It was just when Liam was about to come on stage that Netero gathered all his aura and entered Zetsu.
This frustrated the other martial artists.
Obviously, to avoid yesterday's situation—where Liam used those tactics and dragged the old man through an hour-long beating while Netero still couldn't fight back happily—he'd gone back, studied it a bit, and came up with the situation in front of them to deal with it...
But the problem was, before Liam came on stage, Netero still fought with other people normally, regardless of whether they'd learned Liam's tactics or not.
If you used Ko, he'd beat your Ko.
After using Ko a few times, the other martial artists began to scramble. Improper offense and defense, concentration scattered. It was easy for Netero to find an opening, point it out casually, then throw them out of the ring.
People like Wing had given up imitating Liam and competed in their own way.
But when Liam came on stage, Netero took a different posture and looked very interested. Even Wing felt a little unbalanced, but had to admit—Liam did things they couldn't do. Only by accomplishing that could you get special treatment from President Netero.
Liam, who received special treatment from Netero, slowly entered the ring.
Looking at the old man opposite who didn't have a trace of aura wrapped around his body, he said flatly, "Let me say this first: I won't compete with you in Zetsu just because you've entered Zetsu."
"No, no need." Netero waved his hand, twirled his goatee, took a step forward with a smile. "Just use whatever tricks you have."
Even though Liam knew this old man's martial arts skills were indeed heaven-defying, he was still unhappy to be looked down on like this.
Shizuku, watching the battle, heard the rock sparrow cry out in confusion. Saw the aura on its body increase slightly.
The other fighters who'd been beaten—and those about to line up to be beaten—looked at the ring and started talking.
"Even if Netero responds to the challenge with Zetsu, it's still very risky, right?"
"If Liam hadn't also entered Zetsu, with the intensity of his aura, if he really hit Netero maintaining Zetsu... hiss!"
You couldn't blame these people for thinking Netero was being excessive.
Zetsu had no aura protection. The physical body was too fragile. If he made a mistake and was touched by Liam's fists and feet full of aura, even Netero would be injured at minimum, killed at worst.
Yes, there were many ordinary people in the world without Nen abilities—athletes, soldiers, fighters, killers, bodyguards. Their physical defense and attack power based solely on fists and kicks were comparable to Superman. Could break steel with one punch, push a ten-ton boulder, even become invulnerable. Such examples weren't without precedent.
But the problem was, even if these people didn't have Nen ability and didn't know how to use aura, it just meant they had aura in them.
On the contrary, only those who'd learned Nen could put themselves into a real state of Zetsu. In the manga, Gon mastering Zetsu by imitating animals before even learning Nen was a very rare exception. Gon's example also showed that even if many ordinary masters didn't truly understand Nen, their ability to train their bodies to that superhuman quality must be because they'd mobilized their potential power intentionally or unintentionally. This power was life energy—the aura everyone had.
Those good at riding will fall. Those good at swimming will drown.
Those good at Nen will never...
Netero took a Zetsu stance to compete with Liam. His opponent Liam made it clear he wouldn't follow him into Zetsu, but Netero still didn't lift his Zetsu.
The more knowledgeable people were, the more they couldn't help feeling their scalps tingle at this moment.
"President, I think ordinary competitions are too boring," Pyon, who'd come to watch the excitement, commented. "He has to find something thrilling to find it interesting."
"Then why don't you follow Wing and the others for excitement?" Gel said. "Only when encountering a challenging opponent will the President's fighting spirit be stimulated."
"Can this be considered the President's opponent?"
"In life-or-death battles, there are opponents for life-or-death battles. When competing on stage, there are opponents for stage competition. There are also junior rivals among juniors receiving guidance," Gel said. "If he didn't have this mentality, the President, being number one in the world for so many years, would've become completely bored."
"That is to say, the President has long been overwhelmed by his high position. He needs to occasionally change his mentality and increase his own obstacles before he can—what's that?"
As Gel talked, she realized Pyon wasn't asking her but seeing the changes on the field.
The other martial artists watching the battle were even more surprised. The dark figure with eight arms that suddenly appeared behind Liam was so weird!
"Is that thing Liam's Nen beast?"
"Just like this..."
"Why does it look like the black skeleton that called itself Sky Master?"
While everyone whispered, Netero smiled. "Why, are you confident you can draw blood from me this time?"
"You're already like this. It's understandable if I'm a little cocky, right?"
Liam put his hands in a starting position. The aura wrapped around his body began to flow.
The Reflection Nen beast behind him was still floating in place, but Liam's figure had vanished.
He launched a fierce attack like yesterday. Suddenly rushed in front of Netero. All the aura on his body disappeared, completely concentrated in his right fist, and struck at Netero's chest. Netero was still in Zetsu state at this moment. If this punch hit him directly, even if the King of Heaven came, he couldn't stop this Ko punch from piercing Netero's chest and beating him to death.
But Netero didn't need the King of Heaven.
At this moment, time seemed to slow down.
Liam's fist, condensing a ball of light larger than a basketball, slowly approached Netero's chest in his old man's shirt and vest.
Netero slowly raised his eyebrows and looked at Liam slowly.
Liam's fist continued approaching, but a ball of aura slowly surged from Netero's chest, slowly colliding with the Ko on Liam's fist...
Liam punched Netero hard in the chest.
At least that's how it seemed to outsiders. Most of the martial artists on the sidelines with poor psychological quality immediately clenched their fists and dug their toes into the ground, trying hard not to rush into the ring to stop them. But when they saw that despite being forced to take this Ko punch, Netero didn't move at all, nor was he punched through the body, they realized—
This is the same technique as Liam!
Using his methods against him?
Liam was almost blown away by the aura pouring from Netero's chest. His arm was grabbed by Netero's hand.
Netero lifted his knee—bang!
Liam's defenseless abdomen took a hard hit.
The eight-armed Nen beast Reflection, swaying like black seaweed, suddenly paused and turned its ferocious head toward Netero.
Since Netero's chest was still in Zetsu except for defending Liam's fist, this knee strike was naturally a purely physical attack.
"This is called a tie." Old man Netero chuckled and glanced at Reflection, whose atmosphere suddenly changed.
Liam grimaced in pain. The Ko in his right fist dissipated and flowed to his attacked abdomen.
A layer of aura wrapped around Netero's feet. He raised his leg to kick Liam away.
Netero stepped forward and flew after him.
"You're really not good at Transmutation techniques."
Liam flew backward. The old man's voice followed like a shadow. "Ten is Ten, Ko is Ko. People that are not good at changing aura are also not good at transitioning between these two techniques..."
This meant Liam could either condense his whole body's aura into his fists to form Ko for attack, or condense it into his abdomen to form Ko for defense, but couldn't condense both fists and abdomen to semi-Ko simultaneously.
Of course, with similar offensive and defensive configurations, Liam could distribute more aura in his fists and abdomen in Ken state to achieve similar effects.
But similarity was similarity, not the same.
The difference between Ken and Ko, apart from intensity differences, was that the latter required more comprehensive fundamentals than the former.
To release the aura of the whole body with Ren, then use Ten to maintain it—this was Ken.
As for Ko, you needed to use whole-body Zetsu, maximum Ren, localized Ren was Gyo, and Gyo concentrated in one location was maintained with Ten. The powerful offensive and defensive power formed by the combination was naturally Ko. All these techniques needed to be used and maintained simultaneously.
Precisely because Ko required so many skills and such concentration, Liam's smooth switching of Ko gathering positions when competing with Netero shocked other martial artists and made it even harder to imitate. And even for Liam, it was difficult to use Ko on two body parts simultaneously—although strictly speaking, concentrating on one point was called Ko, but concentrating on two points didn't seem to qualify as Ko anymore.
Liam's heart pounded. He turned and swept his legs. Netero laughed and clapped his hands to block.
Neither his feet nor Netero's hands gathered aura.
"I won't guess wrong." The old man blinked.
Liam rose and fell, attacked again.
Still a feint, no aura condensed. As expected, Netero saw through it, blocked with bare hands, and struck back with an elbow, knocking Liam away.
Liam hooked Netero's elbow with his toes, spun around and kicked at Netero's face.
This kick rapidly condensed Ko!
Netero headbutted, almost knocking Liam's foot off.
A ball of aura gathered on the old man's head. He looked at the puzzled Liam with a smile.
Liam wondered, "Since most of your body is in Zetsu most of the time, how can you see the aura flow in my body after closing your aura nodes?"
"Of course I rely on experience to judge." Netero smiled and took the initiative.
Bang bang bang bang!
The two went back and forth. From Liam attacking more and defending less, gradually to Netero attacking more often. Liam defended continuously, and from time to time received a few rude punches from Netero.
Fortunately, Netero's attacks would only come after seeing through where Liam's aura was gathered. While using aura to defend at the attacked position, he'd use fists without aura to hit Liam.
Even so, after heavy punches, many places on Liam's body were already red, swollen and bruised. After all, when he used Ko, the other parts of his body that were attacked had no aura defense. And Netero, an old boxer over a hundred years old—even without aura enhancement, his fists were extremely hard, his punches accurate and cruel...
Pyon commented, "President, it's like playing whack-a-mole."
Gel nodded. "Where Liam's Ko is concentrated, that's the mole popping out. It's just that the President didn't hit the mole, but the place where the mole didn't pop out."
Netero was having fun with this junior when he suddenly saw that the injuries on Liam's body and the bruises under his skin, though not serious, had actually recovered.
"This resilience is a bit interesting!" Between offense and defense, Netero dodged Liam's punch without any aura, touched his goatee and thought, "This guy is probably a Manipulator. With his cleverness, he'll probably inflict manipulation on himself in advance to avoid being controlled by other Manipulators. If nothing else, this abnormal recovery ability is probably brought about by the Manipulation abilities this kid applied to himself."
A black claw sneaked from the side. After catching a glimpse from the corner of his eye, Netero dodged to avoid it.
Three arms attacked from different directions. Netero frowned slightly, raised a palm horizontally, carried aura to knock away Reflection, which suddenly launched a sneak attack.
While dealing with the Nen beast, Liam didn't miss this opportunity.
One punch with Ko struck at Netero.
Netero didn't even need to look to know this punch was real and couldn't be faked. He caught it with aura gushing from his hands, raised his foot to kick Liam—naturally without aura attached to this kick.
But at this moment, a sense of crisis not felt in many years came to mind.
Netero grabbed Liam's fist with one hand. Could clearly feel that the Ko in Liam's fist hadn't changed, hadn't moved away to defend the body being kicked by him...
But the area where Liam was being kicked had already gathered another mass of Ko.
If Netero kicked up with his "bare foot," it'd be like a mantis trying to stop a chariot. His foot would break constantly...
Shizuku, watching the match from the sidelines, was holding the little gray bird. The rock sparrow turned its head—bird's eyes full of human emotion. Liam, who'd activated the rock sparrow's Star Mark, possessed the bird's body as a second brain, assisted from the side. While the Ko on the main body's fist didn't move away, another mass of Ko was condensed on the attacked abdomen.
I'm not good at flexible changes in aura, but I'm not alone!
Liam took advantage of Netero's temporary withdrawal of the kick and launched a counterattack. He also kicked—no aura gathered on his feet. Netero couldn't gather aura to defend, so had no choice but to use his other hand to strike at Liam's kick. This way, both of Netero's hands were occupied. This time, Reflection finally knew how to cooperate with its host to seize the opportunity and launch a combo, hitting Netero with all eight arms.
Liam himself also took the opportunity to hit Netero.
Netero's old shirt was cut by Reflection. Liam hit perfectly. Naturally, it wasn't easy for him to explode with all his aura at the last moment and shock him to death or injury...
Liam stopped and jumped away quickly. A line of blood dripped from his fingers. On the opposite side, a shallow wound was cut on Netero's shoulder, dripping blood.
Liam was happy inside. Although Reflection's sneak attack was blocked by Netero, he'd finally succeeded.
He flicked a drop of Netero's blood to Reflection with a snap of his fingers. But at the same time, he saw Netero opposite him start to clasp his palms together...
In an instant, the world seemed to quiet down. Time slowed.
Netero's movements were clearly as fast as lightning, but Liam seemed to see him pious in his movements. Slowly and meticulously raising his hands, eyebrows bowed lovingly, palms joining together...
Hey, that's not—!
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