A Martial Arts Grandmaster in One Year! Golden Bell Gang Qi!

Night had fallen. Yet Tang Jie's room glimmered with golden light. Sitting cross-legged, he was surrounded by flowing golden radiance that vaguely formed the phantom of a great bell.

That great bell enveloped Tang Jie, ripples of light flowing across its surface and giving off an indestructible aura!

"Huff!"

Tang Jie let out a long breath and opened his eyes. In the darkness, faint golden flashes flickered through his gaze before vanishing.

I've finally broken through—the eighth stage of the Golden Bell Shield!

Tang Jie's heart brimmed with joy.

Having trained the Golden Bell Shield to the eighth stage, the force of the Golden Bell's rebound had reached its peak. The fiercer an enemy's attack, the stronger the rebounding force it generated. Even a light blow from an enemy would suffer a thunderous rebound!

At the eighth stage of the Golden Bell Shield, one could already be ranked among the first-class experts, able to roam freely among martial artists with scarcely a rival to be found!

Under normal circumstances, Tang Jie would have needed at least a year to complete his body-tempering training and break through with the Golden Bell Shield. Now, however, it had taken him barely more than ten days.

Naturally, this was thanks to the Sarira. Yet when Tang Jie looked inward, he discovered that the Sarira had shrunk by an entire circle. This meant much of its energy had already been consumed!

Keep going. I hope this Sarira can help me raise the Golden Bell Shield to the tenth stage before it is exhausted!

Tang Jie took a deep breath and sank back into cultivation, doing his utmost to refine the Sarira's power and rapidly increase his own cultivation.

Time slipped by second by second. Another fifteen days later, aided by the Sarira, Tang Jie's Golden Bell Shield broke through once more and entered the ninth stage!

With the Golden Bell Shield at the ninth stage, one's internal strength had already reached the pinnacle of the first-class realm!

Once the Golden Bell Shield had reached this level, even blades pressed against the body, sawing away like a saw, could not cut through the flesh. Even when struck heavily by someone with greater internal strength, it could protect one's internal organs from being injured by the shock!

Du Jue was around fifty years old this year, yet his Golden Bell Shield had only reached the ninth stage. In terms of the Golden Bell Shield, Tang Jie could now stand shoulder to shoulder with him!

By the time the Golden Bell Shield reached the ninth stage, the Sarira had already shrunk by more than half.

I'll push straight through to the tenth stage!

Tang Jie still did not end this secluded cultivation. The immense Golden Bell true qi within him circulated endlessly, while the phantom golden bell around his body shimmered with flowing halos, as if it were constantly being tempered—becoming more solid, more durable!

A month and a half later, Tang Jie's room contained no lit candles, yet it blazed with dazzling golden light, as though it were the realm of an ascendant immortal!

"Rumble, rumble!"

Inside Tang Jie's body, the vast golden true qi of the Golden Bell Shield surged like rivers and lakes, actually producing a rolling roar. It was as if his flesh-and-blood body concealed a divine power beyond imagination!

This feeling was familiar. Tang Jie had experienced it once before—it was precisely the process of Refining Qi into Gang!

His Golden Bell Shield was about to enter the tenth stage, Refining Qi into Gang, rivaling the Boyhood Art!

The Golden Bell true qi within Tang Jie broke through a certain threshold and began to expand violently, stretching his body until it ached faintly. But Tang Jie did not panic. Bit by bit, he compressed that vast true qi—compressed it!

When the night passed and the gentle sun rose into the sky at dawn, all of Tang Jie's Golden Bell Shield true qi had transformed into Gang Qi. His Golden Bell Shield cultivation surged tenfold!

I did it!

Tang Jie opened his eyes, joy appearing on his face as well. With just over a year of bitter cultivation, and the Sarira's aid, he had achieved a miracle that should have been impossible. From having no foundation at all in the Golden Bell Shield to reaching the tenth stage and Refining Qi into Gang, he had spent only a little over a year. No one would believe it if told!

This was equivalent to becoming a Martial Arts Grandmaster in just one year!

With a slight thought from Tang Jie, Golden Bell Gang Qi burst forth from around his body, forming a golden bell over two meters tall. This bell was no longer the vague phantom it had been before—it was as solid as if it were real!

Once the Golden Bell Shield reached the tenth stage, one's internal cultivation became transcendent. The sheer abundance of its Gang Qi was beyond imagination. It could easily snap an enemy's swords and blades, and a casual palm strike would carry the force of rushing thunder, splitting gold and severing iron!

Throughout the entire history of those who had practiced the Golden Bell Shield, only a scant dozen or so had managed to train it to the tenth stage.

"Clang!"

Golden Bell Gang Qi gathered around Tang Jie's fists. When he lightly brought them together, they produced a crisp metallic ring, while faint threads of visible golden ripples spread through the air.

"I wonder whether my current Golden Bell Shield can withstand a flying sword?" Tang Jie smiled. With the tenth-stage Golden Bell Shield and his successful Refining Qi into Gang, his defense had entered an entirely new realm. Even against a first-class expert, if Tang Jie stood still and allowed them to attack with all their strength, they would be unable to harm even a hair on him. Instead, they would be injured or killed by the Golden Bell Shield's rebounding force!

Tang Jie was certain that the defensive power of his tenth-stage Golden Bell Shield was far greater than that of the Corpse Puppet. As for whether it could block the flying sword of an immortal cultivator like Daoist Qingsong, he would only know after trying.

"Unfortunately, the Sarira has been completely used up."

The only thing Tang Jie found somewhat regrettable was that the Sarira in his abdomen had completely exhausted its energy and vanished.

Still, Tang Jie was already satisfied. In the short span of a month and a half, the Sarira had helped him raise the Golden Bell Shield from the seventh stage to the tenth. That was astonishing enough!

"Strange. I keep feeling that the connection between the Golden Bell Shield and the Boyhood Art is growing stronger and stronger!"

Tang Jie pondered for a long while. Even during his previous cultivation, he had felt that the Golden Bell Shield and the Boyhood Art had something in common. Now that both had reached the grandmaster realm of Refining Qi into Gang, that feeling had become even more intense.

"Let's give it a try... I'll see what happens if I combine the Golden Bell Shield Gang Qi with the Boyhood Art Gang Qi." A sudden idea came to Tang Jie. Why not try making the two types of Gang Qi work together?

No sooner said than done. Tang Jie closed his eyes slightly and circulated the two types of Gang Qi within his body, beginning with the Boyhood Art.

Whoosh!

Vast Boyhood Art Gang Qi poured forth from Tang Jie's body. Crimson Gang Qi erupted around him, like a small crimson sun.

Then Tang Jie merged the Golden Bell Shield Gang Qi into the Boyhood Art Gang Qi. At that moment, something completely unexpected happened!

"Boom!"

Tang Jie's entire body shook violently. The instant he merged the Golden Bell Gang Qi into the Boyhood Gang Qi, he felt as though the world before his eyes had trembled. A booming roar echoed beside his ears.

It was like pouring a bucket of gasoline over flames. In an instant, his Boyhood Gang Qi swelled dramatically, turning crimson like the sun. Yet after that crimson radiance climbed to its peak, it transformed into gold!

That blinding golden light seemed ready to pierce through the roof and walls!

"This... this... this..."

Tang Jie stared dumbfoundedly at his own hands. They had been dyed a pure golden color; every inch of muscle in his body had turned gold, like a Buddha from legend who had cultivated a golden body!

A vast power, beyond anything Tang Jie had once been able to imagine, boiled within him.

This surging strength left Tang Jie with an urge to unleash it or burst!

Crack!

Unable to hold back, Tang Jie threw a heavy punch forward. The blow was terrifyingly weighty, and its speed even more outrageous—it broke the sound barrier, producing a crisp sonic boom like a firecracker!

Crack!

The air twisted violently. The force of Tang Jie's fist shook the space three meters away, and a wooden table in the room let out a groan of unbearable strain. With a thunderous crack, it shattered entirely, wood splinters flying and scattering in every direction!

"What... is this?"

Tang Jie stared blankly at the exploded table fragments ricocheting around the room. He was utterly stunned. This was strength he had never anticipated, power far beyond his expectations!