99: Chapter 99 Li Shuwen was stunned: Are you even human?!

The group soon arrived at a wide, concrete clearing in the manor's courtyard.

Although the night was deep, the high-power tungsten streetlights around the courtyard were all lit, illuminating the entire clearing as if it were daytime.

The two stood facing each other at a distance of four or five meters.

Lin Tian looked Li Shuwen over, the corners of his mouth curling up slightly: "Li Shuwen, you can challenge me, but if you lose, what do you intend to do?"

"Lose?!" Li Shuwen was clearly taken aback. In fact, he had never once considered that he might lose in his entire life.

Since he began his career, he had never tasted defeat, even when facing long-renowned martial arts masters in the country.

To him, the word "lose" was simply too distant and too foreign.

"That's natural. Given my current status and wealth, if I'm going to indulge you, wouldn't I be at a loss if there weren't any stakes?"

"It's like if you ran back to the Qing Empire right now to block the gates of the Forbidden City to challenge the old Emperor to a duel; do you think he would agree?" Lin Tian said, his hands in his pockets, as if it were only natural.

Li Shuwen frowned slightly, thought for a moment, and nodded: "Hmm, that is indeed the logic."

If he really dared to go to the Forbidden City to challenge the Emperor, he would likely be riddled with bullets by the imperial guards before he even saw the Emperor's face.

While the Lin Tian before him couldn't compare to the Emperor in status, he was still the son of a Hongmen tycoon who commanded hundreds of thousands of disciples, and a super-tycoon holding countless industries in his hands.

Thinking of this, Li Shuwen lifted his chin with complete nonchalance: "If I lose, I will leave my life to Mr. Bruce!"

"I have no use for your life. But if you lose, from now on, you must follow me forever and obey my commands." Lin Tian revealed his true purpose directly.

For a martial arts monster of Li Shuwen's caliber, Lin Tian, who never lit a lamp without profit, could not possibly let him go for nothing.

"You want to take me as a subordinate?!" A flash of surprise crossed Li Shuwen's eyes.

"You can understand it that way. If you agree, we start fighting now; if you don't, you can pretend you never came today." Lin Tian's face was calm, his tone without a ripple.

At this, Li Shuwen's train of thought couldn't quite make the turn. He had never expected this kind of development.

Once he lost, he would not only have to stay in America forever and be unable to return to his country, but he would also have to listen to someone else's orders.

He wanted to refuse, but thinking of how he had traveled thousands of miles, suffering so much to get from the country to New York, and even forcing himself to learn a foreign language just to ask for directions, he really wasn't willing to leave with his tail between his legs without even having a chance to fight.

"What, is the famous Li Shuwen of Cangzhou backing down before the fight?" Seeing this, Lin Tian added a timely taunt.

Even knowing this was the simplest of provocations, Li Shuwen took a deep breath and asked with a heavy face: "Then what if I win?!"

"Except for my women, I will give you whatever you want." Lin Tian answered extremely readily, without any hesitation.

"Good!" Li Shuwen slapped his thigh, "It's a deal! If I lose, this life will be yours from now on. If I win, I will take one thing from your body!"

Under the witness of John and The Old Butler, Butler John, the life-and-death stakes between the two were officially finalized.

"Baji, Li Shuwen!" Li Shuwen reached back, untied the long spear from his back and placed it on the ground, then cupped his hands in a clean, crisp martial arts salute.

"Gu Ang, Lin Tian." Lin Tian casually tore off his tie, took off his suit jacket, and flung it backward; The Old Butler, Butler John, caught it steadily.

The Baji Fist, as the most fierce boxing style in traditional Chinese martial arts, derives its name from "between heaven and earth, the nine provinces and eight poles," meaning "the power generated can reach the extreme distances in all directions."

This boxing style follows the route of close-quarters combat, and its movements generally pursue a style that is fierce, unadorned, and possesses extremely ferocious explosive power.

Li Shuwen was not only from an authentic lineage but was also a once-in-a-century martial arts prodigy. His Baji Fist had long reached the pinnacle of perfection, and coupled with his innate supernatural strength, he fought with a ferocity that meant either death or survival.

Lin Tian sank his legs slightly, assuming the most standard horse stance of the Gu Ang Fist, his right hand held horizontally in front of him like an iron plate.

Across the clearing, Li Shuwen's eyes narrowed. He stepped forward with his left foot, pulled his fists tightly to his waist, and then slammed his right foot onto the concrete ground!

Bang! A web of cracks instantly exploded across the hard concrete ground.

Li Shuwen, like a beast unleashed, blurred into an afterimage, covering the four or five-meter distance almost in the snap of a finger.

In a flash of lightning, Li Shuwen's fists, like two venomous dragons emerging from the water, roared with a piercing sound as they smashed fiercely toward Lin Tian!

The force of this punch was heavy enough to split mountains and crack stones.

His boxing style had long since transcended rigid movement patterns; it emphasized "moving like a drawn bow," treating his entire body's bones and muscles as a fully drawn powerful bow, unleashing all the accumulated power in the instant of close contact.

Facing this fierce punch capable of killing a live ox, Lin Tian's expression remained unchanged. He planted his horse stance firmly and swung his fists out with equal violence in an instant, meeting it head-on!

Boom! Four fiercely powerful iron fists collided without any pretense.

According to common sense, Li Shuwen was using the momentum of his forward dash to build power, while Lin Tian was fighting back from a standstill.

Although both of them followed the fierce path of close-quarters combat, in this collision, it looked like Lin Tian should have been at a disadvantage.

However, amidst the dull, thunderous sound of their fists colliding, Li Shuwen's gaunt face changed abruptly.

Immediately following, his feet made a rapid "da-da-da" sound, and his entire body was actually forced back three steps by an impossibly monstrous force.

With each step back, he left a deep footprint on the concrete ground.

After stabilizing his stance, Li Shuwen lifted his head in shock, staring fixedly at Lin Tian, his heart churning with stormy waves: "What terrifying brute force! I actually lost in pure strength?!"

The veins in the palms of Li Shuwen's hands, hidden behind his back, twitched violently like writhing earthworms.

Although that collision hadn't injured him, the physical fitness Lin Tian displayed completely overturned his understanding.

He had been famous in Cangzhou since childhood for his immense strength, yet today he had actually suffered a loss in strength at the hands of a young man a full ten years his junior.

However, this not only didn't discourage Li Shuwen, but it instead stirred up the ferocity in his bones.

If martial arts were only about who had more strength, those Western brutes would have been invincible long ago. Martial arts are about killing techniques!

Having gauged Lin Tian's bottom line, Li Shuwen no longer held anything back.

He focused his qi into his dantian, shifted his body, and casually unleashed a killing move: "Overlord Whips the Lash!"

His calloused palm, carrying the sharp energy of tearing through the air, slapped fiercely toward Lin Tian's face.

Feeling the palm wind scraping his cheeks painfully, Lin Tian leaned back with extreme flexibility in an exaggerated motion, simultaneously using the force to spring his right leg up. He unleashed a signature move of the Gu Ang Fist, "Wild Horse Tilts Body," his hard knee like a heavy hammer, thrusting fiercely toward Li Shuwen's abdomen.

How could Li Shuwen dare to take the knee strike of the Gu Ang Fist with his bare body? He twisted his waist, dodging sideways in mid-air in an incredible maneuver.

At the same time, he extended his left hand to press against Lin Tian's knee for leverage, vaulted into the air, and turned around to deliver a heavy, powerful "Flip and Stomp Kick"!

Bang! This violent side kick landed solidly on Lin Tian's side abdomen.

Lin Tian felt a mountain-toppling force wash over him, his feet scraping against the ground as he retreated three steps before coming to a stop.

"This guy is really a monster!" Standing steady, Lin Tian felt the intense, sharp pain in his side abdomen and marveled inwardly.

Just by taking that kick, he had completely seen through the secret behind Li Shuwen's so-called "Rigid Fists never strike twice."

To put it plainly, this was a sophisticated technique of power generation and force transmission.

The principle behind this guy's fists and side kicks, at the moment of impact, was very similar to the "Newton's Cradle" used in later generations to demonstrate physical laws.

The most terrifying thing about Li Shuwen was that at the instant his fist touched the opponent's body, there would be a sudden, counter-intuitive pause.

In this instant of pause, all his power would ripple like a wave, instantly penetrating the opponent's skin and fat, reaching the interior without any loss.

Many external martial arts experts who had spent years tempering their strength had skin and flesh tougher than cowhide, capable of withstanding heavy blows from blunt objects.

But no matter how one exercises the body, a human's internal organs are always fragile.

Li Shuwen's punch energy could directly shatter a person's internal organs, leading to severe internal bleeding.

If that kick just now had hit an ordinary expert, they would already be lying down waiting to die.

But Lin Tian's body had long been perfectly modified by the t-virus. The moment his internal organ cells were damaged, his terrifying self-healing ability went into overdrive, repairing the injury almost entirely in the blink of an eye.

Li Shuwen landed on the ground and looked at Lin Tian, whose expression remained normal, a deep flash of surprise appearing in his eyes.

"So that's how it is." Lin Tian rubbed his stomach, the corners of his mouth curling into an arc, "Your invincible boxing style is all about the 'striking across the mountain to hit the ox' force transmission."

"Oh? You were actually able to see that?" Li Shuwen raised an eyebrow in surprise, "Back in my hometown when I was practicing martial arts, I always sought out those thick-skinned water buffaloes to practice on, but those beasts had skin so thick that no matter how I hit them, they didn't seem to feel any pain."

"Later, I pondered how to send the force from my fist directly into their stomachs. After practicing for a few years, one punch from me would make those beasts weighing several hundred pounds roll on the ground in pain."

Upon hearing this, Lin Tian immediately recalled the rumors about Li Shuwen from later generations.

Legend had it that once this Baji grandmaster started practicing, he would enter a state of complete madness, often leaving the old oxen in the fields with severe internal injuries.

The villagers dared to be angry but didn't dare to speak out about his way of practicing, and could only gossip behind his back, which also led to his poor reputation in his hometown.

"However, I am a bit puzzled. My kick just now clearly landed solidly, yet you didn't vomit blood? Or are you just toughing it out now?" Li Shuwen asked suspiciously.

"Not toughing it out. It did hurt, but it's not enough to kill me." Lin Tian smiled.

"To be able to talk so easily after taking a kick to the internal organs—I really don't believe in this! Watch out, there are many who know the secret of my power, but until now, no one has been able to defend against it!"

Before Li Shuwen's voice had faded, his left foot stomped out violently again, and he lunged forward like a mad tiger. His boxing style was completely open and aggressive, all of it lethal, full-force attacks.

Every one of his strikes carried a vicious wind capable of snapping metal and shattering stone.

But whenever Lin Tian used his superior strength to retaliate ruthlessly, Li Shuwen would instantly change his moves, using the "entwining silk force" of the Baji Fist to deflect Lin Tian's terrifying, monstrous strength to the side.

Because he knew very well that in a contest of pure strength, he simply couldn't gain any advantage.

This was the balance of hardness and softness in traditional martial arts.

Fists like meteors, eyes like lightning, waist like a snake, feet like drills.

But as they fought, Li Shuwen began to feel truly unsettled.

In the short two minutes of fighting, his fists and feet had already struck the opponent dozens of times.

Yet the Lin Tian before him not only hadn't vomited blood or fallen, but instead became more energetic the longer they fought, and the weight of his strikes became increasingly terrifying.

Towards the end, Lin Tian's savage, monstrous strength was making it so that Li Shuwen could hardly even deflect it with his entwining silk force anymore.