Chapter 55: That Was My Story
Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
“Mercurial balance!”
Zhou “Road to the Arena” Yuanning blurted out with astonishment. No one showed a deeper interest in the match than he did.
What shocked him was not only Lou Cheng’s extraordinary control over muscles to adjust weight, but also w.a.n.g Ye’s laudable patience and persistence in the fighting with the opponent!
Jin “Invincible Punch” Tao took a deep breath and let out it slowly. “Perfect Meditation is a miraculous skill in martial arts… Master Road. To keep mercurial balance would exhaust the wielder, the same for Lou Cheng although he boasted freak strength. Apparently, he is determined to go all out in this bout, not sparing his energy for the following two matches.”
“Facing the mighty opponents and proving real strength, a real fighter Lou Cheng is!” “Road to the Arena” said with appreciation and admiration. “I a.s.sumed that he should strategically give up on this bout.”
Ignoring the spectators around him who had no understanding of mercurial balance, Zhou Yuanning began to cheer and applaud as if there was no one else watching the fight at the stand, the sound of which echoed through the temporarily quiet martial arts stadium.
Followed by Zhou Yuanning’s applause, Jiang Lan, Huang Zhenzhong, Ye Youting, Li Xiaoyuan and other master hands also started to clap for the two combatants in the ring. Although no physical contact had been made since the fight started, the heart-shaking subtle s.h.i.+fts in close combat adequately demonstrated how proficient the two fighters were in martial arts!
“Mercurial balance…” w.a.n.g Ye felt thrilled with intense eagerness. With his back against Lou Cheng, he made a slight adjustment and whipped his left arm toward the opponent before he moved.
Pang!
His left arm swept the air with a dull roaring sound as if a soft whip, bringing his body to turn left from the waist up. This attack made it impossible for Lou Cheng to dodge to the left. It seemed to push him to move to the opposite.
It was w.a.n.g Ye’s first move to take the initiative in this bout!
As a fighter of Professional Ninth Pin, his self-adjustment and reattack were even quicker than Lou Cheng’s move to dodge!
Lou Cheng quickly adjusted his weight and took two steps backward, safely avoiding this whip palm and the trap set for him.
w.a.n.g Ye followed along with the whip palm to turn around and twisted his waist to launch a whip kick with the right leg as if a bolt of lightning accompanied by an ear piercing sound. The explosive force could be easily imagined!
w.a.n.g Ye still stroke with the front sweep, blocking the way on Lou Cheng’s right side and narrowing the range of his dodging.
Lou Cheng maintained rhythmic breathing and adjusted his muscles, to keep his weight flowing like liquid mercury in all directions. Whatever direction he wanted to move toward, he just needed to spring lightly without any preparation to make or inertia to overcome. That was the essence of mercurial balance and one of the characteristics of masters of Danqi Realm!
Lou Cheng moved his weight and took a step naturally to the left of w.a.n.g Ye in an implausible manner. Without lowering his weight into a steady stance, he launched a downward cut with the fists toward the opponent’s exposed side, sending out the sound of wind.
w.a.n.g Ye’s whipping right leg stopped abruptly as if planned. Following a quick touchdown on tiptoes, he opened his left elbow and thrust at Lou Cheng’s right side with fingertips as if a sword.
It was hard to imagine how severe his injury would be if Lou Cheng were hit by the five fingers of iron-gray shade like a spearhead.
Lou Cheng sw.a.n.g backward in a flash with his “flowing” weight, perfectly dodging this thrust.
w.a.n.g Ye pushed his advantage and took a step forward. His two arms stretched backward to make a bow and pounded to Lou Cheng’s temples in a breath with a strong smell of iron and the sound of renting the air.
Strike the opponent’s ears with both fists!
Lou Cheng moved his weight again and took steps backward to evade w.a.n.g Ye’s Iron Palm.
w.a.n.g Ye slightly adjusted his posture, seeing Lou Cheng stepping to his left. He rushed up and swept a powerful left-to-right kick at Lou Cheng with extraordinary strength streaming from his back all the way down to his tiptoe.
Lou Cheng had no choice but to move his weight again to draw back.
There was no collision between them since they started to fight!
“w.a.n.g Ye is narrowing Lou Cheng’s movement room…” Ye Youting totally fixed on the fight in the ring. After all, w.a.n.g Ye was a tough combatant for any fighters who aspired for the champions.h.i.+p.
She noticed that w.a.n.g Ye’s continuous attacks were to narrow Lou Cheng’s moving range for the guerrilla hit, rather than hitting the target or forcing Lou Cheng to meet strength with strength.
“It’s more than that.” Jiang Lan opened her mouth with a slight smile. “Didn’t you notice it? Lou Cheng was increasingly close to the edge of the ring?”
Ye Youting seemed stunned. She fixed eyes on the ring, noticing that the two combatants were moving closer to the stand from the center of the ring. They were just a dozen of steps from the edge of the ring for the moment!
“Fighting in the ring is different from that on the actual battlefield, where the fighters’ room of movement is confined to the ring. Fall means failure. That’s why guerrilla hit is not recommended in this case. w.a.n.g Ye is exactly taking advantage of this characteristic of Lou Cheng to push him to the edge of the ring. Once w.a.n.g Ye managed to do so, Lou Cheng will have only two choices that he jumps down and admits defeat or meets strength to strength. Jiang Lan laughed. “w.a.n.g Ye possesses two prerequisite abilities for this strategy, the great sensitivity to the opponent’s coming movement and the superb control over his own movement… Nevertheless, the fight with Lou Cheng has consumed not a little energy of him.”
Lou Cheng sw.a.n.g between left and right, trying to dodge to the back of w.a.n.g Ye to break away from this difficult position. Yet, the great disparity in strength made his tactic and efforts in vain. He had no alternative but to step steadily and slowly to the edge of the ring under the opponent’s terrifying attack and accurate judgment.
Lou Cheng took a quick glance at the stand near at hand out of the corner of his eyes and heard irrepressible screaming from the audience. The situation was clear that it just took three or four steps for him to fall down the ring.
No collision was made until now, which made the audience feel bored. The cheering and applause were just from master hands of martial arts or the supporters of Lou Cheng and w.a.n.g Ye who were acc.u.mulated along the way of matches.
Seeing Lou Cheng was forced to the edge, a majority of the audience became wide awake and absorbed in the fight again, sending out various sounds.
w.a.n.g Ye promptly gathered strength in his right leg and launched another front sweep like a soft whip, continuously narrowing the moving s.p.a.ce for Lou Cheng.
Watching the surging right leg of w.a.n.g Ye accompanied by frightening sound, Lou Cheng suddenly lowered his weight and stood firm!
Lou Cheng had already visualized a scene of towering mountains in his mind with snow acc.u.mulating gradually. The terrifying majesty was almost at hand.
Boom!
A silver-white lightning flashed across the sky and shot down in a moment, starting a blazing prairie fire and shaking the ten-thousand-year-old blanket of snow capping on the mountain.
Boom!
The snow-capped mountain started to collapse, hundreds of millions ton of white snow falling and rolling down, swallowing everything around.
Lightning and Fire Stance! Mega Avalanche!
A numbing feeling hit his body and a hot stream quickly flew through his veins. Lou Cheng clenched his hands into fists and wielded them down like a giant hammer, targeting at w.a.n.g Ye’s whip kick.
He seemed to come into a desperate spot and couldn’t avoid a head-on collision as Jiang Lan, Ye Youting, Zhou Yuanning and other fighters expected!
b.u.mp!
The fists met w.a.n.g Ye’s whip kick. Lou Cheng slightly adjusted his weight to lever up w.a.n.g Ye’s right leg while banging on it.
In a twinkling, Lou Cheng lowered his weight and rolled himself to the back of w.a.n.g Ye through s.p.a.ce under his right leg!
The two fighters’ positions were s.h.i.+fted in a flash and w.a.n.g Ye came to the edge of the ring!
Lou Cheng straightened his spine, jumped on his feet and turned aside with body pressing forward. His avalanche-like strike outrushed to w.a.n.g Ye which meant to b.u.mp him out of the ring!
Lou Cheng had been waiting and restraining himself just for this chance!
This tactic was inspired by the story that Wu s.h.i.+tong told to him. He deliberately tried to dodge any attack, whatever palm or kick, to mislead the opponent into believing his incompetence for a head-on confrontation. What w.a.n.g Ye excelled at was Iron Palm which was also the attack that Lou Cheng must try to avoid. There was nothing special in his whip kick, just a martial arts move driven by strength. w.a.n.g Ye was inferior to Ye Youting in strength. So it was probable that Mega Avalanche and Lightning and Fire Stance could confront w.a.n.g Ye’s whip kick!
To lose ground was to keep the Mercurial balance and mislead w.a.n.g Ye.
The edge for Lou Cheng was also the edge for w.a.n.g Ye!
Once Lou Cheng seized the opportunity to lever up w.a.n.g Ye’s leg and roll to his back when he launched a whip kick, the position of attack and defense were momentarily s.h.i.+fted.
Lou Cheng did not have confidence in defeating w.a.n.g Ye by only one strike normally. Yet, there would be a chance of winning if he launched the strike on the edge of the ring. According to the match rules, to b.u.mp the opponent down the ring meant the attacker’s victory!
The key to defeat w.a.n.g Ye was to lure him into the trap that he designed for the opponent!
“This is the full version of my story!” With the thought flas.h.i.+ng across his mind, Lou Cheng dashed forward on his side in an aggressive manner.
The unexpected s.h.i.+ft in situation brought the audience screaming with excitement and surprise.
A brisk touch as his right foot landed, w.a.n.g Ye took two steps forward, precisely dodging Lou Cheng’s deadly dash. He followed up with the movement of the body to turn around. Yet, he had been already on the edge of the ring!
Seeing this, Lou Cheng took a deep breath and restarted the shooting-down lightning and collapsing snow in his mind.
He turned aside with left shoulder lowering down. He was going to dash to w.a.n.g Ye with his whole body, even if w.a.n.g Ye launched his Iron Palm! Lou Cheng was determined to dump w.a.n.g Ye backward even just one step at the risking of doing himself an injury!
He had decided to go all out to win this bout without considering the consequences and possible injury since the start of the fight!
How pathetic for people to be over cautious to take any action in their life!
“Impossible…”Ye Youting, Zhou Yuanning, Jiang Lan and other master hands blurted out. They never expected Lou Cheng should create a turning point for the victory and put w.a.n.g Ye in a desperate spot.
A complicated expression appeared on w.a.n.g Ye’s face. He raised his right hand, took a step forward and pushed straight ahead at lightning speed with veins standing out in his temples strangely.
Pang!
As if an iron block slapping the air which changed the pressure, a strange wind blew to the face of Lou Cheng who was just one step from w.a.n.g Ye.
Lou Cheng was drinking air into his lungs to make this strike more powerful. Yet his breathing temporarily broke off under the pressure of the wind.
His move slowed on account of the suspending breath and failed to b.u.mp out in time. w.a.n.g Ye slid forward with his right hand halting at Lou Cheng’s temple.
“w.a.n.g Ye wins!”
The referee’s announcement quieted all audience in the stadium. They were still immersed in the continuous s.h.i.+fting of almost-victory and almost-defeat. Even Lou Cheng himself also fell in a trance.
“I’m defeated?”
w.a.n.g Ye put away his Iron Palm, looked at Lou Cheng and sighed,
“Much to my surprise, you managed to force me to use the trick which was prepared for master hands of Danqi Realm!”