Chapter 48
Chapter 48: Secretly Learning Skills
The person who was walking toward the fop had his face covered by a scarf, thus his face could not be seen. Nevertheless, the step technique used by that person gave the fop a sense of familiarity, and the flashing figure also gave him an enormous pressure.
Previously, when the fop had exchanged blows with Yan Chengcai and the others, he saw through their movements in a flash. With assistance from his hearing, sense of smell, and sense of touch on his surroundings, he naturally formed an invisible network that helped him observe everything.
The fop could tell what was true or false, and could take control of the situation even if he encountered a Yin Grade powerhouse, let alone a Force Grade martial artist.
However, while the person who was approaching the fop at the moment seemed like he was taking normal steps, the fop could not grasp his drifting figure at all. In other words, the fop could not see through that man.
As such, the fop trembled a little, then bent his knees slightly to be ready for a battle.
Yan Chengcai and the others lied on the floor and widened their eyes. Nonetheless, Ou Yangming had not only covered his face with a scarf when he came out, but he had also removed his outerwear, revealing a martial artist’s outfit. On top of that, he went around them to appear from a different spot instead of coming out from his hiding spot right away.
Therefore, apart from Yan Chengcai, who was suspicious, Big Bull and the others could not have guessed Ou Yangming’s identity because they would not believe that a blacksmith could defeat their boss.
“You, who are you?” The fop asked seriously.
Despite that, he soon felt disappointed or even angry because the masked man had no intention of talking to him at all. The man simply attacked him with his fist.
The fop was enraged as he was always the pretentious one, and nobody ever dared to treat him without respect.
Subsequently, he scoffed and devised a plan in his head while staring at the masked man. Oncenthe fist was three millimeters closer, he would dodge to teach that fellow a lesson.
When the fop fought with Yan Chengcai and his men earlier, he showed a little mercy, but he was ready to exert all his force this time. This was not only because of the masked man’s attitude, but also mainly because he sensed a huge threat from the masked man.
“Closer, closer…” The fop said to himself softly with a contemptuous look on his face. It was at that moment that the fist suddenly stopped.
Yes. It just stopped without any warning.
The fop was stunned as his planned routes were forced to freeze at that moment.
It was as though a person was going all out at a wooden pile, but realized the instant he hit the wood that his fist did not hit anything at all because it was just an illusion.
The ingenious pause caused the fop’s plan to fail at once, and he was forced to stop just as he was ready to unleash his accumulated energy.
At the next instant, the fist that had stopped suddenly struck again.
“Pow…”
It hit the fop’s chest hard and straightforwardly.
The fop groaned as a result, but quickly shifted his body to take a few steps back.
Ou Yangming sighed to himself. ‘It’s a pity that my power isn’t sufficient yet. If my cultivation base was also at Force Grade Class Five, I could’ve more or less injured him with the punch, but I’m only in Force Grade Class Three. Besides, I’m not wearing any equipment, so the most I can do is to let him suffer in pain for a short while.’
In spite of that, he had no idea that the damage he caused to the fop was far beyond what he imagined.
The damage was not physical, but something that was done to the fop’s mentality.
Before this, the fop defeated his opponents and dominated the scene even though he was outnumbered as he was unstoppable, but now an enemy had come out of nowhere and the unusual by counterattacking successfully. Additionally, it was clear that the masked man’s cultivation base was lower than the fop’s. Was the tide turned because the former’s grasp of skills was better than the fop’s?
How could something like this happen?
The fop’s state of mind was messed up at that moment, such that his breathing became unstable.
Ou Yangming took another step forward.
He already had a rough understanding of the fop after observing in secret just now, but he had a strong, irrepressible urge to act after Yan Chengcai and the others collapsed.
Ou Yangming wanted to battle the fop who had exceptionally powerful skills because he could only experience the power’s mightiness by confronting it.
Hence, he attacked without hesitation.
He did not do it to take revenge for Yan Chengcai and the others as he only wanted to verify his thoughts on skills.
Thus, no matter what the fop’s background was and why he got involved in the night battle, Ou Yangming was determined to fight him.
The fop was battle-seasoned. Even though he felt uneasy, he curbed his thoughts and braced himself to face the fight with all his strength.
Once he gathered all his spirit, his body condition changed.
Every move that the fop made was accompanied by a mysterious power that was like a trap set to capture prey.
After being hit by Ou Yangming, the fop knew that the masked man’s cultivation base was actually lower than his, so he decided to employ this method. It was a brilliant method, but it had a huge loophole, which was he was going to use himself as bait. Furthermore, based on the masked man’s sudden pause earlier, the fop believed that the man could definitely notice the flaw.
Of course, the loophole was not obvious, and it was not going to be constant. It would usually appear after a few breaths, and would disappear in the blink of an eye. It was definitely not there to leave an impression on purpose.
Nevertheless, the fop was unaware that Ou Yangming’s consciousness was already split into two. One was fighting him, whereas the other one was observing like a bystander.
It was a huge advantage because the person closely involved was usually baffled, whereas the onlooker always saw things clearly.
The fop’s actions and intentions could not escape the bystander at all, thus the interlinked traps would not be useful at all.
Ou Yangming moved in line with the fop’s fist force at that moment, and he was so agile that the fop’s violent fist force could not threaten him at all. From time to time, Ou Yangming launched hits that seemed to be hitting nothing, but the fop was forced to retreat as if he was greatly threatened.
Yan Chengcai, Huang Jingtian, and the others were completely bedazzled. The fist technique that they cultivated in the military stressed on one shot one kill, hence they had never seen a graceful yet strange and ever-changing fist art that was extremely mighty. The more they watched, the dizzier they felt.
On the other hand, the two people fighting were walking as if they were on wings, and attacked at the speed of lightning.
Ou Yangming grew happier the more he fought because he benefited a lot from exchanging blows with the skill master. Especially when the fop put in a lot of effort to set up new traps, he was suddenly enlightened. In addition, Ou Yangming also realized that he could control his mental power better the more he fathomed skills.
If the fop knew that Ou Yangming was actually thinking of something else during the intense fight, he would probably vomit blood.
Nonetheless, the fop was becoming more frightened as the fight progressed. In that short period of time, he had performed almost all the skills that he had cultivated for more than ten years, yet he was helpless against the masked man. It would be fine if that was all, but the masked man was starting to attack in a very similar style to his the longer they fought.
The fop suddenly had a strange thought that he was fighting himself, or how could his traps be seen through so easily?
Sure enough, other than the very first amazing punch, he predicted the masked man’s fist art and step technique, but his opponent changed so quickly that he could not find any weak points at all, hence they were in a deadlock.
‘How can I be victorious?’ The fop pondered.
Just as he was feeling troubled, Ou Yangming sighed to himself.
Ou Yangming was certain that he had emptied the fop’s foundations, so he no longer had the desire to let this battle go on any longer.
He shifted his body sideways in a flash, then leaped forward to punch the fop.
The fop followed his plan inflexibly, but just as he was going to dodge the punch, it took a turn to hit his shoulder.
He groaned. The punch obviously did not injure him, but it broke off his step technique, causing him to lose balance.
Ou Yangming showed no mercy, and blasted multiple hits with his fists.
The fop was fearful, so he did everything he could to block, to dodge, or face those fists with his own without caring about the outcome. He did not hesitate at all even if both of them would be defeated.
Unfortunately, Ou Yangming had already seen through his skills, hence his fists either turned halfway or stopped to make a critical hit, and he repeated the process.
All in all, the fop’s movements were already predicted by Ou Yangming, and Ou Yangming was able to counter smoothly with the best move.
Fist after fist, the fop was hit. Before long, his handsome face was so badly hit that it swelled and bruised, and his body was full of injuries too.
After some time again, the fop roared. Just as everyone thought that he was going to give everything he had, he swayed and moved backward. Following that, he disappeared under the night sky, and was nowhere to be found.
Yan Chengcai, Huang Jingtian, and the others were stunned for a while before they realized that the fellow had escaped. When they turned to look at the masked man, he was also gone.
They had the same thought as they looked at each other.
Why was the masked man able to hit his target even though his punches seemed normal, yet they could not even touch the fop at all even when they went all-out?
They wondered, ‘Are they even humans…’