Chapter 55: Battle!!

Chapter 55: Chapter 55: Battle!!

’Heart Image... so this is a Heart Image? It’s utterly terrifying!’

Brilliance. An endless, dazzling brilliance.

At the entrance of the Jin Guang Martial Arts Hall, countless Martial Artists stared at the multicolored splendor before them, all gasping in amazement.

At the martial hall’s entrance, Hall Master Jin and Fang Can were engaged in an all-out clash, trading blows with their fists, palms, legs, knees, and elbows—every part of their bodies.

Every punch and kick from the two Heart Image Martial Artists was heavier than a steamroller and more powerful than a hydraulic press.

With a mere lift of their hands, they could shatter metal and stone, unleashing their attacks with ultimate, domineering power.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

In the span of a single breath, the two exchanged dozens of blows with extreme power and speed.

The terrifying sonic booms vibrated through the air, the sound echoing for miles.

The street wasn’t empty. About a few dozen meters away, a group of merchants and passersby who had never practiced martial arts watched from a great distance.

In their eyes, the scene unfolding before them was like something from a tale of gods and demons.

An image lingers in the human eye for about 0.1 to 0.4 seconds.

This means that even after a movement has ended, the image it created remains in the brain for a short time.

So, when you throw a punch too quickly—say, five punches in a second—a clear afterimage will appear to the average person.

What if you were to go ten times faster, increasing the speed to fifty punches per second?

You would see a sky full of phantom fists! Phantom feet! Phantom legs! Phantom figures!

Before the stunned gazes of the passersby, within a three-meter radius around the two combatants, countless fists and feet danced and vanished.

The two clashed like tyrannosaurs, each impact exploding like a clap of thunder right next to one’s ear.

It was clearly a close-quarters brawl, a direct clash of power, with the combat zone confined to a mere three meters.

But their short-range movements alone created a dense flurry of afterimages in the eyes of mortals, as if four or five masters capable of teleportation were battling it out.

"So... So this is how powerful Martial Artists are?" a passerby couldn’t help but exclaim.

Within that three-meter radius, after just a dozen breaths of combat, the ground had been completely torn up, sinking three feet deep!

Just watching made everyone’s hearts pound erratically and their breath quicken.

Subconsciously, some people were drawn in by the heart-stopping battle and began to move closer to its center.

They wanted to get a little closer, to see the entire fight more clearly.

Amidst a continuous series of muffled, thunderous roars, a few passersby subconsciously drew nearer.

But when they came within fifty feet, their world changed.

Reds, yellows, greens, purples...

In a single second, dozens of colors combined and rearranged themselves chaotically before their eyes, and the oppressive feeling intensified more than tenfold.

That was the distortion of the human mind caused by the overflowing Heart Images from Fang Can and Hall Master Jin’s battle.

The mere aftershocks of their Heart Images created a kaleidoscope of brilliant colors. The closer one got, the more real the apparitions became.

The Martial Artists within a few feet could faintly see the true forms of their Heart Images materializing behind them.

Behind Fang Can was a domineering youth in a deep blue bodysuit with a waving red cape and a crimson ’S’ emblazoned on his chest.

And behind Hall Master Jin was a five-meter-tall, wrathful Vajra, its skin a resplendent gold.

Every one of their clashes created terrifying might in this illusory world; the entire street seemed to be ground into dust by their attacks.

Within the illusion, the eyes of Fang Can’s Superman-cosplay incarnation burst forth with crimson shockwaves, sweeping toward the Vajra.

Facing the crimson beams, the giant golden figure leaped into the air, preemptively dodging the horizontal sweep of Fang Can’s heat vision.

The next moment, the virtual rays, carrying ultimate destruction and annihilation, swept toward the spectating disciples.

"Gah! I’m hit!"

"Aaaah! Such a terrifying Heart Image attack! I can’t take it, I’m gonna die!"

"Yaaaargh! Master, save me!"

...

Facing the Heart Image attack, the surrounding disciples let out terrified screams, feeling as though their bodies and souls were about to be melted by the red light.

The next moment, the disciples fell to their knees one by one, clutching their perfectly unharmed abdomens. When they came to their senses, their eyes were filled with a mixture of lingering fear and envy.

’The power of a Heart Image... it’s terrifying beyond belief!’

"Hell yeah! This fight is so damn satisfying! Hahahahaha!"

Hall Master Jin laughed heartily as he traded blows with Fang Can, holding nothing back in terms of stamina or energy, wanting only to unleash all his fighting spirit upon the formidable opponent before him.

As for Fang Can, under the influence of Evil Tiger Devouring Body, his eyes were blood-red. The world before him became an Asura hell, affecting his mind, but he forcibly suppressed it with his immense willpower.

This was a collision of power against power, an assault of speed against speed.

On one side was a young, brash, and peerlessly talented genius at only the First Layer of the Profound Gate.

On the other was a vigorous veteran at the Sixth Layer of the Profound Gate, who had honed his skills in the Martial Dao for decades.

Although the fight hadn’t lasted long, both of their Heart Images were being consumed at a ferocious rate. Moreover, Fang Can, being at the Profound Gate’s First Layer, had far less ’mana’ than his opponent.

At such a high intensity, his Heart Image would be depleted within three minutes, at which point he would be at a disadvantage.

Status Panel:

[Unknown Finger Technique] Analysis 73%

[Unknown Fist Technique] Analysis 64%

[Unknown Palm Technique] Analysis 59%

[Unknown Leg Technique] Analysis 92%

...

With every punch and kick exchanged with Hall Master Jin, with every collision, a clear diagram of his opponent’s power exertion was imprinted in Fang Can’s mind.

By the time his Heart Image was down to half, he had already figured out seventy to eighty percent of his opponent’s moves.

Meanwhile, during the fight, Fang Can was also baiting out moves. He used different methods of attack to force his opponent to retaliate with new techniques, thus speeding up the analysis.

For Hall Master Jin, however, it was a different story. He couldn’t repeat any of his attacks or techniques.

A flawless technique on the first use would put him at a disadvantage on the second. He could only maintain the stalemate by constantly using new moves; one careless slip-up and he would lose everything.

But his repertoire of moves was finite.

After they clashed more than a dozen consecutive times using the same techniques, Fang Can could see that his opponent’s decades of accumulated knowledge had been exhausted. He had run out of tricks.

[Unknown Finger Technique] Analysis Complete

[Unknown Fist Technique] Analysis Complete

[Unknown Palm Technique] Analysis Complete

[Unknown Leg Technique] Analysis Complete

...

"It’s time to end this."

Uttering his first quiet words of the entire battle, Fang Can instantly grabbed Hall Master Jin’s wrist, pulling and redirecting him.

BOOM!

The next instant, Fang Can’s entire right arm was pressing down on the back of Hall Master Jin’s head, slamming it toward the ground with the force of several tons.

CRASH!

Following a world-shaking boom, the already sunken ground was smashed again, forming a new crater the size of a human head.

But it wasn’t over. The distant disciples felt the ground beneath their feet begin to tremble slightly.

Their master’s head was being smashed into the ground again and again like an extremely resilient basketball, compacting the earth.

In just one second, held by Fang Can, Hall Master Jin’s head was repeatedly slammed down, the motion so fast it created afterimages.

Deciding that was enough, Fang Can released his grip.

Looking at Hall Master Jin, whose face was now swollen like a side of pork, he knew these were merely superficial wounds.

Aside from looking a bit ugly, he would recover completely after a couple of days of rest, with no so-called permanent disabilities.