Vajra Skill

"An expert!"

Xu Yang's scalp prickled, and every pore on his body clamped shut.

Although he had already been on his guard, he had never expected the man before him to be an expert-at least at the Qi Gathering level.

He had no idea whether this was a chance encounter or whether the man had been lying in ambush for him.

A fierce gust struck his face. The man's five fingers resembled eagle talons, his nails razor-sharp. If they caught his neck, they would likely gouge five bloody holes into it.

With not a moment to spare, the thick tendons throughout his body snapped taut, and his bones gave a series of sharp cracks.

Just as those five fingers were about to seize his neck, he thrust out a hand for the man to grab instead, avoiding having his throat pierced.

At the same time, he swung his other arm with savage force, like a bear king sweeping its paw. His muscles swelled as he drove a punch toward the man's armpit.

This was a move that would leave both sides injured. Even if the man pierced his hand, his punch would still shatter the man's ribs.

"Huh?"

Xu Yang quickly realized something was wrong.

Although the man struck as fast as lightning, stirring a fierce gust, his fingers carried little destructive force. The scene Xu Yang had imagined-his palm being pierced-never happened.

He felt only a slight pain in his palm before the man's strength gave out. It seemed less like an attempt to kill him than to capture him.

Bam!

Still, that did not make him pull his killing blow. He had yet to learn what the man actually wanted. Better to kill him first.

His fist slammed into the man's armpit, immediately followed by a crack.

The next instant, the man screamed as he flew backward.

What a tough body!

Xu Yang remained wary. Had that punch landed on an ordinary person, it would have killed them on the spot, pulverizing their internal organs. Yet this man could still scream.

It felt as though he had punched solid rock. Without the reinforcement of his true qi, the impact would have injured his own hand.

"Die!"

He did not stop there. Unleashing a Bear Pounce, he cracked the earth beneath his feet and shot after the man like lightning, throwing another punch.

True qi surged from his dantian like a rising tide, gathering relentlessly in his fist.

In the darkness, Xu Yang's fist seemed on the verge of shining as it tore through the air.

"Brother, this is a misunderstanding!"

The man flying backward shrieked, spewing great mouthfuls of blood, his face filled with utter horror.

Only then did Xu Yang notice that the man had already been injured. His robes were soaked in blood, with several palm imprints that looked as though they had been driven into his bones. A gash in his abdomen exposed torn, curled flesh.

He desperately raised both hands to block Xu Yang's punch, but he had hardly any strength left.

Crack!

Xu Yang's fist blasted through his arms and slammed into one of the palm imprints with the irresistible force of splitting bamboo. Blood sprayed out, exposing jagged white bone.

The man's eyes rolled back as he screamed and flew backward even faster.

Bam!

His body struck a large tree, finally halting his flight.

The trunk shook, and leaves came showering down with a rustle.

Xu Yang caught up. Even though the man was already drawing more breath in than he could let out, his body slumped against the tree like a puddle of mud, Xu Yang still raised his fist and struck again, aiming straight for the vulnerable throat.

Crack!

Bones snapped. Under the force of his punch, the man's neck twisted grotesquely, smashed clean through.

"Whew!"

Xu Yang let out a heavy breath. The man's eyes were wide open, seemingly holding a trace of bewilderment and unwillingness.

As he withdrew his fist, the corpse toppled over.

He probably mistook me for an ordinary person...

The man had already been gravely injured, his oil spent and his lamp guttering out. He had probably collapsed here unconscious. When Xu Yang happened along, he must have taken him for an ordinary person and tried to subdue him, never expecting him to be a martial artist too. That would explain his earlier cry of "misunderstanding."

Xu Yang did not know whether his guess was right. The man was already dead, so there was no way to verify it.

But he had certainly been an expert, at least at major attainment in Qi Gathering. If his true qi had not been exhausted and he had not been injured, Xu Yang would have been the one to fall.

Of course, if the man had not been injured, they probably would not have fought at all.

Crouching down, Xu Yang began searching the corpse. First, he found a money pouch filled with pieces of silver, seemingly eleven or twelve taels.

Not much, but not little either. It was equivalent to two months' allowance from the Liu household.

With his expenses exceeding his income, this silver mattered a great deal. He could maintain his progress in martial arts without having to skimp on food and clothing to train.

Continuing his search, he soon felt something hard sewn inside a trouser leg. It felt rather like a book.

Could it be a martial arts manual?

Xu Yang tore at it with both hands. With a ripping sound, a blue-covered book appeared before his eyes, bearing three bold, powerful characters: Vajra Skill.

It really is a martial arts manual!

His heart pounded wildly as he swept a wary gaze around him.

The man had been carrying something like this and had suffered grave injuries. Perhaps he had been hunted down over the manual and wounded this badly.

He quickly tucked the manual into his robes, then picked up the corpse and hurried toward the nearby mountains.

"I'm back!"

He pushed open the door to find little Xu Qing still practicing her writing beneath the oil lamp.

"Brother, why are you back so late today?" Xu Qing looked up.

"Something came up at the household today. It held me up."

As he spoke, he leaned closer to see what Xu Qing was writing.

"No looking!" The little girl hurriedly covered the things on the table with her hands.

"With handwriting that ugly, you're right to hide it."

Xu Yang laughed. The little girl's face turned bright red. Her ugly handwriting was indeed the reason she would not let him look.

After chatting with Xu Qing a little longer, he returned to his room and shut the door securely. By the light of the oil lamp, he took out the Vajra Skill manual and began reading.

"After ordinary people reach Qi Gathering, their true qi possesses no particular properties. Whether used to attack or temper the body, its effects are quite ordinary.

Vajra Skill is a method for cultivating vajra true qi, capable of converting ordinary true qi into vajra true qi. Once vajra true qi is formed, its purity increases greatly. Not only is its offensive power unmatched, but once driven into an opponent's body, it is difficult to expel. Its effectiveness in tempering the body also changes dramatically.

If the body is tempered with vajra true qi over many months and years, it can even become as hard as a vajra."

This was actually a body-protection cultivation method for developing vajra true qi.

No wonder he had felt that the man's body was abnormally hard. He had probably practiced this Vajra Skill too.

[Vajra Skill · Uninitiated (0/100)]

After he finished reading it once, a faint light flickered before his eyes, and the panel popped up.

Xu Yang was somewhat taken aback. The proficiency required to begin the Mountain-Shaking Bear Fist had apparently been only 10. This was ten times that.

Still, that makes sense!

He recalled the description in the book. Cultivating this kind of body-protection method had little to do with talent. It was mainly a matter of patient, grinding effort and unwavering perseverance over months and years.

The quality of one's talent had little effect on progress in the method.

The first step in cultivating Vajra Skill is to develop vajra true qi...

He had spent the entire day patrolling anyway and had barely trained, so he still had plenty of energy.

After hiding the Vajra Skill manual securely, Xu Yang closed his eyes and began practicing Vajra Skill for the first time.