Chapter 46: Bitter Training and Challenging the Hall

Zhou Laodie was at the trading firm, busy dealing with the increasingly complex interpersonal relationships following his promotion.

Meanwhile, Zhou You had already returned to the martial arts hall, continuing to immerse himself in training.

The changes in his life were fundamentally caused by the increase in strength brought about by martial arts practice; everything else was not worth worrying about.

Therefore, he kept the root cause in mind and did not dare to slack off for even a moment.

"Yanxing Quan."

The two large tendons in Zhou You's calves tightened, a counter-force generated from the soles of his feet, and he shot up into the air like a great bird.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—the tearing gale swept past his shoulders.

The piercing sound of air being torn apart even penetrated the stone wall, startling Li Hao, who was on the other side, into stopping his movements.

His shadow fell upon the ground; Zhou You had already leaped to a great height, looking as if he were about to exceed the height of the stone wall.

His momentum had reached its peak, and he exerted force downward; the whistling sound suddenly became sharp.

Boom.

A punch struck a corner of the stone wall, and hard rock fragments splashed in all directions.

The five fingers of Zhou You's hand were embedded deep into the stone, gouging out five deep holes.

The rock was hard in texture; hitting it with a hammer would send sparks flying, making it harder than a human skull.

If this punch of Zhou You's were to land on a person, the result would at least be a fractured skull with brains spilling out.

The killing move of Yanxing Quan is taken from the posture of a bird of prey hunting, swooping down while gliding through the air; it either hooks out the spinal tendons or chisels through the back of the head with a claw to suck out the brains.

Compared to the domineering and crude nature of Tiger-Subduing Fist, Yanxing Quan has a certain meticulous sense of precision hunting.

"Name: Zhou You.

Strength: 24.

Speed: 24.

Defense: 24.

Experience Points: 523.

Occupation: Martial Arts Apprentice.

Level: Initial Force.

Skills: Imperial Execution Hand lv10 (Completed), Tiger-Subduing Fist lv11, Basic Lightness Skill lv2/lv?, Yanxing Quan lv9.

Trial Project 1 (Two-Star): Break through the Blood-Qi barrier and become an Inner Court Disciple of the Jian Xiong Martial Arts Hall.

Trial Project 2 (One-Star): Kill Tu Laosan and eliminate future troubles.

Trial Project 3 (Four-Star): Perfect the Basic Lightness Skill."

After days of bitter training, he finally cultivated Yanxing Quan to lv9, just one step away from the Force-level barrier of lv10.

Standing at the height of Force, re-cultivating a second martial art is a process that happens naturally.

The only difficulty lies in the targeted strengthening of physical fitness when switching between different martial arts.

For example, the requirements of Yanxing Quan for physical fitness focus on strength and speed.

This is also why Lu Zhigang was torn apart by Zhou You once he lost his speed advantage after being closed in on.

With Zhou You's Basic Lightness Skill having merged the Circle Step and the Pecking Ground Step, its power is increased by thirty percent when used with Yanxing Quan; even if Lu Zhigang were reborn in his peak state, he might not be a match for him at this moment.

"Still one step short; once Yanxing Quan penetrates with Force, it can grab rock into stone powder with one hand."

The hardness of rock exceeds that of century-old hardwood, but it lacks a bit of toughness and is prone to shattering when encountering immense force.

Therefore, the bluestone in the martial arts hall is just a consumable used for practicing strength.

A Tiger-Subduing Fist infused with Force is enough to smash rock into pieces, but Yanxing Quan can hollow out a large hole from the surface of the rock.

This is the difference in characteristics and destructive power of each school of fist techniques.

"Panel, strengthen."

"Experience Points -10, Strength +1."

"Experience Points -10, Defense +1."

"Strength 25, Speed 24, Defense 25, meeting the upgrade conditions for Tiger-Subduing Fist."

"Experience Points -110, Experience Points -120, Tiger-Subduing Fist lv11 → lv12, lv12 → lv13."

"Experience Points -90, Yanxing lv9 → lv10."

"Name: Zhou You.

Strength: 25.

Speed: 24.

Defense: 25.

Experience Points: 183.

Occupation: Martial Arts Apprentice.

Level: Initial Force.

Skills: Imperial Execution Hand lv10 (Completed), Tiger-Subduing Fist lv13, Basic Lightness Skill lv2/lv?, Yanxing Quan lv10."

The large tendons in Zhou You's arms and legs jumped violently, and he heard a creaking sound from his spinal joints in his ears.

The improvement in physical fitness and the upgrade of martial arts skills brought a massive influx of muscle memory into his body.

Zhou You raised his hand and threw a punch, shattering the rock beneath his feet, using the Tiger-Subduing Fist.

The most intuitive impact of upgrading his signature skill to lv13 was that the stone fragments were smaller after the rock shattered.

The surface of the finger-sized pebbles was covered in cracks, and the originally hard texture became loose, crumbling at a pinch.

Although he had not yet reached the lv20 threshold of the Blood-Qi barrier, the power of the Tiger-Subduing Fist had risen with the tide.

Now, looking at the Yanxing Quan that had penetrated with Force...

Zhou You leaped into mid-air and dove, his shoulders and elbows swinging, the air slowing down until it almost became a flowing liquid.

This was an environmental change influenced by Jinli Level.

There was even an illusion that if his strength continued to increase, his legs would be able to kick off the air to gain leverage, moving freely in the sky as if walking on flat ground.

The advantage of Yanxing Quan is precisely to launch strikes from this high vantage point.

Regardless of whether it is Tiger-Subduing Fist or Yanxing Quan, once they reach lv10 and above, each level up requires 5 points.

For example, for Tiger-Subduing Fist, the three attributes must reach 10 points to upgrade to lv10, but to upgrade to lv11, it requires lv15, and so on; to upgrade to lv13, it requires 25 points in strength and defense attributes, and 20 in speed.

Yanxing Quan follows the same logic, the difference being that the focus is on strength and speed, with the defense requirement appropriately relaxed.

"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!"

Zhou You dove straight down from mid-air, grazing past a stone wall, shearing off a piece of bluestone the size of a fist like a blade.

He exerted force with his five fingers, and amidst a creaking sound of fracturing, he crushed the stone into a handful of stone powder.

The killing move of Yanxing Quan lies in the five fingers of the palm; it is peerless at piercing skulls and boring through flesh and blood.

When he previously exchanged blows with Lu Zhigang, the clothing that the other party grazed split apart one after another, as if cut by sharp scissors.

Having mastered Yanxing Quan to the Jinli Level, Zhou You intuitively felt the power of this fist technique and felt more confident about his planned affairs.

"Tu Laosan, I will not let you live to see the New Year."

Shen Sijing patted his chest and guaranteed that he would definitely seek justice for him, and that not a single cent of the 500 taels of apology silver would be missing.

But Zhou You thought more deeply; he would not risk his parents and family to gamble on the integrity and morality of gang members.

Towards an enemy, one must cut the weeds and dig up the roots to eliminate future trouble once and for all.

While Zhou You was lost in thought, he wiped the dust off his hands, his mind running through his plan step by step.

"Li Hao, Zhou You, hurry to the front courtyard."

Outside Diba Lianwuchang, the shout of a Zhengshi Xuitu came.

On both sides of the stone wall, Li Hao and Zhou You looked toward the door in unison; what happened?

They only heard footsteps sounding from every corner of the martial arts hall, the gate leading to the Inner Courtyard opened, and the old master of the hall also appeared.

Did something really big happen?

Zhou You couldn't help but think, could it be that another Void Phantom has snuck in? Is it a second 'Fang Guiqi'?

The two of them had just walked out of the martial arts field when they heard someone shouting loudly, "They're here to challenge the hall, they're here to challenge the hall."

Challenge, challenge the hall?

This is a term used within martial arts halls, generally used for coming to one's door to issue a challenge.

What kind of person is Old Master Wang? The people of Gongliang City gave him the nickname 'Sitting Tiger'.

If he is a tiger, he will definitely eat people, so how could anyone dare to come to the door to challenge the hall? Do they not want to live?

"It's outsiders, martial arts masters from Su Cheng, here to steal our rice bowls."

So that's it; Su Cheng also has martial arts halls and martial arts masters, and now they have left their homes to come to Gongliang City, wanting to make a name for themselves by challenging the hall.

Jian Xiong Martial Arts Hall welcomed its first challenge in ten years.