NOVPUB53: Chapter 53: Martial Arts as a Killing Technique (Please Favorite, Follow, and Vote)
53: Chapter 53: Martial Arts as a Killing Technique (Please Favorite, Follow, and Vote)
The young man looked at the figure standing up slowly ahead, with kind eyebrows, benevolent eyes, and a full smile, and immediately turned to run.
With that turn, Liu Nan, who had been facing the other way, also saw the person standing in front of the hay pile, she couldn’t make out the figure’s appearance, but she had a rough idea of who it was.
“He Ao?”
She called out tentatively, but because her mouth was gagged, she could only make muffled sounds.
“Hmm.”
However, the other party seemed to understand her words and responded with a soft grunt, but the voice seemed a bit closer.
By the time Liu Nan reacted, He Ao was already standing in front of her, he casually ripped the cloth from her mouth.
So fast!
That was the only thought in her mind.
But He Ao didn’t care about her shock, he clenched his left hand into a fist and smashed it directly towards the young man’s neck.
The young man didn’t expect He Ao to be so fast, but he still immediately turned sideways, using his hand to block the move.
However, that was just a feint from He Ao, with his other hand he instantly performed a “monkey stealing the peach.”
The young man’s face stiffened, his entire body seized up from the intense pain in an instant, while He Ao’s blocked left hand slid downward, grabbing the young man’s right hand fingers, leveraging it upwards to pry open his right hand.
While the hand that performed the “monkey stealing the peach” instantly grabbed Liu Nan’s ankle, wrapped in black silk, pulling her down from the young man and swiftly retreated back.
After untangling the bindings on Liu Nan’s hands, he threw her casually towards the nearby hay pile.
Everything happened so fast, Liu Nan hadn’t reacted yet when she felt her ankle grabbed, yanked forcefully, and then she was flung out, her body sinking into the hay pile.
He Ao glanced at Liu Nan to make sure she was alright, then turned his attention back to the young man in front of him.
“You used underhanded tactics!”
Muscles bulged swiftly all over the young man’s body, turning it crimson, yet his cheeks still retained traces of anguished expression.
“Combat is the art of killing.”
He Ao took two steps back, assuming a stance; he clearly noticed that once the other party’s muscles inflated, the expression of pain lessened significantly.
This indicated that after the opponent’s power surge, either his tolerance for pain increased, or his body had healed.
So he didn’t advance a step further, but instead maintained a distance.
Fighting is the art of killing; only the moves performed on a stage differentiate between yin and yang, beautiful and ugly.
In a real battle, any move that can kill or injure the opponent is a good move.
If he had engaged in a head-on fight, allowing the young man any response time, the young man would consciously protect Liu Nan, and rescuing Liu Nan from his grasp would become much more difficult.
Only in such an unexpected situation, with one feint and one real move, followed by a swift pull, could tactical goals be achieved in a matter of seconds.
However,
He Ao focused his attention on the young man whose muscles had swelled, the young man’s normal state and muscle-bursting state were completely different forms; he was like He Ao in his normal state and like a raging Bull when his muscles exploded.
Perhaps he could use this guy to test his current combat strength.
“Super Memory, explode!”
With his thoughts flipping, He Ao directly activated Super Memory and threw a punch at the young man.
With his movement, a wisp of hidden energy began to surge within his muscles.
The numerical values for physical condition on his attribute panel quickly climbed, shooting up from 16 to the seventies in an instant and finally stabilizing at 85.
Meanwhile, the young man, now resembling a Bull with muscles inflated, also extended his hand to block He Ao’s fist.
Bang—
With a muffled collision sound, the young man’s body became unstable and he staggered back half a step.
He looked at He Ao with surprise in his eyes.
Yesterday, when He Ao knocked him down, he was clearly using some special power, but this time it was a pure, flesh-on-flesh collision and He Ao actually managed to repel him.
Isn’t he a superpower user?
How could he be so strong?
Is that reasonable?
Meanwhile, He Ao returned to his original spot and turned off Super Memory.
That one hit had forced the young man back but had actually not hurt him.
Under an explosive state, the young man’s strength was still greater than his.
If He Ao’s strength was 85, then the young man’s strength in the explosive state would be around 120, and possibly even higher under extreme conditions.
But He Ao’s 85 wasn’t just strength, it also incorporated an enhancement in body flexibility as well as Super Memory’s detail observation ability.
Purely in terms of fighting skills, the young man was no match for him.
Besides, the young man was obviously used to brute force and was not adept at fighting techniques.
With that in mind, He Ao had roughly made a judgment.
Defeating a brute who only knew how to smash with force was not difficult, unless the difference in strength was too vast, much like his previous encounter with Mu Xiu.
Speaking of Mu Xiu, He Ao locked his gaze on the young man.
He felt that the young man’s abilities were somewhat similar to Mu Xiu’s; both had a normal and an explosive state, which after igniting, showed an alternation in body form.
But such explosive transformations usually didn’t last long; otherwise, the young man could maintain his stronger form all the time without needing to shift back to a normal state.
At this moment, the young man’s thinking was much simpler.
He glanced at He Ao and then at Liu Nan, who was crawling out of the hay pile.
In fact, the back-and-forth between him and He Ao had not lasted long, not even a full minute.
But in that minute, he recognized again the gap in their strengths.
He couldn’t beat He Ao.
Without any hesitation, the young man turned and ran.
If the mission failed, so be it; there would be another chance.
But if he was caught or died here, there would be no more chances.
He Ao didn’t expect the guy to be so decisive.
He glanced at Liu Nan, who was just crawling out of the hay pile, and casually tossed his phone to her, “Call the police, they will come to rescue you.”
After speaking, he chased after the young man without waiting for Liu Nan’s response.
Along the way, he had practically confirmed that the young man truly had no other accomplices.
He arrived before the youth at the place where the boat was hidden to make sure the young man was not meeting with any accomplices.
Since there were no accomplices, there was no need to worry about Liu Nan.
This youth was worth at least ten thousand yuan.
Could the money already in hand grow wings and fly away?
Liu Nan fumbled to catch the elderly-used large screen phone that He Ao tossed to her, and by the time she looked up again, He Ao had vanished into the night.
“I…”
She opened her mouth, but ultimately no words came out.
She could only sigh.
She illuminated the phone’s screen,
The screen saver image showed an elderly man in a stooped posture wearing a yellow straw hat fishing, with a little boy in a white shirt sitting next to him, hands propping him up from the ground as he looked up at the elderly man.
This photo was taken from behind.
Neither person showed their face, and the picture had been overlaid with a semi-transparent frosted veil, adding a misty, leisurely beauty to it, further obscuring the faces of the people in the photo.
Liu Nan didn’t pay much attention to this screen saver.
Scenic screen savers like this were common, and the composition and color were so exquisite it indicated the photographer was professional, and the image was most likely a wallpaper downloaded from the internet.
She swiped away the screen saver…
And then the phone prompted her to enter the password.
…
Although it was locked, emergency calls could still be made.
This guy really played it dead.
Liu Nan inwardly sighed and turned on the phone’s flashlight, then dialed the police’s number.
As she waited for the call to connect, a gust of night wind blew, making Liu Nan shiver.
She wasn’t dressed warmly today; while she looked beautiful, it was quite cold.
She shifted her body, intending to move to the leeward side of the haystack.
——
He Ao chased the young man through the alleys, and the distance between them continually narrowed.
The youth had a quick burst speed, but He Ao’s speed was no less impressive.
Moreover, it was quite evident that the young man couldn’t control his strength well.
Every time he tried to scale a wall, he would easily break it, leaving him to run on the ground.
Crashing into walls also delayed him, providing He Ao with chances to close the gap.
Even so, after just one or two alleys, He Ao caught up with the youth.
Just as he was about to intercept the young man, in a panic, the youth crashed directly into the courtyard of a house with its doors wide open.
It would be a hassle if he injured someone.
He Ao frowned and followed the youth into the courtyard.
However, the moment he entered the courtyard, he stopped in his tracks, as he didn’t see the youth’s shadow before him.
Behind!
He immediately dodged to the side.
A huge stone water jar flew from above and crashed into the spot where he had just stood, making a small pit in the ground of the courtyard.
Seeing that it missed its mark, the youth, red-eyed with frenzy, charged out from behind the door, swinging a stone table next to him like a toy as he rushed towards He Ao.
He Ao dodged nimbly and frowned slightly.
How had this guy become so wild?
But there was no time for him to think more at this moment.
Super Memory, burst!
As the youth swung the stone table at him again, He Ao dodged it, slightly crouched, and landed a punch on the youth’s abdomen,
There were no bones to protect the lower abdomen, and it was filled with a rich network of nerves in the peritoneum, making it easy to inflict injury.
Struck by this punch, the youth writhed in pain and swung the stone table even more wildly.
He Ao rolled to the side, stepping back several paces, his gaze on the increasingly agitated youth.
With that punch, He Ao gained an understanding of the youth’s defenses.
Countless details from his Super Memory sprang to mind, performing a rapid analysis of the youth’s patterns of movement.
Then he shifted slightly, letting the stone table the youth threw graze past him.
The youth’s strength seemed to increase in synchronization with his level of frenzy.
The more he lost his mind, the stronger he became, huh?
He Ao frowned again,
This really merits extra pay.
The nonchalant demeanor that He Ao exhibited completely enraged the youth, who let out an angry roar, charging at He Ao like a frenzied bull.
The nearly ten meters that He Ao had put between them just a moment ago was almost instantly crossed by him.
His footsteps on the ground seemed to make the yard and the house tremble.
He Ao glanced at the house beside him, feeling as if something inside was watching him.
But at this moment, the most important thing was to deal with the youth in front of him.
He shifted his body, crouching slightly, then made a feint as if about to kick to the groin.
The youth, although seemingly out of his senses, still subconsciously protected his groin, which slowed his pace.
And in that moment, He Ao swiftly stood up, channeling all his strength into his arm to land an uppercut on the youth’s chin.
Crash—
