Heavy!
It's getting heavier and heavier!
Each of the opponent's strikes seemed to possess endless power, and even increased with each clash!
His once-proud superhuman strength began to feel the pressure. From the initial even match, after dozens of rounds, every time the weapons clashed, his arm would feel a clear soreness and numbness. The web between thumb and forefinger faintly ached, and the iron rod seemed to become heavier and heavier.
On the other hand, the young man opposite him, although he was also knocked back many times in head-on collisions, his eyes became brighter and brighter, his momentum did not decrease but increased, and the power of his swings increased!
Is this guy a monster?!
Fine beads of sweat appeared on Soichiro Yagyu's forehead, and the trembling of his arms became increasingly difficult to control.
He never imagined that he would be forced to such a state by a young newcomer in his most prized area of strength!
That strength was simply not something a human could possess! Each collision was like shaking a ferocious beast that was awakening!
They exchanged another seven or eight rounds.
Each clash of sword and iron rod produced a heart-stopping explosion.
Soichiro Yagyu's forehead was covered in sweat, and his breathing became heavy.
He felt as if he were not wielding an iron rod, but pushing a growing mountain.
The opponent's power seemed inexhaustible, and what was even more terrifying was the increasingly concentrated momentum contained in the sword's strike.
Each clash caused his blood to surge, and the soreness and numbness in his arms had spread to his shoulder blades.
The knuckles of his fingers, which were gripping the iron rod tightly, turned white and stung from excessive force.
This can't go on any longer!
Alarm bells rang in Soichiro Yagyu's mind.
After a long battle, his stamina, chakra, and momentum were being gradually worn down and suppressed by the opponent's unreasonable power.
If he waits until he's exhausted before changing his tactics, he might not have another chance.
"Ha!"
After another straightforward head-on collision, Soichiro Yagyu used the recoil to leap back, temporarily creating distance. His chest heaved violently as he stared intently at Isshin, whose eyes remained burning with unwavering intensity.
Without a word, Soichiro Yagyu frantically poured the remaining power and chakra within his body into his arms and into the dark iron rod that was connected to his very spirit.
The next moment, he moved!
Condensing his entire essence, energy, and spirit into a single point, he raised the iron rod high overhead.
His whole body and the iron rod seemed to fuse into one, transforming into a streak of black lightning that tore through the air along the purest, most direct path.
"Tranquil Mind and Enlightened Wisdom Secret Art: A Moment of Enlightenment!!!"
This is his trump card, concentrating all his power into a single, unstoppable strike, aiming to blast through all defenses with absolute violence and dismantle the opponent's will and body.
Before the iron rod even landed, the immense pressure it exerted had almost solidified the air in the entire training ground. The onlookers felt their hearts clench, and their breath stuck in their throats!
Faced with this earth-shattering, unavoidable attack, an unprecedented glint of light burst forth in Isshin's eyes.
He exhaled while gripping the katana, which was already covered with fine cracks, with both hands. Without dodging or avoiding, he once again chose the most fierce head-on attack, slashing upwards with a reverse strike!
"Come!!"
"Clang!!"
This time, the sound of the impact was far louder than ever before, so sharp it almost pierced the eardrums, followed by a teeth-grinding, crystal-clear crack sound!
Under the full force of Soichiro Yagyu's enlightenment strike, Isshin's fine steel katana, which had withstood numerous heavy blows, finally succumbed to the pressure and broke in two!
Half of the blade spun out and flew off, embedding itself deeply into the distant wall with a thud.
When the iron rod shattered the katana, its momentum was reduced by only three-tenths. Still carrying terrifying residual force, it sliced through the flying fragments from the broken blade and smashed straight down toward Isshin's head, whose guard was completely open due to the broken weapon!
"This is bad!"
Just before the iron rod touched the other party's hair, Soichiro Yagyu's heart sank.
Although he wanted to teach this hothead young man a lesson, he never intended to take his life. However, once this enlightenment strike was activated, even he found it difficult to completely stop it at the last moment when he exerted his full strength!
In that critical moment, before even a cry of alarm could be uttered… a sudden change has occurred!
The tall young man's body in the arena seemed as though someone had pressed pause, entering an extremely brief, almost imperceptible moment of stillness.
A strange luster suddenly swept across his entire body, a kind of deep, metallic texture, like bronze or dark gold that had been forged through countless hammerings, which flashed by in an instant!
"Clang!!!"
The iron rod slammed heavily into Isshin's skull!
Yet what rang out was no dull thud of flesh being hit, but a resounding metallic boom, as if a giant bell had crashed against a bronze pillar, or an iron hammer hitting a tempered steel anvil!
Soichiro Yagyu felt an irresistible and overwhelming force of recoil, originating from the opponent's head, rushing back along the iron rod like a tidal wave!
The recoil was so fierce and violent that it even surpassed his desperate enlightenment strike just now!
"What?!"
He couldn't hold on at all; his five fingers went instantly numb from the shock, and the dark iron rod that had accompanied him in battle for many years flew out of his hand for the first time, turning into a black shadow.
With a loud boom, it flew into the sky and disappeared without a trace.
After a long time, it crashed down heavily and embedded itself deeply in the ground, still trembling.
As for Soichiro Yagyu himself, it was as if he had been struck head-on by an invisible hammer, and his burly body flew backward uncontrollably.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
He crashed through two wooden pillars that supported the side corridor and slid for more than ten meters through a mess of rubble and dust until his back slammed heavily against the wall at the end of the Dojo, before finally coming to a stop.
"Cough...cough cough!"
He knelt on one knee, unable to hold back his cough, which had a taste of iron. His arms hung limp, trembling incessantly, and he could barely lift them.
He suddenly looked up, staring intently at the boy in the center of the arena who was slowly finishing his stance, seemingly unharmed except for the half-broken sword in his hand. His eyes were filled with disbelief and horror.
"What... What kind of technique is this?"
Soichiro Yagyu gasped, his voice hoarse. "Ninjutsu? Or some kind of Kekkei Genkai?"
Isshin stood still, the eerie metallic sheen on his body long gone, returning to his normal skin color.
He glanced at the broken sword in his hand, casually tossed it to the ground with a soft clatter, and shook his head in response to Soichiro Yagyu's surprised question, saying calmly: "It is neither Ninjutsu nor Kekkei Genkai, but the ultimate hidden technique of the Ashina Style."
His clone, which incorporated the genes of Monkey King Enma, inherited the Adamantine Monkey Clan's immense strength and domineering physique, but did not inherit its strange ability to weaponize its body.
However, a certain benign mutation that occurred when human blood and Adamantine Monkey Clan's blood merged at a deep level gave rise to a unique ability: His body can metallize in an instant, his entire body exhibiting a dark, bronze luster, as if cast from iron, much like the Adamantine Nyoi of the Adamantine Monkey Clan, which transforms the body into a weapon, raising the hardness and strength of his body to an unbelievable level.
At the same time, he can also reflect the powerful impact he receives back in the form of a more violent shock wave, and its recoil power is even greater than the original attack.
Interestingly, the shorter the duration of this metallized state and the more precise and timely its triggering, the stronger the resulting defensive capabilities and rebound force.
Just like perfect defense and parry in action games, the best time to release it is at the moment when the enemy's attack is about to hit you.
Because the form and effect of this ability resembled a certain move of a dark horse character from a game in his previous life's memories, he adopted that powerful-sounding name.
"This technique is called..."
Isshin met Soichiro Yagyu's shocked gaze and slowly uttered: "Bronze Head and Iron Arms!"