Chapter 474: Break Their Worthless Legs
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
When the gleaming blade flashed, it was only then that Yan Liqiang, who had been calm all this time, erupted like a volcano…
Instead of retreating, he charged toward Shi Zhiyao like a bolt of lightning and then formed the Bow Stance. He brought his knee up and right into his opponent’s crotch, then moved his arms at lightning speed to elbow him in the gut. The single technique felt like three consecutive explosions. Vital Qi surged in the air, causing resounding thunderclaps.
This was the first time Yan Liqiang had used the Eight Extremities Fist technique in front of people.
The technique was best used in close combat for its direct and strong movements. The blows it delivered were heavy like mountains and powerful like steel. Close combat was all about the six big openings — the six major ways of breaking the opponent’s defense. Hitting any of the eight places like the head, shoulders, elbows, hands, back, crotch, knees and legs, would hurt. Wherever the force extended, every part of the body became an eye or hand, unleashing formidable moves that would be hard to ward off. It’d take just one careless move to lose the whole game.
Shi Zhiyao was shocked. He didn’t expect Yan Liqiang to be able to move so fast and hit so powerfully with his fists. What he expected the least was the fact that Yan Liqiang had already progressed into a Martial Grandmaster and received a few dozen Heavenly Bestowments. The physical aspects and reaction speed of both parties were as different as day and night.
Didn’t rumors from the Imperial Capital say that Yan Liqiang’s dantian was damaged to the point that it could no longer condense any vital Qi? How could he be this ferocious…?
The thought flashed across Shi Zhiyao’s mind. He swung his long saber, but Yan Liqiang was already within arm’s reach so the saber only met air. Faced with the terrifying force in Yan Liqiang’s fist, Shi Zhiyao’s instinct told himself to dodge backward and put a distance between him and Yan Liqiang. At the same time, his eyes glinted dangerously as he resorted to a finishing move.
Shi Zhiyao jumped backward with lightning speed. The long saber in his hand spun around like a snake. He gripped his weapon in reverse and tried to stab Yan Liqiang’s back, looking as though he was going to stab himself. This was the ‘Piercing Sun In Chest’ technique, his finishing move. In close combat, eight or nine out of ten Martial Masters or Martial Grandmasters would fall prey to this technique.
‘If the enemy moves, so will I. With movements come changes, with changes come transformations, with transformations come manifestation.’— This was the true essence of the Eight Extremities Fist technique.
Facing Shi Zhiyao’s deadly attack, Yan Liqiang spun around. Showing his back to his opponent and looking at the incoming blade, he yelled, “OPEN…!” Then he swung his fist.
The blade was coming down with lightning speed, but Yan Liqiang’s eyes and fist were quicker.
To Shi Zhiyao’s shock, Yan Liqiang’s fist came down on the surface of his blade like a hammer with mountain-shattering force.
When experts fought, even an error with the breadth of a single hair could lead one a thousand li astray. Deadly battles would take place in just a flash of time.
Shi Zhiyao never expected Yan Liqiang to still hit his blade when changing his course of attack under such circumstances. The latter’s immense strength came as an even bigger surprise to him.
There was a saying that one power could suppress ten techniques. Therefore, with the combination of immense strength and techniques, terrifying might could be brought about.
In that instant, Shi Zhiyao felt the web between his thumb and forefinger explode. The bones in the fingers he held the saber with were fractured. The long saber that had never slipped out of his grip ever since he started cultivating saber techniques was forcefully knocked out of his hand. The immense force traveled from the blade to his fingers, then to the web between his thumb and forefinger before finally reaching his body. His entire arm and half of his body were numb as though he had gotten struck by lightning.
Shi Zhiyao was aghast. He wanted to retreat, but he realized that his numb body made his legs move sluggishly…
After knocking the long saber out of his opponent’s grip, Yan Liqiang fluidly executed the ‘Iron Mountain Lean’ of the Eight Extremities Fist technique and rammed into Shi Zhiyao’s chest with his shoulder.
The ‘Iron Mountain Lean’ was the most deadly technique among the Eight Extremities Fist technique. Despite the ‘fist’ in its technique name, its finishing move wasn’t executed with a fist but with the shoulder instead.
Shi Zhiyao could hear every bone in his body being crushed to pieces when he drew his last breath. To him, the ‘Iron Mountain Lean’ from the Eight Extremities Fist technique felt like getting slammed by an iron mountain at a high speed. No ordinary human could possibly withstand such immense force. His bones were instantly shattered and his internal organs were turned into gunk. Blood came rushing out of his seven orifices. His eyeballs burst from the tremendous force and blood sprayed out from his eye sockets.
BANG…! Shi Zhiyao’s figure turned into a blurred image. It flew with ten times the speed he used when jumping backward earlier. He was sent flying thirty meters backward by the powerful impact before smashing into a newly-repaired stone wall in the distance.
The stone wall shattered and collapsed. Shi Zhiyao, the arrogant Gan Province inspector from the Northwestern Transportation Office was dead!
The second Yan Liqiang made a move against Shi Zhiyao, they did not exchange any more than three techniques. Since both parties were experts, they were fighting at lightning speed. Although it was a total of three techniques, Shi Zhiyao was pretty much slaughtered by Yan Liqiang in less than a second.
The entrance to the spring workshop was in complete silence. Both parties from the manufacturing bureau and the Northwestern Transportation Office were stunned. Their minds stopped working because the scene before their eyes was beyond comprehension for many of them. Everyone at the scene either didn’t expect Yan Liqiang to be so much more powerful than Shi Zhiyao, or expect him to kill Shi Zhiyao in front of everyone. After all, Shi Zhiyao was an inspector from the Northwestern Transportation Office! His rank was nearly the same level as a Prefectural Governor. Yet… yet Yan Liqiang actually killed him?!
Quite a few officers who were acting fearlessly and haughtily when they arrived with Shi Zhiyao earlier immediately wet their pants at the sight of Shi Zhiyao’s lifeless body under the stone wall, reduced into nothing but a pile of bloody gunk, and the frightening bloody remains of his eyeballs on the ground.
SPLAT…! Yan Liqiang stepped on the Shi Zhiyao’s eyeballs on the ground, crushing them like grapes. He threw a disdainful look at the shivering officers from the Northwestern Transportation Office, then reached out to pull the white ash spear out of the ground.
“Break all their worthless legs! Kill any that dare to resist on the spot…!”
Yan Liqiang swung the white ash spear at an officer’s legs at the side while speaking. The solid spear handle cut through the air and landed squarely against his shins, breaking his legs with loud snaps. The officer immediately fell to the ground and howled in pain while holding his legs.
It was his anguished howl that snapped the soldiers from the manufacturing bureau back to their senses. Seeing that Yan Liqiang had started moving, the angry soldiers also rushed toward the officers and gave their legs a good greeting with the weapons in their hands without any hesitation.
Shi Dafeng was the first to follow Yan Liqiang’s example and hit one of the officers hard on his shins with the metal rod in his hand. Shen Teng hesitated for a moment, but he ultimately joined Shi Dafeng.
The officers were already scared out of their wits from Yan Liqiang’s earlier performance. No one dared to resist after being told that they would be killed on the spot. In just a flash, all of the officers were like fallen calabashes on the ground, holding their broken knees while crying out in pain.
“Zhou Yong, where is that Vice Transport Commissioner?” Yan Liqiang asked.
Zhou Yong stopped and was panting heavily. He wiped the blood away from the corner of his mouth and replied respectfully. “Lord Qian led the Vice Transport Commissioner to the Iron Transportation Hall just now!”
The Iron Transportation Hall was a newly-built courtyard. It was the heart of the manufacturing bureau, and also the place where Qian Su and Yan Liqiang worked.
Yan Liqiang nodded, then pointed to the people on the ground. “Lock all of them up!”
“Understood!”
“The rest of you, follow me!” Yan Liqiang said, then made his way to the Iron Transportation Hall.
They walked about a hundred meters and arrived at the courtyard which assembled the four-wheeled carriages. Yan Liqiang saw a few other officers from the Transportation Office walking around the place. They opened one of the newly assembled four-wheeled carriages’ doors and were jumping around it. They were laughing loudly, touching and poking it. They even knocked on the newly-installed stained glass and damaged it. A supervisor came forward and tried to stop them from further damaging the vehicle but was rewarded with a slap on his face by an officer from the Northwestern Transportation Office.
