The forest was muddy after the rain.
Liu Hai stood in the forest with his shield and saber on his back while wearing black light armor. He said in the team chat, “All of you are free to act as you please.”
“Yes, Captain.”
“Let these youngsters know that we aren’t to be trifled with.”
Zhou Fan, Xu Hong, Dai Tongda, and Tian Yiqu had good teamwork. It had always been the four of them working together during the Firestarter Cup. If they finished their opponents in combat, Captain Liu Hai wouldn’t have to make a move; otherwise, Liu Hai would wrap it up.
Xu Jingming proceeded forward on the mountainside and immediately saw his master standing in the forest in the distance. The tall Liu Hai was wearing armor, a show of respect toward Xu Jingming’s team.
Whoosh.
Xu Jingming immediately swooped down and headed straight for his master.
“Master is at Point A. Everyone, stay away,” Xu Jingming said in the team chat. “I’ll keep an eye on Master.”
“Alright, let’s deal with the others first.” Wang Yi immediately led her other teammates into action.
In the forest.
Xu Jingming faced his master, Liu Hai, in the distance.
“The virtual world’s scenery isn’t bad, right?” Liu Hai smiled at his disciple, sending out a private conversation that couldn’t be heard in the livestream. He then looked at the surrounding forest and reached out to pluck a leaf.
He sniffed it and said, “The smell of the forest after the rain; this is a kind of smell that can only be found in an old forest. A city park in reality is just different. It’s all superficial, but the vibes this place gives feels deeper and more distant.”
Xu Jingming also saw water droplets on the trees and grass.
“Life isn’t just about martial arts. You have to know how to relax and watch the world.” Liu Hai took in everything. “Everything in the world has something in common with martial arts.”
As they spoke, Wang Yi and the others were fighting Xu Hong, Dai Tongda, and the others.
Wang Yi had reached Lv. 3 after all, so she didn’t attack ruthlessly. She allowed the older generation to unleash their full strength.
The two captains—Xu Jingming and Liu Hai—faced each other from afar.
“Yes, everything in the world is connected to martial arts,” Xu Jingming nodded and said. He was also speaking privately.
Liu Hai continued, “It’s like a leaf. There are times when it’s tough, but there are also times when it withers. When it’s weak, a child can tear it apart, but when it’s sharp, a leaf can also stab into a tree.” Liu Hai held the leaf between his fingers and swung it.
Half of the leaf stabbed into the tree.
Xu Jingming was secretly surprised.
“Everything has two sides to it—Yin and Yang. It’s the same for martial arts. Hardness all the time is unsustainable, but dignity is lost with softness. The correct way is to have hardness and softness work together and Yin and Yang combined as one.” Liu Hai looked at his disciple.
“The principle of everything…” Xu Jingming said. “It can be called physics!”
“All martial arts can also be considered physics.” Xu Jingming looked at his master. “How fast and how much strength does a strike have? How long does it take to gather the force? How long is the opponent’s reaction time? A move of mine—from gathering force to piercing the enemy’s throat is faster than the opponent’s reaction speed. The other party naturally doesn’t have the time to dodge.
“What’s the distance between the other party and me? The distance of my advancement, the length advantage of my weapon… All of this can naturally be done. I can kill the enemy, but the enemy can’t touch me.
“When the body exerts force, some muscle groups exert the force. There’s also the trick of using levers to deliver the force. The strength of an ordinary person’s punch can be several times greater than that of a professional expert because they have mastered the technique,” Xu Jingming said. “These are all physics.”
Xu Jingming looked around. “Everything—in the growth of trees, leaves absorb the light and the side facing the sun grows better. The ground is hard, but it becomes muddy when water seeps in. When the water dries up, it becomes hard again… Everything has logic—a scientific logic, and it’s not mysterious. It’s the same for all things, and it’s the same for martial arts!
“It’s said that hardness all the time is unsustainable, but the sun can keep releasing its energy,” Xu Jingming said. “Traditional martial arts concepts also need to be studied at the source. Not everything our predecessors say is right.”
Liu Hai smiled and said, “My dear disciple, science has its limits. There’s only so much they can understand now, and the summarized laws of all things might exceed the boundaries of scientific exploration.”
The battle elsewhere continued.
One team member after another collapsed.
“Some of the summarized laws are right, but some are even wrong,” Xu Jingming said. “This is because the ancients didn’t grasp the essence. They wished to do so, but their technologies were lacking back then.”
“Science is getting more and more advanced these days, do you see that? Even the virtual world has appeared, and everything you think is 100% virtualized in front of you,” Xu Jingming said. “Having a pair of eyes that observe physics and exploring the essence of martial arts allows one to go further in martial arts.”
Pu! Pu!
After Yang Qingshuo and Heng Fang died in succession, Wang Yi finally turned ruthless.
One arrow after another.
Xu Hong—who held two shields—finally collapsed. As the last arrow penetrated Zhou Fan’s body, the other four members of Liu Hai’s Elderly Team were wiped out.
“In Taiji, Yin Yang is a combination that encompasses everything,” Liu Hai said. “Everything can be absorbed, but it still has a foundation. Taiji’s Yin Yang is the foundation, and many moves can be unified and used by me.”
“All martial arts conform to physics. Science is infinite, and physics is infinite,” Xu Jingming said. “There are also infinite possibilities for martial arts.”
Liu Hai smiled. “Very good. You dare to insist on your beliefs in front of me.”
“Master, your martial arts achievements far exceed mine,” Xu Jingming said. “But the moment I understood that my body was like fire, I realized… that I had to follow my own ideals. What I figured out is mine. What others teach is ultimately something grasped by others.”
“What you figured out is yours?” Liu Hai nodded slightly, and his smile turned brighter. “Then, let me see how much you’ve grown.”
As he spoke, he picked up two rocks on the ground.
A sudden toss!
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Liu Hai threw out two rocks in succession with his left and right hand. These two rocks were like cannonballs that instantly streaked across the sky.
Xu Jingming was dumbfounded as he said into the team chat, “Be careful!”
He didn’t even have the time to say anything else because it was too fast.
Whoosh.
In China’s official livestream, one couldn’t hear the conversation between the master and disciple. They only saw the duo chatting while the other four members of the two teams fought until the end.
Suddenly, Liu Hai picked up two rocks that were about the size of his palm and flung them out.
In the livestream, the virtual world naturally labeled the maximum speed of the two rocks flying at high speeds.
723 meters per second! 718 meters per second!
These were the maximum speeds of each stone. This number made the expressions of every insider change.
Lei Yunfang, Zhang Qing, Zhou Yi, Fang Yu, and the others trembled in surprise when they saw the number.
“How can it be so fast?”
The Earth Alliance’s envoy delegation attending China’s Firestarter Cup did so firstly out of courtesy and secondly to take a look at the strength of the top experts in China. However, the stones Liu Hai had thrown left them in disbelief.
“These are only two rocks he casually picked up. How can they match the speed of a Lv. 3 sharpshooter?”
“A rock is much heavier than an arrow.”
“How strong is this Liu Hai?”
All the envoys trembled. The stone that Liu Hai threw was like a cannonball in reality—it exceeded 700 meters per second. This speed left the other Lv. 3 experts in despair.
It had to be known that Xu Jingming was dumbfounded when Fang Yu’s short halberd reached 400 meters per second. This was considered a very powerful throwing weapon among Advanced experts.
But compared to Liu Hai, there was a huge gap!
“Is there such a huge difference between an ordinary Lv. 3 expert and the world champion?” The envoys from the Earth Alliance were originally very confident in their country’s experts, but when they saw the speed at which these two cannonball-like rocks traveled, they panicked.
…
In the forest.
“What?” Wang Yi and Liu Chongyuan turned their heads when Xu Jingming reminded them, but the rocks were too fast!
When she turned her head and saw the two cannonball-like rocks, Wang Yi barely had time to move a step. The rocks pierced through her chest, and a shockwave tore through the air. A terrifying wind crashed into her robe, causing it to split open and leave scars on her soft armor.
Liu Chongyuan’s reaction was a little slow. The rock penetrated his head, and his entire body turned ethereal and disappeared.
This stone gave Wang Yi lingering fear as she looked at the distant Liu Hai in shock.
The entire forest map only covered a thousand meters, and Liu Hai was in the middle of the forest. Wang Yi and the others were more than 300 meters from him—a sufficiently far distance. However, she was almost killed by a rock.
“Alright.” Liu Hai drew the saber from behind him and held it in one hand. He looked at Xu Jingming and then at Wang Yi in the distance. “There’s only the two of you left..”