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Chapter 73: A Fist That Knows Martial Arts
It didn’t seem too appropriate to describe the thing at the end of his vision as a fist.
That’s because it was too huge.
It was literally as huge as the blacksmith Tan Xiong’s steel hammer.
Plus, since the torch wasn’t bright enough, he couldn’t see what was behind the fist for now. Was it a person? A mechanic beast? Or something even more terrifying?
Yue Qiang was fully on guard as he stared closely at the direction it came from.
The fist approached very swiftly. Under the torch’s illumination, its full appearance was revealed.
It really was just a fist!
There were neither tall mechanic person nor terrifying mechanic beast. There was only a single feast!
The back of the beast was a thick wooden pillar connected to a four wheeled vehicle. The four wheeled vehicle’s body and wheels were all made of wood, and it travelled very steadily in this narrow and winding passage. It swiftly approached Yue Qiang while fetching the fist.
He did not see anyone who’s driving the vehicle, nor did he know why the vehicle could even move, not to mention its speed.
It was obvious that this thing wasn’t friendly though.
The super large wooden fist approached them with incredible speed before launching a fist directly at Yue Qiang.
Now that it was closer, naturally they got a better view of it. The wooden pillar connected to the fist was not a whole object, but rather one that had many well made joints. Its joints were performing a complex activity, causing the fist at the front to launch a simple but severe attack.
The four wheeled wooden vehicle moved extremely quickly, and the super large fist moved extremely quickly as well. Together, they drew an oppressive wind and charged right at Yue Qiang.
When Yue Qiang had discovered the fist on this four wheeled wooden vehicle, he had already been fully on guard. Although the fist was coming at him quickly, its direction was fixed, so it wasn’t hard to dodge out of the way. Originally, he planned to sidestep the attack calmly, but to his surprise the wooden fist’s trajectory changed again in mid-charge!
This change completely exceeded his expectations!
The four wheeled vehicle travelled swiftly along the narrow corridor. The wooden joints of the vehicle creaked constantly, and Yue Qiang could hear its gears turning and its levers changing. As the noise sounded, the fist’s trajectory also changed and became elusive.
It was as if it had transformed into an actual human fist!
That wasn’t all. Yue Qiang discovered in alarm that he was very familiar with the fist’s trajectory.
This trajectory was the beginning motions of the ultimate skill he relied upon, ‘Killing Style, One’!
What was different was that Yue Qiang had controlled the skill ‘Killing Style, One’ through the affection of his muscles. He even took nearly three months to get used to the movement. Meanwhile, the sudden, incoming fist used wooden joints to spur the fist’s activity, and wooden gears and levers to adjust its direction.
The principle of action might be different, but the form of the fist style was nearly the same.
His own ‘Killing Style, One’ had been processed and evolved by his heart skill ‘Pure Heart’ into ‘Break Fist – Killing Style, One’. Although its power was increased tremendously, there were still flaws in his skill. Meanwhile, the wooden fist in front of him might have been driven by inanimate objects, but it was even more powerful than his evolved ‘Break Fist – Killing Style, One’!
For an instant, Yue Qiang could only see afterimages of the fist all over his screen!
His skill was to punch out from one of the sixty four directions he was provided with, whereas this wooden fist actually covered every sixty four directions at once!
This was a mechanic fist that knew martial skills!
It was also obviously higher level than the martial skill he learned.
The fist had enveloped his entire body, and it was probably impossible for him to dodge out of the way.
Yue Qiang knew that his life or death would be decided in an instant. He locked onto his chance, took a step forwards and jabbed with his iron rod.
His step and jab were not performed without consideration.
The fist might be coming at him quickly, but it was ultimately just a fist and not a blade. If it was a blade that cut into his vitals, it could probably deal a ‘Wound Damage’ and instakill him, or cut off his limbs. However, it was ultimately just a fist, and a wooden one no less. At best it would send him flying and cause internal damage. In a game, even internal damage was just the equivalent of losing HP. As long as it didn’t kill him instantly, he would be able to recover slowly through ‘Cockroach’. Anything could happen after that!
When he controlled his character to make a step, he wasn’t stepping on the fist but the four wheeled vehicle that was driving the fist.
The fist was coming at him too quickly, and he couldn’t avoid it. He didn’t plan to anyway. The huge fist slammed solidly into his chest. At the same time, Yue Qiang’s foot also stepped onto the car and bought him a cushion. He was immediately sent flying by the fist and lost more than half of his HP. However, he wasn’t killed instantly, so there was no doubt that this one step had dispelled quite a bit of force from the attack.
Before Yue Qiang flew backwards, he had also made another movement. It was a jab!
The jab’s angle was extremely tricky.
His aim wasn’t the big fist, but the joints controlling its movements behind.
The fist was obviously tough and durable at first glance, and there was no way there would be any effect had he jabbed it with the iron rod. On the other hand, the joints must have been precisely made to be able to control the fist to come up with such a complex movement.
Things that were precise were normally very fragile as well.
This jab was also one of Yue Qiang’s gamble. Just like how a human’s joints were easily injured, if the fist could be made to move in such a complicated manner, and its gears and levers were completely wooden made, then the complexity of its internal mechanisms must have exceeded one’s imagination. He couldn’t deal with the fist, but he could at least try to damage the joints at the back, right?
That was what Yue Qiang thought. That was also what Yue Qiang did.
The instant he was sent flying by the fist, he aimed at a crooked area of the wooden joint and jabbed his iron rod at it fiercely.
I jab!
The fist that smashed into his chest took more than half of his HP. However, it also gave him an excessive amount of Rage, and when he jabbed at the joint he also injected all of his Rage into it.
Yue Qiang’s current movement could be said to have exceeded the limits of his reaction. In reality, he wasn’t able to do anything else before flying backwards in a flashy fashion and slamming into a wall. There was a huge sound of impact, and the second impact damage instantly dropped his HP from full to a sliver!
But it was fine as long as he didn’t die!
While his character was sent flying by the wooden fist, it didn’t stop him from examining this mechanism.
The jab with the iron rod had obviously caused a huge effect.
After the mechanism had sent Yue Qiang flying, it instantly lost its earlier agility. While it moved as fast as it was before, it now travelled shudderingly and randomly like a headless fly straight into the corridor’s walls. After a loud crashing sound, the vehicle utterly broke apart!
The entire battle did not last more than three seconds, but Yue Qiang felt as if he had gone through an entire day.
If any one of his movements were out of position, if he hadn’t taken that step, he might’ve been killed instantly instead of left with a sliver of HP. Supposed that he had jabbed the iron rod into the wrong place and did not hit the joints, then the vehicle driving the fist might continue to charge at him and follow up with a second punch.
This game… It had been several times already that these battles were all or nothing, life or death. This was totally different from throwing fireballs at each other before chugging pots to recover oneself.
The question came after the thrilling dismantling of the wooden fist.
How on earth was this wooden mechanism controlled?
Also, this thing was just a fist. No matter how elaborate it was, how could it possibly know a fist style?
The key was that this fist style was none other than the ‘Killing Style, One’ he had learned in the real world. Moreover, he had learned this fist style from that mysterious woman, who was also supposedly at the end of this passage.
Yue Qiang did not move while he was pondering these problems. He was severely injured, so it was somewhat difficult to move swiftly.
It was at this moment there was the sharp sound of something breaking through the air!
The sound was incredibly sharp, and it had sounded almost exactly the same time when the wooden four wheeled vehicle had crashed. The sound grew from soft to loud.
Yue Qiang’s barely calmed heart rose to his throat again.
He had heard this kind of noise twice in the game.
The first time, it was when when the Zhao Sergeant was killed at Yue Village. The second time happened inside a cutscene.
The source of both these two noises were Gongshu Shaoyang’s giant crossbow!
The first two times, the giant crossbow was aimed at his enemies. But this time, it was aimed at no one but himself!
He knew very well how powerful the giant crossbow was. Even if he was in perfect condition, even if he was to use every skill in his arsenal, he would absolutely not be able to dodge it, not to mention the terrible state he was in now.
He stared closely at the screen. As the air howled, he felt like he could see the tip of the giant crossbow bolt carrying death right towards his body. There was no longer anywhere he could hide from it.
It was at this moment Yin moved beside him.
She had opened her eyes!
