Chapter 67: The Rising Generation |
"This Liu Nianbo truly lives up to his martial examination second-tier ranking."
"Senior Brother Sun couldn't even last twenty moves before he was defeated."
The Zhou courtyard disciples who were watching, including Zheng Ziqiao and Luo Qian, looked at Liu Nianbo's almost crushing display of strength with complex emotions in their eyes, a mixture of envy, disappointment, and gravity.
Liu Nianbo maintained a humble posture without any trace of arrogance, but his gaze drifted toward Zhou Yu from time to time, a barely perceptible hint of smugness flickering in his eyes.
Liu Ze nodded slightly, his eyes revealing satisfaction.
Zhou Liang sighed inwardly but kept his expression unchanged, "Nianbo's hidden strength is nearly perfect. He's not far from breaking through to transforming strength, is he?"
Liu Ze stroked his beard and said, "Indeed, though I wonder if he'll succeed this time."
His tone couldn't hide a trace of uneasiness.
The final of the three barriers was the most difficult. No one knew how many so-called geniuses had stumbled at this very hurdle.
The Zhou courtyard disciples looked at each other, but no one responded.
Bai Rui suddenly spoke up, "Senior Brother Chen Qing, why don't you give it a try?"
The crowd parted, and everyone only then noticed that Chen Qing had quietly arrived at the scene.
Among the current disciples of the Zhou courtyard, while his prestige might not match that of Sun Shun or Zhou Yu, his strength faintly surpassed theirs.
Many people were curious about the clash between these two martial examination rising stars, second-tier Liu Nianbo and third-tier Chen Qing.
Upon hearing this, Liu Nianbo looked over.
"Forget it."
Chen Qing waved his hand, declining the suggestion.
Liu Nianbo clearly wanted to show off and make Senior Sister Zhou Yu look at him with new eyes. If he sparred with him, winning would bring no benefits and would only incur Liu Nianbo's displeasure.
The Zhou courtyard disciples couldn't hide their disappointment.
With Senior Brother Sun defeated earlier, it was understandable that Senior Brother Chen Qing didn't dare to take action.
Although it was just a sparring match, losing would still be embarrassing. Who among martial artists didn't have some competitive spirit?
Compared to the Zhou courtyard disciples' dejection, the Liu courtyard disciples held their heads high with quite smug expressions.
Liu Nianbo knew that continuing to dominate the platform had no meaning, so he turned and walked down.
"This kid is not right!"
Not far away, Liu Ze was about to pick up his tea cup when a sharp gleam suddenly flashed in his eyes.
Zhou Liang, sensing Chen Qing's qi and blood fluctuations, felt his pupils contract violently.
Both were masters of transforming strength with many years of experience, extremely sensitive to qi and blood fluctuations.
The two exchanged a knowing glance.
Just as the echoes of Chen Qing's polite refusal to spar still lingered in the courtyard, with everyone's disappointed gazes focused on him.
"Good lad!"
A thunderous roar suddenly tore through the scene's tranquility!
Liu Ze, who had been sitting calmly beside Zhou Liang, transformed from stillness to motion without warning, his figure moving so fast it left a blurred afterimage.
Without any sign of building momentum, one moment he was sitting calmly drinking tea, the next moment he shot forward like an arrow from a bowstring, carrying a suffocating sense of oppression, charging straight at Chen Qing.
His five fingers came together like a blade, his arm resembling a mantis's foreleg when hunting, tearing through the air with a sharp 'tearing' sound.
What gathered at his fingertips was not killing intent, but a kind of sharp probing that sought to penetrate everything, aimed directly at Chen Qing's vital throat.
The speed and the cunning angle far exceeded any move Liu Nianbo had demonstrated earlier.
This strike was the thunderous blow of a transforming strength master.
The fierce wind struck his face, the sharp qi pierced to the bone!
The entire Zhou courtyard instantly fell into deathly silence, the expressions on all disciples' faces froze instantly, turning to horror.
Zhou Yu's face went pale, Sun Shun instinctively stepped forward but then froze, and Liu Nianbo was even more shocked, looking at his father's earth-shattering action in disbelief.
Only Zhou Liang's eyes blazed like fire.
Chen Qing, at the center of the target, also felt his pupils contract sharply but he didn't panic, and didn't even make any movement to retreat or dodge.
Facing this surprise attack that could instantly severely injure someone with great achievement in hidden strength, the qi and blood within his body instantly boiled.
Just as Liu Ze's fingertips were about to touch within an inch of Chen Qing's throat.
At this critical moment!
Chen Qing's body seemed to lose its substance, becoming incredibly flexible and ethereal.
His upper body shifted at an unbelievable small angle, extremely naturally sidestepping and yielding, the movement flowing like stream water around a boulder, like an antelope hanging by its horns, leaving no trace to follow.
"Hum!"
An invisible yet resilient force field seemed to ripple outward from Chen Qing like water waves.
Time seemed to stretch at this moment.
Liu Ze's lightning-fast fingertips, carrying incomparably sharp wind force, barely grazed past the skin on the side of Chen Qing's neck.
The tremendous force contained in his fingertips didn't explode to injure, but instead was like a clay ox entering the sea, cleverly deflected and dissolved into nothingness by that layer of invisibly flowing 'aura'.
An even more shocking scene appeared!
A withered leaf swept up by the qi from both men, spinning, happened to float down toward Chen Qing's shoulder.
It was neither bounced away by the colliding airflow as usual, nor did it fall under force.
That withered leaf just hung there eerily, suspended about half an inch above Chen Qing's shoulder.
As if held up by an invisible, intangible yet incredibly resilient aura field, it trembled slightly, unable to move up or down.
Flies couldn't land! Not even a feather could be added!
"Good! Good lad!"
The green brick under Liu Ze's feet cracked with a 'snap'! His entire person was like a strong bow filled with force, pushing off powerfully!
His figure charged at Chen Qing again.
Mantis Boxing! Twin Blades Breaking Mountain!
Liu Ze roared like thunder, his arm muscles instantly bulged and knotted, blue veins swimming under his skin like living snakes.
His fists clenched tightly, not in ordinary fist form, but in the unique 'scythe hand' of Mantis Boxing.
That pair of fists seemed to transform into two invisible giant scythes that could split mountains and crack stones!
Left fist in front, right fist behind, not striking separately, but closing in with a mysterious trajectory, like the deadly blade arms of a giant mantis folding when hunting, carrying terrifying unstoppable force, boldly bombarding Chen Qing's center line.
Where the fist wind passed, the air was compressed to the extreme, producing piercing explosive sounds and forming visible white air waves, as if to completely pulverize everything in front.
This strike condensed decades of Liu Ze's Mantis Boxing essence.
Fierce and domineering, cunning and ruthless, the flexibility and penetrating power of transforming strength were perfectly fused within, unavoidable, only to be met head-on.
"Well done!"
Chen Qing sank his waist and stood firm, his spine rising like a great dragon lifting its head, producing a series of dense crackling sounds like frying beans.
He took a deep breath, his chest and abdomen suddenly collapsing inward, instantly mobilizing all his qi and blood to their peak.
Combining hardness and softness, force penetrating through tremendous weight!
His feet took root, power rising from the ground, waist and hips twisting, force penetrating through his spine!
His right arm muscles swelled, blue veins bulging prominently, as he fiercely met the attack with a through-arm boxing 'Mountain Collapsing Style'.
Bang!
At the moment of collision, qi exploded turbulently and surged powerfully, making people's qi and blood tremble with chills.
Dust and dead leaves on the ground were violently swept up, forming swirling clouds of dust, causing the surrounding disciples' robes to flutter loudly.
Liu Ze's figure shook violently, his feet plowing two deep furrows in the cracked green bricks, staggering back three steps with 'thud, thud, thud' sounds.
Chen Qing was also having a hard time. The tremendous recoil force made his qi and blood churn. Under his feet came a 'crack' sound, and the green brick where he stood completely turned to powder.
His entire person was pushed backward by the tremendous force, sliding nearly a zhang away, his feet scraping two clear marks on the ground before he finally stabilized his form.
Liu Ze slowly withdrew his fists, looking at his slightly numb finger bones, then at that young figure across from him. The shock in his eyes gradually transformed into deep appreciation and emotion.
He took a deep breath, suppressing his churning qi and blood, and said to Zhou Liang, "The younger generation is to be feared! Old Zhou, congratulations! The Zhou courtyard... has a successor!"
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