Chapter 7

Translator: Larbre Studio  Editor: Larbre Studio

“I’ll say, no wonder you let me break that slave’s arm off so easily. So it’s because Elder Feng needs more credit.”

Xu Yi laughed coldly.

“You’re asking for death!”

Elder Feng saw a window of opportunity from the corner of his eye. Without revealing any hint that he was attacking, he suddenly leapt forward raising his hand in a fist. The fist that was thrown was silent nor earth-shattering like the move they had exchanged before. Even the grass by the roadside did not waver in the least. But the speed of the fist was extremely fast, leaving Xu Yi virtually no time to evade before the silent fist was already right in front of his face.

Huu!

Xu Yi clenched his abdomen, expelling white air from his mouth. The fist he had kept by his waist all this while fired out like a cannonball.

Since he could not evade, there was no point trying. They were both at the peak of Body Forging, so what was there to fear?!

An explosive bang resounded. The earth seemed to shake from the impact.

In the exchange of fists, Xu Yi struck Elder Feng’s left shoulder while Elder Feng connected with Xu Yi’s stomach.

Elder Feng took the punch but did not even flinch. His two feet, however, sank half an inch into the ground while a trickle of blood flowed from the corner of his mouth.

When struck, Xu Yi, on the other hand, flew over three meters backwards like a kite with its strings cut, breaking apart numerous fir trees before lying on the ground motionless.

“Ha ha ha…”

Elder Feng laughed and happily taunted, “You brat! Did you think I did not notice that you were talking with me just to buy time, to circulate your qi and regain your energy?! I simply went along with your plan, buying time to combine my nine meridians to gather strength. With the strength of three bulls, the taste of my Desolate God Fist did not feel too good, right? Ha ha ha…”

Xu Yi felt pain all over his body, as though each bone in his body was in pieces. When that frightening fist hit him, it felt as though a small mountain had crashed into him. He almost lost consciousness when Elder Feng’s voice reached his ears, shocking him to his senses. “Strength of three bulls, how is that possible?!”

From what Liaochen taught him, he knew that when one reached the peak of Body Forging, one would have the strength of one bull. Because of differences in techniques and talent, a weaker practitioner may have less than the strength of one bull, and a stronger one may have more but definitely not more than the strength of one and a half bulls.

He himself, who had surpassed the limits of a human body through arduous training, could only generate roughly the strength of one and a half bulls with an all-out attack.

But this strike of Elder Feng’s could actually match the strength of three bulls, totally shattering the common notion on the matter.

Elder Feng finished laughing and looked coldly at Xu Yi as though he were already dead. With his palm, he chopped down a stiff branch, then gently whittled it with his nail to create a sharp end, refashioning it into a spear. Taking it into his hand, he moved as fast as lightning as he stabbed it right at Xu Yi’s left shoulder.

Elder Feng’s intention was to capture Xu Yi alive. The stab was meant to pin Xu Yi into the ground. All that would be left would be to slowly torture Xu Yi to force him to reveal how he had cultivated his power so quickly.

Whoosh!

With a great force applied to the spear, it whistled as it cut through the air, stabbing into Xu Yi’s shoulder blade in a flash. But the dull sound that came from the impact was not that of a spear on flesh.

Elder Feng’s expression darkened. Xu Yi flipped to his feet with a kip-up, stared straight at Elder Feng, and said, “I’ll bet you can’t throw a second punch with the strength of three bulls.”

The moment Xu Yi had fallen, he had figured it out. It was not that Liaochen was wrong when he had said that one at the peak of the Body Forging stage would only have the strength of one bull. Elder Feng must have used some secret technique, which was why he had to buy for time before delivering such a punch. And in order to generate a fist with such power, there must be some drawbacks. He would definitely be unable to use such a technique consecutively.

With those words said, Xu Yi removed his hemp shirt, revealing not flesh but pitch black iron plates. The iron plate at his abdomen, after taking Elder Feng’s Desolate God Fist, had cracked into pieces. The one on his shoulder, which had taken a stab from a wooden spear, had a hole in it.

Elder Feng’s eyes nearly popped out of his sockets. His mouth opened and closed stupidly, almost biting on his own tongue. “Heavy iron! You actually carry heavy iron on you? That’s impossible!”

Heavy iron was the most commonly used material to fashion weapons in the current era. It was a dense material, many times heavier than the more commonly used fine iron. It was used mainly by those with greater strength, and it was usually fashioned into heavy weapons.

At that moment, Xu Yi’s body and legs were all covered with heavy iron. Even with a rough estimate, it would weigh at least five hundred pounds altogether.

An expert at the peak of Body Forging could rival the strength of one bull in one full-force blow, which would amount to at least two thousand pounds of force.

Five hundred pounds was nothing in comparison.

Although that might be what some would say, the logic behind it is inaccurate. For instance, an ordinary person could lift a two hundred pound bag by exerting all his strength, but he could definitely not carry out everyday activities with a fifty pound sandbag strapped onto him at all times.

The difference between the two is that one is explosive strength, while the other is endurance.

Through the multiple exchanges with Xu Yi, Xu Yi moved swiftly with not even the least bit of sluggishness in his movements. Elder Feng could tell with his trained eyes that those heavy iron plates had not been worn by Xu Yi for just a day or two. They had already become a part of his body.

Such a method of training the body was simply astonishing.

It is common knowledge that cultivation in the Martial Way comprised of four stages: Body Forging, Qi Ocean, Fluid Condensation, and Soul Sensing!

In the Body Forging stage, one trains to toughen the skin and bones, strengthen the flow of blood and qi, and to increase physical strength as much as possible for all these aspects.

But no martial artist would burden themselves the way Xu Yi did. It was not because the body could not take it, as the use of precious herbs to assist in cultivation could greatly increase the limits of what the practitioner’s body can handle.

It was because training for extensive periods of time burdened with an extreme load could be damaging to the psyche, and such fatigue could not be alleviated by herbs, unlike physical fatigue. In the worst cases, a mental breakdown would be very possible.

However, Xu Yi had managed to do it, destroying Elder Feng’s preconceived notions regarding the Martial Way.

Xu Yi naturally had no obligation to figure out with Elder Feng what made sense and what did not. He nonchalantly began to remove the heavy iron all over his body while saying, “Three months ago, I started to carry these 508 pounds of heavy iron. In the first three days, I ached to the bone and struggled to fall asleep. For the next four days, I was covered in swollen patches and sprained joints and bones. I endured this hell for two months before I could move as though I were carrying nothing at all. Last night, I reached the peak of the Body Forging stage, and now, this load of heavy iron has no more use to me. Today, I have it to thank for taking Elder Feng’s heavy blow. It is now time for it to retire in glory.”

With that, a loud clatter resounded as his full body armor of iron plates was shed. With a simple throw, Xu Yi tossed it far away into the depths of the grass.

Five hundred pounds of weight exceeded his own multiple times over. With the weight removed, Xu Yi felt that his body was as light as a feather. He had to resist the urge to run and leap around.

Elder Feng had never expected to encounter such a monster. He had already exchanged blows with Xu Yi many times. At first, he had always felt that he would come out on top. Even after finding out that Xu Yi had reached the peak of Body Forging, Elder Feng still had the confidence that he would win.

The reason was simple: He was a veteran at the peak of Body Forging with unmatched combat experience. By that alone, he was confident that he would be able to take care of a novice who had just reached the peak of Body Forging.

But at that moment, Elder Feng’s mentality completely changed.

Even while weighed down by hundreds of pounds, Xu Yi could still display such combat prowess. Was he really someone he could take down?