Martial Hero Rebirth:
Chapter 31: Defeating Top 100
*sorry for the constant change, I hope that I will be your last translator so it will be consistent. I've switched back to Hachi's initial, novice, intermediate, advanced, and perfection. It just seems more clear.
"Ah!"
Everyone stared wide-eyed at Zhangxiong. They were amazed at how he had used his bare hands to block a sharp sword.
"This Zhangxiong is crazy! Using a fist against a sword - just the thought terrifies me!"
"The scariest thing is how even after his hand has been cut up by the sword his expression doesn't change at all. How merciless is he to be so fierce to himself?"
(TN: this cut up is referring also to when he used his hand to swat the sword)
"If I were to go up and fight him, he wouldn't need to do anything; I would immediately surrender. This guy is way too scary."
"Even those fierce Jiang-Hu people maybe aren't as valiant as Zhangxiong?"
With his cut up fist and blood spraying through the air, Zhangxiong and his unchanging expression had astonished all the new students.
In ordinary exchanges between fellow students when would there ever be so much blood and violence? At most there would only be slight contact with the opponent admitting defeat. Only Zhangxiong directly faces the sword, and even after being cut and stabbed doesn't change expression.
All the new students were shaken by the bloody and violent fight, and some of the timid girls were so scared they shrieked and covered their pale faces, not daring to look. Only the old students stood by calmly, and when they saw how scared all the new students were, they stood up straighter and basked in a sense of superiority.
"Junior Sister, there's no need to be scared. This Zhangxiong has rough and thick skin; every time he fights he ends up full of cuts and bruises and covered with blood. Haha, with such fierce and tough strength weak-hearted people don't even dare to face him. Don't be fooled by his bloody appearance, he practices a Defensive Body Art. Linyi's sword can at most do some external damage, but if he wants to inflict some serious damage that is too difficult." An old student said with a laugh.
The new student looked at the old student with doubt.
"Hehe, I am willing to guarantee, tomorrow Zhangxiong will be perfectly healed and healthier than ever."
Only after this did the female student take away her hands and prepare herself to watch the rest of the match, but her face was still pale and her body shook, and she seemed on the verge of collapsing. Without a word, the old student had already placed his hand on her waist to support her.
In the blink of an eye, Linyi and Zhangxiong had already fought over a hundred exchanges.
Since Linyi joined Huashan this was his most difficult fight. His opponent was a member of the top 100 of the Lower Courtyard that had already practiced Huashan Fist Art, Defensive Body Art and Huashan Body Art to Perfection. Even more difficult to deal with was Zhangxiong's natural dauntless personality - facing head-on sharp swords without blinking, getting beaten and cut up without changing expressions, on the contrary getting more excited and fighting even more fiercely.
If this was a fight to the death, with Linyi's God-ranked expert fighting experience, killing Zhangxiong is actually not difficult. He had many fierce and merciless methods that could kill Zhangxiong instantly. The difficulty lay in the fact that they were disciples of the same sect, and this wasn't a fight to the death. He definitely couldn't kill!
This caused Linyi to feel shackled at the hands and feet, and made it difficult and painful to deal with this dauntless Zhangxiong. Too kill was not hard, but to defeat is almost impossible, especially because Linyi didn't want to seriously injure Zhangxiong.
Facing this kind of opponent, Linyi could only use the stupidest method and use absolute force to completely suppress Zhangxiong and tire him into submission. Even with this method, out of everyone present, only Linyi could actually accomplish it. Anyone else in his position would collapse out of exhaustion before even coming close to succeeding.
"Good!" Zhangxiong yelled excitedly as his eyes flashed. Linyi's strength had exceeded any of his expectations.
With Linyi's ample battle experienced, he was able to use his Advanced Huashan Sword Art to completely suppress Zhangxiong's Perfection level Huashan Fist Art.
After over a hundred exchanges of complete suppression, any normal person would have already conceded. Unfortunately Linyi's opponent was the braindead Zhangxiong who thought that as long as he didn't collapse he had to keep fighting. The more he was injured, the more he was at a disadvantage, the more excited he became. He would never admit defeat.
Zhangxiong fought like he had been drugged, and he accompanied the booms of his punches with bellows and shouts. He fought to his heart's content; people in the Lower Courtyard either avoided him completely or used merciless methods to seriously injure him. After all, among all these people only Linyi could suppress him without needing to inflict anything except superficial wounds.
Even as boneheaded as he was, Zhangxiong still felt Linyi's kindness. More and more he began to like Linyi, and any hatred had long disappeared. As for Linyi's having offended Shangguan, Zhangxiong had already completely forgotten that. In his pure, straightforward mind someone who only suppressed without injuring couldn't possible by a bad person.
One side wildly punching, dauntlessly fighting.
The other side wholeheartedly suppressing, trying his best to avoid injuring his opponent.
Both sides maintained balance, and quickly fought over several hundred exchanges.
Three hundred exchanges.
Four hundred.
Five hundred.
Six hundred.
Seven hundred.
The number of exchanges quickly numbered in the thousands.
The surrounding people were all dumbstruck; none of them had ever watched such a long fight.
The new students were amazed, but they were also incomparably excited because their Senior Brother Linyi was winning, and he was even able to steadily suppress a member of the Lower Courtyard top 100.
The old students on the other hand had more complicated expressions. Each and every one of them watched Linyi's movements with amazement and shock. They followed Linyi's graceful movements and his steadily moving figure as he constany kept his advantage. Although the fight had gone on for a while and Linyi was breathing heavily, his sword was not at all perturbed, but was instead even more exquisite.
On the other side Zhangxiong gasped for breath, and his fist techniques and body movement all began to lose its previous sharpness. His fists even started to seem like reckless smashing and had clearly lost all traces of its previous exquisiteness, let alone that Perfection level's inexpressible flavor; all his fists had was brute force.
Who was strong and who was weak, one glance was enough to tell. The old students all understood clearly, and it was because of this that they were shocked.
A rookie who had entered Huashan not even two months ago whose Sword Art had only reached the Advanced level was actually stronger than the famous top 100 tiger Zhangxiong? What kind of monstrous genius could be this strong?
It was as if they could see the future already, with this genius rising steadily in the Lower Courtyard, eventually stirring up all of Huashan.
After one thousand exchanges even Zhangxiong could no longer endure.
He had fought until he could barely stand and with each step he could barely keep himself from falling over. Gasping, he said "Enough. I lose. You are stronger."
This fight he had fought without a care, and even though he lost he couldn't stop smiling. He had no care for what his lost signified and was only filled with admiration.
"You are strong and your fighting experience is deep and clever; in the whole Lower Courtyard no one can compare to you. If your Sword Art improved one more step and reached Perfection, in the whole Lower Courtyard no one will be able to defeat you."
"You are also pretty good. You fight valiantly; if we were in Jiang-Hu today the mention of your name would scare the enemy into submission. If you wore battle gloves today, maybe the one who lost would have been me." Linyi replied with a faint smile.
"Battle gloves? What is that?" Zhangxiong asked while scratching his head. His puzzled expression and wrinkled brows made everyone smile.
"It is a specialized weapon made for unarmed warriors; if you wore black-iron battle gloves you wouldn't fear any blade, and you could directly grab a weapon without any injury." Linyi patiently answered.
"You mean if I wore these gloves I could randomly grab any of your swords?" Zhangxiong's eyes lit up and he cried out with happiness, "that's amazing. If that's true I can grab any blade and not get injured!"
Zhangxiong rubbed his head and embarrassedly said "it is so bothersome that my hands always get injured. Even though I'm not afraid of pain, but the bloody appearance is too ugly. All the Junior Sisters are afraid of me and don't dare to speak with me."
Facing Zhangxiong's honest appearance Linyi laughed, "En, if you wear these gloves you won't have to worry. Go to the blacksmith's store at the foot of the mountain and find someone to make you a pair."
"Thank you, you are a good person." Zhangxiong sincerely thanked, and began to say with embarrassment, "I shouldn't have come to trouble you. My mom says good people don't do bad things and she forbid me from bullying good people."
"It's no problem, no problem at all. Moreover, you also didn't bully me." Linyi laughed while waving his hands; being complimented by a bear-like man made him feel a little strange.
"Okay, then I'll go. This fight made me feel especially happy. Can I come find you later for another fight?" Zhangxiong asked expectedly, staring at Linyi like a fawning teddy bear.
"You can. Anytime you want to fight I'll accompany you." Linyi nodded.
"Really? That's great!" Zhangxiong cheered and, leaving behind a trail of explosions, happily ran off.
Linyi shook his head in laughter as he watched Zhangxiong disappear from view. He truly admired this simple-minded fellow, and increasingly wanted to recruit him. But it was still not time.
Linyi couldn't help but laugh, but in the end what made him the happiest was the reward.
System Notification:
Defeated Lower Courtyard Top 100 Zhangxiong. Awarded 1,000 combat experience points.
Mission Reward: awarded 5,000 combat experience points
- Defeated Top 100
- Entered Lower Courtyard Top 100 Ranking
- Stirred up Lower Courtyard
- Shocked Huashan
Seeing this Linyi's eyes couldn't help but light up. What a guy! Defeating a single Zhangxiong actually awarded him 6,000 combat experience points!
Linyi was most thankful for Shangguan Yun. If not for him, how could Linyi obtain so many experience points?
In three days, because of Shangguan Yun, Linyi had unexpectedly gained 25,000 combat experience points.