Chapter 255.1: Lu Changsheng Takes on a Hundred Alone! Extreme Martial Dao Sweeps Through the Pan City Martial Arts Community! (I)

The Extreme Martial Dao Center, formerly the Crane Martial Arts Center, was now bustling. People streamed through its doors every day, all hoping to enroll and learn the Extreme Martial Dao.

Only three days had passed since Lu Changsheng had challenged the Bear-Hugging Martial Arts Center, yet both he and the Extreme Martial Dao had already gone viral. He had not expected the internet to have such influence. He had never imagined that one livestream and a few clips could spread so far in such a short time.

What pushed the story even further was the controversy surrounding the Extreme Martial Dao itself. Plenty of people still refused to believe in it. In the online space, supporters of traditional martial arts soon found themselves locked in fierce arguments with those who believed Lu Changsheng had proven the Extreme Martial Dao was the real thing. The more they argued, the more attention the subject attracted, until the debate had spread across the internet.

That attention quickly carried over into the real world. Martial arts enthusiasts were now travelling to Pan City specifically to enroll at the Extreme Martial Dao Center, and Lu Changsheng turned none of them away.

Finding enough space for all those students was not much of a problem. After the Bear-Hugging Martial Arts Center closed, the Extreme Martial Dao Center took over the property and converted it into a branch. And when that alone proved insufficient, they rented several more venues throughout the city and turned those into branches as well.

In only a few days, the Extreme Martial Dao Center expanded at an astonishing pace and became the largest martial arts center in Pan City. However, Lu Changsheng still felt it was nowhere near enough.

Senior Sister Xiang soon came to find him with another matter. "Master, the Pan City Martial Dao Association just issued a public statement condemning us. They say we've disrupted the market and damaged the image of martial arts. They're demanding we stop infringing on traditional martial arts and issue a public apology, or they'll impose penalties on the Extreme Martial Dao Center."

Lu Changsheng snorted. "Penalties? What penalties could they possibly impose on us? What, shut us down? Have us arrested?"

The Martial Dao Association was little more than a civilian organization formed by members of the martial arts community. Its purpose was simply to mediate disputes and maintain some degree of order among martial artists. It had no law enforcement authority and no real power to punish anyone. So, whatever penalties it threatened, Lu Changsheng did not believe it could amount to anything more than public criticism.

Senior Sister Xiang drew a quiet breath before answering, "A lot of agencies have come to inspect the Extreme Martial Dao Center over the past three days, and I suspect the Martial Dao Association arranged it. They may not have the authority to punish us directly, but their members have plenty of connections. If they keep using those connections to cause trouble for us, it could eventually interfere with the center's operations."

Then, she hesitated for a moment before asking, "Do you think we've been too aggressive?"

Senior Sister Xiang had recently been helping Fei Qianliu manage the Extreme Martial Dao Center, so she understood its situation better than most. Despite its rapid growth, the center was facing resistance at every turn.

Even opening new branches had become difficult. None of the new locations had their paperwork in order because their applications were being repeatedly delayed. If that continued, the branches would inevitably face further inspections, and sooner or later, even the main center would be dragged into the trouble. Clearly, this was the martial arts community's way of retaliating.

Lu Changsheng shook his head, more disappointed than anything. "Ridiculous... Absolutely ridiculous. A group of martial practitioners wants to deal with me, and this is what they come up with? Instead of sending experts to challenge me or trying to defeat the Extreme Martial Dao Center through martial arts, they're pulling strings and using their connections to force us out of business. These people are truly rotten..."

In his eyes, the martial arts community of this world had long since lost the spirit that should have defined it. For many of them, martial arts was no longer about strength, discipline, or proving oneself against worthy opponents. It had become nothing more than a means of protecting their own interests and making money.

Senior Sister Xiang looked at him. "What should we do now?"

Only a few days had passed, but Lu Yuan had already become the person everyone at the Extreme Martial Dao Center relied upon.

Lu Changsheng said, "They may have lost the warrior spirit that martial artists ought to have, but we can't lose ours. Matters between martial artists should be settled through martial arts.

"Senior Sister Xiang, in the name of the Extreme Martial Dao Center, I want you to issue a challenge to every martial arts center in Pan City with at least fifty students. If there are any martial arts sects, include them too. Tell them that one month from now, I'll challenge every last one of them.

"They can prepare however they like, and when the day comes, they don't have to fight me one at a time. They can all come at me together. If they can beat me to death fair and square, then Extreme Martial Dao will disappear with me, and everything can go back to the way it was before."

Senior Sister Xiang stared at him in disbelief. "Y-You want to fight all of them together?"

She was shaken by that idea. Pan City had martial arts centers of every size, and even those with more than fifty students numbered in the dozens. Between them, there was no telling how many Hidden Force martial artists they could gather, not to mention those who had mastered Transformation Force.

Ten opponents would already be dangerous. Twenty would be terrifying. If thirty, forty, or even fifty experts showed up, how could one person possibly fight them all?

Senior Sister Xiang shuddered at the thought.

No matter how skilled a martial artist was, there was a limit to what one person could handle by themselves. Two fists could not fend off four hands, and even a veteran master could be brought down by a chaotic barrage of punches. If dozens of Hidden Force experts attacked together, even a Core Force expert would have to avoid confronting them directly. A Fortification Force expert might be able to withstand them for a time, but even they could eventually be worn down through sheer exhaustion.

To Senior Sister Xiang, Lu Yuan's decision was not just reckless—it was suicide.

Lu Changsheng saw the alarm on her face and simply smiled. "Don't worry, Senior Sister Xiang. Extreme Martial Dao is the relentless pursuit of the limits of the human body, followed by the attempt to break through those limits.

"If I can't even deal with a group of good-for-nothings who have lost their warrior spirit, what right does Extreme Martial Dao have to replace Force martial arts? And what right do I have to talk about breaking the limits of the human body?

"Go ahead and send the challenges. And don't keep this quiet. Have the Extreme Martial Dao Center spread the news as widely as possible. The bigger this becomes, the better, because one month from now, I want the Extreme Martial Dao to be the only martial art anyone in Pan City is talking about."

With that, Lu Changsheng closed his eyes, indicating that he was done with this conversation.

Senior Sister Xiang was still skeptical about this, but she knew there was no changing his mind, so she withdrew without saying anything else.

***

Before long, martial arts centers of every size across Pan City received a formal challenge from the Extreme Martial Dao Center.

The terms were simple. In one month, the creator of the Extreme Martial Dao would challenge every martial artist in Pan City who had reached Hidden Force or above. It did not matter whether ten people came or a hundred; they were free to attack him together.

The moment the challenge went public, it sent shockwaves through the Pan City martial arts community and far beyond it. It also spread online and went viral within hours, because the challenge itself contained just five words: Come, beat me to death. And those five words alone were enough to set the internet ablaze.

"Lu Yuan has gone completely insane! He wants to fight dozens, maybe even hundreds, of Hidden Force martial artists by himself? He's lost his mind!"

"Extreme Martial Dao? More like Crazy Martial Dao. Challenging every Hidden Force martial artist in Pan City is basically suicide."

"You have to admit, though, Lu Yuan is bold as hell. Challenging the entire martial arts community of Pan City so arrogantly takes a lot of guts, haha!"

"Exactly. Call him arrogant or overbearing if you want, but if you've got the ability, then go beat him to death. He already said he'd welcome it."

"But doesn't that kind of confidence say something on its own? Is this Extreme Martial Dao he created really that powerful?"

"My aunt's distant relative's neighbor's son went all the way to Pan City just to enroll at the Extreme Martial Dao Center. Apparently, after only a few days of training, he was already seeing results. It's nothing flashy, but a lot of traditional Force martial arts look pretty useless in comparison."

"Right, one of my distant relatives said the same thing..."

The internet was a mix of truths, rumors, exaggerations, and nonsense. Regardless, once a topic became popular, there was no stopping it. The challenge issued by the Extreme Martial Dao Center quickly spread across the country, drawing the attention of millions upon millions of people. Every day, countless netizens refreshed their feeds for the latest news from Pan City.

Some were so eager to see what would happen that they even traveled to Pan City in person, hoping to witness the showdown a month later. The influx of visitors was so great that even the city's tourism industry benefited from it.

The attention surrounding the Extreme Martial Dao had now surpassed Lu Yuan's previous fight at the Bear-Hugging Martial Dao Center. And because of it, every day, a steady stream of new faces poured into the Extreme Martial Dao Center.

The sheer amount of public attention also frightened the Pan City Martial Dao Association. Its members no longer dared to quietly use their connections to obstruct the Extreme Martial Dao Center. With so many eyes fixed on Lu Yuan and his school, any suspicious incident would immediately draw scrutiny. In fact, if something happened to the Extreme Martial Dao Center now, the Association itself might be blamed for rigging the challenge.

That left the Pan City martial arts community with only one realistic way to stop Lu Yuan. They had to defeat him openly one month from now, beat him so thoroughly that the Extreme Martial Dao collapsed with him.

And since Lu Yuan himself had declared that they could attack together, the various martial arts centers no longer cared about preserving appearances. They began calling in every connection they had, inviting powerful martial artists from outside Pan City to join them.

Soon, supreme experts of Hidden Force came. Core Force grandmasters also came. Seasoned fighters who had survived countless real battles came as well. One martial arts expert after another entered Pan City over the following days, all summoned for the same purpose: to beat Lu Yuan to death.