Chapter 43: Fierce Battle

Zhang Ji was taken aback.

Although he was aware that this world possessed relatively advanced weapon technology, experiencing it firsthand still caught him slightly off guard.

Had that recent attack landed directly on him, even with his Iron Body Skill perfected to its peak, he reckoned he would have been in for a rough time.

This highlighted his glaring weakness: his spiritual power was too feeble, and his perception was insufficiently sharp. Li Long had been able to anticipate the enemy's assault before it was even launched, whereas Zhang Ji had failed to detect it even when the danger was already dangerously close.

"Watch yourself," Li Long cautioned Zhang Ji.

As his voice faded, both he and Wang Quan abruptly vanished from Zhang Ji's line of sight.

The next moment, they were already engaged in combat with the adversaries lurking within the pitch-black space.

Though somewhat slower in his movements, Zhang Ji had no intention of retreating; instead, he strode forward to join the fray.

Two figures flew backward one after the other—those were two armored combatants who had been swatted away, though the people inside were none the worse for wear. Li Long's sole objective had been to beat them back and create some breathing room.

Immediately afterward, Li Long pursued them, taking on the two opponents single-handedly.

Of the remaining two enemies, one squared off against Wang Quan, while the other took aim at Zhang Ji, preparing to fire another cannon blast.

This time, however, having received a prior warning, Zhang Ji managed to evade the attack beforehand.

"Boom!"

The ground behind Zhang Ji was scorched completely black by the blast.

Their opponent was not a professional martial artist, and his reaction time left a great deal to be desired. Without a connection to the big data network and relying solely on the computational power of the armor's internal chip, attempting to hit a martial artist like Zhang Ji—who possessed a certain level of spiritual cultivation—at this distance was nothing short of a daydream.

"Bang!"

Before the enemy could unleash another shot, Zhang Ji's fist had already connected with the chest plate.

The feedback of force was subtle; Zhang Ji felt as though his strength was being dispersed in all directions by the armor. Surprisingly, the structural design of this enemy armor shared an uncanny resemblance to his own Iron Body Skill.

Indeed, the underlying principles were always similar, differing only in their methods of expression!

"Whoosh!"

Zhang Ji abruptly lowered his head to dodge.

A slender, pitch-black blade measuring roughly a meter and a half swept right across the top of his head.

There was something wrong with that blade. The moment it appeared, Zhang Ji felt his hair stand on end. Under normal circumstances, he wouldn't have reacted this way even if he thrust his bare hand into a household mini-cutter.

"Swoosh, swoosh!"

The enemy slashed the blade outward again. Unwilling to meet it head-on, Zhang Ji had no choice but to evade.

He retreated to the wall, yet the enemy's blade swept forward regardless.

Zhang Ji had expected it to get stuck, but it met no apparent resistance; half the blade sank straight into the wall as if it were slicing through tofu.

As a fine dust drifted downward, Zhang Ji made a sharp observation.

"High-frequency weapons?"

Were they already being fielded in actual combat this early on?

This was significantly sooner than he had anticipated. Previously, he had assumed such devices were only invented after the War of the Holy Kings, as a result of the encouragement toward martial arts development. Military technology truly outpaced civilian tech by an enormous margin.

"Whoosh!"

Another slash came whistling toward him.

This time, Zhang Ji spread his arms and suddenly leaned backward at an angle of nearly thirty degrees to dodge the attack. Then, lightly brushing his fingers and palms against the ground, he rolled and maneuvered around to the enemy's flank.

Crane Form!

White Crane Sweeps Its Wings!

Regaining his momentum with a swift recovery, Zhang Ji thrust out both palms, striking forcefully against the enemy's wrists.

"Clang!"

The opponent wasn't injured, but his wrists involuntarily twisted, disrupting his ability to launch a follow-up attack.

Tiger Form!

Tiger Strikes the Wrist!

Closing in instantly, Zhang Ji unleashed a flurry of punches against the enemy's bodily joints, denying him any opportunity to muster force—especially targeting the neck and head. Just as the adversary attempted to counterattack, Zhang Ji drove his elbow upward against the opponent's neck, forcing him back several steps.

Leopard Form!

Leopard Consecutive Punches, Leopard Elbow to the Throat!

The man slammed back against the wall, his movements turning somewhat sluggish. Clearly, he had never imagined he would be suppressed and beaten down by Zhang Ji in this fashion.

He lashed out with a fierce kick; amplified by the armor, the blow possessed enough destructive power to shatter a massive boulder.

Lightly gliding on his feet, Zhang Ji gently brushed his arms against the incoming leg, then utilized the rotational momentum to hurl the man a dozen meters away.

Snake Form!

Snake's Reversal!

Landing on the ground, the man shook his head slightly before attempting to scramble back to his feet.

However, before he could fully rise, a concussive explosion echoed through the air.

"Hum! Slap! Bang!"

Zhang Ji's charged kick landed squarely on the man's head. Even with the armor's protection, his brain rang with a dull roar.

Iron Body, Charged Up!

Dragon Form, Unified Force!

The immense power exceeded what the armor could absorb.

He was sent sliding backward from the blow, but pressing his advantage, Zhang Ji followed up with two more kicks.

In moments, the armor ceased to move, the region struck by Zhang Ji deeply caved inward, and the adversary's brain was likely reduced to a pulp.

Zhang Ji turned around; both Wang Quan and Li Long were still fighting, and both held the upper hand.

He never would have guessed that he would be the first to conclude his battle.

On second thought, though, it made sense. Although Wang Quan was a Leopard Form grandmaster who also practiced Snake Form, his raw power lacked the comprehensive integration of Zhang Ji's Iron Body and Dragon Form unified force. Meanwhile, Li Long was fighting two opponents simultaneously, and since their attacks dealt heavy damage, he had to prioritize evasion before launching offenses. Without unleashing his ultimate moves, it was naturally a bit more troublesome for him.

Just as Zhang Ji intended to go over and lend a hand, Li Long parried an oncoming opponent with a palm strike and called out, "There's one more! Go after him first, we'll be right there."

Hearing this, Zhang Ji turned on his heel, dashed forward, and gave chase.

Noticing Zhang Ji's pursuit, one of the combatants fighting Li Long raised his arm, preparing to fire upon Zhang Ji. But Li Long suddenly flashed forward, executing a close-quarters tiger tackle that sent the man flying through the air.

...

This corridor was quite long; calculating the distance, Zhang Ji estimated it to be roughly five kilometers. Since it was a straight path, however, it was unclear where it led.

Before long, Zhang Ji spotted light ahead and walked toward it.

There stood a gateway that had already been forced open.

Beyond the gateway lay a platform.

The platform housing the lighthouse.

Zhang Ji stepped onto the platform. A sea breeze buffeted him, and seawater surrounded him on all sides, the distant silhouette of Shanli Island faintly visible in the horizon.

Suddenly, he raised his head to look up at the towering lighthouse.

At the very peak of the lighthouse, a man clad in silver-white exoskeleton armor stood overlooking him.

Song Yuan had anticipated that his subordinates might fail to block these grandmasters, but he had never expected Zhang Ji to arrive with such speed.

Unfortunately, they were executing a covert operation this time, rendering them unable to draw upon core computational assistance. In terms of weaponry, they possessed only a single hand cannon and a high-frequency oscillating blade, with everything else serving merely as auxiliary tools. Otherwise, it wouldn't have been so easy for these grandmasters to triumph.

"Boom!"

Song Yuan's cannon shot missed its mark.

By then, Zhang Ji had already sprinted up the stairs inside the lighthouse.

At the summit of the fifty-meter-high lighthouse, Zhang Ji and Song Yuan stood facing each other.

The space was far from spacious, enclosed by alloy railings, resembling a scaled-down fighting ring.

With a flick of Song Yuan's wrist, a pitch-long blade extended from his right arm.

Though not a grandmaster, he was nonetheless a professional tier-six martial artist.

Supplemented by this set of equipment, a duel against a grandmaster was one he wasn't guaranteed to lose.

Zhang Ji's gaze lingered for a fraction of a second on the lamp housing of the lighthouse, where a small cultivation chamber sat. Inside rested a purplish-black heart bristling with tubes, still pulsing with life.

Instantly, Zhang Ji surmised that this must be the enemy's true objective.

"Whoosh!"

Before Zhang Ji could ponder further, the opponent lunged forward with his blade.

The angle of the slash was fiercely tricky, and Zhang Ji only managed to dodge the attack by a hair's breadth.

His heart tightened—a true expert!

The next instant, a continuous barrage of strikes followed in quick succession.

Zhang Ji dodged with a sense of disarray; the confined space left him feeling unable to fully defend against the enemy's onslaught, causing him to shrink back slightly.

A chasm had always existed between armed combat and bare-handed fighting.

Humanity was naturally suited for wielding weapons; it was an innate talent.

Only above B-rank could this chasm be slightly bridged.

Only upon reaching A-rank could this chasm be essentially ignored.

Prior to that, fighting a weapon with bare hands would almost always put one at a disadvantage.

Yet Zhang Ji's martial arts system had already solidified, and he genuinely struggled to find any suitable weapon.

If given an alloy saber, he would likely find it less satisfying than his own fists, and it might even act as an impediment to his movements.

"Slash!"

Failing to dodge in time, Zhang Ji felt his back lightly grazed.

For once, the enemy's high-frequency oscillating blade met with resistance, its motion slowing for a fraction of a second as though cutting through solid alloy.

A fresh bloody gash appeared across Zhang Ji's back.

The moment the wound formed, the muscles contracted, directly halting any further bleeding.

Zhang Ji lashed out with a kick, forcing the opponent to stumble back a few steps until he collided with the railing, producing a resounding metallic clang.

Maintaining a certain distance between them, Zhang Ji reached out to touch his back, drew a deep breath, abandoned the idea of stalling for time until reinforcements arrived, and prepared to face the terror head-on!

"Crack—Boom!"

A dull impact erupted beneath Zhang Ji's feet, and his body launched forward like a coiled spring. Song Yuan swung his blade to meet him, and Zhang Ji threw both arms forward to intercept.

The two forces met head-on.

The next moment, the blade made contact with Zhang Ji's palms.

Zhang Ji vividly felt the power of the high-frequency vibration.

His skin was torn apart, and the underlying muscles struggled to withstand it.

Even so, to rip him apart would still take a moment.

That brief window of time was more than enough for him to unleash his strength!

"Hum! Clang!"

Using his left palm as a sacrifice, Zhang Ji shoved the blade violently aside, dragging Song Yuan's right arm backward in the process.

Song Yuan was startled by the sheer force of the blow, but before he could dwell on it, Zhang Ji's fully charged strike, empowered by unified force, landed squarely against him.

"Boom! Clang! Crack!"

The alloy railing was shattered by Song Yuan's impact, sending his body flying outward.

Mid-air, the thruster units behind him spewed blue plasma flames, barely stabilizing his trajectory.

Although he had equipped a flight module, it was merely a civilian, semi-defective prototype that would burn out in less than ten minutes. Hence, he avoided using it unless necessary, only activating it briefly during emergencies.

At this juncture, however, he had been driven into a corner where he had no other choice.

On the palm of Zhang Ji's left hand, a bone-deep wound was rapidly knitting shut thanks to his muscles contracting. Fortunately, his bones were tough enough; otherwise, that single slash would have severed his hand entirely.

Song Yuan raised his arm to take aim at Zhang Ji, a blinding light welling within his hand cannon.

Zhang Ji's expression shifted, and he immediately darted aside to evade.

"Boom!"

The spot where he had just stood was melted by intense heat, and the blast completely destroyed the staircase he had intended to use for his return.

Song Yuan fired a second cannon blast, forcing Zhang Ji to dodge once more.

Zhang Ji wore an unsightly expression. Wasn't this damn thing treating him like a living target?

Turning his head, he spotted the heart inside the lamp housing, smashed the glass cover without hesitation, and scooped the object up into his arms.

Sure enough, Song Yuan hesitated.

Yet an instant later, he raised his aim once more and fired directly.

Zhang Ji's expression changed, and he cursed, "Damn it!"

He hadn't expected this fellow to be such a ruthless bastard, willing to kill him even if the mission failed.

Without a second thought, Zhang Ji dropped the heart, leaped straight off the lighthouse, and plunged toward the sea.

"Splash!"

Plunging into the ocean from a height of fifty meters, Zhang Ji's body absorbed the immense shock of impact.

Song Yuan flew toward the location of the heart and hurriedly caught it.

He had merely pretended not to care; in reality, he cared far more than Zhang Ji did. He was gambling, and he had won.

The next moment, he searched the waters below for Zhang Ji's whereabouts.

No figure was to be seen.

Simultaneously, a vast expanse of seawater in the vicinity began to churn inexplicably.

"Bubble, bubble, bubble..."

"Boom!"

A towering geyser erupted from the ocean, slamming into Song Yuan—or more precisely, smashing directly into his thrusters.

His thrusters were instantly extinguished, and he plummeted from the sky, crashing straight into the sea.

The next moment, he felt his head wrenched around by a tremendous force that surpassed the structural limits of his armor.

"Creak! Crack!"

Song Yuan sank into the depths of the ocean, his hands still tightly clutching the small cultivation chamber.

Effortlessly, however, Zhang Ji pried his fingers apart and reclaimed the object.

With a swirl of the currents, Zhang Ji leaped out of the water and landed briskly back upon the stone platform of the lighthouse.

Looking back at the surrounding expanse of the sea, he muttered to himself, "The home-turf [Mystic Heart Flow] technique is truly overpowered. Just two essence points brought it close to matching the effect of other perfected exquisite martial arts!"