The moment Fire Dance appeared in the hall, every expert from the various training halls and martial schools present couldn't help but break into a cold sweat on her behalf.
"Where did this little girl come from?"
"Does she have a death wish?"
Even though none of them knew who Fire Dance was—she could have been some corporation's young miss or the scion of a prominent family—they all knew exactly what kind of person the Tyrant Dragon King, Wang Zongquan, was.
Sure, most ordinary people only knew that Wang Zongquan had recently defeated the peak Dark Force foreign expert known as the Magic Wolf. But they knew far more than that.
Before that, Wang Zongquan had spent ten years working as an assassin—cold-blooded through and through. Countless experts had perished at his hands in the shadows, and high-ranking members of major families were not among the exceptions. In other words, if Wang Zongquan wanted someone dead, even a family heir with a full security detail might not survive.
To step forward and challenge Wang Zongquan like this was an act of sheer suicide.
"Oh? You're an interesting little girl," Wang Zongquan said, not displaying the rage one might have expected. Instead, he studied Fire Dance with a measured smile. "So what would you consider being qualified?"
His purpose in coming here was simple: to drag the Tiandou Training Hall's reputation through the mud.
What he worried about most was that the Tiandou Training Hall would refuse to fight. After all, his name carried significant weight in the industry—even if they chose to avoid the confrontation, everyone would understand.
Having a greenhorn like Fire Dance who didn't understand the situation leap forward was the best possible outcome.
It meant the Tiandou Training Hall would have no choice but to accept the challenge, and then he could toy with them at will, stripping them of all dignity. Once that happened, the Tiandou Training Hall would naturally be unable to maintain a foothold in Fenglin City.
"Young people will be young people. Taunted by Wang Zongquan for just a moment and she jumps straight into the ring. She hadn't said anything before, but now that she has, the Tiandou Training Hall will have to fight." Chen Tianhe, the fifty-something master of the Xinwu Dojo, shook his head and glanced at Xiao Yu beside him. "Old Xiao, that young man you spoke of is in serious trouble now."
"Master Tianhe, even if you stepped in, Wang Zongquan wouldn't give you face?" Xiao Yu asked, his voice tight with anxiety.
He was at a complete loss regarding Fire Dance. He knew she was skilled—she had easily defeated intermediate students from the White Tiger Martial Hall before—but Wang Zongquan was an expert among experts. Her stepping forward now was nothing but adding fuel to the fire.
The only person he could pin his hopes on now was Chen Tianhe.
As a master who had been renowned for years, even Jiang Tianyuan of the White Tiger Martial Hall would show him a measure of respect. And his strength went without saying—in his youth, he had fought his way into the Round of 32 at the World Fighting Championship.
The Round of 32 might not sound impressive, but this was the World Fighting Championship. The qualification requirements alone excluded countless experts from even participating, and every contestant who made it in was a powerhouse among powerhouses. With several hundred competitors vying for the top spots, reaching the final thirty-two spoke volumes about one's abilities.
Even Wang Zongquan's peak achievement had only been the Round of 64.
"If I were fifteen years younger, I might still be able to fight the current Wang Zongquan. But now…" Chen Tianhe shook his head.
Fist fights favor the young—this saying held true in the past and remained just as relevant today.
Wang Zongquan was only thirty-seven or thirty-eight. With modern science and technology, he was squarely in his prime. He had defeated the Magic Wolf, whose strength was in no way inferior to Chen Tianhe's own peak form.
"Is it really all over, then?" Xiao Yu's face went pale, as though his soul had just fled his body.
He had gone to enormous lengths to bring Chen Tianhe here, even cashing in a favor the old master had owed him for years. And yet now it was all…
"What a shame. That young man named Shi Feng had mastered Dark Force at such an early age, and now he'll have to face Wang Zongquan." Chen Tianhe gazed at Wang Zongquan and let out a faint sigh.
To have grasped Dark Force in one's early twenties could only be called genius. The future held great promise—after all, mastering Dark Force brought enormous benefits in terms of full-body muscular control and endocrine regulation. And at such a young age, when the body had not yet reached its peak development, combined with modern technology, there was enormous room for further improvement in physical capabilities.