After Sha Tianyun spoke, his body shuddered violently. His robes billowed and flared. Vigour surged across him. The surrounding spiritual energy, pulled by that vigour, swept out horizontally alongside his arm like a venomous snake intent on striking Ye Chu.
This was a scalp-numbing terror. Only now was the full horror of the Innate Realm laid bare. Sha Tianyun stamped down, cracking the bluestone beneath his foot. His outstretched arm instantly sought to coil around Ye Chu and trap him in mortal peril.
“Ye Chu!” Zhang Su’er and the others paled in shock and cried out. Seeing Sha Tianyun’s full power about to ensnare Ye Chu, their eyes reddened. They nearly rushed forward. Yet they all knew clearly that, with their feeble strength, charging in would only mean throwing away their lives.
The explosive terror of an Innate-level strike would gravely wound them even if they merely grazed it. The soldiers gripped their fists until their knuckles whitened, eyes locked on the centre of the fight. In this moment, their former disdain for Ye Chu had vanished. Only admiration filled their gazes. Watching Ye Chu about to be coiled and torn apart by Innate power, their pupils turned bloodshot.
Everyone knew that drawing upon the surrounding spiritual energy was the greatest weapon of Innate experts. Such a technique held absolute destructive force against anyone below the Innate Realm.
“Humph!” Sha Tianyun sneered at Ye Chu. Mere Transformation Intent Realm, yet he dared to stand in his way.
What a pity. A youth with such bright prospects would die by his hand today.
Sha Tianyun’s contempt did not sway Ye Chu. Ye Chu laughed loudly. “Do you truly believe such a method can coil around me and shake me to death? You dream too sweetly!”
As he spoke, Ye Chu’s figure shifted. Brightness blazed in his eyes. Transformation Intent true qi surged from his entire body into his arms, erupting with an intent that shattered all barriers. The terrifying intent shook his robes with sharp whistling sounds.
This was the first time in Yao City that Ye Chu unleashed his full strength. Ten-tenths vigour exploded, blocking every external force beyond his arms as he advanced with domineering ferocity.
“Useless! Nothing but a toad. No matter how high it leaps, it cannot escape the well and glimpse the vast heavens of the Innate Realm!” Sha Tianyun shook his head, sighing with a trace of compassionate sorrow. “You are going to die, forever trapped inside this well!”
“That remains to be seen!” Ye Chu roared. “With the ferocity of unyielding rigidity, transform to peak intent. Vajra Fist!”
Vajra Fist was the entry-level fist art of Qingmi Mountain, a low-grade technique with only one distinguishing trait: ferocity. Back then on Qingmi Mountain, that dead fatty had forced Ye Chu to smash rocks with his bare fists every day. At the time, Ye Chu had thought himself an idiot. Who but a fool would endlessly pound stones with their fists?
Yet he had had no choice. On Qingmi Mountain he had been the weakest. The old madman had tossed him to the dead fatty. If he did not follow the fatty’s instructions, the fatty would throw him into a snake pit. Anyone who had never seen a pit teeming with thousands of snakes could not imagine how revolting and bone-chilling it was.
Compared to the snake pit, Ye Chu preferred playing the fool, smashing rocks day after day to train Vajra Fist.
The results had been clear. The dead fatty had once said, “Though Vajra Fist is the most basic ferocious fist art, master its full intent and practise until it becomes second nature, and it will surpass even Innate-level techniques! In pure ferocity, no fist art can rival it!”
“The more basic the technique, the fewer extraneous intents it contains. Cultivating it allows one to grasp its essence completely. Many cultivators chase only profound arts, yet they fail to realise that without mastering the foundations, even high-level techniques yield limited insight.”
“It is like learning to read. One must first master individual characters. Only by understanding each word can one comprehend long passages and grasp the true meaning of a text. The deeper one’s grasp of the characters, the deeper one’s understanding of the whole.”
Though Ye Chu had often wanted to beat that dead fatty senseless, he had to admit the man possessed unique insight. With no way to refuse, Ye Chu had settled down to train every basic technique, playing the fool again and again, pushing each to its absolute peak.
Vajra Fist was one of those basic arts he had cultivated to peak intent. His ferocious palm collided head-on with Sha Tianyun’s strike, producing a muffled boom.
Yet it was not the impact that made everyone’s eyes widen. What stunned them was that Ye Chu, in a direct clash, had blocked an Innate strike that drew upon the surrounding spiritual energy.
Ye Chu had forcibly broken through the snake-like assault, forcing Sha Tianyun back several steps. Under such ferocious fists, even Sha Tianyun’s arm trembled slightly.
Ye Chu naturally fared no better. Though Vajra Fist was ferocious, the gap in realm remained. Excessive ferocity could injure the user. At this moment, Ye Chu felt his blood and qi churn painfully within.
“The Innate Realm truly is terrifying. No wonder that dead fatty said never to provoke one lightly.” Ye Chu exhaled. He had thought that, with his mastery of Transformation Intent, he would not suffer too greatly against an Innate expert. Now he saw the gap was still clear.
“That dead fatty really is monstrous. Rumour says he slew three Innate experts while still in Transformation Intent.” Ye Chu could not help sighing in admiration. The fatty’s foundation still surpassed his own. That was no surprise. Ye Chu had only cultivated for three years. The dead fatty’s foundations were far more solid. Reaching Innate had taken him a full ten years.
It was not lack of talent. He had deliberately honed his foundations. What others achieved in three or four years, he had delayed by six or seven, making him far stronger than ordinary Innate experts even while still in Transformation Intent.
Ye Chu had originally thought that, though he could not compare to the fatty, if the fatty could kill several Innate experts, holding off one should be well within his ability. Only now did he realise the difference.
Others knew nothing of Ye Chu’s private dissatisfaction with his performance. The people of Yao stared dumbstruck at him. Where did he draw such terrifying power? Ferocious enough to snap steel!
Whether soldiers or Su Rong’s group, all swallowed hard, hearts pounding with shock.
A Transformation Intent cultivator had directly withstood an all-out killing move from an Innate expert. Before this, no one would have believed it possible.
“How did you do it?” Even Sha Tianyun was shaken. That ferocity had been too terrifying. He could clearly see it was nothing more than the most basic technique. How could such a technique erupt with intent rivalling, even surpassing, Innate-level arts?
“Just smash rocks a bit. Keep smashing and smashing, and you’ll cultivate it!” Ye Chu grinned at Sha Tianyun.
The words made Sha Tianyun’s face twitch. Did he take him for a fool? Who would smash rocks for fun?
“I refuse to believe you’re truly this strong!” Sha Tianyun roared in disbelief, unleashing another ferocious strike no weaker than the last.
Ye Chu met it with the same ferocious assault. The clash forced both back once more. He blocked Sha Tianyun outright.
If some had still doubted after the first exchange, now every trace of doubt vanished.
“He… he… no wonder he said last time that below Innate, none could rival him!” Zhang Su’er’s mouth was dry, her voice trembling as she spoke to Su Rong.
