Leng Junfeng breathed out a turbid breath of qi and opened his eyes.
Among the numerous spiritual veins, wood spiritual veins and water spiritual veins were most suited to martial cultivators at the early stage. The vitality of the wood spiritual vein immensely boosted the body's vitality, while water gave greater control since blood was a type of liquid. Fire spiritual veins were too explosive and can easily damage the body. Metal and earth spiritual veins were too rigid for martial cultivators in the early stage.
At the very least, that was the case in the early stage, but even in the later stage, the wood spiritual vein was incredibly suitable. As martial cultivators became stronger, so did their vitality, and the one that gave the greatest boost to vitality was the wood spiritual vein.
With the support of the Wood Book of the Five Element Method and his heavenly wood spiritual vein, Leng Junfeng would not need external resources to cultivate until he entered the Acupoint Opening Realm.
Having opened up three of the twelve standard meridians, Leng Junfeng successfully entered the second stage of the Qi Gathering Realm. Through that, he successfully entered the Muscle Strengthening Stage of the Body Transformation Realm. The process was as natural as breathing air.
In the Allfist Realm, those in the Skin Toughening, Muscle Strengthening, and Tendon Reinforcement Stage were known as martial warriors. Those in the Bone Refinement, Marrow Enhancement, and Organ Fortification Stage were known as martial masters. And acupoint opening masters were known as grandmasters.
Right now, after a month with the support of the Wood Book of the Five Element Method, Leng Junfeng had become a mid-rank warrior! And coupled with the superior Dragon Elephant Transformation Manual, he had the power of a high-rank warrior!
Leng Junfeng clenched and unclenched his hands as he marveled at the strength bubbling within his body. Having lived as a mortal for most of his life, Leng Junfeng had never felt so powerful. He felt that even a thousand mortal soldiers wouldn't be his opponent.
"Don't get cocky. You have all that power, but do you have any accompanying techniques? You don't expect to wildly throw punches and defeat your opponents, do you?" Fenghua asked, dowsing Leng Junfeng's excitement.
The new martial warrior cupped his fist into his other hand and bowed. "Thank you, Teacher, for your lesson."
"Well, it's not like you don't have any technique. Although I disdain it, the Divine Wind Fist is still a pretty good art for this realm. Of course, if you can find the original fragmented art, it would be better." Fenghua said as she no longer paid attention and continued to cultivate.
Leng Junfeng pulled out the old book from his robes and started to read it. After reading the first chapter, Leng Junfeng would stand up and go through some martial stances.
Although it was a fist art, the Divine Wind Fist included numerous exercises to allow the practitioner to best unleash a punch. It was like a manual informing the user which angle, position, and distance to punch. All of these were fundamentals that Leng Junfeng had to learn first before he could understand the profoundness of the Divine Wind Fist.
While Leng Junfeng cultivated, Fenghua occasionally went down the mountain to restock on food supplies and water.
Hey, hey, doesn't this make me seem like the student or disciple serving the master? Fenghua grumbled but seeing the excellent state her student was in, she didn't want him to break out of it doing miscellaneous tasks.
Not to mention the uninvited guests. Fenghua stared coldly at the ashes of whatever remained of them. In the Allfist Realm, masters only comprised about fifteen percent of the martial practitioners, yet the invaders were all masters. She had already killed over fifty of them.
It seems the force that exterminated the Leng Clan isn't so simple. It shouldn't be a force with shallow foundations and most likely has numerous acupoint opening masters. Well, in my current state, as long as it is not a peak acupoint opening master, I should be able to kill if I put my mind to it. Although, if the fight drags out, I might be in trouble.
After making sure the interlopers have been dealt with, Fenghua returned to the mountain top, where she saw Leng Junfeng practicing his punches.
Leng Junfeng was in a horse stance with his fist at his waist. When his fist punched out, it seemed slow, but when fully extended, a small pop of air would sound like an air cannon.
According to the Divine Wind Fist, Leng Junfeng had reached minor accomplishments in the technique. At its peak, the Divine Wind Fist was said to be able to create a hole in a mountain from the air generated by a single punch. Still, in Fenghua's eyes, compared to the Buzhou Immortal Sect's technique, it was still so-so.
When Tianyi, her main body, first learned the Heaven Suppressing Palm and reached the beginner level in it, it would be far more powerful than advanced mastery of the Divine Wind Fist. Of course, there were multiple reasons, one of which was Tianyi's abnormally large and powerful qi.
"Teacher, I feel as if I've reached a bottleneck. No matter how much I train, I can't seem to improve anymore." Leng Junfeng said.
It was not a huge surprise to Fenghua. During these six months, Leng Junfeng had absorbed most of the spiritual qi residing around the tree. As a result, the qi density had plummeted, and the following fruits the tree bore would be ordinary.
He had also reached the third stage of the Qi Gathering Realm and was just a hair's breadth away from entering the fourth stage. Even in the Huang Realm, such speed would be considered monstrously fast. Well, not that there weren't any other factors.
"Then you should leave the mountain and temper yourself." Fenghua sagely said. She had never experienced the so-called tempering herself, but hey, isn't that what everyone recommended?
"Teacher..." Leng Junfeng looked tearfully at Fenghua. He bowed and said, "I'll make sure to visit Teacher whenever I have time. I won't forget you!"
"What's with this tearful goodbye? I'm coming with you. Did you think I was staying on the mountain?" Fenghua said, baffled by Leng Junfeng's goodbye.
"Huh? Teacher, isn't this your home? How could I have the face to ask Teacher to follow me and suffer?" Leng Junfeng replied, equally baffled.
Smack!
Fenghua's tailed smacked the teenager's face. "The only reason I stayed on this mountain is to watch over you. What gave you the idea that this was my home? If it weren't for you, I'd already left this godforsaken place."
"Ah?" Leng Junfeng cried out. "But why was Teacher here then?"
"So I can recover some of my injuries," Fenghua said.
"Teacher, you're injured?" Leng Junfeng cried out in shock. He couldn't believe that his teacher, who was a grandmaster, could have been injured. "Who injured you?"
"Not who, what," Fenghua said. "I was unfortunately pushed into the Vast Void, a rift between dimensions. Hmpf, had I been at full strength, none in the Allfist Realm could have been my opponent."
"Teacher, you're amazing." Leng Junfeng praised, his face full of respect. "Since you're fully healed, no one can beat you?"
"Who said I'm fully healed. At most, I'm half-healed." Fenghua said through gritted teeth. "But don't worry. Even if I'm at less than half my maximum strength, no one can easily defeat me."
"Teacher, you don't have to pretend to be fine. I already lost my clan. I don't want to lose Teacher too. Don't worry. Whatever you need to heal, I'll help Teacher find it!" Leng Junfeng said.
Fenghua rolled her eyes. "Silly kid, the stuff I need probably can't even be found in this realm. I never harbored any hope for you to heal me anyways. Let's hurry up and leave. I'm getting sick of this mountain."
Even though Fenghua said not to, Leng Junfeng still made up his mind to help her heal. So, after six months of living on the mountain, Leng Junfeng left and returned to civilization.
Before he left, he made sure to pluck the three fruits that remained on the tree. Fenghua may disdain them, but they were still priceless treasures to the majority of the denizens of the Allfist Realm. Leng Junfeng could sell them for expenses.
Fenghua didn't walk down the mountain. No, she spread herself across Leng Junfeng's neck like a scarf. He was her student, and he should be able to serve her this much. After all, she had been bringing food to him for six months.
That wasn't too much to ask for, right?
Fenghua made travel part of Leng Junfeng's training. She would force him to run a certain amount of time before giving a short amount of time before running again. Sometimes, she wouldn't even let him get a wink of sleep.
Finally, Leng Junfeng thought as he was able to sleep when the sun set for once. For the past week, it was the most tiresome period of his life. If he didn't run, his teacher would smack him with her tail. Unlike before, those smacks hurt and felt like they could crush bone, so he didn't dare slack.
The two were resting at the edge of the forest near the main road towards a prominent city of the Li Dynasty. Fenghua had vetoed going to a small city or town since the physique changing fruits wouldn't be able to be sold at a good price.
That night, several shadows silent surrounded Leng Junfeng and Fenghua, with the former scion of the Leng Clan completely unaware.
"Boss, do we really need to rob him? It doesn't look like he is carrying anything valuable." A shadow whispered.
"Pah, what do ya know? Look at his face. No ordinary family can raise a man to be so fair. His clothes, although dirty, are something valuable as well. Besides, we can always skin that fox. Its fur will fetch a high price, especially in the capital, Chang'an." The boss harshly said.
"Boss, you're so smart! No wonder you are the boss." The shadow flattered.
"Naturally," the boss puffed his chest up. He raised his hand and motioned for the rest of the bandits to take action. "Brothers, get him!"
Five shadows jumped into the air towards Leng Junfeng. However, to their shock and bewilderment, Leng Junfeng suddenly disappeared.
Not bad, I thought the youngster really fell asleep, but it seemed like he was acting. Fenghua thought to the side. She had purposely made Leng Junfeng sleep there, knowing that there were bandits to test him.
"Huh?" Leng Junfeng yawned and rubbed his eyes. "Teacher, didn't you say you wouldn't attack me until I woke up. Why'd you break your word?"
Or not.
The truth was that Leng Junfeng had developed an acute reaction whenever he was attacked. His body would automatically react without Leng Junfeng processing what happened as a defensive mechanism to Fenghua's sudden assault.
"Who're they?" Leng Junfeng's sleepiness disappeared when he caught sight of the black-clothed man. "Are they from my clan's nemesis?"
Leng Junfeng's eyes sharpened as killing intent leaked out.
"Tch, he's just one person, brothers, kill him!" The boss of the bandits shouted.
Fenghua stayed to the side and watched, not even lifting a paw as the bandits ran past her.
Leng Junfeng switched to a horse stance and began punching at the people who came towards him. Each punch sounded like an air cannon as the bandits were blown back with a single punch.
The boss frowned. Since martial warriors and masters were all part of the Body Transformation Realm, it was hard for many cultivators to appraise a practitioner's strength. "Everyone, get back! This brat is a mid-rank warrior. I'll handle this."
The boss rushed forward with an ax in hand, raised high in the air. Leng Junfeng quickly shifted to the side, breaking out of his horse stance. Gritting his teeth, he unleashed a punch, but this time, the attack was not accompanied by the sound of rupturing air.
The boss had grabbed Leng Junfeng's fist in his palm, surprised at how weak the punch was. "I see. Ya can only unleash the full strength of the punch when you are in the horse stance. Hehe, just quietly give up. I might give ya a painless death if you do."
Leng Junfeng snorted and pulled his hand out of the bandit boss's hand and retreated.
"Do you think I'll let you do as ya please?!" The boss rushed and swung his hand in a wild manner.
Leng Junfeng continued to dodge, trying to find a chance to enter the horse stance, but the bandit boss was always at his heels, not giving him a chance. As time passed, cuts and tears appeared on Leng Junfeng's body and clothes, dying parts of his clothes red. The cuts weren't deep, but Leng Junfeng knew that if the situation continued, it would be bad for him.
Even if he had never trained, some knowledge was still acquired by him while the Leng Clan still existed. Tiny injuries might not seem harmful at first, but blood loss was a real danger that all martial artists had to worry about.
Oh no! Leng Junfeng widened his eyes as he fell backwards due to tripping over a rock.
The bandit bossed grinned as he raised his ax high into the air and prepared to deal a finishing blow.
Suddenly inspiration struck Leng Junfeng. As his body fell back, he moved his body so that when he struck the ground, he was in the horse stance. By this time, the ax was already halfway down.
"Puwah!?" The bandit boss spat out a mouthful of blood as he felt something bash into his stomach, causing his organs to be damaged. "You!"
Leng Junfeng didn't spare any breath to trash talk and continued to punch, causing the bandit boss to suffer more damage.
"You! Just wait. I won't let you off!" The bandit boss yelled as he clutched his stomach and started to flee.
"Boss, wait for us!" The rest of the bandits, seeing that even their boss had lost, immediately ran after him.
"Get back here!" Leng Junfeng yelled as he gave chase. Unfortunately, he only managed to kill three of the bandits while the rest ran away.
"Who are they? They don't seem to be part of the people who killed my clan." Leng Junfeng said. The people who assaulted him were far too unorganized and weren't that strong. The people who exterminated his clan should be ten times stronger.
"Just random bandits. But more importantly, have you realized what you're lacking?" Fenghua asked.
Leng Junfeng nodded. "In the midst of battle, I can't always stay in the horse stance. And I need a movement technique. I have to be quick enough to run and give chase."
Fenghua nodded. "Not bad, you also need more experience, but that will come with time. Come on, let's go to the city."
"Wait, right now?!" Leng Junfeng asked, looking at the still darkened sky.
"Of course," Fenghua said as she jumped onto Leng Junfeng's shoulder.
"Um, Teacher, do you have any techniques you can teach me?" Leng Junfeng asked.
"Nope, they are too high level to the current you. To learn, you have to be at least be in the Foundation Establishment or Acupoint Opening Realm." Fenghua said, causing Leng Junfeng to pout. "Don't worry, after you sell those fruits, you can buy some techniques until you reach the required level."
"I understand," said Leng Junfeng as he began to travel towards Luoyang City.