From Lighting Up Talents to Becoming a Demon God Section 31

His furious assault was like a barrage of hard stones, whipping up a string of shrieking winds as it went straight for Zheng Wu's face in their spar.

Whip punches, straight punches, swinging punches...

Paired with the footwork of Flying Sand and Moving Stones, he kept up the fierce attack, advancing step by step.

By the end, the muscles on his body looked as if they had been piled up from blocks of stone, erupting with a boom.

Thud!!

When the punch landed, it was as if two hard stones had collided!

The exploding sound wave sent the air within a two-meter radius howling, and a faint white current flashed past.

Lu Chao's feet stamped against the ground as he uncontrollably retreated to disperse the force.

Tap, tap, tap, tap!

After five or six steps in a row, he slid to the edge of the ring, feeling his right arm go slightly sore and numb, trembling faintly.

He looked across from him.

Zheng Wu, who had remained on the defensive the entire time, had thrown a punch for the first time. His right arm was still held horizontally in midair and had not yet dropped.

"Very good, Junior Brother Lu."

A deep voice came over, and Zheng Wu lowered his arm and slowly walked over.

"Your Hard Stone Combo and Flying Sand and Moving Stones worked extremely well together. You've also got a solid grasp of the seventh move, Giant Rock Shake."

"Looks like you're not far from Rock Skin."

With approval on his face, Zheng Wu came up to him and checked him for injuries as he spoke.

"Thank you, Senior Brother Zheng."

Huff! Huff!

After thanking him, Lu Chao took great gulps of air and raised a hand to wipe away his sweat.

His chest heaved violently, and his muscles ached and swelled all over. He could feel an unprecedented fatigue in his body.

Although Zheng Wu had suppressed his strength and kept only to the level of an ordinary Combat Grade fighter, he had still put no small amount of pressure on him.

"Still thinking about Junior Brother Zhang?"

Zheng Wu suddenly asked, sensing something off about him.

Lu Chao fell silent for a moment, then nodded lightly.

He had indeed been somewhat affected. These past two days, he kept thinking of that lonely back as it left in desolation.

With a soft sigh, Zheng Wu shook his head and said no more. He only handed over a bottle of Tendon Recovery Oil.

"Your fighting skills improved today, but you did overexert yourself a bit. You may have strained your tendons and meridians."

"Rub this on twice a day after you go back, especially on key areas like your limbs, chest, and back. Don't leave hidden injuries behind."

He gave him a few careful reminders.

Lu Chao nodded and committed them to memory, then flipped down from the ring and walked to the rest area.

"Senior Brother Lu, you were amazing just now."

"You were going back and forth with Senior Brother Zheng. Looks like you should be breaking through to Combat Grade soon, right?"

A somewhat ingratiating voice sounded beside him, and at the same time, a towel was offered over.

Lu Chao was slightly startled and looked at him.

He had a short, chubby build, about 1.72 meters tall, with a bowl-cut hairstyle.

His name was Li Dong. He was a disciple who had joined the Martial Arts Hall only after Zhang Hong left, and for the past two days, he had always been following behind Lu Chao.

"Thanks."

After hesitating for a moment, Lu Chao still took the towel the other party handed him.

Then, looking at Zheng Wu as he walked away, he explained softly, "Senior Brother Zheng is a Professional Grade expert. When he spars with us normally, he holds back most of the time."

"Also, time spent practicing boxing is precious. As for these things..." He glanced at the towel and the cup filled with water, then shook his head softly. "I'll do them myself from now on."

Clatter! Clatter!!

That evening, a streetcar passed along the road, shuttling at a steady speed through the Iron Ring District.

Outside the window, night gradually fell, and the howling sound entered his ears.

After leaving the Martial Arts Hall, Lu Chao hurriedly finished dinner and immediately rushed toward Dreamfire Bar.

"Master Luo said that if I break through to Rock Skin, I'll definitely become Combat Grade."

"And stepping into Combat Grade can also achieve Rock Skin..."

Standing by the window, Lu Chao gripped the ring handhold and thought of the knowledge he had asked Zheng Wu about today, as well as the words Master Luo had once mentioned.

They looked like two identical statements, but when he compared them carefully, he discovered the difference between them.

According to the [Vitality Development Theory], the process of developing vitality was, in essence, the accumulation of life energy.

Every breakthrough was a qualitative transformation of energy and a leap in life itself.

And that process not only required vast nutritional resources to fill it out, it also required a method to guide and support it.

Martial methods like the Gold-Stone Combat Arts were the key.

Through martial combat techniques, one guided the life energy within the body, letting martial strength slowly circulate, tempering the physique, strengthening the spirit, and step by step making life itself more powerful.

In other words.

A martial breakthrough was the guiding of qualitative transformation.

Without the realm of Rock Skin, one could not control and guide the power within the body, nor break through the twentieth barrier.

It was precisely because of this that martial methods were so precious, and why one had to pay expensive tuition fees to practice them.

"To me, with the boost from [Primary Resilience], as long as I train enough, I'll definitely be able to break through."

"But the key is..."

His gaze flickered slightly, and Lu Chao looked at his wristwatch.

A new debit notification appeared.

[Your bank card ending in XX92 has been debited 800 yuan today. Payment successful! Current balance: 1205.49 yuan.]

[Administration Bureau: You have paid this month's rent... Friendly reminder: You will repay 1000 yuan of your Welfare Loan on the eleventh of next month...]

"I'm out of money."

Somewhat helplessly, Lu Chao felt another wave of pressure.

The higher one's vitality, the greater the cost of maintaining vitality development.

Because of this, his daily nutritional supplements were becoming more and more expensive, almost draining most of the spare money he had.

Supplements, beast meat... these were all major expenses.

"No wonder those Combat Grade senior brothers are always crying poverty even though their work benefits are clearly good, and they even hold positions at other companies on the side."

"Looking at it now, the consumption required for them to maintain vitality development is probably no small number."

His gaze flickered slightly, and Lu Chao could not help but have an idea.

Should he try taking out a loan?

"But loans aren't that simple either. The interest is too high. For someone like me with no background or assets, I'd have to mortgage my organs."

"That Senior Brother Wang's fate was a living example... And I heard some loan companies worry about 'asset damage,' so they might demand surgery right when the money is borrowed, removing and replacing the mortgaged organs. They might even rent them out to others and profit a second time."

The thought flashed through his mind, and Lu Chao quickly rejected the idea.

The risk was too great.

Click!

As he was thinking, the tram arrived at the station.

The familiar North Street of the Iron Ring District appeared outside the window, and Lu Chao saw the bar sign not far away.

After taking a deep breath and calming his stray thoughts, he finally got off and left.

"Whoa!!"

"Hit him! Hit him!!"

"Silver Wolf, take him down!"

Crisscrossing neon lights swept in every direction. Inside the bar, voices roared and the noise was extraordinary.

Lu Chao changed into a suit, put on an earpiece, stood at the edge of the first-floor bar counter, and looked toward the central area.

A small ring covering a dozen or so square meters rose from the floor, isolated by a circular fence of wire mesh surrounding it.

Incandescent lights shone down like pillars. Two burly men, bare from the waist up and wearing boxing gloves, were fighting inside.