Chapter 112: Absolute Suppression!

The compacted yellow mud ground shattered into fist-sized hard chunks. The noon sun shone squarely onto the martial arts arena, and tiny specks of dust danced in the pillars of light, rising and falling with the rhythm of rapid breathing.

Shadows overlapped; there was no telling how many people were clinging to the arena walls.

Silence reigned.

Lan Tai lowered his head, his own shadow swaying beneath his feet. He turned to look at his master and found Pang Qinghe expressionless—or rather, so stunned that he couldn't muster any lively expression at all.

The junior martial brother had lost.

When fists collide, either one side suppresses the other, striking back with force, or they bounce off each other, both retreating!

It would never be like this, stuck together.

Then there was only one possibility: Liang Qu's control over his strength far surpassed Kou Zhuang's! His upper body wasn't being knocked backward; he was dissipating the force!

Using distance to trade for leverage, sticking to Kou Zhuang's fist, and then violently pressing back with the posture of an Iron Bridge!

Absolute suppression of technique and brute force!

With just one punch, the junior martial brother had lost completely!

Lan Tai looked at the young man grinning on the arena, his mouth suddenly feeling dry.

The opponent was doing it on purpose; he wanted to discard all the flashy tricks.

The junior martial brother was incredibly sturdy, like a giant, so he would compete with him in strength!

He was showing everyone the most visually impactful, most intense clash!

Liang Qu was more than a head shorter than Kou Zhuang, yet he used his fist to forcefully press him down, forcing the opponent to look up and gaze at him!

Forget about trading blows or kicking.

When an opponent comes to challenge the gym, you must suppress them back with the most overbearing posture.

Those scholars, farmers, young masters, and old gentlemen outside couldn't understand the danger in the exchange of moves; they only knew that whoever had more strength was the strong one!

And right now, Liang Qu was very strong!

Absolutely strong!

Yang Dongxiong stroked his beard, a smile on his lips.

Xu Zishuai bit off a blade of grass, section by section, humming, "Born with sturdy bones, boundless strength; his Second-Stage realm rivals a Fourth-Stage martial artist. A natural prodigy, but it's a pity that 'rivaling' is not 'surpassing'."

"Junior Martial Brother Liang is a true natural martial bone; his Second Stage is stronger than a Fourth! This big guy, what a pity."

"Ah!"

Kou Zhuang's eyes were bloodshot, sweat poured from his forehead, and his arms trembled uncontrollably.

He extended his other hand, but it was intercepted by Liang Qu halfway. Their palms collided, and a barely perceptible shockwave rose in the air.

Yellow dust flew along the point of impact, rolling away along the ground.

Both sides turned into iron wild oxen, constantly wrestling, but one stood like a stake driven into the ground, and no matter how hard the other stomped, it was to no avail.

Dragon tendons and tiger bones, tendons as large as dragons, bones as strong as tigers, Qi boundless, strength infinite, dragging nine oxen, unstoppable!

Liang Qu exhaled a long breath from his nose and mouth, his feet pulling out of the ground. His entire body's tendons coiled like pythons, providing him with explosive power, while his bones seemed cast in copper and iron, fierce and unparalleled, pushing Kou Zhuang backward step by step.

Kou Zhuang wanted to break free, but he couldn't extricate himself at all.

The two-meter-one giant was being pushed back by Liang Qu alone. The spectators outside the wall were stirred, and the apprentices inside the martial arts gym cheered loudly.

The scholars on the wall, in their excitement, even took out silver ingots from their robes and threw them into the courtyard.

In a bare-chested fight, Liang Qu couldn't be bothered with petty tricks.

His clothes were the most ordinary cloth, and they burst apart in the intense agitation of Qi and blood after just one clash of fists.

Torn strips of cloth hung from his thick belt, revealing an extremely sturdy upper body; his chest was broad, his muscles strong, yet not bunched up, the lines as smooth as flowing water.

A primitive wildness rushed toward them.

Several female apprentices in the gym covered their eyes, yet couldn't help but peek through a gap; even the ones brought by Pang Qinghe did the same.

But if you asked who among those present was the most excited, it was undoubtedly Li Libo and Chen Jiechang, who were hugging each other.

They had watched Liang Qu walk step by step from a tiny fisherman to where he was today!

"Brother Shui is awesome!!!"

Kou Zhuang was dizzy. In the half-year he had been studying martial arts, his master praised his extraordinary talent, and every fellow apprentice said he had boundless strength, a natural seed for martial arts.

He couldn't stay in Huazhu County anymore; everyone had pinned high hopes on this martial arts competition.

Can't lose, can't lose!

Even more ferocious strength erupted from Kou Zhuang, his muscles bulging in chunks.

Liang Qu's footsteps slowed, but he wouldn't indulge Kou Zhuang. He suddenly brought his arms back to his chest, twisted his body, and kicked Kou Zhuang on the side of his waist.

The airflow stirred by his toe tip whistled, lashing the air like a whip.

Kou Zhuang tried to reach out to block, but he couldn't stop it at all.

Terrifying power poured out like a flood, spreading from his arms, shoulders, back, waist, and abdomen.

Kou Zhuang's entire body's muscles trembled like water ripples, the tension vibrating incessantly, and finally, they all exploded at once.

Like a stone thrown into a lake, splashing water.

His entire body flew into mid-air, finally crashing to the ground and rolling incessantly.

The apprentices behind him retreated one after another; Kou Zhuang grazed the ground and hit a stone pillar before he stopped rolling.

Kicking a little giant away with one foot, the apprentices of Master Yang's gym felt their faces flush, a sense of excitement filling their chests.

Ordinary people rarely saw such a scene, and they were stirred.

As expected of Master Yang's disciple!

Amazing!!

Some villagers from Yixing Town had traveled sixteen miles specifically to watch the competition, shouting Liang Qu's name.

Kou Zhuang clutched his waist and abdomen, all his facial features crumpled together.

The sharp pain was like a python devouring a person, spreading inch by inch along his tendons, bones, and flesh.

Yet he held his breath and stood up again.

Liang Qu stood where he was, frowning slightly.

Natural martial bone, martial path reaching divinity; whether in skill or strength, the gap between the two sides was enormous.

Seeing that the opponent's master was relatively polite, he had already held back; otherwise, that kick should have landed on the opponent's head.

Being so tactless—if he had known, he should have just drawn a boundary and counted stepping out as a loss.

Kou Zhuang readjusted his breathing, stamina, internal energy, and blood Qi, pushing them all to the limit.

The ground sank, and the giant descended from the sky, attacking again.

Liang Qu rushed out at almost the same time. His right hand was like lightning, chopping horizontally and smashing into the elbow Kou Zhuang used to block, while his left hand turned from a fist into a palm, chopping toward Kou Zhuang's neck. His momentum suddenly exploded.

Surging internal energy rippled. Kou Zhuang contracted his body, protecting his front with both hands. Ignoring the bone-splitting pain, he knocked aside Liang Qu's left hand and extended his right arm to grab Liang Qu's shoulder, attempting a side-body collision.

Unexpectedly, Liang Qu retracted his hand in time, pressed his palm onto Kou Zhuang's right arm, and easily tucked it under his armpit. Using this as a center, he stepped into the ground with his left foot, his right foot rising like a dragon, kicking Kou Zhuang's neck sideways until it almost separated from his body, his feet even leaving the ground.

Kou Zhuang flew in mid-air. Liang Qu's punches were like arrows, striking several times in succession, and finally, a side kick sent him flying again.

Strength rose from the ground; Kou Zhuang was like a floating willow catkin, a broken ragdoll, helplessly yielding to the gale, bouncing off the ground and hitting the stone pillar again.

Blood mixed with sweat splashed out, the stone pillar cracked with a finger-wide fissure, and white dust fell down with a rustle.

The onlookers cheered loudly, and a mountain-shaking roar of screams and shouts erupted.

After several months, Liang Qu was no longer the "Wu Xia A Meng" who relied on brute force to swing his fists; the opponent's attempt to stick close was completely ineffective.

Kou Zhuang fell to the ground, dizzy, swallowing large mouthfuls of dust into his breathing, which stuck to his throat mucosa. He wanted to cough, but there wasn't a breath of air in his lungs.

Liang Qu's final kick had landed squarely on his chest, knocking the breath completely out of him.

He was like an angry bull, but what he had collided with was a boundless ocean, only splashing up tiny water droplets.

"Dazhuang, that's enough, we concede."

Pang Qinghe suddenly spoke up.

He had already understood; Liang Qu was definitely not an ordinary person, and in all likelihood, he possessed a true martial bone.

A prodigy that only appeared once every few decades in a prefecture or province had been encountered by them; he had no choice but to swallow his pride and accept it.

"I haven't lost yet."

Kou Zhuang gasped for air, gritting his teeth as he spat out a sentence.

When he was born, he weighed twelve jin and six liang. His mother suffered a massive hemorrhage during a difficult labor, and the midwife had to use a polished stone knife to cut her abdomen open so he could survive.

When he was nine, his father went up the mountain to hunt and was hit in the head by a falling rock; when he was found, he had already been torn to pieces by wild wolves.

At twelve, he grew to five feet five. All the children in the village treated him like a monster, and the villagers said he was a jinx, killing his mother at birth and his father as he grew up.

At fifteen, there was a great drought in the surrounding area. The village elder said he had offended the heavens and needed to atone for the villagers, so he was harnessed to a plow, plowing the fields from house to house like a beast every day.

Later, mountain bandits came; they killed the villagers and liberated Kou Zhuang, wanting him to go kill people. It was his master who passed by, saved him, taught him martial arts, and told him he wasn't a monster, that his talent was a gift bestowed by the heavens.

Finally, finally he could do one thing for his master and senior brothers.

"How can I lose, how can I lose, how can I lose!"

Kou Zhuang spat out a mouthful of blood foam, his arms supporting him on the ground, his knuckles turning white as he gripped the gaps in the stone pillar, swaying as he stood up again.

Dust was stirred by the airflow, rising and falling like a whirlwind with every breath.

The blood vessels on his neck bulged like tiny red snakes, pulsating incessantly. Kou Zhuang's entire body turned crimson; he was almost seeping blood!

For a moment, the cheering spectators fell silent, shocked by the terrifying willpower, and even more unable to understand.

Standing up again, he was really going to be beaten to death; wasn't this just a friendly sparring match?

Liang Qu was also surprised.

What is this situation, sit-ups?

Am I the villain?

Immediately after, he noticed a black shadow flash before him. When he came to his senses, Kou Zhuang had disappeared.

Pang Qinghe stood at the edge of the arena, holding his disciple with one hand and slapping the back of Kou Zhuang's head with the other, knocking him unconscious.

"This match, we concede." ===== CHAPTER 113 =====