"Come!"
A low shout, mixed with the stench of blood, crashed across the chaotic battlefield.
The Northern Barbarian Soldiers Chen Qing had fixed his gaze on instinctively halted. The youth before them was soaked in blood and clad in tattered clothes, yet his eyes shone with a terrifying brightness. The aura radiating from him made even battle-hardened veterans feel bone-piercing cold.
That was not the panic of a green recruit, but the savage ferocity of a beast eyeing its prey.
"Putting on airs!" One fierce Northern Barbarian Soldier spat and charged with his saber raised.
Chen Qing moved.
Having stepped across the Threshold of Bone Forging, it was as though his body had cast off invisible shackles. His foot struck the ground, making it tremble faintly, and he shot forward like an arrow loosed from the bow, somehow moving after yet arriving first!
He did not use his saber.
His left hand shot out like lightning, five fingers spread wide as his sinews and bones crackled softly, precisely clamping around his opponent's saber-wielding wrist. The Northern Barbarian Soldier felt a searing pain in his wrist, as if an iron hoop had cinched it tight, and his strength instantly collapsed.
Then Chen Qing's right fist blasted out!
It was still Black Tiger Heart Pluck, but its speed, power, and angle were as different from his Initial Glimpse as clouds from mud! His fist tore through the air, carrying the deep, muffled force of a tiger's roar!
Bang!
His fist struck squarely against the man's chest.
The Northern Barbarian Soldier's body suddenly bent double, his eyeballs bulging. With a muffled pfft, the leather armor on his back actually bulged with the faint imprint of a fist! He did not even manage a grunt before crumpling limply to the ground, all breath gone.
[Killed a fierce Northern Barbarian Soldier. Obtained vitality. Black Tiger Fist proficiency +18!]
The other two Northern Barbarian Soldiers turned pale with terror and spun around to flee.
How could Chen Qing let them escape? He pushed off with his feet and chased after them like a phantom, the curved saber in his hand tracing two bleak arcs.
Black Tiger Saber Technique—Twin Tail Shears!
The saber flashed, and two heads soared into the sky, blood erupting like fountains.
[Killed Northern Barbarian Infantry...] [Killed...]
Clean and decisive—in the blink of an eye, all three were dead!
The soldiers of both sides fighting nearby were intimidated by this sudden brutality and instinctively moved away from the area.
Chen Qing drew a deep breath, feeling the surging vitality within him and his increased proficiency. His gaze swept toward a more distant knot of fighting. There, a squad leader from the Great Yan Dynasty was being besieged by three Northern Barbarian Soldiers. He was struggling to fend them off from every side, peril hanging by a thread.
The squad leader wore a half-worn suit of iron armor, and there was considerable form to his moves. He clearly possessed an inheritance, but two fists could not defeat four hands. His defeat was only a matter of time.
Chen Qing's eyes flickered. Save him, or not?
In these chaotic times, preserving one's own life was the norm. But... if he could forge a good connection, it might prove useful someday. Besides, the squad leader's martial arts style seemed rather interesting.
In the span of a thought, he had made his decision.
He pushed off the ground and rushed forward, shouting, "Sir, do not panic!"
Before his voice had faded, he had already cut into the melee. He did not attack the three Northern Barbarian Soldiers directly. Instead, he lowered his body like a tiger hugging the ground, and the curved saber in his hand swept straight for the ankle of the Northern Barbarian Soldier on the left!
The strike was unexpected, swift, and vicious!
That Northern Barbarian Soldier had focused all his attention on the squad leader. Caught completely off guard, his ankle was slashed by the blade. He screamed and fell face-first to the ground.
The tide of battle reversed in an instant!
The pressure on the squad leader plummeted. Revitalized, he swung his spear hard, knocking aside the weapon of the enemy before him. Seizing the chance, he thrust his spear through the throat of the Northern Barbarian Soldier to his right.
Chen Qing, meanwhile, clung to the last panicked Northern Barbarian Soldier like a disease gnawing at the bone. Within three moves, he used a "Fierce Tiger Sweeps Its Tail" to slice off the man's head.
The battle was over.
Leaning on his long spear, the squad leader panted heavily. Looking at Chen Qing, his eyes held surprise and gratitude. "Fine skills, little brother! Thank you for your aid! Which camp are you from?"
He could tell that Chen Qing was young and still wore the tattered leather armor of an Auxiliary Soldier, but those moves just now had been ruthless and decisive, his footwork swift. He was absolutely an expert in the Skin Refining Realm, perhaps even someone who had touched the Threshold of Bone Forging! How could such a person be merely an Auxiliary Soldier?
"Supply Camp, Chen Qing." Chen Qing clasped his fists, his tone calm.
"Supply Camp?" The squad leader was even more astonished, then suddenly understood. "No wonder you looked unfamiliar. My name is Zhao Tie, Squad Leader of the Vanguard Camp. Brother Chen, with your skills, staying in the Supply Camp is truly wasting your talents!"
Chen Qing neither confirmed nor denied it, merely saying, "Squad Leader Zhao flatters me. I only happened to be here."
Seeing that he did not wish to say more, Zhao Tie did not press him. His gaze swept over the body of the fierce Northern Barbarian Soldier whom Chen Qing had killed with a single punch, as well as the two who had been beheaded, and his heart chilled. This youth struck far too ruthlessly. He was no harmless character.
"No matter what, thank you for today! If you have time another day, come find me at the Vanguard Camp and we'll drink!" Zhao Tie was a forthright man and remembered this favor.
"Certainly." Chen Qing nodded.
Just then, the horn signaling the Northern Barbarians' retreat sounded once more. As on the previous occasions, the black tide began to recede.
The battlefield was once again left in complete ruin.
Chen Qing did not linger. He turned and headed for the area under his charge, beginning his routine "looting of corpses." This time, his gains were greater than in the past few days. In particular, he found quite a bit of silver on the Northern Barbarian Centurion and several fierce soldiers he had killed, along with a small bottle of some unknown wound medicine with a pungent odor.
[Obtained a trace of vitality. Black Tiger Fist proficiency +1] [Obtained a trace of vitality...]
His proficiency grew slowly but steadily.
At night, inside the ruined tent.
The oil lamp was as small as a bean, its light dim and yellow.
Chen Qing sat cross-legged, his consciousness fully immersed in the system screen and the circulation of vitality within his body.
[Host: Chen Qing] [Realm: Skin Refining Realm (Mid-stage)] [Martial Arts: Black Tiger Fist (Slight Accomplishment, Proficiency: 188/2000)] [Martial Arts: Black Tiger Saber Technique (Slight Accomplishment, Proficiency: 175/2000)]
The Slight Accomplishment of the Black Tiger Fist and Black Tiger Saber Technique deepened his understanding of these two inherited martial arts. It was not merely that his moves had become more practiced and fluid. More importantly, he had begun to touch upon the "intent" contained within them.
The Black Tiger Fist was not blindly fierce and forceful. It also contained the intent of cunning, pouncing, and patient restraint.
The Black Tiger Saber Technique did not merely pursue unpredictability either. It also possessed the tyranny and grim savagery of the king of beasts.
He tried guiding the increasingly vigorous vitality within him along a mysterious path, using it to strike at the skin, fascia, sinews, and even deeper bones throughout his limbs and body. Every impact brought a faint itching numbness and stinging pain, but after it was complete, he could feel his body's defense and strength increase by another thread.
Was this the cultivation of the Bone Forging Realm?
He recalled Squad Leader Zhao Tie's spearwork from the day, which bore the bearing of the army—fierce and direct, sharp with killing intent. It differed considerably from the style of the Black Tiger Fist and saber, but perhaps... it could serve as a reference?
He unconsciously held two fingers together like a blade, mimicking the way Zhao Tie exerted force when thrusting his spear, and stabbed forward.
The movement was stiff and held no power.
But at the very instant that thrust was made, the Black Tiger Fist vitality path circulating within him trembled faintly. It was as if it had been drawn by the foreign "intent" of that move, producing an extremely subtle adjustment.
[Black Tiger Fist proficiency +1]
The notification that appeared on the screen made Chen Qing freeze.
Could imitating the martial stances of others also increase Black Tiger Fist proficiency?
He tried again, this time concentrating even more deeply. He did not merely imitate the form, but earnestly experienced the indomitable intent of that "thrust," while maintaining the circulation of the Black Tiger Fist's core vitality.
[Black Tiger Fist proficiency +1]
Another point!
Delighted light burst from Chen Qing's eyes. He understood! The system's judgment of "proficiency" did not rigidly require him to practice strictly according to the fixed forms of the Black Tiger Fist. Any cultivation or battle that deepened his understanding of "the use of strength" and "the essence of combat" could feed back into these two inherited martial arts that formed his foundation!
Gather the strengths of many, and fuse them into himself!
This undoubtedly broadened the path for him to increase his strength enormously!
He no longer confined himself to simple practice and slaughter. He began recalling all sorts of martial techniques he had witnessed on the battlefield. Even if they were only broken moves and incomplete forms, he tried to understand them, imitate them, and unite them with the "intent" of the Black Tiger Fist.
Inside the tent, his figure was at times like a crouching tiger, at times like a spear thrusting forward, at times as unpredictable as a snake... His movements were strange, yet they faintly carried a natural, harmonious charm.
His proficiency began to rise at a faster rate.
[Black Tiger Fist proficiency +2] [Black Tiger Saber Technique proficiency +2]
When the oil lamp burned out and the tent sank into darkness, Chen Qing slowly withdrew his stance and exhaled a long breath of turbid air.
On the screen, his proficiency had increased by another small amount.
He clenched his fist, his knuckles cracking crisply as he felt the increasingly solid strength inside his body.
Outside, the night wind howled, mingled with the heavy footsteps of patrolling soldiers and the howls of unknown beasts in the distance.
This chaotic age of high martial power was fraught with danger, yet it was also filled with opportunity.
Chen Qing's gaze passed through a hole in the tent and fixed upon the pitch-black sky.
His road was still long.
But with the system, and with this ever-evolving Black Tiger Legacy, those stars filling the heavens might not be beyond his reach.
The next step was to find a way to encounter more different martial arts and see a broader world.
Before you continue