Chapter 203: The Birth Of The Second Extraordinary Martial Art
City of Light Chasing, suburbs, White Feather Shop.
In the not-so-large training room on the top floor, more than twenty martial artists whose qi and blood filled the air and were on the verge of becoming tangible gathered together. The dense qi and blood in the room made Mans, who had just been promoted to a Beginner Martial Artist, feel a strong sense of oppression.
“Gang Leader, these people are…?” Mans looked at the martial artists in the room, all wearing black cloaks and masks that completely concealed their faces, and was full of astonishment.
Although these martial artists hid their appearances, judging from their qi and blood, even the weakest among them were likely Intermediate Martial Artists, and the stronger ones might even surpass the intermediate level.
With more than twenty martial artists of this level gathered together, wiping out the White Feather Gang, which currently had only eight martial artists, would be no problem at all.
“Mans, you are here. Just in time, I will introduce you.” Isaac looked at Mans, who had walked into the room, and said with a smile, “These are rogues who have lived in the City of Light Chasing for many years. Because Obsidian Martial Arts Hall is crazily clearing out rogues in the city, their business can no longer be done properly, so they plan to cooperate with us.”
“All of them are going to cooperate with us?” Mans swept his gaze over the more than twenty rogues present, his initial astonishment turning into shock.
No one knew exactly how many rogues there were in the City of Light Chasing, but it was clear their number definitely exceeded one hundred thousand, and among them there were likely several who had reached the level of Martial Artist.
But judging from the current situation, the previous estimates of the rogues’ strength were completely and utterly wrong.
More than twenty rogues at intermediate or above, even compared with the forces publicly ranked in the top two in the suburbs, outclassed them by a huge margin.
“Exactly.” Isaac smiled. “Didn’t that Obsidian Martial Arts Hall say they wanted to establish a town in Crimson Moon Mountain? When the time comes, we will go together to support Obsidian Martial Arts Hall.”
“Gang Leader! That Lin Qi is a Bone Forging Realm Expert. Even if we all go together, I am afraid we are not enough for him alone to kill.” At this, Mans became anxious.
Now everyone in the City of Light Chasing knew that Lin Qi, the Hall Master of Obsidian Martial Arts Hall, was a Bone Forging Realm Expert. The various suburban factions were scrambling to curry favor with him; if a bunch of Viscera Refining Realm Martial Artists went to cause trouble, that would be pure suicide.
“We indeed are not enough for one Bone Forging Realm to kill.” Isaac looked at Mans, smiled, and spoke with strong approval. “But this time Obsidian Martial Arts Hall is overreaching. Do they think a town is so easy to establish? If with just the status of a Bone Forging Realm and a Small Energy Vein they could casually build a town in the wilderness, if it were that easy, who knows how many towns would already exist in the wilderness.”
Every city was built on top of a Large Energy Vein. With such a vein, it was not difficult to create some Small Energy Veins. Almost all factions’ senior officials in the city understood this.
Yet the number of wilderness towns had neither increased nor decreased for decades. Even if a town was destroyed by a minor Monster Tide, it would only be rebuilt on the original site.
The reason for this was something all the major powers entrenched in the cities for decades understood well: it was a form of balance and tacit agreement between cities.
Now Obsidian Martial Arts Hall wanted to build a new town. It might seem a small matter to a Bone Forging Realm expert, but in fact it was a major event that could alarm all the cities.
Especially now, when monster activity in the wilderness was extremely intense and their numbers had increased dramatically compared to before. Every wilderness town now could bring far greater profit and influence than in the past. The major cities would definitely not sit idly by. Wanxing City, the city closest to Crimson Moon Mountain, even if it did not directly kill Lin Qi the Bone Forging Realm Martial Artist, would deliver a strong warning to Obsidian Martial Arts Hall, such as continuously sending people to harass the construction of Chiyue Town so that the town could not be established at all.
“Gang Leader, you mean to secretly assist Wanxing City in dealing with people from Obsidian Martial Arts Hall in the wilderness?” After hearing this, Mans instantly understood what Isaac meant.
“Exactly. You are very familiar with the situation of Obsidian Martial Arts Hall and with Crimson Moon Mountain. I will leave this entirely in your hands.” Isaac nodded. “Next, I have to rush to break through to Intermediate Level as soon as possible, to raise my ranking within the Red Moon Merchant Guild.”
“Gang Leader, don’t worry. I guarantee that those people from Obsidian Martial Arts Hall in the wilderness will never return once they go out.” Mans promised excitedly.
More than twenty martial artists above intermediate level, plus several martial artists from their White Feather Gang, combined with the large number of their people in the wilderness and the wilderness intelligence they brought, even if Wanxing City did not send people to sabotage the construction of Chiyue Town, he was confident he could force Obsidian Martial Arts Hall to withdraw from Crimson Moon Mountain.
No matter how strong a Bone Forging Realm Expert was, he was only one person. The wilderness was vast. To build Chiyue Town, Obsidian Martial Arts Hall would definitely send a large number of people back and forth between the city and the new town. The opportunities to strike would be endless. And unlike in the city, there were no restrictions in the wilderness. They could freely kill the martial artists of Obsidian Martial Arts Hall and greatly weaken it.
Once enough martial artists from Obsidian Martial Arts Hall died, Lin Qi alone as a Bone Forging Realm Martial Artist would be unable to accomplish anything.
While the White Feather Gang was making their plans, all the major factions in the City of Light Chasing were also shocked by the bold move of Obsidian Martial Arts Hall. They had not expected that right after taking the territories of the Four Major Powers in the suburbs, the hall was already planning to establish a town in the wilderness.
Moreover, this town would be built in Crimson Moon Mountain, which was less than three hundred kilometers from Wanxing City. This was practically a move to seize territory from Wanxing City. Wanxing City would definitely not tolerate such a thing.
The many factions in the City of Light Chasing were tense and astonished, but the wilderness vagrants who had come to the city for transactions were all in a state of carnival-like excitement.
“That Obsidian Martial Arts Hall, backed by a Bone Forging Realm Martial Artist, is going to establish Chiyue Town?”
“I have been to Crimson Moon Mountain. That place is excellent. Many vagrants around there already go there to sell their gains from the wilderness. Right now, the stalls in Crimson Moon Mountain already exceed five thousand. If it is built into a town where people can live, it definitely will not be much worse than living in the suburbs of the City of Light Chasing.”
“Comparable to living in the suburbs of the City of Light Chasing? I wonder what Obsidian Martial Arts Hall’s recruitment conditions are. Do Intermediate Apprentices have a chance to join?”
……
For a time, the unregistered nomads who came to the major markets in the suburbs to sell items all began talking about Obsidian Martial Arts Hall, and they were full of longing for the Chiyue Town it planned to build.
In the past, when there were not many monsters in the wilderness, it was relatively safe for people to live out there. After all, many safe points had been discovered after years of exploration. As long as they stayed and rested at these safe points, it was generally fine, and it was easier to explore the wilderness and plant Blood Essence Rice. They could also occasionally dig up ores and plants that wilderness gangs did not care about and sell them, living no worse than people in the city’s Abandoned Area.
Many unregistered nomads were willing to live in the Abandoned Area simply because they had a job in the suburbs that provided stable monthly income, or they could pick up odd jobs to earn a living steadily.
But now, with the number of monsters in the wilderness skyrocketing, many of the original safe points had become unsafe. The limited space in the Abandoned Area was utterly insufficient to accommodate and sustain the large number of unregistered nomads. If they lived too far from the Abandoned Area, they would be within monster activity ranges. This situation had driven many unregistered nomads to anxiety and desperation.
Many Abandoned Areas were now seeing races fighting other races over territory. Some weaker races had even been driven out, leaving only the originally stronger races with enough space in the Abandoned Area to survive.
And now, Crimson Moon Mountain, just over a hundred kilometers from the City of Light Chasing, was going to become a town. As long as one could join Obsidian Martial Arts Hall, they could move in with their family for free. How could this not make the unregistered nomads excited, thrilled, and ecstatic?
It was not until dawn the next day.
In front of Obsidian Martial Arts Hall in the Abandoned Area, a massive crowd had formed, completely filling the entire Human Race Abandoned Area. More than ninety percent of the unregistered nomads who came were hoping to join Obsidian Martial Arts Hall. Less than ten percent were there to seize the opportunity to do some trade. The vast Human Race Abandoned Area had become even livelier than the suburban markets.
“The increase in numbers is really insane. In just one night, it has risen to ten thousand. If we had not taken the territories of those Four Major Powers, these people would have nowhere to be housed.” Lin Qi glanced at the hall’s roulette wheel, which had gained seven more draw chances, and could not help but be shocked by the recruitment effect brought about by the town.
Just as Lin Qi was preparing to spin once in the morning to test his luck, a system prompt suddenly sounded in his ears.
System: Player Lu Fanchen has created the eighth martial skill. Congratulations to the Host. The Advanced Hidden Task “Path to the Extraordinary” has completed two Extraordinary Martial Skills. One more Extraordinary Martial Skill is needed to complete the task.
“What is going on? Wasn’t Lu Fanchen collecting Molten Crystals underground?” Lin Qi stared at the system prompt in surprise, completely unable to understand how collecting some Molten Crystals underground could lead to creating an Extraordinary Martial Skill.
Meanwhile, in a metallic hall deep under the martial hall.
“I hurt him! I finally hurt him!”
Covered in blood, with one arm completely carbonized, Lu Fanchen stared at the tall human male figure before him, three meters tall and covered with multiple cracks. Even though Lu Fanchen’s own aura was on the verge of disappearing, his eyes burned with unprecedented fire. His excitement was beyond words.
“It is incredible! Fanchen actually recreated that move!” At the entrance, Lin Xinyao stared wide-eyed at the nearly dead Lu Fanchen, looking at him as if he were a monster.
“No wonder they are recognized in Pilgrimage as the two greatest geniuses.” Li Tianxing looked at Lu Fanchen, his fists involuntarily clenching.
In the virtual game Pilgrimage, every time players advanced by one stage, they would master an Ultimate Skill. When Lu Fanchen became a Saint, he mastered an Ultimate Skill called Heaven Shaking Spear.
With one spear, heaven and earth perish.
This move was about using one’s true qi to compress air to the extreme and erupt it at a single point. One thrust of the spear could shake heaven and earth.
In High Martial Arts Descend, Lu Fanchen had also been attempting to recreate this move, since this world also had something like internal force.
But using internal force to frantically compress air here was far more difficult than in Pilgrimage.
However, Lu Fanchen also discovered ways to enhance compression: Mental Secret Techniques and the Stellar Explosion Meditation Technique, especially the Stellar Explosion Meditation Technique, which gave him great inspiration.
After so many days of continuous training and improvement in battles against the mechanical man, his control over his body had become increasingly precise. With the Stellar Explosion Meditation Technique going from over 30% entry-level to 5% proficient, Lu Fanchen felt his spirit had undergone a qualitative change.
Both his control of internal force and his perception had greatly improved.
Because of this, even knowing that he absolutely was not a match for the mechanical man before him, even if he reached Microscopic level, Lu Fanchen decided to attempt to recreate Heaven Shaking Spear.
However, this recreation could not yet use a spear. After all, internal force weakened greatly once it left the body, and only through both hands could he better control it, continuously compressing air and condensing it to a point.
He compressed the air to the extreme in his palm, then clenched his fist to stabilize that point of compressed air, infused fire energy into it, and punched out.
He had not expected it to actually work.
With one punch, heaven and earth perish.
This punch could indeed be called Heaven Shaking Fist.
With just a single punch, Lu Fanchen, still only a Quasi-Martial Artist, not only blasted back the mechanical man who was already at Martial Artist level from a distance, but everything in front of him was washed by a terrifying shockwave. The surrounding stones turned to powder, and the surging flames roared forward like a dragon, burning the ground scarlet for a hundred meters ahead. Cracks appeared all over the hard rock walls.
Of course, this punch only managed to injure the mechanical man, whose cracks were visibly healing at a speed the naked eye could see.
“Too bad my Stellar Explosion Meditation Technique is only at 93% entry-level. Otherwise I would love to try that move.” Lin Xinyao recalled the scene just now, with the entire metallic hall shaking and a dragon of fire descending. It was ridiculously cool. On a battlefield, such a blow would surely shock everyone like a missile strike.
“Hurry! Take the Molten Crystals!” Looking at the mechanical man repairing itself, Lu Fanchen called out to Lin Xinyao and Li Tianxing, then collapsed to the ground and died.
Although he successfully unleashed Heaven Shaking Fist, the backlash of that power was immense. On the surface it looked as if only one of his arms had turned completely carbonized, but in reality his entire body was nearly cooked through, held together only by one last breath.
Hearing him, Lin Xinyao and Li Tianxing immediately acted according to plan. They had long memorized the positions of the Molten Crystals they had scouted during their battles over the past days. Both were Quasi-Martial Artists, and their speed was astonishing.
They stepped up and unleashed one perfect Crushing Stone Fist after another. The ground exploded as if it had been bombarded.
Piles of faint red crystals flew out, numbering in the hundreds. The two then used large hands of condensed internal force to grab them all together and threw the entirety into the prepared Large Storage Box. The whole process flowed like clouds and water.
“Damn! The mechanical man is fully repaired. Let’s go!” Seeing the mechanical man recover in less than five seconds, Li Tianxing was shocked and hurriedly urged.
“I am done here too! Let’s go!” Lin Xinyao hoisted the large storage box onto her back and, before she even finished speaking, stepped into Leopard Shadow Steps, leaving only an afterimage as she vanished from the metallic hall.
Seeing this, Li Tianxing also used Treading Air Steps, sprinting away with the large storage box.
The two finally managed to escape the passage just as the mechanical man fully recovered, and they ran along the passage directly toward the martial hall, not daring to waste even a second.
They had fully experienced the mechanical man’s power over these days. Even ignoring the fixed one-level advantage it always had over them, they were no match for it even at the same level. Its Microscopic-level control was far stronger than Qin Mu’s in the Game Test Assessment. The transformation between absolute stillness and explosive motion was seamless.
In one instant, its greatsword moved like thunder; in the next, it was immovable as a mountain. Any attempt to predict its attacks would be wrong. It was truly as unfathomable as shadow, while Qin Mu’s Microscopic-level body control was only precision like a machine. The difference between them was enormous.
Because of this, they gave up on defeating the mechanical man directly and instead turned to destruction, a strategy that proved much more effective.
However, they had never tested whether, if they took the Molten Crystals without defeating the mechanical man, it would pursue them. If it really did, they would surely die.
After spending half an hour running out from underground, Lin Xinyao and Li Tianxing, seeing that the mechanical man had not caught up, both let out a sigh of relief.
“Xinyao, do you think these Molten Crystals are enough for ten thousand units?” Li Tianxing looked at the hundreds of chunks of Molten Crystal in the storage box, curious how these were counted in units.
“I don’t know either.” Lin Xinyao shook her head. “We just have to hand everything over to the Hall Master. Then we will naturally know how many units there are.”
“True.” Li Tianxing hoisted the storage box and walked with Lin Xinyao toward the hall’s lounge.
