The Way of Restraint

Swish!

Huang Mulan moved again.

Su Jie had suppressed her earlier to make her back down willingly, but she didn’t concede. Moreover, to outside observers, they had merely touched and separated — it was impossible to tell who had won or lost.

But both Huang Mulan and Su Jie knew the truth.

In traditional martial arts circles, Huang Mulan would have already conceded at this point — because in the brief contact, their skill levels had been revealed.

But Huang Mulan had never been steeped in the traditional martial arts virtue of “testing hands” and “discussing techniques.” She believed in fighting until she was knocked out, continuing to fight as long as she wasn’t knocked out.

The moment Su Jie retreated, Huang Mulan seized the opportunity. As he stepped back, she launched a fierce attack.

Her offensive tactics were simple: continuous footwork to lock onto Su Jie’s body, followed by a barrage of punches. Each punch was perfectly balanced and precise, landing exactly at the optimal point of impact.

In truth, the subtlety of punching wasn’t about how much force one could generate — it was about the accuracy of force application at the point of contact.

Even a child’s punch could cause significant damage if it landed on precisely the right spot on a strong adult’s body.

Speed, precision, and force penetration at the point of contact — that was the true essence of martial arts.

Using minimal force to create maximal damage.

Huang Mulan excelled at this. Her control and precision were something unseen in any domestic fighter — even Liu Long’s punching seemed somewhat rough in comparison.

Of course, that wasn’t to say Liu Long couldn’t defeat Huang Mulan. Quite the opposite — if they met in the ring, Liu Long would certainly win. But from a technical standpoint, the refined precision of Huang Mulan’s punching clearly wasn’t something any human coach could have trained.

Su Jie had only seen one person with greater precision than Huang Mulan: Feng Hengyi.

Seizing her opportunity, Huang Mulan exploded with a flurry of straight punches — simple, direct, with echoes of Feng Hengyi’s style. This straight-punch striking method was the most effective offensive technique, bar none. It could only have been derived through advanced AI computation, then drilled into muscle memory through countless repetitions with robotic arm assistance or virtual reality guidance.

Whether in the ring or on the street, this kind of straight punch was sufficient.

Under such circumstances, even top domestic professional fighters would be caught off guard.

Unfortunately for Huang Mulan, the gap between her and Su Jie was simply too vast.

Su Jie extended one hand, cutting directly into her punch sequence, and seized her wrist — preventing her from pulling back.

The moment he seized her wrist, Su Jie’s force penetrated.

Instantly, Huang Mulan was like an electric shock victim — her entire body went numb and immobile.

Su Jie stepped back again, not pressing his attack, and nodded. “Those who come out of Solomo Club are indeed formidable.” He didn’t declare a winner or loser — giving Huang Mulan face, since to outsiders it seemed they had merely touched twice.

After ten seconds, Huang Mulan’s numbness subsided. She shook out her arms and returned to the table.

“What happened?” Xia Yi hadn’t understood.

First Su Jie and Huang Mulan had made contact and separated. Then Huang Mulan attacked, Su Jie blocked, their arms touched — and stopped. The fight was over.

This competition was utterly baffling.

“Forget it. The gap is too wide. Not much point,” Huang Mulan said. After those two exchanges, she understood that if Su Jie wanted to knock her down, it wouldn’t take more than three seconds — and that was a conservative estimate.

“Miss Huang, during your training at Solomo Club, you must have interacted with Mr. Solomo himself. In your opinion, who has better fighting technique — Mr. Solomo or Mr. Su Jie?” Zhang Jinchuan suddenly threw out an earth-shattering question.

Xia Yi, Huang Mulan, and Zhu Qing were all stunned.

By now, Xia Yi had realized that Su Jie was indeed highly skilled — but how could he compare to the world’s greatest fighter, “Solomo”?

“I tested him twice,” Huang Mulan said. “Su Jie, your skill is indeed above mine. But compared to Mr. Solomo, you still fall far short. I admit I’m no match for you, but you cannot compare to Mr. Solomo as the world’s greatest.”

“Jinchuan, this business you want to discuss — is it about this? Are you suggesting Mingxia Sports should find someone to challenge Mr. Solomo? That would easily become a joke. Besides, as the world’s number one champion, unless offered an enormous sum, Mr. Solomo won’t agree to fight. And he has never fixed a match.” Xia Yi seemed to have figured out what Zhang Jinchuan wanted to say.

“I have testing data from Mr. Larry’s lab. People can boast freely, but the data from Larry’s life sciences laboratory cannot be falsified. Mr. Solomo’s various competitions and fitness tests have public records, and Su Jie’s physical tests have also been thoroughly analyzed at Larry’s lab. The conclusions from that analysis — you might find them very surprising, Xia Yi.” Zhang Jinchuan seemed confident.

“What are the conclusions?” Xia Yi asked urgently. Coming from a sports background, she was familiar with data analysis for predicting athlete performance. Though not yet highly accurate, it could still reveal certain things.

“The data conclusions are very optimistic — but it’s a confidential report.” Zhang Jinchuan deliberately left a cliffhanger, not pursuing the topic further for now. “Consider this just an idea — but imagine what would happen if Mingxia Sports produced someone who defeated Solomo in a formal competition?”

“Impossible. Mr. Solomo cannot be defeated. No one can beat him,” Huang Mulan said categorically. “Mr. Su Jie, I don’t mean to underestimate you, but no matter how strong you are, you can’t be a match for Mr. Solomo.”

Su Jie simply smiled and said nothing.

“Let’s not dwell on that,” Zhang Jinchuan said. “I have a few other ideas to discuss today.”

The private kitchen dishes arrived, and Zhang Jinchuan engaged the three in animated conversation. Su Jie merely nodded occasionally without speaking. He understood their discussion but had no desire to interject.

He was now playing the role of an aloof bodyguard. Moreover, he had noticed a problem: as his realm advanced, the number of people he could meaningfully communicate with was dwindling.

If the opportunity arose, he would indeed like to exchange moves with Solomo. But a public fighting match was out of the question — he didn’t want to become known worldwide, nor did he want his data publicized and scrutinized globally. He preferred quiet research, analyzing in the laboratory.

At this moment, he suddenly understood the reasons and psychology behind some true masters who didn’t show themselves in public. For actual combat and skill development, many experts could train with each other in private. Putting it in the ring only restricted movement and wasn’t very helpful for fighting — the only benefit was making money.

“This private kitchen’s food isn’t as authentic as the Nie family’s. I don’t understand why so many people line up for reservations.” Su Jie frowned after tasting a few dishes. He himself was also skilled in cooking, having studied under Nie Shuang, so he was naturally a gourmet.

During the meal, Xia Yi constantly sent and received emails, handling work matters — she couldn’t even eat properly. Su Jie shook his head but didn’t comment; there was no point.

“Perfect timing. In three days, my coach Greenland will secretly come to China to sign various agreements with our sports division, including data sharing and cooperation, and he’ll also help train our sports division’s talent. My father will also attend. How about taking that opportunity to meet?” Xia Yi suggested.

“No problem.” Zhang Jinchuan was delighted.

The meal lasted two hours before Zhang Jinchuan and Su Jie finally left.

After they departed, Xia Yi, Huang Mulan, and Zhu Qing got into a car and immediately began discussing: “Mulan, how strong is this Su Jie, really? Is it true, as Zhang Jinchuan claims, that he has a chance of defeating Solomo?”

“He’s strong, but he cannot defeat Mr. Solomo,” Huang Mulan reiterated.

“But I know Zhang Jinchuan isn’t someone who speaks carelessly. Every move he’s made since entering the scene has been well-calculated,” Xia Yi said, frowning. “And Larry’s technology is far superior to ours. The precision of their data analysis is ten times ours.”

“This is simple. Isn’t Greenland coming in three days? We’ll have plenty of opportunities to assess Su Jie’s strength then,” Zhu Qing said.

“I suppose so,” Xia Yi said. “I also feel this Su Jie is unimpressive. In my mind, he’s no match for Coach Greenland, let alone Mr. Solomo.”

Xia Yi had come out of Greenland Club, ranked second in the world, and held Greenland’s abilities in awe.

“I notice you tend to be soft-handed,” Zhang Jinchuan said to Su Jie on the way back. “You should have been harsher earlier, shown them your power, so they wouldn’t underestimate you. Giving her face won’t earn her gratitude — she’ll just think you’re not that capable.”

“Why be harsh with a woman?” Su Jie laughed. “Let her think what she wants — her opinion isn’t very important.”

“This Huang Mulan now heads Mingxia Sports. Many sports-related matters need to go through her to reach the top. She’s important for business,” Zhang Jinchuan said, shaking his head. “But never mind. In three days, we’ll meet Xia Shang and see Greenland as well. If you can defeat him in private, the situation will be different.”

“I doubt he’ll agree to compete with me,” Su Jie said. He knew that champions of this caliber wouldn’t just compete with anyone casually — unless paid handsomely.

“I’ll arrange that,” Zhang Jinchuan waved his hand. “It won’t be a public event. A private demonstration in front of wealthy businessmen — that’s nothing new.”

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