After raising his martial realm to the Peak Blood and Qi Realm, Su Que recalled the sight of his muscles swelling when he circulated his blood and qi.
"Perhaps I can make all the muscles in my body swell, make myself enormous, and thereby conceal my identity!"
That was the thought that had occurred to Su Que at the time.
Now was precisely the time to test that idea.
He first stripped off every piece of clothing on his body, lest they be burst apart later.
Then, he merged his true qi into his blood, forming blood and qi.
He circulated the blood and qi again, dispersing it through his limbs and bones, forcing all the muscles in his body!
At once, every muscle on his body suddenly swelled. His entire body nearly grew a full size larger.
With another fierce circulation of qi, his blood and qi surged once more, and his muscles, pushed by the blood and qi, expanded again.
In an instant, his body swelled to nearly two meters tall.
Su Que rose to his feet and looked at his much taller body.
When he stretched out a hand, he could almost touch the roof of the cave.
At that moment, his body displayed a beauty brimming with violence.
His entire physique was like a small stone mountain, carrying an oppressive force that bore down on others.
His muscles bulged like chunks of rock, while thick blue veins writhed viciously across them.
"As long as I fill myself with blood and qi and become like this, even if I act in public, no one will recognize me!"
"I've heard that some people in the martial world know Bone-Shrinking Arts. They often use such techniques to alter their appearance and hide themselves."
"But I know this Blood Congestion Method. By making myself swell, I can hide myself just the same."
Su Que was greatly delighted to have discovered this method of concealment.
With a thought, he withdrew the blood and qi that had inflated his muscles. The swollen muscles immediately shrank, and he returned to his normal height.
The Wedding Dress Divine Skill had risen by one realm, and his martial realm had reached the Peak Blood and Qi Realm. Su Que decided that he would continue cultivating the Seven Injuries Fist next.
Over the following days, Su Que cultivated the Seven Injuries Fist every day.
Thanks to the increase in his Talent Value, his Seven Injuries Fist advanced at breakneck speed as well.
On the night five days later, with neither stars nor moon in the sky, Su Que practiced the Seven Injuries Fist in a forest.
After five days of cultivation, his Seven Injuries Fist had already reached Level 6, Divine Skill 99%. It was about to break through.
He sank into a horse stance, clenched both hands into fists, and unleashed his fist techniques.
For a time, fist shadows filled the sky, and the fist force of the Seven Injuries Fist wove and roamed through the air.
Since he could already skillfully fuse Crimson Fiend True Qi, Yin Wind Death Qi, and Dark Yin True Qi into the force of the Seven Injuries Fist,
the qi around him sometimes shimmered with forces where scorching heat and bitter cold intertwined.
It was the depths of winter. As his blazing fist force cut through the air, trails of white steam drifted out.
Just as he was throwing punches with utter abandon, Su Que suddenly felt a force slowly brewing within his five viscera and six bowels.
This was the sign of a breakthrough!
Bang bang bang bang...!
His fist force struck the air, producing one explosive crack after another.
Just as Su Que threw his eighteenth punch, his five viscera, sinews, and bones shook violently and rang out.
That force which had been brewing all along suddenly spilled forth, instantly coursing through his entire body.
Su Que felt as though he had suddenly been immersed in a hot spring, his whole body utterly at ease.
It was as if his body had undergone another transformation, and an entirely new power had been poured into it.
He withdrew his Seven Injuries Fist stance. With a thought, he summoned his Attributes.
Name: Su Que (18 years old) Lifespan: 221 Talent Value: 42 Martial Arts: Seven Injuries Fist (Level 7, Transcendent Perfection 1%), Dark Yin Finger (Level 5, Peak Mastery 99%), Yin Wind Claw (Level 5, Peak Mastery 99%) [Expand] Internal Arts: Wedding Dress Divine Skill (Level 5, Peak Mastery 1%), Crimson Fiend Skill (Level 5, Peak Mastery 99%)
The Seven Injuries Fist had advanced from Level 6, Divine Skill, to Level 7, Transcendent Perfection.
His lifespan had increased by six years. After passing the threshold of 220, his Talent Value had increased by one point.
The increase in lifespan has dropped somewhat compared to before.
Su Que looked at his Attributes and pondered inwardly.
This means my five viscera are now extremely resilient, and my Yin-Yang Qi is also exceptionally complete. The damage the Seven Injuries Fist causes me is growing weaker and weaker.
If I want to extend my lifespan and seek immortality, I'll likely need to find martial arts that inflict greater harm to cultivate.
But Jade Water City is only a county town, after all. Its martial arts manuals are quite limited.
Even if I obtain Bai Wuji's Minor Self-Harm Skill, it would only count as a small supplement.
But if I want to extend my lifespan more quickly, I'll have to seek more unorthodox techniques that cause greater harm to myself.
For that, I'll need to search in the prefectural city, or even the Central Plains.
As Su Que thought this, he also remembered that the Provincial Civil Service Examination would be held soon.
When the time came, he would leave Jade Water City and go to the prefectural city to take the Provincial Civil Service Examination.
Perhaps then, he could inquire in the prefectural city where he might obtain evil techniques that inflicted greater harm upon their practitioners.
Let's test the power of the Seven Injuries Fist after its advancement.
With that thought, Su Que assumed his stance once more and began unleashing the Seven Injuries Fist.
His two fists danced, and all seven formulas were unleashed at once.
At once, each fist released seven streams of force—fourteen in total—which wove and roamed around him.
Su Que stepped through the Seven Injuries Fist footwork and drove the fist force to its limit.
Under Su Que's urging, the fourteen streams of force suddenly scattered in all directions.
Centered on him, the fourteen streams of force moved through the space within ten paces in every direction, freely controlled by him as they darted through the forest.
Then he shifted his feet and controlled the fourteen streams of fist force, sending them crashing into the surrounding trees like a dense barrage of cannonballs.
Bang bang bang bang...!
As the fourteen streams of fist force swept past, the upper halves of tree after tree flew cleanly away. With thunderous crashes, they fell several zhang away, kicking up dust that filled the sky.
Amid the flying dust, little birds that had been sound asleep moments ago suddenly woke in fright. Flapping their wings and chirping noisily, they flew out of the billowing clouds of dust.
More than a dozen broken trees remained on the ground, with only four-foot stumps left behind. Wisps of white smoke curled from their severed surfaces.
Su Que looked toward the breaks and saw that every vein of the trunks had been shattered. There were also three kinds of marks: scorched black, decayed, and frozen.
Quite satisfied with the Seven Injuries Fist's power, he clicked his tongue in private praise for a while before continuing his cultivation of the Seven Injuries Fist.
The next day, Su Que went to School as usual. In the afternoon, after bidding farewell to the children, he left the city and headed for his hidden storage cave on Qinghua Mountain.
He planned to disguise himself first, then return to Jade Water City and visit several clothing shops to buy shirts, trousers, and the like, putting together a set of loose-fitting clothes.
If he needed to take action again in the future, he would wear those clothes and inflate his muscles.
That way, even if someone saw him, he would not have to worry at all about being recognized.
"Damn it, this hurts like hell!"
Inside a cave, a White Lotus Disciple with an eight-shaped mustache sat beside a pile of dead branches. He forced open the animal trap clamped around his foot and cursed nonstop.
With him was another White Lotus Disciple with a face full of curly whiskers. The bearded disciple leaped over the pile of dead branches at the cave entrance and walked deeper inside.
Suddenly, the bearded disciple spotted several large red wooden chests. His eyes lit up, and he hurriedly said:
"Old Liu, come look! Aren't these the red wooden chests our White Lotus Sect uses to store medicine?"
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