Stranger Danger

Chapter 723: Challenging the Heavens With My Fists

“That was fun! Again!”

Ye Qing declared loudly while wiping away the blood trickling down the corners of his mouth. His whole body was aching, and steam was rising from it.

He felt great though. Fantastic, even. The Earthly Sovereign created from a wisp of Profound Yellow Mother Qi was a pure body-tempering warrior on the same level as him. This was the first time he fought a true equal since he became a Half-Step Grandmaster in terms of body.

A fight between two body-tempering warriors was very different from a normal fight. It might not be as flamboyant or pretty as a fight between two ordinary warriors, but it was far more violent and blood pumping. Each punch pounded the flesh and cracked the bones, and every victory was decided within the inches. It was a million times more deadly than a normal fight, but because of this, it was also the most exciting.

Ye Qing swelled into a massive, three-meter-tall demonic ape after his declaration. Demonic qi filled the air, and the winds bent to his will.

“Chaos Demon Ape Body”

After transforming into the Chaos Demon Ape, Ye Qing let out a mighty roar and plunged his fists into the ground. Then, he flung an entire chunk of earth at the Earthly Sovereign.

The ground undulated, and at least fifty square meters of land was flipped into the air. The way it blotted out the sky was intimidating to say the least.

However, the Earthly Sovereign stepped forward and grew to the same height as Ye Qing. His presence gradually became potential, boundless, dignified and noble as he raised one hand and clenched his fist. As if he was the heavens incarnate, the massive chunk of earth was shattered into smithereens long before it got close to him.

For a moment, everything was covered in dust and soot. Then, a demonic ape burst through the dust clouds and attempted to ram the Earthly Sovereign with his shoulder.

“Demon Ape Rams A Mountain”

In response, the Earthly Sovereign backhanded Ye Qing in the shoulder and caused the attack to miss by inches. He then stepped behind Ye Qing and thrust both of his arms forward, fist force and astral qi shooting out of his fists like twin dragons.

Ye Qing crouched until his body resembled a crescent, and his muscles and bones cracked ominously. Then, he threw his whole back at the Earthly Sovereign.

“Demon Ape Throws Back”

If a fish threw its back, it could create a big wave. If a demon ape threw its back, then a mountain was going to shatter under its weight.

As mundane as the name sounded, “Demon Ape Throws Back” was in fact a finishing move in the “Chaos Demon Ape Fist”.

The Earthly Sovereign’s twin dragons slammed into Ye Qing’s back. Ye Qing did not budge, and the twin dragons shattered into pieces.

Having won the exchange, Ye Qing did not stop and attempted to crush the Earthly Sovereign with his back.

In response, the Earthly Sovereign raised a fist high above his head like he was holding a ruler’s seal. Then, he slowly lowered it.

The world immediately began to quake violently. It was as if an ancient ruler was about to bring its seal down on the earth that was its paper. When the seal landed, the tremors would be quelled, and peace would return to the four directions.

Ye Qing was about halfway to the Earthly Sovereign when he abruptly face-planted on the ground. Not one to let an opportunity slip by, the Earthly Sovereign immediately stepped forward and kicked Ye Qing in the heart.

There was a dull crunch of impact as Ye Qing was sent flying. Not done yet, the Earthly Sovereign kicked off the ground after Ye Qing and attempted to end the battle with a decisive punch.

Images of mountains and rivers took form once more. The mountains joined into mountain ranges, and the rivers boiled like enraged dragons. At that moment, it looked like the world itself had come to life to crush Ye Qing into bits.

In the air, Ye Qing punched toward the ground and used the rebound to push himself further up the sky. Demonic qi burned around him as he proceeded to throw a flurry of wild punches at the incoming attack. His punches were vicious, brutal, and out of control.

You thought the weight of a world is enough to crush me?

Then I shall rip apart the false peace and turn your world upside down!

It worked. His punches quickly shattered the projection into multiple pieces and threw everything into shambles.

The Earthly Sovereign moved onto the next move. He clenched his fist and swung it horizontally like he was wielding a sword.

In ancient times, the Earthly Sovereign had separated the clear and the filthy with his sword and created a world, thus cementing his name in the annals of history for all eternity.

Today, the Earthly Sovereign would suppress Primal Chaos with his fist and subjugate the demon for a better future.

After his immense fist intent forcefully quelled the chaos Ye Qing had inflicted to the ambient energies, he landed a powerful punch on Ye Qing’s stomach.

Blood spilled out of Ye Qing’s stomach. The wound was perfectly straight and even as if it had been cut by an actual sword, and it was almost deep enough to cut him in half even in his Chaos Demon Ape form.

Whoever said that a fist could not be as sharp as a sword?

Ye Qing wasn’t the type of person to take a blow without retaliating though. While the Earthly Sovereign was scoring a hit on him, he too seized the opportunity to flatten half of the ancient sage’s body like a pancake.

As a body-tempering warrior, trading wound for wound was practically his bread and butter.

By the time both men landed on the ground, the wound across Ye Qing’s stomach had already healed, and the Earthly Sovereign had regrown the crushed half of his body. As soon as they landed on the ground, they charged each other again.

If the Earthly Sovereign’s fist art was vast, majestic, and boundless like the world itself, then Ye Qing’s fist art sat on the opposite end of the spectrum. It was vicious, brutal, and out of control like a lawless monster of chaos.

One of them wielded righteous fists that suppressed demons, warded off evil, and created a long-lasting peace that lasted over ten thousand millennia.

Another wielded demonic fists that crushed mountains and rivers with no regard for law and order whatsoever. It was a fist that swore to turn the world upside down and return everything to Primal Chaos.

It was no wonder that their clash felt like a war between absolute good and absolute evil.

They said that good would always triumph over evil. But this wasn’t really a war between good and evil, and so far, neither combatant had gotten the upper hand. Not even the most insightful expert could tell who was going to win.

Sometimes, the two combatants would trade punches and push each other away, shattering the ground beneath them in the process.

Sometimes, they would shatter wind and clouds and appear in the sky, trading wound for wound.

Sometimes, they would pass by each other and leave behind a rumbling roar that sounded like an avalanche.

And sometimes, they would split into countless afterimages and clashed against each other like two opposing armies, leaving behind thunderclaps with every impact.

Maybe it was because both sides had scored blood against each other, or maybe it was because the battle had reached its climax. In any case, their fighting style grew increasingly vicious and brutal to the point where every move could mean the end of the other person. It was thrilling, dizzying and chilling to look at.

“What a fight! What a fight!”

At the edge of the basin, Zhang Lingyang’s eyes were bright with excitement as he rubbed his hands repeatedly in an attempt to take off the edge. “Fights between pure body-tempering warriors always get the blood pumping! I knew I shouldn’t have followed the old man up Dragon Tiger Mountain. It would’ve been so much cooler if I was a pure body-tempering warrior of the jianghu! Dammit!”

Yun Qingxiao had nothing to say about Zhang Lingyang’s complaints, but his comments about the passion of a fight between body-tempering warriors? That was something he wholeheartedly agreed to.

It was true that fights between body-tempering warriors weren’t as impressive or stylish as theirs, but it was definitely far more exciting. This was doubly true for a fight where both sides were evenly-matched. Again and again, he could not help but be wowed by what he saw from the combatants.

Besides that, he tried putting himself in the challenger’s position and wondered if he could have withstood the Earthly Sovereign’s fists.

It would be difficult. Most difficult.

He wasn’t underestimating himself or being humble. The fact was that he could not imagine himself defeating the Earthly Sovereign even if he fought with everything he had. At best, he could only aim for a stalemate—even if the Earthly Sovereign below was really just a wisp of Profound Yellow Mother Qi.

Therefore, the challenger was strong. Real strong. At the very least, he was stronger than him.

Suddenly, Mo Beiqiu spoke up, “The victor would soon be decided!”

Zhang Lingyang and Yun Qingxiao looked. As she said, the battle between Ye Qing and the Earthly Sovereign had reached the deciding point.

The Earthly Sovereign was raising his left fist from below, and lowering his right fist from above.

Generally speaking, the large majority of punches traveled in a straight line because fist arts were straightforward, brutish, violent martial arts. Besides that, there was no faster and cleaner way to execute a punch than a straight line.

This particular punch from the Earthly Sovereign was clearly different though. For one, his fists were traveling in an arc. Two, his fists were imbued with different fist forces. One fist swam gently across the air like a weak stream, whereas the other fist felt as heavy and vast as a mountain range.

The two fists looked contradictory and illogical, but the fact was that they looked beautiful and in harmony with each other. Black and white, hard and soft, they left behind profound trails of Dao as they swam through the air.

When the two fists finally connected with each other, both heaven and earth trembled at the same time. Action and inaction, hard and soft, yin and yang blended together to form a profound portrait that seemed to imbue the absolute truths of the world.

As black and white swam around in a circle, the furious gale and clouds, the chaotic energies in the air, and the disorderly qi in the earth slowly returned to calm.