￥H""
The stone ball came without warning.
For a moment, a trace of surprise flashed across Lian Youming's face.
What the hell?
This man was restrained in body and spirit, his hands and feet locked down. Where had this force come from?
The stone ball was as large as a millstone. A hundred pounds was a conservative estimate of its weight.
Yet now it flew through the air toward him, hurled with effortless ease.
Looking again at the strange man, he saw that his waist had not moved. He had produced this terrifying strength with nothing more than a movement of his right foot.
Could there really be a method in this world that trained only the spirit?
With no time to think further, Lian Youming sprang backward, floating up like a light feather. Both hands pressed down into empty air, meeting the stone ball and drawing it into his embrace.
He swiftly planted his feet. Supporting the ball with both hands, he pivoted half a turn around his waist and hips. His clothes instantly swelled taut. Then he thrust his arms and turned his wrists, redirecting the stone ball's momentum and sending it back the way it had come.
The strange man sat upright in the iron chair, watching with his head lowered. Green light blazed in his eyes, and strange, hissing laughter came from his mouth. Beneath his tangled hair, his withered right hand slowly rose like a ghost's claw. The flesh and sinews of his skeletal right arm suddenly swelled in a way that defied reason, as though it had filled with blood and vitality. He caught the stone ball in midair, then pushed it out again an instant later.
Whoosh!
The hundred-pound stone ball flew toward him again, stirring up clouds of dust.
Lian Youming narrowed