Chapter 256.1: Breaking the Limit! Second Growth! Impervious to Blades and Bullets! A New Era! (I)

The entire plaza was suddenly plunged into complete silence, to the point where one could even hear a pin drop. A headless corpse lay on the ground in a gruesome sight, and the thick scent of blood permeated the air. Many people trembled at the gruesome scene before them.

With a single palm strike, Lu Yuan had driven a Core Force Grandmaster's head down into his neck, making for a terrifying display of power.

More importantly, he had done it after the opponent had unleashed his Core Force, and he had met that Core Force head on. This level of strength was far beyond what could be considered human!

"The Core Force Grandmaster is dead?"

"What the... Core Force produces some insane strength, and even that couldn't do anything against Lu Yuan... Does he have Divine Strength or something?"

"Lu Yuan definitely wasn't born with Divine Strength. His physical capabilities only became this terrifying after he founded the Extreme Martial Dao and began practicing it himself. As you can see, he can now casually smash through a grandmaster's Core Force."

"Are martial artists who train their Force really this... weak?"

"The Extreme Martial Dao is truly terrifying..."

"Is there any point in continuing this battle?"

For a while, people in the arena looked at one another in dismay. In particular, martial artists who trained their Force seemed to be utterly dispirited. For the first time, their conviction began to waver.

After all, they knew Lu Yuan far too well. They had investigated practically eighteen generations of his ancestry in perfect detail, and they knew exactly how little time had passed since Lu Yuan founded the Extreme Martial Dao. Even by a generous estimate, it had only been a little over four months. In that short period of time, Lu Yuan had reached the point where he alone could fight a hundred people, even killing a Core Force Grandmaster.

Any Core Force Grandmaster had gone through decades of arduous training in order to condense a core and reach that level. And yet, it took Lu Yuan only four months to establish the Extreme Martial Dao and trample on decades of effort.

The truth was that the martial artists training their Force had experienced this feeling once before. That was when firearms and artillery first rose to prominence. No matter how powerful a martial artist was, their power was utterly insignificant in the face of modern weaponry.

On this day, they were made aware of their powerlessness once again—not by guns or cannons, but by another human. Still, they felt the same helplessness now as they had all those years ago when faced with those weapons.

"Once you enter the arena, retreat is not an option."

"He may have killed one Core Force Grandmaster, but there are still more than a hundred of us. We can exhaust him to death, if nothing else."

"How many of us can he possibly kill?"

"History has seen countless martyrs, ever since ancient times. Now that martial arts have fallen this far, martyrs are needed once again."

"We are the martyrs of martial arts now! Do not disgrace martial arts..."

Among the hundred-some martial artists in the arena, there truly were some who had devoted their hearts entirely to the martial path. Even after matters had reached this stage, and even though they knew they could not win, they still insisted on fighting. Some had even resolved to become martyrs for the sake of martial arts.

Lu Changsheng could respect such resolve, and the only way to properly show his respect for them was to see this fight to the end without holding back.

And so, he attacked once more. "Extreme Martial Dao, Worldly Sweep!"

He had not spent much time studying martial arts techniques. After all, martial arts techniques belonged to the lesser Martial Dao and were not particularly useful. A martial artist's foundation ought to be their physical capabilities, whereas the techniques only needed to be adequate.

Therefore, Lu Changsheng had synthesized several martial arts techniques and ultimately devised a set of practical combat moves for the Extreme Martial Dao.

He had named this set of practical combat moves "Extreme Techniques." These Extreme Techniques could make the most out of his physical capabilities, and their effect in real combat was tremendous indeed.

Lu Changsheng charged into the crowd again. With a single sweeping strike, over a dozen martial artists were sent flying backward like rag dolls, and when they struck the ground, they stayed there, never to get back up again.

Just like that, a single strike had killed more than a dozen Hidden Force and Transformation Force martial artists. This was the first time Lu Changsheng had gone all out, and by doing so, he showed that the gap between him and these people was beyond imagination.

"So this is the Extreme Martial Dao?"

"It seems the world really has changed..."

"Guns and cannons killed martial arts, and the Extreme Martial Dao has driven the final nail into the coffin..."

Many martial artists lost all spirit. They had felt helpless before the surging tide of the new era, and now, that helplessness had given way to profound sorrow. Martial arts had been powerless against guns and cannons back then, and they were equally powerless against the Extreme Martial Dao now.

Lu Changsheng displayed overwhelming prowess in the arena. Muscles bulged across his entire body, making him look like a small titan. He was also incredibly agile, not the slightest bit inferior to the martial artists training in Force. In fact, he was even more agile than they were, while defensive power surpassed theirs by an even greater margin. Ultimately, the outcome had been decided from the very beginning.

The battle had concluded in the time it takes an incense stick to burn. Bodies lay strewn all across the plaza, at least half of them corpses. Most of those who had survived were more or less crippled, with only a few fortunate enough to not have suffered any lasting damage.

In any case, every martial artist still breathing wore a blank look. The sorrow that gripped their hearts was worse than any kind of physical pain. Deep down, they knew that martial arts were finished.

Lu Changsheng swept his gaze across the people around him. "Anyone else?"

Previously, some martial artists had intended to enter the arena but had failed to do so for various reasons. However, as they watched Lu Yuan in the arena, every one of them remained silent. The strength Lu Yuan had displayed was horrifying, utterly inhuman. No martial artist training in Force had the courage to enter the arena now.

"Alright, I see there's no one else. Remember this! From now on, Pan City will only practice the Extreme Martial Dao. I do not want to see a second martial arts center here."

With that, Lu Changsheng walked straight out of the plaza. The disciples of the Extreme Martial Dao Center immediately brought over fresh clothes for him to put on. They could barely contain their jubilation knowing that from that day onward, there would only be one martial arts center in all of Pan City, namely the Extreme Martial Dao Center!

"Center Master Lu, does your Extreme Martial Dao count as martial arts?" asked a television host.

It was actually quite a pointed question.

Lu Changsheng smiled and shook his head. "My Extreme Martial Dao is not a martial art but a martial path! There might be only one word of difference, but they are worlds apart! As for the exact distinction, come to the Extreme Martial Dao Center and study the Extreme Martial Dao. Then you will naturally understand."[1]

With that, Lu Changsheng left with the students of the Extreme Martial Dao Center.

The so-called martial artists stood in place with their faces ashen. Each and every one of them bore titles like champion or grandmaster, but now it had become apparent that those titles were meaningless.

From this day onward, there would no longer be a place for them in Pan City.

1. The distinction between these is a common topic in the modern martial arts community. In the narrow sense, the term translated here as "martial art" (wǔshù) refers to practical techniques meant to defeat an enemy, while the "martial path" (wǔdào‌) refers to training for the purpose of physical and spiritual development, discipline, moral perfection, etc. Martial path is basically the same as Martial Dao. The term wushu also refers to traditional Chinese martial arts like Taijiquan and so on, while in the same context wudao is a broader term that refers to martial arts in general, of any country. ☜