Major Accomplishment of the Breath Concealment Art! Come Without a Shadow, Leave Without a Trace!

Su Haoran even had the feeling that the Dragon Elephant Skill, merely at Minor Accomplishment, had already granted him an increase far beyond the combined effects of several perfected techniques, such as the Iron Cloth Shirt and Arhat Fist!

This was no longer power on the same level!

Battle intent surged within Su Haoran. He needed a target to test his current strength.

He strolled out of the woodshed and arrived beneath a waterfall on the temple's rear mountain.

The waterfall battered the area year-round, leaving many enormous boulders scattered around the pool. Polished incomparably smooth by the rushing water, these stones were as hard as iron.

There had once been talk of turning this place into a training ground, but even the elders who had perfected the Skin Tempering Realm and possessed strength capable of lifting a thousand jun could not damage these bluestones in the slightest. Thus, the idea had been abandoned.

Su Haoran fixed his gaze on a bluish-black boulder half a man tall and weighing a thousand jin.

He walked before the boulder, drew a deep breath, and instantly mobilized the power of dragon and elephant within his body.

There were no flashy moves, nor any astonishing aura.

He merely drew his right fist back to his waist and then threw an utterly ordinary punch.

Bang!

A muffled sound rang out.

Su Haoran's fist struck the boulder solidly.

Yet the expected sight of flying stone chips did not appear.

The hard boulder merely trembled slightly, without even the faintest crack appearing on its surface.

It was as though Su Haoran's all-out punch had done nothing more than scratch an itch.

If an outsider had been present, they likely would have laughed aloud, believing it to be nothing but a flashy display without substance.

But a faint, satisfied smile appeared on Su Haoran's face.

He slowly withdrew his fist, clasped his hands behind his back, and quietly watched the boulder.

One breath... two breaths... three breaths...

At the very instant of the third breath!

Crack!

A crisp, strange sound came from within the boulder.

Immediately afterward, as though triggering a chain reaction, countless cracking sounds rang out without end!

Fine, spiderweb-like cracks suddenly surfaced across the apparently unscathed boulder, spreading over its entire body at a speed visible to the naked eye!

Boom—!

The next moment, without any external force touching it, the hard boulder weighing over a thousand jin exploded with a thunderous roar, like explosives detonating inside it!

It did not break into several pieces. Instead, it directly turned into powder and tiny fragments that scattered across the ground, drifting down with a rustle when the mountain wind blew.

A bluestone aged a thousand years turned to powder in a single day!

This was the Power of One Dragon and One Elephant!

That terrifying force condensed without dispersing, pierced through the outer layer, reached the core, and completely destroyed it from within!

"Good! Good! Good!"

Su Haoran's heart surged with excitement.

He clenched his fist, feeling that seemingly endless power, while powerful confidence burst from his eyes.

"First Boss of the Crimson Hair Stronghold, Crimson Beard Dragon Xiong Ba..."

The image of that burly figure, capable of severely injuring Elder Hui Jue with a single palm strike, emerged in Su Haoran's mind.

"So what if he is in the Bone Forging Realm?!"

"If I faced him again now, who would win and who would lose remains to be seen!"

Su Haoran had a strong intuition that, relying on the Dragon Elephant Skill at Minor Accomplishment, even against a Bone Forging Realm expert, he would absolutely have the strength to fight—and perhaps... his odds of victory would be even greater!

The sudden surge in strength did not go to Su Haoran's head.

More than anyone, he understood that while great strength was certainly important when traveling the martial world, knowing how to conceal one's strength was equally an indispensable means of preserving one's life.

He thought again of the Breath Concealment Art he had obtained from the Ghost Shadow Leopard Cat.

"Power is the sword, and concealment is the sheath. A sword without a sheath bares its edge and easily invites others' envy. Now that the Dragon Elephant Skill has reached Minor Accomplishment, my Qi and Blood are far more vigorous than before. If I do not restrain them, people may notice me from far away. It is time to raise this Breath Concealment Art as well."

Having made up his mind, Su Haoran entered seclusion once more.

With the deep understanding of Qi and Blood circulation he had gained while cultivating the Dragon Elephant Skill, coupled with his ever-improving comprehension, cultivating this unorthodox auxiliary technique came naturally to him. He advanced a thousand miles in a single day.

In just a few days, he felt that his control over his aura had reached an entirely new realm.

If the Breath Concealment Art at Initiation had meant forcibly suppressing and hiding one's aura,

then now, with a single thought, the furnace-like abundance of Qi and Blood throughout his body flowed naturally into his limbs and bones like a hundred rivers returning to the sea, blending with the aura of heaven and earth until they were indistinguishable.

His entire person seemed to vanish from the world in an instant.

Technique: ...Breath Concealment Art (Major Accomplishment 1%)

By then, snow lay thick outside the window, and heaven and earth were blanketed in white.

Su Haoran pushed open the door. Looking at the courtyard ground covered in a thick layer of snow, a thought struck him, and he suddenly recalled scattering rice in the snow to catch sparrows as a child before he had transmigrated.

"Birds are naturally vigilant, and their five senses are far sharper than those of ordinary people. Military scouts often judge whether there is an ambush by the movements of birds in the forest. If even they cannot detect my presence, then there are likely only a handful of people in this world who can see through my disguise."

He found a handful of millet in the kitchen, strolled to an open space in the middle of the courtyard, and casually scattered it over the snow.

The golden millet stood out particularly clearly against the white snow.

After doing all this, Su Haoran retreated beneath a withered tree more than thirty meters away. With a thought, the Breath Concealment Art at Major Accomplishment began operating instantly.

His breathing became deep and unhurried, nearly inaudible.

His heartbeat slowed as well, the fluctuations of Qi and Blood throughout his body completely settling. He simply stood there silently, as though he had fully merged with the withered tree behind him and the ice and snow around him.

A cold wind swept past, carrying up snow dust from the ground as time passed second by second.

At last, several sparrows that had flown in from somewhere unknown discovered the food on the snow.

They chirped noisily and circled twice. Only after confirming there was no danger did they cautiously land.

These little creatures were exceedingly alert. After pecking at a grain of millet, they immediately raised their heads, their black-bean-like eyes warily scanning their surroundings.

And Su Haoran stood where he was, utterly motionless.

The sparrows' gazes swept past his direction several times, yet it was as though they saw nothing at all. There was not the slightest alarm or unease.

Su Haoran began to move.

His footsteps were light and slow. Though he stepped onto the thick snow, he made not the slightest sound.

His entire body was like a shadow slowly moving across the snow, a ghost.

Thirty meters... twenty-seven meters... twenty-four meters...

He drew closer and closer to the sparrows pecking at the millet.

The sparrows remained highly vigilant. They took one bite, then looked around once; any rustle of wind or movement of grass would have been enough to send them flying away in an instant.

Yet Su Haoran's approach seemed like the movement of air, the shifting of light and shadow—something entirely natural.

They looked, yet seemed not to see. They did not recognize the approaching human-shaped outline as a "threat" at all.

Fifteen meters...

Twelve meters...

Nine meters...

Su Haoran stopped less than three feet from the nearest sparrow!

At this distance, he could even clearly see the patterns on the sparrow's feathers and its dark, gleaming little eyes.

If he wished, he could catch the little creature in his hand with a mere reach.

Yet that sparrow remained completely unaware!

It raised its head once more, its black-bean-like eyes blankly sweeping over the surroundings, then lowered its head again and peacefully pecked at the millet on the ground.

To its senses, there was nothing before it!

Su Haoran slowly straightened up, his heart filled with shock and satisfaction.

"Too powerful! This Breath Concealment Art truly is a divine technique!"

Even birds and beasts as clever as these could not detect his presence, let alone ordinary Martial Artists whose senses were far inferior to those of birds and beasts!

With this Breath Concealment Art at Major Accomplishment, it was almost as though he possessed the most perfect cloak of invisibility!

He could advance to assassinate without a sound, or retreat and escape without gods or ghosts knowing.

The world was vast; he could go anywhere!