Volume 1 Chapter 28: A Second Match

  "Heaven-Shaking Palm."

  A low and muffled sound like a thunderclap burst forth, and on the hard black stone wall appeared a pair of shallow palm prints.

  Qin Hao pressed his hands against the wall, his small face flushed red, he gritted his teeth and roared from the bottom of his heart: "Break for me!"

  As his voice fell, the mysterious energy inside him rapidly flowed out from his Dantian, converged in the center of his palms, and burst forth like a wave.

  On the black stone wall, a "crackling" sound suddenly rang out, and then a force centered on Qin Hao's palms spread out in ripples on the black stone wall, forming a small circle. Wherever the ripples passed, fine cracks appeared.

  Qin Hao withdrew his palm, only to find that the center of his palm had already turned a bright red, and both arms were sending waves of soreness. However, the crack on the wall seemed not much more powerful than when he first started practicing the Heaven-Shaking Palm technique.

  Qin Hao's face suddenly showed a bitter smile.

  He has not been to the martial arts arena for four or five days. Since that night, after speaking with those eight young men, Qin Hao returned to his previous days of bitter practice, staying in the stone chamber to practice the "Shaking Heaven Palm" technique.

  As for the "Thousand Miles Royal Wind" technique, Qin Hao didn't fall behind at all. Although he was only a beginner in this technique, his incredibly rich martial arts experience from his past life made him no less proficient than those eight people.

  Now Qin Hao wants to practice his body method, even in this small room, he can perform and practice within a small range, no need to go to the martial arts arena.

  What really troubled him was still this "Overturning Heaven Palm", he had racked his brains, but still made little progress.

  A faint, creeping pain like ants gnawing spread throughout his body, reminding Qin Hao that he had overused his Xuan Qi, resulting in some damage to his meridians.

  Qin Hao took a leather pouch from beside the stone table, opened it and pulled out an exquisite crystal.

  With the crystal in his palm, Qin Hao's hand emitted a mysterious aura at the same time, and with a slight force, the outer shell of the Feng Xuan formation appeared with countless cracks, finally turning into powder and falling from Qin Hao's sleeve.

  As soon as the outer shell of the Fengxuan Formation disappeared, the energy mass inside appeared before Qin Hao's eyes.

  It was a cyan energy body with soft light, and in the blue light, there was a small point of deep blue light that was several shades deeper than the surrounding color, which was obviously the essence of the Bixi fruit.

  As soon as the energy body is exposed to the air, it rotates at a gentle speed. At the same time, the energy body gradually separates into thin strands of energy, which flow through the essence of the Bixi fruit and wash away its impurities, bringing with it a hint of the Bixi fruit's unique softness.

  The purified and gentle Xuanjing energy threads enveloped Qin Hao, slowly seeping into the various meridians of his body.

  As soon as the energy entered his body, Qin Hao felt a warm and gentle sensation, as if his entire body was immersed in soft sunlight, feeling comfortable and relaxed. Some of the sore meridians rose with a cool sensation, and the pain gradually disappeared, while the fatigue and weakness of the muscles were restored to their original strength. Meanwhile, some empty dantian in his body began to rotate rapidly, and at that moment, Qin Hao felt an unprecedented sense of fullness floating throughout his body and mind.

  As time passed, the color of that energy body also became weaker and weaker, its light growing increasingly dim.

  As Qin Hao finally exhaled a mouthful of turbid air, the energy light beam finally sank and extinguished, disappearing into thin air.

  After exercising his shoulders, Qin Hao felt that his body had recovered to its best state.

  "This peak-level Xuanxian formation is indeed useful. It's just that the consumption is too huge." Qin Hao's smile carried a hint of helplessness.

  The originally bulging beast skin pouch had shrunk somewhat, and the Sealing Mystical Array he had refined inside had also been consumed by more than half.

  One Peak Sealing Array, which Qin Ze and the others could use three times, but in Qin Hao's hands, it was barely enough to be used once. After all, the difference between the tenth-order Xuanqi and the eighth-order Xuanqi was not small. Moreover, Qin Hao practiced extreme martial skills, while those eight young men practiced ordinary physical skills.

  The difference between the flat stage and the extreme stage is that the extreme stage has already used the mysterious energy to the limit of martial arts, which is more damaging to the human body compared to the flat stage martial arts.

  He carefully placed the animal skin bag, Qin Hao pushed open the stone room door and walked out. Today was the day those eight kids challenged him, so he should go take a look at the outcome.

  He walked slowly and unhurriedly to the martial arts arena, but Qin Hao found that the arena was unexpectedly bustling with noise, and the crowd was in an uproar.

  All the young masters, except for Qin Yuxian and Qin Shan who were in closed-door training, attended. Except for the three elders, the eldest elder who usually handled family affairs with his father also attended.

  Qin Hao still found a place that was not eye-catching and stood alone, trying to keep himself unnoticed. However, what he didn't expect was that most of the people in the field had already noticed his arrival. Unlike last time, this time most people were expressionless, only secretly glancing at him with the corner of their eyes. Even the Great Elder and Third Elder cast deep, enigmatic gazes in his direction.

  The long wooden array in the center of the field has not been withdrawn and is still preserved. However, to avoid being affected, this time the sixteen people stood at the western corner of the martial arts arena.

  At this moment, the fight between the two sides has reached a white-hot level. Sixteen figures gathered in a small area, fists and legs flying everywhere, with dust occasionally rising, looking extremely intense.

  At this moment, Qin Ze and Qin Chao were moving around non-stop, although they were at a disadvantage against the average condensed Xuanwu tenth-order family guard members. However, unexpectedly, their situation didn't look too bad, and what made the onlookers from the Qin family even more puzzled was that these eight people were simultaneously using a set of seemingly non-Qin family mysterious body techniques and martial skills.

  Their strength is still somewhat insufficient, but their quick dodges, agile movements, and sense of timing seem to have improved significantly, no longer attacking randomly like last time.

  Their ingenious body techniques and martial skills allowed them to quickly dodge fatal blows time and again. In terms of martial prowess, Qin Ze and Qin Chao were worlds apart from the family guards, yet their agility repeatedly helped them turn the tide in times of crisis.

  A stalemate! With two forces of roughly equal strength, the situation on the field has become eerily deadlocked.

  Three members of the Family Guard launched a fierce attack directly at Qin Ze, but just as they were about to hit him, he narrowly dodged past them.

  A member of the family guard, with an impatient expression, launched a frenzied attack, fists, elbows, feet, and knees, exerting his entire body's energy to the limit, yet couldn't even graze the corner of someone else's clothes.

  The scene was full of astonishing scenes. Qin Ze and others, who were beaten to a pulp just a few days ago, could achieve this in just a few short days.

  Many people suddenly remembered Qin Hao's expression at that time, as well as his words.

  "How is this possible? In just a few days, how can Qin Ze and his team make such rapid progress?"

  "Could it be that the family guard intentionally let him off easy?"

  "Just look at it and you'll understand, with such a fierce offensive, how can they be letting up?"

  "This progress is terrifying. How did Qin Hao manage to do it?"

  "Even with the training of the three elders, they had never changed so much. What exactly did he do?"

  ……

  At this moment, the scene was filled with everyone's astonished voices. The three elders were even more staring intently at Qin Hao.

  Qin Hao was completely unaware of the situation, he just observed the movements of the eight Qin family juniors, without saying a word.

  He had them practice in the long wooden array for so many days, and apart from strengthening their control over "Thousand Mile Wind", what was even more important was that when they were in an environment of almost non-stop attacks, they would subconsciously think about how to cleverly bring out the greatest effect with limited true energy, rather than recklessly squandering it. What made him somewhat pleased was that his training seemed to be having an effect.

  As for those few elders who would ask about the origin of his physical skills and martial arts techniques, Qin Hao had long thought of a way to deal with them.

  "The Flame Control Technique my grandfather created, which I've been studying, seems to have some strange aspects. When I use it, a mysterious sensation appears in my mind, and the method of using this martial art technique emerges."

  This is Qin Hao's prepared speech to dispel the doubts of those people. As long as he drags in that legend about the Qin family, it will naturally reduce people's suspicions about him.

  The trial is still ongoing.

  As time passed, the overwhelming quality and quantity of Xuan Qi finally took effect. The prolonged fierce attack had only slowed them down slightly, but Qin Ze and his group were already showing signs of fatigue, their movements slowing as they dodged and weaved, seemingly exhausted.

  Even so, no one from the Qin family was eliminated. They continued to move, using their remaining strength to carefully dodge.

  The members of the Qin Ze family guard seemed increasingly impatient with Qin Ze's evasive movements, and as one of the eight men, who appeared to be the leader, stepped forward, a strong aura simultaneously emerged from all eight of them.

  At this time, the eight people's palms shone brightly with a mysterious aura, and then they uniformly assumed the same posture.

  "Three consecutive breaks of shattered gold." The team leader said.

  "Drink." The seven people behind him simultaneously shouted loudly. Eight figures shot out like arrows, rushing towards Qin Ze and the others.

  At this time, Qin Ze and the other eight people also moved. The eight of them took small steps around each other, their bodies seeming to become incredibly light in that instant.

  "Use your remaining strength." Qin Ze also shouted in unison.

  Eight people simultaneously stepped out numerous small steps quickly at the place where their feet were standing, and the standing position changed finely but frequently. At the same time, they also punched out to collide with the opponent coming face to face.

  Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

  After a series of collisions, more than a dozen figures flew out and fell to the ground, struggling to get up. Although both sides were physically strong, this fall was not something they could easily ignore.

  The only ones still standing in the arena were four men wearing white samurai costumes, who were obviously members of the family guard.

  Qin Hao smiled and quietly withdrew from the martial arts arena.

  It's enough to see this. With eight against eight, the eighth-order martial artist of Jingxuan can defeat half of the tenth-order martial artists of Jingxuan, which is already considered a very good performance.

  The gap is huge. Looking at the last comparison, Qin Ze and his team could only defeat one opponent, and their progress can already be seen from this result.

  If they were to be elevated to a realm where they could thoroughly defeat them, that would be a foolish dream.

  Qin Ze and the others have now roughly grasped the "Thousand Mile Wind Control", their shortcoming is that they are still immature in using the mysterious energy method, furthermore, for many years they have been infatuated with fierce and powerful martial techniques which has already become deeply ingrained, even though they have undergone Qin Hao's training and have made some changes, it is still difficult to completely erase the influence caused by this.

  The next thing can only rely on them themselves. And Qin Hao should also spend more time on his own martial arts now.

  Twenty days later, it will be the day when several big families compete. The ridicule Qin's family has suffered over the years should also be returned double-fold now. Thinking of this, Qin Hao felt a surge of fighting spirit in his heart.

  Just thinking about the difficulty of cultivating that "Heavenly Palm" martial skill, and the limited number of Sealing Mysteries Arrays in his hands, he suddenly felt a bit helpless again.

  "It seems I'll have to go to Tiān Nán Fāng multiple times." Qin Hao thought to himself.

  Been busy with exams recently, updates will be slow, sorry about that.