Ferocious Beast

On the sofa, Jiang Hou played the video in slow motion, firmly memorizing Old Man Zhang's every movement and every force-generating mnemonic, mulling them over again and again.

As for Qin Siyu, she had no interest in that sort of thing. After watching for a moment, she went back to watching TV.

By the time Qin Siyu returned to her room at nine to sleep, Jiang Hou had watched the five-minute video twenty times. Only after making sure every movement was etched into his mind did he return to his room.

This time, however, he did not enter the ruins directly. Instead, he rummaged through a box and found a pair of boxing gloves he had bought before.

Of course, he was not wearing the gloves because he feared pain, but to protect the punching pad hanging on the wall.

With the gloves on, Jiang Hou lowered his stance and spread his feet in a figure-eight stance. He silently recited, "Head, hands, and feet move in unison. The legs are the pillars, the waist is a great dragon. Power begins at the feet; step and punch like a cannon..."

Boom! Jiang Hou lunged and punched. The instant his fist struck the wall, the entire room shook violently, and even dust fell from the ceiling.

"An earthquake, Jiang Hou!?" Qin Siyu cried out from next door.

"No earthquake. Something probably fell upstairs just now," Jiang Hou called back. As he spoke, he slowly withdrew his fist, revealing the punching pad that had already been smashed to pieces.

Even the stitching across the back of the glove on Jiang Hou's right hand had split apart.

Jiang Hou looked disgusted. "Cheap trash, just as I thought. They said it would last at least half a year, but it broke after one punch."

As he spoke, a faint smile appeared on his face.

Because he had discovered that this boxing technique truly worked. That punch had clearly drawn upon part of the strength in his waist and legs, increasing the explosive force of his fist by thirty percent.

Once he became proficient in the technique and could bring his full-body strength into every punch, the force of a single strike should reach three or four times what it was now.

Of course, such a huge improvement was mainly because he had no foundation in fighting or combat.

Under normal circumstances, an ordinary person's punching force was two to three times their arm strength. With an arm strength of fifty kilograms, a punch would deliver between one hundred and one hundred fifty kilograms of force.

Professional boxers, however, were different. Their basic punching force was generally four or five times their arm strength, and some top-tier fighters could unleash several hundred kilograms of impact with a single punch.

A dim, oppressive world.

The eight-meter-tall Black Giant Ape stood on a branch. It looked up at the sky shrouded in dark clouds, then quickly vanished among the branches.

But unlike the previous two days, after traveling nearly ten kilometers sideways today, the Black Giant Ape had not found a single monster or ferocious beast.

Something's wrong.

Wariness appeared in the Black Giant Ape's eyes, and it slowed its pace. Before long, an open space appeared ahead, with a relatively intact building standing in the middle.

The more than two-hundred-meter-tall structure was supported by eight thick stone pillars. It was open at the front and back, with a half-collapsed semicircular dome at the top, resembling a palace.

A faint black mist still drifted inside the building, where a ferocious beast nearly twenty meters long lay coiled.

The beast resembled a centipede. Its entire body was covered in sections of black armor-like shell, and beneath it were ten pairs of long, narrow, razor-sharp legs. Its head was hideous.

A row of sharp spikes also grew along its back, extending all the way to its tail. Its defenses were nearly flawless.

The instant it saw the Black Armor Ferocious Beast, a surge of rage rose within the giant ape.

This was the instinct that drove the giant ape's body into its strongest state of rage whenever it sensed a lethal threat. It meant this ferocious beast was powerful and dangerous.

Bzzzz!! When the Black Giant Ape spotted the beast, the Black Armor Ferocious Beast spotted it as well. Its segmented body immediately trembled, releasing a vibrating hum.

Its massive two-meter-wide body slowly shifted. Three pairs of pitch-black eyes revealed cold ferocity. No longer suppressing its anger, the Black Giant Ape's muscles swelled as its blood boiled, and an incomparably powerful force erupted from within.

Roar! A rage-filled howl shook the air. The brawny ape's eyes turned blood-red as it roared at the sky.

Within the ruined structure, a layer of black light lit up over the Black Armor Ferocious Beast's body. In an instant, a piercing howl of wind exploded! Boom! The beast shot forward like a black line zigzagging through the air, exceeding two hundred meters per second. At such extreme speed, the air formed a white dragon-like trail behind it, its momentum terrifying.

The gale howled as the Black Armor Ferocious Beast appeared before the Black Giant Ape in an instant. Its thick, sharp forelegs thrust out like two spears piercing the air.

Roar! The giant ape roared, but unlike before, it did not meet the attack head-on. As the enemy attacked, it sidestepped with its left leg, swaying aside as it passed the beast.

Having learned from yesterday's experience, Jiang Hou had desperately tried to control his consciousness when the giant ape entered its enraged state today.

Although rage still filled his mind, he was slightly clearer-headed than yesterday and barely managed to control the body into making an evasive move.

Pff pff pff!!

The instant the two passed each other, sharp black legs like Slashing Blades swept across the giant ape's waist, tearing through the air. Their cutting edge severed the fur around its waist.

This beast's forelegs were not its only primary weapons. The other sharp legs along its body were just as dangerous.

Roar! The giant ape, having dodged to the side, roared. It twisted its ankle and spun around with the motion, its thick right arm lashing out like a whip, its fist like a heavy hammer as it smashed viciously into the Black Armor Ferocious Beast's tail.

Boom! Under that wild, tyrannical force, the nearly twenty-meter-long Black Armor Ferocious Beast's body suddenly straightened before crashing heavily onto the ground. The earth shook, and dirt sprayed everywhere.

A massive figure leaped dozens of meters high through the dust, slammed down with a boom, then sprang again and appeared a hundred meters away.

The instant the ape leaped away, the twenty-meter-long Black Armor Ferocious Beast turned around. Its huge mouth opened angrily and tore through the dust, but it pounced on empty air.

Clack clack clack!! In the dust, the Black Armor Ferocious Beast ground its upper and lower fangs together with a screeching rasp, radiating a savage aura.

The shell around its tail had caved in and shattered, with flesh torn open around the edges. Black blood spurted out like springs, dyeing the already black soil as dark as ink.

The giant ape's strength in its enraged state was incomparably tyrannical. Even this Black Armor Ferocious Beast's hard shell could not withstand it.

Hiss hiss!! The Black Armor Ferocious Beast's black eyes were icy as it stared fixedly at the Black Giant Ape. Its body, as thick as a water vat, twisted section by section, and black light surfaced around its edges once more.

Boom! The air exploded again with a piercing shriek. Surrounded by white airwaves, the Black Armor Ferocious Beast shot forward, transforming into an S-shaped black shadow as it lunged at the giant ape.

Too fast. I can't keep up.

Roar! Dodge, I have to dodge! The giant ape roared, its rage-filled eyes glaring wide. Under Jiang Hou's frantic control, its massive body flipped over and rolled across the ground.

Pff! The Black Armor Ferocious Beast nearly grazed past the rolling giant ape in an instant, crashing headfirst into the black tree behind it.

Bang bang bang!!

The instant it struck the tree, the Black Armor Ferocious Beast coiled upward around the trunk like a python. Its ten sharp legs shredded the branches and bark beneath it.

Amid the flying debris, the Black Armor Ferocious Beast coiled around the hundred-meter-tall tree slowly lowered its head, its ferocious gaze fixed on the Black Giant Ape that had risen below.

Roar! On the ground, the Black Giant Ape roared at the sky, pounding its chest with both fists and producing a war-drum hum as it struck a provocative pose.

This ferocious beast was too fast, and all ten of its legs were sharp. The best approach was to remain still in the face of all changes, waiting for an opening to kill it in a single blow.

Provoked, the Black Armor Ferocious Beast's eyes became even more vicious. It shifted its body, its sharp legs leaving crack after crack across the trunk as it adjusted itself head-down and tail-up.

Boom! The air exploded as the Black Armor Ferocious Beast transformed into a black arrow and plunged from the sky. White airwaves rolled behind it, its momentum overwhelming.

Roar! The giant ape roared, its eyes blood-red and filled with endless fury.

This time, the giant ape did not dodge again. The instant the Black Armor Ferocious Beast burst forward, it clenched its thick arms into fists, drew its body taut like a bow, and took one fierce step forward.

First update