22: Chapter 22 Clash in the Secret Realm: Crushing Li Moran

In the center of the basin, besides the cluster of "Millennium Amethyst Hearts," there was actually a "Geocentric Energy Fruit" quietly floating in mid-air. It was entirely crimson, resembling a heart, and was pulsating rhythmically. With every pulse, it emitted a ring of visible energy ripples outward.

This thing was a treasure that every Second-Rank Martial Artist dreamed of; a single fruit could save months of arduous cultivation.

At this moment, this fruit was like a piece of fresh meat thrown into a wolf pack, instantly igniting all the gunpowder in the air.

Li Moran stood in front of the fruit. He did not turn back, only glancing with the corner of his eye at the group led by Wang Pingan that had just arrived.

"Yo."

He spoke, his voice carrying a languid, cat-and-mouse style mockery.

"Isn't this our Shencheng No. 1 High School's big celebrity, Student Wang Pingan?"

"What, are you addicted to picking up trash, that you even want to come over and get a share of the treasures in the secret realm?"

The several team members behind him burst into laughter.

The one named Zhang Yang even took a step forward, pointed at Wang Pingan's nose, and cursed.

"A piece of trash who only climbed up by popping pills, you think you're worthy of fighting for things with our Brother Li?"

"If you're smart, take your people and roll back to where you came from! Otherwise, today we'll make you leave lying down!"

Insult. Naked, unmasked insult.

Su Yue's fiery temper exploded on the spot; her willow-leaf eyebrows stood up, and she was just about to curse back.

But Lin Zhan reached out and stopped her. He looked at Wang Pingan with calm eyes. Wang Pingan also looked at him and nodded.

This was the unspoken understanding between men. Some things must be solved by oneself.

Wang Pingan did not look at the clamoring Zhang Yang; his gaze, from beginning to end, remained fixed on Li Moran.

He smiled. The smile was very faint, even somewhat gentle.

"Li Moran."

He spoke, his voice not loud, but it clearly spread throughout the entire basin.

"Your parents gave you this name, hoping that you would be silent as gold and safe and sound."

"But you just had to insist on being called Li Moran instead of Li Anran."

"Look at yourself, what do you look like now?"

"Last time you failed to spread rumors on the school forum and got slapped in the face in front of the whole school, have you already forgotten the pain so quickly after the scar healed?"

"What, do you think that by changing locations, your little underhanded tricks that can't be brought into the light will suddenly become useful?"

Every word Wang Pingan said was unhurried, as if he were chatting with an old friend.

But every word was like a red-hot iron rod, fiercely stabbing into Li Moran's heart.

The cheating scandal was the biggest stain in Li Moran's life, a scar on his arrogant self-esteem that would never heal.

Now, Wang Pingan was tearing this scar open bloody in front of everyone, and even sprinkling a handful of salt on it.

Li Moran's face changed instantly. That handsome face, which had always maintained elegance and composure, was now distorted by extreme anger, and veins were throbbing on his forehead.

"You're courting death!"

He squeezed these three words out from between his teeth.

Zhang Yang, who was behind him, was best at reading the room. Seeing that Li Moran was truly furious, he immediately wanted to show off.

"Damn it! You ungrateful bastard! Brothers, get him! Cripple him!"

At his command, he and another team member named Fang Lin, both left and right, erupted with blood energy, like two fierce tigers descending the mountain, pouncing toward Wang Pingan.

Lin Zhan, Su Yue, and the others, by unspoken agreement, took a step back. They weren't afraid of trouble. They were leaving the battlefield to Wang Pingan.

They all wanted to see how the real combat ability of this newcomer, who was known for his "technique," actually measured up.

Facing the pincer attack of two martial artists of the same rank, Wang Pingan's expression did not change in the slightest. He didn't even move his feet an inch.

Just as Zhang Yang's powerful and heavy punch was about to slam into his face, he moved.

His body tilted slightly at an extremely strange angle. That heavy punch just grazed his nose, whistling past, and the wind from the fist ruffled his bangs.

So fast! Alarm bells rang in Zhang Yang's heart. He wanted to retract his fist and change tactics, but it was already too late.

Wang Pingan's shoulder, as if equipped with a spring, suddenly sank and slammed into him.

Bang! A muffled sound.

Zhang Yang felt as if he had been hit by a high-speed flying shuttle car; his chest felt stifled, and his whole body flew backward uncontrollably, crashing heavily onto the ground, unable to get up for a long time.

On the other side, the female team member named Fang Lin, her attack was even more tricky, a hand blade thrusting straight at Wang Pingan's ribs.

Wang Pingan didn't even look at her. His left hand, like a butterfly weaving through flowers, moved after her but arrived first, accurately grabbing Fang Lin's wrist.

Then, he gave it a light shake. A burst of subtle force, following Fang Lin's arm, instantly spread throughout her whole body.

Fang Lin only felt her arm go numb, all the strength in her body was drained away, and her whole body went limp and fell forward.

Wang Pingan let go while moving aside. Fang Lin stumbled and fell flat on her face.

It happened in the blink of an eye. Lightning fast. From the moment the two launched their attacks to both losing their combat effectiveness, the whole process took no more than three seconds.

Clean. Neat. It even carried a sense of violent beauty.

The basin went quiet. Lin Zhan's pupils constricted slightly. Su Yue's mouth opened into an "O" shape.

They saw it. What Wang Pingan used was that common, street-level "Federal Military Body Boxing" that everyone knew.

But this set of boxing techniques, which was like radio calisthenics in their hands, became something miraculous when used by Wang Pingan, turning into the most terrifying killing technique!

He wasn't using brute force at all. He was using technique, using experience, using that combat instinct which was like a second nature, to crush his opponents!

Li Moran's expression had become ugly to the extreme. He hadn't expected that his two capable subordinates would be insta-killed by Wang Pingan in a single exchange.

And in such a humiliating way, too.

"Trash!"

He cursed in a low voice, finally no longer hiding it.

Boom!

A burst of blood energy far exceeding that of Zhang Yang and the other, more solid and more violent, erupted from his body! The ground beneath his feet cracked inch by inch.

"Wang Pingan!"

He stared fixedly at Wang Pingan, the resentment in his eyes almost turning into substance.

"Today, I'll let you see what a true genius is!"

"I'm going to tear your mouth apart! I'm going to break every single one of your bones, inch by inch!"

Before the words even fell, his figure had already turned into an afterimage, shooting toward Wang Pingan.

He was practicing the Li family's heirloom martial art, the "Gale Blade Technique."

Although he had no blade in his hand at the moment, his five fingers were clenched together, still bringing out a sharp whistling sound through the air, extremely fierce.

Facing Li Moran's furious attack, Wang Pingan's eyes finally became serious. He no longer held back.

The blood energy in his body erupted fully, without reservation! Peak of the Early Second-Rank!

An aura more heavy and more condensed than Li Moran's soared into the sky from his body!

"What?!"

Li Moran's pupils constricted violently. He could feel it. Wang Pingan's blood energy intensity was actually... actually a notch stronger than his own!

How is this possible?! Didn't he just break through to the Second-Rank? What on earth has he been doing this past month?!

But he didn't have time to think. Because Wang Pingan's fist had already arrived. He didn't use any fancy martial arts. It was just a simple, straight punch.

A return to simplicity, "Federal Military Body Boxing," condensed with all the power of his peak Early Second-Rank strength.

The fist hadn't arrived, but the wind came first. Li Moran felt that the air in front of him had been sucked dry by this punch; a terrifying pressure made it difficult for him to even breathe.

He wanted to dodge. But he discovered that all his paths of retreat had been locked down by this punch. He could only watch helplessly as that fist grew larger and larger in his pupils.

"No!"

He let out an unwilling roar, pouring all the blood energy in his body into his palm, and met it head-on.

Fist and palm. In mid-air, they collided with a boom. There was no earth-shattering loud noise. There was only a muffled "bang" that made one's heart feel stifled.

The next second. Li Moran, like a sandbag hit head-on by a battering ram, flew backward violently.

In mid-air, he spat out a mouthful of blood. That blood, under the dim yellow sky, traced a miserable arc. Finally, he slammed heavily onto the Gobi desert more than ten meters away, kicking up a cloud of dust.

The whole scene was dead silent. Everyone stared blankly at this scene, their minds blank.

One punch. Just one punch. That arrogant Li Moran, hailed as a genius, had been crushed head-on by Wang Pingan in the most brutal and unreasonable way.

The dust settled. Li Moran struggled to get up from the ground. One of his arms was twisted at a strange angle, clearly broken.

His hair was disheveled, blood hung from the corner of his mouth, and he looked utterly wretched.

He didn't look at anyone else, just stared fixedly at Wang Pingan, his eyes filled with shock, confusion, and a hint of... fear.

He couldn't understand. He really couldn't understand. Why was Wang Pingan's strength so strong?

Why was the power contained in that punch so solid and so pure?

He felt that Wang Pingan's martial arts, and his control over power, had both improved by more than one level compared to the monthly exam.

This guy must have a secret! There must be a huge secret!

... Meanwhile. In the central control room of the elite base. Instructor Chen Feng was watching the frozen scene on the real-time monitoring screen, speechless for a long time.

For the first time, an expression of shock appeared on his face. "Good kid..."

After a long while, he squeezed these words out from between his teeth. "This condensed strength, this grasp of combat opportunity... He has already touched the threshold of the Middle Second-Rank."

"Li Moran, his loss is not unjust."

He picked up the communicator and connected to the second team's channel.

"Second team, Li Moran, Zhang Yang, Fang Lin, malicious provocation, initiating attacks, 500 points deducted as a warning."

"If there is a next time, it will be directly judged as a failure in the assessment."

His voice was cold and devoid of any emotion.

In the basin. Wang Pingan withdrew his fist, not even looking at the "Geocentric Energy Fruit" on the ground that was still emitting alluring energy.

He walked to Lin Zhan and said calmly, "You guys split the items." "The points are yours too." "I only want his share."

He pointed to the distance, to Li Moran, who was being helped up by his teammates with a resentful look in his eyes.

Lin Zhan looked at him deeply and nodded. "Sure."

In the end, this secret realm battle ended with an overwhelming victory for the first team. Wang Pingan's name was high on the individual leaderboard, second only to Lin Zhan, who had been frantically harvesting points from beginning to end.

His performance once again attracted everyone's attention.

After the secret realm ended, on the way back to the base, Wang Pingan walked at the very back of the team. He quietly converted all the energy fruits and spirit crystals he had been allocated into pay-to-win points in a corner where no one noticed.

[pay-to-win points: 2350]

Looking at this number, Wang Pingan's heart was completely calm.

He knew that Li Moran's revenge would definitely not end here. On the contrary. Today's punch had likely completely ignited the flame named "suspicion" in that guy's heart. A more violent, and more hidden storm, was likely brewing.