"It's Aokawa!"
Hyuga Ryosuke's voice was firm and resonant.
Hyuga Kamon's brain buzzed, going completely blank.
Impossible!
Absolutely impossible!
He grabbed Hyuga Ryosuke's shoulders abruptly, his knuckles turning white from agitation.
"You're talking nonsense!"
His voice trembled, filled with both shock and the fury of a desecrated faith.
"Aokawa... he gave up the Gentle Fist a long time ago!"
"He uses those... those strange Ninjutsu! It's not the same thing as the Gentle Fist at all!"
In the eyes of Hyuga Kamon, a Gentle Fist supremacist, Aokawa had taken a heterodox path.
Powerful, but not the Gentle Fist.
How could someone who abandoned the Gentle Fist teach others its Profound Truth!
"I'm not talking nonsense!"
Hyuga Ryosuke shook off his hands and argued back with a stiff neck.
"I felt it... just by watching him fight!"
He couldn't say that Aokawa had taught him personally.
But the Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms that Aokawa taught him was indeed a bit different.
It wasn't just a simple imitation of Moves, but a way of using Chakra, a brand-new understanding that opened a door in his mind.
"Watch?"
"Comprehension?"
Hyuga Kamon looked as if he had heard the world's biggest joke; the shock on his face slowly faded, replaced by an expression mixed with disappointment and stubbornness.
"Fine, I'll show you how ridiculously wrong your so-called 'comprehension' is!"
Before his voice even faded, Hyuga Kamon moved again.
This time, he didn't hold back.
The same Eight Trigrams starting stance, but his Aura was several times sharper than before.
*Slap!*
The two men's palms met.
Hyuga Ryosuke only felt a force far exceeding the previous one, making his entire arm go numb.
"Second palm, the point of exertion is wrong, your wrist is too stiff!"
Hyuga Kamon's voice exploded in Ryosuke's ear like a thunderclap.
He changed Moves smoothly, his palm like a butterfly fluttering through flowers, bypassing Ryosuke's block and striking toward his Jianjing Point.
Hyuga Ryosuke was startled and hurriedly dodged to the side.
"Fourth palm, the Chakra output is unstable, you've wasted at least thirty percent!"
"Eighth palm, your footwork can't keep up with your palm techniques, your offense and defense are unbalanced!"
Every one of Hyuga Kamon's rebukes was accompanied by a pinpoint-accurate attack, each strike hitting the flaws where Hyuga Ryosuke's movements were distorted or his Chakra failed during his execution of the Sixty-Four Palms!
*Bang! Bang! Bang!*
Hyuga Ryosuke was forced back repeatedly, fine beads of sweat breaking out on his forehead.
His face flushed red, but he couldn't utter a single word of rebuttal.
Because everything Hyuga Kamon said was correct.
His Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms did indeed have these issues; Aokawa had mentioned them before, but he hadn't fully corrected them yet.
*Bang!*
Hyuga Kamon's final palm lightly pressed against Hyuga Ryosuke's chest.
Hyuga Ryosuke let out a muffled groan, staggering back seven or eight steps before barely managing to steady himself.
"Do you see now, Ryosuke?"
Hyuga Kamon withdrew his hand and stood in place, looking at him with a complex gaze.
"This is the gap!"
"The Secret Techniques of the Main House are the crystallization of the blood and sweat of countless generations of ancestors; every movement and every flow of Chakra is the optimal solution!"
His voice carried an unquestionable pride.
"That set of yours is nothing more than a crude imitation that lacks the spirit despite having the form!"
"This is an insult to the Gentle Fist!"
He looked at the unwilling Hyuga Ryosuke and took a deep breath, his tone heavy.
"As for Aokawa..."
"He has walked onto an Evil Path!"
"Powerful, but without Foundation!"
"If you follow him, you will ruin yourself sooner or later!"
Hyuga Ryosuke clenched his fists tightly, his nails sinking into his flesh.
He was not convinced.
But he didn't know how to argue back.
Just as the atmosphere in the Training Ground froze to the breaking point.
A calm voice sounded behind the two of them without any warning.
"Evil Path?"
"Without Foundation?"
The voice wasn't loud, but it carried a hint of faint playfulness.
Both were startled and turned their heads sharply toward the sound.
At some point, Aokawa had appeared in a corner of the Training Ground, looking at them calmly with a faint, indiscernible smile on his lips.
Hyuga Kamon's heart constricted, and a surge of anger—a mix of embarrassment and feeling offended—rushed to his head.
"Aokawa!"
He practically ground his teeth as he uttered the name.
"What right does someone who abandoned the Gentle Fist have to give orders here?!"
Seeing Aokawa, Hyuga Ryosuke felt as if he had found his pillar of support and hurriedly shouted, "Aokawa, Homon he..."
Aokawa raised his hand, signaling him that there was no need to say more.
His gaze fell on Hyuga Kamon as he spoke calmly.
"When did I ever say that I abandoned the Gentle Fist?"
"You!"
Hyuga Kamon was choked by these words, and his anger grew even more intense.
"Sophistry!"
"Do you think that by relying on some flashy Ninjutsu to luckily achieve merits on the Battlefield, you can negate the Profound Truth of the Gentle Fist passed down by our ancestors?"
"Today, I'll show you what the real Gentle Fist is!"
As soon as he finished speaking, the Chakra in Hyuga Kamon's body surged, he pushed off with his feet, and he charged at Aokawa like an arrow leaving a bow.
He wanted to use the most orthodox and fierce palm technique to crush the arrogance of this "traitor"!
"Eight Trigrams Thirty-Two Palms!"
The palm wind whistled, aimed directly at the major acupoints on Aokawa's chest.
However, Aokawa still stood in place, not even bothering to take a Gentle Fist stance.
He only slowly raised his eyes.
In that instant, the veins around his eye sockets bulged, and his pure white eyes saw through everything.
Byakugan!
In Aokawa's vision, Hyuga Kamon's movements were slowed down infinitely.
The surging Chakra, in his view, was full of redundancy and waste.
The trajectory of the exertion was even more laughably stiff.
"Too slow."
Aokawa softly uttered three words.
Just as Hyuga Kamon's palm was about to touch his clothes.
He moved.
He simply reached out his right hand and, with incredible speed, deflected Hyuga Kamon's attacking arm.
*Tap.*
A soft sound.
Hyuga Kamon felt as if his right arm had been pricked by a steel needle, and a tiny but extremely precise amount of Chakra instantly bored into his body.
That Chakra was like a wedge, arrogantly interrupting the originally smooth flow within him.
His proud, fierce palm power instantly vanished like a popped balloon at that moment.
His entire arm went numb and sore, unable to muster even a shred of strength.
What happened?!
Hyuga Kamon's pupils constricted violently, and a storm of shock surged in his heart.
Refusing to believe it, his left palm followed immediately, changing Moves to attack Aokawa's lower body.
"Full of openings."
Aokawa's voice rang out again.
His figure shifted slightly, as if he had just casually turned his body, perfectly dodging the strike.
At the same time, he joined his fingers like a blade and struck out again with his left hand.
This time, he struck the side of Hyuga Kamon's waist, where his power originated.
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