CHAPTER 1031: CHAPTER 35: UNSTOPPABLE MOMENTUM

If there’s any area Lu Xuanyu needs to focus on, it must be "mounted martial skills."

Although there are similarities between mounted and foot combat, a general skilled in riding won’t become a second-rate fighter on the ground. But that’s all there is to it. Even a mythical novel like "Water Margin" knows to strictly distinguish mounted generals from foot combat experts.

For Lu Xuanyu, "horse control" was inherently challenging to practice. Most of his day was spent on "practicing martial arts," leaving little time to bond with a horse. In this respect, his gap with professional riders would only widen.

However, Xiang Shan solved this issue in an unexpected way.

That was, of course...

Prosthetic Body Horse.

The standardization modification surgery for mammals is already quite advanced. Superman Enterprise’s research over the years has been mainly about achieving a 100% success rate in human standardization modifications.

But when applied to horses, such a high success rate is unnecessary.

Even a 1% success rate doesn’t matter.

Considering Xiang Shan doesn’t care about so-called "purebred horses..."

The cost of materials could be further reduced.

To this, Lu Xuanyu had his doubts: "But does this count as horse racing?"

"Do we need to care about what those fools in the Horse Racing Association say?" Xiang Shan chuckled, "The ’breeding’ for shaping horse traits is no weaker than genetic modifications. Those purebred horses by the Horse Racing Association would be eliminated in minutes in the wild. Why does such an inefficient genetic modification technology consider itself nobler than real genetic modifications?"

"If you ask me, horse racing should have lifted these restrictions long ago, using genetic modifications and stimulants. After all, horses aren’t humans; it’s a great stage to showcase technology."

In short, under Xiang Shan’s insistence, Lu Xuanyu got a warhorse.

Lu Xuanyu’s horse had a higher modification rate than himself. The horse’s limbs were all replaced with prosthetic limbs, and its inefficient perissodactyl digestive system was mostly removed, replaced by a set of flexible material fermentation equipment inside, hosting a microbiota selected by Superman Enterprise to aid digestion—originally research done to explore the gut environment of benchmark humans.

The most critical "telepathic bond" was also bypassed in a cheating-like manner.

Simply put, Lu Xuanyu could directly send commands to the horse through a system. These commands would be received by the prosthetic body system in the horse, then translated into neurological signals understandable by the horse.

After this battle, this horse would receive an enviable retirement treatment. Xiang Shan would keep this eye-catching achievement horse to showcase the longer lifespan of metal-based organisms and the harmony between prosthetic bodies and native flesh.

Lu Xuanyu on this horse speared down the enemy.

The most challenging part of this trial was "horse control," yet, in such a situation, even if the horse wanted to lose control, the system would forcefully correct its actions.

Lance dueling was merely two riders charging at each other on different tracks, aiming to knock the opponent off in a fleeting moment. A fence in the middle of the tracks prevented the horses from colliding, and both riders were prohibited from injuring each other’s horses with lances. Simultaneously, the lances were forbidden to collide.

After resolving the horse control obstacles, the focus of this contest was down to "timing."

In this regard, the Benchmark Man had no reason to lose to Homo sapiens.

Perhaps this checkpoint was the boundary...

Or maybe signs had already emerged earlier.

Speed.

The founder of Jeet Kune Do, Bruce Lee, was a martial artist who emphasized "speed" greatly. Among many qualities of "speed" Lu Xuanyu was already outstanding. The "speed of his eyes" and "speed of his mind" had exceeded human limits due to changes in nerve cells. The speed of his exertion in hand-to-hand combat barely reached the rule limit.

What he truly needed to train was the "speed of executing moves," using the correct state, and posture to directly launch attacks. Additionally, he needed the ability to change direction mid-movement — which included balance and control of inertia.

This was also his most crucial training focus in the past year.

No martial artist solely focused on such a narrow field of training. Martial artists have too much to train.

Lu Xuanyu, however, mastered this divine speed.

In another battle, he faced the new generation of the Philippine Stick King. The Philippine short stick skill, derived from ancient South Asian bladesmanship, was popular globally in the last century and bears roots with the military and police stick techniques of various modern countries. Jeet Kune Do founder Bruce Lee loved this martial art. Thus, it was also one of the martial studies where Lu Xuanyu invested considerable effort. Interestingly, Lu Xuanyu’s opponent also had a connection to Bruce Lee - Dan Inosanto, a Filipino stick skill grandmaster and disciple of Bruce Lee, developed his weapon style using Jeet Kune Do’s martial art philosophy after Bruce Lee’s death due to Bruce Lee’s rule of not teaching martial arts under Jeet Kune Do’s name. This enemy was from Inosanto’s Martial Arts School.

The two martial artists, each holding four short sticks, clashed in the ring’s center. The sticks turned into four phantoms, colliding at speeds hard for ordinary people to grasp, with sounds as dense as a melody.

Their footwork was nearly symmetrical. This hard-hitting match exhilarated Lu Xuanyu.

Until he struck the back of the opponent’s hand with his stick, Lu Xuanyu realized the opponent’s condition was slipping, he couldn’t keep up anymore.

The eyes of the stick skill master now only showed fear.

Lu Xuanyu accurately intercepted each stick aiming to hit his body. Under the protective gear, his tiger’s mouth had turned bluish-purple.

This was not an opponent one could overpower...

An Olympic fencing champion was disarmed by Lu Xuanyu’s Swift Sword.

Cangzhou’s Divine Spear was knocked to the ground by Lu Xuanyu’s Liuhe Spear.

The Eight Slash Saber expert from Hong Kong Island, his protective gear full of slash marks from two daggers.

In the past year, Lu Xuanyu underwent the most intense training every day. He was thinking, but not enough - he used to think like a traditional martial artist. Now, he detached his mindset and learned to master the thinking style he acquired from Xiang Shan and others to contemplate his martial arts.

Many martial studies learned in the past reassembled and sublimated within him, gradually refining into something new.

"Hah—!" With a strange shout, the Taekwondo celebrity and Olympic champion from the Republic was kicked by Lu Xuanyu out of the ring in less than a second.

"Ada!" With another strange roar, a young Mongolian sumo champion was hit in the chest three times like lightning, expelling the air from his lungs, and losing balance due to dizziness.

It seemed no human could halt his winning streak.