Chapter 188

The officially appointed number-one rebel of the realm, Bai Lang's ranking is probably still above the chief of the Heaven and Earth Society, the chief of the Red Flower Society, and others—the red flowers on his person already exceed ten thousand taels of silver and could even earn him an official post. Since this rebel killed the Shaanxi Provincial Governor, he has slain over ten officials along the way, causing great chaos—yet surprisingly no popular uprising occurred; one must say the Manchu Qing has indeed entered a period of stable rule.

Bai Lang has come to understand that his Thirteen Tai Bao Golden Bell Shield is perhaps inferior in grade to something like the Southern Dipper Holy Fist—after all, that is a divine skill researched by Bodhidharma, whereas the Southern Dipper Holy Fist, if he is not mistaken, is likely the work of some great adept or perhaps even the baboon demon who dared to storm Spirit Mountain. Bodhidharma's divine skill can be cultivated; perhaps it is also a means of the great masters......

Internal Force surged continuously, drawing strength from every tiny tendon in his body, as if tiny streams gathered into a river flowing through those minute meridians, then converging into the twelve primary meridians. Each time it passed an acupoint it gained a strand of strength, Internal Force grew a bit, and when it poured into the eight extraordinary meridians it had already gathered into a great river. Bai Lang felt on his body and in his Divine Sense the endless rush of rivers, even hearing the sound of water striking.

Until it poured into the dantian qi sea, instantly the great river leapt up to become a surging, tumultuous sea; the sound of the tide rose from Bai Lang's body, culminating in a long bell tone. The bell's echo faded into a low tiger roar, until it vanished without a trace.

Recently the bell tone has grown ever shorter, while the tiger's roar has become ever longer; Bai Lang's Internal Force from the Southern Dipper Holy Fist has grown ever more fierce and sharp, gradually merging with the true intent of the Tiger Form. The tiger in Bai Lang's heart naturally also shed its black-and-white fur, turning into orange-red with black stripes—this is precisely the man-eating Bengal tiger famed in his memory, those world‑shocking man‑eating tigers all being this kind of tiger.

The white tiger can be considered a fantasy species, but for Bai Lang the Bengal tiger is the "real" one—at least in this world; as for the world he inhabits—where demons exist and the monsters of the Classic of Mountains and Seas appear in reality, it is not strange, only the ferocious ones seldom show up among humans.

The fifth, sixth and seventh levels of the Golden Bell Shield have already been broken; Bai Lang has not yet so easily passed a level, and when the Southern Dipper Holy Fist began to gain the upper hand, the so‑called levels of the Golden Bell Shield became as fragile as paper, easily shattered by him. Only the feedback obtained was not as before—merely a bit more progress in the abundance of Internal Force, and in communicating the heavenly‑earthly mysterious gate Internal Force endless, it became stronger, a step higher—apart from that, nothing else.

Bai Lang understands this, because in fact the divine abilities available from levels five through seven he already possessed after breaking the innate gate and becoming an Innate Expert—the rebound force of the Golden Bell Shield, the Internal Force that can injure with plucked flowers and caught leaves, he already has. Now, having passed three levels, level eight is still not truly achieved, and the Southern Dipper Holy Fist has begun to feel incompatible with the Golden Bell Shield Divine Skill; Bai Lang fears he will find it hard to fuse them into a unified whole.

So this needs an idea, an opportunity; otherwise Bai Lang would have to cultivate two martial arts that interfere with each other, and the combat power he could display would likely be terrible—facing an opponent of equal rank he might even die. This is quite a headache, but Bai Lang feels he has time to solve the problem, "Even if I can't settle it here, I can go back there to settle it, as long as I don't go lang…… wait, there's also that damned Adventure Hall!"

Bai Lang squatted in front of the dog kennel he had built, scratching his hair that had grown a bit longer. Actually the reed‑built dwelling is not small, but because he neglects external decoration, being called a dog kennel is normal. That small boat has been hauled ashore, and Bai Lang regularly maintains it—though he actually doesn't know how, he can still check up and down for rot.

"This boat is starting to become unusable," Bai Lang said, looking at the hauled‑up vessel; he had always relied on this boat for "business," but the Manchu Qing's military neglect means most such boats are shoddily made. After several launches and dry‑dockings, the hull planks have completely warped, the gaps so large that as soon as it hits water it sinks, and no plugging can stop it. "Good thing I have divine skill! I'll use Internal Force released outward to plug the gaps! Then I'll quickly seize a decent boat—now is the time to slaughter the Tartar emperor!"

This would be shocking in this world; releasing Internal Force outward is a privilege of few experts here—an empty‑strike palm force, and Internal Force outward forming a protective gang qi can even withstand the pressure of river water.... This would practically be considered divine in this world. "Whether divine or not doesn't really matter; innate skill is just like this—it has no absolute advantage in attack, but it does have an absolute advantage in defense." Over these two years of cultivation, Bai Lang has figured out the rules of this world.

Now martial arts have hit a small bottleneck, and Bai Lang has stayed here long enough; it's time to continue disturbing this realm. "Kill Breaker Wolf gather, we must surely overturn the Manchu Qing's realm!" Bai Lang now considers himself a Breaker Army Star, though he doesn't know where the Seven Kill Star and Greedy Wolf Star are. As for what this world is, Bai Lang has already figured it out—during his journey killing officials he already learned that there is a Red Flower Society, and its fourteen chiefs, Bai Lang immediately declared that he would surely laugh at the names of several of those chiefs.

Naturally the old man surnamed Lu he saw that day was the Wudang expert Lu Feiqing; Bai Lang still retains a bit of memory of this world. Chief Chen, acting as either the Seven Kill or Greedy Wolf? Hahahaha, Bai Lang says he at most counts as half a Greedy Wolf, the lustful kind. And in the end he became a waste. The Red Flower Society is also of the scholar‑rebel type; probably even less than scholars, and likely inferior to the Heaven and Earth Society.

Bai Lang has never heard of a minister called Lord Luk Ding in the court, so it should not be a continuation of the Deer and the Cauldron. Still, thinking it over, the martial arts in the Deer and the Cauldron are probably no better than those in Sword and Book; one can only say this is likely two different worlds. Yu Yu has finally truly brought him through a martial‑arts world once—this makes sense. The martial arts of this world have nothing worthwhile; Bai Lang certainly won't be interested in the Hundred Flowers Mistaken Fist or the vague recollection of some mysterious martial arts in a jade city in the Western Regions.

Do these martial arts have even a finger's worth of strength compared to Bai Lang's innate divine skill?

So now his martial‑arts training is not going smoothly, and naturally a fire burns in his heart; with that fire the tiger in his mind wants to leap and roar, the valor of a fierce tiger erupts, and of course it needs human flesh and blood to sate this fierce tiger— in this world, is there anything that can feed this tiger better than killing Tartars?