sbdcsierra Chapter 9 One finger? You dare touch me?
Chapter 9 One finger? You dare touch me?
South City, Luomashi Street.
This area was once the most martial arts-oriented place in the capital. The streets were lined with signs for martial arts schools and security escort agencies, and the air was filled with the smell of sweat and medicinal oil from the martial arts world.
But now, all that remains is desolation.
Especially in front of the "Eight Directions Martial Arts School", it was as deserted as a cemetery.
The century-old plaque with black background and gold lettering was kicked in half by someone.
The broken ends were jagged and menacing, like an unhealable wound.
Half of them were treated as trash and carelessly tossed in a corner, covered in a thick layer of dust.
The martial arts school's doors were wide open, and the dull thuds of heavy objects being struck echoed from inside, along with loud, arrogant laughter in heavily accented English.
In the main hall, on the high platform where the ancestral master's tablet should have been enshrined, a flag with a ferocious black bear printed on it was now hanging.
Seven or eight tall, muscular foreigners, shirtless and revealing large tattoos, were brazenly occupying the entire training ground.
Some were pounding sandbags, others were doing strength training; their sweat mingled with the smell of cheap cologne, exuding a savage aggression.
The leader was a white man who was nearly two meters tall and as strong as an iron tower.
His name is Kenno, the leader of this group, and also the mastermind behind breaking Chen Kaishan's leg bone.
He practices a modern fighting style that combines Muay Thai elbows and knees with Western freestyle fighting, making it extremely ruthless. More importantly, he has undergone enhancement with some kind of gene serum, giving him strength, speed, and resilience that surpass the normal range of humans.
In a corner of the training ground, several young men dressed in old-fashioned gray training uniforms were squeezed into a corner, their faces filled with humiliation and indignation.
A young girl with a high ponytail, delicate features, and eyes as stubborn as a wolf, was using her slender body to block them.
She is Chen Kaishan's daughter, Chen Xue.
"Kenno! I'm saying this one last time! This is the Eight Directions Martial Arts School, the ancestral home of the Chen family! Get out!"
Chen Xue's voice trembled with extreme anger, but her spine remained ramrod straight.
Kenno stopped what he was doing, grabbed a towel and wiped the oily sweat from his neck, his face showing undisguised contempt.
"Get out?" he said, enunciating each word in broken Chinese. "Little girl, your world is too naive. In my world, there is only one rule—the strong own everything. Your father lost, so this place now belongs to me."
"That was a sneak attack! You have no sportsmanship at all!" A young apprentice finally couldn't hold back and roared out.
"Martial virtue?"
Kenno seemed to have heard the funniest joke of the century and burst into laughter.
"That kind of thing is nothing but a fig leaf used by the weak to cover their shame after defeat! True skill is being able to defeat your opponent while standing up! Your soft, dance-like stuff should have been consigned to the dustbin of history long ago!"
"You!" Chen Xue was so angry that her face turned pale and her chest heaved violently, but she couldn't find a single word to refute her.
Her father's Eight Directions Fist was powerful and steady, and his reputation was well-known in the martial arts world of the capital. But in the face of Kenno's unreasonable and terrifying power, it was as fragile as paper.
"I'm giving you one last chance." Kenno's smile vanished, his eyes turning icy. "Either kneel down and submit, become my disciples, and I'll teach you what true 'power' really is. Or, take your useless master lying in the hospital and get out of the capital."
"Don't even think about it!"
Chen Xue gritted her teeth, crossed her legs, and assumed a standard Bafangquan (Eight Directions Fist) starting stance.
"My dad can't beat you, so I will! As long as I, Chen Xue, stand, the Eight Directions Martial Arts School will forever bear the Chen surname!"
"You?" Kenno shook his head dismissively. "I could crush you with a single finger."
The air in the room was extremely tense.
Just then.
A lazy, sleepy voice drifted in from the doorway.
"Excuse me, is this a place where kung fu is taught?"
Everyone froze, their eyes all turning to the door.
A young man dressed in a pure white martial arts uniform strolled in slowly, his hands behind his back.
He looked to be in his early twenties, with delicate features and a calm demeanor like a college student taking a stroll in the park, completely out of place in this tense atmosphere.
Kenno frowned and glanced at Lin Fan from head to toe. His figure was so well-proportioned that it showed no sign of explosive power.
He waved his hand impatiently.
"Get out, kid. This isn't a place for you."
Lin Fan seemed not to hear, his gaze slowly sweeping across the room, finally settling on the half-dusty broken plaque in the corner.
He shook his head very slightly, as if he were regretting something.
Then, he looked up at Kenno and spoke in a calm, factual tone:
"I'm here to challenge them."
These two words seemed to possess a strange magic, instantly silencing the clamor of the entire training ground.
Chen Xue and her fellow disciples were stunned, staring incredulously at the young man who had suddenly appeared.
Is he just another hothead, blinded by passion and unaware of his own limitations?
After a brief moment of astonishment, Kenno and his group erupted in a torrent of laughter.
"Hahaha! Did I hear that right? This skinny guy says he's going to challenge the dojo?"
"Where did this madman come from? Does he know whose territory this is?"
"Hey kid, do you know that Mr. Kenneth's punch can break a bull's spine?"
Kenno smiled as well. He walked up to Lin Fan with great interest, his huge figure casting a deep shadow as he looked down at him.
"Interesting. I haven't seen such a 'backbone' Chinese person in a long time."
He extended a thick, carrot-like finger and, with a show of smugness, slammed it heavily onto Lin Fan's chest.
"Alright, I accept your challenge. Tell me, how do you want to die?"
He had already decided to crush this reckless brat's bones inch by inch in front of everyone.
This will be the best way to make an example of someone.
Lin Fan's gaze slowly moved down, landing on the finger that was still grinding against his chest.
His brow furrowed almost imperceptibly.
"That's too much trouble."
He spoke calmly.
Then, to everyone's astonishment, he raised his eyes and swept them over Kenno and all the eager, burly men behind him.
"All of you, come at me together!"
Upon hearing this, even Chen Xue felt that this person must have something wrong with their brain.
Kenno's smile froze instantly, then ignited by an extreme sense of humiliation, turning into fury.
"You arrogant fool! You're asking for death!"
He roared, too lazy to waste any more words, and his large, fan-like hand instantly clenched into a fist. With a fierce swing, accompanied by a shrill whistling sound that tore through the air, he aimed straight for Lin Fan's temple!
"Watch out!" Chen Xue exclaimed in alarm.
However, Lin Fan simply moved half a step to the left at a leisurely pace.
Just half a step.
Kenno's punch, powerful enough to shatter the stone tablet, grazed his nose, carrying a gust of wind, and missed its mark.
The immense inertia caused him to stumble, leaving his chest wide open.
In that instant, Lin Fan raised his hand.
He didn't use his fist or his palm.
He simply extended his index finger and lightly touched the soft flesh under Kenno's ribs that was exposed when he lunged forward.
"Thump."
A dull thud, like a heavy hammer striking a water-filled leather bag.
Kenno's steel-like body seemed to have been struck head-on by an invisible battering ram, and he flew sideways with a "whoosh"!
He knocked over two stunned henchmen before collapsing to the ground in a disheveled state, clutching his ribs, his face contorted with pain and horror.
Just now, he felt like half the nerves in his body had been pulled out!
"What the hell are you standing there for! Get him! Kill him!" Kenno roared like a mad tiger.
The remaining six or seven burly men then seemed to wake up from a dream, roaring and pouncing on Lin Fan from all directions like a pack of wolves hunting!
Chen Xue and her fellow apprentices were instantly on tenterhooks.
What happened next completely shut down their minds, leaving an unforgettable impression on them.
Lin Fan stood in the center of the training ground, his feet never leaving the three-foot radius around him from beginning to end.
Faced with punches and kicks coming from all directions, he was like an old pine tree rooted deep in the earth, while those strong men were nothing more than a raging wind.
With a slight sway of his body, a vicious straight punch missed its mark, and the boxer twisted his wrist due to the excessive force.
With a flick of his wrist, he transformed it into a crane's beak, gently pecking at the ankle of the other person who was kicking him. The person screamed in agony as his entire leg went numb instantly, and he collapsed to his knees.
With a seemingly casual lean, a burly man who lunged at him was sent flying backward as if he had crashed into a mountain, even faster than when he came.
Throughout the entire process, Lin Fan's movements were devoid of any frivolity, yet they contained a breathtaking rhythm and precision.
He doesn't use heavy blows, but every move he makes is precise and accurate, striking the opponent's weakest point and cutting off their power.
It took less than thirty seconds.
Apart from Lin Fan and Chen Xue and a few others standing in the corner, there was no one else standing in the training ground.
Kenno's men lay sprawled on the ground, clutching their wrists, ankles, and shoulders, groaning in pain, but none of them suffered fatal injuries.
The look in their eyes as they gazed at Lin Fan had shifted from initial anger and disdain to the most primal and pure fear.
This is not a fight.
This is the gods playing tricks on mortals!
Kenno struggled to his feet, staring at the unbelievable scene before him, his eyes bloodshot.
"Impossible... This is absolutely impossible! What kind of sorcery did you use?!"
He let out a beastly roar, his muscles swelled again, and the veins under his skin writhed wildly like earthworms, making him appear much larger.
This is how he pushed the potential of gene therapy to its limit!
"I'm going to kill you—!"
He roared, like a mad bear, and charged at Lin Fan again, unleashing a terrifying whip kick powerful enough to break a concrete utility pole, carrying the force to destroy everything, sweeping across Lin Fan's lower body!
Faced with this incredibly ferocious attack, Lin Fan finally stopped dodging.
He slowly raised his right foot.
Then, he met Kenno's sweeping shinbone with neither too much nor too little force.
He didn't use the instep, which allows him to exert force, nor his hard heel.
It's the soles of the feet that are used.
"Snap—!"
A chilling sound of bones cracking echoed clearly throughout the entire martial arts school!
Kenno's ferocious whip kick came to an abrupt halt in mid-air.
All the madness and ferocity on his face froze instantly, then were replaced by boundless pain and extreme fear.
"Aaaaaahh ...
A piercing scream, inhuman and agonizing, ripped through the air. He clutched his right leg and collapsed to the ground with a thud.
His lower leg was twisted outward at a bizarre and terrifying angle.
The stark white bone fragments even pierced the skin, exposed to the air.
Lin Fan slowly withdrew his foot, never once glancing at Kenno, who was rolling and groaning on the ground.
He took a step, slowly walked to the corner of the wall, and bent down.
He picked up the broken half of the plaque.
He gently brushed away the dust with his fingers, looking at the two characters that still exuded a sense of style—"Eight Directions".
"These characters... are written quite well."
He said softly.