Story

Bang!

Lu Ming struck the Puppet Stake with a Mountain-Pushing Divine Ability palm. The stake shuddered slightly, then slid back and crashed into the Puppet Stake behind it.

Crack! A sharp sound rang out, and then it stopped.

Lu Ming's eyes lit up. It really worked!

And it was incredibly easy.

He glanced down. The Puppet Stake had pushed aside a great deal of dust as it slid, leaving a furrow in the dirt along its path.

The buried part of the Puppet Stake had slid out of the ground. That meant the "mountain" in the Mountain-Pushing Divine Ability included the part underground.

Lu Ming studied the results and gained an even deeper understanding of the Mountain-Pushing Divine Ability.

And since the Mountain-Pushing Divine Ability worked on Puppet Stakes, it ought to work on Iron Stakes too!

There were two difficulties in venturing deep into the Iron Stake Area.

The first was resisting the pressure of the Iron-Scaled Python Demon.

Thanks to his daily three-hour training sessions in the Iron Stake Area and his sparring with Feng Qingzhu, he could now resist the pressure alone and reach the fifteenth stake.

However, if he had to resist the pressure while also making the Iron Stakes ring along the way, he could only reach the twelfth stake.

That was the second difficulty.

But if he could use the Mountain-Pushing Divine Ability to seize a delicate moment—the instant just before the stake was pushed, when it had not yet moved—and give it the lightest touch, making it ring...

Then he would have solved the second difficulty outright.

All he would need to consider was how far he could go while resisting the Iron-Scaled Python Demon's pressure. He could practically ignore the need to make the Iron Stakes ring!

Lu Ming's gaze flickered. He stepped forward and came to stand before the Puppet Stake, eager to keep practicing the Mountain-Pushing Divine Ability.

Just as he was about to act, he suddenly felt sore all over. Only then did he come to his senses: he had just finished training for the day, and his body was exhausted.

He could only call it a night.

That night, he fell into a deep sleep.

The next day, he woke up refreshed and stepped outside. Feeling that his energy had fully recovered, he went straight to the Puppet Stake.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Perhaps because he was pushing something light like a Puppet Stake rather than a mountain, he used the Mountain-Pushing Divine Ability more than a dozen times before he began to feel tired.

His spirits, however, were soaring. After more than a dozen attempts, he had finally grasped the timing and could bring the Mountain-Pushing Divine Ability to the point where it was about to push, but had not yet pushed.

However, he couldn't reveal the power of his divine ability.

He immediately went around the courtyard to practice the Mountain-Pushing Divine Ability on various objects, such as trees and stone tables.

In the end, he was sure that no matter what object he faced, he could bring it to the brink of being pushed without actually pushing it. Since this only involved using a little of his divine ability, it took very little strength.

That way, the objects would ring from the vibration without being pushed aside and revealing his ability.

He used the Mountain-Pushing Divine Ability to put several objects back where they belonged. Then, brimming with confidence, he went out and hurried to the Grand Martial Arts Arena.

That day, he secretly tried it in the Iron Stake Area and found that, just as he had expected, he could use the Mountain-Pushing Divine Ability to make the Iron Stakes ring without shifting them.

To anyone watching, it looked exactly as if Lu Ming had made them ring with his palm strength. There was no sign of a divine ability.

Lu Ming was secretly delighted. This meant he wouldn't have to fret over making the Iron Stakes ring like everyone else.

However, even at his full strength, he still couldn't earn a Red Token, so for now he didn't show anyone his "progress." Instead, he continued to temper his martial will.

At the Grand Martial Arts Arena, he temporarily stopped practicing Nine Palaces Palm, since evolving his second Palm Path Divine Ability required 1,000 experience.

If he trained in Cloud-Piercing Finger with all his might, he could gain 300 Acupoint experience each day and evolve his third Acupoint Divine Ability sooner.

[Acupoint Divine Ability evolving (4392/10000)...]

[Acupoint Divine Ability evolving...]

[Acupoint Divine Ability evolving (4542/10000)...]

After three hours, Lu Ming was drenched in sweat and panting.

Seeing that his Acupoint experience had reached 4,542, his gaze flickered. The total required experience was 10,000, and he only gained four points per training session. It was still too slow.

Now that his Cloud-Piercing Finger had reached the entry level, learning a new finger technique would increase the Acupoint experience he gained from each training session.

Creak~

The gates of the Grand Martial Arts Arena closed. Lu Ming followed the crowd to the Public Kitchen, ate lunch, then headed to the woods behind the small courtyard area.

There was an open space here. Feng Qingzhu leaned against a huge boulder, her hands clasped behind her head around a bamboo pillow as she watched clouds drift lazily across the sky.

In recent days, so that their sparring sessions wouldn't cut into their training time, Lu Ming and Feng Qingzhu had agreed to move them to after lunch.

Feng Qingzhu came here to wait for him after eating. Now, hearing footsteps approach, she rose with her green bamboo staff in hand. A breeze stirred her hair, revealing her cool, striking face.

Buzz!

Without a word, she swung the green bamboo at Lu Ming. The air rang with a rumble along its path.

Lu Ming felt Feng Qingzhu's aura surge. His expression turned serious.

Feng Qingzhu's aura had grown stronger every day these past few days. He guessed it was because she had taken Qi-Enhancing Pills and trained in the Iron Stake Area.

Feng Qingzhu was probably close to a breakthrough.

"Whew~" Half an hour later, their sparring session ended. Lu Ming was slightly out of breath, his blood surging. He felt that his vitality, energy, and spirit had improved ever so slightly again.

Seeing Feng Qingzhu turn to leave, he glanced at her and suddenly said:

"Senior Sister Feng, I've heard an interesting story these past few days. Would you be interested in hearing it?"

Feng Qingzhu stopped and turned around. "What story?"

Lu Ming's heart stirred. There was a chance!

He coveted the Green Bamboo Gang's Eighteen Green Bamboo Forms, so lately he had been keeping a quiet eye on Feng Qingzhu.

He discovered that apart from practicing martial arts, she had almost no other interests. Even Liu Yiyi, who was supposedly her friend, was no more than an acquaintance.

But after keeping an eye on her for a while, he finally realized that she seemed to like listening to stories.

A few times, when Military Service Bureau disciples were telling fantastical tales, she had stopped to listen.

Some of those disciples wore white training clothes, while others wore gray ones. That meant she wasn't interested in any particular person—she genuinely liked stories.

He tested the waters today, and Feng Qingzhu really did seem interested.

Perhaps he could use this as a way to learn the Eighteen Green Bamboo Forms.

He began, "Once upon a time, there was a legendary heroine who went to the mountains every day to teach her disciples martial arts..."

At that, Feng Qingzhu frowned at him and turned to leave.

Lu Ming thought, Oh no. It seemed Feng Qingzhu didn't like stories that mirrored her own life—or perhaps she didn't like stories set in the present.

He hurriedly changed tack. "Across the sea, there was a famous mountain called Flower Fruit Mountain. Right at the summit stood a piece of immortal stone. It was three zhang, six chi, and five cun tall, and two zhang and four chi around..."

Feng Qingzhu stopped again. Her eyes brightened, and she turned to look at Lu Ming.

Journey to the West really was a masterpiece! Lu Ming praised it inwardly, then continued with the story of the Great Sage's childhood on Flower Fruit Mountain.

He continued until the Handsome Monkey King set out to seek immortality. Feng Qingzhu was listening intently when Lu Ming smiled and said:

"To find out what happens next, tune in next time!"