Slap!
The loud slap echoed extraordinarily loudly, landing squarely on the dark-skinned man’s face and cutting off his words. The tremendous force of the slap instantly sent him flying. Over a dozen of his long teeth fell out and scattered on the floor.
“Sorry, this Young Master’s hand suddenly got itchy,” Long Chen said with a polite and slightly apologetic tone while looking at the dark-faced man who was still dizzy from the slap.
The slap was so loud that it echoed into every corner of the Combat Technique Pavilion. The people who were previously busy browsing combat techniques now put down their books and turned towards Long Chen with shocked expressions.
“Who dares to cause trouble in the Combat Technique Pavilion?!”
Suddenly, a sharp, cold voice was heard. A man in black clothes appeared inside the Combat Technique Pavilion, staring at Long Chen and the dark-faced man with ice-cold eyes.
As soon as the man appeared, a very strong aura of blood and Qi radiated from his entire body, pressing down on everyone like a high mountain, making it hard for them to breathe. Long Chen’s eyes instantly narrowed slightly.
“A powerful cultivator of the Blood Condensation Realm.”
He didn’t expect a Blood Condensation Realm expert to be hiding here. However, upon further thought, this place was an important area, so it was only natural for an expert to be standing guard.
The Combat Technique Pavilion was a strictly no-fighting zone. Whoever dared to use violence here would be confined; this rule was already known to everyone.
“Speak, what exactly happened?” barked the Blood Condensation expert.
“About that, you should ask him,” answered Long Chen without the slightest bit of fear, spreading his hands slightly while feigning innocence.
The dark-faced man was instantly furious. He was clearly the one who got slapped, how come he was the one being asked? “Sir…”
“Sir.”
Right at that moment, Zhou Yaoyang, who had been hiding in the distance, hurried over and said to the Blood Condensation expert, “The story goes like this, Wang Mang’s face suddenly got extremely itchy, so he slapped himself. This wasn’t a fight, please understand, Sir.”
The dark-faced man named Wang Mang looked shocked and was about to say something. However, seeing Li Hao from afar giving him a panicked eye signal, he swallowed his words back down.
“You are the son of the Barbarian Noble, right?” asked the man in black, glancing at Zhou Yaoyang.
“Correct,” Zhou Yaoyang answered hastily.
The man nodded. He looked at Wang Mang, who was sprawled on the floor, and said, “If your face is itchy, just scratch it. Looking at your condition, people might think it was your teeth that were itchy. I don’t want to see this kind of incident repeat a second time. Clean up this garbage you left behind.”
After speaking, the man turned and left, leaving the dumbfounded crowd behind. Unexpectedly, Zhou Yaoyang had defended Long Chen.
“Hehe, hear that? You’re already this old, how can you just relieve yourself anywhere? Hurry up and clean up this mess you left behind,” Long Chen mocked with a cynical smile, as if he had predicted this scene. He then turned around and walked away, casually returning to browsing the combat technique books.
“Damn it!”
Seeing Long Chen’s arrogant figure, Wang Mang’s eyes felt like they could spew fire. That slap had truly humiliated him deeply.
“Wang Mang, restrain yourself. If you accuse Long Chen of hitting you, Long Chen will only be confined for a month. A month later, he will come out without a single injury. However, if you swallow this anger, tomorrow Li Hao will help you exact a cruel revenge. So, you must be patient,” Zhou Yaoyang persuaded.
Wang Mang nodded. He already knew about the life-and-death duel between Li Hao and Long Chen. Usually, he just had fun bullying Long Chen, never thinking deeply about his actions.
But today, his game had backfired. He was slapped so hard yet had nowhere to complain. This was a classic example of swallowing one’s knocked-out teeth into one’s own stomach.
A few people hurriedly picked up the scattered teeth on the floor and wiped the bloodstains clean. Suddenly Zhou Yaoyang said, “Your face doesn’t look too swollen. It seems Long Chen’s strength wasn’t that great. But, how did he manage to knock out so many of your teeth?”
The others also felt confused. Logically, only a tremendous amount of force could knock out such sturdy teeth.
“I don’t know, it’s really weird,” Wang Mang answered gloomily. What he didn’t know was that Long Chen was an alchemy expert who completely mastered the human body’s structure.
That slap utilized a force directed in such a way that it rattled the gums and dislodged half of his teeth from their places.
Long Chen’s action was extremely ruthless. Teeth are hard to grow back, unlike ordinary wounds that can be healed with medicine. In the future, Wang Mang would only be able to chew his food with one side of his teeth.
After seeing what happened to Wang Mang, everyone became much more careful, and no one dared to pick a fight with Long Chen.
Long Chen felt much more at ease. He flipped through the ancient books here carefully. The cultivation techniques in this place could only be read here and were not allowed to be taken away.
“Wild Bull Power.”
It was one of the combat technique books. In this world, all martial techniques were divided into three tiers: Heaven, Earth, and Human. The cultivation and combat technique books displayed here were all Low-Tier Human class combat techniques, the lowest rank.
Even though these were only low-class techniques, their existence was still considered precious. Even though those who came were high-status noble heirs, they were still overseen by a Blood Condensation expert. This proved how much the Fengming Empire valued combat techniques.
“Even though it’s only a low-tier technique, its energy circulation path is clear and direct. This is very effective and good,” Long Chen thought.
Long Chen finished reading the combat technique in his hand and nodded. This technique was very suitable for him. With his profound understanding of all his body’s meridians, he could learn it quickly.
He read it carefully once more. Now, with his extraordinary soul power, his memory was greatly assisted, almost reaching the level of photographic memory.
After fully memorizing the Wild Bull Power Technique, he returned the book to its place. Long Chen’s gaze then landed on a supporting martial technique—Wind-Chasing Steps.
Wind-Chasing Steps was a type of movement skill. This skill channeled Spiritual Qi through specific meridians to the legs to increase speed and explosive power. Whether for long-distance running or close-quarters dodging, this technique was highly effective.
“Good. Another practical technique.”
Long Chen smiled slightly and immediately focused his mind on memorizing the energy circulation paths and activation methods written in the book.
“Time is up! All noble heirs, put down the secret books in your hands! Whoever dares to smuggle a book out secretly will be killed without mercy!”
Right at that moment, the Blood Condensation expert reappeared. His ice-cold voice pierced everyone’s ears, making them hastily put down the books in their hands.
Several people shook their heads, feeling unsatisfied. The Fengming Empire regulated combat techniques very strictly. They were only allowed to come here to read for half a day every month.
Many people had to spend months just to learn a single martial technique. Despite their dissatisfaction, no one dared to utter a complaint.
Long Chen was slightly surprised, not expecting time to fly so fast. However, if anyone knew he had successfully memorized two combat technique books in just over two shichens (four hours), their jaws would definitely drop to the floor.
Many descriptions within the technique books were difficult to understand, especially the terms related to the flow of Spiritual Qi and the movement of Qi through the meridians. That often confused people, requiring them to test it out while practicing it.
After exiting the Imperial Academy, Long Chen greeted Fatty Yu and the others, then whispered something to Shi Feng.
Shi Feng initially looked surprised but quickly masked his expression. Still, a glimmer of admiration could not be hidden from his eyes.
Upon arriving home, Long Chen saw that his previously destroyed room had been cleaned up. But because that room could no longer be used, they had prepared another room for him; fortunately, their estate had many empty rooms.
First, he visited his mother’s room and greeted her. The series of recent incidents had left Madam Long unable to rest easy.
Ever since Long Chen woke up, he seemed to have turned into a different person, which made Madam Long feel he was a little unfamiliar.
Fortunately, Long Chen had now calmed himself down. He chatted with his mother for a while, making her feel more relieved. However, he didn’t mention a single word about his life-and-death duel with Li Hao.
After returning from his mother’s room, Long Chen locked his bedroom door and immediately swallowed the second Wind Palace Pill.
Along with the refinement of this second Wind Palace Pill, the embryonic form of the Wind Palace Star at the sole of his foot became slightly stronger.
As the Wind Palace Star grew stronger, the more Spiritual Qi it could store, similar to a Dantian.
It was just that this Wind Palace Star was still in its initial form. It needed countless Wind Palace Pills to truly form completely.
That was the reason why Long Chen was so shocked when he first learned the cultivation method of the Nine Star Tyrant Body Art.
At this moment, he had already swallowed two Wind Palace Pills worth hundreds of thousands of gold coins, yet his Wind Palace Star was still an embryo. There was still a long way to go towards the actual three stages: Star Formation, Convergence, and Transformation. He also didn’t know what the legendary Nine Star Transformation meant yet. In short, this Wind Palace Star was like a bottomless pit.
Despite that, Long Chen realized that the Nine Star Tyrant Body Art was his only way out. Otherwise, he would live in mediocrity for the rest of his life, or perhaps not even achieve mediocrity; he would only be meat ready to be butchered at will by others.
He spent two shichens (four hours) refining the Wind Palace Pill. The Wind Palace Star embryo grew slightly larger, and the amount of Spiritual Qi he could use increased.
It was now past midnight. Long Chen quietly sneaked out of his room and headed to the woodshed. He took a deep breath and slowly circulated the Wild Bull Power. For Long Chen, who knew all of his body’s meridians perfectly, learning a low-tier combat technique was as easy as pie, without the slightest pressure.
He walked towards a stone mortar, a tool normally used for milling rice. The object weighed over a thousand jins (five hundred kilograms).
Wrapping both his hands around the stone mortar, he exerted his strength.
“Up!”
The giant stone mortar was instantly lifted. Long Chen felt it carefully and realized he still had strength left to spare. Right now, his strength was probably around one thousand five hundred jins.
Yet, before being defeated by Zhou Yaoyang, he was only able to lift one hundred and fifty jins. His strength had increased tenfold.
“Amazing. Never mind anything else, with just my current strength alone, I might be able to match people at the fifth layer of the Qi Gathering Realm.”
Long Chen’s heart blossomed with joy, while also looking forward even more to the results of the Nine Star Tyrant Body Art. Just reaching the embryonic form had already given him this massive of an improvement. Just how strong would he become when he successfully condensed the Wind Palace Star completely?
After hesitating for a moment, he couldn’t suppress the itch in his heart. He lowered his waist and took a solid stance. The Qi from the soles of his feet began to surge slowly. A blazing power compressed his meridians and flowed slowly into his fist.
“Wild Bull Fist!”
Boom!
Long Chen punched the stone mortar in front of him, producing a deafening explosive sound. The giant mortar was blown away by his punch, crashing hard into the wall in front of him and causing the wall to collapse.
Long Chen was stunned. His power was incredible. He had only wanted to test his strength, not expecting to cause such a huge commotion.
Looking outside, he found that many rooms in his family’s estate had lit up. He immediately realized that his actions had woken everyone up. Hurriedly, he turned around, sneaked back to his room, laid down, and went straight to sleep.
But in his heart, he felt so joyous that he wanted to dance with glee. The Nine Star Tyrant Body Art, just what level of technique are you really? If all Nine Stars are gathered, just how devastating is the power I could unleash?
That night, amidst the endless overflow of excitement, Long Chen had trouble falling asleep for a long time. It was only the next day, when the sun shined its first light into his room, that Long Chen slowly opened his eyes.
“Hehe, you want to take the ‘spare parts’ from my body? That is a very noble dream, but it looks like you won’t be able to achieve it, huh?”
After waking up and washing his face, he could faintly hear the voices of the servants discussing the bizarre incident in the woodshed last night. Welcoming the newly risen sun, Long Chen inevitably remembered a phrase in his mind:
“Today is a good day; whatever I desire will surely come true.”
