Unparalleled Duo
Chapter 66 - 66 43 Fearlessly Demonstrate Power

66: Chapter 43: Fearlessly Demonstrate Power 66: Chapter 43: Fearlessly Demonstrate Power Wang Chun had grown up in poverty, and to ensure the other, older children at home had enough to eat, his parents had sold him when he was the youngest.

He understood, so he didn’t hold any grudges.

After being passed around among traffickers, Wang Chun was sold to a wealthy household far from his hometown.

For the following half a month, he and a dozen children about his age were kept together, living a life of good food and accommodation.

If you thought these people were being charitable, then you were too naive…

These children, including Wang Chun, were purchased as burial companions.

The reason they were well-cared for half a month was that they were waiting for the old master of the house to pass away; once the funeral was over, these children would be dressed in fine garments specially made for burial companions and then strangled to death.

Their bodies would be filled with mercury to prevent decay and their faces made up to look like white porcelain dolls before they were placed in the tomb alongside the corpse.

Such acts weren’t just ethically monstrous but were also unquestionably against the current laws of the Great Ming; even royal relatives didn’t dare to openly engage in such dealings, but there were still those who quietly sought traffickers to make arrangements.

Wang Chun had encountered such an unscrupulous rich family.

Fortunately, his life was not meant to end there…

On the day he was taken for the burial, by luck, he was not strangled to death but merely passed out temporarily from holding his breath.

The person responsible for filling the children with mercury was rushed and didn’t do a thorough job, sparing a few; thus, Wang Chun, still clinging to life, was taken to the tomb chamber.

Two days later, he crawled out through a hole left secretly by a tomb repairer.

From then on, he roamed the streets and became a little beggar until, at the age of nine, an elder of the Beggar Gang took notice of him and accepted him as a disciple of the gang.

This year, Wang Chun was nineteen and had achieved the rank of “four bags” within the Beggar Gang, his martial arts skills standing out amongst his peers.

Everyone knows the Beggar Gang has the Eighteen Dragon Subduing Palms and the Dog-Beating Staff Technique, but these are divine skills exclusive to the Gang Leader and certainly not something Wang Chun of his rank could learn.

There was also the famous Dog-Beating Array, but that was used for group fights and not by an individual.

So what did he know?

Actually, not much…

Just a solid foundation in the Inner Strength of Lotus Falling, plus the two most fundamental moves of the Beggar Gang: the Lotus Palm and the Iron Broom Leg.

That was it.

However, those invited to participate in the Youth Hero Conference were by no means ordinary.

As the saying goes, martial arts are static, but people are dynamic.

Even the most fundamental martial arts, if brought to the ultimate level, could be tremendously powerful.

And Wang Chun was a man who had mastered the Lotus Palm and Iron Broom Leg to perfection.

Moreover, as the Beggar Gang disciples were commonly seen on the streets and often had opportunities to draw swords and come to the aid of the distressed, Wang Chun had also accumulated quite some experience in the martial world.

Although his martial arts skills weren’t particularly high, as an outstanding figure among the youth of the “Number One Gang in the World,” he was fully qualified to be invited.

Unfortunately, he had bad luck in the draw of the martial competition…

In the first match, Wang Chun encountered Lei Buji, which naturally left him no chance to show off.

Although Lei Buji’s Inner Strength was far from the level of his father, Lei Buwei, when it came to moves, his “Lei Family’s Boxing” already possessed half the power of his father’s.

No matter how refined your basic martial arts are, facing a supreme-level master who created his own martial arts during his prime was futile.

Upon greeting each other with clasped fists and assuming their stances on the arena, almost simultaneously they launched forward with their attacks.

After just a single crossing of moves, the expression on Wang Chun’s face changed.

At the very moment their fist and palm met, Wang Chun felt Lei Buji’s fist was light as fluff initially but carried an afterforce as heavy as mountains.

Such a change was something Wang Chun had never encountered before.

He quickly bent his knee slightly and swung his arm to deflect the force, but to his surprise, the heavy afterforce didn’t diminish and stuck to him like a shadow.

Seeing this, Wang Chun gritted his teeth and changed his approach, pivoting with a side turn and thrusting out with palm and leg.

But Lei Buji’s response was much faster, as he was ready and waiting for him; as Wang Chun turned halfway, Lei Buji had already launched two punches that sent Wang Chun tumbling backward, his chest churning with disrupted energy, and for a moment, Wang Chun couldn’t stand up.

Lei Buji was also a straightforward person; the rules didn’t prohibit hitting a downed opponent, but upon seeing his opponent fall, he just stood there without moving.

After waiting for a moment, it was Wang Chun who flipped over and sat up cross-legged, chuckling bitterly, “I concede.”

Wang Chun was sensible enough to realize that his opponent had just shown mercy.

Facing such a vastly superior opponent, continuing the fight would only make a spectacle of himself.

Hearing this, Lei Buji chuckled heartily and replied, “You flatter me.”

At that point, the host from the Justice Sect re-entered the stage and announced the result of the match.

And so, the first bout of this year’s martial exams was decided within three moves; when Wang and Lei stepped down from the arena, almost everyone looked at Lei Buji differently…

The crowd below was buzzing with speculation—just who was this youth who appeared to be thirty years old?

Their ignorance was understandable since Lei Buji had been recommended to Shen Youran by Sun Yixie and only just made it onto the list of participants under Shen Youran’s personal endorsement a few days before the conference began.

In fact, even Shen Youran didn’t know much about Lei Buji’s background, mainly because Brother Sun had just presented him with the “Reversing Heaven and Earth Heart Method” when he recommended Lei Buji.

He and Brother Huang were in the middle of a warm-hearted exchange, calling each other brother affectionately, and it felt somewhat awkward to refuse a request right after accepting a favor, so he agreed.

This is also why…

the announcer, before starting the fight, had nothing to say about Lei Buji except for his name.

There was no mention of his school, region, or any nicknames—he knew none of it.

But now, having witnessed Lei Buji’s impressive debut, the circumstances had changed.

There’s an old saying that one shouldn’t be afraid of not recognizing good merchandise, but rather compare it with another…

Wang Chun’s martial arts were definitely not weak; among the younger participants, he was at least above average in terms of actual combat skills.

Even many in the audience who were experienced martial artists didn’t have the confidence to defeat him within three moves without relying on Inner Strength.

Yet, Lei Buji had easily done just that.

Besides, Lei Buji’s Boxing was immediately recognizable by discerning eyes as superior Martial Arts: the technique appeared straightforward and unpretentious, yet it was actually deceptively simple, capable of infinite variations, polished through extensive practice.

To use a concept coined by the renowned scholar of metaphysical martial arts, Banyuan Huijie, it could be described as having high “purity” in its Boxing.

“Brother Sun, Brother Huang, I won, haha.” Lei Buji cheerfully approached his two elder brothers after stepping down from the stage.

Meanwhile, Sun and Huang were sprawled on two lounge chairs they had quietly pilfered from the storehouse, positioned on a raised stone platform just above the surrounding area (this area, originally an exercise yard used by the Justice Sect with a few uneven sections, was familiar to Sun and Huang who had been wandering about indiscriminately lately).

Thus, they were watching the competition from their seats like they were VIPs in a stadium.

But that wasn’t the most brazen part—the two of them were even gnawing on spicy-flavored pork knuckles, and it was unclear where they had managed to buy such a greasy breakfast so early in the day.

“All right, all right, that shows strength,” Sun Yixie wasn’t too surprised because in the past few days, Lei Buji had already shared with him and Huang Donglai who his father was, and so both of them knew well just how strong Lei Buji really was.

“Buji, I favor you too,” Huang Donglai chimed in from the side, “Based on my professional judgment, no one here matches you in martial arts, you’re bound to win the title this year.”

“Mother clucker, are you even human, Brother Huang?

You’re jinxing your own brother?” Sun Yixie couldn’t help but snark upon hearing this.

“Get lost!” Huang Donglai almost instinctively fired back, “Jinx your sister!

I’m a professional commentator, okay?”

Lei Buji couldn’t grasp the quirky lingo about jinxing, but having become accustomed to his brothers’ way of speaking lately, he didn’t take it to heart.

As for the eavesdroppers who were quietly listening to their conversation, they were even more baffled… Aside from the members of the Justice Sect, many people even assumed that Sun Yixie and Huang Donglai had a poor relationship, as they heard nothing but them swearing at each other, with a vernacular that was particularly vulgar, often mentioning family members of others.

“The second match starts now!”

On the other hand, atop the stage, the warriors of the second bout were positioned and ready to start; after all, the martial exams needed to conclude within a day, and there was only one arena, with no set duration for each match, so the proceedings had to move swiftly.

Compared to Lei Buji’s swift victory in the first match, the second was more visually appealing, because the competitors were more evenly matched, resulting in an exchange of blows.

However, the actual level of skill…

let’s just say it was akin to a brawl between two unremarkable contenders.

Such inconsequential matches are not worth detailing here.

To make a long story short, after several bouts determining who advanced from the preliminary round, the martial exams entered the second round.

This round, Lei Buji faced a young fighter with a spear, while he fought unarmed, and again, within three moves, he defeated his opponent and progressed.

Thus, Lei Buji continued to advance until the end of the second round when it was finally Sun Yixie’s turn to enter the ring…