Waves of shouts and cheers washed over the area, sowhat dispelling the tense atmosphere that had lingered over the Sub-Branch for the past few days.
Following the noise, he saw a thick crowd gathered around the center of the Martial Arts Arena, packed several layers deep. Everyone was craning their necks, and the cheers were nonstop.
Chu Fan strolled over, using his Body Technique to effortlessly slip into the inner ring of the crowd.
Two figures were locked in a fierce exchange in the center of the arena, their movents incredibly swift and agile.
One of them was none other than Li Qingxue’s arrogant younger brother, Li Xingxuan.
Li Xingxuan’s opponent was a young woman who looked a few years older, dressed in martial arts attire that highlighted her nimble, powerful physique.
From the crowd’s chatter, Chu Fan gathered she was a young woman from the Cao Family nad Cao Yiyi.
After just a few glances, Chu Fan had already sized up the situation.
Cao Yiyi had a steady presence, and her punches were fierce. The qi and blood in her body surged like a great river—she was clearly at the Bone Tempering Realm of cultivation.
Li Xingxuan, however, was still in the Bone Marrow Forging Realm.
There was a significant gap in their foundational Realms, and the disparity in strength and experience from their age difference was even more pronounced.
What caught Chu Fan’s attention, however, was that Li Xingxuan, despite being clearly at a disadvantage, was managing to hold his own against Cao Yiyi with his exquisite and skillful Twelve Forms Fist. Though he was mostly on the defensive, he hadn’t been instantly defeated.
The ferocity of the Tiger Form, the grace of the Crane Form, the unpredictability of the Serpent Form...
Li Xingxuan shifted between the various forms. While his execution seed unrefined, he had clearly grasped so of their essence.
’The Li Family’s Little Overlord really does have so skill,’ Chu Fan mused.
Not much ti had passed since their first eting, but Li Xingxuan’s progress with the Twelve Forms Fist was astonishingly fast.
’But how can the chasm between Realms be so easily crossed?’
The Bone Marrow Forging Realm and the Bone Tempering Realm represented the fundantal difference between conditioning one’s muscles and sinews and actually beginning to temper the bones.
Strength, stamina, and defense were worlds apart.
Coupled with Cao Yiyi’s greater combat experience, after a dozen or so exchanges, Li Xingxuan was struggling to keep up. His breathing grew ragged, and the signs of his defeat were already apparent.
But the kid was stubborn and arrogant. Despite taking several of her punches, he absolutely refused to admit defeat and kept running his mouth.
As he struggled to fend her off, he taunted, "Cao Yiyi, is this all you’ve got? It looks like your Twelve Forms Fist isn’t so great after all!"
Cao Yiyi was not one to take insults lying down. Hearing his taunt, her lovely face turned cold and her almond-shaped eyes widened. "You little brat, you’re asking for a beating!"
"Who gave you permission to use my na? At least have the decency to call your cousin!"
The force behind her strikes imdiately intensified. Her fists and kicks beca a dense flurry, like a sudden storm, completely overwhelming Li Xingxuan. She beat him back step by step, leaving him only enough strength to parry, with no chance to retaliate.
Seeing Li Xingxuan in such a sorry state and on the verge of defeat, the crowd’s excitent grew even more intense.
Just then, a low and distinctive humming sound abruptly started up at the edge of the arena, clearly audible to everyone:
"Hmm... hmm hmm, hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm..."
In an instant, the abrupt humming captured nearly everyone’s attention. They all turned toward the sound, their gazes landing on Chu Fan.
The person humming the tune was, of course, Chu Fan.
The tune he was humming was from a song he rembered called "A Chinese Ghost Story."
The lody was completely at odds with the noisy intensity of the Martial Arts Arena, yet it seed strangely fitting for Li Xingxuan’s predicant of getting thoroughly beaten.
It was soulful and ethereal, filled with an indescribable, mournful loneliness.
It seed to tell the story of a tragic, beautiful love that transcended life and death, a love that could never be. It painted a bleak portrait of worldly impermanence and a cruel, twisted fate.
Even Li Qingxue, who had been focused on her brother in the center of the arena, couldn’t help but glance over.
The lody seed to have a Magic Power that pierced straight to the heart.
It was a beautiful, sorrowful weave unlike anything she had ever heard, and for a mont, it so captivated her that she forgot all about the duel in the arena.
In the arena, Li Xingxuan was already so overwheld he could barely breathe. Hearing the lody only made him more unbearably irritated.
He glared furiously in Chu Fan’s direction and cursed, "Which son of a bitch is humming a funeral dirge... OUCH!"
The mont his concentration broke, Cao Yiyi seized the opening.
She struck with a sharp Serpent Form strike, slapping him right across the face.
He howled in pain.
If Cao Yiyi hadn’t held back, that single slap would have ended the match.
The audience was already engrossed in the fight. When they saw Li Xingxuan cry out in pain, a disciple in a blue robe in the front row broke into a grin that stretched from ear to ear, before quickly covering his mouth to fake a cough.
In a corner, a group of attendants tried desperately to stifle their laughter, their faces turning beet-red from the effort. After all, this was the Li Family’s Little Overlord; they couldn’t afford to provoke him.
Li Xingxuan, both shocked and furious, used his Body Technique to clumsily dodge, but Cao Yiyi’s relentless assault involuntarily forced him toward where Chu Fan stood.
When he got a clear look and saw it was Chu Fan, he yelled in a rage, "Chu Fan! Stop humming! Stop humming that depressing tune!"
"I haven’t lost yet!"
"Listening to your song, you’d think I’ve already been beaten to death and died a miserable, lonely death!"
His comical reaction and words left the crowd stunned for a mont, before they erupted into uncontrollable fits of muffled laughter.
The tense atmosphere vanished completely.
But Chu Fan acted as if he hadn’t heard, still lost in his own world.
The distant, lonely lody continued to drift through the air.
When had Li Xingxuan ever suffered such humiliation?
He was being beaten down by his opponent while also being tornted by the mournful humming from the sidelines.
Overco with rage, he suddenly abandoned his fight with Cao Yiyi. Spinning around, he charged toward Chu Fan like an angry leopard cub, roaring, "I’ll give you sothing to hum about!"
As he closed in on Chu Fan, Li Xingxuan leaped into the air.
A swift whip kick, whistling through the air like a steel lash, shot viciously toward Chu Fan’s neck!
If that kick landed true, an ordinary cultivator at the Bone Marrow Forging Realm would likely suffer torn tendons and broken bones!
"Watch out!"
"Xingxuan, stop!"
Several gasps of alarm erupted from the crowd.
The Li Family disciples near Chu Fan rolled up their sleeves, about to rush forward and intercept Li Xingxuan.
Li Qingxue, however, rely watched with indifference, showing not the slightest reaction.
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