Chapter 178 - Persuasion Lesson
Hotblooded youths filled a hard shell roof top tent which was a temporary cultivation room.
Aside from the rotten brats Chu Feixiong brought from the military school, there were also Duan Lian, Xie Feng, and the other freshmen from Agricultural University’s martial arts course, along with the monster controller course freshmen who had a vague idea of how strong Meng Chao was through Wu Wu.
Dragon City was small. The new superhumans who managed to make it into university were mostly from one circle. They were either high school students from First High School, Second High School, and Construction High or had met each other through the high-school level competitions, which meant that they were familiar faces.
Hence, when the freshmen from military school and Agricultural University met each other, they started chatting while laughing.
“Xie Feng, I heard that this Meng Chao from your university’s martial arts course is a ruthless person and is skilled in crooked things and sneaking into other people’s dorms. He even wanted to put on a disguise to enter the women’s bath but was caught and received a notice of criticism, is that true?”
“There’s no other reason behind why we came here today. We just wanted to see how much of a rascal this bastard is.”
“Why did I hear that he wasn’t caught on the spot but had actually fled from the women’s bath? Agricultural University’s martial arts course and monster controller course sent ten fighters to catch him, right? But he hid in the bushes and ambushed them or launched sneak attacks. He used every trick conceivable and defeated all of them and nearly escaped through the university gate before the lecturers decided to take action and suppress him. That guy’s a genius! We have to meet him!”
Xie Feng, Duan Lian, and the other Agricultural University martial arts course freshmen felt humiliated.
No matter how despicable Meng Chao’s methods were, he was still one of theirs, and they could not allow people from another university to mock him this way.
Duan Lian and Xie Feng immediately mocked them back.
“Zhao Lei, while you were in Construction High, weren’t you really arrogant and said that nothing can possibly defeat you and you’ll submit to no one? Why is it that I heard that you aren’t having a good time in the military school’s martial arts course? You’re dragging the course down in all sorts of tournaments. You can’t get used to the brand new fighting style after you awakened to your supernatural abilities, huh?
“But even if you can’t get used to it, it’s fine. Meng Chao’s Ultimate Style might only be able to kill normal monsters, but it’d be good for you to learn it. You should clean your ears later and listen to him properly!”
“You too, Zhou Xiaotian, you had a really brilliant mind during high school, and you managed to get into the top eight or top three in the city during the tactical competitions. But why have I never heard your name since you joined the military school’s commanding course?”
The brats from the military school turned red.
“Who said that we’re not having a good time? I just don’t like the Gun Fighting Style. They’re not like martial artists or sharpshooters at all. They just care about their form and posing. They’re completely useless!”
“The lecturers and instructors are all idiots. They think that the strategies used during the expeditions twenty or even thirty years ago are the golden standard, and we can’t change them at all. They can’t see the genius behind the brand new strategy that I set up. I can’t be bothered with them!”
They spoke one after another, and when Meng Chao and Wu Wu arrived at the cultivation room, the atmosphere was already crackling with hostility.
“Meng Chao, why did you friend bring these jokers?” Xie Feng came up to him and whispered, “I know these guys. They’re all infamous delinquents and difficult students from their high school days. They’re the epitome of people who refuse to join any organization and don’t want to abide by the law, but love popularity and are filled with wild dreams.
“They cause trouble all the time, and their parents only sent them to the military school because they can’t do anything about them anymore. They want the military school to help them change their bad ways. These people aren’t really here to understand the Ultimate Style.”
“I know.” Meng Chao had never had any hopes of attracting the elites like Shao Jianqing from the military school.
Chu Feixiong also told him that most of the people he could gather were the weaklings from their respective courses.
Since they were placed at the tail end of their courses, it was either that they were lacking in the intelligence department or the physical department, or had problems with their emotions and personality.
But since they could get into the military school, they were definitely intelligent and physically strong, so aside from being wild, there was no other reason behind why they were ranked last.
However, there were also benefits behind being difficult, and it was that they were more willing to try new things and break conventions and biases.
Their attitude to the Ultimate Style was the same as to any other brand new strategy that might be launched by the Red Dragon Army.
Meng Chao knew that the Red Dragon Army had been fighting while focusing on counterattacks in the city for the past half a century.
Even during the Great Expedition Era, when they had sent armies forward, they just went straight to the enemy’s den ten times with soaring resolve. And when they fought against the monsters, they fought like surgeons dealing with a patient. They only targeted monsters who were incredibly brutal or arrogant and completely destroyed their nests as well as killed their kind.
The Red Dragon Army never built a fort in the depths of the fog to defend any area for a long time. Instead, they returned to Dragon City at the fastest speed possible.
It was because they were forced to do this. Their manpower, resources, and best fighting power were not high enough to allow them to expand in the wild, not when the environment was shattered and incredibly unstable.
Hence, right now, the classical strategies were treated as the golden standard by the Red Dragon Army and used to defend the city, for urban warfare, and raids against a certain target.
But they were not suited for large-scale wars where all fronts pushed forward to conquer and colonize the land.
In Meng Chao’s previous life, the Red Dragon Army paid a devastating price for the stagnation of their tactics.
Many of the military school’s top students only followed conventions and used the classical strategies from the textbooks, which resulted in many losses.
Then, some of the disobedient students who refused to adhere to the ways of the old and were not favored by the lecturers and instructors became the main force in reforming the strategies.
Meng Chao did not know whether there were any future tacticians among Chu Feixiong’s friends.
He smiled at them and moved forward to welcome them loudly. “Hi, everyone. I’m Meng Chao. I welcome you to explore this brand new fighting style called the Ultimate Style with me.
“We don’t want to hear about the Ultimate Style. We just want to know how you snuck into the women’s bath!” someone shouted from the back of the black mass of heads.
Laughter broke out.
Meng Chao laughed as well. He laughed for a full three seconds before he suddenly glared and released a sharp killing intent as he shouted, “Who said that?! Come out!”
He had the killing intent of someone who returned from the apocalypse. It was not something that a freshman in university could withstand.
All the freshmen shuddered, and the cultivation room fell silent.
“What, you have the guts to say it, but don’t have the guts to admit it?” Meng Chao looked at the military school students askance and put on a scornful, cold sneer.
“I said it!” A large military school student built like a bull pushed aside the people before him to arrive in front of Meng Chao. He spoke in a nonchalant manner. “I’m Zhang Hongjie, and I’m from the military school’s martial arts course. I heard that Chu Feixiong has a best friend who is especially amazing, and I came here to see just how amazing you are.
“Let me say this first, our time is precious, so if you really have an amazing martial art, bring it out. We’ll use iron-blooded coins, monster materials, or the martial arts from the military school in exchange for it. We won’t let you suffer any losses, but if you’re just boasting about it or are just trying to steal from us, then forget it. We’re just here to make up the numbers and show some respect to our friend.”
“You talk too much,” Meng Chao said coldly.
Zhang Hongjie was stunned, then flew into a rage. “What did you say?”
“We’re all martial artists here, and you’re a future soldier. Why are you wasting so much breath yakking away. Are you thinking about using your saliva to kill monsters?” Meng Chao sneered. “Compared to words, I prefer using my fists to talk. I believe that you will definitely have a deep impression of the Ultimate Style once I beat you up so badly that your parents won’t be able to recognize you.”
Zhang Hongjie thought about it. “Are you thinking about playing some trick? I heard that you’re really despicable!”
Meng Chao frowned. “Where did you hear that?”
Zhang Hongjie pointed at Chu Feixiong. “Him!”
Meng Chao found himself speechless.
Without a single word, he started removing his clothes.
Then, he removed his pants and combat boots.
In the end, he only had a pair of boxer shorts left on him.
“Since there are girls around, I won’t remove my shorts in case I scare them,” Meng Chao said faintly. “Come on. Today, I promise you that I will not use any tricks. I’ll let you witness the horrors of the Ultimate Style fairly and squarely!”
“Even if you use tricks, I’m not afraid!”
Zhang Hongjie removed his coat too and revealed the muscles underneath.
The specialty of the military school’s martial arts course was the Gun Fighting Style, so they paid attention to the fusion of martial arts and guns.
Hence, it was very easy for people to have the misconception that gunslingers were leaner than martial artists.
In ancient times, the archers were men built like bulls.
In the modern era, since the gunslingers had to carry machines and ammunition weighing dozens or even hundreds of kilograms and be steady and accurate while moving at high speed, their ability to carry great loads and their cardiorespiratory functions might even be better than those of cold weapons users.
Zhang Hongjie might be among the last in the military school’s martial artists, but it was not because he was lazy or did not have enough talent. It was because he looked down on the tactics used by the Gun Fighting Style. After all, they were invented to protect the city. He wanted to search for another path, but he just could not find the right direction.
But he had been training madly in secret, and the amount of training he did was not any lower than that of the Gun Fighting Style elites. Even if he did not have a gun in his hands, his eyes shone with a fierce light, which made it seem like he had turned into a heavy machine gun with fierce firepower.
Whoosh!
Bright spirit meridians wrapped around his hairy arms, and hundreds of black rays shot out to instantly envelope Meng Chao.
While the group was surprised, Meng Chao acted like an assault boat soaring through the waves. No matter how fierce the waves were, they never managed to sink the boat. Instead, it cut through the waves and continued moving forward.
In half a minute, Zhang Hongjie delivered more than one hundred fierce punches, and when his punching speed reached the maximum, the onlookers could not even see Meng Chao.
But he was unable to touch even a strand of Meng Chao’s hair, because whenever his powerful fists drew close, Meng Chao’s hair would sense it and allow its master to instinctively dodge it.
“This is…”
The onlookers could not believe their eyes.
They had seen nimble fighters before, but most of them needed some space to dodge.
Yet the onlookers had not even had the time to spread out before the two started fighting. So, the diameter of the space they had was less than 5 m., and their fight was limited to a circle with a diameter of 3 m.
Yet Meng Chao was able to lead Zhang Hongjie around in this tiny space. This was a display of shocking control!
Suddenly, Zhang Hongjie’s powerful fists came to a stop.
For some reason, his eyes bulged out of their sockets and became bloodshot. His throat turned purplish black and his face scrunched up as if he was in great pain.
Meng Chao was in a posture that was incredibly familiar to the military school students in front of him.
It was the second style of the Army Fist, Throat-piercing Kick!