68 Devil (1/2)

”Your strength is acceptable, but your punches are still too light. If you want to hurt me, you'll need to try a bit harder,” Xiao Luo said while shaking his head.

He had the ability to utterly demolish Song Jianan. He'd only let himself take such a one-sided beating to see how much damage his current body could sustain and accurately gauge its abilities.

Song Jianan's mouth twitched, and his knuckles cracked as he clenched his fists tight. Xiao Luo's flippant attitude was a major insult to him.

”You shut the h*ll up!!!”

With a loud cry that shook the heavens, Song Jianan charged forward toward Xiao Luo with the explosive acceleration of a wild bull. It was as if the momentum of his entire body had been compressed to the maximum before exploding outward all at once.

With this manic dash, he closed the 2-3 yard gap between them in the blink of an eye and slammed his left foot into the floor with a force that shook the entire ring. He stopped in place. Extreme movement shifted to intense stillness for one brief moment, generating unimaginable power. Pivoting around on his grounded left foot, he channeled all the force and inertia of his initial charge into a sweeping kick and flung his right leg toward Xiao Luo's neck.

Everyone around watched with wide eyes. Even from a distance, they could clearly sense the violence of the force embedded in that one kick. If it made contact with Xiao Luo, he would probably be sent flying out of the ring again.

To their great surprise, Xiao Luo did something, which nobody could perceive. He made the slightest move but, at the same time, appeared to remain perfectly still. However, Song Jianan's reaction was apparent. As if colliding head-on with a train, his forward momentum sharply came to an abrupt stop, and his whole body catapulted backward before slamming forcefully into the ropes at the side of the ring. He struggled to regain his footing and stumbled a few times before finally stabilizing himself on the ropes.

What? What happened?

What in the world just happened?

Without exception, horror crept into everyone's hearts. Xiao Luo had definitely done something, so why hadn't they seen precisely what? Were their eyes deceiving them, or was he simply moving too fast?

Song Jianan broke into a cold sweat; he also had not clearly seen what move Xiao Luo had made. However, his chest had clearly been struck. It burned with pain, and his circulation seemed to be in disarray. He was winded and reeling, experiencing considerable discomfort.

Gasping for breath, he asked, ”What did you just do?”

”Nothing special. I just kicked you,” Xiao Luo replied with a smirk.

”That's impossible. The motion of a kick is so obvious that I wouldn't have missed it. You're lying. You're lying. Nghaa!”

Song Jianan had always been confident in his own martial prowess. Ever since coming to Jiangcheng from his hometown, he had felt like a tiger released from a cage. Nobody from the whole of Jiangcheng, let alone Huaye University, was a match for him. As anger and shame welled up within him, he lost all his reason. Like a rabid black bear, he glared with red eyes and attacked Xiao Luo with another roaring charge.

When he was about one yard away from Xiao Luo, he stamped down hard with his right foot. The floor of the ring squeaked as if it was about to be torn asunder. Then, pouring his whole strength into his tightly clenched right fist, he shot it forward like an asteroid piercing the void of space. Wrapped in the force of a raging wave, his fist plowed toward Xiao Luo.

Roar!

It sounded as though a wild beast was roaring inside the extensive training grounds.

The bystanders stared in unprecedented horror, while the girls shut their eyes, not daring to watch. In their minds, they imagined a scene of considerable bloodshed.

The mixed martial arts members were either dumbfounded or confounded.

Was this their boss's true strength?

Their hearts stirred with complicated feelings they could not identify. Was this happiness? Excitement? Fear? Shock?

Maybe they were feeling any one of those emotions or a mix of all of them.

Song Jianan's fist continued to roar like a wild beast as he swiped and pounced like an animal. The wind shrieked behind every one of his swings.

A hand appeared suddenly without warning. As fast as lightning, an open palm accurately stopped one of his punches. The violent surging force of the blow was instantly silenced. The hand made no move to attack, but with its seemingly infinite strength, it suppressed Song Jianan's savage fist.

Song Jianan looked with fright at Xiao Luo, whose palm now enveloped his fist. He tried to channel more strength into his punch, but Xiao Luo's hand was like a mechanical vise, refusing to let go. No matter how much he struggled, he could not move his fist one inch.

”Song Jianan, I will now honor the promise I made!”