For a moment, Galon felt the left side of his body hot and the right side cold. An indescribable sense of drowsiness kept assaulting his brain, as if someone was relentlessly hammering his head.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
He could hear his heart beating, each thump heavy like a war drum. With every heartbeat, the cold and heat on either side of his body began to slowly converge.
The cold and warm blood intertwined, clearly demarcated, forming a delicate spiral structure that started to flow rapidly within Galon.
In the testing hall, the cool moonlight streamed in from the high windows, draping Galon like a white veil.
He stood rigidly in front of the punching bag, his complexion red as a boiled shrimp. Sweat vapor slowly steamed off his hair, body, and pants.
After an indeterminate amount of time.
Click.
Galon slightly moved his body, and a crisp sound of cracking joints echoed. Then, all his joints started cracking like popping beans, creating a symphony of snaps.
Finally regaining his clarity, the first thing Galon did was walk to the 200-pound punching bag, raise his right arm, and take a deep breath.
Boom!
The punching bag soared high, flying past the qualifying line and making the metal stand creak and groan. Then it swung back, steadied by Galon with a slap.
"My strength has increased again…" He spread his right palm to inspect his skin. The surface of his hand seemed coated with a layer of translucent keratin, hitting the punching bag barehanded felt like wearing boxing gloves, completely void of any friction or pain. Before this, punching the bag barehanded would have caused slight pain.
The attributes section of his vision showed changes again.
Strength increased from 0.52 to 0.53, and physique from 0.31 to 0.33.
"With the Explosive Fist technique, the toughness of my skin has greatly increased…" Galon rubbed his hands together, scanning the entire testing hall and spotting a brown wooden rack filled with various cold weapons.
Knight swords, triangular shields, machetes, heavy swords, daggers, hammers, axes – the rack was nearly filled with all kinds of common weapons.
Galon walked over, picked up a silver-white dagger, and gently drew it from its sheath.
The dagger reflected a faint silver light under the moon, the tip dazzlingly sharp.
He lightly dragged the dagger across the back of his hand.
Hiss...
It was like cutting hard leather, leaving only a slight white mark on his arm.
"Indeed… The Explosive Fist technique does enhance the body's toughness! No wonder the technique includes exercises like hitting the body with wooden mallets."
Galon was pleased, then gradually increased his force.
Starting from an estimated force of 1 pound, he slowly increased the pressure.
2 pounds… 3 pounds… 5 pounds… 10 pounds… 15 pounds… 20 pounds!!
Suddenly, a small wound opened on his arm from the dagger's edge, barely cutting into the muscle before getting stuck, unable to move further.
Galon felt a sting and quickly withdrew the dagger.
"About 20 pounds… just enough to pierce my skin. The Explosive Fist technique is truly powerful, no wonder it takes years of training and certain talent to master. It's rightly the signature combat skill of Baiyun Martial Arts School!"
Considering he was relaxed, his skin could defend against a 20-pound force dagger strike. If his muscles were tensed...
Galon pondered briefly, then began testing the piercing force with tensed muscles.
Starting directly from 20 pounds, he increased the force until 50 pounds barely penetrated the muscle.
"This level is almost like hard qigong… Impressive!"
Returning the dagger to the rack, Galon relaxed his muscles, only then noticing blood slowly oozing from the wound on his arm, which quickly clotted.
Checking his remaining potential, which was at 24%, he tidied up, put on his clothes, and left the testing hall with the keys hanging by the punching bag.
As an official student, everyone had the right to use the branch's training and testing facilities anytime, hence each official student had a key to the door.
Exiting the branch's main entrance, the streets were deserted, a cold wind carrying a piece of newspaper slowly away.
Galon started jogging along the nighttime streets towards his home, a training habit he had developed recently.
It was nearly 10 PM, and the street was quite secluded, hardly seeing anyone. For a more spacious run, Galon had chosen a longer, more isolated route.
After running for over ten minutes, he only saw a few people.
The dim streetlights cast a quiet glow on the street, with only Galon's footsteps echoing. Occasionally, the sound of shop doors closing could be heard in the distance.
Beep beep!
Suddenly, a car horn sounded from around a dim street corner.
Galon moved to the left side of the street, jogging as a shiny black vintage car approached from his right. The yellow headlights dazzled him as the car turned, prompting him to shield his eyes.
As the vintage car passed by him, the numbers in Galon's vision suddenly jumped.
"My potential is moving!?" He turned and chased after the vintage car. His remaining potential of 23% rapidly increased, shooting up to 45% in just a moment of passing by.
Without much thought, his only instinct was to make the car stop.
In Huai Shan City, there were no more jewels to absorb potential from, only this time!
"Please stop the car!"
Galon ran in front of the vintage car, arms spread, shouting loudly.
Vehicles in this world were slow, but the vintage car didn't stop at all, charging directly towards Galon.
"Damn!" Galon quickly dodged to the side, chasing after the car.
"Kill him."
He faintly heard a woman's voice, then saw someone in the passenger seat wearing black gloves, preparing to open the door.
Bang! The door swung open, hitting Galon on the side, as a black dagger silently aimed for his abdomen.
Galon instinctively grabbed the arm behind the dagger, then reflexively punched the car window.
Crack! Smash!
The arm holding the dagger snapped easily like a dry twig, muscles and tendons bursting out, blood splattering the car door.
At the same time, the car window shattered under his punch, and his fist hit the face of the person in the passenger seat.
The person's face caved in, nose, mouth, and eyes deforming into a bloody mess, with white bone fragments tinkling against the windshield.
Galon was stunned.
So was the driver.
The vintage car continued to move forward, the door hanging from Galon's hand swung wide open, and a slender body rolled out. It was a young girl with a good figure.
The girl lay in front of Galon, her face completely smashed, resembling tomato sauce mixed with tofu, her right arm holding a black dagger twisted aside. Her black coat accentuated her curvy figure, and lying on her side, the deep cleavage was faintly visible.
From her attire and figure, she was a young girl.
Amid the thick scent of blood, Galon also detected a faint perfume.
Looking at the body in front of him, Galon numbly watched the departing vintage car, vaguely seeing the driver's shape and a pair of cold red eyes looking back.
"I've killed someone…" Seeing the fresh red spots on his brown pants, Galon felt an unprecedented panic.
"I've killed someone…" he murmured softly, looking down at the girl's body.
Suddenly, he scanned the surroundings, finding no one on the street. Assuring himself no one had seen him, Galon rolled up his blood-stained trouser legs and ran off without a word.
His panicked, irregular footsteps gradually faded away.
Rushing home, Galon unlocked the door and dashed to his bedroom without saying a word.
"It's you, bro... I've put your allowance for next week on the dining table..." Ying'er emerged from her bedroom, pausing mid-sentence as she saw Galon pass by, pale-faced.
Bang!
The bedroom door closed.
"Galon's back? Came back from running and didn't even take a shower?" Mother Bennila opened the bedroom door to inquire.
"Is that Galon? Went out for exercise again?" Father Eisen's voice came from inside the bedroom.
"Yeah, but he seemed in a hurry today, just rushed to his bedroom as soon as he came in. Didn't even see him." The mother complained before closing the door again.
Huff... Huff... Huff...
Galon leaned against the door, gasping for air. His face was pale, his pupils dilating and contracting repeatedly.
The moment he killed the girl with a single punch, up until now, replayed vividly in his mind. The shattered bones, the crimson blood, the severed arm, and those final red eyes.
"No one saw." Galon carefully recalled the surroundings; indeed, there was no one on that secluded street corner under the dim streetlight, well within a blind spot from the car lights.
"Really, no one saw, except for the driver!" Galon reassured himself after piecing together the events, certain of his conclusion.
The excessive strength he had mastered through training had been fully unleashed instinctively in a life-threatening moment. Fearing his strength might be insufficient, he had used all his might!
And the result was the opponent's unequivocal death.
Thud thud thud...
"Bro, are you okay?" Ying'er's voice came from outside the door.
"I'm fine, just changing clothes. I'll be out soon." Galon responded in his usual tone.
"Oh, then I'll heat some water for you, okay?"
"Thanks, yeah."
Footsteps receded.
Galon calmed his racing heart, changed into pajamas, and bundled the brown disciple uniform, showing the blood-free side outward, before heading to the door to open it.
Shock!
"What are you doing!!?" A figure stood at the door, surprisingly Ying'er in her school uniform.
Galon reflexively tried to close the door, but Ying'er blocked it with her foot. Without thinking further, he turned and rushed a few steps, shoved the changed clothes under the bed, then sat on the bed, blocking that spot with his feet.