Chapter 49

Zhang Shi is not without his losses. When sparring with his uncle, he always ends up losing. The person his uncle took him to meet last year could also easily defeat him. But those people are all grandmasters of the Danjin level! In the mind of the young boxing saint, even Feng Kuchan, a veteran grandmaster at the peak of the Huajin level, is not someone he cannot fight!

This mindset has never made him consider those who are only slightly older and more experienced as opponents, let alone peers. The main reason he was interested in Li Pu before was due to the many suspicious points in his cousin Qin Xia'er's recollections.

But when they really started fighting, he found that this young man was even harder to handle than a Huajin-level military man like Chi Fei! In Zhang Shi's view, Li Pu's boxing techniques are clearly immature and lack experience. However, his physical abilities are on par with his own, and his reaction speed is outstanding. His relentless and relentless attacks, to some extent, make up for the flaws and weaknesses in his boxing techniques.

What surprised Zhang Shi even more was the frequency of Li Pu's hidden strength (Anjin) bursts.

Hidden strength is different from manifest strength (Mingjin). It requires mental focus to mobilize the power of the internal organs, with the tendons and bones working together to release the energy. This not only damages the body but also consumes a lot of physical energy. In a typical match, a grandmaster of hidden strength can only use it two or three times before their physical energy is depleted, and they faint. Someone like Chen Yunfeng, who has reached a higher level of hidden strength, can only use it about five times before reaching his physical limit.

But if you calculate, in less than thirty seconds of their fight, the other party has already used hidden strength at least twelve times!

Could this kid have grown up on elixirs? Zhang Shi was puzzled. With his super-strong physique, he would still feel exhausted after using hidden strength twelve times in thirty seconds, needing more time to recover. But this kid, after using hidden strength a dozen times, still seems full of energy, as if he wants to continue at this pace.

Zhang Shi cannot sustain such a dense and fast rhythm of hidden strength bursts like Li Pu. If it weren't for his exceptional natural physique and his entry into the "Vajra Divine Power" realm, where his blood and qi are condensed and his tendons and bones are exceptionally strong, and his superior techniques and strategies, he would have been as exhausted as Chen Yunfeng after a few intense exchanges of hidden strength.

—Hidden strength is a decisive move, not something to be used like a regular attack. Five or six punches with a hidden strength burst mixed in is almost as rare as a critical hit in an RPG game with a 20% chance.

But Li Pu himself also has his own struggles.

"I'm putting in so much effort, and I still can't break his boxing stance? Is this for real!!"

The current Li Pu is no longer holding back like he did with Chen Yunfeng, keeping his strength at 40-50%. He is now fighting seriously!

After mastering hidden strength, Li Pu can steadily unleash 65-70% of his potential without activating the "Ultimate Enhancement Program," comparable to an Olympic champion's state when striving for a gold medal. In this intense battle, he has even pushed himself to 73-74% of his physical potential.

But even so, he still cannot overpower Zhang Shi in terms of strength, and there is a significant gap in martial arts experience and combat techniques. He can only barely match him by using hidden strength more frequently and relying on his beast-like nerve reflexes and combat intuition.

Li Pu can use hidden strength in rapid succession for two reasons: his physical strength is indeed very strong, but more importantly, when he was practicing hidden strength, no one told him about the dangers, so he practiced intensively, aiming to use over a hundred bursts of hidden strength a day.

In fact, with his extreme training method, he would have likely suffered a serious setback in his qi and blood flow and possibly died within a few days of practicing hidden strength. It was only thanks to the "Life Blueprint" and medical maintenance that he managed to turn a move that severely drains physical energy and damages the body into a regular technique used in regular attacks!

However, such high-intensity use of hidden strength still consumes a lot of physical energy. But Li Pu, being young and stubborn, decided to push to see who would give in first.

His hands like steel whips and his punches like thunder, after a few exchanges, Li Pu suddenly used a reverse hand technique, the "Pihua Palm," unleashing hidden strength from the bottom up, striking with a shrimp spring force and a crane whip punch!

This "Divine Whip" technique, in its basic form, is currently Li Pu's strongest single move. This time, he used it with full force, far exceeding the one that almost paralyzed Chen Yunfeng. If it hit the chin, it could likely tear the head off.

"Come on!" Zhang Shi's eyes glowed, as if his blood and qi were so intense they were about to burst out of his body. He twisted his waist and hips, his spine releasing a grinding force, and his right hand, which was holding a fist, suddenly opened, enveloping a powerful momentum like splitting the earth, and intercepted Li Pu's wrist with a downward chop!

In that moment, this "Young Boxing Saint" seemed to transform into an Immovable Vajra, a fierce and wrathful deity! The palm strike had a mystical quality, as if it could subdue demons and monsters.

At first glance, it seemed like he was using the "Grinding Force" technique of the "Great Tombstone Hand," but in reality, it was his decisive move—the Heavenly Buddha Palm! This technique combines external martial arts like the "Eight Vajra Mountain Palm," "Great Tombstone Hand," and "Iron Sand Palm" with the internal palm force of the Northern Shaolin "One Strike Two Disperse," all enhanced by the "Vajra Divine Power" energy method and the "Immovable Vajra Borrowed Form." It is a perfect blend of mind, technique, and body, fierce and powerful.

This time, the collision of their fists and palms was exceptionally intense. Li Pu felt an unprecedented tingling and numbness in his arm, as if his blood and qi were scattered, and his wrist tendons and bones suddenly ached, possibly cracked or dislocated.

Although he had the advantage in the number of hidden strength bursts and was on the offensive, Zhang Shi's boxing stance was extremely stable, and his experience far surpassed Li Pu's. After building up his momentum, he indeed turned the tide with a decisive move.

"Damn..." Li Pu knew it was bad. No wonder Qin Xia'er said Zhang Shi could shatter a hundred-pound granite rock with a single palm. This was the kind of palm force! Not an internal explosion of hidden strength, but an exceptionally fierce and powerful shock force!

In a critical moment, he raised his palm and bent his elbow to defend. Unfortunately, Zhang Shi, now in the lead, changed his move faster.

The "Young Boxing Saint" did not withdraw his palm after using the "Heavenly Buddha Palm" but instead used a soft force, the first time in the fight.

Even the soft force still carried a primal, thunderous power.

—Using the Tai Chi Thunder Frame to execute the "Lead In and Empty" technique!

With a twist and a pull, it was now his turn to disrupt Li Pu's boxing stance. As the saying goes, as long as the boxing stance holds, the fight can continue; once it's broken, all is lost.

Li Pu, of course, did not want his boxing stance to be disrupted, but the "Heavenly Buddha Palm" had temporarily scattered the blood and qi in his arm tendons, making his shoulder slightly numb. In the critical moment, he could not use the "Zongshen Short Force" to counter the "Lead In and Empty" technique.

In just a blink, Li Pu's arm was temporarily restrained, and Zhang Shi, with a pull and a step, moved to Li Pu's blind spot behind him.

The soft and hard techniques were seamlessly integrated! In the moment of close contact, "Heng, Ha!" The sounds of "Heng" and "Ha" exploded like thunder.

The blue bricks under the "Young Boxing Saint" Zhang Shi's feet shattered into a spider web pattern, and the entire hall and building seemed to shake! His shoulder and back muscles bulged with hidden strength, releasing a powerful impact like a high-speed car accelerating to over a hundred miles per hour, using the fierce and powerful "Mountain Lean" technique to ram into Li Pu's back!

"Truly remarkable! At such a young age, to have such skill..." Feng Kuchan praised from the sidelines.

"At eighteen, to reach such a level... I'm almost losing confidence," Chi Fei sighed inwardly.

"Is Li Pu... okay?" Qin Xia'er, however, was not impressed by her cousin's prowess. For some reason, she was more worried about her arch-rival.

Li Pu's body flew through the air, almost hitting the wall before he stumbled to a stop.

If it were a sparring match, this would have already determined the winner. But Zhang Shi narrowed his eyes, inwardly admiring, "Impressive! In such a short moment, he managed to spring away like a spring, neutralizing most of my close-range impact."

"Phew, looks like I made the right choice..." Li Pu flipped back up. In that moment, he could have chosen to clash with his shoulder and back, which he had also trained in hidden strength, or use his shrimp spring body to spring away.

But since their physical strength was about the same, and Zhang Shi had the advantage of the first move, and was skilled in the Eight Extremes Fist, which excels in close-range combat, a direct clash would likely not be beneficial.

Though his martial arts experience might not be extensive, his intuition and nerve reflexes were excellent. Almost simultaneously with Zhang Shi's move, Li Pu's body sprang away like a spring, and he began preparing for a landing in mid-air.

Even so, the hidden strength burst of the "Mountain Lean" still made his blood and qi churn, causing great discomfort.

Li Pu knew that even though he had the advantage in the frequency of hidden strength bursts, his techniques and strategies were still lacking. He had only learned from Aunt Chenxin for a little over two months, and after that, he had been practicing alone and overwhelming beginners. He had very little experience sparring with true experts, and the only one who could be considered a decent opponent was the hidden strength grandmaster Chen Yunfeng. He could not match the "Young Boxing Saint" in terms of practical experience.

As Li Pu sprang away and regained his footing, Zhang Shi, who had taken the lead, his eyes glowing with intense energy, crouched down, his 1.85-meter-tall body shrinking to 1.2 meters, and then lunged at Li Pu with a "Tiger Pounce."

In the eyes of experts like Feng Kuchan, Chi Fei, and Chen Yunfeng, the "Young Boxing Saint" Zhang Shi's lunge made him seem like a fierce, white-striped tiger, charging and attacking with claws and teeth bared! To an outsider like Qin Xia'er, her cousin suddenly exuded an exceptionally terrifying and fierce aura.