The shops along the street had long since closed, leaving only a few faint lamps swaying under the eaves.
Turning past two streets, a narrow alley appeared ahead. Someone had knocked over the oil lamp at the entrance, leaving it pitch-black without a sliver of light. Yu Yan casually glanced at it without slowing his pace. He had walked this path no fewer than dozens of times; he could find his way back with his eyes closed.
The moment he walked past the alley entrance, a hand reached out from the darkness.
A full handful of quicklime was thrown at his face, bursting into a cloud of white mist in the cold wind. Yu Yan’s pupils shrank violently. Instinctively closing his eyes, he kicked hard against the ground to retreat rapidly.
His reaction was undeniably fast, but the quicklime came too suddenly and from too close a distance. A significant amount of powder still landed on his eyelids and cheeks, and a burning, stinging pain instantly spread across his skin.
"Who goes there?!"
As soon as his startled shout left his lips, a figure from the darkness closed in on him like a shadow.
Fast. It was too fast.
Before his retreating foot could even touch the ground, the attacker’s hand had already arrived. Five fingers loosely curled like a hook, the fingertips hissing through the air as they aimed straight for his throat.
Dragon Form: Dragon’s Claw.
Chen Yuan had waited in the darkness for a full hour. The timing and angle of his strike, Yu Yan’s escape route after the quicklime was thrown, every instinctual reaction he would have after closing his eyes—Chen Yuan had mentally rehearsed every possibility countless times. This claw was the greeting gift he had prepared for Yu Yan.
Still retreating, Yu Yan instinctively crossed his arms in front of his chest to block. His arms caught the claw, but they could not withstand its absurdly heavy and overbearing force.
BANG!
The strike sent his entire body flying backward. His back crashed into the brick wall at the alley’s entrance, sending crushed brick fragments raining down. A sweet taste rose in his throat, and he spat out a mouthful of blood. His arms were completely numb from his fingertips to his shoulders; his bones felt as if they had been smashed by a sledgehammer.
His bone-refining had already reached Minor Achievement, and he had even cultivated copper skin, granting him outstanding defense. A full-force strike from an ordinary Bone-refining Martial Artist should absolutely never have left him in such a sorry state. Yet the force of the person before him was so heavy that it did not seem to belong to the Bone-refining Stage at all.
He had no time to think; his survival instinct overpowered everything else. Pushing his right palm against the wall, he used the momentum to bounce back up, throwing his fists one after the other into a tiger stance—Fierce Tiger Fist.
It was one of the three great fist techniques of the Changhong Martial Arts Hall, mimicking the momentum of a fierce tiger descending a mountain. Fierce and explosive, it was best suited for head-on clashes.
"You dare ambush me? You’re dead!"
Yu Yan let out a furious roar and stomped his right foot hard against the ground, lunging forward like a mad tiger. His right fist morphed into a tiger claw. With his five fingers acting like hooks, he slashed straight at his opponent’s face.
Fierce Tiger Tears the Tendons.
The edge of this claw was sharp enough to rip through cowhide. If it struck a person’s face, it could tear off the skin, flesh, and bone all at once.
Chen Yuan did not retreat. He stepped half a pace forward with his left foot and angled his body slightly. His right hand flipped out from his chest, fingers spread wide like a tiger’s claw, and slapped diagonally downward to meet Yu Yan’s attack.
Tiger Form: Fierce Tiger Slaps the Mountain.
Though also a tiger form, his slap was executed with a dense and yielding softness. The heel of his palm adhered to Yu Yan’s wrist to Yin and pull, Unloading the kinetic force of the entire tiger claw diagonally. Simultaneously, his left hand darted out from his waist. His five fingers pressed together like a snake’s head, striking rapidly upward at Yu Yan’s armpit.
Snake Form: Spirit Snake Flicks Its Tongue.
Yu Yan’s pupils contracted. He hastily retracted his right arm while slapping down with his left tiger claw, narrowly intercepting the snake form strike.
But before he could even catch his breath, Chen Yuan’s third move arrived. Sparrowhawk Form: Sparrowhawk Flips Over. Using the momentum to spin, his right leg whipped out, the heel sweeping toward the side of Yu Yan’s neck.
Yu Yan raised his arm to block. With a muffled THUD, the kick swept his entire body two steps to the side, leaving his blocking left arm unbearably numb and aching.
Another seven or eight moves passed.
Yu Yan’s Fierce Tiger Fist was undeniably ferocious. His tiger claws continuously ripped and tore, seizing the offensive with every move. However, Chen Yuan’s Twelve Forms Fist transitions were even faster.
The moment his dragon form was parried by a tiger claw, he twisted his body and shifted into a monkey form. Like a nimble monkey shrinking its body, he circled to the flank and used Monkey-Picked Fruit to strike directly at the vitals of the waist. When the monkey form was intercepted, he rode the momentum to shift into a sparrowhawk form, soaring into the sky to strike from above. When the sparrowhawk form missed, he landed already in a swallow form, gliding close to the ground like a swallow skimming the water. With a backhand strike, he executed Snake Form: Snake entangling the Waist, twisting toward Yu Yan’s lower body.
The longer they fought, the more alarmed Yu Yan became.
Against this person, his Fierce Tiger Fist felt like it was sinking into a quagmire; every claw was masterfully neutralized by his opponent’s twelve forms. When his tiger form attacked, the opponent met it head-on with Bear Form: Bear’s Heavy Shoulder. When his tiger claw slashed, the opponent bypassed it with Monkey Form: Monkey’s Evasive Turn. When his tiger tail swept, the opponent evaded it by concealing himself with Dragon Form: Dragon’s Retreat.
Even more fatally, his opponent’s fist force was absurdly heavy.
With every clash of fist and claw, he felt as if he had been smashed by an iron weight. His arms went numb from fingertips to shoulders, and the hairline fracture in his left forearm flared with piercing pain upon every impact. Meanwhile, his opponent’s Twelve Forms Fist variations flowed flawlessly without the slightest pause in between. He couldn’t find a single opening, not even one to catch his breath.
He had seen this fist technique before.
The Changhong Martial Arts Hall had dealt with the Huo Courtyard a few times, and he had fought against the Huo Courtyard’s disciples, experiencing the routines of the Heart Intent Six Harmonies Fist firsthand. The Five Elements Fist formed the foundation, while the Twelve Forms Fist provided the variations. But the twelve forms executed by the person before him brought back the terror of his past defeat at the hands of Xu Heng.
The twisting of the dragon form, the ferocity of the tiger form, the trickiness of the snake form, and the agility of the swallow form.
The transitions between each form achieved a seamless Tiancheng. In this person’s hands, the variations of the twelve forms already carried a sense of complete mastery and integration.
But what reason did Xu Heng have to ambush him halfway along his path? Besides, with a few months having passed and given Xu Heng’s aptitude, how could he possibly have stagnated at this Stage?
Someone who practiced the Heart Intent Six Harmonies Fist, was at the Bone-refining Stage, possessed unreasonably heavy and overbearing fist force, and held a grudge against him. These clues collided in Yu Yan’s mind, pointing to a person he had never once taken seriously.
"Chen Yuan?!"
Chen Yuan did not answer. His answer was another relentless wave of fierce attacks raining down upon him.