World's Best Martial Artist

Panda Novel

Noon.

Blue Sky Internet Cafe.

The Internet cafe, which would normally be deserted on weekdays, was crowded.

Surprised shouts could be heard from time to time.

…

In the corner of the cafe.

Fang Ping muttered, focused on the screen in front of him, “Those idiots made me think that there really is a video of a battle between two Grandmasters!”

Fang Ping was eager to watch the video after the heated discussion among his classmates, but he was disappointed after he finally got to watch the video.

It was not that the Grandmasters were not powerful enough; it was that they were not even captured in the video!

This reporter, who had claimed to be risking his life for this secretive endeavor, was stationed more than a hundred meters away from the area where they fought.

The darkening sky and the hill looming between camcorder and battle made it worse.

Although he heard some deafening bangs, Fang Ping did not see anything.

He could vaguely see some pebbles flying towards the camcorder from the other side of the hill.

Was this the so-called “exploded the top of a mountain” that those morons were speaking of?

Shooting off pebbles to somewhere a hundred meters away was pretty cool. This, Fang Ping agreed with.

Where was the “exploded the top of a mountain” that he was promised?

Although he was slightly disappointed, Fang Ping did not close the video. He waited for the part where the reporter investigated the site of the battle.

This reporter that had allegedly risked his life to record the battle stealthily was a chatterbox.

He gloated as he recorded. “The location of this battle between the two Grandmaster-level powerhouses was not announced in advance!

“With I, Liu Dali’s constant analysis and inference, I’ve finally succeeded in pinpointing the area in which both sides will battle it out!

“It’s proved that I, Liu Dali’s, analysis has yielded an accurate result!

“This also proves my wisdom and courage!

“This time, I risked my life to approach the area in which the two Grandmasters will battle, as a service to the people!

“If I, Liu Dali, end up dying here, all my spectators must remember me — Liu Dali!”

While he spoke, he turned the camcorder toward his face.

The face of a man in his thirties appeared over the entire screen.

He was not hideous, but his smile was so smug that it kindled the urge to punch the lights out of him from his audience.

Fang Ping wanted to punch him till his face was covered with bruises, at least.

Liu Dali could be seen grimacing in the somewhat dark screen. “If everyone remembers how I look like, my death won’t be in vain!”

“Dying in the hands of two Rank-8 Grandmasters is an honor unlike any other!”

There seemed to be no end to the ramblings of this chatterbox of a reporter.

When Fang Ping was getting ready to skip ahead out of impatience, Liu Dali suddenly grinned. “You can’t imagine how scary Grandmasters are just by watching!

“Now, I’m going to conduct an experiment. If I end up dying here by accident…”

Blah, blah, blah. Liu Dali started to voice his woes again.

At last, Liu Dali said sternly, “According to what I’ve seen, I’m about 120 meters or so from the center of the arena!

“I, Liu Dali, am a Rank-3 martial artist. I’ve completed the honing of my four limbs and half of my torso.

“With the power I possess, I can easily chop stone to pieces with my hand, shattering the stone beneath with my hand unhurt!”

After that, he, someone who Fang Ping thought was somewhat boasting, slammed his palm on the ground beside him.

This was a mountain covered with stones. The ground was not one of soil but of stones.

Liu Dali slammed his palm down with his might, producing a dulled sound that was audible in the video.

Next, Liu Dali turned the camcorder on the ground and said with glee, “See? A fissure has appeared on the ground!

“And my hand isn’t hurt at all!

“Of course, I’m not bragging about my abilities. I’m only proving to everyone that I’m quite strong, too!”

He had said so, but everyone knew he was gloating.

The guy would probably laugh louder if someone called him badass.

“Now, I’m going to use my palms, palms that are capable of chopping stone to smithereens, to catch a pebble flying towards here from the battle.

“I want to know if Grandmasters are really so strong that they’re invincible!

“I’m going to demonstrate their formidable strength indirectly as I withstand the fringes of their battle with the power that I possess!”

“…”

Fang Ping stared, speechless. He had thought the man nothing but a joke from the start.

As for the alleged life-risking, well, that was said for show, of course.

When Liu Dali had slammed the stones beneath him, Fang Ping’s expression changed.

Was this what a Rank-3 martial artist was like?

Or could it be that this was the power all martial artists possessed after honing their bones?

From what he saw from the video, the stones on the mountain were all hard bluestone.

This seemingly unreliable reporter had shattered a slab of bluestone with his palm, a sign of his power.

Even if he did not get to see the battle between two Grandmasters, Fang Ping felt that he had gotten a lot out of this video.

Fang Ping was still immersed in the scene in which the man had shattered the slab of bluestone.

In the video, Liu Dali’s face was set into seriousness. He stated somberly, “Everyone, I’m going to catch it with my palm!

“But there is always room for error. I have not honed my skull yet.

“If the force propelling the pebble is too big, and if it hits my head, I may die here!

“…

“But, I, Liu Dali, am not afraid of death!

“Everyone, please wait with bated breath!”

After he had spoken those words, Liu Dali put his camcorder aside to face himself and assumed his stance, facing forward.

Within seconds, while Fang Ping breathed heavily in anticipation, Liu Dali suddenly stretched out his palm as if he was catching a pebble.

The video was a little too dark. Fang Ping could not see what had happened clearly.

As Liu Dali extended his arm out, a pained grunt could be heard in the video.

“F*ck!”

“This is so painful!”

“My palm is f*cked up!”

“I’m not doing risky s*hit like this again…”

Liu Dali cradled his palm from his place not far from the camcorder, cursing to hell and beyond, his voice interspersed with shallow breathing.

After a while, he returned to the camcorder and extended his bloodied palm with an air of calmness.

“This force is indeed extremely strong!”

“Grandmaster-level powerhouses are a force unlike any other!”

“I’m using my real-life experience to teach every one of you a lesson: when Grandmaster-level powerhouses are battling, lower-ranked martial artists should run away as far as possible!

“Everyone, look; my palm, capable of shattering stone, has been punctured by a mere pebble!

“You have to know, I, Liu Dali, once had caught a bullet in my palm!

“Although it was a small-caliber pistol bullet, it did not make a hole in my palm.

“You can watch my video Liu Dali Catches A Bullet With His Bare Hands for the scene.

“Remember, you must watch it on legal video websites.

“I risked my life to catch a bullet with my bare hands, and the video is very cheap; you can watch it once for 0.01 yuan…”

Liu Dali advertised himself for a while and recommended the website on which his videos are hosted before continuing, “A pebble shooting out from the battle of two Rank-8 Grandmaster-level powerhouses is more deadly than a bullet!

“This need not be questioned, as I, Liu Dali, had personally experienced this for everyone!

…”

Liu Dali started to ramble on once again. He looked clownish, but Fang Ping no longer underestimated him.

His palm had really been punctured!

It looked bloodied and torn. Fang Ping felt pain just by watching.

This man, though. He had yelled for a while at the start, but he still had the mood to continue joking around and boast. This degree of resilience was one the average human could not hope to achieve.

Next, Liu Dali recorded some shots of the ground, cratered and strewn with pebbles.

Meanwhile, Liu Dali did not dare try to capture shots of the two Grandmasters battling it out. He supplemented it with his own guesswork.

Yes, a completely hypothesized narration of the battle!

“Everyone, listen!

“Grandmaster Tem is making his move!

“What a masterful “Thunder Hand”! Wow! Amazing! Showstopping!”

“Listen, Grandmaster Ma is retaliating! He’s deployed his famed move “Ten Thousand Steeds Gallop”!”

“…”

While the man was narrating excitedly, Fang Ping was shocked by his shamelessness.

If the other had not demonstrated his strength before, Fang Ping would definitely curse the hell out of him. Listen, your *ss!

The other had demonstrated his strength, after all, so Fang Ping could not say for sure if he was fabricating everything.

Maybe a Rank-3 martial artist could really hear everything?

With doubt and uncertainty, Fang Ping listened on.

Twenty minutes later, Liu Dali leaped up and said, happiness on his face, “It’s stopped! Could it be finished?

“I’ll go to take a look. Everyone, you can prove that I walked over there alive.

“If I don’t come back, everyone must seek revenge on my behalf, as I would be definitely be murdered by the two Grandmasters…”

This guy was all bark and no bite. He shuffled in his spot for a while before advancing forward.

…

A minute later.

A staggering scene appeared in the video.

A moderate-sized valley which the ground looked as if thousands of nuclear bombs had landed on it.

Holes and craters, one after another, the deepest about a few meters deep while the most shallow ones were about dozens of centimeters deep too.

No one would think that this was caused by a battle between two living humans if they were not privy to the reason.

As wind breezed through, pebbles and sand on the ground started drifting around in the air.

Liu Dali landed a kick somewhere, and a thick layer of powdered stone flew up.

The camcorder spun around. Liu Dali said jovially as if he had finally relaxed, “It’s a pity that both Grandmasters have already left the scene, leaving us in the dark in regards to the results of the battle.

“From what I see, though, Grandmaster Ma is the one who lost.

“These craters on the ground should be made by Grandmaster Ma.

He has just broken through to Rank-8. He must’ve found it hard to rein his power in, causing such obvious effects.

“Grandmaster Tem, on the other hand, has been Rank-8 for years. He’s got a handle on his power, and so would not cause such a side effect…

“Of course, this is only speculation. I’m siding with Grandmaster Ma personally.

“As a reporter, I cannot lie in good conscience…”

The man lauded himself for a while before taking a few shots of the valley.

There were massive stones that were reduced to pieces and some footprints that Liu Dali said was “made by their own feet”.

Fang Ping found it hard to imagine the ways one could make a footprint as huge as a basin and half a meter deep.

There were also some holes that looked like nuclear craters and were apparently “the impact of a fist”.

…

After finishing the video, a seriously floored Fang Ping did not have the heart to listen to Liu Dali’s advertisements.

The man was asking for sympathy again. He claimed that he had nearly died, and beseeched everyone to watch his paid videos on a website.

Fang Ping glanced at the website he had opened and confirmed that it was a famous legal website. He felt strange; there was no indication that this was a paid video!

…

As Fang Ping questioned the issue, Liu Dali cried in anguish in the headquarters of one video website. “I had only said that Grandmaster Ma might have lost, but then he sent me a lawyer’s letter and blocked all the revenue from my videos! My money! I’m going to the balcony and no one can stop me!”