Chapter 346: Upper-Grade Qi Vein Long Flow (88)

Li Xuelian: There are a few jobs from the civil engineering department—will you take them? We might run into someone we know.

Yu Xinghan: I'll take them.

Li Xuelian: You wouldn't want your classmates to find out you're doing underground massage, right?

Yu Xinghan: Understood. I'll conceal my identity.

Looking at the message Li Xuelian had sent, Yu Xinghan thought to himself that the civil engineering department represented a huge massage market; there was no way he would give it up easily.

Yu Xinghan recalled that back on the first level, he and Zhang Yu had practiced shape-shifting techniques under the guidance of Xinghuo Zhenren. Now he sighed inwardly, "Master was really prescient—he knew that once we came up here, we'd inevitably have to do things that couldn't see the light of day."

Yu Xinghan speculated to himself, "Maybe he started out giving massages too."

And as he looked at the job address Li Xuelian sent next, Yu Xinghan's form rippled and shifted, already transforming into the appearance of a different stranger.

"Ah, too bad Senior Sister doesn't like massages."

Back when he was learning in the massage shop, Yu Xinghan had only wanted Senior Sister to give him a massage every day.

Now that he himself had become an underground masseur, he only wanted to give Senior Sister a massage to repay her.

Yu Xinghan thought that this must be a sign of a man's maturity.

He made his way to the target location, then started the session, worked, and finished up...

Finally, Yu Xinghan smiled and said to the other person, "Brother, if you're satisfied, call me again next time."

After finishing his part-time job, Yu Xinghan rushed without a moment's rest to the underground cemetery to continue today's overtime work on the construction site.

This time he happened to be assigned to the same area as Zhang Yu, and from a distance he could see a humanoid qi construct walking back and forth doing work.

"That Zhang Yu's qi control is getting more and more exquisite."

Just as Yu Xinghan was marveling to himself, that humanoid qi construct suddenly charged straight toward him.

He heard Zhang Yu say, "Rare to run into you—let's spar a bit, brothers."

Yu Xinghan chuckled and said, "You think you can fight me with just this one qi construct? That's a bit too arrogant, isn't it?"

During this period, Yu Xinghan felt he had also made great progress: the part-time massage had increased his income, the third-eye ability had greatly boosted his training efficiency, and the cemetery work allowed him to breathe and refine qi in the spiritual vein for long stretches...

Now seeing Zhang Yu's humanoid qi construct attack, he gave a low shout and struck out with his right palm, carrying fierce qi.

With a loud bang, the humanoid qi construct shattered.

Just as Yu Xinghan thought his palm strike had completely destroyed that qi construct, from within the shattered aura a skeleton radiating bone-chilling cold burst forth and similarly struck a palm at his chest.

"Huh?"

Yu Xinghan was slightly startled at the sight.

In his impression, Zhang Yu's humanoid qi construct could redirect force but was not sturdy; it was usually easy to shatter, requiring constant expenditure of spiritual energy to generate new ones.

But the humanoid skeleton that came at him now showed a completely different level of toughness.

Amid crackling explosions, Yu Xinghan clashed with the skeleton several times, finding it not only extremely hard but also filled with an icy chill that pierced the bones.

After a few exchanges, Zhang Yu poured a torrent of qi onto the skeleton again, filling it back into the appearance of the original humanoid qi construct.

After this round of testing, Yu Xinghan roughly understood what was going on.

"That Zhang Yu freezes his qi and uses it as a 'skeleton' to reinforce the overall sturdiness of the humanoid qi construct."

"Then he fills the outside of the 'skeleton' with ordinary qi, forming a layer of 'skin and flesh'."

"With ordinary attacks, even if the surface 'skin and flesh' is shattered, the 'skeleton' structure underneath can't be destroyed."

"As long as he refills the 'skin and flesh' with qi, he can restore it."

"His tactics are getting more and more mature..."

Yu Xinghan also immediately understood that to destroy Zhang Yu's humanoid qi construct, he would have to blast through both the 'skin' and the 'bones' in one go.

"Hey, let me show you the martial skill I just pushed to level 15."

He suddenly channeled his energy and unleashed the Dragon-Elephant Vajra Palm, which shared the same lineage as the Dragon-Elephant Mountain-Crushing Palm.

Unlike the Dragon-Elephant Mountain-Crushing Palm, which could be powered purely by physical strength, this Dragon-Elephant Vajra Palm used explosive qi to assist the eruption of physical power.

When he struck out with his palm, the Gang Qi did not break out from his body but was contained within, enhancing his physical strength and power—a pure close-quarters martial art, and one of the techniques Xinghuo the True Being had planned for Yu Xinghan’s cultivation.

Yu Xinghan gave a low shout, and streams of Gang Qi filled every muscle fiber of his right arm, coating the entire limb in a layer of gold.

The next moment, as he thrust out his palm, a fierce gale howled, and the air before him seemed to be sucked away in a single strike.

The humanoid Gang Qi also blasted out a palm strike, one that contained the force of Yu Xinghan’s previous palm.

With a thunderous boom, the two hands collided violently.

Under Yu Xinghan’s palm, the “flesh” of the humanoid Gang Qi cracked inch by inch, centered on the palm, and then exploded outward, shattering all over.

The “skeleton” beneath the flesh groaned and creaked, covered in dense cracks, as if it would shatter in the next moment.

Just as Yu Xinghan was about to deliver another palm to destroy the humanoid Gang Qi in one blow, he saw that broken skeleton raise its right arm, ready to unleash the same Dragon-Elephant Vajra Palm against him.

Sensing the explosive Gang Qi contained in that incoming palm, Yu Xinghan quickly retreated and shouted, “Stop, stop, stop!”

“Fighting like this is too damaging. No more, no more.”

Yu Xinghan did not want to take a palm strike from his own Dragon-Elephant Vajra Palm—any minor injury would be too costly for him.

He sighed, “Your Nine Heavens Cloud Void Force was already cheap enough.”

“Now, combined with this humanoid Gang Qi tactic, you can not only fight desperately move by move but also borrow power to return it, while your real body hides safely to one side.”

“It’s a damn shame you didn’t become a bodyguard.”

At the same time, Yu Xinghan could imagine that once someone fought Zhang Yu and thought they could win by destroying or bypassing the humanoid Gang Qi…

“They’d find out that guy is infuriatingly tough, and they’d be better off going back to bashing head-on against the Gang Qi.”

Yu Xinghan thought inwardly, “The only shortcoming might be that for Zhang Yu’s style… maintaining the humanoid Gang Qi nonstop drains a huge amount of mana.”

He silently summarized, “Attacking the main body is worse than attacking the humanoid Gang Qi. When attacking the humanoid Gang Qi, you can’t use powerful moves, or it’ll borrow the force and hurt you instead.”

“In other words, the best way to fight this guy… is to slowly wear down his humanoid Gang Qi. Any reckless assault only increases your own medical bills and magical body repair costs.”

“But dragging it out means… he’s losing Gang Qi and mana while I’m wearing down my own body. So I’d still have to use Gang Qi against him, which would also drain my Gang Qi heavily.”

“And…” Yu Xinghan thought of another point: “That guy also made some dirty deal with Le Mulan, such that now when they both attack, they bring a surge of cold air.”

“If I try to wear him down, fighting him for too long means I have to worry about the accumulation of cold energy inside me…”

“Disgusting.”

The more Yu Xinghan thought, the more his head ached. His brow furrowed deeply. He felt that no matter how he fought Zhang Yu, he would always lose—everywhere he looked, he saw deficits and costs. Just the thought made him feel awful, and he lost all interest in fighting the other.

“Good thing he’s my brother who I’ve lent money to and borrowed from.”

“If I want to disgust someone in the future, I’ll just send them to fight Zhang Yu.”

Zhang Yu was very satisfied with today’s test. He thought, “Not bad, not bad. After freezing, my humanoid Gang Qi can take Yu Xinghan’s full-powered palm.”

From the initial Gang Qi arm, to the humanoid Gang Qi, and now to this frozen humanoid Gang Qi with a skeleton—the work efficiency kept increasing, all thanks to Zhang Yu’s recent experiments.

Because it was formed from Formless Cloud Gang, he called the plain humanoid Gang Qi the “Formless Warrior.”

The humanoid Gang Qi with a skeleton, created with the help of the Deep Cold Dharma Vein, he called the “Deep Cold Warrior.”

Among them, the Formless Warrior had faster movement speed, but lower Gang Qi transmission efficiency and force tolerance—it was easy to shatter and dissipate, though it could be generated instantly.

The Deep Cold Warrior had higher Gang Qi transmission efficiency and greater force tolerance, but moved slower and consumed more mana, and took at least five seconds to create.

Zhang Yu estimated privately, “With my current mana, if I release it all, I can probably make six Formless Warriors or two Deep Cold Warriors.”

“But that’s just the appearance. For full work, I can only maintain one Deep Cold Warrior or three Formless Warriors.”

“But once the effect of Qi Pulse Long Flow improves later, this number should be higher.”

Lost in thought, Zhang Yu looked at Yu Xinghan and smiled slightly. “You’re afraid of getting hurt, so let’s change the training method.”

“I’ll help stimulate your spiritual root. That fusion level of yours still hasn’t reached one hundred percent, right?”

So Zhang Yu released his Gang Qi, forming a Formless Warrior, and once again engaged Yu Xinghan in battle.

But this time, just like in their previous sparring sessions, he continuously stimulated the other’s body and spiritual root to enhance his cultivation effects.

Over the next few days, taking advantage of working in the same area as Yu Xinghan, Zhang Yu seized every moment to help him raise his spiritual root fusion level.

That day, Yu Xinghan let out a sudden roar, and the third eye in his mind trembled violently, causing the muscles throughout his body to twitch incessantly.

"My spirit root fusion degree has reached 100%."

Feeling his own body, Yu Xinghan found his control over all his flesh and blood clearer than ever before, and the mobilization of both his physical body and mana was now more than 10% faster than before.

Zhang Yu nodded in satisfaction beside him, thinking to himself: "The Three-Eyed Divine Ability has been upgraded to level 2. Apart from 100% spirit root fusion, it also requires over 500 mana."

"By the end of this semester, Yu Xinghan will definitely reach it."

The only thing Zhang Yu regretted was that the accumulation of mana mainly had to depend on Yu Xinghan himself; at most, he could feed him a bit of blood.

As for giving Yu Xinghan money? Giving money was impossible—he didn't even have enough for himself, so how could he give any to Yu Xinghan?

And as time gradually approached the end of June,

the graveyard project officially ended, and Zhang Yu's Qi Pulse Long Flow finally reached the 8th layer.

Upper Stage - Qi Pulse Long Flow (8/8): The more breathing techniques one masters, the lower the additional loss of mana and mana derivatives during their circulation.