Like many of the onlookers, Gu Shentong was both shocked and troubled by Xiang Yang's strength. Others could only watch from afar, but he had exchanged dozens of close-range blows with Xiang Yang, so he naturally understood far more.
His true qi remained surging, and his finger techniques grew ever sharper and more varied. The thirty-six moves of the Heavenly Gang Finger countered each move with another, and in terms of variation, they even surpassed Xiang Yang's Three Points Divine Finger by a notch.
Yet his entire physical body was showing faint signs of strain. Every head-on collision of true qi, every clash of finger force, stirred his five viscera and six bowels, his meridians and dantian, hinting that he might soon collapse and fail to endure.
This was not difficult to understand. It was like solid porcelain and iron objects of equal weight colliding: the force produced was equal, but their capacity to withstand it differed. This was Xiang Yang's advantage, and Gu Shentong's disadvantage.
This cannot continue. I have already used seventy percent of my strength—enough to kill any so-called peak Innate master—yet I still cannot do anything to this young man. If I do not go all out, the consequences of this battle may be impossible to predict.
Gu Shentong twisted his wasp waist and leaned his upper body back, barely evading Xiang Yang's Jade Breaking Gold Splitting finger force as it grazed past him. Then, spiraling true qi erupted from the palms of his hands hanging at either side of his lower back, striking the empty air and whipping up a violent current that sent him shooting two zhang away in an instant. He then turned with effortless grace and stood still, facing Xiang Yang.
"I had long heard that you were extraordinary, but I still