Chapter 128

129. Chapter 129: A Terrifying Punch

The next day.

Everyone had slept quite late, only waking up around ten in the morning. Zhao Ge, in his capacity as master, uncharacteristically did not urge his disciples this time, wanting only to let them rest a while longer; after all, they had been fleeing for their lives for some time and had never truly rested.

Li Yi, however, rose early.

His Bone Observation cultivation technique itself could reduce the need for sleep, allowing him to maintain his spirit without needing to sleep.

A night of cultivation did not bring much improvement for Li Yi at his current level; he only felt his body was a bit more relaxed, and the discomfort from yesterday's stretching of tendons and bones had vanished. Clearly, his body had already memorized the sensation of tendon training.

As for the Eight-Treasure Deer, having benefited from the light all night and consumed nutrient solution, its spirit was much improved and its physical strength had recovered. Although its body remained gaunt, its gait was now vigorous, and it could even leap when passing over thresholds.

This was an incredible change; if this continued, in another month or two, it would likely be fully recovered.

But Li Yi did not have that much time or resources to feed it; he had other things to do.

In the kitchen.

The cooking smoke had risen early. Zhao Ge had not slept all night; he had instructed the butcher to slaughter three yellow goats at the first light of dawn and had them stewing in a large pot. Now that the disciples had just woken up, the yellow goat was also stewed to perfection, and they could begin to eat.

He himself was sitting on a stone in the courtyard, drinking the piping hot goat soup, enjoying a rare moment of comfort.

While drinking the soup, Zhao Ge was also guiding Li Yi's cultivation.

At this moment, Li Yi was standing in the courtyard wearing a thin T-shirt, practicing the third realm of martial arts: Bone Cultivation.

The so-called Bone Cultivation is the tempering of the bones throughout the human body. They must become both tough and flexible, achieving the ability to mobilize the power of the skeleton at any time. Among these, the hardest part of Bone Cultivation is not the training method, but the nourishing method.

Because the people here have congenital deficiencies and their skeletal development is not robust enough, they require postnatal nourishment.

While the methods of nourishment are varied, they all boil down to two words: eat more.

Some eat meat, some take medicine, and some drink nourishing soups; the purpose of all this is to nourish your bones to be as strong as possible, because this is linked to the subsequent path of marrow refinement and blood exchange. If Bone Cultivation is not practiced well and goes awry, then one's strength for a lifetime will be limited to this, and it will be difficult to break through to the middle three ranks of martial artists before death.

But Li Yi does not need to nourish his bones.

He is an evolver. After his body transformed, his skeletal structure became unimaginably tough. In the words of his master Zhao Ge, he has natural dragon tendons and tiger bones, allowing him to skip the bone-nourishing stage and immediately begin Bone Cultivation.

Li Yi at this moment seemed to have transformed into a fierce tiger, stretching his tendons and bones. The bones within his body squirmed, emitting bursts of crisp sounds. Some training methods are very special; for example, when tempering the spine, he needs to use the power of his skin, flesh, and large tendons to slowly pull the spine apart section by section, and then, through a unique method of exerting force, slowly close the spinal bones back together.

Repeating this until you can freely control the loosening and tightening of the spine counts as small success.

He had tried it; when his spine was stretched, his own height would change. His master had also said that some martial artists who practice Bone Cultivation know a method of bone-shifting and appearance-changing, which can alter one's height and appearance by adjusting the bones.

However, this way of moving bones is very dangerous. If there is no one nearby to guide you, and without a strong physique to support it, easily performing the Tiger Bone Great Training Method can easily injure yourself. Once you injure your tendons and bones, you will inevitably need to recuperate for several months, and if you add the time for bone nourishment, it will be even longer.

Therefore, Bone Cultivation is time-consuming, energy-consuming, and expensive. Even for those with better aptitude, don't even think about achieving great success in Bone Cultivation without several years of effort.

Consequently, the vast majority of martial arts practitioners get stuck at this hurdle.

So, being able to reach Bone Cultivation already counts as a good hand, and in a martial arts school, they are also the backbone.

Even though Li Yi has extraordinary talent for martial arts, he still has to be cautious while stretching his bones at this moment; he doesn't want to accidentally paralyze himself.

But with Zhao Ge present, even if Li Yi's Bone Cultivation goes off-track, he can still set the bones back correctly.

This is the benefit of having a master.

Zhao Ge also understands that Bone Cultivation is not easy, so he plans to spend two, or even three or four days, slowly guiding Li Yi; after all, this is the final step, and one cannot be impatient.

And everyone is waiting for Li Yi to re-train his tendons, bones, and skin, to completely stimulate his divine strength.

Because only in this way will they have the confidence to return to Sanyang City for revenge.

During the time Li Yi was cultivating, the others were not idle. Zhao Ge arranged for Skinny Monkey to stake out the area near Youishui Town to see if any pursuers were coming. As for Zhao Qian, she began practicing shooting techniques with a sniper rifle, but since they didn't bring many bullets this time, they couldn't practice with live ammunition.

But even so, Zhao Qian was still exercising her hand strength, holding the sniper rifle steady, while also practicing aiming and the speed of loading bullets; eventually, she even began to figure out how to disassemble and assemble the sniper rifle herself.

However, several times Zhao Qian disassembled the sniper rifle but couldn't put it back together, and in the end, Li Yi had to take time to guide her.

But after familiarizing herself a few times, Zhao Qian had almost mastered that extraordinary M200 model sniper rifle. If there were time to feed it more bullets, Zhao Qian would likely become a decent sniper.

Because Rong Niang had injured her arm and was still recovering, she didn't have much to do other than handle some trivial chores, such as feeding the horses, stewing goat meat, helping a few people wash clothes, and occasionally going out to buy daily necessities.

The day of cultivation ended.

Li Yi had not yet achieved great success in Bone Cultivation, but Zhao Ge was already very happy because, by the end of the training, he no longer needed to guide anything; Li Yi had already memorized the method of Bone Cultivation and had performed it without error.

The reason Bone Cultivation was not yet successful was not a lack of talent, but a lack of time.

In the evening, everyone sat around together again, happily eating the stewed goat meat.

However, everyone's spirit was much better today; even Zhao Ge's graying hair had sprouted quite a few black strands, and his wrinkles had lessened. Clearly, this was because his Qi and blood had been replenished.

"Meng De, wake up earlier tomorrow and continue cultivating. Rong Niang will keep watch tonight." After Zhao Ge was full, he put down his bowl and chopsticks, yawned, and went back to sleep.

The third day.

Everyone continued to recuperate, striving to adjust their state, preparing to welcome the major event about to arrive, because everyone understood that Li Yi's cultivation speed was very fast, and Bone Cultivation would not take a long time, at most ending within these two or three days.

And in reality, the day Li Yi achieved great success in Bone Cultivation was even earlier than they had estimated.

On the morning of the fourth day.

Li Yi had used the Bone Observation cultivation technique to cultivate all night, and he walked out of the bedroom, full of spirit. The first sentence he said was: "Master, I have succeeded in Bone Cultivation."

In the courtyard, Zhao Ge had risen early as usual. He was holding goat soup in one hand and a goat leg in the other, eating breakfast. At this moment, hearing Li Yi say this, he was instantly stunned.

"You've succeeded in Bone Cultivation just like that?" He was somewhat surprised.

One must know that when they finished the session last night, Li Yi's Bone Cultivation was still lacking a bit of heat; he hadn't expected it to be finished upon waking up.

Li Yi nodded and said: "Master, I rested for a night, and my body adapted to the changes of Bone Cultivation, so it was a matter of course. I can now skillfully use the power of my skin, flesh, and tendons to pull my bones, generating a new kind of power. Moreover, after this Bone Cultivation, I can feel that the power in many places that I couldn't mobilize before has all been mobilized."

"Tendons, bones, and skin, the three combined; I seem to have had a brand-new transformation and breakthrough."

Upon hearing this, Zhao Ge immediately put down his bowl and chopsticks and said: "Good, demonstrate the posture from the Tiger-Leopard Tendon and Bone Great Training, and Master will test you."

"No problem."

Li Yi immediately began to demonstrate.

His body at this moment was flexible and fierce, still like a tiger or leopard stretching its tendons and bones, playing and frolicking. As his tendons and bones stretched, his physique also underwent some changes; his posture was more slender than before, and even his height had changed significantly. However, as his demonstration ended, his body recovered, and during the process, his skin and flesh rippled like the surface of a river, slowly squirming, giving people a sense of coordinated beauty.

The layman watches the excitement, the expert watches the technique.

As his master, Zhao Ge only had to look to know that Li Yi's Tiger-Leopard Tendon and Bone Great Training had already reached an extremely high level, with skin, flesh, tendons, and bones connected into one, capable of moving the whole body with a single pull.

"Not bad, this is the posture of great success in Bone Cultivation." Zhao Ge's face instantly lit up with joy. He didn't even need to look; he only needed to hear the sound of Li Yi's tendons and bones squirming to judge exactly what level he had reached.

If those high-difficulty postures for stretching tendons and bones were assumed without great success in Bone Cultivation, the bones would inevitably collide with each other, emitting clicking sounds.

But Li Yi did not.

His tendons and bones were coordinated, and not a single bone sound was heard.

"Once Bone Cultivation is achieved, your potential can be fully excavated. Now, try to mobilize all the power of your tendons, bones, and skin, then set up a fist stance, and strike with all your strength. Master wants to see how powerful your divine strength is, and whether you can cross three realms to kill a Meridian-Cultivating martial artist."

Zhao Ge was slightly excited at this moment; having waited for many days, this was the moment he was waiting for.

"Good."

Li Yi took a deep breath, adjusted his state, and then crouched slightly, immediately setting up the core fist stance of the Zhao Family Zhao Wuguan.

He closed his eyes and focused his body, feeling the subtle changes within.

At the same time, his inspiration was also activated at this moment; after all, Li Yi had also adjusted his own body over these past few days, and mastering inspiration was also a matter of course.

At this moment, everything nearby seemed to be within his perception range, and any trace could be detected. In this situation, being ambushed was almost impossible. Therefore, to kill an Inspiration Realm practitioner, one could only fight head-on; it was very difficult to take shortcuts.

After adjusting for a moment.

Li Yi suddenly opened his eyes. At this moment, his eyes shone with light, and his pupils stood vertically, looking incredibly divine. A terrifying power surged from that robust, tall body.

His large tendons were stretching, his skin and flesh were squirming, and the bones all over his body were swaying.

Tendons, bones, and skin combined, mobilizing all the power of the human body.

This power was harnessed by the fist stance and finally converged in one place.

"It's coming."

Zhao Ge's face changed slightly, and he immediately retreated several steps.

Yet, Li Yi had not even started his move, and his whole body was already surrounded by surging force. Then, an invisible ripple began to spread, carrying the surrounding dust outward, and the thick bluestone ground also began to crack rapidly at this moment. These cracks, like a spider web, spread in all directions with him as the center.

Once the force rose, Zhao Ge felt as if a true dragon had awakened. The gap in life levels was shocking. At this moment, even he, a Meridian-Cultivating martial artist, had to retreat three times.

And just at this moment.

Li Yi raised his hand and delivered a punch. An unimaginably terrifying divine strength condensed from his Inspiration Realm body and poured out.

Instantly.

Zhao Ge felt a buzzing in his head, and his ears seemed to lose their hearing at this moment. Then, his pupils suddenly shrank, as if he had seen a ghost, witnessing an incredible scene.

Around Li Yi's punch, a circle of white air was actually entwined, as if the vacuum had been shattered, and everything around was turned upside down by this divine strength.

"Boom~!"

A rolling thunderclap exploded, as if the God of Thunder in the sky was swinging a hammer beside his ear. Then, a strong and suffocating force turned into a wild wind, sweeping the surroundings. Where the wind passed, the bluestone bricks in the courtyard shook, as if they were about to be blown away by this power.

Although this punch hit the air, the fist force condensed and did not dissipate, actually extending nearly three zhang out of thin air, and only then did its remaining power exhaust, completely disappearing.

With such a punch, martial artists across the four seas and eight continents would never have a day to get ahead.

Zhao Ge remained stunned in place for a long time, and then his face turned red with excitement.