Chapter 264 - Sacrificing Life in Desperation

“Haha, not bad!

The Xingyi Boxing is already quite well-developed, and your ability to adapt on the fly is excellent!” Dong Ziqi stood about six or seven meters away from Ye Fan, laughing heartily at the sky, “Give it some time, and becoming an ancient martial arts grandmaster will be a piece of cake!”

Then, his voice suddenly deepened, sinisterly saying, “It’s just a pity that the more talented you are, the less I can afford to leave you alive after we become enemies today.”

“Tonight, I, Dong Ziqi, will ruthlessly strangle a genius!”

He had changed his mind from merely crippling Ye Fan to deciding to kill him outright, so he wasn’t worried about Ye Fan learning his name.

Ye Fan’s tiger-like gaze locked onto Dong Ziqi, showing no fear despite being far less powerful.

“As long as you’re not a Hua Jin master, it’s not certain you can kill me!” Ye Fan said in a deep voice, gathering his spirit again and stepping forward, indicating he intended to take the offensive once more.

Dong Ziqi snorted coldly and said, “It seems you still don’t truly understand the vast gap between you and me and insist on a dying struggle.

Make your move, I’ll give you, this genius, one more chance!”

“Ha!”

With a fierce shout from Ye Fan, he shook his force, like an old bear shaking off lice, like a rooster fluffing its feathers.

His entire body immediately resonated with the sound of tendons and bones, and the succession of explosive noises burst forth, like setting off firecrackers in a row, surging backward.

From his neck, through each vertebra, to the pelvis, the roots of the thighs, the knee joints, the shin joints, the toe joints, both arms, the finger joints—all over his body thundered and pulsed.

An invisible, fierce gust of bloody air whirled up.

On the abandoned goods field, the weeds were blown flat against the ground, with leaves scattering in all directions.

Roar—

Ye Fan let out a tiger’s roar, stomping his right foot onto the ground fiercely, and the concrete and rebar surface immediately cracked like a spider web.

Using the immense momentum, Ye Fan lunged forward in the Tiger Form Splitting Fist.

Although he knew his skills were inferior to Dong Ziqi’s, once he realized that Dong Ziqi practiced the agile and close-quarter White Crane Yong Chun Fist, Ye Fan decided to exploit the Xingyi Boxing’s characteristic strengths of “strong forceful strikes, seizing the central line, advancing through the central palace” in a bold and aggressive effort, pressing the fight against Dong Ziqi.

If he again tried to avoid clashing with the more profoundly skilled Dong Ziqi by using flexible styles such as the Monkey Form, Snake Form, and Crane Form, it would only lead to being completely restrained by Dong Ziqi—a dead end.

“Haha, interesting!

Well done!” Dong Ziqi let out a loud shout, his hands instantly forming crane beaks, arms coiling inward as the spiral force of the wind whipped around, one ready to defend and watch for an opportunity, the other darting straight for Ye Fan’s left eye.

Faced with the same move as before, Ye Fan was not at all intimidated; instead, he was filled with a burning desire to fight.

He roared again, raising his arm, the axe splitting the mountain, swinging it along the right side of his body, striking straight at Dong Ziqi’s crane beak fist.

The Tiger Form Splitting Fist roared with force.

Dong Ziqi, seeing Ye Fan’s Tiger Form Splitting Fist come with such might and weight, felt his crane beak might be at a disadvantage.

However, he hadn’t put his full force into the move and still had energy in reserve, immediately turning his pecking motion into a fist, his fingers clenching fiercely!

The sound of joints cracking echoed.

Using the explosive force of his gripping fist, Dong Ziqi’s punch became as hard as steel in an instant, and in the next moment, it collided heavily with Ye Fan’s cutting fist.

Muscles slapped and bones crackled, coalescing into a continuous symphony.

Boom—

A thunderous explosion of air echoed, fierce winds blew in all directions, countless weeds on the ground were instantly uprooted, and rusted steel pipe racks around them swayed incessantly, almost collapsing.

In the face-off, although both used their fists, Ye Fan possessed the momentum of a ferocious tiger descending a mountain, unstoppable and powerful in his Tiger Form Splitting Fist, fully unleashing his greatest combat strength.

In contrast, Dong Ziqi, because of his last-minute change of technique, inevitably lacked force.

Therefore, in the clash, the weaker Ye Fan was only forced back three or four steps, while Dong Ziqi also retreated two or three steps, making them almost evenly matched.

After steadying himself, Ye Fan did not pause; his foot stomped and shattered the hard concrete floor, and he charged at Dong Ziqi with the speed of lightning, using the Horse Shaped Cannon Fist.

The Horse Shaped Cannon Fist, unlike the Tiger Form Splitting Fist—which is immensely powerful and forceful but short-lived—does not have as intense an initial burst as the Tiger Form Splitting Fist, but its power endures, allowing continuous relentless attacks.

Bang bang bang…

A barrage of fists collided, winds howled, and countless areas of the hard cement floor were smashed apart.

Although Dong Ziqi was more skilled than Ye Fan, his Xingyi Boxing was fierce and unyielding, moving with wide and extensive motions, but faced with Ye Fan’s desperate Horse Shaped Cannon Fist attacks, even Dong Ziqi, who practiced the nimble and close-quarters White Crane Yong Chun Fist, was forced to momentarily avoid the onslaught, defending against Ye Fan’s strikes while gradually stepping back.

Ye Fan continued to press forward five or six steps, his courageous momentum reaching a peak.

As Dong Ziqi blocked again with his arms, Ye Fan’s fists suddenly shifted from rigid to soft, like a spear becoming a snake, flipping over and latching onto Dong Ziqi’s arms, then leveraging them to leap into the air, executing the “Flying Horse Stomps Swallow” combination technique—a deadly finishing move.

In ancient martial arts, it is a serious taboo for a martial artist to leave the ground with both feet, even more so to be airborne, as it is akin to courting death.

However, there is one exception; some dangerous ultimate moves require leaping into the air to unleash unparalleled killing power.

Of course, being an ultimate move means that once executed, it’s a matter of life and death—if one fails to kill the opponent upon taking to the air, they become a sitting duck once their momentum fades, and death is all that awaits.

“Flying Horse Stomps Swallow” is precisely one of these deadly finishing moves.

In Xingyi Boxing, while the Horse Shaped Cannon Fist has enduring explosive power, it often lacks the strength to kill the opponent in one blow, making it easy to be counter-attacked after the force wanes.

“Flying Horse Stomps Swallow” solves this issue by providing the necessary lethality to complement the Horse Shaped Cannon Fist.

Horse Shaped Cannon Fist charges, creating momentum, and it all culminates in “Flying Horse Stomps Swallow.”

The so-called “Flying Horse Stomps Swallow” is like a wild horse galloping, soaring into the air, thrice stomping with its hooves, the final stomp coming down on a flying swallow.

As the wild horse stomp sends the swallow into the sky, the horse ascends and becomes a dragon, charging its might to an extreme.

(Note: There is a bronze sculpture called “Flying Horse Stomps Swallow” in reality, interested students can search for images online.)

Seeing Ye Fan use his power to spring into the air, Dong Ziqi’s heart “thudded”, and his complexion drastically changed, “Not good, it’s the ‘Flying Horse Stomps Swallow’!”

Dong Ziqi, although not a practitioner of Xingyi Boxing, had immersed himself in ancient martial arts for many years and was a late-stage inner strength master, so he had broad knowledge.

Thus, when Ye Fan unleashed the “Flying Horse Stomps Swallow,” Dong Ziqi immediately recognized it.

However, recognition was one thing; Ye Fan’s move was already in motion, making it unstoppable, and Dong Ziqi could only muster all his strength to defend, regretting his oversight.

Such combination technique deathblows as “Flying Horse Stomps Swallow” have always been unavoidably fatal.

Throughout history, countless martial artists have met their gruesome end under the fierce and mighty kicks of the “Flying Horse Stomps Swallow”!