Translator: Larbre Studio Editor: Larbre Studio
“Attainment!”
Lou Cheng’s deep voice echoed in the air as he darted out like a bolt of lightning, leaving what seemed to be afterimages behind as he rushed towards his opponent at an unbelievable speed.
Veigar was donning a general hat. He steadied himself, extended his left foot out while drawing his right in, then pulled his arms apart and struck a boxing pose.
Suddenly, he lowered himself and bounced up like a spring, his muscular body swishing through the air. As he descended, he bent and pointed his knees directly at Lou Cheng’s chest, giving his white knee pads wrapped around his legs a murderous aura.
The Martial Art style of Miluo emphasized the basic movements— punching, elbowing, kicking and kneeing— over intricate ones. By mixing and matching them in a natural way that best suited real combat, it was capable of delivering swift and vicious attacks seamlessly. To conquer their enemies, Miluo fighters adopted special methods of training that hardened their elbows and knees like steel.
Veigar timed his leap flawlessly, allowing him to get ahead of his opponent and prevent him from setting up any killer moves. It was an impeccable attack, for if his knees were blocked, he can immediately follow up with the deadly combination of an elbow slam and a kick.
Just as Lou Cheng was about to collide into Veigar’s knees, where the cunning trap awaited him, he withdrew his Qi and blood in a rapid motion, condensing his force, spirit, and momentum into his lower Dantian.
And he stopped on a dime!
Being Lin Que’s long-time teammate and having guided Yan Zheke through her practices, Lou Cheng was well versed with their “Yin-yang Twist” and “Meteor Force”. Through self-learning and under Yan Zheke’s guidance, he slowly learned the trick to “ceasing movement at will” by utilizing the footwork of “Force Concentration” and “North Wind”. Though not as amazing as the original, it was good enough for a critical moment like this one.
Screech! The piercing noise caused by friction was shrill as it cut through the air. Lou Cheng was a step away from where Veigar had predicted him to be.
That small distance caused Veigar’s knee thrust to lose most of its momentum, and by the time it had reached Lou Cheng, it was nowhere near its maximum power.
Boom!
Lou Cheng’s Dantian Force erupted like a volcano, his muscles ripping and expanding, physically enlarging his body as the floor beneath him split and cracked into ugly fissures.
He swung his shoulders and sent a right punch forward that seemed to weigh a ton.
Bam!
His punch landed directly on Veigar’s kneecaps, sweeping up gusts and sending him backwards in the air.
Snap! Pushing his legs into the ground, he sprang up like a bolt of lightning, arriving before Veigar in the blink of an eye. Forming seals with both of his hands, he visualized the ancient character that represented insurmountable fighting spirit.
“Fighting Formula!” he growled.
Eyes turning bloodshot, Lou Cheng pulled his feet together, closed his legs and relaxed his waist, directing all the strength and explosive power to his right arm.
Boom!
His Martial Arts shoes busted in sync with the flying pieces of gravel as he raised his bloating right arm in the air, blocking out light from above like a canopy. Then he let it fall, sweeping up a strong current that boomed in the air.
Nine Words Formula, Fighting Formula!
Right off the bat, Lou Cheng had gone all out and used everything in his arsenal.
Veigar braced himself for the blow, for dodging was not an option when he had just steadied
himself from the previous attack.
His hat drooped over the gleaming eyes on his icy countenance as sparks of electricity enshrouded his hands like a loose glove made from lightning.
Bam! His right arm flew into an uppercut, fist sizzling with electricity.
Bang!
The clash of their fists send tremors down Veigar’s right arm. With a loud crack, the arena floor below him gave way and swallowed him by a few inches.
With the Fighting Formula, Lou Cheng had completely suppressed his quasi-Inhuman opponent and nailed him on the spot.
This too was foreseen by Lou Cheng. As his right arm recoiled and his body swayed, he took a quick breath to condense it all — the numbness in his arm, the momentum from falling back, his Qi, blood, spirit and force— to his lower abdomen. He steadied himself on the spot like a ball of condensed energy.
His Dantian erupted causing his thighs to expand as he whipped out his left foot and kicked towards the side of his opponent’s kneecaps.
Veigar was a step too slow. Barely managing to lift his leg in time to return a weak kick, his leg collided into the heel of Lou Cheng’s foot.
With a dull thud, he reeled forward and saw Lou Cheng’s right cross coming towards him.
Hurriedly, Veigar gathered his strength and steadied himself, returning an uppercut of his own, a savage blow wreathed in silver sparks.
At that instant, Lou Cheng’s fist paused momentarily, then slowed down in its rhythm until Veigar’s heavy strike was near. That was when he smashed down with all his strength.
In between the pause and release, he found the time to visualize “Ice Spirit Holy Light” and took the opportunity to cast “Severe Warning”.
A frozen picture of a lonely, frigid darkness weaved in phantom-like, dreamy pellucid frost light only to be shattered by the roaring of thunder as Yin and Yang clashed.
Boom!
The deafening roars of thunder resounded as Lou Cheng’s frost-clad fists smashed into his opponent’s gloves of electricity.
Brzzt! Sparks flew as Veigar stood blank-faced, the bottom half of his left arm shrouded in mist and sprinkled with ice flakes. His eyes had lost their vigor, like the eyes of someone that had just walked out of a frozen slumber.
Upon the impact of the forceful punch, Lou Cheng staggered backwards, right arm swaying, but found himself an opportunity to flick his left wrist and send a pellucid white light of frost that “flared” towards his enemy. The succession of killer moves did not allow his opponent even a moment to catch his breath.
The frost light flashed before Veigar, who had regained his senses through his strong physique. In the face of an attack that could neither be blocked nor dodged, he tensed and let loose all his power, emitting a blinding light from his body as snakes of electricity sizzled and danced around him.
Secret move, “Thunder explosion!”
Bam! The frost flame was struck down and melted into scattered rays of light. Lou Cheng had already steadied himself by then, and with a visualization of the dreamy and deadly “Ice Spirit Holy Light”, he sprang forward again.
In his mind, he clearly knew that at his current mastery of “Internal Explosion Punch”, it was not at all likely for him to deal enough internal damage to restrict his quasi-Inhuman opponent’s movements in less than three moves. Therefore, in order to not get countered and lose the opportunity to activate a more Internal Explosion, the optimal move for him was to suppress his opponent with “Severe Warning.”
All things in life come to an end, and “Thunder Explosion” was no exception. Lou Cheng deliberately slowed down the tempo of his assault to give enough time for the slithering silver serpent sparks to die down. Then he stepped forward, steadied his feet, and punched towards Veigar’s lower abdomen.
His fist shot out like an arrow, rapidly donning a raiment of white mist in its path.
Beneath his general hat, Veigar’s eyes grew increasingly cruel as he lashed out another punch covered in his “electric glove”.
This was the power of an Inhuman that had completed morphing. Every blow hit hard and his control over his supernatural abilities was phenomenal.
Just as Veigar’s punch took off, Lou Cheng straightened his back and pulled his right arm backwards, evading the attack and connecting a low kick with his left foot.
“The coldness seeps up from the feet in a blizzard!”
Bam!
Veigar sensed the danger and dispersed the strength in his punch. He whipped out his right leg, which was least one and a half the size of Lou Cheng’s, and dealt a rigid kick that cut through the air.
In that moment, Lou Cheng adjusted his center of gravity by arching forward, and with a stomp of his left foot he had circled behind Veigar. With his right arm raised, he was ready for another attack. His presence was like a gust of frigid wind that penetrated every nook and cranny.
In that moment, the image of the “Ice Spirit Holy Light” in his mind was completely shattered by the tumultuous “Thunderclouds”.
Boom!
All was in place, and his downward punch was nothing less of a severe warning!
Veigar had been in a bad spot since the onset of the fight, and things hasn’t been going in his favor up till this point . And now with his right leg still extended, the enemy’s assault had put him into a dangerous position. He could feel his anger rising.
In the face of crisis, he had to put all his disdain and arrogance aside. With a deep breath, he was ready to reveal his trump card.
Zap!
Rings of electricity revolved around him as he sent one leg upwards and leaned backwards with a spinning motion that resembled a drill crashing into Lou Cheng’s left fist.
Veigar’s ultimate move – “Spark Drill!”
Thud! The strong light produced temporarily blinded most of the audience. No one was clear of what was going on inside the arena.
Inside the arena, Veigar was on one knee, his eyes distracted and his general hat lying on the floor as wisps of steam rose around him. On the other side, Lou Cheng’s hair was standing on its end, his body convulsing and his vision filled with those silvery serpents. He saw the chance, but the paralysis was too strong for him to even use “Force Concentration”.
In the time of a breath, the two had recovered and was going at each other again.
Bam!
“Lou Cheng could actually have won there...” mused Peng Leyun in the clangour.
Their attention drawn away from the exciting battle, Ren Li and Ann Chaoyang nodded at his words.
“By the way, have you taken the pictures Lou Cheng asked for?”remembered Ann Chaoyang.
Peng Leyun brooded for a moment.
“Totally forget about it,” he admitted.
The three fell into a brief silence until Peng Leyun handed the phone, still unlocked, over to Ren Li.
“You are the best at photography here, you can have the honors,” he prompted earnestly.
“You got it,” replied Ren Li as she took the phone from his hand, brimming with her usual confidence.