Chapter Thirty-Four: The Arena

  At noon, Ye Fan flew into Xuzhou City.

  This time slot happened to be the rest period, Ye Tufei was not in a hurry to rush to the arena, he casually found a restaurant, ordered two small dishes and a bowl of mutton noodles. He planned to make a quick battle, as soon as the afternoon match started, he would get things done, before the fight, he needed sufficient energy to maintain his physical strength, but he couldn't eat too much, just like last time when he fought against Zhan Jinbiao, eating too much affected his reaction speed and fist and foot speed.

  The restaurant was filled with diners, but the topic of conversation among them all boiled down to one thing: the Japanese fighting arena. From the snippets of conversation among the diners, Ye Tufei roughly understood the situation. The arena had been set up in the most prosperous area of Xuzhou City, a vacant lot at the west end of Ma Temple Street. To get on stage and fight, one had to sign a life-and-death contract with the Japanese, indicating that they would not hold back their punches and kicks. In case someone got seriously injured or killed, the other party would not take any responsibility. The arena allowed for either bare-fisted fighting or testing of weapons, with the attacking side choosing first. Today was already the fifth day, and over a dozen people had gone up to fight, but none of them had won. Each one had been beaten down from the stage with injuries, including four or five who were seriously hurt.

  "Tomorrow is the last day, it seems that this little Japanese face has finally been set!" An old man exclaimed. A middle-aged man sitting next to him felt uncomfortable and said: "Second uncle, you can't say that, although the little Japanese used a dirty trick and put all the martial artists in our Xuzhou prefecture under house arrest, but after all, we are the hometown of martial arts, who knows, maybe tomorrow someone will come out and beat the little Japanese until he's toothless."

  Ye Tu Fei heard this and smiled faintly, thinking that he didn't need to wait until tomorrow.

  After dinner, Ye Luofei rented a rickshaw to head to the arena. On the way, the driver chatted with Ye Luofei and asked: "Good fellow, are you going to fight in the arena?" Ye Luofei smiled and replied: "Just watching the excitement!" The driver sighed and said: "If good fellow is really going to fight in the arena, just say so. Du Lao San will absolutely not charge fare for a hero who fights in the arena."

  The car arrived at the destination, Ye Tufei took out money to pay for the fare, Du Lao San was somewhat disappointed and said: "You really aren't here to fight? You really are just here to watch the excitement?" Ye Tufei handed the money over to Du Lao San and said: "Even if I were here to fight, this car fare is still something you should get." Du Lao San refused, saying: "A true hero who comes to fight, if they can truly defeat the Japanese, I, Du Lao San, would be willing to serve as their servant." Ye Tufei sighed and said: "The Japanese are so formidable, we've already lost so many people, is there still anyone daring enough to go up and fight?" Du Lao San's eyes widened in anger, saying: "What kind of nonsense are you spouting! In terms of guns and cannons, the Japanese may indeed be formidable, but in terms of martial arts, how can their little triangular cats compare to our great Chinese martial arts?"

  Ye Tufei smiled and patted Du Lao San's shoulder, saying: "You're right, it's likely that this little Japanese devil will be beaten to the ground by our good men this afternoon."

  At this time, a gong sounded on the stage, and a somewhat familiar voice rang out: "Everyone, fathers and mothers, heroes and good men, all quiet down, ah, quiet down!"

  It was actually Liu Yu Jie. Ye Tu Fei involuntarily spat out saliva.

  "The great master of karate, Mr. Takeo Watanabe, led his disciples to travel thousands of miles from Japan to China, in order to have a thorough exchange with the Chinese martial arts community. However, for four consecutive days, Mr. Watanabe couldn't find a suitable opponent. He said that Chinese martial arts had fallen behind and should learn from Japan again..."

  Liu Yu-Jie's words were not yet finished, when the crowd below began to murmur in disapproval, many people cursing the traitor on stage. Liu Yu-Jie turned around with a look of grievance, looking at the Japanese military police standing guard, but they maintained their composure, completely ignoring Liu Yu-Jie's awkwardness. Liu Yu-Jie had no choice but to continue.

  "It's been five days already, and tomorrow will be the last day of the arena. If no one can defeat Mr. Wutong tomorrow, then we'll have to admit that Mr. Wutong is right - Chinese martial artists really should learn from Japanese martial arts!"

  Liu Yu-jie finished speaking, and from his bosom he pulled out a handkerchief to wipe the sweat off his forehead. Just then, an egg hit Liu Yu-jie right on the forehead, with the egg white and yolk flowing down his rather delicate face.

  When Liu Yujie had lost enough people, the Japanese gendarmerie finally came out to maintain order. Under the intimidation of long guns and bayonets, the crowd returned to calmness. Finally, the master of the arena appeared, a Japanese samurai with a shaved forehead but a bun on the back of his head walked onto the arena at an extremely slow pace.

  On the ring, under the ring, all Japanese and traitors let out deafening cheers, the cheers were initially chaotic, but gradually became rhythmic: "Mutoh! Mutoh! Mutoh!"

  But seeing Takefumi Watanabe's posture and pace as he stepped onto the stage, Yatou Fei's heart tightened, this guy indeed had some skills.

  Ye Siwang's evaluation of Mutoh Kōfu as 'having some level' is indeed not low. In the past three years, Ye Siwang rarely had a serious one-on-one match with others, and it was only when he fought against Jia Jiawang and Zhan Jinbiao that time. During that match, Ye Siwang was restricted by eating too much and didn't intend to compete with Zhan Jinbiao for victory or defeat. In short, Ye Siwang had a playful attitude towards the match with Zhan Jinbiao. After the match, Ye Siwang evaluated Zhan Jinbiao as 'having some foundation' in his heart.

  Ye Tufei didn't rush to go on stage, he hoped that before him there would be a good guy who could go up and exchange a few blows with Mutou. Ye Tufei's idea wasn't to take advantage of Mutou's physical exhaustion, but rather to see Mutou's moves, then ponder and calculate how to humiliate this guy.

  However, Yatoufei's hopes seemed to be dashed, and after waiting for more than half an hour, not a single person came to challenge him. Takeo Muto looked at him with disdain, had his disciples move a reclining chair to the center of the ring, lay down on it, and relaxed contentedly.

  Ye Tu Fei decided to change his mind, he couldn't let this guy be so arrogant.

  Just as he was about to move, a hand stretched out from behind and grabbed his collar. Ye Tufei turned around to see that it was Xian Jinbiao, who had been muttering to himself earlier.

  "You can't go up!"

  "Why?"

  "Because I'm going up!"

  "You? You can't go up!"

  "Why?"

  "Because you're no match for him."

  "I know, when I lose, you'll be next."

  "You are the eldest son of the Jia family, and the prestige of the Jia family cannot be lost in your hands."

  "It's none of your business what Jia Men does."

  "I killed Jia YunGui and injured Jia ShuWen. The Jia family has a deep connection with me."

  "That's two different stories!"

  "No, it's a different matter. Jia YunGui deserves to die, but Jia ShuWen shouldn't be hurt. I, Ye TuFei, owe the Jia family."

  "That sentence of yours makes up for it."

  "Since we owe it, we must pay it back! Give me one night's time and I can make you defeat Little Japan, are you in or not?"

  "Of course I will!"

  Ye Tu Fei smiled.

  "What is meant by 'laying down one's arms'?"

  This was the first sentence Ye Tufei said when teaching Zhang Jinbiao, and this one sentence confused Zhang Jinbiao. Fortunately, Ye Tufei didn't plan to let Zhang Jinbiao answer anyway.

  "The meaning of 'stopping the spear' is to stop fighting, so martial arts refer to the skills of stopping fighting. From this sentence, it can be known that the purpose of Chinese martial arts is to make the opponent give up armed struggle with attacking or defensive skills. This purpose is too gentle, and it's not suitable for killing at all."

  Ye Tu Fei said with a bright smile, making a starting gesture towards Zhan Jin Biao: "Come on, let's exchange a couple of moves!"

  Zhan Jinbiao didn't dare to slack off, after making sufficient preparations, he charged towards Ye Tufei. Ye Tufei suddenly struck out with his right hand, two fingers forming a hook, flashing towards Zhan Jinbiao's eyes like lightning, Zhan Jinbiao was greatly shocked, and hastily sank his waist, barely dodging it.

  "Come again!"

  It's still that one move, only Ye Tufei changed the timing and angle of his attack, and Jin Biao couldn't decipher it.

  "Life and death struggle, no tricks, only speed and cruelty!"

  For the third time, Ye Tufei did not attack but instead let Zhang Jinbiao practice according to his instructions. After more than a dozen moves, Ye Tufei suddenly changed and with one move of his double fingers striking at Zhang's eyes, he forced him into a state of utter confusion.

  "Not fast enough! Not ruthless enough! The moves are too obvious!" After stopping, Ye Tufei analyzed Xian Jinbiao. "There's only one night, it's obviously not enough to work on the speed, you can only think more about the ruthlessness. Alright, now let's stop for a while, give you half an hour, think carefully about how to be more ruthless."

  Zhan Jinbiao appears to be dull on the surface, but in reality, he is highly intelligent. He quickly grasped Ye Tufei's pointers in a very short period of time. Initially, he only understood his opponent's weaknesses, but as high-level players exchanged moves, both sides' defenses were impenetrable. Ye Tufei was able to use his "Double Finger Insert Eye" move three times in a row, causing Zhan Jinbiao to become flustered because of Ye Tufei's extremely fast speed and unpredictable timing and angles. Although Zhan Jinbiao couldn't match Ye Tufei's level of "fast and ruthless," he was stronger and more powerful than Ye Tufei, and he could achieve his own unique "fast and ruthless" style.

  At the rematch, Zhan Jinbiao was unusually calm and did not launch a preemptive attack. Instead, he adopted a tactic of counterattacking after his opponent made the first move. Facing an opponent who was obviously much faster than himself, choosing to counterattack seemed like a losing strategy. However, Ye Tufei, having tested Zhan twice, dared not launch another attack because each and every one of Zhan's moves was a fight to the death, with no intention of retreating.

  Ye Tufei changed his tactics, switching from real to fake moves, continuously using fake moves to lure Xuan Jinbiao into wasting his physical strength. This change was unexpected by Xuan Jinbiao, and after barely coping with over a dozen rounds, he raised his hand in surrender to Ye Tufei.

  "Don't be discouraged, you've actually made a lot of progress. I think that even now, you're already enough to give Kudou Shinichi a headache."

  Zhan Jinbiao forced himself to cheer up and said, "Can we win against him?"

  Ye Tu shook his head and said, "From Wu Teng's footsteps and demeanor, as well as his air and expression, I can tell that this person is definitely a master. Even for me, there's no guarantee of winning against him."

  Looking for tickets!