Chapter 255.3: Lu Changsheng Takes on a Hundred Alone! Extreme Martial Dao Sweeps Through the Pan City Martial Arts Community! (III)

Lu Changsheng stood at the center of the plaza.

With a grin on his face, he shouted, "All of you, come on up! Today's fight won't merely decide which martial art is superior. It will also decide who lives and who dies. There are too many of you for me to hold back once we start, so show me what your martial arts are capable of. Do not disappoint me!"

Unsurprisingly, his words got many people riled up, especially the martial artists who had been training Force their entire lives.

"Lu Yuan, you arrogant prick! Martial artists have trained Force for generations. You're barely in your twenties, yet you dare speak as though you understand the whole of martial arts and even claim to have created some so-called Extreme Martial Dao? Don't be ridiculous! Today, we'll show you what real martial arts look like!"

"Exactly. Your Extreme Martial Dao creates nothing but a pile of muscle-bound brutes. Martial arts have been refined over countless generations. Their depth can't be understood by people who think bigger muscles and reckless fighting are enough."

"Our martial arts..."

Someone else tried to add more, but Lu Changsheng had already grown tired of listening.

"Enough! You people talk too much. Is this everyone coming up, or what? Just know that once you step up here, there'll be no guarantee that you leave alive. So, if you're ready to be beaten to death, then stay. If not, leave!"

His words silenced the plaza, and the martial artists who intended to challenge him stepped into the center with him.

In the end, there were one hundred and thirteen martial artists standing across from Lu Changsheng, and every one of them was at least a Hidden Force martial artist. The group of martial artists glared at Lu Changsheng, and the atmosphere turned incredibly tense.

Then, finally, someone shouted, "Get him!"

Several martial artists made the first move, rushing straight toward Lu Changsheng. The rest followed almost immediately, and in an instant, more than a hundred fighters surged toward a single man.

Even during the most turbulent periods of centuries past, a life-or-death battle in which one martial artist faced more than a hundred opponents would have been extraordinarily rare. But now, before the eyes of countless spectators, such a battle was unfolding once again.

Seeing the martial artists charge toward him, Lu Changsheng only threw back his head and chuckled. Then, he drove one foot hard into the ground.

Bang!

Cracks spread beneath his feet, and the impact seemed to send a tremor through the entire plaza. And in the next instant, he launched himself forward.

Despite his towering, heavily muscled frame, there was nothing clumsy about his movements. This was because the Extreme Martial Dao did not simply increase strength, durability, and muscle mass. It strengthened the body in every respect, including speed, agility, reflexes, and reaction time.

The moment Lu Changsheng charged into the crowd, it was like watching a tiger tear into a flock of sheep. He used no elaborate techniques. He simply picked the nearest opponent and slammed straight into him with the full force of his body.

Bang!

The man he hit was a Hidden Force expert, and even with everything that fighter threw into his own strike, the collision felt like he had been hit by a speeding train. The impact instantly shattered his internal organs, and he did not even have time to scream before he died.

Lu Changsheng, on the other hand, was utterly unharmed. The only downside of that clash was staining his clothes with blood.

Gasps broke out among the spectators, and many of them turned deathly pale. They knew this was supposed to be a battle to the death, but actually watching someone die so violently was difficult to process.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Five or six martial artists closed in toward Lu Changsheng again, this time from different directions, and struck him with fists and palms. The strikes carrying Hidden Force landed hard on his body, but there was no effect. In fact, to the martial artists, it felt like they were hitting an impossibly thick layer of hide.

Lu Changsheng grinned, curled both his hands into fists, and swept them out in a wide arc around him.

Crack! Crack! Crack!

A series of crisp snaps rang out, and every fighter caught in that sweep was sent stumbling or flying away. Some had their limbs broken, while others took such heavy internal injuries that they collapsed on the spot, unable to stand again.

Lu Changsheng stood among the fallen fighters and swept his gaze across the others. "Is this all Hidden Force martial artists are capable of? Pathetic!"

His overwhelming strength and unmatched dominance made the remaining martial artists trade uneasy glances. Some had already started thinking about retreat.

But then, a big and tall martial artist suddenly shouted, "There's no backing out now! If we don't kill him today, he'll kill us!"

The warning jolted the others back to their senses. It was true; they had knowingly stepped into a life-or-death battle. There was no way out now. It was kill or be killed.

Of course, that was easier said than done. Nearly twenty martial artists were already lying across the plaza, with seven or eight dead. Lu Yuan was showing no mercy, and if they kept attacking him without a plan, he would just pick them off one by one.

Suddenly, one of the more experienced fighters shouted, "His physique is too powerful, and we can't beat him by relying on brute force. We need to play to our own strengths. We have the advantage in technique, movement, and explosive Force. Our attacks can still hurt him, but only if we strike where it matters. His body may be incredibly tough, like someone who has trained specifically to harden their physique, but that does not mean he has no weak points. Aim for his vital spots and focus everything you've got on that!"

Some of the sharper and more experienced martial artists had already sketched out a strategy. His eyes, ears, mouth, and other vulnerable areas were still part of the human body. If a Hidden Force strike could reach one of those places, it could inflict real damage, and with their numbers, they had a real chance.

So, the martial artists quickly changed tactics. Some moved to attack Lu Changsheng's legs and disrupt his balance, while others hunted specifically for an opening at his weak points to land a fatal strike. With over a hundred men now coordinating instead of swinging wildly, the fight turned far more dangerous.

Lu Changsheng chuckled. "Trying to target my vital spots?"

He did have vital spots, of course. He had yet to break through the limits of the human body, and his flesh was nowhere near impervious to weapons. However, those martial artists had made one crucial mistake: they treated the Extreme Martial Dao as though it were some form of external-hardening martial art, when the two were actually fundamentally different.

External-hardening techniques narrowly focused on strengthening the tendons, bones, skin, and muscles, often sacrificing flexibility and agility in exchange for toughness. But the Extreme Martial Dao did not have this kind of tradeoff. On top of raw strength, it enhanced one's agility and flexibility as well. In fact, it could allow the practitioner to strike as fast as lightning.

Whoosh!

Lu Changsheng shifted his body and shot into the crowd. He moved so fast his figure seemed to blur, slipping between the surrounding martial artists like a phantom.

"Hold him down! I'll use Core Force and finish him in one strike!" shouted the burly martial artist.

His declaration startled both his peers and the spectators.

"Core Force?"

"He's a Core Force expert? One of the martial arts centers actually managed to bring in someone at that level?"

"Then why haven't I heard of him before?"

"He must've been hiding his identity..."

A Core Force expert could unleash power on an entirely different scale. By gathering and compressing power through the core before releasing it in a single explosive burst, a Core Force practitioner could produce destructive force many times greater than that of the lower levels. A properly executed strike could even punch through a steel plate.

Several Hidden Force and Transformation Force martial artists immediately rushed toward Lu Changsheng. "We'll pin Lu Yuan down!"

"Core Force?" Lu Changsheng repeated to himself. Then, a sharp gleam flashed through his eyes. "Fine. Then I get to kill a Core Force expert."

He charged straight for the Core Force martial artist, bulldozing through everyone in his path, sending anyone who tried to stop him flying. Moving like a steamroller, nothing could hold him back.

In the blink of an eye, he had already made his way to the Core Force expert, who remained remarkably calm. In his mind, there was no point in retreating, since Lu Yuan had already closed the distance. If anything, this was exactly the chance he had been waiting for.

Just as Lu Changsheng smashed the last martial artist blocking his path aside, the Core Force martial artist growled, "Coiling Dragon Force! Die!"

His fist shot straight toward Lu Changsheng's eye. The eye was undeniably a weak point, and he meant to exploit it fully.

Lu Changsheng stopped in his tracks. His feet planted firmly against the ground as the fist rapidly closed in on his face. Then, he raised his hand.

"Extreme Martial Dao, Heaven-Turning Seal!"

His palm came crashing down, and a resounding boom rolled through the plaza. The surrounding martial artists felt as though the world itself had been flipped upside down, their senses reeling beneath the tremendous impact.

The Core Force expert's face twisted in horror as everything around him seemed to disappear from his sight. All he could see was Lu Changsheng's enormous palm descending toward him, blotting out everything in its path.

BAAAM!

Lu Changsheng's palm reached him before his fist could reach Lu Changsheng.

CRUNCH!

With that one strike, the Core Force expert's head was smashed straight down into his neck.