Mount Hua's Sword Saint

"Did you put concealed fasteners in the sleeves here? I feel like my arms and chest still have plenty of room to grow."

After inspecting the finished Black Iron Armor, Tian Hao looked down at his considerably thicker arms and felt that they could still grow quite a bit.

Indeed, he had already cultivated internal force from the outside in, then used it as the foundation to practice the Demon Ape Skill obtained from the Desert North Duo.

Although his meridians had not yet been expanded and remained very narrow, that merely meant they could not support him well in combat. They posed little problem for ordinary cultivation, since he only had a tiny amount of internal force anyway.

Moreover, this internal force, cultivated from the outside in, had fused with the little trace of innate qi in his body, giving it extraordinary effects.

Cultivating the Demon Ape Skill yielded twice the results for half the effort. Combined with three basins of Eight-Treasure Precious Soup every day, it had taken him just one month to reach minor achievement.

His arms were now thick enough to rival his little senior sister Yue Lingshan's thighs. Every muscle on his body stood out in sharp definition, giving him the full Hong Kong comic style look.

Still, he was not satisfied. It would only be perfect once his arms were at least as thick as his own thighs.

Besides that, the Demon Ape Skill strongly stimulated the growth of the muscles and bones in his chest and abdomen. His cup size had already far surpassed his little senior sister's; across the entire Mount Hua Sect, probably only his master's wife, Ning Zhongze, could compete with him.

"It's all been made to your specifications. It can be expanded whenever needed."

Watching Tian Hao's increasingly thick arms, Wu Buyi's expression grew increasingly strange.

Not only did this unexpected martial nephew look wrong for a martial artist, he was starting to look wrong for a human being, too. He was developing into something inhuman.

Still, there was no denying how remarkable the Demon Ape Skill was. Bigger, thicker arms clearly brought a substantial increase in strength, improving one's combat prowess considerably.

Should I give it a try as well?

Wu Buyi felt tempted.

He had lost an arm during the Sword-Qi Conflict years ago, severely diminishing his combat strength. Even after cultivating the Primal Chaos Skill to major achievement, he still fell somewhat short.

Bulking up his remaining arm could substantially improve his strength and would also benefit both his Primordial Chaos Palm and his swordsmanship.

"Sorry for the trouble, martial uncle, but please put this armor in the furnace to heat it up. Add a little more quenching solution to the vat, too, and give the armor some color."

Seeing that the furnace was still burning, Tian Hao handed over the armor.

As the saying went, wealth should never be flaunted. Black iron's color was too distinctive, so it needed to be colored through quenching with a specially prepared solution.

After the martial uncles finished polishing their black iron swords, they had all used this method to color them. The color could not even be washed off.

While waiting for the quenching to finish, Tian Hao gathered several odd objects made from meteoric iron, packed them into a black iron chest, and secured it with a mechanical lock.

These were the key to producing pure oxygen. Their secret could not be allowed to leak.

That was not all. More than twenty martial uncles had already worked together to open a shaft dozens of yards deep.

The shaft was not intended for drawing water. It had been dug specifically to seal away these tools for producing pure oxygen.

This would be the Mount Hua Sect's greatest secret.

They lowered the chest with a rope, then the martial uncles descended one after another, activating mechanism after mechanism to seal the shaft layer by layer.

Even that was not enough. They diverted clean water into it, sealing it off completely.

They had even placed several kinds of acid inside the black iron chest as a final safeguard. If anyone forcibly broke it open, the acids stored inside would leak out one after another and corrode the equipment used to produce oxygen.

After those acids acted on it in succession, even Daoist experts skilled in alchemy would probably be unable to work out what the contents had originally been.

"What exactly is in there?"

Seeing how solemn all her martial uncles were, Yue Lingshan asked in puzzlement.

She knew those things could produce a gas that increased the temperature of flames, but she did not know what they actually were.

"Children shouldn't ask so many questions!"

Tian Hao pushed the pretty face poking in front of him aside. He had no intention of revealing the secret.

Actually, there was nothing much to it once explained. What he used to produce oxygen was copper-or, more precisely, copper oxide.

When heated in air, copper reacted with oxygen to form copper oxide. When heated to a certain temperature in an oxygen-deprived environment, it released its oxygen atoms again, forming oxygen gas.

Back when he attended school in his previous life, his chemistry teacher had demonstrated an experiment that produced oxygen from copper oxide.

It was through this principle that he had produced pure oxygen, collecting and storing it in cowhide bags. He had pushed Oxy-Fuel Combustion to its absolute limit, creating flames at three thousand degrees.

"Fine, don't tell me! Who cares?"

Yue Lingshan puffed out her cheeks in displeasure. Though intensely curious, she had enough sense not to ask again. Still, she was thoroughly annoyed with him.

I'm your senior sister, you know!

In that short time, the Black Iron Armor had finished being quenched and colored in the special liquid.

The Black Iron Armor, originally dark with a reddish sheen, had turned a dull gray. It looked utterly unremarkable, much like the meteoric iron from before.

Tian Hao swiftly put on the Black Iron Armor and performed a sequence of the Embrace Origin Force Fist Technique, feeling immensely satisfied.

Although the three-hundred-catty Black Iron Armor did severely hamper his movement speed, speed had never been his style in the first place.

His legs were short anyway. Losing a little more speed would not make much difference.

Besides, compared with that tiny bit of speed, keeping himself alive was far more important.

"Martial Uncle Wu, did something happen?"

Suddenly noticing that Wu Buyi's expression was off, Tian Hao realized there might be trouble.

"Many people in black infiltrated Mount Hua the day before yesterday. Yesterday, Feng Qingyang appeared and fought Dongfang Bubai to a draw.

"The sect leader went to Reflection Cliff earlier to bring Martial Nephew Linghu Chong back. But judging by the time, all three of them should have returned long ago."

After a brief silence, Wu Buyi spoke with worry on his face. He suspected that Yue Buqun might have encountered members of the Demon Cult, or even Dongfang Bubai herself.

They were still hesitating over whether to reveal themselves and go out to help. Doing so would inevitably expose them. Never mind their upcoming trip to Putian Shaolin Temple-the other factions alone would make life difficult for the Mount Hua Sect.

No one wanted to see a powerful Mount Hua Sect!

"Martial Uncle Wu, keep yourselves hidden, and watch my little senior sister while you're at it. Don't let her go out and make trouble. I'll go help Master and his wife."

Hanging the reforged Black Iron Greatsword on his back, Tian Hao left those instructions, grabbed his outer robe, pulled it on, and raced outside.

"You rotten rat! You're looking down on me!"

Furious, Yue Lingshan tried to chase after him, but Wu Buyi stopped her.

He could let Tian Hao go. With that suit of Black Iron Armor protecting him, even Dongfang Bubai would have to expend some effort to kill him.

Moreover, whenever they had time lately, they had sparred with Tian Hao to improve his practical combat experience. They knew his strength very well.

As long as he did not directly face Dongfang Bubai, other Houtian Realm experts would find it difficult to kill him.

Yue Lingshan was another matter. The girl had not even ground an edge onto her own black iron sword yet!

Tian Hao ran out of the long tunnel and saw daylight again. With a thought, he summoned the Heaven-Defying Mirror.

Throughout this time, he had never forgotten to explore his golden finger, and he had actually discovered a new function.

Whenever he wished, he could turn the Heaven-Defying Mirror into a radar that displayed the locations of his master's wife, his little senior sister, and Aunt Dongfang.

The result he saw, however, left him somewhat bewildered.

One red dot sat right in the center, representing Yue Lingshan nearby, but the other two red dots were right next to each other.

That meant his master's wife was with Aunt Dongfang. They might even have come to blows.

His expression changed, and he picked up speed.

Meanwhile, Tian Hao raced onward, reaching his destination in just a quarter of an hour.

Before he could draw close, waves of battle cries reached him.

Without further hesitation, he pulled the Chainmail Scale Armor's hood over his head and secured its fasteners, leaving only his eyes exposed.

He drew the Black Iron Greatsword from his back and charged forward with its blade trailing behind him. Soon, he saw his master, his master's wife, and Linghu Chong fighting a group of people in black. Corpses littered the ground around them, while many more black-clad figures missing arms or legs lay farther out-clearly the handiwork of Old Yue and his wife.

But that was not the main point. The main point was in the lake beside them.

Two figures stood upon the waves. One had snow-white hair and beard; the other wore a refined iron mask.

One look at that figure told him it had to be Aunt Dongfang. The old man facing her could only be Feng Qingyang.

Those two really had faced off!