Chapter 308: The Same Fist

October 15th, East Sea.

Three days, truly fleeting.

On the boundless ocean, Hua Chonglang stood atop the waves, gazing at Shi Feizhe, who stood similarly on the water’s surface.

Ten years ago, it was Shi Feizhe who watched as Hua Chonglang dueled with Yuan Jiuzhong. Today, he was facing Hua Chonglang himself.

Would he lose?

That was surely impossible!

“Boy, I’ll let you make the first move!” Hua Chonglang declared, his eyes blazing with fighting spirit.

The excitement of facing a formidable opponent had been building within him over the past few days, filling his heart with anticipation for this battle.

He yearned for it!

He yearned for it!

He yearned to clash with a true expert!

He yearned to be beaten to death!

Shi Feizhe’s expression remained indifferent. Before arriving, he had presided over a “Four Critiques Meeting.”

“Critique,” as in criticism.

This meeting’s primary focus was to encourage criticism of leaders, colleagues, oneself, and subordinates. It was about critical reflection and self-examination of oneself and those above and below in rank.

Everyone makes mistakes. Why should people be allowed to act without being held accountable?

Suppressing criticism of errors is more terrifying than the errors themselves!

Faced with Hua Chonglang’s posturing, Shi Feizhe wasn’t going to indulge him.

He threw a punch at Hua Chonglang, like a heavy hammer slamming down.

The hammer, an embodiment of unstoppable force!

This hammer was a true hammer, condensing Shi Feizhe’s strength. It was also the hammer with which Shi Feizhe intended to shatter the Jianghu.

This single punch alone caused the sea surface within a ten-mile radius to cave in entirely, as if a colossal deity in the sky had struck the ocean with a hammer.

Before the fist even connected, Hua Chonglang felt a hurricane-like force and an irresistible power, somewhat similar to the Jiang Family’s 《Questioning Heart Hammer,》 but different.

“Good!” he roared with laughter, then threw a punch of his own.

It was a gentle fist, an ordinary fist, yet also an extremely cold and cruel fist.

Because within gentleness lay coldness, within ordinariness lay cruelty.

With this punch, the previously sunken sea surface completely froze, the rising tsunami also immobilized. The fish, shrimp, and crabs in this area were frozen solid within the ice.

A fist of extreme cold, accompanied by cracking sounds, froze even the air itself.

Their two fists collided violently. Which would prevail, immense force or extreme cold?

The hammer, of course!

Because it represented the power to reshape the world, the power to shatter the world!

Shi Feizhe had witnessed such power before, shattering a society even darker than the Jianghu! He firmly believed this power to be so great, so invincible!

Therefore, Shi Feizhe’s fist, like the hammer, was unstoppable, unmatched!

With just the first punch, Shi Feizhe shattered Hua Chonglang’s fist, then hammered into his chest, creating a gaping hole!

What the fuck was gentleness, if not self-deception? What the fuck was ordinariness, if not pretentiousness?

All that pretentiousness and self-deception, shattered under this iron hammer!

“Cough…” Hua Chonglang coughed up blood.

Facing the unreasonably strong Shi Feizhe, he smiled.

Since his battle with Yuan Jiuzhong ten years ago, he had never encountered such a formidable opponent.

He had fought Ren Daokuang many times, with both victories and defeats, a back-and-forth exchange. He had never met an opponent who injured him in the first clash.

It was… truly exhilarating!

His eyes burst with an inch-long glow. His shattered fist instantly recovered. Ignoring his chest wound, he threw another punch at Shi Feizhe’s face.

Shi Feizhe ignored the punch, slamming his head into Hua Chonglang’s nose and face, deforming his charming features.

With a thud, Hua Chonglang was left dizzy and disoriented, his punch failing to connect!

Shi Feizhe neutralized his attack with his own offense, then followed up with a punch, driving a hurricane-like force, aimed at Hua Chonglang’s head.

He didn’t believe Hua Chonglang could still recover if his head was smashed to pieces!

Instinct guided Hua Chonglang as he sensed Shi Feizhe’s incoming attack. He struck Shi Feizhe’s forearm with a sideways punch, intercepting the blow.

This was a fist-intercepting technique he had learned from Ren Daokuang.

✿✿✿

After intercepting the attack, he launched another punch at Shi Feizhe.

Even before the fist connected, a bone-chilling coldness emanated from it.

It was the “Indifference” fist!

Indifference was also apathy, treating you like insignificant dust in life, making you feel like you existed in the Jianghu, but nothing in the Jianghu cared about you, or you cared about.

Thus, this fist was also known as “Loneliness.”

Will was power, power was will.

Those lonely to the bone would naturally throw a lonely fist.

The bone-piercing coldness and the will carried within the fist caused Shi Feizhe to momentarily falter.

The fist landed on Shi Feizhe, freezing him into an ice sculpture without a doubt.

Shi Feizhe couldn’t withstand this punch, because he was the loneliest person in the Jianghu.

“Not enough! Not enough!” Shi Feizhe’s voice emerged as the ice around him cracked, stimulated by the lonely fist. “Your loneliness is not enough, not enough!”

“Come! Taste your own move!”

“Come! Taste my loneliness!”

Shi Feizhe counter-attacked with a punch, also “Loneliness”!

The same fist, the same loneliness, but Shi Feizhe’s “Loneliness” was colder.

Because his was a conscious loneliness.

Everything he encountered in this world was unfamiliar, everything he encountered was difficult to comprehend.

He couldn’t fully understand this world, so how could the people in this world understand him?

He was acutely aware of his exclusion from the Jianghu, he was acutely aware of his uniqueness.

He consciously perceived pain and loneliness!

Every single day!

Hua Chonglang’s loneliness stemmed from his understanding of others, while others couldn’t understand him.

He was filled with “whys” about the world, yet he didn’t know why it was this way.

Perhaps someone understood him, perhaps that person was dead.

He once had a beloved woman, a cherished son, but they were all gone.

In truth, he wasn’t truly lonely, he just felt lonely.

When the truly lonely fist arrived before him, he found himself overwhelmed by endless pain, endless coldness, just from sensing the lonely will on Shi Feizhe’s fist.

What kind of mental fortitude did it take to not go mad?

What kind of power was this, leaving him completely defenseless?

He had to move!

He had to overcome this irresistible force!

Unfortunately, he didn’t possess that power!

In the blink of an eye, he was frozen solid by Shi Feizhe, then shattered with a single punch.

Hua Chonglang, the master of coldness and loneliness, was defeated by a lonely fist!

Was this how he was defeated?

Was this how he died?

That was definitely not Hua Chonglang!

Hua Chonglang’s shattered body reassembled itself, his Barrier-Breaking Martial Artist power fully under his control.

With his will unbroken, his lifespan unexhausted, he wouldn’t die!

“Again!”

“Heh—Heartlessness!”

Bare-chested, he threw a “Heartless” punch at Shi Feizhe.

Shi Feizhe was the truly lonely one!