Chapter 222 - 221: Not Fast Enough, Not Ruthless Enough
Chapter 222: Chapter 221: Not Fast Enough, Not Ruthless Enough
A gleam flashed in Wu Chen’s eyes, and the world around him transformed.
The mountains, rivers, grass, and trees faded away, as did the dim light of night. His surroundings brightened, and he could see all kinds of auras flowing along their own distinct pathways.
The blast of Powerful Qi, brimming with source energy and shooting straight for Wu Chen, may have seemed formless and colorless, but it, too, had its own energetic pathways. Naturally, it could not escape his perception.
Faced with the fist-sized ball of energy, which contained a tyrannical power yet hurtled toward him without a sound, Wu Chen didn’t dodge, nor did he draw his blade. He simply slapped it with his sheathed sword, striking its critical weakness as if hitting a snake seven inches below its head.
The violent ball of energy instantly dissipated into nothing.
It didn’t even make the slightest sound.
"This—!"
The Hidden Wind Valley Elder’s bloodshot pupils constricted, and a look of absolute horror filled his eyes.
’Is this guy *really* a provisional guard?’
He scrutinized Wu Chen’s uniform. Based on the skill his opponent had just displayed, he had to be at the Perfection level of the Blood Coagulation Realm, a whole level above his own late-stage realm!
’He should at least be wearing the uniform of a Golden Eagle Captain!’
And to project the authority of the Demon Suppression Bureau, its members would certainly be in uniform for an operation like surrounding a mountain.
Yet the man before him was dressed so plainly, clearly marking him as a provisional guard.
’So...’
’Have the requirements to become a provisional guard in the Demon Suppression Bureau gotten this high?’
’Is the Perfection level of the Blood Coagulation Realm the new minimum?’
The Hidden Wind Valley Elder realized something was wrong. In the distance, those eyes, like bright lanterns, were approaching at an incredible speed, leaving a trail of afterimages.
They gave him no chance to think.
At the same moment, he shot to his feet.
"Boy, I am a Martial Artist who has tempered my body with Cold Qi Body Forging for sixty years!"
"You think you can match my fists?"
"You’re still wet behind the ears!"
The young man’s figure closed the distance rapidly, appearing before him in just two leaps. He didn’t even draw his blade, arrogantly swinging a fist at him. The old man, who resembled a withered tree, snorted coldly and threw a straight punch of his own.
Meeting him head-on, giving no ground.
Though his move seemed ordinary, his fist and arm were wreathed in wisps of Powerful Qi that radiated a startling, volatile energy.
This was the effect of the earth qi he had refined from his source energy.
This was no longer a projectile of energy but a punch powered by every wisp of his source energy. The might it contained was four or five times greater than his previous attack!
The air around his knuckles even seemed to faintly distort.
If an ordinary Martial Artist were to take this punch head-on, the force of the earth qi-wreathed fist would surely obliterate their internal organs and scatter their source energy.
"A little interesting."
Yet even faced with such a punch, Wu Chen, his eyes gleaming, remained perfectly calm, merely marveling inwardly at the remarkable nature of this Body Refining Skill.
As he watched the fist close in, inch by inch, the intricate weaknesses in the flow of Powerful Qi were revealed to him, unraveling like threads from a cocoon.
"Break!"
Seizing the perfect moment, Wu Chen’s fist changed to a finger-strike. His wrist coiled back as nimbly as a snake before his fingertip shot forward, lightly tapping the elbow joint of the incoming arm.
WHOOSH!—
With Wu Chen’s seemingly effortless tap, a gentle breeze dissipated in front of him. The gale generated by the powerful punch vanished in an instant, leaving no trace behind.
"How is that possible?!"
The Hidden Wind Valley Elder felt his arm go numb, and his entire right arm dropped uselessly to his side. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t lift it.
His eyes went wide, as if he had witnessed something incomprehensible. He hadn’t even seen what happened, and suddenly his arm had gone limp and powerless.
’He blocked it?’ his heart pounded.
He could accept his punch failing to land, but he could not accept that the fist he had honed for sixty years had been shattered by this young man with a single, casual finger-strike.
"After sixty years of practice, your fist is still not fast enough, and certainly not vicious enough."
"You!"
Critiqued in such a way, the Hidden Wind Valley Elder’s fury surged. His hair and beard stood on end, and he was so incensed he couldn’t speak.
He decided to let his actions speak for his rage.
He clenched his good left hand into a fist, gathering a ferocious gale of power around his arm, and once again swung at Wu Chen’s head.
"Pathetic parlor tricks."
But the moment he moved, Wu Chen’s hand shifted from a finger-strike to a grab. His palm shot out like an eagle’s talon and locked onto the old man’s left shoulder.
Without any apparent effort, the old man’s left arm went limp just like his right, and his entire body was instantly immobilized.
Wu Chen gradually tightened his grip.
CREAK! CREAK!—
A strange sound, like twisting leather, came from the old man’s shoulder.
’That’s not the sound of a normal bone fracture, and my fingers haven’t broken his skin. This Body Refining Skill is something else.’
Wu Chen nodded to himself, acknowledging the value of this Body Refining Skill.
He didn’t test it further, lest he accidentally crush the old man to death and interfere with his plan to kill Zhao Deyi. He lifted his foot and, with a kick that left an afterimage, struck the old man’s knee.
After this blow, the Hidden Wind Valley Elder’s body finally gave out. As Wu Chen released his grip, the man collapsed, kneeling limply on the large boulder.
With the Elder completely neutralized, Wu Chen deftly removed the storage pouch from the old man’s waist and then patted him down to make sure he hadn’t missed anything.
’Cold Qi Body Forging.’
Having done all this, he turned his attention to the palm-sized cloth pouch in his hand.
There wasn’t much inside the storage pouch: about a hundred or so loose silver taels, some medicinal pills in various bottles and jars, and a dusty-looking booklet.
Judging by the title, it was exactly what Wu Chen was looking for.
Wu Chen wasn’t disappointed by the small amount of silver taels and pills. After all, most Martial Artists spent their money as soon as they got it, turning it into pills to consume. It was normal for them to be a bit poor.
Besides, the amount of silver taels didn’t mean much to him right now.
’Cold qi, earth qi...’
The name of the aura emanating from this mountain was slightly different from what Sun Yuting had told him, but Wu Chen knew they were one and the same. He could tell from the old man’s attacks.
There was no need to get hung up on it.
THUD.
Having obtained what he wanted, Wu Chen turned to leave, but a hoarse, bewildered voice called out from behind him:
"You’re... not going to kill me?"
Wu Chen couldn’t be bothered to answer and was about to leap down when the old man behind him shrieked, "Why? Wha—"
THWACK!
A dull thud, masked by the wind, was followed by abrupt silence. Wu Chen had swiftly struck a point on the Hidden Wind Valley Elder’s neck, rendering him mute.
He could only kneel there, his chest heaving violently.
It seemed he simply could not accept what had just happened.
It was the same thought as before: he could accept defeat, but it should have been after fifty moves, or at least thirty.
But to be defeated in just three moves—a tap, a grab, and a kick...
He simply couldn’t accept it!
It was as if his sixty years of training, of forging his body in this bitterly cold land, were now nothing but a joke!
Faced with this reality, he would rather have been killed by a single punch than be left here as a public spectacle!
"..."
Wu Chen looked at him, speechless, and reached out to reposition the old man into the same cross-legged posture he had held during the day.
’Why? If I didn’t need to use someone else to kill that disgusting pest Zhao Deyi, why would I bother with all this?’
He had no habit of humiliating the defeated.
Besides, he had more important things to do.
He spun around and leaped off the giant boulder.
The Hidden Wind Valley Elder on the boulder was completely incapacitated. Well, not completely—Wu Chen had merely sealed the flow of his energy pathways. The seal would release in three days, and his movements would return to normal.
’In three days, the two sides should have reached their final confrontation, right?’
Wu Chen resumed his post not far from the boulder, but his gaze shifted toward the mountain peak behind it.
The Demon Suppression Bureau wouldn’t waste time here forever, and Hidden Wind Valley wouldn’t just sit back and await their doom.
’But what does that have to do with me...’
Wu Chen shook his head, pulled the Body Refining Skill manual from the storage pouch, and began to read.