The next day, just after dawn.
Someone knocked on the gate of Li Pingsheng's courtyard.
He opened the gate and froze.
Standing outside was none other than Instructor Wu.
Yesterday, Instructor Wu had looked at him with nothing but disdain. Today, however, his face was wreathed in smiles.
He rubbed his hands together, his back slightly bent, his posture exceedingly humble.
"Li Pingsheng, you're up early."
"I was blind yesterday, Instructor Wu. I failed to recognize a mountain when I saw one. Please don't take it to heart."
As he spoke, he produced several small white jade bottles from his robes as if by magic and offered them with both hands.
"These are the Bone Strengthening Pills the martial hall distributed earlier. I set them aside for you. There are nine bottles in all, and they're all here."
"You're exceptionally gifted, and this is exactly when you need resources. Please, don't stand on ceremony with me."
Li Pingsheng reached out and accepted the pills. It seemed the effect of yesterday's three punches had been immediate.
If he had failed the assessment and been sent to the Servant Courtyard, he might never have laid eyes on these things for the rest of his life.
"Thank you, Instructor Wu."
Instructor Wu had assumed that after receiving a favor, the boy would at least offer him a graceful way to save face. He hadn't expected Li Pingsheng not to take the bait at all.
This boy was nothing like a teenager. He was plainly a schemer with a deep mind.
"You're welcome. It's only right."
Instructor Wu gave an awkward laugh. Seeing that Li Pingsheng still showed no reaction, he could only take his leave in embarrassment.
Watching Instructor Wu's retreating figure, which all but fled, Li Pingsheng closed the courtyard gate.
He casually set the nine bottles of Bone Strengthening Pills on the stone table without sparing them another glance.
These might once have been important, but now they hardly mattered.
What concerned him more were the three punches he'd thrown yesterday.
Night fell.
Li Pingsheng stood in the courtyard, lowering his waist and settling into a horse stance as he practiced the Thunderbolt Fist again.
After completing the set, Li Pingsheng frowned.
Why did something always feel off?
Whenever he pushed the fist technique to its limit, especially when he drove the blood and qi throughout his body to unleash the third stance, Thunder Moves Through the Nine Heavens, he felt an inescapable sluggishness in the flow of his blood and qi.
The strength that followed surged in without end, yet he couldn't release it. The pressure left his meridians aching faintly.
His Tiger Bone specialty gave him far more blood and qi than an ordinary person, but the Thunderbolt Fist seemed unable to bear all the power in his body.
This technique had a flaw.
"Troubled by the Thunderbolt Fist?"
Pei Guang had appeared at the gate at some point and was watching him quietly.
"Master Pei."
Li Pingsheng drew back his fist and saluted.
Pei Guang looked at Li Pingsheng with a touch of admiration and regret in his eyes.
"You're right. The Thunderbolt Fist is incomplete."
He began to explain.
"This fist technique was once one of the Azure Cloud Martial Hall's signature arts. The complete technique was fierce and domineering. When mastered, each punch fell like real thunder from the heavens, its power boundless."
"Unfortunately, decades ago, demons and monsters ran rampant, and Qingyun County fell. The martial hall's experts suffered terrible losses as they tried to protect their legacy."
"The remaining parts of the technique were lost in that upheaval."
"Only the first three stances have survived to this day."
"It can give new disciples a solid foundation, but for someone like you, who's already touched the threshold of fist intent, it's a shackle that will limit your growth."
So that was it.
Li Pingsheng asked humbly, "Is there a way to solve this?"
Pei Guang pondered for a moment.
"There are two ways. First, once you're strong enough, you can pay your respects to the Hall Master and see whether he'd be willing to find you a more powerful technique."
"Second, you could take a look in the martial hall's Library Pavilion."
"The Library Pavilion?"
"Mm."
Pei Guang nodded.
"It holds all kinds of manuals and secret techniques the martial hall has collected over the past hundred years."
"Most of them are worthless, or ancient scrolls that are incomplete. But if you happen to find a few fragments related to thunder techniques, with your comprehension, you might be able to draw inferences from them and fill in a thing or two yourself."
Fill them in himself?
Li Pingsheng's eyes lit up.
Didn't he have the Martial Wisdom talent?
"Thank you for your guidance, Master Pei."
The Library Pavilion stood deep in the Inner Courtyard, a shabby two-story building.
After showing his waist token, Li Pingsheng was allowed inside.
The shelves were crammed with books, most of them coated in dust. Clearly, no one had touched them in a long time.
Inheritance mattered most in martial cultivation. With a famous master to guide them, who would want to come rummage through these piles of old papers and hope for a lucky find?
But to him, this was the perfect place to hunt for treasure.
He ignored the manuals displayed in plain sight with their impressive titles and headed for the corner, where assorted books and fragmented scrolls were piled.
It was more like a dump. Broken bamboo slips and yellowed beast hides were heaped together, with a few insect-chewed booklets scattered among them.
Li Pingsheng didn't mind the filth. He began searching through them one by one.
A fragment of the Awakening of Insects Technique, with only its breathing method intact.
A handwritten copy of the Palm Thunder Essential Technique, missing its force-generation diagrams.
The Lightning Induction Body Tempering Method—this one was even more ridiculous. It actually taught people how to get struck by lightning in a thunderstorm.
Li Pingsheng searched the whole corner but found only these few fragments that seemed vaguely connected to thunder, yet had nothing to do with one another.
Anyone else would have given up in disappointment by now.
But Li Pingsheng treated the tattered scrolls like treasures, tucked them into his robes, and returned to his courtyard.
He sat cross-legged and spread the fragments out before him.
He closed his eyes and focused his mind.
The Martial Wisdom talent.
The obscure writing, incomplete meridian diagrams, and ambiguous incantations in the fragments were all instantly broken apart, analyzed, and recombined in his mind.
He began by breaking down the blood-and-qi circulation route of the Awakening of Insects Technique and analyzing the instant force-generation techniques in the Palm Thunder Essential Technique. He even considered the body's reaction in blood and qi when struck by lightning, as described in the Lightning Induction Body Tempering Method.
Countless fragments that seemed to have nothing to do with one another collided and joined together at incredible speed in his mind.
One new meridian route after another was simulated, then immediately discarded.
Force-generation models were built, then rejected as soon as a flaw appeared.
The deductions placed an immense strain on his mind. Fine beads of sweat gathered on Li Pingsheng's forehead.
Who knew how long had passed? When the sunlight of the following morning spilled down,
Li Pingsheng's tightly shut eyes flew open.
Success.
He had actually managed to piece together a brand-new core force-generation method from the fragments in that pile of junk—a thunder-based method that could perfectly bear his immense reserves of blood and qi.
But it was only theoretical. To make it truly his own, he still needed to put it into practice.
Without alerting anyone, Li Pingsheng quietly left the martial hall and headed for the back mountain.
The martial hall's back mountain was steep and rarely visited.
Deep in a stretch of woods, he found a waterfall that wasn't marked on any map.
The waterfall plunged from a great height, its waters cascading down the cliff into a deep pool below with a deafening roar.
The rushing water smashed against the rocks and sent up a vast spray.
This was the place.
Li Pingsheng leaped into the bone-chilling pool.
He fought against the current, making his way step by step toward the spot directly beneath the waterfall.
The terrifying torrent slammed into his shoulders, back, and head.
The tremendous impact made him stumble, nearly sweeping him away.
Li Pingsheng dug both legs deep into the rocks beneath the water and drove his Tiger Bone specialty to its limit, forcing himself to withstand the pressure.
Exhilarating.
Rather than feeling pain, Li Pingsheng felt a rush of pleasure surge through every limb and bone.
Under this extreme strain, the hidden potential in his body was being drawn out.
He began practicing his punches beneath the waterfall, repeating the new method of circulating his energy over and over.
The blood and qi in his body clashed furiously against the raging torrent around him.
Every circulation of blood and qi brought searing pain.
Each punch had to withstand the weight of a thousand jun of water pressure, consuming many times more stamina than usual.
He poured the potential awakened by the Bone Strengthening Pills from Instructor Wu into the process without reservation, using it to fuse the techniques and strengthen his meridians.
On the first day, he could barely keep his footing, and his punches were sluggish.
On the second, he had adapted to the pressure, and his fists grew faster.
On the third, he had become one with the waterfall.
In the deep pool, his eyes, shut the entire time, suddenly opened, and brilliant light blazed from them.
He fought against the enormous torrent crashing down from above, lowered his body, and drew his right fist back to his waist. All the blood and qi in his body converged in that single fist.
"Open up!"
He threw his punch.
Boom!
A thunderous crash echoed through the valley.
The force of his punch had actually split the waterfall for a moment.
The water surged backward.
Several breaths later, the divided stream joined together again and came crashing down.
Success.
This move would be called Thunderclap Explosion!
Before you continue