Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
With the sparing techniques from the system, Su Yang was able to gauge the force of the punch.
However, in the first spar with a stranger, the first thing to do was never to show off one's strength and fill one's shortcomings. What mattered was knowing the opponent's strength.
Only by knowing the opponent's strength, speed, and some habitual movements could one adapt to the fight faster.
Therefore, even though he could feel the tremendous strength hidden within Pan Zhaodi, Su Yang took the punch with the protective gear on his left hand without a second thought.
At the point of impact, Su Yang felt a tremendous force a.s.saulting his left hand. Even with the protective gear on, his arm hurt as a whole, as if it was being torn apart.
Su Yang swung his left arm away to shift the force away and raised a right leg to kick Pan Zhaodi's head.
Pan Zhaodi was not just strong, but she was also an experienced fighter. She blocked Su Yang's right kick with her left leg and pinned it down. She then clenched her right fist and punched his hands away before her leg hand moved up and grabbed him.
Su Yang could not even react. In the fraction of a second, her left hand was already around his neck.
He felt a strong chill around his neck and it spread throughout his body, freezing him. Only a single thought ran through his mind at the moment.
'Strong! She's way too strong!'
He thought he could match or even endure a few hits from Pan Zhaodi, but he already lost in a little over 10 seconds.
Pan Zhaodi let go of him since he did not fight back anymore. She took two steps back and commented, “Not bad.”
With Pan Zhaodi drawing her distance, Su Yang slowly regained his senses. His mouth felt dry from the tense match. He licked his lips and gulped before he said, “Not bad? I got KO-ed in 10 seconds.”
Pan Zhaodi was expressionless as she said, “What? Do you think we are shooting an action movie here? Are we supposed to fight for half an hour? Other than a master teaching a disciple the necessary techniques, all fights usually end in a few moments.”
She looked down and rotated her wrists. “Your body has the fundamentals for all sports activities. All martial arts fights are nothing more than a compet.i.tion of strength, speed, and techniques. You can win if you are stronger, faster, or more skillful, but you are neither. Of course, you wouldn't last long.”
She was very straightforward with her comments.
After the little spar, Su Yang also started to understand what she meant. Pan Zhaodi might be a woman, but there was a tremendous force residing in her slim body and it was a power that he could not fight against.
'If that's the case, I'll drag it out. I'm not trying to beat her. I'm just trying to survive for 2 minutes.'
With that in mind, Su Yang stretched his body again and said, “Again.”
Pan Zhaodi entered her stance and looked at him.
Unlike the first time, Su Yang did not wait for her to attack anymore. He stepped around and tried to look for an opening.
Maybe because he did not give her the chance by attacking first, Pan Zhaodi was not in a hurry to attack either. Like what she said, the essence of martial arts had always been about making the fiercest and more effective strike without performing any unnecessary movements. The result would be determined in a few exchanges, and it should be simple, straightforward, and brief.
One of them wanted to drag it out while the other was not in a hurry, hence for a moment there, the spar turned out strange.
As seconds slipped away, Su Yang's concentration weakened because he was just human and not a robot. The very moment when his concentration broke, Pan Zhaodi made her move.
She strode to Su Yang like an arrow let loose and when he reacted, she swung a kick at him.
He quickly raised his leg and timely blocked her kick, but he soon realized that blocking the kick was not enough. Even if he was able to react, he could not hold up against her.
At that very moment, all he felt was a tremendous force attacking him, and before he could find out what happened, Pan Zhaodi swept his leg and sent him to the ground. He only felt the pain on his leg after he fell on the ground.
Before Su Yang could even squeal, she appeared in front of him in a flash and pinned him down with one hand while raising the other for an elbow strike at his face.
A howling wind followed her elbow strike and judging from the whistle, Su Yang strongly believed that his head would crack like a watermelon if he was struck.
Right in the nick of time, Pan Zhaodi's elbow stopped right in front of Su Yang's nose tip. He could even smell her feminine scent, but his mind was blank. His eyes were wide open and he was drenched in nervous sweat.
'Powerful and fierce! She's a real female T-Rex!'
It was how Su Yang viewed Pan Zhaodi. She was as dangerous as a living T-Rex.
She moved her elbow away and reached out to him with her hand. Then, Su Yang wiped the sweat away from his forehead and stood up with her help.
“Are you alright?” Pan Zhaodi asked.
Pouting, Su Yang continued stepping around cautiously and stared at her with a sharp gaze. “Again!”
What happened next was the repeat of the previous exchanges. No matter how Su Yang tried, he always ended up falling.
Sometimes, he lost because of his reaction speed. Sometimes, he lost because of the lack of raw strength and there was even once when Pan Zhaodi knocked him down with a sucker punch.
It was really as Pan Zhaodi said. No matter what kind of sports activity it was, it was all about speed, strength, and reaction.
During the spar, Pan Zhaodi also briefly talked about her background. She came from a family of martial artists. Starting from her grandparents' era, every generation practiced the martial arts left behind by the ones before them. However, martial arts in her house was not a set of fighting techniques but a technique to strengthen their bodies.
They trained themselves with martial arts to boost their physical qualities and they would also absorb knowledge from other martial arts styles or fighting techniques. Her family never insisted on sticking to a single style which granted them better adaptive and fighting capabilities than traditional martial arts.
Since she came from a family of martial artists, her family practiced the old-fashioned patriarchal tradition. She was the first daughter of her generation and even though she was found to be stronger than other children from a young age, she still did not get the appreciation she deserved.
Her name, Zhaodi1, meant 'calling little brother' in Chinese. Her family christened her this way because they wanted a boy after her.
Despite her going on about her background, Pan Zhaodi was not slow at all. Her moves were still fierce and sharp. She sounded like she was talking about someone else as she moved like an emotionless battle robot.
Su Yang was willing to play along just because he wanted to complete his mission.
To be frank, he realized he could never last more than two minutes in a face-to-face spar, but he soon noticed his only advantage: recovery!
No matter how strong Pan Zhaodi was, she was still human, and if she continued fighting intensely, she would grow weary. On the other hand, Su Yang had Sanque as his trump card!
He could drink ginseng water to recover his exhaustion or injuries.
The two of them sparred from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. and never rested for a moment. Su Yang was on the brink of collapsing and Pan Zhaodi started to pant. The intense sparring had consumed a lot of her stamina.
Su Yang believed it was time for him to pull his trump card out. He gave an excuse to quench his thirst and bought three bottles of water.
He put Sanque's 1 cm root in one of the bottles, shook it, and finished it in one gulp.
When the ginseng water entered his stomach, his sore and the exhausted stamina instantly recovered. Su Yang could run for another 5 km in his current state.
After he finished the bottle of ginseng water, he brought the two bottles back to the little park. He tossed one to Pan Zhaodi.
She only took a few sips before she put it aside.
Su Yang twisted his bottle open and took a sip before he signed at her. “Again!”
He had repeated the word more than a dozen times in the past two hours, yet he was still able to say it louder than ever.
Regardless of the volume or how his tone was, Pan Zhaodi was still able to steady her breath and enter her stance by lifting her hands. She still looked as frigid as ever even after sparring for so long.
This time around, Su Yang put in his best effort to circle her. He would test her occasionally by feigning a punch, attempting to find a suitable opening.
Pan Zhaodi was not distracted at all. Her eyes were fixed on him and she was able to break every attack that Su Yang threw at her.
As seconds turned into minutes and they almost reached the two-minute mark, Pan Zhaodi made her move again. She lunged over like a jaguar and threw a heavy punch at Su Yang from the top.
Su Yang failed to dodge, so he put his hands up and endured the powerful punch.
The tremendous force almost tore his hands into shreds, but Su Yang could tell that Pan Zhaodi was weaker than she had been two hours ago. He was able to withstand the pain a lot better now.
Su Yang knew it was his chance to strike! He endured the pain and blocked her punch while he swung a right kick at her right leg.
If Pan Zhaodi was at her prime, she might have been able to block the kick, but after sparring for two hours, she was already at her limit.
Su Yang's kick landed on her leg, throwing her off balance!
However, she decisively landed her left knee on the ground after she lost her balance. She regained her balance after her left knee landed and she stood upside down on her hands before she pushed herself up like a loaded spring.
Her long legs mercilessly clamped onto Su Yang's neck.
With a clench of her thighs, he was completely thrown off-guard and was sent sprawling to the ground by her legs.
Although Su Yang wanted to stand up, he realized that her legs had clamped onto his arm with the cross armbar and his neck was tightly pinned down.
Pan Zhaodi had locked his arm with both her hands and completely immobilized him. It was the famous technique that even MMA fighters could not break: the Armbar of Death1!
This technique could easily cause the referee to ring the bell in the match if it was performed on the opponent!
However, Su Yang did not want to give up before he completed his mission. He struggled as hard as he could although his efforts were futile. The more he struggled, the tighter Pan Zhaodi's legs gripped around his neck, suffocating him slowly!
It was at that critical moment that a long-overdue beep sounded in Su Yang's head.
[Beep. Bronze Mission Complete]
Su Yang heaved a breath of relief and relaxed his body. He stopped struggling and tapped the ground, signaling his defeat.
