Thunder Bamboo, Breakthrough

"You bastard, you're doing this again!"

Qin Ming's eyes flashed with a cold light. He had been ambushed in Qingyang County and was seriously injured by a sword. If it weren't for his Greater Mastery of Horizontal Training Martial Arts, he would have been beaten to death. Now this bastard dares to pull the same trick again.

He suddenly turned around, his palms merging Fire Poison and black Sha Qi into one, and roared out.

Laugh--

Li Qingfeng's sword pierced Qin Ming's palm, and with only a slight pause, the sword went straight through Qin Ming's hand, and blood spurted out immediately!

Qin Ming's face was contorted with rage. Ignoring his injured hand, he slammed his palm hard into Li Qingfeng's chest.

A gust of wind rushed towards him. Seeing that he had no time to dodge, Li Qingfeng decisively let go, stomped his toes on the ground, and the floor suddenly cracked. His body shot backward like a startled bow, leaving a trail of afterimages. In a flash, he had retreated several feet away, avoiding the attack.

Qin Ming stopped and looked down at the longsword that had pierced his palm.

Compared to his massive five-meter-tall frame, the sword was about the size of a toothpick.

He gripped the hilt and drew the sword.

Upon closer inspection, two characters were engraved on the sword: "Thousandfold Forging".

No wonder this sword could pierce his flesh; it was made of Thousandfold Forging Steel!

The two knives Qin Ming bought at a high price not long ago were nothing more than Hundred-Forged Steel.

Li Qingfeng is of noble birth and has the support of his father, who is born with Xiantian talent, so the resources he uses are naturally extraordinary.

"You little beast! I'm going to kill you!"

The Spirit Medium climbed out of the pit.

Half of her head was blown apart by Qin Ming's punch, leaving it a bloody mess. You could even clearly see the white brain matter inside her brain, and her terrifying eyeballs hung on her face, making one's scalp tingle.

Even with such severe injuries, she did not die; moreover, her head was healing at a visible speed.

"Sir, are you alright?"

Lu Ming was startled. He was about to make a move when Li Qingfeng suddenly attacked Qin Ming with his sword. Qin Ming reacted even faster, turning around and striking Li Qingfeng with a palm strike, almost turning him into mincemeat.

"I'm fine."

Li Qingfeng lost face, and his eyes darkened.

He patted his waist, and another sword appeared in his hand. It looked like it was made of the same material as the first sword— Thousandfold Forging Steel!

"Could this be... Spatial Belt?"

Lu Ming's eyes widened suddenly as he stared intently at the seemingly ordinary belt around Li Qingfeng's waist, in which a small, transparent jade stone, about the size of a soybean, was embedded in the center.

"Spatial Stone!"

Lu Ming couldn't help but exclaim in surprise.

"You do have a good eye. That's right, this is Spatial Belt made of Spatial Stones."

Li Qingfeng said calmly, his words carrying a hint of arrogance.

These words caused an uproar among the Martial Artists present, who were all shocked.

The city lord of the Desolate City also had a glint in his eyes, a hint of greed that he himself was unaware of.

"A storage space! This is a treasure of storage space! It's said that only Xiantian experts can obtain such a rare treasure!"

Lu Ming felt his mouth go dry.

The treasures within storage spaces are priceless, and generally only Xiantian experts can possess them. The Spatial Belt in Lu Ming's hand was obtained by his father by chance. Since he already had a storage treasure, he gave the Storage Belt to Lu Ming to use.

Storage space is a treasure that represents not only strength but also status and prestige.

Qin Ming's gaze fell on Li Qingfeng's belt; no one would not want such a spatial treasure that could store things.

"Kill him, and the Storage Belt is mine!"

Qin Ming shook his arms, and two long white streams of smoke came out of his nose.

"Boy, today I'll show you what Bright Strength master really is!"

Li Qingfeng sneered, and the longsword in his hand emitted a crisp sword hum.

"Fleeting Light and Shadow!"

As the sound of a sword rang out, Li Qingfeng's sword was already aimed at Qin Ming's brow.

"Wow, that's fast!"

Qin Ming was startled and used his Eagle Claw Skill, pressing his five fingers together to grip the iron sword.

The friction between his palm and the sword's edge produced a hissing sound and sparks flew everywhere. Qin Ming's palms were as hard as iron, but they were still no match for Li Qingfeng's Thousandfold Forging Steel Sword. His palms were quickly slashed open with a large gash.

Qin Ming remained expressionless, then suddenly raised his other hand and slapped it down hard at Li Qingfeng as if swatting a fly.

Get out of here!

Li Qingfeng raised his palm and struck, and a fire dragon half a zhang long spewed out from his palm.

The fire dragon was extremely hot, and the surrounding space was distorted and trembling.

Qin Ming struck down with his palm, and a burning pain shot through his palm. Not only that, but a special kind of energy burst forth from Li Qingfeng's palm.

This force is extremely concentrated.

If Qin Ming's power is like a giant hammer, then this power is like a steel needle!

Extremely strong penetrating power!

Qin Ming's entire arm suddenly went numb. The force instantly pierced through his arm, exiting from his shoulder and leaving a cluster of glaring crimson blood.

Qin Ming clutched his almost numb left arm and staggered back several steps.

"Ha ha!"

Li Qingfeng laughed loudly.

"See that? That's the power of Bright Strength."

Li Qingfeng sneered repeatedly, quickly stepped forward, and attacked one after another. Each attack created a bloody hole in Qin Ming's body, piercing through his flesh and leaving it transparent from front to back.

Qin Ming was forced to retreat repeatedly, and could only use his hands to protect his vital parts.

Li Qingfeng grew increasingly excited as he fought, unleashing powerful gusts of wind that left bloody holes in Qin Ming's body.

"You're amazing, sir!"

Lu Ming hurriedly followed behind, flattering him.

"Then what are you standing there for? I heard you have a piece of Thunder Bamboo, take it out and let me see!"

Li Qingfeng suddenly spoke, and Lu Ming's expression immediately changed, "This..."

"What, you're afraid to take it out? Do you think I'll steal it from you?!"

Li Qingfeng shouted sternly, and Lu Ming looked troubled, but in the end he reluctantly took out the Thunder Bamboo.

It was a half-foot-long, dark bamboo stalk with charred black edges, as if it had been burned.

This was obtained by Lu Ming by chance in his early years. The Thunder Bamboo contains a trace of thunder power, which can be activated with internal force. Each time it is activated, the thunder power is released and the Thunder Bamboo can only recover on its own after a period of time.

Lu Ming held the Thunder Bamboo in his hand, and with a single tap, a bolt of black lightning, as thick as a thumb, shot out and struck Qin Ming's chest with pinpoint accuracy.

The lightning strike, though seemingly weak, sent Qin Ming flying more than ten feet away, half of his body turning charred black. His massive body crashed heavily into the Li River, creating towering waves.

"Excellent! It's definitely a great treasure."

Li Qingfeng's eyes lit up, and he snatched Thunder Bamboo away.

"Etc!"

Lu Ming tried to stop him, but it was too late.

"My lord, you..."

Lu Ming panicked.

"Lu Ming, can I borrow it for a few days? You don't mind, do you?" Before Lu Ming could answer, Li Qingfeng put Thunder Bamboo into his Storage Belt.

No... no problem.

Lu Ming clenched his fists tightly, a flash of anger in his eyes, but in the end he slowly loosened his fists.

Faced with Li Qingfeng, who had a powerful Xiantian expert backing him up, Lu Ming dared not offend him and could only accept his bad luck.

"My Thunder Bamboo!"

Lu Ming suppressed his hatred deep in his heart.

"That kid should be dead, right?"

Li Qingfeng looked at the surface of the Li River.

The sea is calm.

"No matter how strong this kid's physical body is, he's still a demon. Lightning is the natural nemesis of demons; one strike will kill him!"

The Spirit Medium let out a strange laugh, and half of her head miraculously returned to its original shape, even stuffing the eyeballs that had been dangling from her face back into their sockets.

"Junior Brother..."

Li Shengnan looked at the Li River, her eyes darkening, and her body went limp, as if all her strength had been drained away.

In the crowd, Xiong San glanced back, a hint of regret flashing in his eyes. His fingertips trembled slightly, but he gritted his teeth and left with Xiangxiang and the other two.

The constables started arresting people again, so he had to get Xiangxiang and the other girl away quickly.

"Qin Ming, your Martial Uncle doesn't believe you'll fall so easily!"

Li River.

Qin Ming slowly sank.

His chest was charred black, not only the skin and membranes inside, but also the flesh, tendons, and veins beneath, all of which had turned charred black and were completely necrotic.

A wisp of icy internal energy slowly circulated within Qin Ming's chest.

If it weren't for this wisp of internal energy protecting Qin Ming's chest cavity, his Five Viscera and Six Bowels would have been blasted into charcoal by the power of lightning!

"Cough..."

Qin Ming suddenly opened his eyes and spat out a mouthful of black blood.

Li Qingfeng's attack was secondary; his physical body was enormous, and the blood holes had not yet caused him any fundamental damage. However, the lightning released by Zhu Lei almost killed him on the spot.

Qin Ming was about to take a breath, a sharp pain suddenly shot through his chest.

"This injury is too severe."

Qin Ming looked at his chest and a wry smile appeared on his face.

Within his Dantian, the Pure Yang Fire slowly rotated, absorbing and devouring the wisps of lightning power that roamed freely within his body.

Qin Ming is currently unable to move; the residual lightning power has paralyzed him.

Fortunately, the Pure Yang Fire in his Dantian could devour the stray strands of lightning power.

Qin Ming looked at the control panel.

After killing eight Ghost-Faced Monkeys, he gained a total of 40,000 Free Attribute Points, enough to advance the Pure Yang Art to the next minor realm. In the current situation, a breakthrough might help heal his injuries.

With this thought in mind, Qin Ming used up all his Free Attribute Points.

[Martial Arts: Pure Yang Art (Third Stage): (1/50000) Minor Mastery]

The moment Qin Ming stepped into the third stage of Minor Mastery, his whole body trembled slightly, and the wisp of icy internal energy in his chest suddenly surged several times over. Upon internal inspection, it turned into a wisp of white cold energy.

Just then, the Pure Yang Fire in the Dantian erupted with a powerful suction force, forcibly drawing the icy cold energy from the chest cavity into the Dantian.

One ice, one fire.

One left and one right.

The two slowly intertwined, eventually transforming into yin and yang fish, forming an Eight Trigrams Diagram.

Eight Trigrams Diagram rotated once, ten percent of the free-floating lightning power within Qin Ming's body rapidly dissipated!

One more lap, 30%!

50%! 100%!

The lightning power within Qin Ming's body dissipated completely in a short time, and he finally regained control of his physical body.

He floated underwater, the surrounding water constantly washing away the charred flesh on his chest. Strips of charred flesh were expelled from his body. Qin Ming pulled out the curved knife from his lower back and forcibly cut off the blackened flesh along the edge.

This flesh and blood was completely necrotic and could not be preserved.

Qin Ming activated the River God Demon Art, and wisps of energy overflowing from the river water were rapidly healing the injuries on his chest.

A large hole was torn open in his chest, but strangely, not a drop of blood flowed out.

Before long, the large hole in Qin Ming's chest miraculously healed.

"Truly worthy of being called Demon Art!"

Qin Ming laughed loudly. He slowly clenched his fist, and the Eight Trigrams Diagram in his Dantian gently rotated, releasing two completely different forces: Pure Yang Power and icy cold power.

The internal energy has changed. It is clearly no longer appropriate to call it "Pure Yang Art" now.

Let's rename it "Yin-Yang Guidance".

Qin Ming silently recited the command in his mind, watching the changes on the panel. He looked up at the sky, and the originally surging water around him suddenly stopped, eerily coming to a halt.

After breaking through to the Minor Mastery, Qin Ming's control over water flow greatly increased, and he could easily control the water flow within a radius of tens of feet.

Not only that, his height increased again, from five meters to six meters, and his limbs became thicker, especially his chest, where a layer of black keratin grew, like armor.

With a thought, the surrounding water rushed towards him, as if a giant hand was supporting him from the bottom.

"Rise!"

Qin Ming roared inwardly, and his entire body shot into the sky like a rocket, instantly breaking through the water's surface.