Kyogoku Makoto showed a bewildered expression. "..."
He clearly heard the referee say "start."
However, this also explained why the famous Master Ma was so easily defeated, it turned out that he wasn't ready yet.
Kyogoku Makoto repositioned himself into a karate stance, becoming serious and preparing to wait for Master Ma to initiate the attack.
Audience below the stage "???"
Ma Baoguo straightened his training uniform and huffed, saying.
"Good! Since you disregard martial ethics, don't blame me for being impolite! Behold my unique skill of Xingyi Tai Chi — Lightning Five-Consecutive Whips!!!"
With that, he took a deep breath, and his feet began to shuffle in a rapid, small-stepped pace.
Both arms simultaneously whipped around quickly, as if he had been electrocuted.
The speed was dazzling, and he coordinated it with sounds of "one whip, two whips, three whips..." from his mouth.
It looked completely unorganized, yet also quite convincing.
Kyogoku Makoto frowned, completely unable to understand what the other party was doing, but he remained vigilant.
After completing his set of Lightning Five-Consecutive Whips, Ma Baoguo seized what he thought was an opening, suddenly stepped forward, and threw a right-hand punch towards Kyogoku Makoto's face.
Kyogoku Makoto instinctively dodged and blocked, then, almost reflexively, countered with a straight punch that struck Ma Baoguo's left eye socket.
Thwack!
"Ah—!"
Ma Baoguo shrieked again, falling to the ground, once more lying stiffly on the ring, covering his eyes with both hands.
The entire venue fell silent again.
After about two seconds, before Ma Baoguo's disciples and the host could rush onto the stage, Ma Baoguo himself released his hands and scrambled up from the ground, a rapidly spreading bruise already forming around his left eye.
He pointed at Kyogoku Makoto, trembling with anger.
"You! You! You ambushed me again! My whip hadn't even returned yet! Young man, I advise you to be careful!"
"Don't make such clever, petty mistakes again!"
Below the stage, Rin could no longer bear to watch, burying her face in her hands, afraid of laughing out loud.
Sonoko and Ran exchanged glances, their expressions complex.
Kyogoku Makoto hadn't had a chance to reply.
Ma Baoguo puffed out his cheeks and glared, loudly protesting to the referee.
"No more fighting, no more fighting! Referee, did you see that? This young man ambushed me twice! He has no martial ethics! How can we continue fighting like this?"
"I unilaterally declare the termination of this match! This does not conform to the spirit of friendly exchange in our traditional martial arts!"
After speaking, he actually disregarded the stunned gazes of the referee and the entire audience, huffing and covering his eyes, and walked off the stage himself.
The organizer's representative immediately rushed to meet him, pulled Ma Baoguo to a corner, and urgently whispered.
"Master Ma! Master Ma! You can't just give up like this! This match started strong but ended weakly, if word gets out, it will be too detrimental to your reputation and our Lingshan Sect's grand plan to open a dojo and recruit disciples in Japan! Look over there, those few disciples who paid their apprenticeship fees are already clamoring for refunds!"
Upon hearing the words "refund," Ma Baoguo's face grew even uglier.
He touched his still throbbing left eye, a million times unwilling to face that monster-like young man, Kyogoku Makoto, again.
His eyes darted around, and an idea came to him.
"Ahem," he cleared his throat and adopted the demeanor of a grandmaster.
"It's not that I can't defeat that child. It's simply that I'm not in my best condition today, and a bare-handed match makes it difficult for me to display even one or two tenths of my true strength."
"How about this, to avoid disappointing our friends who have come from afar, and to showcase the profoundness of our traditional martial arts, let's have a weapon match! My Ma Family Sword Art is also exceptional!"
He paused, afraid that the organizers would ask him to fight Kyogoku Makoto again, and quickly added.
"Of course, for the sake of fairness, we won't use that young man from before. You can find anyone, if there's truly no one, just let me casually instruct a disciple to come up and exchange a few moves."
Upon hearing this, the organizer's representative thought it was better than the Master directly throwing in the towel, and quickly nodded.
"Weapon match? Good idea! Oh, what a coincidence! Just now, a martial artist who uses a Sword registered, saying she wanted to exchange pointers with you, Master Ma!"
Ma Baoguo's heart sank, and he cautiously asked. "Oh? Who is it?" He definitely didn't want to encounter another tough opponent like Kyogoku Makoto.
The representative smiled and replied. "It's a very young lady, not tall, about 1.5 meters, and she seems quite gentle."
Upon hearing this, the heavy stone in Ma Baoguo's heart immediately fell.
A young female, 1.5 meters tall? This sounded much safer!
He immediately regained his confidence, waving his hand grandly. "Good! Then let her come up! Let everyone witness the power of my Ma Family Sword Art!"
The host, having received instructions, immediately picked up the microphone again and used highly inflammatory language to hype up the atmosphere, vividly portraying Master Ma's demeanor as a master who "disdained bare-handed combat" and "wished to meet friends with his peerless sword techniques."
Ma Baoguo re-entered the stage, now holding a standard wooden sword provided by the organizers.
Immediately after, Hoshimi Miyabi also walked onto the stage, likewise holding a wooden katana provided by the organizers.
"I am Ma Baoguo, the sect leader of the Lingshan Sect's Xingyi Tai Chi branch!" Ma Baoguo cupped his fists, full of posture.
"Hoshimi Miyabi, please guide me." Hoshimi Miyabi bowed slightly, her etiquette impeccable.
Ma Baoguo looked at Hoshimi Miyabi's petite figure and the high heels on her feet, and a smile spread across his lips.
He thought to himself, This match is a sure win, a perfect opportunity to regain my face!
"Match start!"
As soon as the referee's words fell, Ma Baoguo, eager to seize the initiative, let out a loud shout, brandishing his wooden sword and charging towards Hoshimi Miyabi, employing a powerful, heavy strike resembling "Splitting Mount Hua".
Hoshimi Miyabi neither dodged nor evaded, simply raising her wooden katana calmly to block.
Clack!
The wooden sword and katana collided, emitting a crisp sound.
However, something unexpected happened.
The wooden katana in Hoshimi Miyabi's hand actually broke off at the hilt after colliding with Ma Baoguo's wooden sword!
The blade portion clattered to the ground.
The break was unusually clean, and upon closer inspection, one could even see traces of solidified glue.
This sudden turn of events caused Hoshimi Miyabi to pause slightly.
Ma Baoguo was first stunned by the sight, then filled with wild joy, preparing to say some polite words.
But to his surprise, after the wooden saber broke, Hoshimi Miyabi didn't hesitate at all, with a flick of her wrist, she directly threw the remaining hilt.
Whoosh—
Thud!
The hilt accurately struck Ma Baoguo's forehead, making a dull thud.
"Ouch!"
Ma Baoguo cried out in pain, feeling his vision go black and the world spin. He once again fell stiffly onto the stage, seeing stars, and didn't get up for a while.
The entire audience fell silent once more; today's match plot was truly full of twists and turns, rising and falling.
After roughly two minutes, Ma Baoguo finally groaned and scrambled up, a large lump rapidly swelling in the center of his forehead, but otherwise, he was fine.