ma Cheng gritted his teeth, raised his left palm halfway, and then lowered it again.
His right arm was immobile, so even if he struck out with his left palm, he couldn't hurt Lin Yan.
Vice Minister Zhou raised the flag: "Lin Yan, victory!"
On the stands, Crown Prince Li Zhengxin put down his teacup, a slight smile playing on his lips.
Steward Feng leaned closer: "Your Highness, General Lin has won."
"I know," Li Zhengxin said. "Who should we arrange for him in the next match?"
Steward Feng was taken aback: "Didn't His Highness say he couldn't persuade him to sign the contract?"
Li Zhengxin picked up his teacup and said calmly, "I just want to know how far he can go."
After the first round, Lin Yan returned to the east stand.
Xiong Kuo handed him the knife, and Sun Dayong handed him a bowl of water.
"General, well done." Sun Dayong grinned.
"That's just the first round." Lin Yan took a sip of water and handed the bowl back to Sun Dayong. "There are three more rounds to come."
He sat down, opened the tournament rules, and looked at the list of opponents for the next round.
The quarterfinal matchups are out. His opponent is the commander of the Left Guard Battalion, surnamed Liu, named Liu Wu, who has reached the Great Perfection of True Qi Realm and practices military swordsmanship.
Lin Yan closed the document, leaned back in her chair, and closed her eyes.
In the match against Ma Cheng just now, he only used 70% of his strength. He didn't want to reveal all his cards in the first round.
But even with 70% of his strength, he had already caught the attention of many people in the stands.
"General Lin."
Steward Feng walked over and sat down next to him. "His Highness asked me to ask you a question: are you confident about the next round?"
Lin Yan opened his eyes and glanced at Steward Feng.
Manager Feng's expression was natural, but Lin Yan's habits developed in Zhenbeiguan made him wary of this naturalness.
"Yes," Lin Yan said.
"That's good." Manager Feng stood up, then sat down again, as if he had something else to say.
"Steward Feng, please speak frankly."
Steward Feng hesitated for a moment, then lowered his voice: "His Highness said that the opponents in the second and third rounds might be stronger than expected, so that you can be mentally prepared."
Lin Yan stared intently at Manager Feng, but Manager Feng avoided his gaze.
"Understood," Lin Yan said.
Manager Feng stood up and left.
Sun Dayong leaned closer: "General, what did that eunuch say?"
"The opponent in the next round might be very strong."
"Isn't that obvious? They've already made it to the round of 16, how could they not be strong?"
Lin Yan didn't say anything, pulled out the knife, looked at the blade, and then put it back in.
The second round is in the afternoon.
Just past noon, the sun was blazing, and the sand on the drill ground was scorching hot.
Lin Yan stood in the circle, with Liu Wu standing opposite him.
Liu Wu was half a head taller than him, broad-shouldered and thick-waisted, with a thick-backed machete hanging at his waist. He looked at Lin Yan and grinned.
"General Lin, you fought well this morning. But Ma Cheng only knows Iron Palm, nothing else. I'm different from him."
Lin Yan did not respond.
Liu Wu drew his machete, the blade of which was twice as wide as an ordinary knife, and the back of the blade was as thick as a little finger.
"start!"
Liu Wu's blade slashed down, the wind from the blade carrying sand that hit Lin Yan's face.
Lin Yan drew his sword to parry, and the two swords clashed, sparks flying.
Liu Wu was much stronger than Ma Cheng, and when he slashed down, Lin Yan's hand went numb from the impact.
But Lin Yan did not retreat. Instead, he swung his sword back and used the fourth move of the [Mysterious Blade Technique], the slashing sword move.
Liu Wu parried with his sword, and the two swords clashed again.
The two exchanged blows in the center of the training ground, each blow a hard clash.
On the stands, Steward Feng leaned close to the Crown Prince's ear again.
"Your Highness, General Lin is having a harder time this battle than he did this morning."
"Hmm." Li Zhengxin held his teacup, his eyes fixed on the arena. "Liu Wu is at the Great Perfection of True Qi Realm. He has been practicing for a full fifteen years. His foundation is stronger than Ma Cheng's. If Lin Yan wants to win, he must show his true skills."
In the arena, Liu Wu swung his sword down again.
Lin Yan didn't take the blow head-on. Instead, he sidestepped and slid to Liu Wu's left side, slashing at his waist with his sword.
Liu Wu reacted quickly, swinging his cleaver to block, but Lin Yan's cleaver changed direction before he could block it.
Wind-blown style.
The blade bypassed the cleaver and slashed towards Liu Wu's neck.
Liu Wu leaned back, the blade grazing his chin and shaving off a few strands of his beard.
Liu Wu touched his chin, looked at the blood on his fingers, and his expression changed.
"Excellent swordsmanship."
He gripped the machete tightly again, but this time he didn't chop. Instead, he used the machete like a stick, sweeping, thrusting, and parrying. His moves changed, but his strength remained the same.
Lin Yan exchanged more than twenty blows with him and gradually figured out his style.
Liu Wu's swordsmanship looked rough, but in fact, he held back three-tenths of his strength in every strike, ready to change his move at any moment. This wasn't a military fighting style; it was the way of fighting in the martial arts world.
"Weren't you a soldier before?" Lin Yan asked.
Liu Wu swept his sword across the room: "I used to work for a security escort agency."
No wonder.
Lin Yan stopped fighting with him.
He seized the opening when Liu Wu changed his move, slashing his cleaver to the end before pulling it back for the next strike. This opening was very short, but enough for Lin Yan to do something.
He channeled the force of the overlapping waves into the blade and slashed at the back of Liu Wu's cleaver.
The triple force combined caused Liu Wu's cleaver to fly out of his hand and embed itself in the sand three zhang away.
Liu Wu was stunned for a moment, and Lin Yan's knife was already at his neck.
Liu Wu looked at the knife to his neck, then at the machete stuck in the distance, and gave a bitter smile.
"The loss was not unjust."
Vice Minister Zhou raised the flag: "Lin Yan, victory!"
Lin Yan returned to the stands, where Sun Dayong greeted him.
"General, in the next round of the quarterfinals, our opponent is..."
"Commander of the Imperial Guard, Zhao Wuji."
Xiong Kuo had already finished looking at the match list, and his expression was not good. "It is said that Zhao Wuji is already at the peak of the True Qi Realm and practices the standard sword technique of the Golden Guard. But I heard that he has practiced a family-inherited leg technique in private, which he has never used in public."
Lin Yan sat down, placed the knife across his knees, and closed his eyes.
Peak of True Qi Realm.
The previous round was Ma Cheng, this round is Liu Wu, who is at the Great Perfection of True Qi Realm, and in the next round he will jump directly to the Peak of True Qi Realm.
This gradient doesn't seem to be drawn by lottery.
Lin Yan opened his eyes and looked at the front row of the east stand.