Iron Shirt

Pain makes a person weak.

It was precisely because he feared pain that he chose the Hard Body Training skill [Iron Shirt] when building his ability set to increase his resistance to damage.

Blood-red mist rose from Lu Bai's body once again.

"You're insane! Your body absolutely won't be able to hold out!" The Bandit Leader could only feel a massive, overwhelming force erupting from within Lu Bai.

Lu Bai, having pulled his leg free, did not respond to his words; instead, he shoved him forward and began to walk outward.

The surrounding bandits fired their guns at Lu Bai, but unfortunately, the power of firearms had been severely weakened, and the Bandit Leader himself served as an excellent human shield.

Furthermore, these people were extremely strange; their combat style did not resemble that of a Traveler, but rather that of an ordinary person.

Without time to ponder the reason, Lu Bai pushed the Bandit Leader, and they tumbled down from the second floor of Lingfeng Tower.

They crashed into several people engaged in a chaotic melee outside.

The Bandit Leader struggled incessantly, but unfortunately, with Lu Bai having activated the Blood Burn: Volcano mode, his strength had already surpassed his own.

The moment Lu Bai emerged and steadied himself, he immediately looked toward the target's position.

Atop a building called Heshan Pavilion, there stood a man dressed in black, carrying a large number of arrows on his back.

At this moment, his face was somewhat pale.

The hand gripping the bowstring trembled slightly.

The arrow embedded in the Bandit Leader seemed to have pierced his own body as well.

This was not because of some heart-wrenching love story between the archer and the Bandit Leader, but because of the backlash from his Strange Art.

When practicing the Heaven-Patrolling Arrow, the bow and arrow could not be tainted by the aura of anyone other than the user and the chosen target.

A minor contamination would pollute the Strange Art and blind the user's ability to sense energy flows.

A major one would result in a backlash of energy, causing the practice of the Strange Art to fail.

Even after the Heaven-Patrolling Arrow was mastered, there remained taboos regarding the contamination of others' auras.

The more arrows fired at the same target, the more internal energy was consumed.

With the first few arrows, he had gauged Lu Bai's reaction time and speed while clearing away some of the obstructions created by the collapsed Lingfeng Tower, forming a clear line of sight.

Therefore, that final arrow was his strongest.

He had not expected that a 'barrier' would still exist.

After such excessive consumption and the subsequent backlash of his Strange Art, the archer felt his entire body turning cold.

Then, he met Lu Bai's eyes, which held a chilling intent to kill.

Yet, the archer felt no regret.

"You destroyed Lianwu Mountain, so I must destroy you!"

He tremblingly drew the bowstring again, while a large number of people from Lianwu Mountain raised their weapons and charged toward Lu Bai.

Lu Bai hoisted the Bandit Leader up to use as a shield, curled his body, and charged toward Heshan Pavilion.

The Bandit Leader was not a professional martial artist after all; he was a latecomer who had acquired his martial arts through modules.

Once Lu Bai seized the opportunity, the Bandit Leader could never regain his center of gravity; with his footing unstable, he could not break free from Lu Bai's control.

However, he dared not deactivate the [Iron Shirt] skill; in the current situation, without that iron-skinned protection, he would likely be hacked to death by the chaotic blades.

The archer on the roof aimed several times but could not find a suitable opening.

As they crashed through the main gate, Lu Bai extended two fingers and thrust them directly toward the Bandit Leader's eyes.

The effectiveness of the human shield ended there.

However, the Bandit Leader also sensed the danger at this moment.

He knew clearly that if he could not break free from Lu Bai's control, he would likely die before Lu Bai collapsed.

Gritting his teeth, he shoved a large quantity of confiscated internal energy modules into the skill slot for [Iron Shirt].

He had left an extra interface for the [Iron Shirt] skill, allowing him to insert energy modules of [Internal Energy] to drive the ability.

In the standard version of Iron Shirt, one needed to use special methods and medicinal wine to temper the body in the early stages; once internal energy was generated from the inside out, it would permeate the flesh and skin, effectively putting on a suit of iron armor whenever the technique was activated.

At the same time, each activation would indirectly train the body's strength, eventually granting one steel-like bones even when the technique was not active.

However, Hard Body Training arts were not known for their internal energy; for an art like Iron Shirt that worked from the outside in, the internal energy derived from each activation was less than half that of other standard martial arts.

Therefore, a normal Iron Shirt practitioner lacked sufficient internal energy and could rarely master the art in a lifetime.

The Bandit Leader did not face such difficulties; he could connect [Internal Energy] modules to his skill slot at any time, so he never lacked energy.

His dilemma, however, was that he was progressing too quickly, and his body could not handle it; such rapid growth always required time to digest.

Injecting too much internal energy was like continuing to stuff oneself after being full.

Now, he was going all out, intending to become a "fat man" in one go; even if his stomach were to burst later, that was a problem for later.

As a massive amount of internal energy was injected, the black color on his body gradually faded, replaced by a hint of pure white.

The Bandit Leader's not-so-handsome face took on a touch of ethereal grace, set off by that skin of pure white.

His footsteps faltered, and the body he had been pushing came to a sudden halt.

Lu Bai's thrusting fingers struck the closed eyelids, emitting a metallic clang.

At the same time, a rebounding force surged from within the Bandit Leader's body, directly knocking away Lu Bai's other hand that had been gripping him.

An Iron Shirt mastered to the peak could push the body's internal rebounding force to its limit; for every ten parts of force struck against it, it could reflect seven parts back from any point on the body.

Because of this, the Iron Shirt, which was typically known for its defense, also saw its offensive power elevated to an extremely high level.

That pair of white jade-like hands reached toward Lu Bai. As force was exerted through the hands, the strength of the entire body was channeled into them, just like the rebounding force from before.

This force was enough to split mountains and crack stones.

Lu Bai was forced to dodge to the side, a look of excitement appearing in his eyes.

He was truly worthy of being a Traveler; even as someone who had taken up the path halfway, he could unleash formidable power by relying on a unique combination of modules.

Lu Bai observed the Bandit Leader closely and noticed that specks of blood-red were gradually seeping out from within his white jade-like skin.

Clearly, this Bandit Leader could not hold on for much longer.

However, Lu Bai was not doing much better himself; the Blood Burn: Volcano mode was equally devastating to his own body.

It was only because Lu Bai had a solid physical foundation, supported by his Dragon-like Vitality talent, that he could endure it.

"Then let us begin this Combat to our hearts' content!" Lu Bai said. He then spun around and threw a punch, dodging a cleaving broadsword while striking a Lianwu Mountain martial artist to death.

He grabbed the corpse, extracted its internal energy and Vitality Module, and quickly slotted them into his skill bar.

Life does not cease, and neither does the fight.