Destruction Techniques

With a heavy boom, the half-meter-thick special alloy airtight door behind him slammed shut, the grinding clatter of mechanical locks echoing through the corridor.

The light from outside was mercilessly stripped away in an instant, plunging the world into a dead silence and suffocating gloom.

Before Jiang Yue's retinas could fully adjust to the pitch-black darkness, two crimson electronic eyes flared to life deep within the cold, metallic corridor ahead.

With two sharp hisses of high-pressure air valves venting, two Level 1 Combat Puppets, each over two meters tall and forged from pitch-black special alloy, officially cut off their hibernation mode.

Waste gas spurted from the joints of their limbs, and their heavy metal feet stomped against the alloy floor, producing a grating, dull clatter.

The moment these two killing machines locked onto Jiang Yue's vital signs, their internal power cores erupted with a shrill wind howl. Like two crazed steel bears, they charged at him from left and right, kicking up a bloody gale!

Jiang Yue's feet rooted themselves to the spot as if nailed there. His gaze sharpened, and he chose not to evade using the terrain.

He needed to test. To test just how tough these iron lumps—called the Recruit Meat Grinder by veterans—really were.

"Whoosh—"

Jiang Yue took a deep breath, his chest swelling high.

The nearly 800 kilograms of dense blood and qi foundation within his body surged like a floodgate opening, madly rushing through his tendons and blood vessels.

He bent his knees slightly, his toes digging into the alloy floor. Relying on the formidable physical foundation honed by the [Tough Skin] trait, he twisted his waist and thrust his hips forward.

His spine arched like a fully drawn great bow, channeling kinetic energy from his entire body link by link, finally converging into his right fist.

Facing the puppet that had charged to the front on the left, swinging a spiked mechanical heavy fist, Jiang Yue didn't retreat an inch. His right fist shot out like a cannonball, smashing straight into the puppet's broad metal chest!

Boom!

A deafening metallic explosion thundered through the narrow corridor!

The head-on collision of flesh and special alloy kicked up a visible white shockwave.

Under Jiang Yue's ferocious, overwhelming punch, the terrifying forward inertia of the several-hundred-jin combat puppet was forcibly halted.

The immense kinetic energy poured into its body, sending it skidding backward three or four steps, its feet gouging two blinding sparks across the floor.

On its chest, the layer of alloy armor over a dozen millimeters thick was visibly dented into an exaggerated, inch-deep fist imprint.

But that was all.

Combat puppets had no pain nerves, no fear, and none of the blood and qi stagnation that living creatures inevitably suffered after a heavy blow.

It only paused for half a second due to the laws of physics, then its crimson electronic eyes mercilessly locked onto Jiang Yue again.

"Clank, clank, clank..."

The mechanical arms roared with bearing rotation, power output maxed out instantly.

The puppet with the dented chest, acting as if nothing had happened, joined its companion that had already closed in, and lunged at Jiang Yue again like a mad dog, its steel arms spread wide.

"Hiss..."

Jiang Yue quickly stepped into the Military Basic Footwork, sliding back two meters to create distance. He shook his slightly numb knuckles, his brows furrowing deeply.

Though his fist, reinforced by [Tough Skin], hadn't broken skin, the recoil still left his finger joints aching faintly.

Even though that punch had dealt massive physical damage, the puppet's combat capability hadn't been affected in the slightest.

A realization flashed through Jiang Yue's mind like a warning bell—this was a trap! A pure stamina-draining trap!

If he relied on brute force, punching and kicking his way through all fifty of these special-alloy iron lumps...

Even with his current normal strength of nearly 800 kilograms, even if he were a Quasi-Martial Artist with a stat of 1,000 kilograms, as long as he hadn't officially become a martial artist and mastered efficient destructive techniques, he'd be drained of his last ounce of stamina in this endless corridor, eventually ground to pulp by these tireless machines!

That was the root reason why the batches of recruits before him, even those with three or four hundred kilograms of strength, had been eliminated or even carried out with severe injuries.

"Can't fight head-on."

Jiang Yue took a deep breath and exhaled a mouthful of stale air. The slightly fervent look in his eyes from exerting force instantly cooled, turning as sharp as a blade.

The Six Harmonies Breathing Method within him roared to life.

This Ancient Martial Arts inheritance, taught to him wholeheartedly by Shen Qing, had become a bodily instinct under the perfect synergy of Jiang Yue's white trait [Smooth Breath].

With the unique rhythm of inhalation and exhalation, Jiang Yue's entire body—muscles that had been tensed like granite from exertion—instantly entered a bizarre state of relaxation.

It was a paradoxical state: loose on the outside, tight on the inside, like a bowstring fully drawn but the arrow not yet loosed.

The right-side puppet's mechanical heavy fist came screaming down, tearing through the air straight at Jiang Yue's face.

If that punch landed, it would shatter an ordinary person's skull like a watermelon.

Jiang Yue didn't retreat; he advanced.

His footwork was no longer the straight-line advances and retreats of Military Combat Arts. Instead, he slid left with an eerie, fishlike grace.

His upper body tilted slightly, dodging the deadly mechanical fist by a hair's breadth.

The heavy wind from the punch even made the fine hairs on Jiang Yue's cheek stand on end.

With that slide, Jiang Yue closed in instantly, slipping into the puppet's midline dead zone.

The distance was extremely close, almost face to face.

At that moment, Jiang Yue's lumbar spine snapped like a whip, as if a dormant great dragon had suddenly turned over.

This force rose from the soles of his feet, transmitted through his knees, thighs, hip bones, and spine, completing an incredibly complex and perfect chain of power transfer in an instant.

His right fist, which had seemed loose and utterly harmless, shot out like a viper striking, covering a distance of less than ten centimeters to land with pinpoint precision on a tiny metal seam in the puppet's chest armor.

Inch Power penetrates the body!

This was no longer the purely physical impact that sought surface destruction from before. Jiang Yue's formidable base strength, approaching 800 kilograms, was perfectly coordinated through the Six Harmonies Breathing Method and his spine. At the moment of contact with the armor, it was compressed into a highly penetrating point.

A dull thud rang out.

The puppet's outer alloy armor showed no new dents or damage, appearing completely intact on the surface.

Yet that terrifying Ancient Martial Arts Hidden Power completely ignored the alloy shell's physical defense, like an invisible and violent steel needle, traveling through the metal's conduction to stab viciously inside!

"Crack... sizzle... bang!"

A series of extremely muffled explosions echoed from deep within the puppet's body. Its precise Power Transmission Core, complex gear assemblies, and fragile neural conduits, under the violent high-frequency vibration of the Inch Power, instantly collapsed and snapped, ultimately shaken into a pile of scorched, twisted scrap metal!

A pungent smell of mixed oil and coolant sprayed from the armor gaps.

The crimson light in the puppet's eyes flickered violently twice, then, as if forcibly unplugged, went out completely in an instant.

The massive, heavy metal frame lost all power support, collapsing like a heap of mud with a clatter of grinding metal, crashing down at Jiang Yue's feet, utterly lifeless.

One-shot kill.

"Found it."

Jiang Yue lowered his right arm, a flash of extreme sharpness and understanding passing through the depths of his dark eyes.

Having grasped the secret of efficient killing and penetrating damage, he was completely transformed in that moment.

He didn't look at the scrap metal at his feet. Instead, he jerked his head up.

Facing the dark corridor ahead, where pair after pair of crimson electronic eyes were flaring to life, he didn't retreat but advanced, like a nimble leopard, charging headlong into the deepest part of the Steel Jungle!