Destruction Technique

The half-meter-thick Special Alloy Pressure Door slammed shut behind Jiang Yue. Heavy mechanical locks clanged into place, their echoes rolling through the Corridor.

The outside light vanished in an instant, plunging everything into suffocating darkness and silence.

Before Jiang Yue's eyes could adjust to the pitch-black gloom, two crimson electronic eyes flared to life deep within the cold metal Corridor ahead.

Two high-pressure valves hissed as they vented. A pair of Level 1 Combat Puppets, each over two meters tall and built entirely from black Special Alloy, came out of standby.

Murky exhaust spilled from their joints. Their heavy metal frames struck the Alloy floor with dull impacts that set his teeth on edge.

The moment the two killing machines locked onto Jiang Yue's vital signs, their Power Cores rose to a shrill whine. They charged from left and right like maddened iron bears, bearing down on him with murderous force!

Jiang Yue stood rooted to the spot. His gaze hardened, but he made no move to use the terrain for cover.

He needed a test. He wanted to know just how tough these iron lumps the veterans called the Recruit Meat Grinder really were.

"Hah—"

Jiang Yue drew a deep breath, his chest swelling.

His reserves of Blood Energy, backed by nearly 800 kilograms of strength, surged through his tendons and blood vessels like floodwater through an opened dam.

He bent his knees slightly and gripped the Alloy floor with his toes. Drawing on the formidable physique honed by Tough Skin, he twisted his waist and drove his hips forward.

His spine bent like a fully drawn bow, sending the force of his entire body through him and into his right fist.

The Puppet on his left reached him first, swinging a barbed mechanical fist. Jiang Yue gave no ground. His right fist shot out like a cannonball and smashed straight into its broad metal chest!

Boom!

A deafening metallic blast erupted through the narrow Corridor!

Flesh struck Special Alloy head-on, sending out a visible ring of white air.

Jiang Yue's savage punch stopped the several-hundred-jin combat Puppet dead in its charge.

The impact drove into its body. Its feet carved two trails of sparks across the floor as it staggered back three or four steps.

A fist print roughly an inch deep had sunk into the Alloy armor plate on its chest, though the plate was more than ten millimeters thick.

But that was all.

The combat Puppet had no pain receptors, no fear, and none of the disruption to Blood Energy a living body would suffer after a heavy blow.

Physics forced it to pause for only half a second before its glowing crimson eyes locked mercilessly onto Jiang Yue again.

"Click, click, click..."

Bearings roared in its mechanical arms as power output surged to maximum.

The dented Puppet lunged as if nothing had happened. Together with its companion closing in from the right, it spread its steel arms and threw itself at Jiang Yue like a rabid dog.

"Hiss..."

Jiang Yue moved quickly with Military Basic Footwork, sliding back two meters to open the distance. He shook his tingling fingers and frowned.

Tough Skin had kept his knuckles from splitting, but the recoil still left his finger joints aching.

His punch had done considerable physical damage, yet it had not meaningfully impaired the Puppet's movement.

Realization struck Jiang Yue. This was a trap. A trap meant to drain his stamina!

If he relied on brute force to smash all fifty of these Special Alloy lumps apart, punch by punch and kick by kick...

Even a Quasi-Martial Artist with 1,000 kilograms of strength, let alone Jiang Yue with his current strength of nearly 800 kilograms, would be drained of every last bit of stamina in this long Corridor unless he had become a full Martial Artist and mastered an efficient Destruction Technique. These tireless machines would grind him into pulp!

That was why the earlier groups of recruits had been eliminated or even carried out with severe injuries, despite having standouts among them who could exert three or four hundred kilograms of force.

"I can't beat them with brute force."

Jiang Yue drew a deep breath and exhaled. The fervor that had risen in his eyes with his exertion faded, leaving them cold as blades.

The Six Harmonies Breathing Method surged into motion within him.

This Ancient Martial Arts Tradition, which Shen Qing had taught him without reservation, had become instinct through its perfect harmony with the white Smooth Breath trait within Jiang Yue.

As he settled into its distinctive Breath Regulation rhythm, the muscles throughout his body relaxed. An instant earlier, they had been tensed as hard as granite.

He was loose on the outside yet taut within, like a bow drawn to its limit with its arrow still held.

The Puppet on his right hurled a mechanical fist at Jiang Yue's face, its blow shrieking through the air.

A direct hit would have crushed an ordinary person's skull like a watermelon.

Jiang Yue advanced instead of retreating.

His steps abandoned the broad, straight-line movements of Military Combat Arts. He slid strangely to the left, as slippery as a fish.

He turned his upper body just enough to let the deadly mechanical fist pass by a hair's breadth.

The wind from that heavy blow raised every fine hair on his cheek.

Carried by the slide, Jiang Yue slipped inside the Puppet's guard and into the dead angle along its centerline.

He was so close they were almost face-to-face.

Jiang Yue's lower back snapped into motion, like a long-slumbering dragon suddenly turning over.

Force rose from the soles of his feet and passed through his knees, thighs, hips, and spine. In an instant, he completed a complex, flawless transfer of power.

His right fist, seemingly loose and harmless, struck like a Viper. Over a distance of less than ten centimeters, it landed with pinpoint precision on a tiny seam in the Puppet's chest and abdominal armor.

Inch Power, driven through the body!

This was no longer a blunt impact meant to damage the surface. Through the perfect coordination of the Six Harmonies Breathing Method and his spine, Jiang Yue compressed the force of his nearly 800-kilogram foundation into a single piercing point the instant his fist touched the armor.

A muffled thump sounded.

The Puppet's outer Alloy armor showed almost no new dents or damage. On the surface, it looked intact.

But the terrifying Hidden Power of Ancient Martial Arts bypassed the Alloy shell's physical defenses. Like an invisible, violent steel needle, it traveled through the metal and stabbed deep inside!

"Crack, crack... Screech... Bang!"

A string of muffled explosions sounded deep within the Puppet. Under Inch Power's violent, high-frequency shock, its precision Power Transmission Core, intricate gear assemblies, and fragile signal circuits shattered. They became a heap of charred, twisted scrap!

The acrid smell of oil mixed with coolant burst from the gaps in its armor.

The crimson light in the Puppet's eyes flickered twice, then went out completely, as though someone had yanked its power supply.

Its massive metal body lost all support. With a screech of scraping metal, it collapsed at Jiang Yue's feet and lay still.

One strike. One kill!

"Found it."

Jiang Yue lowered his right arm. A keen light of understanding flashed in his dark eyes.

He had found the key to efficient killing and damage that pierced beneath the surface. In that moment, he underwent Metamorphosis completely.

He did not look at the scrap metal by his feet. He snapped his head up.

Ahead, pair after pair of crimson electronic eyes lit up in the dark passage. Jiang Yue charged toward them instead of retreating, plunging into the depths of the Steel Jungle like an agile Cheetah!