Arhat Golden Body, Minor Accomplishment!

Spring departs and autumn arrives; the four seasons cycle in turn.

Standing in the snow, despite the blizzard raging around him, Li Su remained bare-chested. After more than two years of cultivation, his body possessed almost no excess fat; like a wild leopard, every muscle fiber was defined with startling clarity.

As he shifted his stance, internal energy surged spontaneously throughout his body. The falling snowflakes were repelled before they could even touch him.

The Arhat True Qi is truly peculiar.

It is clearly fierce and overbearing, yet the further one progresses, the more its nature—while remaining dominant—mysteriously softens.

It lacks the scorching heat of the Nine Yang Divine Skill and the chilling cold of the Nine Yin Manual. Its characteristics are difficult to describe; if one had to put a name to it, it would be "incompatibility."

As he practiced the Arhat Gong, his Arhat True Qi developed an intense, almost absolute, exclusionary nature.

Once unleashed, let alone snowflakes, even rain splashing against his face would be completely deflected, never touching his skin, as if it were a physical barrier.

It is undeniably powerful.

Yet, when it comes to raw destructive force, it feels somewhat mediocre—it cannot even compare to the Great Strength Vajra Palm practiced by Xuanci and the others.

Concluding his session, Li Su exhaled a long breath, which condensed into a foot-long pillar of air before him.

Although the nature of the technique differs from his initial impressions, it matters little; as long as it exists, it is enough.

In this world, his requirements are not high. If top-tier divine skills are available, he will take them, but his internal energy must reach at least sixty years of cultivation.

"Xuankong, have you gone to see Master yet?"

The voice rang out—it was Xuancheng, deep and tinged with a hint of impatience.

Li Su rolled his eyes.

Since their practice times were no longer staggered, Xuanci and the others had gradually discovered something unusual; for instance, Li Su's Arhat Fist carried the same essence as the version once displayed by the monk Tianming.

Realizing this, the way they looked at Li Su began to change.

However, to Li Su's surprise, the first to challenge him was not the restless Xuanci, but the martial arts fanatic Xuancheng.

But who was Li Su? A man prepared to squat in Shaolin Temple for the better part of his life—how could he possibly be goaded into a fight? Don't even think about it.

He conceded without a moment's hesitation.

His reason was simple: he did not know how to fight; he only practiced internal energy.

Even though the Arhat Fist was a combat technique, Li Su had turned it into a static stance. Thus, despite practicing for over two years, he truly did not know how to brawl.

This was a powerful excuse. Although Xuancheng was obsessed with martial arts, he understood that Li Su truly lacked combat experience.

However, Xuancheng was not one to give up easily; he told Li Su to go find their master to learn combat-oriented martial arts, then come back for a match.

How could Li Su let him have his way? Naturally, he didn't go. He didn't even have enough time to practice his internal energy every day, so why bother with combat?

Besides, he didn't need it. As long as his internal energy kept increasing, he could just learn a few tricks when the plot was about to unfold. Facing invincible internal energy, what did it matter if the Dugu Nine Swords appeared? If he slapped down a wall of energy, he was curious to see how they would break it.

As a result, this guy stuck to him like glue.

He asked the same question almost every day.

Li Su thought for a moment, picked up a charcoal pencil, and wrote: "In a while."

"Good!" Nodding, Xuancheng walked away.

Watching his retreating figure, Li Su smiled. He would go, but not to learn martial arts; he was going to ask for more medicinal pills. Another year had passed, and he only had one pill left from the monk Kongming. The Arhat Gong was still far from reaching its peak, and he feared the further he went, the more resources it would require.

It wasn't that the training was ineffective—on the contrary, it was too effective. Originally, one pill every three days was sufficient, but now he needed one every day, yet the frequency of his cultivation sessions hadn't increased.

Could it be that he had developed a tolerance?

He remembered his master saying these were just supplements. Could one develop a tolerance to supplements?

After finishing his daily tasks, Li Su put on his clothes and headed straight for the Arhat Hall.

The monk Tianming was there.

Besides him, there were a few others.

It was Xuannan and his group.

Oh? They've started learning finger techniques? Not bad. Does that mean these guys have mastered the Dragon Subduing Elephant Taming Art?

In fact, six months ago, Xuancheng and Xuanci had learned a high-level martial art—a branch of the Vajra series: the Vajra Finger.

Finger techniques undoubtedly belonged to the high-tier martial arts of Shaolin Temple.

After all, fingers are vastly different from palms; even with internal energy protection, few could master them. One had to reach a certain level of quality before attempting to practice, otherwise, it was easy to injure oneself.

Starting with the Vajra Finger, Xuancheng had touched the threshold of the Dragon Capturing Skill and was taught one of Shaolin's premier lethal techniques: the Shaolin Dragon Capturing Skill.

Had he seen the Li Jie version of Heaven Sword and Dragon Sabre? It was that technique where one could grab a wall as if it were made of foam.

Watching Xuancheng practice, seeing him claw a deep mark into a blue brick with a single strike, Li Su couldn't help but twitch his brow. If this guy didn't go insane later on, and if he were to face You Tanzhi, Li Su deeply doubted whether the latter would survive until Xiao Feng arrived.

Seeing Li Su arrive, Kongming stopped and looked at him. "Xuankong, have you encountered any problems with the Arhat Gong?"

At his words, Xuannan and the others turned their gazes toward him, looking at Li Su with an incredibly strange expression.

In Shaolin Temple, among the "Xuan" generation disciples, besides Xuancheng and Xuanci, only Xuankong received such treatment, right? It was also because the young monks of this generation were generally good-tempered, and Xuannan and the others often practiced with Li Su, knowing that although his combat skills were lacking, his internal energy was definitely not inferior to those two. Otherwise, with such blatant favoritism, Xuancheng and Xuanci might have stayed silent, but the others would surely have started a struggle. Being given private lessons in front of everyone—did they really think he had no temper?

At this moment, Li Su couldn't help but twitch the corner of his mouth. Xuancheng bothering him every day was largely due to this very reason.

Monk Tianming's special attention.

To be honest, it was merely Arhat Gong, an advanced martial art derived from Arhat Fist; was such a fuss really necessary? Did this mean he was now receiving the same treatment as Xuancheng and Xuanci?

Taking out a charcoal pencil, Li Su decided not to delay any further. Since things had already reached this point and were unavoidable, he would just have to endure it.

"Master, my medicine is almost finished."

Monk Tianming nodded. It wasn't that there was a problem with the cultivation technique—that was good. Wait, the medicinal pills were finished?

Tianming's expression stiffened. He leaped up and landed before Li Su, as if reenacting a scene from a year ago. He reached out, grabbed Li Su's wrist, and began to probe.

The Arhat True Qi, which had already acquired an impenetrable quality, could hardly tolerate such provocation; it exploded instantly.

The moment the external force invaded, a massive surge of internal energy erupted, directly rebounding against Monk Tianming's own internal energy.

Faced with this, Monk Tianming was not alarmed but delighted, and he increased his pressure.

Clearly, decades of internal energy were far beyond what Li Su could currently compare to, and the Arhat True Qi was instantly suppressed and pushed back.

However, before Monk Tianming could make another move, the Arhat True Qi, upon being forced back, naturally flooded Li Su's meridians. It left only the Hand Shaoyin Heart Meridian, the Hand Jueyin Pericardium Meridian, and the Hand Taiyin Lung Meridian unoccupied. The moment Monk Tianming's internal energy entered, it was channeled through these three meridians and expelled from his body.

Feeling as though his energy had vanished into a bottomless abyss, Monk Tianming could not help but reveal a look of profound shock in his eyes.

This phenomenon was, without a doubt, the Arhat Golden Body reaching minor completion!

"Hahaha, good, good, good!" Unable to contain his laughter, Monk Tianming looked at Li Su with immense satisfaction. As time passed, it could be said that Shaolin Temple had found a treasure in Xuancheng, yet he had never expected that the quiet and unassuming Xuankong would possess even greater talent.

The Arhat Golden Body—how long had it been since it last appeared in Shaolin Temple?

This was a physique that could be mentioned in the same breath as the Indestructible Diamond Divine Art. However, unlike the "indestructibility" of the Indestructible Diamond Divine Art, the Arhat Golden Body was a divine art that worked from the inside out. Its function was exactly as it had just demonstrated: once an external energy entered the body, the Arhat Divine Art would automatically expel it.

For a master, the importance of internal energy went without saying.

Except for certain external martial arts, any internal art with lower-quality internal energy would be completely drained upon entering the Arhat Golden Body. Even if the quality of the internal energy were equal, ninety percent would still be expelled; only a higher-level energy could successfully invade, and even then, seventy to eighty percent would be directly cast out.

In other words, the damage from virtually all internal arts would be infinitely suppressed by the Arhat Divine Art.

Xuankong had only reached minor completion, so he could only expel about fifty percent of aggressive internal energy of the same level, but even that was terrifying enough.

Furthermore, due to the nature of the Arhat Divine Art's energy cultivation, the resilience of his meridians far exceeded that of an ordinary person. This meant that even if Xuancheng were to strike him with his palm, it would at most cause him minor injuries.

Tianming released Li Su's wrist and said with a beaming smile, "You wait here; I am going to see the Abbot."

No wonder the hundred Blood Qi Pills were almost gone; the Arhat Golden Body had reached minor completion, so it would be strange if they weren't finished.

Watching the old monk Tianming scurry away, Li Su gave an awkward smile to Xuannan and the others, who were currently staring at him with wide, curious eyes.

It was the first time they had seen Monk Tianming act this way. Even when Xuancheng had performed exceptionally well—to a degree that left them all trailing in his wake—Monk Tianming had remained quite calm.

What on earth had their junior brother done? They remembered that he had only been practicing Arhat Fist and Arhat Gong.

No matter how strong Arhat Gong was, it was at most on the same level as the Dragon Subduing Elephant Taming Art they practiced, right? As for progress, they considered themselves quite fast, so why was their master acting like this?

Li Su's mouth twitched. Although Xuannan and the others didn't speak, he knew exactly what they were thinking.

In truth, he was just as confused himself. It was just Arhat Gong, wasn't it? Was such a reaction really necessary?