Fist and claw merged, and the Madman of Martial Arts's shoulder suddenly sank heavily. He dared not let the back of his claws make solid contact with Qin Fen's Dragon Elbow. After just a slight touch, it felt like an electric shock, and he recoiled backward using the vibration, neatly evading Qin Fen's mighty, imposing elbow strike.
Almost simultaneously, Qin Fen's Eighteen Divine Dragons Gather Wind and Cloud, already carrying the momentum of summoning clouds and drizzling rain, whipped up gusts of fierce wind towards the Madman of Martial Arts's face. With no true energy projected outward, merely the sheer force generated by the compressed fist was like hundreds of blades, ceaselessly assaulting the Madman of Martial Arts's visage, which was protected by his True Energy shield. Gathering all projectable True Energy to adhere to the bones of his fist amplified the power far beyond simple external projection.
If this strike, Eighteen Divine Dragons Gather Wind and Cloud, had landed squarely, no matter how formidable the Madman of Martial Arts's protective divine art, being struck in the head by this punch would likely have added a headless male corpse to the Sacred Martial Hall. The two tiger claws crossed and rose, instantly ascending to block Qin Fen’s punch, which descended like a divine dragon, attempting to lift and forcibly alter the trajectory of the strike. However, Qin Fen's Eighteen Divine Dragons Gather Wind and Cloud, accompanied by the escalating momentum from the preceding Dragon Cannon, had reached the absolute peak of his career in terms of spirit, aura, and sheer power!
The Madman of Martial Arts's guard was violently repelled backward. Qin Fen’s flurry of kicks and punches, infused with the emotions of numerous martial artists, unfolded, forming an unprecedented, peerless dominance. The power unleashed by the Eighteen Divine Dragons Gather Wind and Cloud seemed capable of pulverizing anything that stood in its way.
The Madman of Martial Arts had completely failed to anticipate that Qin Fen’s sudden offensive could escalate to such a degree, aggressively seizing the initiative on the battlefield using the most brutal, savage means. Despite his advantage in Star Rank strength, he was unable to reclaim the control that should have been his. Several exchanges in the flash of an eye were blasted apart by that overwhelming, peerless fist technique, achieving almost none of the anticipated effects.
Continuous, shocked glints flickered in the Madman of Martial Arts's crimson eyes. This young martial artist, whom he could absolutely not have matched half a year ago, had transformed and sublimated to this level during the special training. He was not merely qualified by his Star Rank strength to be a Martial Arts Master; the destructive power radiating from his every movement, every punch and kick, was far beyond that of an ordinary Martial Arts Master!
On a battlefield riddled with sharp blades everywhere, one careless moment meant serious injury was lucky; death was not surprising. In an instant, the Madman of Martial Arts steeled his mind. The tiger-like ridge of his spine beneath his back rippled continuously.
As his shoulders convulsed, the muscles on his back suddenly bulged high, the tendons on his back swelling violently, resembling dozens of small black snakes coiled around his throat. His ten fingers interlaced and pressed down from above, the air sliced by his knuckles sounding like a series of explosions, as if hundreds of firecrackers were hidden within his joints. A lifetime's tiger roar surged from his dantian, forcing the True Energy past his throat.
The sheer force managed to counter Qin Fen's thunderous punch wind and accompanying roar. With a fierce cry, all beasts submitted. The Fierce Tiger Pierces the Forest followed, shifting winds and shaking mountains!
The Madman of Martial Arts's groaning, tiger-like essence, his temper and personality, gradually shifted to resemble a tiger—never yielding to any opposing force that dared challenge its sovereign status! In Qin Fen’s world, only the Madman of Martial Arts remained. How could he not understand the opponent’s mindset and reaction?
Seeing the reaction, he flipped his right arm! Both his fists charged toward the Madman of Martial Arts’s two claws. Rumble!
Shards of the battle blade scattered wildly. Under the immense pressure from the collision of their powerful forces, they were no less destructive than bullets from a real gun—perhaps even exceeding them. Drops of bright red liquid were instantly carried away by the metal fragments skimming past Qin Fen’s ears.
The hundreds of metal slivers injured Qin Fen in several places, but they also scraped the surface of the Madman of Martial Arts’s skin. This was not due to the inadequacy of their protective divine arts, but because the force generated by their mutual impact was too fierce; even their own bodies could not withstand the flying blades. Fist met claw.
The Madman of Martial Arts’s claw force intensified again, pressing down and hooking fiercely! The blood inside his body churned, and the veins across his entire body erupted, each one twice as thick as normal. His body surged rapidly towards Qin Fen, and his knee suddenly lifted!
This knee strike, like a short blade suddenly drawn when a swordsman closes the distance, generated a powerful gust that made the fabric over Qin Fen’s lower abdomen flap loudly. True Energy projected outward! Striking Through the Mountain!
At ultra-close range, the Madman of Martial Arts decisively chose a less physically impactful attack method, using his knee to execute something akin to a Cleaving Palm strike! Initiative! The Madman of Martial Arts had to seize the initiative.
The tiger claws pressing against Qin Fen’s arms were already at his limit; he likely couldn't maintain the pressure for another second. He had to use the technique of projecting True Energy first to force the opponent to retreat. Even if it was just an empty force strike, the distance between them was too short!
The Madman of Martial Arts was certain that even if Qin Fen’s Golden Bell Shield had reached its zenith and he had begun cultivating the Indestructible Vajra Body divine art, he would not dare face a close-range Cleaving Strike head-on! Even a steel plate could be easily shattered! Let alone the actual physical knee impact that followed!
This knee collision was earth-shattering, the air exploding with a roar. Qin Fen’s abdomen immediately felt that oppressive force cutting through the air. The fabric over his lower abdomen was violently pressed and shredded, revealing eight defined rectus abdominis muscles!
The skin of his abdomen broke out in waves of burning, stinging pain, as if it were being scoured by sandpaper, threatening to bleed at any moment. Any other Fifteen-Star martial artist, facing this heaven-shattering knee strike, would most likely choose to dodge and retreat to plot a counterattack. But Qin Fen was different.
His intuition, forged through numerous life-and-death battles, made him deeply understand that in combat, momentum either rises or falls. This knee strike was earth-shattering, the air exploding with a roar. Qin Fen’s abdomen immediately felt that oppressive force cutting through the air.
The fabric over his lower abdomen was violently pressed and shredded, revealing eight defined rectus abdominis muscles! The skin of his abdomen broke out in waves of burning, stinging pain, as if it were being scoured by sandpaper, threatening to bleed at any moment. Any other Fifteen-Star martial artist, facing this heaven-shattering knee strike, would most likely choose to dodge and retreat to plot a counterattack.
But Qin Fen was different. His intuition, forged through numerous life-and-death battles, made him deeply understand that in combat, momentum either rises or falls. In front of a genius martial artist unprecedented in the Martial Saint Hall, retreat?
Then Cai Renying's yesterday would be his today! One retreat would lead to more, and more retreats meant defeat! The Madman of Martial Arts had never retreated; he knew retreating meant losing, and Qin Fen understood this very well too.
Amidst the fierce fighting, Qin Fen planted one leg, his long leg extending forward— Coiling and striking like a dragon entering the sea! His loose trouser legs rustled loudly as they were inflated by True Energy, wrapping around the Madman of Martial Arts's raised lower leg. Qin Fen’s Yin-Yang Dual Dragons Without Boundary from the Martial Emperor Dragon Fist was originally a temporary measure to manage the uncontrollable fast pace and the erratic shift of Yin and Yang forces.
Now that his strength had continually escalated, one long leg coiled and struck like a dragon entering the sea, the Yin and Yang forces shifting constantly as he lashed out, using the momentum to entangle and neutralize the attempted knee strike. This was...? The astonishment in the Madman of Martial Arts's crimson eyes surged again.
He had expected this killing move to force Qin Fen back, but he never imagined the opponent's martial perception was so sharp that his move was severed and defused before it was even fully deployed. The Madman of Martial Arts’s thigh twisted, snapped, and pulled—four forces exploding in succession—forcing his leg free from Qin Fen's grip, a grip capable of instantly crushing an elephant or twisting a pure steel column in the blink of an eye! As the Madman of Martial Arts pulled his leg free, Qin Fen’s body instantly completed a contraction and expansion!
His muscles hardened like iron, his body slamming into the Madman of Martial Arts’s embrace like a motorized armored vehicle at full throttle. The Madman of Martial Arts sealed his chest with both claws, pinning Qin Fen’s two incoming fists! At this moment, all their strength, all their True Energy, finally met head-on in a solid collision.
Both bodies shuddered slightly. Qin Fen’s clothes made a sizzling sound, and in a blink, his warrior uniform was torn to shreds by the sheer tearing force, revealing a body of taut, powerful muscle, which struck his own musculature as it rose, emitting a metallic clang. The Madman of Martial Arts wasn't much better off.
Although his feet were gripping the ground fiercely, he could not stop the backward momentum. Dozens of blades flew up and scattered in the air, and one steel blade luckily severed the thick cord tying up his long hair. In the next instant, his long hair scattered loose, billowing wildly in the wind generated by his backward motion, making him look like a demon king who had just climbed out of the abyss.
Qin Fen, retreating, his eyes flashing with sharp brilliance, plunged both feet violently into the ground, halting his backward slide! His knees immediately bent, then sprang straight in an explosive burst! He lunged forward again, beating the Madman of Martial Arts to the next move!
The Madman of Martial Arts’s two claw blocks, though seemingly exquisite, were not an aggressive counterattack but a defensive stance in that instant. Under Qin Fen’s savage, monstrous power, he was violently driven back, his aura weakening by half instantaneously. To any discerning eye, it was clear that in this contest to seize the initiative, Qin Fen had finally—and successfully—obtained the dominance he desired, and simultaneously...
Without any hesitation, Qin Fen suddenly snatched the battle blade that was floating nearby, not yet landed, treating it as a massive throwing knife and hurling it outward! The throwing knife advanced like a shooting star chasing the moon. The Madman of Martial Arts split his arms before him, batting the blade aside, only to see Qin Fen’s silhouette rapidly expanding in his pupils as he closed in again at high speed.
Must seal his two fists! The thought flashed through the Madman of Martial Arts’s mind. His two tiger claws extended again without thinking, fiercely hooking toward the face of Qin Fen’s fists.
Boom! A deafening sound, an earthquake, a hundred blades were shaken and sent flying into the air! The Madman of Martial Arts was inwardly delighted; this time, he had finally grasped him solidly...
Before the flicker of joy had fully passed, the Madman of Martial Arts was alarmed again. A far fiercer sound of air tearing through space, along with an overwhelming pressure, came from the air ahead. A third fist?
No! That was a headbutt! The crimson light in the Madman of Martial Arts's eyes intensified repeatedly.
He couldn't possibly evade; he could only push his protective divine art to its absolute limit. But he still couldn't comprehend why his Sixteen-Star True Energy combined with his protective divine art should theoretically be stronger than the Fifteen-Star Qin Fen’s protection. Why would this young opponent abandon all his advantages, even throwing away the dominance and initiative he had fought for, to decide the outcome with a headbutt?
That's right! The Madman of Martial Arts could not evade this headbutt. Qin Fen controlled the entire battlefield initiative; using it to trade for a headbutt at this moment was more than sufficient.
If he allowed the opponent to evade this, all his efforts to gain the initiative would have been in vain. Has Qin Fen gone mad? Most martial artists who saw this scene were shaken.
How could Qin Fen, who had controlled the fight so brilliantly before, do something so foolish? The Fifteen-Star protective divine art? Even if your Golden Bell Shield had become...
Bang... Boom... Snap...
Three roaring impacts. Blood sprayed wildly from the Madman of Martial Arts's forehead, and his feet finally left the ground. His body was sent flying backward at high speed, his pair of crimson eyes still unable to believe the outcome.
His entire vision was filled with flashing golden stars. Impossible? As the Madman of Martial Arts was sent tumbling off the mountain of blades, he stared blankly at Qin Fen, who stood motionless in a low bow.
How could this young man’s protective divine art be so terrifyingly powerful? Had he spent more time practicing his protective divine art than anything else? Impossible!
He didn't have that much time! What exactly was his protective divine art? The Madman of Martial Arts crashed heavily onto the ground.
After his protective divine art was breached, dozens of fragmented blade pieces pierced into his body, and several pieces even penetrated straight through him. Fortunately, the True Energy in his vital spots had not dispersed and was still providing basic protection. After his body made contact with the ground, the Madman of Martial Arts slid for dozens of meters before stopping.
His mind still could not fully process the defensive True Energy of Qin Fen. In that collision, he had broken through at least three of Qin Fen’s protective divine arts—the Iron Cloth Shirt, the Golden Bell Shield, and even something that hadn't fully materialized as the Indestructible Vajra Body! Qin Fen gasped for breath, slowly straightening his body.
The muscles in his face twitched incessantly from the pain—not just the pain of the headbutt, but also the pain from the scattering blade fragments piercing his body. The most terrifying aspect of the Blade Mountain was not fighting on it, but the moment the victor was decided: the loser’s protective True Energy vanished, leading to a fatal outcome. Qin Fen had won, but the victory was somewhat perilous.
His decisive blow relied not only on the special nature of his protective divine art but also on his explosive, savage strength, which blasted the opponent off the Blade Mountain. However, his own True Energy had experienced a momentary insufficiency. Ordinary blades naturally could not penetrate his body, but the pressure generated by their mutual critical impact rapidly escalated the blades' power, managing to pierce his flesh defense.