Chapter 81: Blood-Drenched Battle

Fighting could wait. Lian Tianji wasn’t in a rush.

Zhang Yu had used his formidable technique to make up for the physical gap between them, but Lian Tianji still had full confidence in his victory.

He was more than happy to spend a little longer clashing with Zhang Yu, learning and adapting to his powerful moves in real-time.

After all, a martial arts competition wasn’t a real battlefield—but growing stronger through actual combat was just as important, in Lian Tianji’s eyes.

But now that the sponsor had demanded a swift victory to showcase the effectiveness of their combat supplement, he couldn’t afford to dawdle.

Yes, fighting could help him grow. Yes, the ad could make him money.

But money… was still the greater power.

“Sorry, Zhang Yu.”

“I would’ve liked to spar with you a bit more, but I can’t ignore what the sponsor wants.”

Lian Tianji activated his rented Battle-Grade Spirit Root. As spiritual energy surged through the air, it began pooling around his fists.

Battle-Grade Spirit Root—Surging Wave.

Spiritual energy would continually flow into his body, automatically assisting his mana circulation in combat and amplifying the power of his martial techniques.

When paired with his Explosive Wave Fist, the results were devastating.

He launched another punch at Zhang Yu, and a tidal wave of force rushed forward.

The spiritual energy around his fist exploded with a sharp boom, sending a shockwave barreling toward Zhang Yu.

This not only boosted the power of the Explosive Wave Fist—it expanded its attack radius severalfold.

Now, Lian Tianji didn’t even need to touch Zhang Yu or the Formless Cloud Qi in his hands. The shockwaves alone could strike from a distance.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

Punch after punch, Lian Tianji became a walking artillery piece, hammering Zhang Yu with a barrage of explosive blows.

The roaring blasts swallowed Zhang Yu’s silhouette in an instant.

Just when Lian Tianji was convinced the assault had finished him off—

To his astonishment, Zhang Yu—bloody and battered—burst through the shockwaves, fists cloaked in rolling white mist, charging straight at him.

“You’re still fighting, even like this?”

“Aren’t you worried about going bankrupt?”

Though he couldn’t understand Zhang Yu’s decision, Lian Tianji, with sponsorship on the line, was brimming with fighting spirit. He wouldn’t pull a single punch in front of the cameras.

The two collided head-on with a thunderous crash.

Fist winds and palm strikes devoured each other in midair.

Amid a storm of detonations, Lian Tianji could feel his fists hammering Zhang Yu over and over—and Zhang Yu’s hands, wrapped in Formless Cloud Qi, were doing the same to him.

Lian Tianji grew increasingly puzzled.

“Is he out of energy to maintain his techniques?”

“Why is he trading blows with me, injury for injury?”

Smack! Smack!

Zhang Yu’s body was torn and bloodied under the onslaught of Explosive Wave Fists, fresh wounds blooming across his skin. Lian Tianji could already sense the other boy wouldn’t last much longer.

But ten seconds passed… and Zhang Yu was still punching.

Twenty seconds… and there was no sign of him letting up.

“What the hell?!”

Lian Tianji stared at Zhang Yu, drenched in blood but still brimming with power, while he himself was accumulating more and more hits. His injuries were starting to affect his form.

This… didn’t make sense.

“What kind of pills did he take?!”

Inside Zhang Yu’s body, martial qi surged like a raging river.

Now that his Limitless Cloud Hands had reached Level 10, he could release Formless Cloud Qi from every part of his body.

That meant he could circulate it everywhere—without hurting himself in the process.

After deciding to keep the fact that he’d maxed out Limitless Cloud Hands a secret, Zhang Yu came up with a new tactic: Subdermal Qi.

Instead of releasing the Formless Cloud Qi openly, he circulated it beneath his skin, like an invisible armor.

This way, even though his body appeared covered in blood and wounds, they were all superficial—none had reached muscle or bone.

Meanwhile, every strike Lian Tianji landed was met with a backlash from the Formless Cloud Qi, rebounding his own power back at him.

The harder he punched, the fiercer the reaction. The more aggressively he attacked, the more violent the counterforce.

Painkillers dulled the feedback, letting him continue attacking full-force.

But the damage was piling up…

Gah!

Lian Tianji suddenly vomited a mouthful of blood. His body trembled.

“My strength… my speed… my stamina are all better than his…”

“How is he beating me in a slugfest?!”

He stared at Zhang Yu, blood-soaked and clearly more injured—but somehow still standing.

“What’s the point of winning like this? Do you even have the money for medical bills?”

At that moment, someone from below the stage—the Purple Cloud rep—called out, “Master Lian Tianji! The sponsor’s extremely unhappy. If you don’t defeat Zhang Yu in the next 30 seconds, they’ll pull the ad. And cancel all future partnerships…”

Pull the ad? Cancel everything?

The words lit a fire in Lian Tianji’s eyes. Like a beast cornered, he erupted with a new surge of power.

“I must! End this! Now!”

Explosive Wave Fist—Self-Destruct Mode!

Detonating spiritual energy and mana to drive his technique.

Sacrificing his arm to maximize its destructive potential.

At that moment, Lian Tianji unleashed his ultimate strike.

His right arm swelled grotesquely as spiritual energy and mana flooded into it.

Bang!

With a stomp, he shattered the arena floor…

In the next moment, Lian Tianji’s right arm, wrapped in a haze of blood mist, came crashing down on Zhang Yu with power beyond the limit.

Facing this overwhelming punch, Zhang Yu didn’t dare to be careless. Martial qi surged through his body as Limitless Cloud Hands and the Indestructible Seal Method activated simultaneously.

The blood-stained, crimson Formless Cloud Qi rose up to meet Lian Tianji head-on.

The moment their blows collided, a deafening explosion echoed across the stage, like muffled thunder rolling through the air. Everyone’s attention was drawn to the blast.

Zhang Yu was once again blown back, his body dyed a deep red.

The force surged toward him like a tsunami, driving him to the edge of the ring.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

But after four heavy steps, he steadied himself—standing firm under Lian Tianji’s astonished gaze.

“You actually neutralized that punch too? Your martial arts…”

Zhang Yu smiled slightly. “Thanks for the pressure you gave me in this fight. It finally pushed my Limitless Cloud Hands to break through—now it’s at Level 4.”

Hearing that Zhang Yu had broken through mid-fight, Lian Tianji gave a bitter smile and collapsed to the floor.

His right arm was wrecked, his accumulated injuries now surging forth all at once—he was completely spent.

Lian Tianji said, “I doubt it was just Limitless Cloud Hands. That alone couldn’t have held out against me for this long.”

Zhang Yu nodded and gave the excuse he’d prepared in advance. “I also practiced the Indestructible Seal Method for mana manipulation. And a body-honing technique.”

Pretending to have trained a body-refining technique—this was Zhang Yu’s cover story to explain the effects of his Subdermal Qi.

Lian Tianji nodded, clearly convinced. His gaze toward Zhang Yu was filled with complex emotion.

“With the conditions at Songyang High, you’ve managed to learn three martial techniques in just half a semester of freshman year… and even bridged the gap in physical strength between us. Your martial talent honestly makes me jealous.”

The emergency team quickly rushed up onto the stage. They loaded Lian Tianji onto a stretcher and carried him off for treatment.

Zhang Yu, soaked in blood, was also stretchered off. But as soon as he saw the medics approach, he raised a hand to stop them.

“Wait! Can you tell me how much this’ll cost to treat? And how much the insurance covers?”

Zhang Yu was genuinely afraid he’d win the match, only to lose everything to medical bills and get disqualified from the tournament.

One of the medics frowned. “You’re hurt this badly and you’re worried about money?”

To him, Zhang Yu wasn’t bleeding—he was hemorrhaging cash.

These kinds of injuries? Not billing him a few hundred thousand would be an insult to his medical license.

As he examined Zhang Yu, the medic muttered, “With damage like this, if we don’t treat you immediately…”

He suddenly paused. “Huh? There’s… not much serious damage?”

Thanks to the protection of Subdermal Qi and Zhang Yu’s razor-sharp reflexes in full-concentration mode—redirecting blows, avoiding vulnerable areas—his actual injuries were nowhere near as bad as they looked.

“Just surface wounds?” the medic said in surprise. “Five thousand for diagnostics, fifteen for treatment, another ten for meds. All standard charges. Insurance covers it. Shall we begin?”

Zhang Yu gaped. “That expensive?!”

The medic snapped, “You want to fight in the next round or not? You're insured—what’re you worried about?”

“Fine, fine, do it.”

Zhang Yu sighed inwardly. “Ugh… there goes my insurance premium.”

…

In the White Dragon High rest area—

“This Lian Tianji’s not bad.”

“His physical stats must be at least 2.3, right?”

“That fist technique’s brutal. Paired with that Battle-Grade Spirit Root, he’s probably second only to Le Mulan among the Purple Cloud High crowd…”

“That Songyang student’s totally suppressed. Looks like he’s about to lose—”

But moments later, under the stunned gazes of White Dragon’s team, it was Lian Tianji lying on the mat… and Zhang Yu still standing tall.

“Lian Tianji actually lost?”

“Zhang Yu closed such a huge gap with just technique?”

“He must’ve taken some heavy combat stimulants to last that long.”

“Well, in that case, it’s not so crazy Old Chu lost to him.”

On a stretcher nearby, Chu Qiuhe—still pretending to be unconscious—twitched slightly at their words. Deep down, he thought:

“Go get ‘em, Zhang Yu!”

At that moment, Chu Qiuhe wanted nothing more than for Zhang Yu to keep winning. He knew it was probably impossible, but still, he couldn’t help but root for him. Hell, if Zhang Yu could knock Song Hailong off the stage and take the championship outright, even better.

He was probably the person most invested in Zhang Yu’s victory in the entire arena—because it directly affected his reputation and status for the next two and a half years at White Dragon High.

Losing to someone from Songyang?

That would make him a total loser.

But losing to the Martial Arts Tournament champion?

Now that was just bad luck, not a lack of skill.