Chapter 234: Refining the Fist Intent to Level Seven (1/2)

Chapter 234: Refining the Fist Intent to Level Seven

Translator: TransnEditor: Transn

Zhonghe City, geocentric fire vein.

Junior Leopard stood above the rock flows. His shoes had already melted from the scorching hot lava, leaving him barefoot. But it was strange. The lava flows that surged forward detoured voluntarily when they were two centimeters away from him as if blocked by a mysterious force.

Junior Leopard moved slowly on the rock flows. He stretched one of his hands, clenched the other and then stretched his body. With this movement, the coverage of his fist intent became wider and wider.

The gigantic black sun was burning fiercely. Surrounding the sun, the black ball that shone with metallic luster was twice as big as it was before.

This was his Hammer Spirit and also his fist intent.

Three months. He had stayed three whole months in the underground basalt chambers practicing his fist. After a great deal of contemplation, practice, infusion, and effort, he finally fused his Hammer Spirit and fist intent together. Meanwhile, his punching skill and hammering skill worked as a whole too. Now, there was no difference between fist and hammer.

His fist was a small hammer and his hammer was a huge fist!

The two were combined as one, so their power increased greatly.

His one hand was half-closed in an abstruse angle as if it covered all the other stars and galaxies besides his own fist intent galaxy. His fingertips moved slightly and it looked like he was plucking a string.

Beyond the galaxy was a dark hollow. Perhaps it was because Junior Leopard was too weak to deduce more stars in his own fist intent. However, innumerable stars which did not exist shone in his mind so that his eyes flashed with bright starlight.

Numberless stars, galaxies, black holes and star cloud...

All kinds of celestial bodies appeared in his mind, destroyed, reborn and destroyed again. At first, Junior Leopard could not adapt to this condition; he could not comprehend why there was such a result after he fused his Hammer Spirit together with fist intent. But once a couple of days passed, he gradually adjusted and understood it. What appeared in his mind was probably the complete fist intent that he had created through imitating the universe. It was a pity that his intact fist intent was too horrible and groundless for him to interpret outside his body.

It was great progress for him to see his complete fist intent in his mind. However, he soon found a problem. His fist intent was very messy.

It was extremely disorderly.

All the celestial bodies in the universe moved along their own orbits, day after day, year after year, unchanging all the time. However, when their life came to an end, they would be destroyed. In the same way, when the condition was right, a new celestial body would be born.

But the universe in Junior Leopard's mind was disordered. These celestial bodies had their own orbits, but these orbits were not very clear. Thus, a collision between two celestial bodies' was inevitable every now and then.

It was very normal for the orbits of celestial bodies to converge in the same place and thus two planets would collide. But the chances were too high in the universe of Junior Leopard's mind. Even in a small celestial system like the solar system the collision between planets occurred. Sometimes, a planet in this celestial system would be thrown out by a great force and fall into another system, making a big bang and causing a great mess.

In the beginning, Junior Leopard was unaware of the reason. But gradually, he realized it was his own fault.

His fist intent had been formed by accident. Meanwhile, the formwork he had used to make the fist intent was from a scene that he had seen in popular science reading and documentaries in his previous life. He only had a general view of the birth of the universe. As for the orbits that celestial bodies moved in, he knew what they were like, but not how they moved. After all, he had learned Chinese instead of astrophysics in his previous life. He knew nothing about the angles, gravity, or gravitation between celestial bodies, or celestial mechanics. Hence, such a condition would appear.

Generally speaking, his fist intent was complicated and horrible. Although it had formed successfully, it was extremely disordered and needed adjustment.

But how could he adjust it?

Through punching skill!

The fist intent in Junior Leopard's mind was a total mess and it was closely connected to his punching skill. It didn't matter that he knew nothing about astrophysics; it would be ok if he knew punching skill.

The fist intent emerged in his mind when he was practicing fist and fusing all kinds of punching skills together. Equally, the evolution of his fist intent was also controlled by his punching skill.

In these three months, he had gradually figured out the rules and found the solution to it.

He could use his punching skill to adjust it. With one hand holding the galaxies in his mind and the other smashing the disordered celestial bodies, Junior Leopard felt that there was an unchanging rule guiding his fist. He didn't know the correct orbits of these celestial bodies, but after he smashed these celestial bodies several times and adjusted these orbits to some degree, he would feel that his fist intent had disappeared completely. After that, no matter what method he used, he could no longer change their orbits. When this happened, he knew that these orbits were correct and meanwhile, his punching skill gradually began to take shape.

BOOM, BOOM, BOOM...

Junior Leopard's relaxing movement suddenly changed and grew fierce. His half-closed hand clenched tightly and the other hand which had been clenched into a fist before stretched leisurely now.

Junior Leopard's imposing manner suddenly changed through this movement. The formerly moderate adjustment became a violent destruction.

Each time a fist struck out, a star in his mind was shattered.

Affected by his fist intent, the Earth Fire Yuan Essence around him surged fiercely and violently poured into his body.

Junior Leopard's face suddenly flushed. But he paid no attention to it and continued to strike out his fists one by one. He did this every day for 10 days.

Fierce, aggressive, ruthless and destructive!

These were the best four words to describe Junior Leopard's fist.

The nature of punching skill was destruction!

Though he couldn't destroy real stars now, with his fists destroying stars in his mind one by one, his fist strength, fist wind and fist intent all carried an artistic conception that could destroy everything.

The fist was used to destroy everything!

In order to survive and go against the might of heaven and earth, people of the ancient times had held weapons and created various kinds of techniques and Divine Sense. But they had used their fists in the beginning. They had made a living and survived with their fists. However, for others, fists represented destruction.

Because only in this way could these people have survived.

Thus, the nature of punching skill was an art of destruction!

Junior Leopard finally comprehended this point after destroying numerous stars.

Destructive punching skill, devastating spirit!

This was the true meaning of Junior Leopard's punching skill and also the target that he would pursue his whole lifetime.

Taking Tai Chi Fist as the framework and foundation; Thirteen Punches of Desolation as flesh and blood; Snake-like Breath Holding Skill and Heavenly Jade Technique as meridians; and Flipping Sky Hammering Skill and Wild Hammering Skill as the reference; Junior Leopard interpreted the universe in his mind. After three months, he finally had a comprehensive understanding of punching skill and successfully practiced a punching skill that belonged solely to him.

When he displayed his martial arts again, there was no difference between Tai Chi Fist and Thirteen Punches of Desolation, no distinction between Flipping Sky Hammering Skill and Wild Hammering Skill, and he no longer utilized Snake-like Breath Holding Skill and Heavenly Jade Technique deliberately. He had deduced and fused all these into his new punching skill.

This punching skill was far from complete, however. It had just reached the Basic level!

Junior Leopard even thought that it was impossible to practice his punching skill for completeness. Because his fist intent was so gigantic, it was unlikely he could adjust all the mess in his fist intent and smash all the disordered stars.

But on the other hand, it also demonstrated that his punching skill still had infinite possibilities to evolve.

Infinite evolution was the very advantage of this punching skill.

But Junior Leopard didn't think too much. He just wanted to combine all the fist intent and Hammer Spirit that he knew together as one and that was ok.

In the three months, he absorbed the Earth Fire Yuan Essence and practiced his punching skills. He suffered considerably from the Earth Fire Yuan Essence day by day. By doing so, he tempered his muscles and bones. And he used up a bottle of Tendon-Changing Pills. Luckily, all the pain was worth it.

Once he achieved mastery through a comprehensive study of his punching skill, the Internal Qi of Nine Dragons Heavenly Fire in his body finally transformed into liquid and wandered through his tendons and meridians. This meant he had reached the Advanced Level of Level Seven!

Eventually, his actions stopped. The fierce and aggressive Qi Power that he had just unleashed suddenly withdrew and all the starlight in his eyes disappeared. He stepped out and left the rock flows.

Phew! It's been almost three months. Living in this damn place for three months, with only dry provisions to eat. Even drinking water was troublesome. Now he can finally leave this place.

Junior Leopard was secretly glad. In these three months, he had lost a lot of weight and also grown taller. He had only eaten dry provisions. Thanks to the Wu Family using the underground fire vein during this period, he hadn't needed to exit the fire vein to get water. Otherwise, he would have had to leave every few days and wouldn't have been able to concentrate completely on his punching skills.

I owe that guy a favor for this. I better return it!

In these three months, Wu Lei had helped him a lot. He would definitely not forget. Through these three months, he also came to realize why many experts who already had quite high cultivation still kept registered assistants in certain organizations. That was because practice also needed logistics.

If you wanted to do a closed-door training alone to break through a phase, which lasted for three months, half a year or possibly even a year, could you go the whole time without eating or drinking?

Impossible!

Even if you could endure the hunger, you still needed to drink water. Unless, of course, you found a place where there were food and water to do the closed-door training.

However, when people cultivated to the phase Junior Leopard was at, the site requirements for doing closed-door training were demanding. Many pieces of training required extreme conditions. Like Junior Leopard, he had needed to practice in the geocentric fire vein to increase his chances of breaking through. Others needed to break through in a world of ice and snow. In addition, every breakthrough had high requirements against body conditions, so ample energy storage was needed. Without enough preparation, you might starve to death before breaking through any phase.

Junior Leopard hadn't realized this until now. The closed-door training he had done before was all done in a better environment. But now, in the geocentric fire vein, he truly realized that an expert, except for in extreme conditions, could definitely not be a sole being.

And perhaps this was the reason why the Immortal Palace had such a powerful influence!

He went out of the fire vein without disturbing anyone. He morphed into a cyan streamer, flying toward the sky.

Great changes had taken place during the closed-door training. He had merged and refreshed all the punching skills he knew, except for Dragon Flying Technique and Nine Changes of Heavenly Birds.

Dragon Flying Technique was not a punching skill. It was a mysterious mental cultivation method. Hence it could not be merged in the punching skills, at least he was unable to do it for now.

As for Nine Changes of Heavenly Birds, it was not a punching skill either. It had been a complete Unique Technique in antiquity times and included abstruse mental cultivation methods and movements, which he was unable to practice. He hadn't learnt it thoroughly, so there was no reason to merge it in his punching skills and fist intent. He would do it later, once he had studied it thoroughly.

The problem now is finding an earth vein to cultivate Gang. Damn! Actually, Blood Essence Evil Yuan is the best Evil Qi to cultivate Gang, but I totally used it up. I exhausted almost all the Earth Fire Evil Yuan in the geocentric fire vein to greatly refine my Internal Qi, but it also affected the quality of this fire vein. I can no longer find Evil Qi the same quality as Blood Essence Evil Yuan to practice. How troublesome it is!

Junior Leopard displayed Dragon Flying Technique. He stretched his arms and stepped into the air, rushing out of Zhonghe City and heading to Jiang City at an extremely fast speed.

Three years earlier, the duel location agreed upon had been River Heart Island in Jiang City.

...

...

June 6th of the lunar calendar, the sun appeared after a rain.

Zhonghe Prefecture, Jiang City.

As a border city, Zhonghe Prefecture was not that eye-catching. But today, it drew the attention of more than half of Jianghu. Zhou Bao, the Elder of the Wu Family, and Meng Qingrong, a young master of the Meng Family in Ningzhou, would have a duel in River Heart Island of Jiang City. With Junior Leopard's military exploits, reputation and prestige, the duel arranged three years previous drew more and more attention.

”Who do you think will win this time?”

”Of course it will be Zhou Bao. He's a monster! He slew a Level Eight expert!”

”Well, that depends. Perhaps the Meng Family has some magic weapons. Just like the magic weapon that killed Ba Siba, an expert at the Mysterious Realm. Never mind Zhou Bao!”

”Yeah, right. Are you joking? Do you think that kind of magic weapon is common as a cabbage?”

”Even if it can't be obtained easily, the Meng Family might still have one. It's a well-known family and they have existed for several thousand years. How could it not have something valuable!”

”It makes sense!”

”No way! Even if they had one, they won't show it. Aren't they afraid of getting robbed?”

”Nonsense! Who would steal it? Who would dare to rob the Meng Family?”

”Not necessarily. If the Meng Family actually took that kind of magic weapon out, there would be someone willing to take the risk!”

A month earlier, all the inns in Jiang City had been completely booked up. People even dwelt in the houses of local residents.

Three days earlier, countless martial arts practitioners had swarmed to River Heart Island and they hadn't left since. Now, the whole Island was jam-packed with hordes of people.

In the center of the island, a spacious area had already been cleared out. Originally, people had wanted to build an arena here, however, they were stopped fiercely by Zhu Ba and gave up the idea.

”Do you consider our Commander as a monkey who will perform here for you?”

He dampened the enthusiasm of everyone with one sentence.

Junior Leopard didn't want others to see him as a monkey, but plenty of people came here to watch him.

Meng Shian, Family Head of the Meng Family in Ningzhou as well as father of Meng Qingrong, and the most powerful man of the Meng Family, Level Eight expert Meng Haichen, had both come. At the same time, Wu Yansheng, Family Head of the Wu Family, and Lyu Yiyue, the most powerful man in the Wu Family, had come here too. In addition to these two well-known families, members of other well-known families and big schools were also here. They wanted to witness Zhou Bao, the so-called first genius in the martial arts world for 1,000 years and discover his special talent.

The first genius in the martial arts world for 1,000 years!

This was the new title that Junior Leopard had received when he came back from Northern Yuan. The first genius in 1,000 years!

But what about 1,000 years ago?

In 1,000 years, no one could fight against a Level Seven expert at Level Four cultivation, cope with a Level Eight expert at Level Five cultivation, deal with a Level Nine expert at Level Six cultivation and keep sound and safe, except Junior Leopard. But whether there were other geniuses that had appeared a millennium ago, no one knew for sure!

There are so many people. Are they really here to watch my performance?

Junior Leopard didn't look well from 10 days earlier.

Seeing all the martial arts people coming here continuously from Jiang City to River Heart Island, Junior Leopard had an impulse to kill people.

”Junior Leopard, don't think too much. People in the martial arts world like to watch entertaining and amusing things. Besides, you've attracted so many people's attention. Thus, there are lots of people, as was expected.”

Wu Yansheng stood by Junior Leopard. He had been there for a long time and naturally knew that Junior Leopard was very unhappy to be treated as an object of amusement. What was more, he had wanted to close River Heart Island, but he also understood that River Heart Island was not a forbidden area. If he forcefully prevented these idle men in Jianghu from entering, God knew what would happen!

Besides, Junior Leopard was no longer the Navy commander of Jiang City. He had gotten a sinecure from Li Yuan and Li Yuan was not responsible for Zhonghe Prefecture. Therefore, if Junior Leopard released an order to close the island, it would sound unjustified.

It was the crucial time for the imperial court to reward officials. If he was tripped by some insidious people in the imperial court and lost his reward because of this matter… It was not wise.

Though they didn't know what the reward would be, Junior Leopard's merit was considerably larger than the whole Wu Family combined. Moreover, Junior Leopard was the Elder of the Wu Family. If he received benefits, the Wu Family would naturally benefit from him too. Hence, Wu Yansheng didn't want to affect Junior Leopard's reward over this matter.

Different from Wu Yansheng, Junior Leopard knew the truth of this reward from the imperial court. He was avid for the fief, so he adopted Wu Yansheng's suggestion. But upon seeing the huge crowd after he went out, he felt somewhat unpleasant.

Junior Leopard followed Wu Yansheng and lagged a bit behind Lyu Yiyue. Though his strength had far surpassed the Family Head of the Wu Family and the First Elder Lyu Yiyue, he was just an Elder whose status was a little lower than the two. He was a member of the Wu Family. He could not look down upon them just because he had powerful strength. Even if he wanted to do so, he couldn't do it in public. It was just like his previous life. As a civil servant, though he had disdained his leader, he had to behave well and be obedient before his leader.

...

...

”Here he comes. Here he comes. Zhou Bao is coming...!”

”Where? Where? Which one is Zhou Bao?”

”Where is he? Why haven't I seen him? Are you playing me?”