Chapter 270: The Most Formidable Hard-Body Technique in the World (Bonus chapter for Guild Master cSu Zixi)

The person imprisoned on the ninth level of the Tianlao is, naturally, Gu Santong.

In the past, Gu Santong and Zhu Wushi fought a decisive battle on the peak of Tianshan.

Gu Santong was a heaven-sent genius who had also obtained the inheritance of the Tianchi Guaixia; his martial arts progressed by leaps and bounds, and he had fought across the world without a single rival. Furthermore, his personality was as mischievous as a child's, hence the nickname "Invincible Playful Child."

Zhu Wushi, meanwhile, had ambushed the experts of the Eight Great Sects and the Four Great Constables during the battle at Taihu, absorbing the Internal Force of one hundred and seven people to achieve a formidable power that shook the past and present.

The two engaged in an earth-shattering duel on the peak of Tianshan, fighting fiercely for three days and three nights.

Just as the two were about to decide the outcome with their final move, Suxin, the woman they both loved, rushed up and stood before them. In the end, Gu Santong was defeated by half a move.

This defeat was not due to inferior martial arts.

But defeat is defeat; a proud and arrogant person like Gu Santong would never go back on his word.

—To see the tablet is to see the person; wherever your "Iron-Gall Divine Marquis" name exists, I, Gu Santong, shall not step a single inch.

This was the promise Gu Santong made back then.

Thus, he threw himself into the ninth level of the Tianlao, suppressed for a full twenty years by an iron tablet engraved with "Iron-Gall Divine Marquis."

During these twenty years, he relied on the Great Art of Absorbing Power to consume spiders, geckos, and insects in the stone corridors to fill his stomach.

And during these twenty years, Zhu Wushi would also come to see this old friend every year.

This was the rival of Zhu Wushi's life, and also his friend. Seeing Gu Santong in this state now, perhaps Zhu Wushi felt a touch of desolation in his heart, but one imagines there was more of an indescribable sense of gratification.

During the first eight years of Gu Santong's imprisonment, Zhu Wushi would capture a top expert from the Eight Great Sects each year and throw them into the ninth level of the Tianlao to test the progress of Gu Santong's martial arts.

But twelve years ago, Zhu Wushi stopped doing such foolish things.

Because even within the ninth level of the Tianlao, Gu Santong's martial arts progress was astonishing; he had even learned the unique martial arts of these Eight Great Sects. Now, he had melted the martial arts of the Eight Great Sects into one furnace, becoming a great master who shook the past and present.

If Gu Santong were to fight Zhu Wushi again, one imagines Gu Santong would have a better chance of winning.

For these twenty years, he had been imprisoned in the Tianlao, studying martial arts every single moment.

Whereas Zhu Wushi managed the Dragon-Protecting Villa, burdened by too many worldly trifles to focus on martial arts, so his rate of progress naturally could not compare to Gu Santong's.

Of course, this was on the condition that Gu Santong's injuries did not recur.

Back then, Gu Santong was struck by Zhu Wushi's Pure Yang Palm, and his days were numbered.

Although his aura appeared like a mass of burning fire, scorching the heavens, he was always on the verge of running out of oil and exhausting his lamp.

It was precisely because of this that Gu Santong was so impatient to strike when he saw Yu Liancheng. He needed to absorb the essence of the other party to inject into his own oil pool that was about to run dry.

In Gu Santong's palms, there surged an incomparable, surging suction force.

This was precisely one of the two great unique arts of the Tianchi Guaixia; the so-called "training with a virgin body" or "training without a virgin body" was merely to tease Zhu Wushi—Gu Santong had long since obtained the inheritance of the Tianchi Guaixia.

Yu Liancheng stood with his hands behind his back, his posture as steady as Mount Tai, yet he felt the True Qi within his body being pulled out involuntarily.

The suction of this "Great Art of Absorbing Power" was more than a notch stronger than his "Ten Thousand Phenomena Returning to Origin Art," actually capable of absorbing power from a distance.

But following a cold snort from him, his True Qi instantly solidified like an iron plate, and no external force could shake it in the slightest.

At the same time, Yu Liancheng reached out to press down Cheng Shifei, who was about to fly into Gu Santong's palms, and casually tossed him behind the iron tablet to the side, shielding him from the influence of the suction.

"Good lad." Gu Santong showed a hint of surprise, his five fingers curling, and that suction force became even more terrifying.

"Since you want to fight, I will accompany you to your heart's content." Yu Liancheng spoke abruptly, his body, steady as Mount Tai, suddenly lifting off the ground and flying toward Gu Santong.

"Well come, take my palm." Gu Santong laughed heartily and pressed a palm toward Yu Liancheng; the air collapsed with a rumble, squeezing toward Yu Liancheng and condensing into True Gang, leaving him no way to dodge and forcing him to clash head-on.

Yu Liancheng's brows knit, his palm flipped, and he met Gu Santong's palm with a force that carried the momentum of a mountain collapsing and the sea overturning.

Bang!!

As their palms collided, the ground beneath Gu Santong's feet instantly collapsed, and dust flew. His body also sank slightly, but a piercing divine light suddenly shot from his eyes as he shouted: "Good, good, good! Based on this palm alone, among the experts sent by that old pig, you are the first."

Amidst his words, his wrists rotated, having already used the "Bone-Locking Method" to shake off the shackles of the iron chains; he stepped on the ground and lunged toward Yu Liancheng in mid-air like a mad dragon.

His fists struck out, shaking lightly in the air, and suddenly the fists split into ten, then into a hundred, then into a thousand.

Each punch contained seven different types of force: some fierce, some yin and soft, some soft within the hard, some hard within the soft, some striking horizontally, some thrusting straight, some retracting inward...

In an instant, the fist momentum surged wave upon wave, bombarding Yu Liancheng without end.

A sharp glint flashed in Yu Liancheng's eyes; with his discernment, he could naturally tell that this move of Gu Santong's was a perfect combination of the Shaolin Temple's "Thousand-Hand Tathagata Palm" and the Kongtong Pai's "Seven-Injury Fist," reaching the pinnacle of ingenuity.

Even if experts from Shaolin and Kongtong saw this move, they would be horrified and disbelieving.

Yu Liancheng, in mid-air, had also made his move; his sleeves and arms flicked, and his robes drifted out like two dark clouds. This flick of the sleeve was not only graceful and elegant, but also carried not a trace of worldly fire, like an antelope hanging its horns, leaving no tracks to be found.

In an instant, these thousands of fist forces were all gathered into the sleeves that hung like the sky.

Gu Santong only felt that the opponent's sleeves had become a swamp trap of surging dark currents in an instant, causing his fist force to either fall into empty space or bounce back, colliding with other parts of his own fist force and canceling each other out. Only a very small portion could take effect, but it could not cause any major harm to the opponent.

Having neutralized Gu Santong's move, Yu Liancheng stepped on the void with his left foot, as if there were invisible stairs.

At the same time, he twisted his waist, and his right leg swept out with a momentum that was peerless and fierce; the sharp, piercing wind whistled incessantly, like a divine blade slashing horizontally, and it even carried an indescribable, marvelous rhythm, making this move seem in harmony with heaven and earth.

Gu Santong rotated his hands, the yin and yang True Qi in his left and right hands merging, and then he pushed out the Wudang "Two Forms Divine Palm," which was as fast as it was slow, with the yin and yang perfectly fused—a move that reached the pinnacle of ingenuity.

And after a moment of palms and legs, Gu Santong had already fallen downward, retreating two steps.

An unprecedented look of surprise appeared on his face: "This blade... this blade... what is your relationship with the Tyrant Blade? Has the Tyrant Blade finally mastered that blade?"

Twenty years ago, he challenged all the sects and major experts of the world. Although he had never truly fought the Tyrant Blade, the two had met several times, and he knew of that blade hidden within the other's intent.

Yu Liancheng descended slowly from the air and smiled faintly: "I am the First Heavenly Venerable, he is the Fifth Heaven Sun; what do you think our relationship is? As for that blade of his, it has not yet reached perfection, but in three years at most, he will be able to wield it with ease."

"Good, good, good. That can indeed be counted as a blade unprecedented in history, but I haven't fought to my heart's content yet."

Gu Santong laughed strangely, his sleeves rolled, and that iron chain was already sucked into his hand.

A stream of mellow True Qi surged into the other end of the iron chain, turning it into a sharp blade capable of cutting gold and jade, slicing and slashing incessantly. Although the surface of the iron tablet appeared unscathed, countless fine cracks had already appeared within.

His hand shook again, and the iron chain was immediately severed at the cracks.

"Watch the move!"

The nearly one-zhang-long iron chain in Gu Santong's hand swung, instantly transforming into a mad python and angry flood dragon, carrying peerless momentum as it coiled toward Yu Liancheng.

Yu Liancheng retreated, but the iron chain followed closely behind. No matter how he dodged or evaded, this mad python followed him like a maggot on a bone.

At the very moment Yu Liancheng was about to retreat to the stone wall, he lightning-fast took the "Peach Blossom Beauty Fan" from his waist, tapped lightly on the weakest point of the iron chain's force, and gave it a gentle push.

That iron chain instantly carried an incomparable momentum, smashing back toward Gu Santong.

Although Gu Santong was somewhat startled, he was even more delighted to find such a worthy opponent. With a flick of his wrist, he neutralized this strange force, pulled the iron chain taut, and thrust it out like a sword, shockingly using the sharp and swift Emei Sword Technique.

Yu Liancheng's expression remained unchanged; he pointed his Folding Fan out, also using sword technique.

……

"What happened? Didn't I follow that Demon Yu Liancheng..." Cheng Shifei woke up slowly, subconsciously wanting to say something, but he quickly covered his mouth, looked around, and breathed a sigh of relief when he didn't see Yu Liancheng.

He only remembered coming to the Tianlao with Yu Liancheng, and then, just as he was about to be unable to walk any further, Yu Liancheng's eyes met his, and he knew nothing more.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Cheng Shifei soon realized he was behind an iron stele, and dull sounds of clashing and whistling winds were coming from ahead. He poked his head out to look and saw two figures, difficult to track with the naked eye, seemingly fighting in the massive cavern.

He did not know how powerful their martial arts were, but just by hearing the collision sounds as they fought, he knew they were the experts only spoken of by storytellers.

"Satisfying! Satisfying! Satisfying!" Gu Santong laughed heartily, his laughter echoing endlessly in the cavern.

"Good, although you are young, your martial arts have already reached the pinnacle. Old Zhu Luo might be able to defeat you, but he cannot capture you, let alone order you to attack me."

While speaking, Gu Santong continued his relentless assault, his right hand wielding the iron chain with Rigidity and Flexibility Combined. His left hand alternated between palm, fist, claw, and finger, unleashing the unique skills of the Eight Great Sects one after another.

His martial arts techniques were already astonishing, and he was actually improving rapidly during the fight.

This is not hard to imagine; although Gu Santong had learned the martial arts of the Eight Great Sects, he had always been studying in isolation, researching on his own.

But by fighting a top-tier expert like Yu Liancheng, he could perceive the shortcomings and flaws in his martial arts, and then perfect them in an instant.

This person's martial arts and talent were both beyond what ordinary people could compare to.

"Hah, although you are powerful, I will absolutely never lose again!" Gu Santong roared, like a thunderclap exploding. Cheng Shifei, who had just woken up to watch the excitement, was actually shaken unconscious again.

Gu Santong gathered his Qi into his dantian and surged it up to his Heavenly Spirit, having already used his ultimate trump card.

In an instant, his entire skin turned golden, and even his eyebrows and hair turned golden, brilliant and flawless, like a Vajra God descending to the world.

——Diamond Indestructible Divine Skill.

One of the two great unique skills of the Tianchi Guaixia.

The time Gu Santong had spent immersing himself in the Diamond Indestructible Divine Skill far exceeded any other martial art.

He was confident that if he used this martial art now, he could surely defeat Old Zhu Luo. It was just a pity that he had no chance to fight Old Zhu Luo.

Boom!

Gu Santong threw a punch, the force of which surged; the power of this punch was like a collapsing mountain, a sinking earth, a tsunami, a falling sky... fierce and peerless, extremely formidable.

Before the punch even arrived, the wind from it was already making Yu Liancheng's clothes and hair rustle loudly.

In the world today, I fear there is no longer a more terrifying fist to be found.

Yet Yu Liancheng suddenly tucked his Folding Fan back into his waist and stood with his hands behind his back.

He only calmly spat out one sentence, and Gu Santong's punch froze, unable to be thrown out any further.

That sentence was: "Do you want to know news of Suxin?"

……

And just at this moment, a secret report was delivered to the Dragon Protection Villa.

It was delivered into the hands of Zhu Wushi.

Zhu Wushi looked at this secret report, his gaze revealing a thoughtful expression.

"Suspected that someone is impersonating an Eastern Depot Thousand-Household, breaking into the ninth level of the Tianlao."

If Cao Zhengchun saw this secret report, he would likely reveal a look of surprise.

Because the Tianlao was originally controlled by the Eastern Depot, yet he, the Grand Overseer Cao, had not received the news, while Zhu Wushi had.

This was not only because Zhu Wushi paid special attention to the ninth level of the Tianlao and had secretly set up many ambushes and hidden guards, but it also showed the extent to which Zhu Wushi had infiltrated Cao Zhengchun's Eastern Depot.

"The ninth level of the Tianlao, someone looking for my old friend?" Zhu Wushi's brows furrowed slightly, his deep eyes revealing a look of contemplation, his mind constantly analyzing this intelligence.

"There are not many people who can break into the ninth level of the Tianlao; could it be him?"

Zhu Wushi's eyes brightened: "This person's martial arts are high, especially skilled in external martial arts. And the 'Diamond Indestructible Divine Skill' is the world's number one hard-body divine skill; I fear his trip to the capital is for this very thing. However, dealing with him will not be easy either. Right..."

The corners of Zhu Tiedan's mouth suddenly curled into a cold sneer: "Perhaps I can pass this news to Feiying, and let Feiying pass it to Cao Zhengchun, letting those two fight until both are heavily injured, hehehehe."

……

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