Cowhide Skin Stage, Qi and Blood Like a Stream, A Surge in Strength! The Head of Operations Is Here?

"Go guard the intersection. Without my orders, none of you are to come over!"

Shi Wen sensed a great upheaval within his body, like a raging sea, and his expression shifted.

He hurriedly barked an order.

Several gang members hurried away, disappearing from sight in moments.

Only then did Shi Wen let his distressed expression show.

Green light seemed to flicker in his eyes. This was what happened when the body was pushed to the very brink of hunger!

That fierce hunger erupted all at once. It felt as if someone had grabbed his intestines and twisted them into a knot, ready to rip them out. The nauseating sensation and stabbing pain, along with panic and anxiety, flooded his mind.

The qi and blood within him seemed to transform into a ravenous Taotie beast.

It forcibly broke down his bodily functions, converting them into an unending flow of qi and blood!

In moments, Shi Wen's reasonably solid, well-proportioned muscles shriveled once more. His flesh clung tightly to his bones, like a layer of old hide wrapped around them. He looked even more ghastly than when he had first begun practicing martial arts, when his body had been depleted!

Shi Wen saw stars, while the sound of his heart pounding wildly rang in his ears.

It was as if the world had suddenly fallen silent, leaving only the sound of his heartbeat, his breathing, and a numb, buzzing drone in his ears!

Within his body,

the qi and blood that had once been like a crucian carp surged dozens of times over!!

An invisible force wrung qi and blood from every inch of his flesh, from head to toe. It flowed along his bones, through his entire body, and into his dantian, making a rushing sound like a stream surging and circulating through the whole body. The powerful qi and blood turned his skin red as a boiled prawn.

Vapor billowed from the top of his head!!

Hot!!!

Hungry!!!!!

At the same time, a colossal surge of energy exploded in his chest, splitting into countless streams that rushed through every part of his body.

As that energy rampaged through him, aching pressure swelled throughout his body.

Hunger, burning, swelling pain...

The many kinds of agony made Shi Wen's eyes bulge with pain.

He lunged toward the bag he carried with him, crammed all the Red Python Meat inside into his mouth and chewed, then poured the pills from a porcelain bottle into his mouth and swallowed them!

He had no idea how much Red Python Meat he had eaten!!

Only when the various pains and hunger erupting within his body gradually subsided did Shi Wen slump onto the ground, panting heavily. Beneath his pale mask, his eyes were webbed with thick, savage red veins!

The veins bulged beneath his exposed skin, and vapor billowed from his body!!

The ground had already been soaked with sweat.

Only after he had drained the water pouch did Shi Wen come back to his senses.

Like a man on the verge of drowning, he gulped down breath after breath, his face still full of lingering dread.

"What was that just now? What level of martial art is the Taibao Hard Qigong? Why was the reaction even more violent than the one I experienced when I first refined qi and blood?"

"Could my body really have been depleted to such an extreme?"

"I nearly died from depletion. That's utterly absurd!!"

Shi Wen reached for the Red Python Meat and found that the more than half he had left was now down to less than a pound.

He was running low on pills, too.

The resources required for a single breakthrough in the Taibao Hard Qigong were outrageously excessive!

"It's dangerous, far too dangerous, but the benefits are just as great!"

Shi Wen inspected his body.

He was now as thin as a bamboo pole. His once well-proportioned, strong muscles had vanished without a trace, and it was as if a layer of tough, hardened cowhide had been fitted over his bones. He looked even more wretched than before he broke through to the Blood-Tempering Realm!

Yet his body had been tempered to an extraordinary degree.

When he dragged a sharp blade across his skin, it left only a faint white mark.

Only if he pressed down hard could he cut an opening, and even then no blood appeared. A moment later, the tiny cut vanished without a trace, as though it had never existed.

If he used his internal energy or qi and blood, even a sharp blade could not cut his skin!!

"The Taibao Hard Qigong says that training can temper the flesh of the whole body to the levels of Cowhide Skin, Stone Skin, and Iron Skin."

"At the same time, the density of all the flesh and the strength of the bones increase to a certain degree."

"If I can cultivate the Hard-Body Technique to perfection, my flesh will be as hard as iron, my weight will reach a thousand catties, and my strength will surge."

"I just don't know when I'll be able to reach that point!"

Shi Wen walked across the muddy ground, studying how deeply his footprints sank to estimate how much weight he had gained.

Though he looked as thin and frail as a bamboo pole, he reckoned he weighed around 170 pounds.

His flesh density and bone strength had improved, though the change could not be seen with the naked eye.

"I wonder how much stronger I am now?"

Shi Wen surveyed his surroundings and walked toward an abandoned stone mill.

It was a large stone mill, one meter in diameter, and had perhaps been discarded by a workshop nearby.

Shi Wen grunted as he exerted himself.

Without unleashing his qi and blood, he could lift the millstone's five-hundred-pound lower half over his head with his bare hands. He could even support it with one hand for a moment before finally running out of strength and throwing it onto the ground!!

Before his breakthrough, he would have found that difficult without unleashing his qi and blood!

"It's not just my strength that's improved. My internal energy has grown this powerful, too!"

Shi Wen breathed and directed the flow of his internal energy with his mind.

In his perception, his internal energy was light and flowed through his body like a gentle breeze. With a mere thought, it could surge like a raging gale. Wherever it passed, his muscles swelled as if inflated, revealing a stony brown sheen!

When he filled his entire body with internal energy, he grew more than twice as large, his muscles knotting into solid ridges and giving him a sense of boundless strength!

Besides that,

his qi and blood had also reached a terrifying level.

The qi and blood in his dantian circulated like a stream, flowing endlessly, hot and dense!

"Once the Hard-Body Technique reaches the great or perfect stage, my internal energy should fill my whole body and protect me on its own. I won't have to deliberately activate it to defend myself like I do now."

"I wonder how many moves it would take me to kill Tong Roushan?"

Shi Wen chewed up the dried meat and swallowed it in great gulps.

Combining the Internal Breath Method with his qi and blood, he practiced the Taibao Five Forms in the open space.

Even though he held back,

the immense force and destructive power revealed in his moves were several times fiercer than those of the Baji Fist Foundation!

His heart filled with both delight and excitement.

"Thirty moves, and I can capture Tong Roushan alive!"

"Ten moves, and I can beat him to death!!"

"Now, do I have even a sliver of ability to protect myself in Black Cloud County?"

"No. My body may be strong, but my martial arts realm is still too low."

"Though I haven't reached the Blood-Coagulation Realm, could my strength alone be enough to rank me among the Inner Courtyard's top ten disciples?"

Shi Wen took a new short jacket from the bundle in the corner and put it on. His previous one had already been ruined.

He noticed that the short jacket, which he had bought only a few days ago and which had fit him perfectly, was now too short.

Clearly, he had grown taller again.

Just then, a gang member hurried over and said, "Dragon Head, the Head of Operations is here."

"Mm. Have him come over."

A cold look flashed in Shi Wen's eyes.

"Yes!"

Before long,

a figure hurried over and cupped his fists toward Shi Wen. "Dragon Head, I'm here."

Shi Wen raised his icy gaze to Zhang Sheng. Suddenly, a cold smile appeared on his face. "So the Head of Operations is here."