Martial Arts Master

“What kind of luck is this…” said Ann Chaoyang, taken aback by the results of the lot drawing. Afterwards, he shook his head and smiled a self-mocking smile but returned to his relaxed manner because the pressure wasn’t overwhelming. In fact, a part of him looked forward to the fight.

From his point of view, he hadn’t accumulated any losses which meant that he was safe from being disqualified even if he lost, and it would make such an excellent experience: having an intense battle with an Inhuman Mighty One who practices a different style of Martial Art. This idea was reinforced by Lou Cheng’s fight with Veigar the day before—how it gave Lou Cheng a boost in his proficiency in actual combat, and how it filled a void in his root pulp caused by overly fast advancements.

Seeing that Ann Chaoyang wasn’t too bothered by the abysmal lot he drew, Lou Cheng immediately began poking fun at him.

“This is what you get for provoking me with the Eating Song just now!”

Ann Chaoyang couldn’t decide whether he wanted to frown or smile, then Lou Cheng continued, trying to sound serious. “You know, I have the supernatural ability to reflect curses and bad luck, and its basic application is that anyone that hurts me, provokes me or makes fun of me will receive retribution.”

Then, he drew a cross on his chest with a finger, in the wrong sequence.

“Believe in Lou Cheng and you shall become immortal!”

“I almost believed it until you said that last line…” chuckled Ann Chaoyang after a short pause.

Unable to hold it in any longer, he burst into laughter along with Peng Leyun, Ren Li and Zhong Ningtao.

You almost fell for it? Quoting Xiao Ming’s catchphrase—With your IQ, if you were a girl, I could swindle you go to bed with me twice, thought Lou Cheng, laughing along.

“In a good mood aren’t you?” said Ann Chaoyang, looking towards Lou Cheng as he bundled his long hair together.

“Indeed,” replied Lou Cheng happily, feeling relaxed mentally and physically.

His trainings bore fruit, his morph was imminent, and his next opponent wasn’t an Inhuman Mighty One. What was there to be unhappy about?

Then, Yan Zheke’s reply to his previous message came.

“See! I told you you won’t get an Inhuman opponent with my good karma blessing you! Now I can be completely at ease. I’ll skip the cheering part later now that I have lent you all my good karma!”

Completely at ease? Completely? Ke, you seem to have exposed your true feelings… Lou Cheng chuckled, feeling even better.

Then Peng Leyun’s lot was drawn. His opponent was a Japanese samurai who was neither Tang Zexun nor Mouko Yamashita.

After him, there were only two brackets remaining, and after confirmation, it was decided that Ren Li would be the lucky one to be awarded walkover.

“Do girls with a bad sense of direction have better luck in general?” whispered Lou Cheng, edging towards Ann Chaoyang.

“Possibly. If their luck isn’t good, then they would be lost all the time,” quipped Ann Chaoyang, playing along with Lou Cheng’s joke.

The two glanced over, only to see Ren Li with her cheeks puffing up slightly, looking very unhappy.

“What is she unhappy about?” Ann Chaoyang whispered, confused.

Lou Cheng pondered. “I guess she’s disappointed at missing out on a fight…”

The two exchanged looks, then began pitying the unappreciated “walkover lot”.

…

In the Lou Cheng Fan-club forums, “Eternal Nightfall” Yan Xiaoling had tagged “Unparalleled Dragon King”.

“Is this Baco guy strong? What level is he at? How much weaker is he compared to our Lou Cheng?”

“Close to Inhuman probably,” replied “Unparalleled Dragon King”, “But his power mainly stems from Nanyang evil arts, and the strongest curses happen to be ineffective against Lou Cheng. It’s fine if he doesn’t use them, but if he does it’s going to turn into a real comedy. So, all things considered, he’s a cut below Lou Cheng. Based on Lou Cheng’s usual outstanding performance on the spot, Baco’s chances of winning are slim. ”

“Haha, seems like our prayers came true! [swirling into a dance]” replied Yan Xiaoling.

“Seems like you have to start waking up on time. [funny expression]” replied “Okamoto’s fan”.

“[grovels with head in hands, shivering]” replied Yan Xiaoling.

“Don’t worry, I’ll make sure you follow through with what you said! (Pats shoulders) [arms crossing solemnly]” replied “Brahman”.

…

Before the duel began, at the side of Shengxiang representatives, Wahku—a gaunt, olive-complected and barefooted Sadhu clad in red robes—walked down from the upper seats, and stopped before Baco.

“Watch out for his supernatural ability to reflect curses.”

“I have seen his data,” Baco replied gruffly, adjusting the scarlet bandages on his hands.

Though he looked skinny for a famous Shengxiang boxer, every inch of his muscles was toughened like steel, capable of releasing explosive bursts of strength. His stumpy eyebrows curved at their ends and gave him a vicious appearance.

“Curses are not the end to my spells,” he said confidently.

Snap! Beneath his scarlet bandages, a cluster of what seemed like tiny life forms began to wriggle, a sight that would make one’s stomach turn.

Knuckles cracking, Baco suddenly clenched his fist, before striding past Wahku and towards the arena.

…

Lou Cheng, who was impatiently lurking on the edge of the venue, hopped into the arena and got into position as soon as the previous fight ended.

He was still in his good mood from before, and for once he did not make his presence known by visualizing the Army Formula, which would have applied mental and spiritual pressure on the incoming Baco. He was fairly carefree and at ease.

But of course! Once he mastered “Emperor Yan Statue”, his Zhurong Force could soon be enhanced, which meant that he would soon begin morphing and officially step into the threshold of Immortals.

This held great symbolic importance, similar to how mastering “Force Concentration” would put one into the Dan stage. It marked that one was truly fit to be called a Mighty One, worthy of being in the upper levels of the Martial Arts world.

Once he reached this stage, even if he lost the competition and went home without any prize money, Wu Qinggui would still raise his spokesperson pay accordingly. On top of that, there was the bonus for winning the Nationals.

This was the worst case scenario—but objectively speaking, against Baco, who was not an Inhuman, he had a high chance of winning. Although he still took him seriously, there wasn’t enough pressure to affect his mood.

On top of that, the ticket-booking to America went without a hitch, and Ke went out of her way to wake him up by waking up earlier than usual. Then there was that piece of news from Mom, telling him that the house they recently purchased went up in value by 50,000 RMB, in a matter of months. He was also getting along swimmingly with his new teammates…

Everything in life seemed so wonderful… ,thought Lou Cheng, without a care in the world. He didn’t waste the waiting time either, and visualized the heavy, majestic, scorching and terrifying “Emperor Yan Statue” in his mind, slowly guiding the “Flame Force” in his body to condense and mutate.

This was the process of enhancing “Zhurong Force” to “Emperor Yan Force”!

The truth was, even without the enhancement, with the basic mastery of “Emperor Yan Diagram”, he could use the “Emperor Yan Force” through a series of steps and visualization. However, since he had to compress the force during battle, the visualization would have taken a good couple of seconds, making it quite useless in actual combat.

Once he had enhanced his “Flame Force” correspondingly, he can save those couple of seconds and effectively utilize “Emperor Yan Force” in battle. If his root pulp mutated and completed his morph, then he wouldn’t even need the series of steps, every strike with brief visualization would be imbued with “Emperor Force”.

Wisps of flame merged as rays of scarlet turned white. Lou Cheng, while enjoying the changes within in his body, slowly built up a main path of “Emperor Yan Force” that branched out into more paths.

That was when Baco walked into the arena, and saw the young man casually standing in a relaxed manner, with a smile and not a trace of bloodlust.

Such arrogance…such carelessness… thought Baco, the flame in his eyes burning brighter.

Strangely, Lou Cheng felt no pressure at all, instead he felt like he was in the state of “enlightened mind” like in Xian Xia novels, even his “Flame Force” seemed alive.

Without paying much heed to his opponent’s reactions, he smiled at Baco and bowed.

The referee raised his right hand.

“Begin!” he boomed.

With the wonderful feelings coursing through him, he felt mentally and physically at ease. He stepped out with his left leg, naturally visualizing the Attainment Formula.

In the low hum of the ancient character, he covered thirty plus feet within a step, appearing before Baco with a whoosh. Swinging his right arm using the forward momentum, his punch flew out with a boom, imbued with a violent “Flame Force” from visualizing “Yan Emperor Statue” halfway.

Baco’s heart skipped a beat. Seeing that he was unable to dodge in time, he steadied himself and held both hands in front of his chest.

Lou Cheng’s punch went at the speed of lightning, enveloped with a layer of dazzling whiteness, landed right on his opponent’s hands.

Boom!

Amidst the sounds of explosion, waves of tumbling flames and blasts of gusts, Baco involuntarily took a step back. That’s when he realized his scarlet bandages were in flames. A part of them was already charred, with black particles falling and turning to dust, fluttering in the wind.

This… Baco’s iris shrunk.

Since when was Lou Cheng’s “Flame Force” this powerful?!