The Way of Restraint

Chapter 173: Finally Breaking Through the Life-and-Death Line

Bang! 

Su Jie’s Hoe Strike actually struck Feng Hengyi’s fist. 

The two were engaged in a duel; Feng Hengyi was throwing a straight punch while Su Jie used a parabolic strike. Logically, Feng Hengyi should have hit Su Jie first. Yet, it was Su Jie who landed a blow on Feng Hengyi’s fist. 

This seemed illogical at first glance, but it adhered to the true principles of the Five Elements’ mutual generation and restraint. The strike broke through, metal overcoming wood. 

In ancient traditional martial arts, there exists a set of Five Element Fists: splitting, collapsing, drilling, blasting, and horizontal, corresponding to metal, wood, water, fire, and earth respectively. Specifically, splitting counters collapsing, collapsing counters horizontal, horizontal counters drilling, drilling counters blasting, and blasting counters splitting. In other words, metal overcomes wood, wood overcomes earth, earth overcomes water, water overcomes fire, and fire overcomes metal.

Su Jie’s Hoe Strike came down from above, striking like a blade and digging like a hoe; it embodied the essence of metal, perfectly restraining Feng Hengyi’s straight punch. This principle is commonly seen on ancient battlefields where weapon techniques clash—when an opponent thrusts with a spear, one can counter by striking downwards to deflect the spear and then directly stab. The same applies to staff techniques.

Yu Dayou elaborated on staff techniques in his genuine combat manual “Sword Classic,” stating, “One strike and one reveal; all energy focused, advancing step by step, invincible under heaven.” This means that true combat skills involve “one strike and one reveal.” The so-called strike is to use one’s own weapon to strike down the opponent’s weapon, while the reveal is to lift and strike upwards against the opponent’s weapon—like lifting a pot lid or turning a page of a book. This encapsulates the essence of the “Hoe Strike.”

The Hoe Strike begins with a reveal and ends with a strike. One strike and one reveal make one invincible. Yu Dayou fought alongside Qi Jiguang against the Japanese pirates in ancient times; he was truly a combat expert, unlike those later martial masters who relied on boasting.

In this moment of attack, Su Jie appeared to aim for Feng Hengyi’s face; however, he accurately predicted that Feng Hengyi would surely throw a punch. His strike was aimed to hit Feng Hengyi’s fist with the intent to break it from above, hoping to incapacitate him in one blow. Yet as his palm struck Feng Hengyi’s fist, at that instant, Feng Hengyi’s fist spun like a high-speed drill and unexpectedly dissipated all of Su Jie’s force.

Then, Feng Hengyi launched another drilling punch. His punch drilled in with such force that it emitted a buzzing sound, akin to a steel drill boring into hard rock; if it were to penetrate a person, it would surely create a bloody hole.

Su Jie initially thought his plan had succeeded as he struck Feng Hengyi’s fist, but he did not anticipate that just after landing his blow, Feng Hengyi would spiral and instantly nullify his power while simultaneously drilling his fist toward Su Jie’s chest. All the hair on Su Jie’s body stood on end.

Feng Hengyi’s move resembled Huang Dingyi’s ultimate technique “Black Tiger Prowling Heart,” but its power was astonishingly greater, with penetration and explosive force far exceeding the former. As his fist arrived, his fingers seemed poised to open up and bore into Su Jie’s chest as if to truly extract his heart.

Bang! The ground beneath Su Jie exploded as he pushed his “Magic Step” to its limits, narrowly evading this strike.

“Hmm?” Feng Hengyi noticed that Su Jie had repeatedly dodged his attacks and even counterattacked by striking his fist. This only fueled his killing intent further. Moreover, it made him realize that Su Jie was no longer the easy target he could easily defeat last year.

In just over a year, how could such a massive change occur? Would he be unable to kill him after another year? 

Kill! This singular word appeared in Feng Hengyi’s mind.

He advanced his fist again. It was very natural, without any wind sound accompanying it; yet it was much faster than before. It seemed he had utilized some kind of movement technique that completely negated air resistance, thus increasing his speed.

Having just dodged the “Black Tiger Prowling Heart,” Feng Hengyi’s fist was once again aimed at Su Jie’s chest. Each punch was like an arrow, like a drill bit, like a spear, like a bullet.

Feng Hengyi’s martial arts are very simple; he only uses straight punches, without any leg techniques, swinging punches, or even hooks. It’s terrifyingly simple, even more so than the “Hoe Strike.” 

Between two points, a straight line is the shortest. This is Feng Hengyi’s martial art: straight punches. It is truly devoid of any frills, every strike aimed to take a life. 

Su Jie could only watch helplessly as the fist reached his chest again, unable to evade it at all. Feng Hengyi’s overwhelming power and speed made every punch lethal, each one a straight line, relentlessly pursuing its target to the ends of the earth. Even Su Jie’s exquisite Magic Step couldn’t shake off Feng Hengyi.

“It’s over!” Both Liu Long and Zhang Jinchuan felt the same way in their hearts. 

Su Jie was already too weak to dodge; defeat was inevitable. In their exchanges, Feng Hengyi had thrown three consecutive punches that Su Jie managed to evade; then Su Jie suddenly lunged forward, but when Feng Hengyi punched mid-air, their fists collided, and Su Jie found himself at a disadvantage. The power of the “Hoe Strike” was neutralized by Feng Hengyi’s spiraling fist technique, and from the perspective of a master, Su Jie was destined to lose. Moreover, there was a high possibility he could die.

So far, Feng Hengyi had thrown six punches. The first three were evaded by Su Jie, the fourth broke through the “Hoe Strike,” and the fifth, the “Black Tiger Prowling Heart,” was dodged by Su Jie once more. But with the sixth punch, he unleashed his full force for a killing blow. Zhang Jinchuan closed his eyes. He knew that if he were in the ring, he probably wouldn’t even survive six punches; he could very well die from the first three.

Bang! 

The sound resounded across the arena. Zhang Jinchuan opened his eyes again, only to find that Su Jie had not been knocked down; instead, at the critical moment, he had raised his hand to block Feng Hengyi’s straight punch. 

The sound of this block was tremendously loud, like a firecracker explosion, and faintly carried a thunderous echo. Zhang Jinchuan did not see how Su Jie managed to block it. But Liu Long saw it clearly. He abruptly stood up from his chair because he realized that Su Jie had actually executed his ultimate move, “Grip Solidification.” 

Just moments ago, Feng Hengyi’s lethal punch was met with Su Jie’s palm clasping his chest, forcing out an airflow that erupted with a roaring sound. No mistake, it was indeed Liu Long’s unique skill. Su Jie had watched it once and completely learned it!

Whoosh! 

Feng Hengyi retreated again. His eyes were like those of an eagle or a snake, fixated on Su Jie, not launching another attack. Having attempted two attacks and thrown six punches without being able to kill Su Jie surprised him greatly. Of course, he completely controlled the situation and grasped the momentum, yet he had failed to finish it quickly. To him, Su Jie seemed like an indestructible cockroach.

At this moment, Su Jie also steadied himself and stopped moving; his whole body felt numb and his strength had significantly weakened. Although he had just used Liu Long’s ultimate technique to block a punch from Feng Hengyi, it was certainly not an easy feat. If Feng Hengyi were to throw another punch now, Su Jie would surely meet his end. However, Feng Hengyi chose to retreat and adjust his state, which puzzled Su Jie. The opponent definitely wasn’t letting him off out of any sense of conscience.

“Right, if Feng Hengyi comes at me with another punch, while he could indeed kill me, there’s also the possibility that my desperate counterattack could cause him harm. In an instant, he calculated precisely and deemed it not worth the risk; he wants to kill me without any cost. Perhaps this is my slim chance…” Su Jie’s mind worked quickly as he pieced together the truth. Amid his thoughts, his chest rose and fell; his body relaxed and tensed in alternating patterns as he employed the Dragon-Tiger Breathing technique from hard Qigong to rapidly recover his depleted stamina and numbness. At that moment, the advantage of youth became apparent; just a few breaths later, he had fully recovered and was ready to fight again. During those few breaths, Feng Hengyi took two steps left and right as if measuring something.

Su Jie understood that he was measuring the precise location of the strike, formulating a plan to kill himself without any cost. He was no longer the kind of fragile chick that could be easily crushed. If Feng Hengyi wanted to kill him without sustaining any injury, he would indeed have to put in some effort. 

Zizizizi…

Just two steps into the measurement, Feng Hengyi suddenly cast his gaze over. 

Su Jie seemed to feel a current generating deep within his pupils. Moreover, a smile appeared at the corners of Feng Hengyi’s mouth. This was a sign of confidence.

He had completely estimated Su Jie’s strength, movements, speed, power, and patterns. Su Jie’s heart suddenly raced, and that feeling of fear surged back to the forefront of his mind. He had a sense that during the previous six punches, Feng Hengyi had completed his data collection on him.

In those two steps of measurement just now, Feng Hengyi had already integrated all the data, including environmental factors, like a supercomputer calculating billions of times per second. He had evidently calculated a plan and devised countermeasures capable of killing Su Jie without any cost.

“Terrifying, too terrifying…” Su Jie seemed to see his own death approaching. But he would never concede defeat! 

“If that’s the case, then let’s die…” Su Jie’s eyes seemed to close, leaving only a sliver of a gap; the entire world under his senses became flat.

This psychological state was unprecedented for Su Jie. There was no sound at all. 

Feng Hengyi’s killing move had arrived, like the shadow of death, silently cloaking him. 

Still a straight punch.

Su Jie’s body dodged while he raised his hand to intercept Feng Hengyi’s fist accurately. However, Feng Hengyi suddenly changed again; his fist swayed like a snake’s head, wrapping around and striking from the side like a hammer.

Before the punch even reached him, his ears buzzed with sound. This style of punching was already perfectly natural; it contained straightness within curves and curves within straightness, neither fully straight nor fully curved.

Su Jie could no longer intercept; all he saw were fists filling the sky, and he could no longer see Feng Hengyi’s body. 

Feng Hengyi had unleashed his true skill, sealing off all of Su Jie’s escape routes and laying down an inescapable net, leaving Su Jie no chance to perish together.

Because under such an attack, all of Feng Hengyi’s vulnerabilities were covered. To kill Su Jie without any cost! This was Su Jie’s last second in life.

Time seemed to stop infinitely. The last remaining bit of “will” in Su Jie’s heart was completely extinguished. He felt as if he were someone jumping from dozens of stories high; he had already died in mid-air, not from the fall itself.

He then felt that he wasn’t dead, an unprecedented clarity washed over him, like someone recalling their entire life in that last second before death—every experience vividly replaying in his mind, even memories from infancy long forgotten were activated from deep within his cerebral cortex.

In an instant, it was a lifetime. 

This was a wonderful psychological state that indeed existed. 

But Su Jie grasped it.

His heart shone brightly. 

Because this was the realm of the “Living Dead.” 

He had finally broken through!