Xiao Yan's Embarrassing Past

Once his physical strength and Dou Qi had mostly recovered, Xiao Yan began to fight back. But whether it was the long-range attacks of the Cloud-Discharging Palm or close-quarters combat with the Eight Extremes Collapse, neither could harm the giant bear in the slightest. Those Dou Techniques could only make it feel pain.

Of course, it was not that Xiao Yan truly could not break through the giant bear's defenses. If he used the Heavenly Flame, he could make the bear cry for its mother in minutes.

Xiao Yan was merely treating it as a sparring partner. With its thick hide and tough flesh, the giant bear made an excellent punching bag.

"It's a decent sparring partner, but there's no point if I'm just scratching it. I'm like some marksman who keeps firing but can't outdamage the enemy's recovery. Do I really have to use the Heavenly Flame? Wouldn't that be too pathetic?"

"Out of ideas already? You've mastered so many profound Dou Techniques, yet they all fail when it matters most." Just as Xiao Yan was at a loss, Medicine Elder's voice sounded in his heart.

"Why is that? Most of my Dou Techniques are high-level Profound Rank techniques. Logically, they should be able to break its defenses! Even if this black bear's defenses are impressive." Xiao Yan asked doubtfully.

"Hehe, that's because you've only grasped the surface of them. Take the Eight Extremes Collapse, for example. You've only mastered the eight layers of Manifest Force. But what about Hidden Force? If you mastered Hidden Force, would you still fear being unable to break this black bear's defenses?"

"That's right!"

Xiao Yan slapped his thigh, silently cursing himself for being stupid. Medicine Elder had told him long ago about the Hidden Force of the Eight Extremes Collapse, but Xiao Yan had never had the opportunity to study it. Wasn't now the perfect time?

Thus, Xiao Yan fought the giant bear while studying the Hidden Force of the Eight Extremes Collapse.

Once Xiao Yan had more or less figured out the Hidden Force of the Eight Extremes Collapse, he threw another vicious punch at the black bear.

Facing Xiao Yan's fist, the black bear revealed a humanlike trace of disdain. His previous attacks had only caused it a little pain. Its thick hide and tough flesh made it fearless of any attack from Xiao Yan. However, this time, it was wrong. The spot struck by Xiao Yan first stung, then with a bang, it suddenly exploded. It was as though a grenade had detonated inside its body, blasting the injured area into a bloody mess and making it howl in agony.

Seeing that his attack had worked, Xiao Yan pressed his advantage. Whether with elbow strikes or punches, every blow that landed on the black bear's body tore away a chunk of flesh.

Finally, after another one of Xiao Yan's attacks, the black bear could no longer endure the pain and turned to flee.

Seeing the black bear run, Xiao Yan smiled faintly and crossed his hands. A powerful suction force formed in his palms, causing the giant bear to skid constantly across the ground. No matter how hard its four massive paws pushed, it could not move forward even an inch.

Not only that, blood poured from the black bear's wounds as though it cost nothing, a terrifying sight to behold. Before long, all the blood in its body had drained away. Having lost its blood, the black bear lost all strength and was pulled backward through the air toward Xiao Yan.

Seizing the opportunity, Xiao Yan did not care whether the black bear was dead or alive. He rushed forward and attacked again. Xiao Yan's fists were like blades, each punch stripping more than ten pounds of flesh from the black bear. Even with its enormous body, the black bear could not withstand such an assault, and it soon visibly shrank.

After beating it for quite some time without getting any response, Xiao Yan realized that it was truly dead. At last, he collapsed onto the ground, panting heavily.

"Yo! Not bad! You killed five magical beasts today, and this one was even close to the second tier." Medicine Elder flew out from the ring on Xiao Yan's hand and spoke approvingly.

"Still talking? I almost died! Since coming to the Warcraft Mountains, I've faced more than a dozen waves of magical beast attacks in only half a month. Every wave had at least three beasts, and the key is that these magical beasts had clearly gathered together temporarily, yet they kept chasing me like I had something good on me! I'm guessing that was your doing, Teacher?" Xiao Yan rolled his eyes and said flatly.

"Hehe, I didn't expect you to notice! I thought it would take you a while longer to figure it out." Medicine Elder said with a smile.

"I know you want to train me, but isn't this too much? Without the black greatsword, I can only barely handle two or three first-tier magical beasts. With the black greatsword on my back, both my Dou Qi and physical strength are suppressed, and I can only use half my strength. Facing five magical beasts at once is really too much! This time was already considered lucky. Last time, a snake-like magical beast wrapped around me, forcing me to face the combined attack of five magical beasts at once. Luckily, the Heavenly Flame helped me. Otherwise, I really would have nearly died that time." Xiao Yan complained.

"But aren't you perfectly fine now? What were you like when you first came to the Warcraft Mountains? Don't you know that yourself?" Medicine Elder teased.

Thinking of what had happened after entering the Warcraft Mountains, Xiao Yan's face reddened slightly. Back then, he had been high-spirited and believed himself invincible.

But Xiao Yan was quickly brought back down to earth after unexpectedly encountering a male lion. The lion stood even taller than Xiao Yan, its entire body covered in thick golden mane, its eyes gleaming with dangerous light. It looked extremely ferocious. At the time, it was tearing apart the corpse of a bull-like magical beast, ripping off chunks of flesh and swallowing them in huge mouthfuls.

Since it was Xiao Yan's first time encountering a magical beast, he could not help feeling terrified at the sight of its ferocity. In his previous life, he had kept far away even from Tibetan mastiffs, afraid their chains might not be strong enough. Besides, weren't there plenty of cases of dogs breaking iron chains and hurting people? This lion was far more vicious than a Tibetan mastiff. The little flesh on Xiao Yan's body probably was not even enough to fill the gaps between its teeth.

While the lion was eating, Xiao Yan hurriedly slipped away.

"Novels really mislead people! They all say that when a protagonist goes out to train, killing magical beasts is as easy as killing chickens, and there's nothing to fear! All I can say is that novels are lies. With magical beasts looking this vicious, who would dare fight one?"

Unfortunately, although Xiao Yan had been extremely careful, the vicious magical beast still noticed him. Its two eyes stared fixedly at Xiao Yan.

When Xiao Yan saw the male lion's bell-sized eyes locked onto him, he no longer dared delay. He turned and ran. Seeing Xiao Yan flee, the male lion no longer cared about eating. It let out a roar and swiftly chased after him.

While fleeing, Xiao Yan turned to glance behind him. That single look nearly scared him to death. At some point, the male lion had already reached his back, opening its enormous jaws to bite Xiao Yan's neck. When Xiao Yan turned around, he looked directly into the lion's mouth.

The thick stench of blood from the lion's mouth rushed straight into Xiao Yan's nose and mouth, making him nauseous. Terrified out of his wits, Xiao Yan immediately crouched down and dodged the fatal bite. However, the lion's claws still caught his back. A sharp pain surged through him, and Xiao Yan could not help sucking in a cold breath.

When he reached back to touch his back, he accidentally touched the wound. Xiao Yan immediately felt a burst of searing pain. The lion's sharp claws had torn several deep gashes across his back, and blood flowed freely.

Seeing the blood on his hand, Xiao Yan's gaze gradually became fierce as he overcame the fear in his heart. After all, this was a fight to the death. Fear was useless; fear would only make him die faster.

Xiao Yan first used the Cloud-Discharging Palm to knock the male lion back. Taking advantage of its retreat, he instantly closed in and unleashed every Dou Technique he had learned in one go.

As the saying went, a flurry of blows could kill even an old master. Though the male lion was large, it was ultimately only a low-level first-tier magical beast and was no match for Xiao Yan. Under Xiao Yan's desperate all-out assault, it quickly died. It was only after Medicine Elder reminded him that Xiao Yan realized he had beaten the lion to death long ago.

Although the male lion had been killed, Medicine Elder laughed at Xiao Yan for quite a while. After all, Xiao Yan had previously bragged about how powerful he was, claiming that even two or three magical beasts would be no problem. Yet a single magical beast had nearly turned Xiao Yan into excrement.

Xiao Yan's face had flushed red with embarrassment as well. Though he had killed the first-tier magical beast, he had also suffered quite a few injuries. It was truly humiliating beyond measure.

This incident had always been Xiao Yan's embarrassing past, and Medicine Elder had mocked him for it countless times. But then again, he had only been scared at the time. Who wouldn't be scared the first time? Did Medicine Elder have to keep bringing it up?

"Hmph! You're still talking about that? Didn't you say my body's toughness was comparable to that of a magical beast now? But it doesn't feel like much. It seems pretty useless!" Xiao Yan pointed to the wound on his back left by the magical beast's claws and questioned him.

"Do you know how powerful magical beasts truly are? If your body weren't tough enough, you would have been torn apart by magical beasts countless times already. You only suffered superficial injuries, and you're still not satisfied?" Medicine Elder said disdainfully.

"Can my body's toughness improve a little more, so I can truly fight magical beasts in close combat?" Xiao Yan asked awkwardly.

In truth, Xiao Yan also knew that Medicine Elder was right. With his current strength as a Two-Star Dou Zhe, if his body were not tough enough, a single claw strike from a magical beast would probably have killed him.