Abandoning the sharpest blade, he now wielded the gentlest palm strike.
That was Linne's school, and Netero understood it well.
The lifelong martial essence of an old friend now stood opposite him in this setting and moment.
It should be a joyful matter, but Netero couldn't feel any joy.
The reason was that Law discarded his long blade. That action seemed to tell him: In this life-or-death struggle, even without using full strength, I can handle you.
Whether Law intended to look down on him or not, this behavior indeed was looking down.
In response, Netero slowly suppressed the surprise in his eyes, calmly withdrawing the 100-Type Guanyin with one shattered arm.
His heart was calm, like a stubborn rock… his body stood straight.
He waited for the next round. The Aura enveloping him remained 100% stable, unaffected, representing emotional stability.
Under Netero's calm gaze, Law slowly retracted his stance, then turned sideways to face Netero. His right hand extended forward, bent, palm up, facing himself.
He had gone to great lengths to save Netero not to have a life-or-death fight at this moment.
But he could understand Netero's actions.
Although it seemed abnormal to outsiders, in their eyes, it was normal.
It was merely the ultimate pursuit.
The current Netero was equivalent to him, who would go to the Dark Continent no matter what.
Despite knowing each voyage posed potential risks to the Six Continents, he would deliberately avoid these, focusing solely on matters of the Dark Continent.
"Using Linne's 'soft' to break your 'hard' should suffice."
Law murmured to himself, then took a step forward.
He couldn't kill Netero and was willing to endure the life-and-death pressure Netero imposed on him, but he would completely defeat Netero.
[Instant]
Law began to show signs of taking the initiative.
Emission-type Nen acted on his entire body, pushing him dozens of meters away instantly. In the time of a single blink, he openly arrived before Netero.
Netero's line of sight didn't follow Law, but his 'mind's eye' clearly saw Law's movements. So when Law appeared, his hands were already in the prayer gesture.
Hands rise, palms fall.
Guanyin's chopping palms fell simultaneously from left and right, while Law had only one right arm.
Law raised his right hand, first meeting the left palm strike from Guanyin, catching it head-on, pressing his single palm against Guanyin's golden palm.
[Dispel]
Law's palm stuck firmly to Guanyin's golden hand like a toilet plunger, then he retreated one step, pushing left, pulling Guanyin's palm strike to the left.
Boom!
Among the spectators outside the field, some saw clearly, others didn't.
Ging was one who saw clearly. He clearly saw Law, using some method, briefly dispelled most of the force from Guanyin's palm strike.
Then, Law used force against force, pulling Guanyin's left palm to strike its own right palm.
Bang bang bang!
To outsiders, 100-Type Guanyin's many palms struck at Law one after another, but inexplicably turned into hands fighting each other.
Left palms struck right palms, right palms struck left palms.
This was a rather bizarre scene. The instigator, Law, stood several meters before Netero. Apart from retreating one step initially, his feet seemed rooted, unmoving on the spot.
Netero's prayer gestures constantly changed. Behind him, 100-Type Guanyin unleashed a storm-like flurry of palm strikes at Law.
However, Law's slowly moving right hand in front always pulled the previous palm strike onto the next, forcing 100-Type Guanyin to continuously fight with its own hands.
It was hard to imagine how Law's slow movements kept up with 100-Type Guanyin's lightning-fast palm strike speed.
One side was extremely fast; the other was slow. Yet both merged into the [Wind-Palm Rain-Strike] in this inexplicable manner.
Upon careful observation, one could see Law's right hand, moving left and right, vaguely drawing an endless loop-like [∞] trajectory in the air. Netero's palm strikes followed this infinitely looping path.
From left to right, then right to left.
No matter how fast, no matter how many palm strikes, no matter how tricky the angle chosen, there would always be two palms colliding at the trajectory's midpoint, then separating, followed by the next pair repeating the same.
Law's technique essentially connected to the 'four ounces deflects a thousand pounds' concept in Tai Chi. But that was Linne's Gentle Palm. At the moment Nen and Aura collided, it not only assimilated part of the force but also dealt with Nen and Aura simultaneously.
But Linne wasn't like Law, deliberately pulling the enemy's attacks to create a left-right mutual combat situation.
If it were her, she'd use her self-developed Nen, supplemented by Gentle Palm techniques, forming a move that crushes the enemy from outside to inside at once.
But leaving aside the exaggerated strength and hardness of 100-Type Guanyin, Law didn't have Linne's Nen Ability with [Steal] and [Fusion] characteristics. So he couldn't achieve Linne's level.
However, he had other methods of use, namely the current forced hands-fighting-each-other.
As the saying goes, the master leads you in, but training depends on the individual. This saying isn't without reason.
Linne led Law in, teaching him Gentle Fist techniques. But Law didn't 'memorize rigidly'… instead, he fused his strengths with Gentle Fist, thus rivaling Netero's 100-Type Guanyin.
Like a vortex-like domain, it firmly restricted Netero, not letting him break free.
Outside, spectators like Shoot were dumbfounded.
"What level of fight is this?"
Not only were they dumbfounded, they were somewhat confused.
Because they could no longer see Netero's palm strikes clearly, yet they could see Law's movements clearly.
That extreme contradiction felt like the teeth-grating sound of a saw harshly grinding against steel, tormenting their eyes and their thoughts.
The others could only watch the intense battle inside speechlessly.
It was like watching an incredibly good movie. Even if holding a liter of urine, they wouldn't leave their seats, nor would they look away.
Inside, the situation was deadlocked.
At least, Netero thought so, and the other spectators thought so too.
But Netero wasn't anxious. Even though his palm strikes were like lightning, what he thought was to slowly experience this process, then find the shortcomings he always unconsciously overlooked, or perhaps negligible small habits.
'Good, continue like this.'
Netero thought to himself.
But a tiny crack suddenly appeared on one of 100-Type Guanyin's arms, as if Law sensed Netero's thoughts and decided not to continue.
With the first crack came the second, the third...
The speed of fine cracks appearing grew faster, fast enough for Netero to notice.
It was... erosion!
The calm on Netero's face was completely shattered.
Unbeknownst to him, Law's Nen had seeped in.
Crack, crack.
Spiderweb-like patterns covered all twenty-two arms of 100-Type Guanyin, like a man returning home to find an affair… utterly unexpected.
Then, under everyone's gaze, Law, who had been standing still, took a step.
Consequently, 100-Type Guanyin's many arms suddenly turned into countless golden fragments, embracing the entire space where Law stood.
Immediately after, Law's figure passed through the sea of golden fragments, taking another step, reaching the so-called dead line.
His right palm gently pressed against Netero's chest.