Chapter 68: Devil
“Your strength is acceptable, but your punches are still too light. If you want to hurt me, you’ll need to try a bit harder,” Xiao Luo said while shaking his head.
He had the ability to utterly demolish Song Jianan. He’d only let himself take such a one-sided beating to see how much damage his current body could sustain and accurately gauge its abilities.
Song Jianan’s mouth twitched, and his knuckles cracked as he clenched his fists tight. Xiao Luo’s flippant attitude was a major insult to him.
“You shut the h*ll up!!!”
With a loud cry that shook the heavens, Song Jianan charged forward toward Xiao Luo with the explosive acceleration of a wild bull. It was as if the momentum of his entire body had been compressed to the maximum before exploding outward all at once.
With this manic dash, he closed the 2-3 yard gap between them in the blink of an eye and slammed his left foot into the floor with a force that shook the entire ring. He stopped in place. Extreme movement shifted to intense stillness for one brief moment, generating unimaginable power. Pivoting around on his grounded left foot, he channeled all the force and inertia of his initial charge into a sweeping kick and flung his right leg toward Xiao Luo’s neck.
Everyone around watched with wide eyes. Even from a distance, they could clearly sense the violence of the force embedded in that one kick. If it made contact with Xiao Luo, he would probably be sent flying out of the ring again.
To their great surprise, Xiao Luo did something, which nobody could perceive. He made the slightest move but, at the same time, appeared to remain perfectly still. However, Song Jianan’s reaction was apparent. As if colliding head-on with a train, his forward momentum sharply came to an abrupt stop, and his whole body catapulted backward before slamming forcefully into the ropes at the side of the ring. He struggled to regain his footing and stumbled a few times before finally stabilizing himself on the ropes.
What? What happened?
What in the world just happened?
Without exception, horror crept into everyone’s hearts. Xiao Luo had definitely done something, so why hadn’t they seen precisely what? Were their eyes deceiving them, or was he simply moving too fast?
Song Jianan broke into a cold sweat; he also had not clearly seen what move Xiao Luo had made. However, his chest had clearly been struck. It burned with pain, and his circulation seemed to be in disarray. He was winded and reeling, experiencing considerable discomfort.
Gasping for breath, he asked, “What did you just do?”
“Nothing special. I just kicked you,” Xiao Luo replied with a smirk.
“That’s impossible. The motion of a kick is so obvious that I wouldn’t have missed it. You’re lying. You’re lying. Nghaa!”
Song Jianan had always been confident in his own martial prowess. Ever since coming to Jiangcheng from his hometown, he had felt like a tiger released from a cage. Nobody from the whole of Jiangcheng, let alone Huaye University, was a match for him. As anger and shame welled up within him, he lost all his reason. Like a rabid black bear, he glared with red eyes and attacked Xiao Luo with another roaring charge.
When he was about one yard away from Xiao Luo, he stamped down hard with his right foot. The floor of the ring squeaked as if it was about to be torn asunder. Then, pouring his whole strength into his tightly clenched right fist, he shot it forward like an asteroid piercing the void of space. Wrapped in the force of a raging wave, his fist plowed toward Xiao Luo.
Roar!
It sounded as though a wild beast was roaring inside the extensive training grounds.
The bystanders stared in unprecedented horror, while the girls shut their eyes, not daring to watch. In their minds, they imagined a scene of considerable bloodshed.
The mixed martial arts members were either dumbfounded or confounded.
Was this their boss’s true strength?
Their hearts stirred with complicated feelings they could not identify. Was this happiness? Excitement? Fear? Shock?
Maybe they were feeling any one of those emotions or a mix of all of them.
Song Jianan’s fist continued to roar like a wild beast as he swiped and pounced like an animal. The wind shrieked behind every one of his swings.
A hand appeared suddenly without warning. As fast as lightning, an open palm accurately stopped one of his punches. The violent surging force of the blow was instantly silenced. The hand made no move to attack, but with its seemingly infinite strength, it suppressed Song Jianan’s savage fist.
Song Jianan looked with fright at Xiao Luo, whose palm now enveloped his fist. He tried to channel more strength into his punch, but Xiao Luo’s hand was like a mechanical vise, refusing to let go. No matter how much he struggled, he could not move his fist one inch.
“Song Jianan, I will now honor the promise I made!”
Xiao Luo’s glare was awfully majestic, and his mouth formed into a toothy grimace. He looked like the wrathful king of wolves, ferocious and feverish.
The next second, he turned his wrist, hard, twisting it 90 degrees.
“Crunch!”
With the crisp sound of splitting bone, Song Jianan’s right wrist was folded back in a “V”-shape. A jagged white fragment of bone pierced through flesh and skin as fresh blood shot out of the wound. The bloody scene made the girls watching cry out.
Song Jianan looked at his fractured right hand, stupefied. His mind went blank, and the whole world was silent for a brief moment. He even forgot to feel the pain.
It’s broken?
Is this my hand?
The moment passed, and intense pain and unspeakable panic swept through his body like a rolling wave.
“AAAH!”
A shrill scream resounded. Xiao Luo let go of Song Jianan, and he sank to the ground, clutching his right hand with his left. The only emotion that could be read in his eyes was a deep murky dread as his otherwise robust body trembled from shock.
Fear was written on the faces of all watching. Who could have imagined that Xiao Luo would cripple Song Jianan’s hand? How was this even possible? How could anyone have ever conceived of such a thing?
The mixed martial arts club members’ faces were ashen as they shivered in fear. Xiao Luo was a devil. Why did they have to go and provoke such a horrendous fiend?
The fierce aura Xiao Luo was emanating chilled everyone at the training grounds. A pin-drop silence prevailed, and nobody dared speak or make a sound. Nobody even breathed too loudly. Xiao Luo, all by himself, had stunned the members of all the various clubs to the point of inaction.
“You devil…”
The Taekwondo Association chairman, Wu Yunlong, broke out in a cold sweat. His complexion was already as white as a sheet.
At that moment, a loud drumbeat of footsteps approaching could be heard.
The English Language instructor, Qin Nanyu, and several security guards from the campus security department rushed onto the scene. They took everything in, especially the sight of Song Jianan crying out in pain in the ring. They all froze in place like statues.
“You’ve arrived, Teacher Qin.”
Xiao Luo calmly and smoothly stepped out of the ring, as if the act itself was second nature for him.
Qin Nanyu came to her senses and said in a voice that was close to a shriek, “Take Song Jianan to the hospital now. Quickly!”
Shaken back to consciousness from their stupor, two of the security guards swiftly carried Song Jianan away. The rest of the guards checked the conditions of the mixed martial arts club members who were lying on the ground.
“Xiao Luo, did you do all this?” Qin Nanyu asked. Her face was livid as she stared at the young man in front of her.
“You’ve caught me red-handed, so you wouldn’t believe me even if I denied it,” Xiao Luo laughed.
The security guards who heard his reply inhaled sharply. One man had beaten up more than a hundred mixed martial arts club members. Where had this ruthless guy come from?
Furthermore, they were all well aware of Song Jianan’s abilities. Although he was just a student, his power rivaled that of 5 guards put together. He was undoubtedly a beast in the form of a man. Now, that beast’s hand was crushed. Even if it were repaired, the damage would likely leave severe and lasting complications.
Fearsome! Truly fearsome!
Horrified, they looked at Xiao Luo, who stood upright like a pine tree, and terror gripped their hearts.