Chapter 36: Natural Progress

"Aaaaaah!"

Inside the martial arts arena, violent screams and shrieks erupted from the mouths of all the disciples.

In their sensory experience, the earth was completely split apart by Fang Can, and fierce fist winds formed sandstorms at will.

Everyone's bodies had been swept into the yellow storm, entering a pain akin to lingchi.

The perspective peeled away from the disciples and returned to reality.

Here, the scenery remained as before, the breeze was still gentle, the sunlight warm—where was there any storm?

But only Yang Lie, standing slightly farther away, could resist Fang Can's large-scale Heart-Image attack with the powerful spirit of the Fifth Level of the Profound Gate.

From his perspective, the movements of those hundreds of martial artists, originally charging toward Fang Can, all stopped as the other's fist pressed down.

Because with this Heart-Image punch, everyone had fallen into an illusion realm where their bodies were already dead, kneeling on both knees and truly feeling they were being subjected to lingchi.

As if kneeling were contagious, one senior brother after another knelt on the ground as if suddenly deceased, like worshipping a deity, falling into a state of mental stagnation with this punch.

"Hah..." Fang Can gently exhaled a mouthful of turbid air.

That punch just now had consumed nearly ninety percent or more of his Heart-Image power.

The flesh is the foundation of the heart; the heart is the continuation of the flesh.

At this moment, he had not even reached the First Level of the Profound Gate, and could only barely perform it once.

And the effect of such intense consumption was significant; under his hard control, the several hundred people on the scene had completely fallen into a state of mental stagnation for a full ten-plus seconds.

Such a long time was enough for Fang Can to take a knife and chop off all these people's heads, and it would be even simpler than killing several hundred running pigs.

The power of the Heart-Image is terrifying like this; those experts above the Eighth Level of the Profound Gate performing Heart-Image would only be more terrifying than him.

Before the Heart-Image is exhausted, kill however many ordinary martial artists come, no matter how many.

This is also the reason why only Heart-Image can counter Heart-Image.

Silence, dead silence...

These people persisted in death for nearly half a minute before gradually coming to their senses, then gazed at Fang Can with horrified eyes.

"This is actually Heart-Image." Yang Lie also felt an emotion of incomparable jealousy at this moment.

This situation of awakening Heart-Image before the First Level is simply unheard of; for someone like him, who is still spinning around the Fifth Level of the Profound Gate at forty or fifty years old, this talent's killing power is too immense.

When everyone on the scene recovered from the shadow of near-death just now, they all gazed at Fang Can with complex eyes, knowing they had been thoroughly defeated.

A martial artist of the Zero Level of the Profound Gate who has awakened Heart-Image; even "genius" is hard to describe.

They felt their mental cultivation over these past few days had been completely shattered, and they would probably need to rest for a long time.

Immediately, someone laughed out loud: "Hahaha, this world is truly chaotic, a son beating his father. Alas, I'll let you off this once."

This voice immediately made the disciples of the surrounding martial arts hall realize something: 'Acting Method, is it the Acting Method? Great, our spirits are saved.'

The next moment, these disciples seemed to fall into madness; hundreds of people collectively contracted hysteria and began babbling incoherently.

"Hysteria! Ugh! It was absolutely not Fang Can who defeated me; I defeated Fang Can, hahaha!"

"Exactly, exactly, easy fight, I have already fiercely beaten him into stagnation, unable to think, yay!"

"Hahaha, I am the one who fought a hundred alone inside the martial arts arena; what Fang Can? I don't know him, I don't know him!"

Hysteria, absolute hysteria. Yang Lie looked helplessly at the scene, which resembled a mental rehabilitation center, feeling somewhat speechless.

What Acting Method? In front of a Heart-Image expert, this kind of acting crazy and pretending to be foolish has absolutely no effect, because your heart will honestly respond to this fear.

Indeed, without any nonsense, Fang Can glanced sideways at the entire scene with his own eyes and released his remaining Heart-Image power.

The next moment, the situation was replicated once again, just like when Gu Shuqi, the old steward, came to give a lecture.

Fear, extreme fear, spread from the bottom of everyone's hearts; the crowd present, who had just been mentally victorious, lost their reason again and fell into fear.

Exhausting the remaining little bit of Heart-Image, Fang Can felt empty inside; although his physical strength was not depleted, a kind of fatigue rose from within his heart.

Indeed, using Heart-Image at a low realm is a bit too forced; it will be better once the body improves later.

Fang Can pondered opening the panel, but the description column on it made him pause.

Flesh Mutation: 10.2%

'Did I just break through the First Level of the Profound Gate?'

Fang Can was directly stunned, looking at the mutation degree, completely at a loss.

He clearly remembered that Jiang Ningan had once said that before breaking through the First Level of the Profound Gate, there would be obvious obstacles; one must rest for two or three days to regulate the spirit, then break through in one go.

But he just now felt nothing at all; how did the progress directly reach the 10% threshold naturally?

Although he guessed that during combat, the body would continuously strengthen, since there were no obstacles, he still thought his realm had not yet met the requirements of the First Level of the Profound Gate.

'Is Senior Jiang deceiving me, or is my talent too high?' Fang Can thought in his mind, and finally adopted the possibility that his talent was peerless.

After all, compared to the former, the latter conclusion would make him seem even more awesome.

"Fang Can." At this moment, seeing the battle situation ended, Yang Lie walked up quickly: "Didn't you only start practicing martial arts a few days ago? Your martial arts and Heart-Image..."

"Instructor Yang, didn't Li Tangzhu already tell you that my talent is peerless?" Fang Can seriously refuted:

"Geniuses do not follow common logic; you don't even believe the facts you saw with your own eyes, so what martial arts are you practicing, what Dao are you comprehending?"

For a moment, Yang Lie was left speechless by his words, because Fang Can's speech was no different from his own teachings a few days ago; only now the offensive and defensive positions had reversed, and he became the one wavering.

"Regardless, the potential you have shown is too terrifying; I must go and request instructions from the Sect Master." Yang Lie informed him.

"Do not move around freely during this time; return to your room and wait for me. Someone will come to bring you over then."

Fang Can nodded lightly; he had long expected this decision from Yang Lie.

He was not following the mortal path; there was no need to hide and conceal, only to suddenly explode later, show off, and slap faces.

A true genius should achieve first place at every step on the path of growth, then climb all the way to the peak of martial arts.

As for talking about the Sect Master persecuting someone, this Sect Master would have a brain defect if he thought about killing an peerless genius within the sect; he wouldn't want talent and create some faction.

The Emperor is jealous of talent because he has already reached the summit; great merit shakes the master and threatens his position.

Yet this Tiger Fiend Sect couldn't even rank in the top ten within the Dayan Kingdom — how could it possibly strangle its own in-house genius?

If the Sect Master truly had sense, he'd be willing to take him as his master.

Once the day comes that Fang Can is invincible, he could carry the Tiger Fiend Sect soaring skyward in one bound.

That would be far better than now, when they only occupy a mere hundred li in radius.

So, having just finished showing off in front of the entire new generation of the Tiger Fiend Sect, Fang Can returned without the slightest pressure to his own little hut for a short rest, preparing to recover his Heart-Spirit power.

On the other side, the Tiger Fiend Sect Master, who had received Yang Lie's report, had a completely different state of mind.

(End of this chapter)