Transforming Force! Tremendous Strength!

Transforming Force! Tremendous Strength!

An unprecedented sense of exhilaration rose from within him.

Great joy!

Great freedom!

A feeling of "only today do I know that I am myself" surged up within him!

In that instant, Gu Shaoshang felt as though his spirit had taken flight into the distant ninth heavens, hanging high in the void like a star!

His body trembled. Standing at the cliff's edge, he spread his stance, clenched his left hand into a fist, sank his waist and dropped his elbow. With a snap, he drove out a punch. The muscles throughout his body writhed like pythons, while his long-untrimmed hair stood on end as though struck by lightning.

As he exerted force, the energy throughout his body boiled and rushed toward his fist. Just as all that energy gathered at the pores of his knuckles, Gu Shaoshang unconsciously relaxed his hand. It was like a dam suddenly breached—his force burst forth and struck the frost-covered boulder at the cliff's edge!

"Bang!"

Ice chips flew everywhere. Gu Shaoshang's punch blasted a deep hollow into the stone, his arm sinking in all the way to the elbow!

Then his arm shook, and force erupted. The enormous ice-rock boulder that had stood atop Kunlun Mountain for countless years suddenly shattered apart!

There was not even a single intact piece to be found!

How hard were rocks that had been buried beneath ice and frost for countless years?

The old Gu Shaoshang could at most have left a Fist Seal behind. To punch straight through one or shatter it with a casual blow was something he would never even have dared imagine!

Gu Shaoshang moved like a roaming dragon, each step leaving a footprint atop the cliff!

Relaxed yet supple, opening and closing—heart joined with intent, intent joined with qi, qi joined with force! Hidden Force erupted, spraying out like needles!

Hidden Force—he had mastered it!

But this was merely the beginning!

Neither sorrowful nor joyous, Gu Shaoshang relaxed his body and let his force roll through him. His fist movements slowed as he forgot everything. It was neither Taiji nor Xingyi Quan, neither Bagua nor Bajiquan, nor any other kind of fist technique!

He waved his hands at will, like an old lady in a park doing calisthenics, so slow it seemed as though he were dancing!

Yet upon closer inspection, it carried the sensation of a herd of galloping horses. The muscles all over his body abruptly flushed with blood, turning red like iron in a blazing fire! They rippled slowly like waves!

"Exhale!"

"Inhale!"

Steady breaths emerged one after another from Gu Shaoshang's nose and mouth!

He exhaled as he punched! He inhaled as he withdrew his fist!

With every exhalation and inhalation, every punch and retraction, his pores opened and closed with ever greater intensity. In the end, whenever he exhaled and his pores opened, misty heat rose from them as though water were boiling within!

He slowly performed his calisthenics, radiating rolling heat like a great furnace!

Amid the fierce cold winds atop Kunlun Mountain, vaporous sweat rose from him like clouds and mist!

Xue Dian, director of the Tianjin Guoshu Academy during the Republic era, once described it in his work, True Interpretation of Pictographic Fist Techniques: "Mist rises from all eighty-four thousand pores to become breath. This is the true breathing of spirit; without genuine transmission, one can hardly enter this path, and without perseverance, one can hardly reach this realm."

This was Transforming Force in the martial arts—perceiving the minute and penetrating the subtle. Every pore from head to toe could be controlled with perfect ease; force was applied evenly, hard when hardness was needed and soft when softness was needed.

Not a feather could be added; not even a fly could land!

Only at this moment did Gu Shaoshang understand what his master Ba Liming had meant when he said Transforming Force was merely a matter of water flowing into its channel.

It turned out that after manifesting Teng Qingshan's Xingyi Quan experience, he had been able to perfectly control every muscle, tendon, bone, and strand of strength in his body. His inner force had long since coursed through all his meridians!

The barriers had already been cleared! The moment Hidden Force erupted, Transforming Force came naturally in one stroke!

Atop Kunlun Mountain, Gu Shaoshang gazed upon the starry sky and attained great joy, great freedom!

He became a master of Transforming Force! All manner of fist techniques melted together in one furnace!

He had taken the first step toward dominating the myriad heavens!

"Ah!"

Gu Shaoshang exhaled and roared, his thunderous bellow resounding through the entire Kunlun Mountain range!

The Kunlun Mountain range stretched five thousand li eastward in winding folds, crossing several provinces.

Gu Shaoshang did not even know which province he was in, but he did not care.

At daybreak, Gu Shaoshang descended Kunlun Mountain and reached its middle slopes. Looking around, he saw the towns and rivers in the distant direction from which he had come reduced to a tiny painted scroll, hazy beneath a thin mist. It felt both real and unreal.

Suddenly, a fiery red sun leapt into the sky, radiating boundless light and heat, sweeping away all the mist in an instant.

Gu Shaoshang laughed heartily. Barefoot, he strode forward in great steps, each one covering more than twenty meters. Supported by his powerful body, he leaped and traveled through the mountains in a manner no human could match.

Gradually, the signs of human habitation grew denser. By the time the sun rose overhead, Gu Shaoshang had arrived at a nearby prosperous town.

Perhaps because it lay at the foot of Kunlun Mountain, this town was far more prosperous than an ordinary impoverished city.

The streets teemed with people, and traffic flowed in an endless stream.

Having not seen such a bustling city for so long, Gu Shaoshang felt rather like a monk returning to the secular world.

"Honk! Honk!"

A black BMW pulled up in front of Gu Shaoshang, its horn blaring loudly!

Gu Shaoshang came back to himself, smiled apologetically, and stepped aside.

A balding middle-aged man in the car impatiently kept honking the horn.

"You're so young—how did you end up like this? You've really let your parents down!"

A young woman dressed in gaudy finery sat in the passenger seat, looking Gu Shaoshang up and down.

At the moment, Gu Shaoshang was dressed in rags, barefoot, with long-unwashed hair hanging in a tangled mess.

Yet he stood tall with his head held high, his expression calm. A peculiar air about him caught the woman's attention.

The balding man frowned and cursed, "At your age, you don't go learn a proper skill, and instead think you're doing some kind of performance art?"

After cursing at him, he rolled up the window, started the engine, and prepared to leave.

Gu Shaoshang smiled faintly, raised a hand, and gently pressed it against the car, his force surging forth.

"What? You're into a scruffy brat like that too? Slut!"

The balding man shot the gaudily dressed woman a sidelong glance and sneered.

"Brother Wang! I'm not that kind of woman!" the woman cooed, stroking the balding man's crotch.

"Don't be angry. Whatever you want, I'll do as you say."

The balding man's heart stirred.

"You little vixen!" The balding man stomped on the accelerator.

Screech!

The entire car shuddered, its tires letting out a piercing shriek against the road!

It was as though some immense force were dragging it backward!

As it turned out, the instant the car started, Gu Shaoshang's palm had pressed down like a mountain!

The engine let out an overloaded roar!

The tires screamed shrilly! Acrid white smoke rose in waves from the friction against the ground! The scorched stench of burning rubber spread through the air!

"Ah!"

"Ah!"

Amid the bald man and woman's cold-sweat-soaked screams, the entire car slowly rose into the air!

A ragged youth pressed down with one hand!

No matter how the car strained, it could not move an inch!

How inconceivable was this? What tyrannical strength!

"Hey!"

Gu Shaoshang exhaled with a shout. Tremendous force erupted from both hands, blue-black tendons bulging as his steel-like muscles trembled—and he lifted the car from beneath!

The entire street fell silent in an instant! Everyone who witnessed the scene stood agape!

"Ah!"

"Superman!"

"Quick, take pictures! Take pictures!"

As though waking from a dream, the crowd erupted into a deafening clamor, scrambling to pull out their phones and take photos!

At the roadside on the edge of town, a youth had lifted a car whose tires were still spinning without stop!

Having entered Transforming Force, Gu Shaoshang possessed such immense strength that even he had no idea just how formidable it was!

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