147 Testing Nearby

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For Fuji's third ball, it was still the "Vanishing Serve." Yang Tang returned it as before. This time, Fuji anticipated it in advance and managed to chase down the trajectory, but the moment his racket touched the ball, it was instantly knocked flying, and at the same time, Fuji's wrist was slightly sprained.

Fortunately, the wrist strength Fuji used to grip the racket wasn't as strong as Kawamura's; otherwise, receiving this shot would not have resulted in a mere slight wrist sprain, but a tear like Kawamura's.

"40:0, Xuan Yuan leads!"

Yet Fuji was still unwilling to give up, insisting on continuing the match against Yang Tang.

Yang Tang showed no mercy. Regardless of whether he was serving or returning, he used Mode 1 for every return. His own fifty percent strength, combined with the "Powerful Penetration" special effect, made Fuji dare not risk trading blows with him directly.

However, Fuji was not foolish. He was waiting—waiting for the power of Yang Tang's serves and returns to wane.

Unfortunately, until the end of the entire set—

"Game score 6:0, Xuan Yuan wins this set!"

Fuji still did not see the power of Yang Tang's serves and returns diminish.

On the sidelines, the Horio trio cheered first.

"Whoa, Ah-Tang won!"

"Really? Ah-Tang actually won!"

"It feels like a dream. Echizen, what do you think?"

Oishi, Kikumaru, and the others wore expressions of sheer disbelief. You must realize that the person Yang Tang defeated was none other than Seigaku's genius, Shusuke Fuji, and throughout the entire set, he had completely suppressed Fuji, leaving him utterly defenseless.

"Three service games, twelve serves; three return games, twelve powerful returns—a total of twenty-four shots. On average, the power of the last four serves and the last four returns was stronger than the preceding sixteen shots. What a monster, truly a monster. Doesn't he ever get tired?" Sadaharu Inui muttered as he clutched his notebook, a mad scientist's crazed glint flashing periodically behind his small, squinted eyes!

On the court, at the net.

"Senior Fuji, thank you for the match!" Yang Tang took the initiative to extend his hand.

"Xuan Yuan, you're the one who taught me a lesson!" Shaking hands with Yang Tang, Fuji spoke the unvarnished truth without any pretense.

"By the way, is Senior Kawamura's hand alright? My medical skills are actually quite decent; I should be able to restore him to his original condition..."

Hearing this, Fuji was finally moved. "Y-You're not joking?"

"In a matter like this, to say nothing of how critical human life is, it at least affects a person's athletic career. How could I be joking?"

"It seems I wronged you earlier. However, you don't need to worry too much about Kawamura; the doctor said his hand will heal after two or three months of recuperation."

"That's good then. At least I haven't become a sinner against Seigaku!"

Only then did Yang Tang release the hand he had been shaking with Fuji.

At the same time, Yang Tang had already confirmed that he could now copy all of Fuji's tennis skills right away. Unfortunately, apart from solid basic tennis fundamentals, Fuji currently only possessed the "Triple Counters" and the "Vanishing Serve"!

That night, the Echizen family temple.

A masked Yang Tang used Kaiyou acupuncture to render Ryoma Echizen, Rinko Echizen, and Nanako Echizen unconscious, then woke up Ryozima Nanjiu, who was sleeping like a dead pig, while seizing the opportunity to hit him with a Celestial Sound Purification.

"Who are you?" Awakening instantly, Nanjiro bristled like an alarmed hedgehog.

Yang Tang did not answer him directly. Instead, he altered his voice to issue a warning: "Don't you dare touch the silver needles on your son. They were inserted using a special technique. If you pull them out clumsily and it leads to any adverse consequences, I won't take responsibility!"

Only then did Nanjiro notice that his wife, sharing the same room, had several gleaming silver needles stuck into her body. "Who on earth are you? Believe it or not, I'll call the police!"

"You're welcome to call the police, but I won't remind you a third time. Those silver needles are applied using my unique technique. There might be experts in this world who can remove them, but they certainly won't be those idiots at the Metropolitan Police Department. And your wife and son are human beings—if they go without water and food for a few days, do you think they'll survive?"

"What exactly do you want?" Nanjiro's brain finally hadn't short-circuited completely.

"It's very simple. Just play a game of tennis with me with the attitude of a professional open tournament final. Win against me, and your family will be safe and sound. Otherwise..."

"Who the hell are you?"

Yang Tang couldn't be bothered to talk nonsense anymore. He stood up and walked straight out past Nanjiro.

Five minutes later, on the temple tennis court.

Nanjiro was already standing opposite Yang Tang. "You said that as long as I beat you, my family will be safe and sound. What guarantees do you have for that?"

The masked Yang Tang said coldly, "You didn't give me any guarantees either, did you?"

Nanjiro was stunned. "What guarantees do I need to give?"

"I already stated my condition regarding your attitude. You must approach the match with the mindset of an official tournament to decide the victor. If you can't manage that, I suppose there's no need for me to waste my time. Your entire family can just go die!" With that, a blur of kicks burst from Yang Tang's side, slamming into the courtyard wall.

He retracted his leg.

The wall looked completely undamaged, but after the blink of an eye, the entire wall collapsed like sand, silently turning into a heap of fine powder sitting right there!

Nanjiro's pupils constricted as he asked, "How did you know I wasn't approaching the match with a mindset to win?"

"I have my own methods of judgment and insight. I can determine your attitude even before we start playing, and the accuracy rate..." Yang Tang stated with absolute certainty, "One hundred percent!"

Driven into a corner with no other choice, Nanjiro threw caution to the wind and said, "Fine then! I'll play you with a tournament-level mindset to the bitter end!"

"Good, you're finally taking this seriously. Let's begin then—best of five sets, you serve first!"

Before serving, Nanjiro stared at the masked Yang Tang for a moment, asking in surprise, "Huh? You actually only know the most basic serves and returns? But why couldn't my epitome of brilliant insight foresee anything?"

"Heh heh, once the match starts, you'll understand!" Yang Tang replied indifferently. "As for those things like 'Thousand-Dollar Hardening,' 'Epitome of Brilliant Insight,' and 'Ultimate Perfection,' in the end, none of them compare to a steady, solid return!"

"You don't need to lecture me! Bam!!"

Nanjiro hit the opening serve.

Yang Tang immediately activated Eagle Eye, receiving Nanjiro's powerful serve in a textbook manner, and then locked onto "a blind spot within the opponent's court" using Mode 1!

The tennis ball traced a large arc and was hit back.

"A reverse placement?" Nanjiro saw right through the landing spot of Yang Tang's return in an instant. "A useless domain!"

Nanjiro Domain!!

Just like Tezuka Zone, as had appeared in the anime, whenever he returned Ryoma's shots, Nanjiro never needed to move from his spot.

It was just a pity that the skill effect "Powerful Penetration" coupled with "Bone-Gnawing Leech" meant the attack would hit its locked target no matter what.

"Bam-thud!!"

True to form, the ball landed right in the blind spot, bounced away, and the Nanjiro Domain failed!

You must realize that Yang Tang had already restored Nanjiro to his prime strength from back in the day using Celestial Sound Purification. Unfortunately, Yang Tang's own physical prowess far exceeded Nanjiro's peak, and coupled with the "one-hit wonder" sniper skill that could conquer anything, Nanjiro was utterly unable to reverse his disadvantage in the subsequent match. Yang Tang swept three straight games, defeating him with a set score of three to zero!

"I—I'm not resigned to this! Let's play another five sets, I will definitely win!" Nanjiro roared as he knelt on the ground.

Yang Tang, however, was quite pleased, because the insight prompt informed him that as long as he maintained contact with Nanjiro for ten minutes, he could fully copy his tennis skills. Yet Yang Tang didn't do so; he was actually just testing whether he could force certain minor plot characters into playing official matches so as to copy their skills.

"I want to play you again—"

"Quiet!" Yang Tang barked, cutting Nanjiro off. "Keep shouting, and see if I don't just walk away right now!" With that, he strode directly toward the bedroom where Ryoma Echizen and the others were resting.

"Where are you going?"

"Obvious question!"

Two days later, Yang Tang took a trip to Okinawa, using the exact same method to force Kai Yujiro of Higa Middle to play an official match with him. Naturally, against Ryozima Nanjiro, Yang Tang had played five sets, but against Kai Yujiro, a single set was enough!

Kai Yujiro: Primary hand is left. Signature techniques include Omnidirectional Step-Shredder, Big Bang, Habu, Great Habu, and Pirate's Horn.

Following his victory, Yang Tang used up one quota to fully copy Kai's tennis skills. Among them, the "Omnidirectional Step-Shredder" happened to be one of his favorite Prince of Tennis skills. Because this technique was derived from ancient Okinawan martial arts, it could be applied not only to tennis but also to other sports like volleyball, and even life-or-death combat, making it immensely useful across the board!

Shortly after returning to Seigaku, the regional preliminaries began.

By this time, Yang Tang had completely integrated Kai's tennis skills. More importantly, his left hand—originally his non-dominant side—had been vastly enhanced, unknowingly achieving Echizen's "Two-Sword Style"!

"What?! Kakinoki Middle, the number two seed, lost?" Momoshiro asked in astonishment. "No way! They were one of the tournament favorites!"

"It's true, Senior Momo!" Horio said. "If you don't believe me, look at the notice board, it's already posted there!"

Oishi chimed in, "Then who are we facing in the finals..."

"Fudomine Middle!"

"Fudomine? Didn't they withdraw from the tournament last year?"

"Huh?"

At this moment, Sadaharu Inui—who had been placed in Group A during the intra-team qualifiers and ended up being eliminated by the combined forces of Echizen and Kaidou—walked over quickly. Functioning as the team's temporary assistant, he flipped through his notebook and said, "I went to watch Fudomine's match. Compared to last year, they are like a completely different team! The key figure of this team is their third-year player and coach, Kihei Tachibana!"

"Kihei Tachibana, huh..." Yang Tang chimed in, having remained silent until now. "One of the two aces of the former Kyushu powerhouse Shishiraku Middle, nicknamed the Lion King. He's somewhat of a tragic figure. His strength should be just a tiny bit stronger than Senior Fuji's, but as for the specific outcome, we'll only know once we play!"

"That means the finals are going to be a tough battle, then!" Fuji said.

"That depends entirely on how Coach Ryuzaki lines up the players," Yang Tang said brazenly. "If I were the one setting the lineup, I'd secure a three-zero victory right off the bat!"

The Seigaku members fell silent for a moment. After spending so much time together, they all knew that although Yang Tang spoke arrogantly, his wild claims usually came true.

At that moment, a bizarrely toned voice drifted over: "And what if we, Fudomine, take three straight games and defeat you Seigaku instead?"

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