Bitter Gourd Palm Enhancement, Lesser Grandmaster

"Bitter Gourd Palm?" After Wang Yuan walked out of the Cages, he looked somewhat listless, but the sight of the manual immediately perked him up.

The manual was not thick, containing only a scant few pages. The three large words Bitter Gourd Palm were boldly written across its cover!

"What, you want to practice it too?" Zhang Chu had already looked through the manual and casually handed it to Wang Yuan.

After flipping through it a few times, Wang Yuan disgustedly handed it back, his expression as bitter as if he had swallowed coptis.

"No, no, no. I'm not practicing this thing. It's far too bitter—it's practically a manual for suffering alive."

The contents of the manual left him utterly dumbfounded.

How could this possibly be something a person could practice?

Wasn't this simply asking for pain? True Martial Temple's martial arts were still more reliable, at least they were normal.

Li Minghuai shot him an irritated glare.

He said, "The Bitter Gourd Palm is an orthodox martial art of the Buddhist Sect. Once mastered, its palm force is surging and all-pervasive. It is one of the rare delicate hard-style palm arts in the world. Yet in your hands, boy, it has become some bitter chore that cannot be practiced."

Li Minghuai was twenty-seven this year. He was the eldest among the three, and had also spent the longest time at the Old Temple Master's side. His knowledge and experience far surpassed Zhang Chu's and Wang Yuan's.

With just one glance, he had identified the manual's origins.

"But Second Junior Disciple Brother, if you truly want to practice this Bitter Gourd Palm, you had best prepare yourself mentally. Third Junior Brother was right about one thing—this palm art is painfully bitter..."

A pained expression appeared on Li Minghuai's face as well.

He went on to explain the details of the palm art.

"I once heard that the Buddhist Sect has a branch known as the Ascetic Monks, who specialize in undertaking the bitterest hardships under heaven.

"This Bitter Gourd Palm was created by that branch of the Buddhist Sect, intended to temper oneself through ten thousand forms of suffering."

"It is said that the first step to mastering the Bitter Gourd Palm is to fear neither wind nor snow. You must even chisel ice in winter and chisel stone in summer. It is a hundred times more arduous than hard-style arts like Iron Sand Palm!"

Li Minghuai was not exaggerating.

Zhang Chu had already read the contents of the manual.

The training methods written inside truly were perverse.

No wonder Li Yuanhe had not cultivated it himself.

If True Martial Palm followed a path of broad, sweeping force, then Bitter Gourd Palm aimed to moisten all things in silence.

Once cultivated to great mastery, its force could penetrate every opening, specifically breaking tough external arts such as Golden Bell Shield and Iron Shirt!

For an ordinary person to master it, there would be no hope without gritting their teeth and training for over a decade.

But that was for other people. At the very least, for Zhang Chu, there was no such thing as difficult or easy to practice.

He only needed to train Bitter Gourd Palm until it entered the System Panel, then directly use Merit Points to enhance it.

"This Bitter Gourd Palm is worth practicing. It perfectly makes up for True Martial Palm's lack of delicacy and precision."

"Perhaps it will even produce some unexpected effect once mastered!"

Thinking this, Zhang Chu tucked the manual into his robes.

"Rest assured, Senior Brother. I can endure the hardships of martial practice. Let's return to the temple first."

Li Minghuai did not try too hard to persuade him. After all, Wang Yuan was injured, and they should return as soon as possible for him to recuperate.

At sunset.

The three finally returned to True Martial Temple.

After confirming that his Junior Brother was unharmed, Zhang Chu impatiently returned to his room and summoned the System Panel!

[Zhang Chu]

[Realm: First-rate]

[Martial Arts: True Martial Palm (Second Layer), Yellow Court Inner Strength (Fourth Layer), can continue enhancing]

[Merit Points: 4500]

[Consume Merit Points to enhance martial arts?]

This trip had truly brought abundant gains.

The gatekeeper, along with more than forty Axemen, had provided over 2,800 Merit Points, some more and some less.

Li Yuanhe and the two Second-rate Realm Boat Gang scouts had provided a total of 1,600 Merit Points.

Adding the 100 Merit Points remaining from before, his Merit Points had now reached 4,500!

"Good thing I was strong enough. Otherwise, this time I might have gone and never returned. I still need to become stronger!"

This trip to the Li Family had seemed easy enough.

But if it had been his former self, he would likely have been hacked to death by the Axemen before he even entered the main gate.

It seemed that only by becoming stronger could he survive in these troubled times and endlessly harvest Merit Points!

"Four thousand five hundred Merit Points... I wonder what Realm they can raise me to. Perhaps I can break into the Dark Strength Realm!"

Above the First-rate Realm was the Dark Strength Realm.

This had been the Old Temple Master's Realm in life.

In the Jianghu, he had been an undisputed expert, enough to establish a sect of his own.

As the saying went, when Grandmasters did not emerge, Dark Strength reigned supreme. It meant that if True Gang Realm Grandmasters did not act, the Dark Strength Realm alone could sweep across the Jianghu and be called a Lesser Grandmaster!

Once one reached the Dark Strength Realm, a Warrior's qi and blood would flourish and begin nourishing the body, leaving them untouched by all sickness.

Provided they had not suffered injuries, a Dark Strength Realm Lesser Grandmaster could live beyond a hundred years.

Ordinary people in this world barely lived to sixty, a difference of nearly half a lifetime.

"The reason the Dark Strength Realm is called the Lesser Grandmaster Realm is because internal force has already begun gradually transforming into Gang Qi!"

"Unlike internal force, which is limited and finds it difficult to leave the body, once Gang Qi is born, it can automatically protect the body around it. Blades and swords cannot break through it at all."

"In terms of destructive power, the Dark Strength Realm is even more terrifying. With a single palm strike, internal force and Gang Qi erupt together, shattering all armor and crushing every First-rate existence!"

Zhang Chu remembered seeing his master make a move before. It had been more than mere crushing—it was closer to an adult beating a child.

A Dark Strength Realm Lesser Grandmaster could sweep through dozens, even hundreds, of Warriors in the lower three realms in an instant.

That was why the Dark Strength Realm was so rare. Though Linjiang County was connected in all directions, there were no more than ten within a thousand li.

"Next, I'll raise my strength across the board and see just how far 4,500 Merit Points can take me!"

"Enhance Yellow Court Inner Strength!"

At Zhang Chu's command.

He chose to continue enhancing his Internal Skill.

Without internal force as a foundation, all martial arts moves were reflections of flowers in a mirror and the moon in water—visible, but unusable.

Moreover, only when internal force reached a certain level could it gradually transform into Gang Qi. One could say that powerful internal force was the prerequisite for entering the Dark Strength Realm.

[Enhancing Yellow Court Inner Strength, Fourth Layer, requires 1000 Merit Points. Enhance? Please confirm.]

Zhang Chu's mouth twitched as he looked at the system prompt.

"Enhancing the Third Layer cost 500 Merit Points. I never expected the Fourth Layer to cost 1,000—double the amount outright!"

"Forget it. I'll raise my strength first. The Boat Gang cultivating evil arts, the masked assassins lying in wait to kill me—only great strength can resolve all of this."

"Confirm!"

As one thousand Merit Points were deducted, a mysterious Daoist charm rose once more. Internal force began flowing through Zhang Chu's body, rapidly reforging his muscles and bones.

"Hiss! It hurts!"

Unlike the previous few times, this enhancement of Yellow Court Inner Strength brought an indescribable agony.

Zhang Chu was secretly shocked. This was only the fourth reforging of his muscles and bones, yet the pain was already so intense. If he reached the fifth or sixth time, might he actually be tortured to death on the spot?

Zhang Chu immediately sat cross-legged and used his internal force to comb through his meridians again and again, preventing any mishap.

As the reforging of his muscles and bones accelerated, immense waves of power began to arise within his dantian. Every cycle of internal force brought unbearable, indescribable pain.

It gave Zhang Chu the urge to let out a wild roar, but he forcibly held it back!

After the pain, Zhang Chu gradually adapted. As the reforging neared completion, a faint blood-red glow actually flickered across his body—the sign that his power was about to reach great accomplishment!

At that moment, the pain vanished, replaced by the soothing pleasure of drifting through a warm ocean.

Zhang Chu's eyes snapped open.

Boundless internal force surged within his dantian!