Furnace Refines Great Pill (4)

Furnace Refines Great Pill (4)

"Hiss!!!"

A crescent-shaped air wave tore through shattered rocks and dust.

The enraged Purple Thousand Jun Ant King leaped from the fallen rocks burying it. Its speed surged to such an extent that even Soul Saints like Flender, Zhao Wuji, and Shao Xin could see only an afterimage.

Target?

Impossible to lock on!

Trajectory?

Impossible to lock on!

Attack method?

Still fucking impossible to lock on!

Only Title Douluos like Yue Guan, Gui Mei, and Dugu Bo, along with Soul Douluos such as Liu Erlong, Shui Feng, Huo Lie, and Feng Wuji, could see clearly.

Then...

"Crack!!!"

Arcs of electricity danced over Ye Qingcang's body.

As they met the air, they gave off a sound like an eagle's cry.

Compared to the Thousand Jun Ant King, whose speed was too fast to see, Ye Qingcang's movements were visible to everyone—because he did not move at all!

His fingers came together like a sword, lightning gathering at their tips!

With a turn of his palm, those lightning-wreathed fingers seemed to truly transform into a sharp sword. Xie Yue, Feng Xiaotian, Huo Wushuang, and the others were stabbed into streaming tears. Even from far away, even merely looking at it, they felt as if a lightning-wreathed sword had pierced their eyes!

"Lightning can improve reaction speed."

"If you encounter an opponent too fast for you to react to, you can use lightning to activate your body. The downside is that it kills some of the cells in your body, but once your cells develop resistance, that downside is practically nonexistent."

An outer leg capable of cleaving open a mountain collided with Ye Qingcang's lightning-wreathed fingers!

The Purple Thousand Jun Ant King had no choice but to halt its charge!

Because those two lightning-wreathed fingers had stopped it!

They pressed against the front of its sharpest, toughest outer leg!

An outer leg capable of slicing through a mountain could not even injure two slender fingers. Through their tear-blurred vision, Xie Yue, Feng Xiaotian, Huo Wushuang, and the others witnessed this earth-shaking scene!

Even Title Douluos like Yue Guan and Gui Mei had eyes full of shock!

Yet unlike the Thousand Jun Ant King, which was locked in a contest of strength and truly going all out, Ye Qingcang still had enough leeway to speak. "An ordinary human's reaction speed is around three hundred milliseconds. A specially trained human can react in one hundred fifty to one hundred eighty milliseconds. The normal human limit is one hundred milliseconds. But if you activate your body with lightning, your reaction speed can be reduced to fifty milliseconds. One minute has sixty seconds, and one second has one thousand milliseconds—infinitely close to an instant..."

His fingertips bent slightly before snapping outward.

Like flicking a marble.

The force, compressed to the extreme and released in an instant, erupted at the contact point between his fingers and the outer leg, producing a spreading wave of air!

That unfortunate Purple Thousand Jun Ant had only just crawled out of the pile of rubble. Less than three seconds later, it became another afterimage and smashed back into that same pile!

The fragments of rock crushed beneath its body had power comparable to metal shrapnel from a grenade explosion. Even from several hundred meters away, the flying fragments still carried terrifying force. Yan, confident in his formidable defenses, dared to catch one of the incoming stones—only to have his hand cut open!

"Hiss!!!"

The Purple Thousand Jun Ant King, sent flying twice, let out an unwilling roar.

Its voice was loud, but it could not drown out Ye Qingcang's calm explanation.

"The first seven chapters of Stellar Martial Arts are complete."

"In theory, they can grant a practitioner of Stellar Martial Arts a speed of thirty-six meters per second and eighteen thousand kilograms—thirty-six thousand jin—of strength."

"But that is merely completion the first time."

"Before awakening my Martial Soul, before level ten, I cultivated the first seven chapters of Stellar Martial Arts to completion. That was my first completion. After awakening my Martial Soul and obtaining spirit rings, at level eleven, I cultivated Stellar Martial Arts again and reached completion once more. My foundation increased exponentially, doubling each time."

"I define this concept as sublimation."

"And from this comes the concept of repeated sublimation."

"Base: thirty-six meters per second, eighteen thousand kilograms of strength."

"First sublimation: seventy-two meters per second, thirty-six thousand kilograms of strength."

"Second sublimation: one hundred forty-four meters per second, seventy-two thousand kilograms of strength."

"Third sublimation: two hundred eighty-eight meters per second, one hundred forty-four thousand kilograms of strength."

"The speed of sound is approximately three hundred forty meters per second."

"The fourth sublimation can reach it."

"The strength of three Thousand Jun Ant Kings can reach around two hundred thousand jin—roughly one hundred thousand kilograms. Even if they attack together, one hundred forty-four thousand kilograms of strength is enough to crush one hundred thousand kilograms."

"That is why I recommend that every student cultivate Stellar Martial Arts as far as possible. Even if you do not seek those additional attributes and seek only strength, you should still lay a solid foundation for yourself, so that your second, third, fourth, and countless future sublimations can reach their theoretical limits."

"The sublimation gained from cultivating the Qi and Blood Chapter to completion is vastly different from the sublimation gained from completing all seven earlier chapters. After three sublimations, one can possess one hundred forty-four thousand kilograms of strength, nearly three hundred thousand jin. The other may have only several tens of thousands of jin."

"When your speed reaches a certain level."

"When your strength reaches a certain level."

"When your body can wield that speed and strength."

"Every punch and kick you throw will cause astonishing destruction through the most plain and simple attacks. If your speed reaches the speed of light, any charge built up with momentum would be no less devastating than an asteroid impact."

Yue Guan, Gui Mei, Dugu Bo, and the others did not understand what an asteroid impact was.

But they understood the numbers.

What did one hundred forty-four thousand kilograms of strength mean?

Dugu Bo's strength was only around ten thousand kilograms.

Yue Guan and Gui Mei were somewhat stronger.

But their strength did not exceed twenty thousand kilograms.

The Poseidon Trident, weighing one hundred eight thousand jin, could crush Bo Saixi, a rank ninety-nine Limit Douluo. This indicated that even a Limit Douluo possessed only around fifty-four thousand kilograms of strength, and at most would not exceed sixty thousand kilograms.

Of course, it depended on what each Soul Master specialized in.

Ye Qingcang had fought Tang Chen.

Tang Chen possessed one hundred thousand kilograms of strength.

If the Blood-Red Nine-Headed Bat King had not been fighting Tang Chen for control of his body, Tang Chen's Great Sumeru Hammer, empowered by Ring Detonation, truly could have killed Ye Qingcang with a single blow.

But in his normal state, he was still far inferior.

Not to mention that Ye Qingcang also had Magnetic Field Martial Arts.

If humans like Yue Guan and Gui Mei could understand these words, then the three Thousand Jun Ant Kings could understand them too. Though their understanding of strength was even poorer than Yue Guan's group—Yue Guan and the others at least knew how heavy one jin was, while they could not comprehend what one hundred forty-four thousand kilograms meant—that did not stop them from surrounding Ye Qingcang!

Surrounding this human whose strength was no weaker than theirs!

One against one and one against three were entirely different concepts.

This was not mathematics, where one minus one equaled zero and three minus one equaled two.

One against one, you might kill your opponent.

One against two, you might drag one down with you.

But one against three, you could not even take one down with you.

It was like fighting with bayonets on a battlefield.

You had one blade. They had three.

The target you stabbed needed only to focus on defending.

The task of killing you would be completed by the other two.

"And Magnetic Field Martial Arts, the middle chapter among Stellar Martial Arts' early, middle, and later chapters, draws its mysteries from commanding the power of heaven and earth..."

Surrounded by the three Thousand Jun Ant Kings, Ye Qingcang slowly closed his eyes!

He threw a punch forward!

A towering Snow Mountain came crashing toward him!

Fist Intent like an avalanche blasted the crimson Thousand Jun Ant King away. It tore through the air and crashed into weathered stone caverns, shattering three caverns each more than a hundred meters wide before its momentum finally ceased at the fourth cavern over five hundred meters away!

Then, he twisted his body one hundred eighty degrees!

If Xiao Wu was soft-boned, then what Ye Qingcang displayed now was bonelessness!

In a posture that defied human anatomy, he shifted from facing away from the purple and green Thousand Jun Ants to holding his lower body still while turning his upper body to face them. It was a posture that did not look human at all!

His fist became a palm!

One slap landed on the Purple Thousand Jun Ant's head!

One of its six enormous eyes exploded at once!

"Hiss..." The spectators, including the three Title Douluos Yue Guan, Gui Mei, and Dugu Bo, saw the Thousand Jun Ant King with one eye smashed apart and its body sent flying several hundred meters. Its misery required no elaborate description, yet all of them felt phantom pain rising in their own faces.

Dugu Bo in particular.

He immediately recalled the agonizing experience of being dragged along by Ye Qingcang more than half a month ago.

However, with the Purple Thousand Jun Ant King taking the blow, when Ye Qingcang's palm followed through toward the Green Thousand Jun Ant King, the one closest to one hundred thousand years old, that Thousand Jun Ant King opened its huge jaws and bit down on his hand!

Ant acid dripped onto Ye Qingcang's hand, burning white smoke from his protective aura!

But before Yue Guan's group could move to rescue him—before they could even cry out in alarm—they saw Ye Qingcang pull his hand free and shake it... flinging away both the ant acid and the protective aura contaminated by it. His palm was completely unharmed!

Then he re-coated it in protective aura and crushed one of that Thousand Jun Ant King's six eyes with a single finger!

Grabbing the empty socket, he twisted his waist and hauled the Thousand Jun Ant King back in front of him. Although its six outer legs carved six deep trenches across the ground, it could not withstand Ye Qingcang's one hundred forty-four thousand kilograms of strength!

Driven mad with pain!

Its six outer legs became like six spears!

It abandoned all defense and stabbed down at Ye Qingcang's body in a desperate, life-for-life attack!

They pierced his cloak, whose defenses were formidable!

They pierced the school uniform beneath it!

But they did not pierce Ye Qingcang's flesh!

It was like wooden knives stabbing into cowhide!

Six shallow dents could be seen, but they could not break through his defense!

Ye Qingcang raised his leg and savagely kicked its abdomen. Unlike the small sonic boom cloud from before, this kick contained all of his strength and technique. As it struck, an enormous ring-shaped sonic boom cloud spread outward!

Everyone's ears rang.

But even worse off was the Thousand Jun Ant King that had been kicked away.

A distinct shoeprint had appeared on its abdomen.

Even with a Thousand Jun Ant King's defenses, that kick had turned its internal organs upside down, leaving it gravely injured and scattering seventy percent of its strength.

Yet worse off than that Thousand Jun Ant King was the crimson Thousand Jun Ant.

Ye Qingcang had sent it flying with a single punch.

The whole person... the whole ant had not yet recovered from the avalanche-like Fist Intent when it was forced to catch a brother flying at subsonic speed.

The stack of ants was pressed down even harder.

This scene of brutality beyond human measure left Yue Guan and the others with extremely complicated expressions. Those who knew the truth could confirm that Ye Qingcang was human: in less than five seconds, he had smashed the eyes of two Thousand Jun Ant Kings and punched the third Thousand Jun Ant into doubting its life. Those who did not know better would have thought Ye Qingcang was the Thousand Jun Ant, sending three human-shaped Thousand Jun Ants flying with his fists in under five seconds!

What were Thousand Jun Ants known for?

Great strength!

Tough hides and thick armor!

What was Ye Qingcang known for?

Greater strength than Thousand Jun Ants!

Stronger defense than Thousand Jun Ants!

Therefore, Ye Qingcang's strength > Thousand Jun Ants' strength, and Ye Qingcang's defense > Thousand Jun Ants' defense. Conclusion: Ye Qingcang = a humanoid Thousand Jun Ant!

If they did not know Ye Qingcang was a God Trial Taker, Yue Guan and Gui Mei might even have suspected that he was a hundred-thousand-year Thousand Jun Ant Emperor in human form.

To slap around three ninety-thousand-year Thousand Jun Ant Kings like a father disciplining his sons—let alone in human history, even in the history of soul beasts or the plant world, it was surely unprecedented?

Others did not know you were a God Trial Taker.

But we do.

Yet even knowing that you are a God Trial Taker, we never expected this kind of God Trial Taker. Bibidong had not been this absurd at your age either. At rank forty, you were beating up three ninety-thousand-year Thousand Jun Ant Kings!

The most terrifying part was: you hadn't even summoned your Martial Soul!

What the fuck did that mean?

Were you planning to sweep the world with Stellar Martial Arts?

Now that you knew you were comparable to a Title Douluo, you could not even be bothered to keep pretending?

You had remained unknown before because you believed you were not strong enough to sweep the world?

And now that you thought you could, you were laying your cards on the table?

The question was, where did you get that confidence?

What made you think you could defeat a Title Douluo?

Yue Guan and Gui Mei exchanged a tacit glance, then tacitly looked at Dugu Bo, who was inexplicably relieved and did not seem to know what he was relieved about. They seemed to have found their answer.

And several hundred meters away, upon ground that looked as though it had been plowed by two tyrannosaurs, Ye Qingcang truly entered the state of Magnetic Field Martial Arts!

"Roar!!!"

"Clang!!!"

"Roar!!!"

"Bellow!!!"

Azure Dragon, Vermilion Bird, White Tiger, Black Tortoise.

The Four Symbols roared, the Four Spirits circling around him.

Tendons and bones resonated as yin and yang, the Eight Trigrams, and the Five Elements revolved.

Across a thousand li of land, dust surged in every direction.

His primordial spirit manifested and merged with his body, divine light filling his eyes and piercing toward the heavens.

His short hair grew to his shoulders, then to his waist.

His entire body was enveloped in shifting, multicolored divine radiance.

Even his voice changed slightly.

Every word and action seemed to embody the truth of heaven and earth.

"Magnetic Field Martial Arts: command heaven and earth."

"Unite with the heavens, merge with the earth, and stand within the world."

"Based on one's control over magnetic fields, one can transform oneself into the magnetic field within the range of that control. Beyond that, one can additionally wield spiritual power to command everything within the magnetic field."

"Metal, wood, water, fire, earth..."

"Light, darkness, wind, ice, lightning..."

"Gravity, buoyancy, attraction and repulsion..."

"Even space and time..."

"All fall under the wielder's command!"

"One's physical attributes can also receive corresponding enhancements!"

"Having completed three perfect sublimations, I have a speed of 288 meters per second and a strength of 144,000 kilograms. After Magnetic Field Martial Arts' second amplification, the current boost is fivefold. My speed can reach 1,440 meters per second, and my strength is 720,000 kilograms—equivalent to 1.44 million jin."

"And the upper limit of this enhancement will grow endlessly along with the wielder's control. I could even borrow the power of an entire continent, or even an entire planet, gathering it upon myself. Every strike would carry planet-busting force."

Ye Qingcang, moving at over Mach four per second, calmly explained his nearly invincible self in this world.

Behind him stood a group of wide-eyed, fervent people, including Yue Guan and the other Title Douluo.

Thanks to Jiang Bian Du Diao for the 100-point reward.