Chapter 369: Shackles Broken
Seeing how serious he was, the other disciples didn't know what he was looking at. They were all curious and came over to watch.
There was a pattern on the smooth cross-section of the sword. It was hard to tell what the pattern was, but it was a large pattern composed of fine cracks. Everyone knew at a glance that it was caused by the master's palm strike just now. The cracks at the beginning of the palm strike were relatively rough and not so fine, and the cracks became denser and denser as time went on.
The crack damage is roughly in the center, and the surrounding area is mostly intact.
As I watched, the crack pattern illuminated by the sandalwood gold flame became blurred. Due to the intervention of strong wind, a small particle in the crack was blown away, and then the entire crack was quickly peeled off beyond recognition. Finally, the entire crack pattern turned into a groove.
What does that mean? All the disciples turned their heads and stared at the uncle, using the flame of the sandalwood and gold to see the blood at the corner of his mouth.
Li Hongjiu stretched out his hand and touched the pit on the cross section, with a thoughtful look on his face. Only he knew the meaning of this palm strike he had made.
This was actually not formed by his own palm power, but the palm power that Shi Chun had just left in his body.
He named the martial art he realized by himself "Borrowing the Realm". The key word is "borrowing". He is good at using the opponent's force to counter the opponent's force. This is why Shi Chun mistakenly thought that he also knew the "Demon Bathing Technique".
The truth was that he just made a circle and hit back the power of the 'demon-breaking hand' that Shi Chun had used on him.
Normally speaking, or based on his past experience, with the power of this palm given by the opponent's cultivation, he can easily complete the turnaround of using the opponent's force to counter attack.
However, this time, he did encounter an abnormal situation. The power of the opponent's palm actually grew on its own, and continued to grow in the way of one becoming two, two becoming three. Its changes made it impossible for him to contain it with the method of "borrowing the environment".
He had never encountered such a strange palm power before, and he only returned a part of the power to Shi Chun. He didn't have time to spit out some of the sudden palm power, which caused him injuries on the spot.
What's more, the power of the masked man's second palm, which had not been offset, entered his body again.
The situation at that time was also very dangerous. He couldn't let the overflowing strange power continue to spread and destroy indiscriminately in his body, otherwise people would die. He was urgently casting spells to pull the net around those who had escaped the net. At that time, he actually had no power to fight back. Even those at the advanced martial arts level could have killed him.
Fortunately, he reacted quickly and saw the clue from the other party's suspicious eyes, then scared the other party away with his words. Otherwise, with the other party's decisive fighting spirit, his life would have been in danger.
After gaining a chance to catch his breath, he was able to release the remaining power of the strange palm force in his body. He also deliberately retained some of the power and turned it into a palm strike on the stone to form a physical form for observation.
Although he had neutralized the power of the two palms, he had indeed suffered internal injuries from the two palms. To be precise, the masked man injured him with the first palm, and the first palm almost took his life.
This was the first time that he was beaten by someone whose realm was lower than his. Similar situations had always happened to others when he had fought with people whose realm was higher than his. He never expected that this day would come to him.
Today I finally experienced what this feels like.
This experience may not be a bad thing. Without experience, how can there be real perception?
He stroked the uneven grooves in the stone surface with his fingers, and joy gradually appeared in the corners of his eyes and mouth, the kind of joy that came from the heart.
This scene confused the disciples nearby. They could see clearly under the golden light that their uncle-master had been beaten, so how could he be happy?
Did someone hit him so hard that his brain got damaged?
Guang Haoyou tried to ask, "Uncle Master, are you okay?"
Li Hongjiu smiled, "It's okay, it's fine."
All the disciples looked at the blood at the corner of his mouth and his bare shirt with sleeves missing from being beaten, and then thought about the powerful strength of the masked man. They really didn't know what was so good about him.
Guang Haoyou was suspicious and asked, "Very good?"
Li Hongjiu glanced at them and knew that some things were difficult for them to understand. Do you want to explain? How to explain?
It can be explained clearly, but "Dharma is not easily passed on" is a true saying. There is a huge difference between what one understands and what one truly comprehends into one's heart.
Again, how much they can understand depends on themselves, and whether what they see today will help them understand in the future also depends on themselves.
His eyes fell on the bulge on the edge of the stone. He reached out and grabbed it, cast a spell and broke off a piece of stone, motioning Guang Haoyou to turn around and face him.
Guang Haoyou was skeptical, but did it anyway.
Just when everyone was puzzled, Li Hongjiu grabbed a stone and smashed it on Guang Haoyou's chest.
Bang, you can hear the sound of hitting bones.
Li Hongjiu grabbed the stone and asked with a smile, "How do you feel?"
Guang Haoyou was already grimacing in pain, rubbing his chest and smiling bitterly, "It hurts a little, but I don't feel anything else."
So Li Hongjiu spread out his palm and showed the stone in his palm in front of everyone. Just when everyone was puzzled, he suddenly clenched his palm and cast a spell to crush the whole stone into powder. Then he slapped the stone powder on Guang Haoyu's chest.
This time, Guang Haoyou's body just shook a little, and he didn't feel the pain like before.
The wind swept away the flying stone powder. Li Hongjiu let go of his hands and smiled without saying a word. He took the sandalwood gold for lighting, took out a pill, put it in his mouth and swallowed it. Under everyone's suspicious gaze, he walked out of the crowd with his hands behind his back and looked again in the direction where the masked man escaped.
He also didn't expect that he would suddenly realize the shackles of cultivation that he had been trapped in the back mountain of Yanbao Sect for many years after encountering danger today. The method of "borrowing the environment" that he realized by himself has always faced a huge flaw and he has never been able to comprehend it thoroughly.
This flaw had been clearly revealed during the previous fight with the masked man in the whirlwind. His flying sword would frequently escape from his hand to attack the opponent. If the attack was too powerful, even if he killed the opponent with his sword, the backlash would be too much for him to withstand with his level of cultivation.
In other words, if he encounters someone with high cultivation and not many people around him, his method of using the opponent's force to counter attack is still okay. However, once he encounters the powerful attack power of a strong master, his method of using the environment to attack will not be able to stop him, because the attack power is too great.
This problem has been bothering him, and he has been wondering if there is any way to solve it.
The reason why he kept thinking about it was because he believed that there must be a way. There is nothing unbreakable in the world, but he just hadn't found that point.
In order to find the balance point between strong and weak, he even stopped his own practice progress, not allowing himself to enter the realm of immortality that all practitioners desire, so that his body can be in a weaker state to gain insights, because the mind and body have always been one, and the strong will ignore the feelings of the weak.
Today, he finally found that method.
Just like that hard stone hitting Guang Haoyou, it would make Guang Haoyou feel pain. That stone was like the opponent's powerful attack.
When he crushed the stone into powder and threw it at Guang Haoyou, Guang Haoyou no longer felt the pain. Even if he increased the force a little more, Guang Haoyou could easily bear it.
The attack force was the same, and the target was still the same stone, but the effect was completely different. The only difference was that he changed the shape of the stone.
It's not like he hadn't thought about this before, but he couldn't find a way to turn "stone" into "stone powder". He just thought he was daydreaming and this approach wouldn't work.
After receiving two palm strikes from the masked man today, the mysterious operation mode of one gives birth to two, two gives birth to three, and three gives birth to all things ran through his body. The feeling it brought him was extraordinary, and it also made him suddenly enlightened. It turned out that there really was a way to turn "stone" into "stone powder".
Of course, at present I have only comprehended it. To transform it into a real method, it still requires a process of research and integration.
But for him, he had truly attained enlightenment and had found the path, so some weeds, thorns and bumps along the way were nothing.
He was in such a good mood at the moment that he almost let out a long roar to the sky.
The disciples could not understand his feelings and were also confused by him.
These are trivial matters to them; what they care about is the current situation.
A group of people came closer again, and Guang Haoyou asked: "Uncle Master, who could that masked man be?"
Speaking of this, Li Hongjiu's tone also showed a hint of surprise, and he said, "It should be Shi Chun."
"Ah?" Many people exclaimed.
Guang Haoyou was surprised and asked, "How could Shi Chun have such strength?"
Li Hongjiu turned to look at him and asked, "So what do you think of my strength?"
"Master's strength is naturally superior to others."
"Master uncle has supernatural powers, and there should be no rivals in the same realm."
A group of people spoke a lot of flattering words at the same time. Of course, most of them were sincere words of admiration. If they could have the same level of fighting and killing as their junior uncle, they would wake up laughing in their dreams.
So Li Hongjiu turned around and faced everyone, and said jokingly: "Then why is my strength superior to others, but Shi Chun's is not, or others are not, do you think what you said makes sense? How can a cultivator be complacent?"
Everyone looked at each other, and someone smiled bitterly and said, "Uncle Master, if you say so, then what else can we say? It's just that I still can't imagine that Shi Chun's strength would be so terrifying."
Li Hongjiu looked up at the dim and faintly visible starry sky, muttering to himself, "His abilities are indeed extraordinary, and should not come from an obscure inheritance. That guy acts so high-profile, how come no one recognizes him? The Land of Exile... I wonder if there is a chance to go in and take a look."
When these words were spoken, everyone was shocked. Isn't this just a joke? You can't just go to the land of exile whenever you want. Those who go in are all unforgivable criminals and their cultivation will be destroyed.
Logically speaking, no one would run in there on their own initiative to endure that punishment, but this uncle-master is really unreliable. Who knows what he will do. The Wuming Forbidden Land is dangerous, but he still went in with all his heart.
Guang Haoyou quickly diverted his thoughts, "Uncle Master, if it is really Shi Chun, how can we get him to hand over the secret method of finding the divine fire?"
"It's definitely useless to talk nicely. We'll just beat him until he gives it up. With so many helpers, there's nothing to worry about."
While chatting and laughing, Li Hongjiu turned around to look at where the group came from, and saw a group of shadowy figures approaching.
Apart from the people from various factions, there are not many other people here.
A group of visitors who came in stealthily and carefully discovered the Yanbao Sect’s group and quickly approached them. They turned out to be people from various factions who were still frightened.
Wu Shanshan was also among these people. She looked very miserable having lost an arm, but it was quite in line with the style of Wang Qing Valley. However, the resentment on her face seemed to be so strong that it could not be dissolved.
Zuo Zisheng was the first to approach and ask, "Mr. Li, the lightning here was so bright that it seemed like dawn was coming. What's going on?"
Li Hongjiu blinked and said, "I don't know. We are here for the lightning too."
So everyone focused on his bare shirt without sleeves and the blood on his mouth. He looked so disheveled, but no one saw anything?
(End of this chapter)
