radicalducati Chapter 406 Gain a Firm Foothold
Chapter 406 Gain a Firm Foothold
Nie Lingfeng's eyes were fixed on the arena, his expression calm. Not the kind of calm that was feigned while his heart was pounding, but a genuine calm that emanated from his very bones.
He turned around and looked at the field.
As Lu Linglong faced the oncoming wave of earth and rocks, she actually closed her eyes.
The wave of earth and rock is getting closer, two meters, one and a half meters, one meter...
Her eyelashes trembled slightly, but she didn't open her eyes.
In his mind, the mantra of the Ice Heart Technique flowed like a clear spring.
It wasn't her reciting; the words were reciting themselves. Sixteen characters lit up in her consciousness, each stroke gleaming with golden light.
"A pure heart remains unperturbed even when the sky falls. Amidst countless changes, one remains calm and serene..."
The sound grew closer and louder. Gravel spun and collided in the air, making a crackling sound. Dust billowed in, carrying the smell of cement and dirt.
Her body seemed to have become part of the wind.
It wasn't her controlling the wind; it was the wind controlling her. Her body became incredibly light, almost weightless. Her consciousness became crystal clear, as if devoid of any impurities.
Light, agile, and elusive.
Just as the wave of earth and rocks was about to engulf her—
She moved.
Lightly touch the ground with your toes.
It wasn't a "point," it was a "touch"—the front half of my foot almost brushed against the ground, not a step. My whole body floated up without any warning.
It's not jumping. Jumping is about forcefully moving upwards, bending your knees and shrugging your shoulders. She's "floating"—her knees aren't bent, her shoulders aren't shrugging, and her body floats straight up, like a feather being blown by the wind.
Her body floated up lightly.
She spun and tumbled in the air, passing through the gaps in the waves of earth and rocks at incredible angles and in incredible postures.
The pebbles flew past her ears, grazed her nose, and slipped under her armpits. But none of them hit her—each spin just barely avoided a pebble, each tumble just barely avoided a clump of dirt.
Like a butterfly in flight, graceful and composed. Her movements are slow, so slow that you can see every spin and every tumble. Yet, she is also incredibly fast—the pebbles flying through the air are faster than she is, but she manages to dodge them before they hit her.
Then, she made a turn in mid-air.
It wasn't a turn, it was a shift—the body changed direction without any support. A normal person would need to use their core strength to turn in mid-air, but she used "wind"—her body slightly tilted, and her direction changed.
Headfirst, feetfirst, a fierce whip kick fell like a meteor, striking straight at Mendes' head!
"Wind God Leg Technique 3 - Torrential Rain and Gale!"
This kick brought together all the strength of her body. From toes to heels, from heels to ankles, from ankles to calves, from calves to thighs, from thighs to waist and abdomen, from waist and abdomen to arms—all the strength of her body was concentrated in this one kick.
With the howling of the wind, it poured down like a torrential rain!
"call--!!!"
That sound wasn't the wind from the legs—the wind from the legs isn't that strong. It was the sound of air being torn apart, as if something had ripped open in the sky.
Mendes looked up at the approaching legs.
The shadow of the leg magnified in his pupils, growing from the size of a fist to the size of a washbasin, and from the size of a washbasin to the size of something that blotted out the sky.
An expression of disbelief appeared in his eyes.
He had lived for so many years and seen many masters, including many masters of leg techniques. But he had never seen a leg like this—it wasn't fast, but you couldn't dodge it; it wasn't heavy, but you couldn't block it. Because it didn't come from the outside, it came from within you. When you saw it, your body would disobey you.
He tried to escape, but it was too late.
The leg landed.
"Bang!!!"
A dull, loud bang.
It wasn't a "thud," it wasn't a "bang," it was a "thud"—the sound of a heavy object hitting flesh, muffled, heavy, and solid. It sounded like someone was hitting a cow with a hammer.
Mendes was slammed into the ground by the kick.
It felt like an invisible giant hammer was smashing down on my head, my legs bent, my knees hit the ground, and then my whole body fell down.
A huge crater had been smashed into the ground! The crater was about two meters in diameter and knee-deep, with cracked cement and dirt around the edges. Mendes lay in the crater, half-buried, face up, eyes rolled back.
He was foaming at the mouth, with white foam oozing from the corners of his mouth and running down his cheeks.
He has completely lost consciousness.
The entire room fell silent.
The gravel was still falling from the sky, landing on the ground with a "crackle" sound, which was becoming increasingly sparse.
Dust still lingered, forming a layer of gray fog in the air.
No one speaks.
You can't even hear them breathing.
A moment later—
Zhang Chulan was the first to react.
His mouth was wide open, his jaw almost dropping to his chest. His eyes were wide open like saucers, and his pupils shrank to pinpoints in the flashlight beam—no, in the sunlight.
Then, he let out a cheer.
"Holy crap! Linglong won! That's awesome!"
His voice echoed through the empty street, creating several layers of resonance.
Wang Zhenqiu couldn't help but applaud. "Clap clap clap," his applause was particularly loud in the silence.
"That's incredible! He only practiced for one night and he was able to defeat the local bully of Paradise. That talent is insane! Tell Chu Lan, who's the more monstrous one between you two?"
"Hey!" Zhang Chulan protested.
Lu Linglong landed on the ground.
Her legs felt a little weak—the last kick had taken too much effort, and her knees buckled when she landed, almost causing her to lose her balance. She braced herself with her hands and regained her footing.
She was breathing slightly heavily, her chest rising and falling. Beads of sweat glistened on her nose, and her hair was damp and clung to her forehead. Her lips were a little dry, and her mouth was slightly open as she breathed.
Her face was flushed with excitement, the blush spreading from her cheeks to the tips of her ears.
She turned to look at Nie Lingfeng.
His eyes sparkled with anticipation, like a child who had just gotten a perfect score on a test and was waiting for his parents to sign it.
"Master, I...I did it!"
Her voice was slightly breathless, but it didn't affect the clarity of each word. Her eyes were bright, and her lips trembled slightly—not from the cold, but from excitement.
Nie Lingfeng looked at her.
My gaze lingered on her face for a few seconds, noticing the light in her eyes, the smile on her lips, and her slightly trembling fingers.
Then, a rare smile appeared on his lips.
The smile wasn't big; it was just a tiny upward curve at the corners of the mouth. So small that it was almost imperceptible unless you looked closely. But it was real.
"Well done."
Four words.
Not many. But every word seemed carefully chosen, not one more, not one less.
Upon hearing those four words, Lu Linglong's eyes instantly welled up with tears. Not from sadness, but from the feeling of being recognized. That feeling excited her even more than when she defeated Mendes.
She did it.
She really did it!
Meanwhile, the members of the amusement park who had been watching from the shadows—from behind broken windows, from behind iron gates, from cracks in the roof, from the shadows of the garbage heap—all gasped in shock when they saw Mendes defeated.
"hiss--"
It wasn't one sound, but many sounds piled together, like a gust of wind blowing through the alley.
Those gazes, initially filled with contempt, greed, and ill intent, transformed into awe and apprehension. The eyes looking at Nie Lingfeng and his group were brimming with complex emotions.
Those who can survive in a place like amusement park all understand one principle—might makes right.
It's not that "the strong are respected," it's that "the strong are the rules." If you're strong, what you say is right; if you're weak, your very existence is wrong. There's no logic to it, no fairness to speak of.
And this girl, who looks quite young, was able to defeat Mendes—the one who had been running rampant in the park for years and had dozens of thugs under his command—so how strong must the people behind her be?
From this day forward, no one will dare to underestimate these outsiders.
Nie Lingfeng looked around and sensed the awe and fear in the eyes hidden in the shadows—not anger or jealousy, but an instinctive, bone-deep fear when faced with incomprehensible power.
He nodded in satisfaction.
This was the effect he wanted. In a place like amusement park, there's no need for reasoning, no need for appeasement, no need for making friends. All you need to do is let them know—we're not to be trifled with.
"Let's go."
He said calmly, shifting his gaze away from the ruins.
"Let's go deeper into the park."
The group walked past the unconscious Mendes.
As Zhang Chulan walked past Mendes, he glanced down at him—Mendes was still foaming at the mouth, his eyelids twitching slightly, as if he were having a nightmare. Then he shook his head and walked past him.
When Feng Baobao walked by, she stopped, looked down at him for two seconds, then took out half a cucumber from her pocket and placed it on his chest.
"Here, have some." She said and left.
We walked deeper into the park.
Sunlight streamed through the gaps in the abandoned factory buildings, casting long shadows behind them. Those shadows stretched out long across the rubble and dust, like black rivers winding through the ruins.
The storm on Nathan Island has only just begun.