'Innate Qi can mobilize spiritual energy, absorb primordial energy, and urge it to erupt with the strength of dragons and elephants.'
'When all is said and done, Innate Qi is still flesh and muscle. A martial artist will be injured if shot, and a hit to a vital point could kill him on the spot.'
'But compared with an ordinary person's body, your Innate Qi has been refined and tempered until it is like steel wire—coiling, twisting, contracting, and tensing. When released, it can reduce shattered stone to sand, while its resilience is like rubber mixed with steel wire.'
Lan Yi's words echoed in Geng Liangchen's mind.
At the time, Geng Liangchen had just broken through to Mind Cultivation. When he instinctively looked toward Lan Yi with his mind, what he saw was a raging pool of lightning. Lan Yi appeared human, yet every inch of him was filled with enough power to burn and destroy Carbon-based life. That astonishing power was firmly bound within his body, not a trace leaking out.
It was from that moment onward.
Geng Liangchen developed a loyalty and admiration toward Lan Yi far beyond that of anyone else.
'Pistol rounds can be endured head-on. Rifle rounds require you to avoid vital points. As for heavy machine guns and artillery, even rubber mixed with steel wire will be shot through and torn apart.'
'Without cultivating arcane arts, martial artists facing technological weapons will find their muscles alone sorely inadequate.'
'That is why Mind Power became a martial artist's mainstay.'
When the heavy machine guns blocking the street entrance were mounted and began sweeping the area with suppressive fire, Geng Liangchen, hidden in the shadows, could judge the path of the bullets from the muzzle flashes. The air rippled like water as round after round tore through it.
The heavy machine guns began firing rhythmic bursts.
The martial artists, who had charged with the might of tigers descending from the mountains, were immediately pinned down. Their bodies, which had appeared impervious to blades and spears, were instantly torn open by heavy machine-gun rounds, sending sprays of blood blooming through the air! Two unlucky martial artists were struck directly in the eyes; they collapsed twitching and died on the spot!
Shock!
It was not only the martial artists who were shocked. The Dongyang soldiers were shocked as well, and the Allied Powers' observation group was even more astonished.
A body swept by heavy machine-gun fire would not merely spray blood. It would be smashed and torn apart outright. Yet this group of martial masters—their bodies...
'Are these martial masters' skins packed with iron?' Kashu Ryuji's scalp prickled.
Then came excitement and exhilaration!
What an extraordinary method of strengthening the body!
If it could be used on the Empire's soldiers, wouldn't everyone on the battlefield become invincible, sweeping across thousands of troops? The grand dreams of Hakko Ichiu, Seven Lives for the Country, and Eastern Co-Prosperity—of surpassing the White Beasts—would surely be realized within his lifetime!
The martial artists suppressed by the heavy machine guns attempted to retaliate.
Clearly, with sandbag fortifications, prepared firing lines, and machine-gun positions around them where large numbers of soldiers took turns firing, a dozen or so martial artists could not solve the problem by throwing stones.
The Dongyang soldiers were not useless old troops of the Imperial Court.
They could withstand artillery fire and endure bloodshed and death without collapsing. Under the supervision of military discipline and fear, they gritted their teeth and desperately pulled the triggers in return. This ability to defy the instinct for self-preservation and hold their ground while firing back was possessed only by outstanding professional soldiers. Even among the Allied Powers' troops, few had such mettle.
The martial artists' charge was halted.
Amid the collapsed and ruined streets, both sides reached a stalemate.
These martial artists, who had just been elevated by Lan Yi and gained extraordinary power, were not professional soldiers. They were immersed in the pride of having acquired immense strength and submitted to the mysterious might of Immortal Master Lan Yi. They had no trouble fighting when victory was assured, but most of them were still incapable of enduring death or the horrific sight of their companions dying before their eyes.
Boom!!!!
The roar of artillery rang out.
A pillar of fire and dust shot up from the ground, instantly swallowing several martial artists who specialized in concealed weapons and had gathered inside a small building!
The ground across the entire street shook violently.
As the smoke and dust dispersed somewhat, a three-story building had been flattened. Several martial artists had been flattened along with it. The martial artists, whose eyes had already begun to show fear, had lost their earlier fervor and arrogance. Remembering the terror of the foreigners' cannons, they watched as the lines locked in stalemate seemed about to collapse!
'Hmph. Artillery, is it?'
At that moment, Geng Liangchen's voice, like a low growl, suddenly reached everyone's ears.
At the Dongyang army's machine-gun positions, and at the two artillery positions slightly farther back, the soldiers coordinating with one another, loading ammunition, and calibrating their firing mechanisms all shuddered inexplicably.
The next moment.
The Dongyang soldiers, shrouded in inexplicable, sinister resentment, all erupted into shrill, agonized howls! To outsiders, there was clearly nothing there, yet the soldiers screamed and wailed as though they had seen ghosts, repeatedly being devoured by a host of ghosts!
Fear! Uncontrollable fear spread!
Every Dongyang soldier attacked by Mind Power had killed people. Every one of them had incurred a blood debt on this land.
At this moment, only they could see it.
Those they had once slaughtered cruelly, whether for amusement or under military orders, kept crawling slowly out from the blind spots in their vision. With rotten, yellowed, savage teeth, they gnawed at the soldiers' flesh. The horror of being eaten alive was utterly spine-chilling!
This was Geng Liangchen's art of Mind Cultivation.
Hungry Ghost Scene
Joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness all belonged to the power of the mind. Above them, emotions such as hatred, killing intent, grievance, regret, and guilt were even more complex forms of Mind Power sublimated from those fundamental emotions.
As someone at the very bottom of society,
before becoming a rickshaw puller in Jinmen, Geng Liangchen had been a refugee fleeing famine. He had been very young then, only six or seven years old.
During years of great famine, people ate one another.
He had seen with his own eyes how people, driven to the brink of starvation, began eating human flesh—eating themselves, eating others. He had almost been eaten himself. Several bites had been taken from his flesh, and in the end he had fought for his life and escaped from the mouths of the Hungry Ghosts.
Geng Liangchen had been afraid! Terrified beyond measure!
That fear, planted in his bones since childhood and twisting his character, had driven Geng Liangchen from rickshaw puller to martial master. Then, because of that extreme emotion, so subtle that few could detect it, he had naturally advanced from Qi Cultivation Grand Completion to Mind Cultivation.
Now...
Geng Liangchen was no longer afraid.
Because he had gathered all his fear together, then stuffed it into the minds of everyone who could see or sense him, making them experience for themselves this Hungry Ghost Scene—unable to tell whether it was real or false, yet being devoured alive!
Within several hundred meters,
with a movement of Geng Liangchen's mind, everyone could suffer the gnawing of the Hungry Ghost Scene.
Imagine it.
On a battlefield, your comrades carrying rifles and manning cannons are perfectly fine one second, then suddenly go berserk the next, firing wildly and blasting their cannons at random. For an army in the age of firearms, this was comparable to a nightmare.
The Dongyang people's crucial machine-gun positions scattered throughout the streets, along with their artillery positions, began firing indiscriminately.
They had originally been within the protective formation of the infantry.
Now the fun really began.
Kashu Ryuji, who was drawing his blade and directing the frontal battle, had not yet had time to bring the situation under control when he saw in despair that a frenzied machine gunner had clamped down on the trigger. A belt of bullets lashed out, sweeping across his direction at waist height!
As it turned out, when a heavy machine gun swept across someone's waist,
it really could tear a living person in half.