50: Chapter 50: Two Fingers Teach You How to Be a Person

Dongfang Shuo tensed every muscle in his body. The sand beneath his feet swirled, caught in the draft of the aura radiating from him. The surrounding air felt stiflingly heavy. Ordinary people like Director Zhao Lixin and Chief Engineer Wang Jianguo felt a tightness in their chests from a distance, their breathing becoming uneven.

"Is... is he even human?" Chief Engineer Wang Jianguo couldn't help but mutter in a low voice to Chief Engineer Wang Heshan beside him. Having worked in engineering his whole life, he had seen strong workers who could shoulder two bags of cement at once. But the power radiating from this young man wasn't something that could be explained by mere physical strength. It was a presence that could make one's legs go weak with fear.

Chief Engineer Wang Heshan remained silent, his brow furrowed into a deep knot. He didn't understand anything about internal force, but he could see that this kid was incredibly uncanny—he was nothing like the top-tier Soldier Kings on the battlefield. That power was a pure, destructive force capable of tearing a person apart alive.

Standing to the side, Director Zhao Lixin’s palms were slick with sweat. He knew more than Chief Engineer Wang Heshan and the others, so he understood the terror of a practitioner like Dongfang Shuo even better. In the Bureau's files, such individuals were labeled as "Extremely Dangerous." Yet, he understood even more clearly that Jiang Ning could not be measured by common logic. He wasn't worried about Jiang Ning losing; he was afraid she wouldn't know her own strength. If she accidentally crippled the Dongfang Family's golden child, things would get out of hand.

"Dongfang Shuo, whatever you do, don't go looking for death..." Director Zhao Lixin muttered to himself. "You think you're the heavens, but in the eyes of the Chief Consultant, you aren't even a tiny hill."

In the center of the field, Dongfang Shuo couldn't care less about what others were thinking. He had pushed himself to his peak state, feeling as though he were the master of this land. He glared at the young woman across from him, who had remained calm—even somewhat distracted—from beginning to end. Fury and arrogance mingled in his heart, surging upward.

"Little girl, watch closely!" His voice boomed like thunder, carrying an air of command. "This move is called 'Rushing Thunder Fist,' the ultimate technique of our Dongfang Family! I'll only use ten percent of my power today, just so word doesn't get out that Dongfang Shuo bullies little girls!"

Though he claimed to use ten percent, he had actually mobilized eighty percent of the Internal Breath in his dantian. He wanted to use the most explosive method possible to shatter the face of this ignorant girl with a single punch, along with all those behind her who were playing god.

"If you can still stand," he sneered, baring a row of white teeth, "then you'll be qualified to speak to me!"

Jiang Ning remained where she was, not even lifting an eyelid.

Her Divine Sense had already scanned Dongfang Shuo from head to toe. To her, the so-called "Internal Breath" inside his body was like a muddy little ditch, laboring to push forward through a riverbed that was mostly blocked.

Rushing Thunder Fist? The name is decent enough, Jiang Ning thought. Unfortunately, by the time this force rose from the dantian and reached the fist, nearly half of it had leaked out along the way. The method of exertion was also clumsy; he was so focused on making a big scene that the energy dissipated into the air just for show. How much was actually left to hit someone?

She even had the leisure to wonder: if this were the spiritual energy of the Cultivation World, using it his way would likely cause him to explode before he even touched his opponent.

What a waste of a decent physical foundation; it was practiced all wrong, completely ruined. She made her judgment.

At that moment, Dongfang Shuo moved!

"Hah!"

With a loud roar, he lunged forward like a fully drawn bow! His right fist clenched tight, the muscles on his arm bulging as he swung a punch directly at Jiang Ning's face!

Before the fist even arrived, a violent gust of wind whipped forward! Sand from the ground was swept up, stinging faces. In the air, there was even the faint sound of electric sparks snapping!

Chief Engineer Wang Jianguo and Chief Engineer Wang Heshan were so terrified by the display that they retreated repeatedly, feeling as though their hearts were about to leap out of their throats. In their eyes, this single punch could punch right through a wall!

Director Zhao Lixin's heart also skipped a beat. He instinctively wanted to rush forward but forced himself to stay put. He knew that even if he stepped in, it would be for nothing.

Everyone expected that even if Jiang Ning wasn't sent flying, she would at least have to dodge.

But she just stood there, unmoving.

Just as the fist, carrying the sound of wind and thunder, was about to smash into her face, she finally seemed to snap out of her daze and raised her right hand.

She didn't make a fist, nor did she use her palm; she simply extended her index and middle fingers.

Those two fingers were clean and fair, without a single callus, looking as though they possessed no strength at all.

A smug grin spread across Dongfang Shuo's face. He could already imagine the girl's fingers being shattered by his fist and her entire body being sent flying.

Trying to block my Rushing Thunder Fist with two fingers? Fool!

The next second.

The scene suddenly fell silent.

There was no sound of bones breaking, nor the dull thud of a fist hitting flesh. There was no sound at all.

The violent wind from the punch vanished.

The terrifying sound of thunder was gone too.

Dongfang Shuo's right fist, which had been packed with all his strength as if to punch a hole in the sky, stopped dead in mid-air.

It was caught firmly between two fingers.

Those two fingers held his fist without the slightest tremor. And his fist was less than three inches from Jiang Ning's nose.

Time seemed to have stopped.

The smile on Dongfang Shuo's face froze, his eyes bulging wide. His entire face was a mask of disbelief: "Im... impossible?!"

He tried to pull his fist back, but those two fingers felt as if they were grown into his fist. He used every ounce of his strength, yet the fist wouldn't move even a fraction of an inch!

Chief Engineer Wang Jianguo's mouth hung open. The hard hat in his hand fell to the ground with a 'clatter,' and he didn't even notice.

The thermos in Chief Engineer Wang Heshan's hand became unsteady, and scalding tea spilled all over his hand, yet he didn't feel the heat at all.

Director Zhao Lixin let out a long, slow breath. Only as he exhaled did he realize that his back had somehow become soaked with sweat. The weight in his heart finally lifted, but what surged up in its place was a feeling a hundred times stronger than his previous tension... awe.

This was no longer a matter of strength versus weakness.

They simply weren't from the same world.