Dragon Sighting, Armor Cast Off

"I knew it. How could you have let me tear off one of Anu's arms so easily? So Elder Feng thought the credit wasn't enough."

Xu Yi sneered.

"You little brat, you're courting death!"

Killing intent flashed from the corners of Elder Feng's eyes. Without warning, he leaped forward and threw a punch. The punch was utterly silent; let alone shaking heaven and earth, it did not even stir the flowers or grass. Yet it was astonishingly fast. Xu Yi scarcely had time to dodge before the soundless punch reached his face.

Whoosh!

Xu Yi sharply drew in his abdomen and exhaled a stream of white Qi. The fist he had kept tucked beneath his belly shot out like a cannonball leaving its barrel.

Since he could not dodge it, then he would not dodge it. They were both at the Body Tempering Peak—who was afraid of whom!

With a deafening bang, even the earth seemed to tremble.

Their fists collided. Xu Yi struck Elder Feng's left shoulder, while Elder Feng's fist hammered into Xu Yi's lower abdomen.

Elder Feng did not move an inch after taking the blow. His legs sank half an inch into the soil, blood spilling from the corner of his mouth.

Xu Yi, however, flew backward like a kite with its string cut, soaring more than thirty feet away. He smashed through several Silver Firs as thick as bowls, crashed to the ground, and lay still.

"Hahahaha..."

Elder Feng laughed endlessly and smugly said, "Boy, did you think I didn't know you were tricking me into talking merely to buy time, so you could adjust your breathing and recover your strength? I played along, buying time myself to sever the nine meridians and gather them into power. That Nirvana Divine Fist with the Strength of three oxen—did it taste good? Ahahaha..."

Every inch of Xu Yi's body hurt. His bones felt as though they had fallen apart. That earth-shattering punch had truly felt like being struck by a small mountain, and he had nearly passed out. Only when Elder Feng's words reached his ears did he jolt awake. "The Strength of three oxen? How is that possible!"

Liao Chen had taught him that when ordinary people cultivated to the Body Tempering Peak, they possessed the Strength of one ox. Due to differences in cultivation techniques and talent, weaker people fell slightly short of that, while stronger ones could gain a considerable increase—but at most, they reached the Strength of one and a half oxen.

Like Xu Yi himself, he had entirely broken through the limits of the human body through bitter endurance. Even his full-force strike possessed the Strength of one and a half oxen.

Yet Elder Feng's strike just now had contained the Strength of three oxen. It simply shattered everything Xu Yi knew.

After finishing his laughter, Elder Feng coldly swept a glance over Xu Yi as though looking at a dead man. He snapped off a hard branch, scraped it with his fingernails until a sharp point emerged, making it resemble a freshly made spear. With a casual toss, it shot forth like lightning, stabbing straight toward Xu Yi's left shoulder blade.

Elder Feng intended to capture him alive. This throw was meant to nail Xu Yi to the ground. After that, he could take his time tormenting him and force out the opportunity that had allowed Xu Yi's cultivation to advance so swiftly.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Empowered by tremendous force, the wooden spear tore through the air and, in an instant, struck Xu Yi's shoulder blade with a dull bang—but it was not the sound of flesh being pierced.

Before Elder Feng's expression could change, Xu Yi sprang up like a carp flipping over and fixed him with a fierce stare. "I bet you can't throw out a second punch with the Strength of three oxen."

The moment he had fallen, Xu Yi had already figured it out. It was not that Liao Chen had been wrong when he said that Body Tempering cultivators possessed no more than the Strength of one ox. Elder Feng must have used a secret art. Otherwise, he would not have needed to drag things out for so long before unleashing that punch. And a punch with such terrifying force surely came with drawbacks; it could never be used again and again.

As soon as the words fell, Xu Yi tore open his hemp clothes. What was revealed was not skin, but black iron plates. The plate over his abdomen had cracked inch by inch after taking Elder Feng's Nirvana Divine Fist. The plate at his shoulder had also been punched through, leaving a hole from the wooden spear.

Elder Feng's eyes bulged violently. His gaping mouth snapped shut, nearly biting off his own tongue. "Heavy Iron? You actually carried Heavy Iron with you at all times? Impossible!"

Heavy Iron was the most common material in the present age for forging heavy weapons. It was densely textured and several times heavier than ordinary refined iron. Those known for great strength often used it to forge heavy armaments.

At this moment, Xu Yi's legs and body were almost entirely covered in Heavy Iron. By rough estimate, it weighed no less than five hundred pounds.

A Body Tempering Peak expert could strike with the Strength of one ox at full force, amounting to no less than two thousand pounds.

Five hundred pounds, by itself, was not much.

But though the words were true, the principle was not. It was like an ordinary person who could exhaust every ounce of strength to carry a two-hundred-pound sack, yet could never tie fifty pounds of sandbags to their body and live normally.

The difference between the two was that one was explosive power, while the other was endurance.

After exchanging blows with Xu Yi several times, Elder Feng had seen how swiftly he moved, without the slightest sluggishness. With his sharp eye, he could naturally tell that the Heavy Iron had not bound Xu Yi for merely a day or two. It had practically become part of his body.

Such a method of body tempering was simply shocking beyond belief.

Everyone knew that cultivation was divided into four realms: Body Tempering, Qi Sea, Condensed Liquid, and Soul Sensing!

The Body Tempering Realm involved polishing the skin, refining the bones, strengthening blood and Qi, and tempering one's strength. That was only natural.

But no martial artist dared bear weight like Xu Yi—not because their body could not endure it. After all, with the support of precious medicinal herbs, a martial artist's physical endurance could be greatly enhanced.

Rather, it was because under such long-term, excessive bitter cultivation, the martial artist's body could be sustained with medicine, but the exhaustion of the mind could not be resisted. In dangerous cases, the soul itself could collapse and scatter.

Yet Xu Yi had accomplished it. This alone shattered Elder Feng's understanding of Martial Arts cultivation.

Xu Yi had no obligation to explain himself to Elder Feng. He calmly removed the Heavy Iron from his body and proudly said, "Three months ago, I began carrying these five hundred and eight pounds of Heavy Iron. For the first three days, the pain pierced into my bones, and I could not sleep day or night. Over the next four days, my entire body swelled, and my tendons and bones fractured repeatedly. I endured two months as though in hell before I could move normally, as if there were no difference whether I wore it or not. Last night, I stepped into the Body Tempering Peak. This Heavy Iron became useless to me. Today, it blocked Elder Feng's heavy blow, so it has fulfilled its purpose and may now retire."

With a clattering sound, all the iron plates came off. Xu Yi casually pushed them away, tossing them deep into the thatch.

Five hundred pounds was several times his own body weight. The instant it was removed, Xu Yi felt as light as a feather, as though he might float into the air at any moment.

Elder Feng had never imagined that he would run into such a monster today. He and Xu Yi had exchanged blows several times, and at first, he had looked down on Xu Yi completely. Even after suddenly discovering that Xu Yi had also reached the Body Tempering Peak, Elder Feng had still believed victory was securely in his grasp.

The reason was simple. He was a veteran Body Tempering Peak expert with incomparably rich combat experience. On that point alone, he had been confident he could deal with Xu Yi, a novice who had only just entered the Body Tempering Peak.

But now, Elder Feng's mentality had changed completely.

With several hundred pounds of Heavy Iron on him, Xu Yi had still displayed such combat strength. Was he truly someone Elder Feng could defeat?