## Chapter Twenty-One
Chen Qing was carried back to the Vanguard Camp's temporary encampment in turns by Old Niu and Sun Quezi.
He was gravely wounded. The fist force of a Meridian Condensing Realm martial artist striking in fury was no trifling matter. His internal organs had been displaced, and many of his meridians damaged. Were it not for the monstrous defense granted after mastering Fierce Tiger Iron Body, the Black Tiger True Intent protecting his heart meridian, and the solid foundation of his Bone Forging Realm peak cultivation, he would likely have perished on the spot.
Even so, he coughed blood the entire way, his face pale as paper and his breath weak.
When their battered remnant force, dragging their weary and bloodstained bodies, appeared within the sentries' sight, the entire Vanguard Camp was thrown into an uproar.
Fifty men had set out, yet fewer than forty returned. Every one of them was wounded, while their commander, Chen Qing, was grievously injured and on the brink of death. But... the news they brought back was like pouring a ladle of cold water into boiling oil!
They had punched through the Northern Mang vanguard camp of ten thousand men! Burned part of their provisions and supplies! Caused massive chaos! Slain countless enemy officers, possibly including a centurion and several squad leaders! They had even... taken a Meridian Condensing Realm thousand-man commander's blow head-on without dying, forcing the other side to turn back and stabilize the situation!
Such achievements could only be called glorious! One could even say that since the war began along the Northern Frontier defense line, this was the first—and only—raid by the Great Yan army that could be called a "victory"!
"Quick! Carry him inside! Use the best medicine! Send for Physician Wang!" Captain Zhou Han rushed over personally upon hearing the news. Seeing Chen Qing's miserable state, the corners of his eyes twitched as he issued orders in rapid succession. His gaze toward Chen Qing was filled with mixed emotions: shock, admiration, and an indescribable... wariness.
This boy was far too fierce! And far too dangerous!
Chen Qing was swiftly carried back to his tent, and Physician Wang, the army's most skilled healer of internal injuries, was urgently summoned. After taking his pulse, the old physician furrowed his brows and shook his head repeatedly.
"His internal organs are severely damaged, multiple meridians have ruptured, and Killing Intent has invaded his body... The fact that he managed to return with even a single breath left is already a miracle." Physician Wang looked at Chen Qing's tightly furrowed brow even in unconsciousness, as well as the faint black-red aura winding around him, and sighed. "Ordinary medicines will do little for him. Whether he can awaken will depend on his own fate and... this bizarre cultivation method of his."
Zhou Han's expression darkened. He waved a hand, telling the physician to do everything possible to save him, then arranged for trusted men to guard Chen Qing's tent closely and forbid anyone from disturbing him.
The news seemed to grow wings, swiftly spreading across the entire Northern Frontier defense line.
"Have you heard? A squad captain from the Vanguard Camp led fifty men and punched straight through Northern Mang's ten-thousand-man vanguard!"
"Fiend Star Chen Qing! He took a punch from a Meridian Condensing Realm expert head-on and didn't die!"
"He burned their provisions, killed their officers, and turned Northern Mang into a scene of chickens flying and dogs leaping!"
"My heavens, is he even human?"
Astonishment, doubt, worship, fear... all kinds of emotions spread through the army. The name "Fierce Tiger" Chen Qing truly resounded across the Northern Frontier for the first time. It was no longer merely a fearsome name confined within the Vanguard Camp, but had become a symbol that even the Northern Mang army could not ignore.
The Northern Mang vanguard had suffered a setback. Though it had not injured their sinews or shaken their bones, their morale had indeed taken a hit, and their movements became far more cautious, granting the Great Yan defense line a precious chance to catch its breath.
At this moment, Chen Qing, the center of the storm that had caused all this, had fallen into a strange state.
His consciousness had not completely fallen asleep. Instead, it had sunk into the battlefield of ruin within his body.
The residual energy of the violent fist force still raged, tearing apart his meridians. The foreign Killing Intent that had invaded his body continuously clashed with and devoured the Killing Intent of his Fierce Tiger Iron Body. Excruciating pain tormented his nerves every moment.
Yet at the same time, the newly awakened Black Tiger True Intent was like a needle that steadied the sea, firmly guarding the core of his consciousness. It spontaneously guided the remaining blood and Killing Intent within him, repairing his damaged body at an exceedingly slow yet unwavering pace.
What felt even stranger to him was that after walking along the edge of life and death—especially after withstanding that Meridian Condensing Realm fist force and fully unleashing the Black Tiger True Intent—his comprehension of this "intent" had suddenly deepened by a great deal.
It was not merely a will to fight. It was more like... a law? Or perhaps the embryonic form of some power of heaven and earth? Together with the Killing Intent drawn forth by Fierce Tiger Iron Body and the exertion techniques contained within the Black Tiger Fist and saber arts, it vaguely formed an incomplete yet infinitely promising system.
"Ancestral... Black Tiger... Shattering Void..."
In his unconsciousness, fragmented thoughts flashed through his mind.
He "saw" that at his spinal dragon, the nexus of blood and vitality running through his entire body, guided by the Black Tiger True Intent, it had begun actively absorbing and refining the foreign energy and Killing Intent that had invaded him. It transformed them into a purer, more tyrannical dark-red energy that merged into his bones and skin, even beginning to repair those ruptured meridians.
The process was agonizingly slow and painfully intense, like melting down shattered porcelain shards bit by bit and reforging them. Yet with every trace repaired, he could feel his body becoming tougher, while his connection to the Black Tiger True Intent grew closer.
[In a near-death recovery state, Black Tiger True Intent deeply stimulated, Fierce Tiger Iron Body proficiency slowly increasing...] [Absorbing and refining foreign energy, blood and vitality purity increasing...]
The system prompts came intermittently, proving that he was on the right path.
Days passed one after another.
Outside the tent, discussions about Chen Qing gradually died down, replaced by an increasingly tense atmosphere of war preparations. Northern Mang's main force was closing in, and a great battle could erupt at any moment.
Inside the tent, Chen Qing remained unconscious. Yet the unsettling Killing Intent around him gradually drew inward, little by little. His face slowly regained a trace of color from its deathly pallor, and his breathing became steady and deep.
Old Niu, Sun Quezi, and the others waited outside every day, anxious beyond measure. Zhou Han also came several times to check on him, his expression growing increasingly grave.
Until the deep night of the seventh day.
Within the tent, Chen Qing sat cross-legged—placed in a cultivation posture by the guards—and his eyelids trembled faintly.
Immediately afterward, the thin layer of black-red Killing Intent that had lingered around him without dispersing suddenly contracted inward, vanishing entirely into his body! An aura far deeper and fiercer than before his injury flashed past like a sleeping savage beast awakening!
He slowly opened his eyes.
Deep within his pupils, dark-red light lay like an abyss—cold, pure, devoid of the slightest human emotion.
He flexed his fingers, and a dense series of crackling sounds filled with power came from within his body. The injuries to his internal organs had already healed by more than half. Under the effects of the Black Tiger True Intent and that newly born dark-red energy, his ruptured meridians had not only been restored, but seemed to have become wider and tougher.
Feeling the reborn power within him, along with the Black Tiger True Intent and Killing Intent that now moved as easily as his own arms, Chen Qing knew that this grievous injury had not crushed him. Instead, it had turned disaster into a blessing, allowing him to truly touch the threshold of the Meridian Condensing Realm and gain a deeper understanding of the essence of his own strength.
He looked toward the system screen.
[Host: Chen Qing] [Realm: Bone Forging Realm (Peak)--(Half-Step Meridian Condensing)] [Martial Art: Black Tiger Fist (Mastered, Proficiency: 4500/5000)--(True Intent Newly Awakened)] [Martial Art: Black Tiger Saber Technique (Mastered, Proficiency: 4200/5000)--(True Intent Newly Awakened)] [Martial Art: Fierce Tiger Iron Body (Mastered, Proficiency: 6500/)]
Fierce Tiger Iron Body had astonishingly already broken through to the Mastered realm! Its proficiency had surged enormously as well!
He threw off the thin blanket over him and rose to his feet. His bones emitted a string of crisp pops like bursting beans, and his entire body brimmed with explosive power.
He walked to the edge of the tent, lifted a corner of the flap, and looked out at the heavy night and the continuous Northern Mang campfires in the distance, his gaze icy.
Northern Mang's main force... that Meridian Condensing Realm thousand-man commander...
He licked his lips, revealing a cold and cruel smile.
It was time to collect some interest.
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