Chapter 207: Level Eight Expert, A Steellike Internal Qi
Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
After the hammer hit, huge pressure caused by the black hammer unexpectedly covered a circumference of about thirty meters around. As a result, the space became frozen and stagnant.
At this moment, it seemed as if a huge mountain had suddenly capsized and deliberately damaged about thirty meters of the circumference.
“Aye?!”
Under the cover of the black hammer, a surprised voice appeared abruptly. A figure in the shadows stood within that circumference. Facing the powerful hammer, there wasn’t much panic on his face but just a little surprise.
The quintessence of Junior Leopard’s hammering just now was the Earth-flipping Hammer, one of the three strongest movements of the Flipping Sky Hammering Skill. Along with the mental cultivation methods and Internal Qi of Extraordinary Strength Fist, it carried an impact force of almost five thousand kilograms covering a circumference of thirty meters. However, after the appearance of that guy, all of the force united and poured into him immediately.
Junior Leopard knew that the guy was definitely an expert, yet he was still confident that under his hammering the guy would suffer and his muscles and tendons would break and he would be disabled from all the fractures even if he was at Level Seven.
“Break!”
A clear word was shouted out. Except being a little surprised, the guy didn’t have any fear of the hammer falling straight from the sky, and he just reached out his fist instead.
He went so far as to face Junior Leopard’s hammer head-on with his own fist.
His fist bumped into the hammer.
“Bang…!”
It was a muffle, not loud but breath-taking. They bumped with a spreading wave. With bursts of big noises, one could see about ten carts around being overturned. Several carts close to them with cattle were even shoved into the air by the wave and fell on the ground heavily causing a turmoil.
“Damn it!” Junior Leopard growled. His facial expression changed suddenly as he felt a huge force coming from the opponent’s fist.
“A Level Eight expert?!”
When Junior Leopard’s hammer collided with the fist, his whole body was thrown down by a strong force and he fell down thirty feet away with another three steps further.
“What a strong hammer!”
The figure had not budged under Junior Leopard’s hammer but on closer inspection, one would have found that his feet were about three centimeters into the ground.
“Pang…!” There was a muffled sound at his feet, and the ground around his feet was all cracked, and two shallow pits were formed around his feet.
“Lad, you are awesome! It’s been a long time since anyone has been able to put so much pressure on me!”
As the surroundings fell into silence, the man revealed his true face.
He had a healthy complexion and a clear-cut contoured face. His short hair was like steel needles and just like his whiskers was a shade of black and white. He was strong and in the age between forty-five to fifty. He wore a simple leather robe which was common for men in Northern Yuan.
With a saber around his waist, at a glance he looked like the head of an ordinary family in Northern Yuan. He remained calm and peaceful with no exceptional personality even after clashing with Junior Leopard.
“A Level Eight expert! Haha! It was completely beyond my expectation. Northern Yuan does look up to me!”
Settling his Qi and blood, Junior Leopard clasped his hammer and tightened his grip a little bit and stared fixedly at the man saying “Lu Laihong! Wan Bo! I’ll hold him off. Escort the army provisions across the bridge and head to Yunzhou as fast as possible!”
Lu Laihong and Wan Bo were Li Yuan’s personal guards who had just gone to meet him. They were Level Three experts and enjoyed a good prestige in the personal guard camp. Hearing Junior Leopard’s command, they both got shocked and said “Your Excellency…!”
“Shut up and do as I say!” Junior Leopard stared at the two men and then he turned all his attention to the man in front of him and slowly laid the hammer in front of him.
“You are very brave, lad, but do you really think that they can run away?!”
“Cut the crap!” Junior Leopard shouted. He lifted his hammer, tilted it and then rushed towards the guy with the violent wind caused by his iron hammer.
“It’s no use trying so hard!” The man sighed and stepped forward, throwing his fist at Junior Leopard’s hammer.There was a yellow glow in his fist. “I believe you’ve got the power to kill a Level Seven expert,” he said.
Boom!” There was another loud noise. Junior Leopard did not turn over this time, but he took a dozen steps back. Just then, blood seeped out from the corner of his mouth and the color of his face turned pale. Nine Dragons Heavenly Fire Technique was running madly inside his body, dissolving the saber-sharp punch of his fist intent that had just penetrated his body through the force of the hammer.
It seemed that his opponent didn’t want to wait any longer. Seeing Junior Leopard’s concentration on his inner strength, he jumped up and headed to him swiftly like a goshawk.
“Humph…!” Giving a light snort, Junior Leopard moved his body suddenly shooting out several arrows of blood. He discharged his remaining Internal Qi by force regardless of his internal injury. Meanwhile, Qi Power came out with scalding heat and a strong Hammer Spirit was formed in an instant, which covered a circumference of about thirty meters under its fist intent.
“Hum?!”
Feeling the change in the surroundings, the guy in midair displayed surprise in his eyes and said “It’s the Hammer Spirit. Lad, you are really beyond my expectation!”
He spoke but he had yet to slow down his movements. Instead, the yellow light on his fist was much brighter and was directed at Junior Leopard. A violent and deadly atmosphere was gathered in his fists and spread as if he was determined to tear Junior Leopard’s Hammer Spirit by his one punch.
“A wanton thought!” Junior Leopard was clear of the guy’s intent and sneered in his mind. He raised his iron hammer and all of a sudden, in a monstrous trace and with a sound “Hu”, the surrounding space fell into emptiness.
Within the emptiness, a black fireball was blazing and a metal bead was moving around it in an eternally immutable trace.
“This is my real Hammer Spirit!” Junior Leopard said gently but his body had already disappeared.
The guy rushed over to reach his one fist out but failed to touch Junior Leopard. He found that it seemed impossible to retreat his fist after that.
It was like being caught in a huge jumble of mud, with his body bound up by a seemingly weak, yet dense Internal Qi and he was unable to move.
What’s worse was that after he fell into the eccentric hollow, the metal bead that had been following its own track abruptly changed its direction and rushed towards him.
“Open!”
Fixing his gaze, the guy growled lightly. His Gang Qi in light yellow covered his body from head to toe and broke Junior Leopard’s strength, which helped him escape his attack at a crucial moment.
“Whoosh…!”
He jumped into the void with a massive yellow light. A huge wolf rushed out from his body and filled almost the whole void. Carrying a huge Qi Power, the wolf rolled directly to the black sun, the center of the void.
“Your Hammer Spirit is marvelous. Let’s see how long it will stay under my fist intent!”
Hiding in the void, Junior Leopard took several breaths heavily. He realized that the galaxy formed by his Hammer Spirit was at the verge of breaking down soon after that huge yellow wolf appeared. The spirit and intent were both the compound of divine thoughts and Internal Qi, and that guy’s fist intent which was almost a perfect entity was much clearer than his Hammer Spirit which had just recently been created and made from his Internal Qi of Level Six.
Indeed, it was made from his cultivation of Level Six. His body’s cultivation was at Level Four, but the External Elixir between the eyebrows already had a peak cultivation of Level Six, which could supply continuous Internal Qi for his body. In this way, regardless of his cultivation, he had exceeded those lower top experts of Level Six in terms of endurance.
Unfortunately, the opponent he confronted was a Level Eight expert.
Level Eight!
Zhou Bao had seen a lot in the world in his life and among Level Seven experts, he had killed two; he had killed one Level Eight expert and he had even met a Level Nine expert, ranking among the top in the world.
However, when he was confronted and attacked by a Level Eight expert, he became a bit desperate.
Level Eight and Level Seven were two completely different concepts.
Level Seven was just a stage where Internal Qi was compacted to a high degree. It was first like water and then was cultivated into Gang Qi, with which Level Seven experts could give out power more than he could. What then of Level Eight?
Their Internal Qi was as solid as steel!
It was as solid as steel instead of Gang!
On reaching Level Eight, one could have his Internal Qi highly compacted, just like stainless steels.
He could tear the Internal Qi of any expert under Level Eight with only one punch, just like cutting Tofu with a knife without any difficulty.
Junior Leopard’s Internal Qi was very condensed but the degree of compactness was barely enough to reach Level Seven. His Hammer Spirit was invincible compared with those at his level, and no matter how many Level Four, Level Five or even Level Six experts fell into his Hammer Spirit, they were rendered immobile and couldn’t move even one step, let alone resist it. To Level Seven experts, Junior Leopard’s Internal Qi would be big trouble.
Unfortunately, the opponent he confronted was a Level Eight expert.
Facing Internal Qi as solid as stainless steel, Junior Leopard’s threadlike strength spread in the void and turned into a joke. Whether in Internal Qi’s practice, clearness, or control of divine thoughts, Junior Leopard was greatly inferior to his opponent. Naturally, when the opponent’s fist intent was employed, his Hammer Spirit was in danger.
Considering the current situation, he was still in good spirits.
If it had been someone else, the Hammer Spirit would have broken down in an instant and backfired on them. In the end, they would have burst to death.
“Dong, dong , dong…!”
Three times in a row, the running Metal Planet slammed into the Yellow Wolf, but it didn’t budge. The Metal Planet, that is, the hammer in Junior Leopard’s hand bounced back, and he felt that the three hammer movements had completely smashed into a huge mountain of adamantine and steel and were unable to hurt it at all.
“Aouuu…!” With its body occupying almost the whole galaxy, the huge yellow wolf howled fierily, stirring up bursts of clamour.
With this howl, immense clamour broke Junior Leopard’s fist intent violently like a soil shifter.
“Boom…!”
As the Hammer Spirit was broken down, Junior Leopard was shot out of the void with his iron hammer like a shell. His body bounded twice on the ground like a rubber ball , leaving behind two shallow pits, and then he finally stopped.
“Auooo…!”
Another wolf howl came, however, it was not from that mysterious guy in prairie but Little Du. It jumped out with an illusion of six wolves and swooped down on that guy.
“The Ancient Silver Wolf?!” When he saw Little Du coming, the man’s eyes lit up with a hint of surprise. Then he looked at Little Du’s unique appearance, but saw nothing special, and thought that he was just a common Silver Wolf. This kind of silver wolf, although not many on the prairie, but each big tribe had a head or two. But when the little wolf conjured up six figures, his face immediately showed a surprised look.
It wasn’t merely a common Silver Wolf but one with ancient blood. It hadn’t grown up, yet it had already shown the distinction in its bloodline. Most importantly, with this ancient bloodline, Little Du could enjoy a great potential by which he could probably improve his cultivation further if he subdued it. That’s the reason why he was so delighted.
“This divine animal is Grassland God’s gift which should belong to our prairie heroes!” He said loudly and reached out his finger onto Little Du’s forehead to break Little Du’s illusion. “Staying in Central Plains is a big waste !”
“Damn you!”
Jumping up all of a sudden with a loop, Junior Leopard raised his hammer that he had just fetched from the ground with strength and rushed towards the guy.
With another flick, Little Du moved tens of feet away and fainted onto the ground.
“It is a fool’s errand, lad. You are such an awesome talent but you may still need another ten years to rival me. It is too early for you right now! ”
Junior Leopard gave him the cold shoulder, and between his breaths, three Fire Dragons coiled around his iron hammer. With a wild wind rolling caused by his hammer, he moved forward with an indomitable spirit.
“Since you are so stubborn, I don’t mind sending you to Grassland God’s front!”
Saying that softly, a fist intent of a huge yellow wolf that hid behind the guy rushed over Junior Leopard violently.
“Boom, boom, boom…!”
Junior Leopard burst out howls. His hammering employed Wild Hammering Skill. At the same time, the Extraordinary Strength Fist along with Snake-like Breath Holding Skill ran perfectly. In a very short time he hammered nine times and all of them landed on that steel-like huge yellow wolf.
“Bang, bang, bang…!”
After nine attacks, the Critical Hit that Junior Leopard expected didn’t appear but the combination of Nine Dragons Heavenly Fire Technique with other two mysterious mental cultivation methods still managed to create an enormous power that was not a failure like the confrontation of his Hammer Spirit with the guy’s fist intent. Under Junior Leopard’s continuous attacks, that huge yellow wolf retreated one step after another giving out a deep and fiery howl.
“Great! Lad.” The fist intent and the man were one. After seeing that huge yellow wolf retreat, he finally became afraid. He moved quickly with his fists stretching out and immediately integrated into his fist intent.
“Roar…!”
The huge yellow wolf finally stabilized his form, and his claws flickered with chilling light. Taking advantage of the intervals of Junior Leopard’s hammering, it reached Junior Leopard’s body and caught it with a quick movement.
“Bang…!” It was too late for Junior Leopard to dodge. He could only raise his black hammer in front of his body, which protected him from this critical scratch.
Unfortunately, the hammer in his hands was once again knocked down by this formidable power. This time, it was tens of feet away that Junior Leopard couldn’t get it back, although he wanted to.
My goodness! The Internal Qi and divine thoughts were both as hard as steel. With those two compacted, the fist intent was definitely sharp!
Pondering over that deadly scratch, there was a chill in Junior Leopard’s heart. If it landed on his body, his half-life would have been gone.
By this time, his mind was already thinking about when to employ Three Realms Division so that he could escape.
He now had to admit that he had over underestimated the strength of a Level Eight expert.
Maybe it was because he had once killed a Level Eight expert. Although he knew that they were stronger than him in cultivation, he still didn’t think they were invincible. What’s more, taking his three experiences of defeating Level Seven experts into consideration, he was too confident in himself.
Enough to make him feel ridiculous now.
“It appeared that Xue Wuya was badly injured by Lu Shaoyou at the time, otherwise he wouldn’t have been killed by me that easily. Thinking about it now, I wronged him!”
Junior Leopard’s mouth twitched a little. He was thinking that he may not even have known how he died, if Xue Wuya’s Internal Qi was at that time kept steel-like.
“Whoosh…!”
Another sharp sound was heard. Junior Leopard got shocked all of a sudden with his body retreating instinctively. That huge wolf’s sharp claws ripped the front part of his clothes leaving four blood stains.
“Bravo! Lad! You’ve got some nerve being absent-minded right now?” that guy sneered and said. The huge yellow wolf sprang at Junior Leopard with harsh roars and its movements were as quick as lightning that although Junior Leopard dodged him left and right he still bore plenty of scars.
What was worse was that through continuous attacks, the claws pierced into his body right to the tendons and meridians as if steel knives were damaging his viscus, which caused him tremendous harm.
Gradually that huge yellow wolf turned into a ball of yellow light moving around Junior Leopard.The attacks were so swift that Junior Leopard could only retreat with no counterattack.
“Damn it, I will definitely be dead if this goes on!”
Forced by the opponent’s constant attacks, Junior Leopard retreated five hundred meters back and then a golden red light flashed between his two hands which were busy with defending his front.
Six golden red fireballs appeared unexpectedly around his wrists heading directly for that huge yellow wolf.
“Aye?!”
At first, the yellow wolf ignored the fireballs and didn’t even bother to resist but kept the rhythm of its attacks.
But when those golden red fireballs touched the huge wolf’s body, things totally changed.
The huge wolf stopped his attacks all of a sudden and quickly moved several steps backward. Junior Leopard saw clearly that those golden fireballs he gave out were attached to its body. They were neither burning fiercely nor were they dying out either. Out of curiosity, the huge wolf didn’t try to put them out but let them burn as if it wondered what specialties those eccentric flames enjoyed.
“Hum, since you are curious enough, I’m more than happy to show you more!” Observing the scene, Junior Leopard waved his hands without thinking and then about ten fireballs appeared around his wrists which were about to attack that huge yellow wolf fiercely.
Those fireballs were totally different from the previous six which were given out carelessly when he was in desperation. Thirteen fireballs were full of strength like bullets shooting out when he exerted his utmost effort.
Almost at the same time, the huge yellow wolf seemed to know that he was in trouble with those eccentric flames. It dodged left and right and started to put out the flames burning on his body.
However, it wasn’t that easy to rid itself of the flames under the control of Junior Leopard’s divine thoughts. Seeing the opponent’s dodges, Junior Leopard separated the fireballs that were once very close by opening his fingers and blocked all the directions that the yellow wolf was going towards.
“Whoosh—!” That huge yellow wolf muffled. Unexpectedly, it stopped dodging and rushed head-on directly towards Junior Leopard ignoring those fireballs.
“Uh-oh!” Junior Leopard fell into a panic and found out for real that the opponent didn’t aim to escape from his fireballs but to separate them, because in this way once it was hit, its injury wouldn’t be as serious as that caused by the overall thirteen fireballs.
“That slippery old devil!” Watching three fireballs covered with golden red flames hit the huge wolf, Junior Leopard swore in secret.He raised both hands and three Fire Dragons appeared in the air, moving around his body.
“The second state of Nine Dragons Heavenly Fire Technique? It doesn’t work!”
That huge yellow wolf talked like a human being. Bearing the golden red flames, it broke Junior Leopard’s three Fire Dragons’ defense in a moment.
As the Yanfu Inner Strength was employed, Junior Leopard floated about one hundred feet up in the air via his invincible impact force. He stretched his hands with golden red light floating around and a huge dragon of a strange shape appeared indistinctly. “Now that the second state of Nine Dragons Heavenly Fire Technique doesn’t work, what about the third state?”
“Real dragon, the third state of Nine Dragons Heavenly Fire Technique!”
The Lion, one of the real dragons, whose body was thirty feet long roared and rushed down fiercely with all of Junior Leopard’s strength.
“Great!” the huge yellow wolf straightened up with golden red flame burning on its body growled angrily and rushed to the Lion head-on.