Sorry guys, Again I haven't posted for over two weeks, I was really sick I got hospitalized for a week, I couldn't move or do simple things , I just started getting better I'll try to update daily again as always...am so sorry ...
Alot of readers have been reading this, and enjoying it, am really sorry for any inconveniences,but it's against my will, Ill try to set timers for future chapters, for those who seek to read advanced chapters consider Supporting me on patreon:
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The Dojo was plunged into a dead, suffocating silence.
Erioh Kure's face was completely dark. Internally, he was fiercely cursing Raian for being an absolute idiot. The boy had grown so accustomed to completely crushing his opponents with raw, overwhelming stats that his brain had devolved into pure muscle.
When facing an unfathomably skilled master like Lu Li, how could anyone be stupid enough to open with Mountain Breaker? A heavy, wide-swinging double punch possessed far too many glaring openings and was incredibly easy to counter with soft-style grappling or deflection techniques.
Erioh had fully expected Raian's Mountain Breaker to fail. But what truly shocked the ancient Patriarch was how Lu Li had countered it.
Lu Li hadn't used a standard Aikido deflection or a simple dodge. Instead, he had perfectly read the exact flow of kinetic energy surging through Raian's musculature and surgically redirected the momentum. He had weaponized Raian's own explosive force, completely exposing the boy's inner guard before delivering the counter-strike.
Two seconds later, Raian's consciousness finally rebooted. He found himself kneeling on the Dojo floorboards. Looking up, he saw Lu Li standing casually above him, looking down with an expression of absolute, freezing apathy.
Did I just... get knocked completely unconscious?
As the reality set in, a terrifying inferno of rage violently ignited within Raian's chest. Watching Lu Li casually raise a hand and beckon him forward with a single finger, Raian felt like the blood vessels in his brain were going to physically detonate.
But, to the absolute shock of every single Kure Clan member present, the notoriously volatile, explosive Raian didn't roar. He remained incredibly, terrifyingly quiet.
He slowly stood up. His pitch-black eyes locked onto Lu Li. The manic, blinding rage had entirely metamorphosed into a cold, hyper-focused killing intent.
Raian was finally taking this seriously.
Seeing this shift, the corners of Lu Li's mouth curled up involuntarily. "Well, it seems holding back was worth it. Looks like you can survive a few more exchanges. Come. Show me the profound mysteries of the Kure Clan's martial arts."
Meanwhile, more and more clan members were frantically crowding into the Dojo. News that Raian Kure—the undisputed strongest fighter of the current generation—had been laid out flat in a single exchange was an absolute bombshell.
Over the past 1,300 years, the Kure Clan had relentlessly optimized their bloodline through selective breeding with the world's strongest martial artists. They had literally evolved into a species of "New Humans." In terms of pure physical capacity, every single person in this room was a superhuman.
And Raian was the superhuman among superhumans. Coupled with his unprecedented 100% Removal rate, no one in the clan had seen Raian take a serious beating in years.
But now, they were witnessing a man who was undeniably stronger. The young foreigner stood perfectly still in the center of the Dojo, looking as immovable as a towering mountain.
Absolute stability.
That was the only thought echoing in the minds of the Kure spectators.
Raian sensed it too. He no longer felt like he was facing a peer in his twenties. He felt like he was standing before an ancient, eighty-year-old Grandmaster who had spent his entire life bathing in blood—except this Grandmaster possessed a physical vessel just as terrifying as his own.
Facing Lu Li was exactly like staring into the abyss. Raian had absolutely zero idea where the man's bottom line was.
As the two stood locked in a tense standoff, their invisible auras violently clashed. For the very first time in a long time, Raian felt genuine, suffocating pressure. A bead of cold sweat slid down his forehead.
In the next microsecond, the deafening silence shattered.
This time, it wasn't Raian who initiated the clash.
It was Lu Li!
With an explosive burst of kinetic force that violently pulverized the hardwood floorboards beneath his feet, Lu Li surged forward. His Shunpo was so terrifyingly fast that the vast majority of the Kure spectators completely lost track of his movements. In a fraction of a blink, he had instantly closed the gap.
He threw a straight punch. It carried the apocalyptic, crushing weight of a landslide. Even before the knuckles connected, the sheer kinetic pressure of the displaced air blasted against Raian's face.
In the absolute zenith of martial arts, there was a profound concept known as Sen no Sen (Initiative of Initiative)—striking before the opponent even fully formulated the intent to strike.
Raian had intended to rely on his peerless kinetic vision to read the microscopic muscular twitches preceding Lu Li's attack, allowing him to counter perfectly. But Lu Li was simply too fast, and his strike carried absolutely zero telegraphing!
In a desperate, split-second reaction, Raian aggressively threw his left elbow upward, violently intercepting Lu Li's incoming fist. It was a Kure technique called Buddha Killer, originally designed to crush an opponent's larynx. Raian was desperately using it as a shield.
Even though he had lost the absolute initiative, Raian was confident this was the perfect defensive maneuver. Elbows were structurally far harder than knuckles. At this microscopic distance, Lu Li couldn't abort the strike. The collision heavily favored Raian; Lu Li's hand was going to be completely shattered!
BANG—!
Just as Raian mentally prepared to reclaim the advantage, a wave of agonizing pain violently erupted from his elbow. The sheer kinetic shockwave blasted his entire body backward. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of Lu Li's fist.
Coating the knuckles was a dark, grayish-black, metallic luster. Not only was Lu Li's hand completely undamaged, but Raian genuinely felt a hairline fracture crack through his own elbow joint.
Before Raian could even process the pain, a violent gale hit him from the side. Lu Li had seamlessly transitioned into a devastating roundhouse kick. Raian desperately threw both arms up to guard his ribs.
The catastrophic impact rippled through his bones.
Just as Raian barely managed to stabilize his posture, Lu Li's next strike was already burying itself into his guard.
The spectating Kure members were absolutely dumbfounded. Raian was completely serious. He was operating at 100% Removal. Yet, he was being utterly, hopelessly suppressed, completely incapable of launching a single counterattack!
Having lost the initial tempo, Raian never found an opening to breathe. Lu Li's onslaught was like a torrential, apocalyptic hurricane. His strikes were utterly unpredictable, chaotic, and impossible to fully defend against.
If Raian wasn't genuinely a peerless combat genius with ridiculous biological durability, his defense would have been completely shattered within the first three exchanges.
But even so, after a few dozen brutal clashes, Raian's defense inevitably began to crumble. A prolonged defense will eventually fall was an absolute, eternal truth in martial arts.
During a frantic exchange, Raian finally left a microscopic opening. Lu Li instantly surged into his inner guard. With one hand, he violently slapped aside Raian's guard, while his other hand launched a devastating One-Inch Punch directly into Raian's heart.
The Removal technique relied entirely on the heart violently pumping blood to supercharge the cardiovascular system. Taking massive, concentrated blunt force trauma directly to the heart instantly paralyzed Raian's kinetic flow. His body locked up, and he began to fall backward.
Lu Li seamlessly followed up with a rapid-fire, three-hit One-Inch Punch combo, sinking every single strike directly into Raian's sternum.
As Raian completely lost his balance and fell backward, Lu Li stepped forward, his hand flattening into a razor-sharp spear hand, aimed directly at Raian's crushing larynx.
"NO!" Fusui screamed from the sidelines.
Lu Li's spear hand stopped exactly one millimeter from Raian's throat.
Raian's massive body violently crashed into the floorboards.
Lu Li slowly stood up straight, turning his head to smile warmly at Fusui. "Like I said, I only came here for a friendly martial arts exchange. I don't intend to kill anyone."
As he spoke, he casually stomped his foot down directly onto Raian's chest. The floorboards beneath them completely shattered.
Raian, who had been secretly gathering his remaining strength for a desperate, lethal counterattack from the floor, violently coughed up a mouthful of blood. The dark purple hue rapidly receded from his skin as the Removal forcibly deactivated.
Lu Li looked down at the bleeding Raian. "Launching a sneak attack after losing a spar is very bad manners. Though, I suppose I should have expected it. I would like to see your actual assassination techniques someday."
"Lu... Li..." Raian wheezed. With his heart and lungs severely bruised, he didn't even have the breath left to curse. His vision blurred, and the man standing above him slowly faded to black.
Clap. Clap. Clap.
Slow, rhythmic clapping echoed through the dead silent Dojo. The source was the emaciated old man standing near the entrance.
"A truly magnificent duel," Erioh Kure smiled, stepping forward. "The younger generation is truly terrifying. I must sincerely thank you, Mr. Lu, for properly disciplining this arrogant brat."
Erioh was genuinely deeply shocked by the fight. He knew that even in his absolute prime, he would have struggled to dismantle Raian this surgically and effortlessly.
Lu Li appeared to be in his early twenties, yet his mastery of martial arts was unfathomably profound. It was a terrifying, once-in-a-millennium anomaly.
"Take this useless idiot to the medical wing," Erioh instructed the surrounding clan members. His tone carried a heavy, nostalgic weight. "Hopefully, this brutal beating will finally drill some sense into his thick skull. He needs to realize there is always a higher mountain. Secret techniques do not make you invincible. If you neglect the foundation of martial arts, you will inevitably fall."
In his youth, Erioh had also suffered a crushing, humiliating defeat. But if it weren't for that brutal loss, he never would have attained true strength. That single defeat had forced him back to the clan compound to obsessively refine his combat techniques, eventually molding him into an unparalleled Grandmaster.
The current Raian was exactly like Erioh before that defeat: relying entirely on the 100% Removal rate to stat-check his opponents while completely neglecting technical refinement. When faced with a true, super-tier combatant, that arrogance was lethal.
Therefore, his gratitude toward Lu Li was entirely genuine. This defeat would force Raian to grow stronger.
"So," Lu Li smiled, looking directly at the old Patriarch. "Would the legendary First Fang of Metsudo care to exchange a few pointers with me?"
If they were talking purely about technical mastery and combat IQ, Erioh Kure was undoubtedly one of the absolute strongest martial artists in this world.
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