Severing Your Arm

Young Master Zhou's swordsmanship was peerless, yet he lacked combat experience. Coupled with Xu Yi's cunning and mastery of adapting to circumstances, using the terrain to his advantage, what should have been a swift and decisive guaranteed victory had turned into a messy brawl. Elder Feng felt the urge to step in and end it.

"No need! I told you, this little bastard is mine!"

Young Master Zhou's face was cold and stern. With another swing of his sword, he cleaved a boulder flying. Yet he could feel his strength waning, so his eyes turned and he sneered. "Elder Feng, don't be impatient. How could I fail to see through this little bastard's ghostly tricks? He wants to drain my stamina. Heh heh, does he think his own strength is inexhaustible? Splitting a boulder is far easier for me than sending one flying several yards. I'm tired, but the little bastard is even more tired. Today, I'll wear him down alive, then capture him and skin him and strip his bones!"

Elder Feng swept his gaze over Xu Yi. Seeing his head covered in sweat, his face pale, and exhaustion already showing, he said, "Young Master is wise!" Then he stepped back.

Clang!

Clang!

Two more boulders were cleaved away. Young Master Zhou was overjoyed. He could clearly sense that the incoming force of those two boulders had weakened considerably. Xu Yi had plainly reached the end of his strength.

As he cleaved away the two boulders, Young Master Zhou took the opportunity to close in further.

Xu Yi kicked another boulder away, but his feet staggered.

The opportunity could not be missed. Light flashed from the corners of Young Master Zhou's eyes. He gathered his breath and lightened his body, closing the distance in an instant. The Green Sword let out a soft hum, like a venomous dragon leaving its lair, stabbing straight toward Xu Yi's Baihui Point. "Die!"

"Good timing!"

Xu Yi let out a long howl. Both hands shot out, clamping steadily onto the swiftly thrust Green Sword.

With a crack, Xu Yi exerted force with both palms, snapping the Green Sword into two. Before Young Master Zhou could react, Xu Yi reversed the broken blade and, with a wet pfft, plunged it into Young Master Zhou's left shoulder.

"Ah!"

A heaven-shaking scream echoed through the valley!

The moment he saw Xu Yi catch the sword, Elder Feng's eyebrows nearly flew off his face. He stomped one foot, causing the mountain path beneath him to collapse sharply. He moved like a whirlwind. The instant Xu Yi drove the broken sword into Young Master Zhou's shoulder, Elder Feng had already arrived. One hand landed on Young Master Zhou's shoulder, while his other hand formed a blade with his palm and slashed fiercely toward Xu Yi.

The palm wind was so sharp that it severed the stray hairs by Young Master Zhou's ear!

Xu Yi hated Young Master Zhou to the bone. After spending such immense effort to get the man into his grasp, how could he abandon him so easily? Neither dodging nor retreating, he swung his fist to meet Elder Feng's palm blade.

Elder Feng was overjoyed inwardly. You don't know whether you're dead or alive!

Boom!

Fist and palm collided, and it was as though a thunderclap had exploded across the field. Xu Yi's feet sank half an inch into the ground, yet he did not retreat a single step. Elder Feng stood firmly where he was, having absorbed the full force of Xu Yi's punch with effortless ease. In this exchange, Elder Feng had clearly gained the upper hand.

After that one move, towering waves rose in Elder Feng's heart. In that brief moment of distraction, Xu Yi seized the chance. He grabbed Young Master Zhou's left arm, while the latter was still reeling in terror, then exerted his divine strength. With one twist and one pull, amid a scream that made teeth ache, he actually tore off one of Young Master Zhou's left arms.

Elder Feng was shocked and enraged. Throwing back his head, he roared furiously. The sleeves around his arms exploded apart, and like a Rage Lion, he lunged at Xu Yi.

Having succeeded with one move, Xu Yi did not linger. Like an arrow loosed from a bow, he retreated more than ten yards in succession.

Young Master Zhou had been born with a golden spoon in his mouth and had never encountered great hardship in his life. Even in Martial Arts cultivation, he had relied on medicinal herbs and cultivation methods to break through every barrier, traveling the fast lane. He was nothing like Xu Yi, who had tempered skin and forged bones through bitter endurance.

How could he possibly withstand such pain? He fainted from it on the spot.

Elder Feng's fingers moved like flying shadows, sealing more than ten acupoints on Young Master Zhou's body in succession. He stopped the bleeding from his shoulder and severed arm, laid him aside, then reached out and tore away his magnificent robe, which drifted in the wind. His feet assumed an unorthodox stance, and his eyes were filled with disbelief.

"Body Tempering Peak! You're actually at Body Tempering Peak! I remember seeing you two years ago. Your flesh and bones were slack, and you were so weak that even the wind could blow you over. You had never practiced any Martial Skill at all. Yet in merely a few short months, you've gone from nothing to Body Tempering Peak. Even the core disciples of great clans would be no more than this! Terrifying—truly terrifying!"

Young Master Zhou was at Body Tempering Late Stage. His tendons and bones were already strong, and his skin tough. Yet Xu Yi had torn him apart with his bare hands. That was clearly a level attainable only at Body Tempering Peak.

The world valued martial prowess. Whether peddlers and porters or high officials and nobles, all took pride in Martial Arts!

Thus had arisen the present golden age of Martial Arts!

Those who cultivated Martial Arts beneath heaven were as numerous as crucian carp crossing a river, but among them, fewer than one in a hundred could truly enter its halls.

Body Tempering Peak was an extremely crucial threshold. Only by crossing it could one be said to have first entered the inner mysteries of Martial Arts.

Advance, and one could pursue the ultimate limits of Martial Arts. Retreat, and one could become either a wealthy man or a guest in the halls of the powerful, never again suffering the hardships of making a living. It could be called a single step into wealth and rank!

Take Elder Feng himself. Before reaching Body Tempering Peak, he had merely been a martial instructor for an escort agency. The day he stepped into Body Tempering Peak, he became someone the wealthy families and government offices of Guang'an competed to invite.

Yet it had taken Feng a full six years to reach this step. The hardship involved was beyond the telling of outsiders.

As for the young man before him, he was not even twenty and had grown up in the wilderness. Even if he possessed extraordinary talent, without a heaven-sent opportunity, it would have been absolutely impossible for him to attain such fortune!

"Could it be that you obtained some tremendous opportunity?"

Elder Feng suddenly said. Light blazed in his eyes as he muttered, "That's it, that's it. Your boxing technique is exceedingly profound, and its force extraordinary. I entered Body Tempering Peak more than ten years ago. Through bitter cultivation, a single palm strike of mine now surpasses the Strength of one ox. Ordinary Body Tempering Peak experts simply cannot receive it. Yet you, having only just entered Body Tempering Peak, received it steadily. This proves that your cultivation method possesses wonders beyond words!"

As he spoke, the light between Elder Feng's eyes grew brighter and brighter. "If I capture you and force out this cultivation method, I may have hope of entering the Qi Sea Realm!"

"Elder Feng, you and I are both at Body Tempering Peak. On the path of Martial Arts, we can both be said to have achieved something. Why then do you stoop to the work of guarding gates and watching courtyards? It truly makes one despise you."

Xu Yi mocked coldly.

Elder Feng snapped, "What do you know? Martial Arts may be flourishing in this age, but precisely because it has flourished for too long, the sects and great families have long since formed their powers. The finest cultivation methods and nourishing medicinal herbs needed for cultivation have almost all been monopolized by those factions. Without money or medicine, what Martial Arts can you cultivate through courage and blood alone? You brat have been extraordinarily fortunate to cultivate to Body Tempering Peak in just two years, but don't think too highly of yourself. Without an opportunity, you will certainly be like me for the rest of your life, forever stuck in this realm. This is the sorrow of us ordinary martial artists!"

By the end, a trace of desolation had appeared in Elder Feng's eyes.

Xu Yi said, "Opportunity, opportunity. You humbled yourself before the Zhou Family as a servant. Has Zhou Daogan ever bestowed upon you the opportunity you speak of?"

Elder Feng's old face flushed. He said bitterly, "What do you know? I have only been in the Zhou Family for five years. My contributions have not been enough, so naturally my lord would not hand out rewards carelessly."

At this point, Elder Feng's gloomy face suddenly blossomed. Staring fixedly at Xu Yi, he said, "Perhaps my contributions were insufficient before, but if I successfully capture and kill you this time, it will amount to a heaven-sized merit. After all, you crippled one arm of my lord's beloved nephew."