Martial Arts Livestreaming
Chapter 59 - 57: One Must Endure 10 Years of Hardship to Achieve Today’s Success (Part 1)

Chapter 59: Chapter 57: One Must Endure 10 Years of Hardship to Achieve Today’s Success (Part 1)

"Hello, everyone—this is the Lightweight Division of the Extreme Martial Arts Tournament going from the top 16 to the top 8, and the next match features the Kung Fu kid who has captured everyone’s attention lately, Wu Li!"

The host on stage called out with enthusiasm.

As the competition entered the knockout stage, the organizers converted all other arenas into spectator stands, leaving only the central arena for live broadcasting. From top 16 to top 8, every match would be broadcast live, not just Wu Li’s.

However, it was without a doubt that Wu Li’s matches were still the most anticipated, so the organizers had specifically scheduled his match as the penultimate one for the day, to be the main event.

In the earlier matches, the three seeded players Han Yuanfei, Lu Ping, and Zhu Qianyuan had all defeated their opponents to smoothly make it into the top 8. Only Wu Li, the number three seed, had yet to advance.

"Wu Li! Wu Li! Wu Li!"

As Wu Li made his entrance, cheers erupted from the audience.

Fighting his way to this stage of the competition, Wu Li had won the affection of many. Several fans who had been following him on Mo Yin had even made the special trip to Qi City to see his match and set up a fan club on site.

"Wu Li, height 178 cm, weight 73 kg, with 14 years of Xingyi experience. He achieved three victories in the group stage, all by KO or TKO!"

The host, holding a card, continued the introduction: "And now, let’s welcome his opponent, Yang Fan!"

"Yang Fan, height 173 cm, weight 74 kg, also achieved three victories in the group stage, securing two by KO and one by submission."

As the host’s voice trailed off, the audience buzzed with conversation.

Knocking out or submitting an opponent in the arena is no easy task. Previously, everyone’s attention had been on Wu Li, and matches from other groups weren’t even broadcast, so apart from a few seeded players, the crowd didn’t know of any other remarkable fighters in the lightweight division. Now, hearing the host’s introduction, even those with a little understanding realized Yang Fan was no ordinary competitor.

Following the host’s introduction, Yang Fan walked out from another corridor, slowly making his way to the ring.

He had no official match records in the country and his bare-knuckle fighting abroad was little known, so he wasn’t designated as a seeded player when he registered. Given his dominant performance in the group stage, he might not be any less skilled than the other seeds.

Although there were no match videos of Yang Fan for in-depth study, Wu Li had a general sense of his strength, thanks to system detection.

[Height: 173cm

Weight: 74kg

Muscle Strength: 121 (115)

Muscle Burst: 125 (128)

Muscle Endurance: 102 (106)

Resistance To Hits: 147 (210)

Neural Response: 130 (135)

Skill: Sandboxing (Master Level), Hong Fist (Master Level)

Overall Score: B- (13%)

(Brackets denote host’s own data)]

That was Yang Fan’s personal data, and the system gave Wu Li an overall score of B- (78%), while Yang Fan was B- (13%), indicating that Yang Fan’s physical condition and skills were not far off from Wu Li’s.

Qi Quanzhi, a professional fighter Wu Li had faced earlier, had a system overall rating of C+ (88%), which underscored Yang Fan’s capabilities.

To Wu Li’s surprise, his opponent also practiced Traditional Martial Arts and had mastered Hong Fist to a Master Level.

Many people learned about Hong Fist through movies, familiar with its fixed stances, but few knew it represented one of the styles of Southern Fist. Hong, Liu, Cai, Li, and Mo—it was the foremost among the five major fists of Guangdong.

Hong Fist has many and varied sets of weaponry routines, and its main bare-handed routines include: Dragon Fist, Tiger Fist, Leopard Fist, with the more famous ones being Iron Wire Fist and Tiger Crane Double Form Fist. Wu Li was curious which style Yang Fan specialized in.

The referee brought the two fighters together to explain the rules, then signaled the start of the match.

"Go Wu Li!" The crowd immediately erupted with cheers.

Wu Li commenced with the Three Body Formation stance. But before he could strike, Yang Fan launched an aggressive attack.

Whoosh! A straight punch aimed for Wu Li’s face.

Without dodging, Wu Li met it with a Tiger Hugging Head upper block towards Yang Fan’s straight punch and prepared to follow up with a Splitting Fist downwards.

Hong Fist is famously known for its rigorous and fierce power, and Wu Li took great pleasure in the hunt, eager to witness how formidable the opponent’s Hong Fist could be.

Yang Fan’s straight punch wasn’t released with full force, leaving room for further manipulation. As he saw Wu Li’s Tiger Hugging Head aiming high, his forearm smoothly went with Wu Li’s strength, and in the next second, he fiercely exerted force, bending his arm and shooting his right elbow forward, executing a sudden Baji’s Top Heart Elbow.

Wu Li did not anticipate that he would witness Baji before Hong Fist. He didn’t continue with his downward chopping but instead used Xingyi’s Bear Form, also an elbow strike, meeting elbow with elbow!

Bang! The elbows collided.

The Top Heart Elbow of Baji and the Bear Form Elbow Strike of Xingyi were actually quite similar. The difference lay in the nuanced ways force was delivered: The Top Heart Elbow of Baji predominantly relied on the unity of waist and hips, requiring a larger range of motion. Since Yang Fan had first delivered a straight punch and then switched to a Top Heart Elbow, his force wasn’t fully integrated, which is why he was pushed back half a step by Wu Li.

As Yang Fan executed the elbow strike, he also reached out to grab Wu Li’s arm, attempting to follow through with another exertion of force.

In movies and TV dramas, a Baji practitioner often sends an opponent flying with just one Top Heart Elbow or Iron Mountain Lean, but this is a misconception. In actual Baji combat, it’s all about getting close to the opponent.

After a Top Heart Elbow, grabbing the opponent, followed immediately by the forearm capable of striking up to the eyes, down to the crotch, or continuing forward to embrace the enemy in one’s arms for strikes—that’s the essence of "Hitting people like kissing."

Wu Li found it amusing to contemplate, and had he not been certain that the System Detection wouldn’t fail, he might have thought Yang Fan was actually primarily trained in Baji.

Wu Li’s arm flashed, avoiding Yang Fan’s grabbing hand, and then seamlessly transitioned from Bear Arm to Eagle Peck - his forearm swiftly pulling forward, and his hand chopping towards Yang Fan’s arm.

Slap! Yang Fan didn’t dodge, his arm was struck by Wu Li, turning a patch of skin red, but he seized the opportunity to grab Wu Li’s arm and forcefully pulled it towards himself, simultaneously throwing a punch at Wu Li’s face.

Wu Li threw a punch to meet it, and the two quickly exchanged blows, then almost simultaneously kicked at one another, their legs colliding in mid-air.

Wu Li felt the other’s left hand gripping like a hook, akin to the claw of an animal, clinging stubbornly to his arm. However, the MMA gloves hindered the execution of grabbing skills, and Wu Li’s right arm, whipping with Drilling Fist Force, quickly broke free from Yang Fan’s grip.

Next, the two exchanged a series of attacks. Aside from the initial Baji Top Heart Elbow, Yang Fan’s punches and kicks were all Sandboxing moves, showing no trace of Traditional Martial Arts. Nonetheless, Wu Li could still detect differences in some of the subtler kinetic motions of his opponent.

Hong Fist includes Elephant Form Technique and forms that mimic Dragon, Tiger, Lion, Leopard, Snake, Crane, Horse, Monkey, Bear, and there are many similarities with Xingyi Fist, which is why Wu Li could feel traces of Tiger Form and Crane Form in Yang Fan’s movements.

"It seems he must primarily practice Tiger Crane Double Form Fist," Wu Li thought to himself.

The most famous Grandmaster who practiced Tiger Crane Double Form Fist was Huang Feihong. Many people know him for his Shadowless Kick, but that cannot be considered a Martial Arts technique per se—it’s a description. Huang Feihong integrated some Northern Leg Technique movements into Hong Fist, and then executed them with the Tiger Crane Double Form.

With the ferocity of the Tiger and the agility of the Crane, that is Tiger Crane Double Form.

There’s an old saying from that era—if you couldn’t beat Huang Feihong, you were as good as dead because you couldn’t outrun him.

This referred to Huang Feihong’s supreme Crane Form practice, with a Step Technique fast to a shocking degree. Now, on the mat, Yang Fan also displayed a touch of the Crane’s agility, moving quickly, but he chose to use it for offense rather than avoiding confrontation.

Similar to Wu Li’s first match against Qi Quanzhi, Yang Fan maintained an almost continuous offense, preferring at times to take a hit in order to keep on the assault.

For the first time, Wu Li faced an opponent with such a strong will to attack. Unphased, he met attack with attack, speed with speed—if you use Tiger Form to punch straight, then I’ll use Tiger Form to throw a Splitting Fist; if you use Crane Form to dodge then counter, I’ll use Snake Form to evade and then Drilling Fist to counter...

The two went wild with punches in the ring, delighting the audience.

Since both were focusing on speed and offense, with less emphasis on defense, it was inevitable that they would get hit by their opponent. There were moments when punches met punches and legs clashed with legs. In just three minutes, their arms, shins, chests, abdomens, and ribs were swollen and red.

Thanks to the enhancement from his Iron Body, Wu Li was in a slightly better condition than Yang Fan, who had areas on his body that were broken and bleeding, staining Wu Li’s gloves red.

Despite appearing rather tragic, Yang Fan remained calm. As a child, he learned Hong Fist and, in addition to Tiger Crane Double Form Fist, he also practiced Iron Wire Fist.

It was a very strenuous style to train, requiring the assistance of iron rings fitted on the arms. Only when the arms were trained to be hard as iron, as if cast from steel, could there be any achievement.

For this, Yang Fan had endured untold hardships, countless times training his arms until they were bruised and bloodied, to the point he couldn’t grasp chopsticks steadily.

It was precisely because of such hardships and suffering that Yang Fan aspired to earn more money through Martial Arts. He was not willing to continue being mediocre.

He went abroad to compete in bare-knuckle fights. Bare-knuckle meant fighting without gloves.

Gloves are worn to protect both the opponent and oneself, but without gloves, a punch to another person means one’s own fist would be in pain, could bruise, bleed, or even fracture.

Hence, in bare-knuckle fights, even though the absence of gloves meant fewer constraints and protection, fighters could inflict more damage on an opponent, many hesitated to use full force, either for fear of injury or because they couldn’t bear the pain.

Due to practicing Iron Wire Fist, Yang Fan’s Resistance To Hits and pain tolerance were far above average, allowing him to achieve respectable results in international bare-knuckle competitions.

Now, with the two unleashing a frenzy of attacks, it somewhat recalled Yang Fan’s experience in those overseas bare-knuckle fights. He was known as "Mad Dog" overseas because he was ferocious when attacking in the ring, with a resolve as if he would keep KO’ing his opponent even if his fists shattered to the bone.

"When I was training so hard that I bled, what were you doing? When I was breaking my hands bare-knuckle fighting, what were you doing? You’re a pampered college student; what right do you have to beat me?!"

Yang Fan glared fiercely at Wu Li standing before him, roaring in his heart, believing that there was no reason he should lose!

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