The True Power

The Azure Dragon Academy deserved to be recognized as the largest martial school of the Purple Jade City. Inside the Academy, not only was there the main martial training ground that could host thousands of people but also more than 10 different martial training facilities, each with their own specialties. All of them had clear rules and regulations for access.

Although Xueming had bowed to Zhou Wuwei as his master, that was only to be his personal disciple without being part of the Azure Dragon Academy yet. This made Xueming unable to use a special training facility in the Academy, which was in accordance with the agreement made with Jiu Ing.

(Now Xueming was still a direct disciple, only nominally but not yet officially. Xueming must wait until being accepted by the Azure Dragon Academy first before Zhou Wuwei could announce to everyone that Xueming had officially become his own direct disciple, which would immediately make Xueming's status even higher than the inner disciples of the Academy.)

However, since Zhou Wuwei brought Xueming to this place, he must have a reason. There was still a general training room used for a test and for practicing the basic skills of the outer disciples. As for this room, the Academy normally allowed people from influential families to visit or exchange cultivators from other schools to use it. Therefore, using this general training room was not considered a violation of the terms made with Jiu Ing. Consequently, Zhou Wuwei chose this place to test his first disciple.

"Xueming, just come in and close the door," Master Zhou Wuwei said in a monotone.

"Yes, Sir," Xueming answered and closed the door as soon as his feet crossed over the threshold.

When the door was completely shut, Xueming's eyes looked all around to survey the room. He noticed the same type of characters found in the Sphere of Illusionary Spell scribbled on all four sides of the wall. Curious, Xueming then asked his master and was told that… these characters were the protector of this room from being damaged by the cultivation and to keep the sound from escaping to the outside.

"Xueming," Zhou Wuwei said in an expectant tone. "Let me tell you honestly. I had already examined the stone floor used to test your fist power, which made me believe that you must be hiding your talent.” Xueming smiled before nodding his head. “Well, having seen your footprint that was more than an inch deep, I believe that your punch weight must be as much as Zi Hui’s or maybe even higher?” Zhou Wuwei turned to look at Xueming with a discreet eye.

Despite being pressured by the eyes of the master, Xueming was still smiling and said nothing. Since Zhou Wuwei adopted him as a disciple, Xueming determined not to conceal his true power from Zhou Wuwei, except the story of his left eye and the Divine Body Cultivation Technique which he intended not to tell anyone at all. If the outside world knew about it, it would be a great disaster rather than a good fortune for Xueming.

"This kid, you keep being cryptic and make me wonder.” This time it was Zhou Wuwei who said with a smile. “Well, then let's start the test again. I hope you don't disappoint me. Remember, give it all you’ve got.” Said Zhou Wuwei, raising his right fist in front of him.

"Yes, Master," Xueming replied before walking towards the test platform in the middle of the room. The test stone in this room looked much stronger and more stable than those used in general tests. Although its height was no different from the stone used in the entrance examination of the Azure Dragon Academy, its strength was twice as much as the stone used in such entrance examination because this test platform was the test stone used by the Azure Dragon Academy disciples, some of whom had the cultivation level up to the fifth level of the basic Qi, thus having the fist weight of 10,000 Jin or more.

(The physical strength level would stop developing when a cultivator reached the first level of the natural Qi because the body would not absorb and accumulate the Qi for enhancing the strength of the flesh anymore. Instead, it would form the strong Qi veins to absorb the natural Qi energy and develop into storage of Qi in the body and into the lake of Qi in the next stages. At different levels of the basic Qi, the physical strength increased by leaps and bounds from the first level, which had only less than 500 Jin, to the second level, which had the power up to 2,000 Jin. The third level would have the highest power around 4,500 Jin, and the 4th level as high as 8,000 Jin. For the fifth level, according to the record, there were people reaching 20,000 Jin, but generally, the power would be about 12,000 – 15,000 Jin. After entering the first level of the natural Qi, the cultivator would instead focus on cultivating the Qi which was more important, thus downplaying the martial skills or the physical strength training.)

“If you’re ready, let’s start.”

After Zhou Wuwei had retreated, Xueming closed his eyes to meditate. He recalled the Gut-Piercing Punch technique that relied on spinning force to increase its destructive power together with the hot flame in his body that used the ignition to enhance the attack speed. Even though they have never been tried together before, but because of his eagerness to make a good first impression on Zhou Wuwei, Xueming intended to take the risk of trying out the newly invented coordinating movement. He was confident that its destructive power would not be inferior to the Destructive Punch move which was the third move that Xueming used during the first round of the test.

Following his conviction, the picture of the punch move became evident in his mind. The right foot immediately retreated and stretched all the way back as if he was about to soar forward. The left palm opened to block the right fist that was clenched against the body. The left foot was steadily stabilized before Xueming moved his right foot upward to soar up toward the test stone—now the right leg flying and the left stretching. Upon entering the intended distance, the force of the forward soar suddenly transformed into downward pressure stomping down on the hard ground like the first step of the Gut-Piercing Punch. Ripples of vibration spread around, but this time, the floor of the room did not collapse due to the protective effect of the magic character.

Although Zhou Wuwei knew that Xueming was hiding his true ability, when watching it by himself, he unconsciously took a deep breath in panic. Yet, that was not the end of the move or the most shocking moment of the event.

When the right foot was firmly fixed, the intense heat energy rushed from the left foot, while the twist of the waist helped to increase the power up toward the right shoulder.

The sound of the moving joints—creak, creak!!!—kept reverberating. For ordinary cultivators with the second level of the basic Qi without a strong body from practicing the level-one Divine Body Cultivation Technique like Xueming, such an attack putting a heavy load on the body like this could have caused a lot of injuries to the persons using this move.

The spinning force combined with the intense energy of the hot Qi in the body sent Xueming's body soaring forward like an arrow that was shot with extreme force. The right fist twisted and spun past the previously blocking left palm, like a sharp sword from its sheath radiating devastating whirlpool energy into the middle of the test stone. Every gesture—despite having taken time to explain—actually happened in the blink of an eye.

For Zhou Wuwei, the excitement increasingly overwhelmed every moment. Even himself watching on the side and seeing everything clearly still had a hard time accepting that the person in front of him was only at the second level of the basic Qi because the power he could sense was far more intense than that of the cultivators with the fourth level of the basic Qi. Xueming had completely destroyed Zhou Wuwei's old understanding of the cultivators’ different levels of physical strength for over the past 80 years. But no matter how amazed Zhou Wuwei was, he was still a senior highly experienced in secular affairs. The Master, therefore, maintained a calm and cold expression like a mountain. Even though his gaze became narrow just enough to watch the ongoing event, he did not appear to flinch even the slightest bit.

But the story was not over yet. After the clash of the fist causing a trembling noise, a swirling heatwave quickly spread all over the training room. And when the heatwave hit Zhou Wuwei's face, the shock on his face could no longer be restrained. The more he saw the numbers displayed on the punching power calculating pad, the more he lost control of the muscles controlling his lower jaw. Now the lower jaw was hanging down, thus causing his mouth wide open, cold and still.

"Ten thousand Jin!!!" Zhou Wuwei tried to control himself and restore his calmness, uttering while his heart was still shocked by the event. "Amazing ... so amazing. I can't believe that you only have the second level of the basic Qi.” Zhou Wuwei’s perception of Xueming changed from before. The eyes that were once curiosity mixed with kindness became extremely excited and proud instead. Although he did not express any further admiration, his heart was rejoicing that he had just accepted Xueming as a direct disciple. "You’re doing much better than I expected. No, to be correct, I must say you’re much greater than all the new disciples I've ever met, hahaha.” Zhou Wuwei laughed happily. "Your level of physical strength is close to a cultivator with the fifth level of the basic Qi. If you get to learn decent skills, you’ll definitely be as great as a winged tiger.”

"Thank you, Master, for praising me," Xueming replied while gasping for a deep breath because the previous attack posture consumed a lot of physical and concentration power. Had Xueming had no heat energy that could help recover from fatigue and injury, he must have already laid on his back with legs open.

His fatigue became obvious. "The techniques you used, despite terrifyingly powerful, put a lot of burden to the user's body. In addition, all postures were dull, with no adaptiveness. If you encounter an enemy with similar quick moves, your attack would be difficult to succeed.” All the words that he said were on point.

“Thank you, Master, for your advice.”

"Hmm ... although I could clearly look at the moves you used, there’s still something I don't understand. How could you discharge the heat energy with your attack posture, although your cultivation hasn’t reached the first level of the natural Qi?"

Xueming had intended not to hide the story of the heat energy from Zhou Wuwei, so he frankly told him the story that since waking up from the battle with the Inferno Ginseng, this stream of heat energy suddenly appeared and dwell in his body, which Xueming himself did not know why.

Zhou Wuwei was extremely pleased with Xueming's disclosed story and continuously praised Xueming for his noble fortune. He thought to himself that, if fate allowed, he would have to find the Inferno Ginseng to fill his stomach once in his life.