With the martial world caught in a gathering storm, Lu Chen decided to lie low rather than go out stirring up more trouble.
He secluded himself in his little courtyard in Gaolin County and cultivated in peace.
At dawn, he practiced the Flying Dragon Art.
In the afternoon, he practiced the Heavenly Terrace Demon-Subduing Fist.
At night, he painstakingly cultivated the Gold-Thread Jade Vestment Technique.
Crate after crate of exotic beast meat was delivered to the courtyard.
Bottle after bottle of Metal Essence Pills and Origin-Restoring Pills was consumed.
Lu Chen grew stronger every day.
The courtyard's bluestone paving was already covered in densely packed footprints, some an inch deep-marks left by the explosive footwork of the Flying Dragon Art.
Whenever Lu Chen practiced the Flying Dragon Art, the muscles and tendons in his legs tightened like bowstrings, while his qi and blood surged through his leg bones and meridians like little dragons coiling and roaming.
At first, his legs ached, swelled, and stung after every session. He needed exotic beast meat to replenish his reserves and medicinal decoctions to ease the pain.
Later, that stinging pain gradually turned into heaviness.
Later still, even the heaviness disappeared.
In its place came an unprecedented lightness and explosive power.
One morning.
Lu Chen stood in the courtyard and shifted his feet slightly.
The next instant, he vanished from where he stood.
This was not the nimble Golden Ape Leap, but a far more overpowering, swifter burst of leaping force.
Like a dragon rising from the abyss.
Boom!
He stamped one foot onto the courtyard's bluestone paving and swept across half the courtyard. Upon landing, he borrowed the force to change direction and leaped straight onto the wall.
His robes snapped in the wind.
His qi and blood surged like a dragon.
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