Chapter 152: Chapter 120: New Year’s Eve with Big Brother Chen Xin
"Hahaha!"
Chen Ku couldn’t help but let out a long howl of excitement in the forest.
With such speed, speed was power. He dashed forward, wielding a thousand-jin iron rod, smashing it down on his enemy. How was that any different from charging into battle on a thousand-mile horse? Not to mention, with such speed, if he encountered an opponent he couldn’t defeat, he could easily escape fifty zhang away in an instant.
However, Chen Ku could also feel a burning sensation in his chest.
The Piercing Sound Step is ultimately a technique of explosive speed. It focuses on bursting with astonishing velocity in an instant, so that before others can react, they’re like lambs to the slaughter. But such an explosion usually means it doesn’t last long, requiring Qi Power to be condensed and unleashed in a flash. It demands a lot from the body.
Chen Ku gasped for breath.
My current speed far exceeds my physical cultivation, and this is the cost of my body not being able to keep up with the extreme speed after the burst...
There was a key issue here. Piercing Sound Step was a footwork technique meant to complement the Five Realms Ultimate Skill, Black Tiger Butcher Knife. Its entry-level, Minor Achievement, and Great Achievement stages were often inseparable from advancements in cultivation.
Clearly, neither the Medicine King Hall predecessors who invented Piercing Sound Step, nor Shang Yunfang, could have possibly imagined that Chen Ku would achieve Minor Achievement in the Inner Qi Realm, covering fifty zhang in a single dash. In the history of Medicine King Hall, even those with the greatest talent only reached this level with Piercing Sound Step after advancing to the Mystic Barrier Realm.
Chen Ku tried a few more times on the spot. Eventually, he felt his internal organs reaching an unbearable point and estimated his limit.
With my current cultivation at Inner Qi Great Perfection, using Piercing Sound Step at the ’Minor Achievement’ level, at full Qi Power, I can manage at most ’three consecutive dashes’—a total of one hundred and fifty zhang. That’s the limit my body can endure. If I were to dash a fourth time, the rapid circulation of Blood Qi would burst my blood vessels.
Chen Ku’s eyes sparkled.
Unless I break through to the Mystic Barrier Realm, advancing my physique and life level further, or... find another way to compensate for this flaw.
Chen Ku contemplated this as he returned home.
Tomorrow was New Year’s Eve. Medicine King Hall would be closed for the day, and everyone was to return home for the celebration.
It was New Year’s Eve, and the day was dedicated to New Year celebrations. The festive atmosphere permeated Baojiao County. For the New Year, every household, rich or poor, did their best to celebrate, just as the saying went: "Who doesn’t eat dumplings on New Year’s?" On this day, even the poorest families would try their best to prepare the finest meal they could, seeking good omens and hoping that every meal in the coming year could be as good. This was the simplest wish of the common folk.
「In Chen Ku’s home.」
As early as yesterday, his mother and sister-in-law, along with the maids and Long-term Workers, had decorated the house inside and out. They cleaned the house and yard, pasted fresh red paper cutouts on the windows, hung red lanterns, and had already bought the Spring Festival couplets, ready to be put up early tomorrow morning, New Year’s Day.
Hu Zi was in the yard, dressed in festive red clothes and a tiger-head hat, looking like a doll from a New Year painting. He held a lit incense stick in one hand and a string of firecrackers in the other. Squatting on the ground, he tried several times to light the fuse.
Finally, it lit. He yelled, clapped both hands over his ears—still holding the incense and firecrackers—and scampered on his short little legs toward his mother.
POP!
Chen Ku sat cross-legged in his room, listening to the sound of firecrackers and Hu Zi’s exaggerated, excited shouts from the yard, soaking in the New Year atmosphere. Opposite him sat Zhao Chuanzu, also cross-legged, deducing the possibility of fusing the Nine Dragon Union Heart Method with the Mountain-Lifting Palm Technique.
It’s just an Incarnation, so it doesn’t matter if it gets damaged. As long as it turns back into Evil Qi and returns to the Transformation Diagram to be nurtured by Qi Power, it’ll be fine.
About half a cup of tea’s time passed.
The ’Zhao Chuanzu’ Incarnation sitting opposite him suddenly groaned, then coughed up blood from his mouth and nose. The next moment, he dissipated into a stream of white Qi and returned to the space between Chen Ku’s eyebrows.
Chen Ku retracted the Transformation, observing how the "Zhao Chuanzu Incarnation" had fared while testing the cultivation method internally.
This meridian channel is no good. It clashed. I’ll try another next time. As long as the Incarnation isn’t destroyed, I have infinite chances for trial and error. Sooner or later, I’ll figure out the correct route to unleash Mountain Lifting Palm Force using Nine Dragons Union.
Chen Ku exhaled. It was the New Year, yet he sighed.
Three Transformation Diagrams are truly not enough. As I take on more and more tasks, it’s like a growing child still wearing last year’s pants, with their ankles exposed—it’s becoming very restrictive.
In his mind were the three Transformation Diagrams. The first diagram held the Flower Fox Mink Transformation, which was out scouring for Evil Qi and hunting treasures; it couldn’t be unequipped. The second diagram displayed the Fire Beak Pot, used for 24/7 Alchemy at home, also indispensable.
Only the third diagram offered some flexibility, but it also had a cooldown period. This was the one he usually changed. Now, however, he needed it to manifest Zhao Chuanzu for deducing the fusion of the Mountain-Lifting Palm and Nine Dragons Union. If an error occurred during deduction, the Incarnation had to be retracted into his body for nurturing.
Suddenly, all three diagram slots were occupied. This meant he couldn’t even equip the newly acquired Swallow-Treading Horse Transformation. Furthermore, to execute the Minor Achievement of Piercing Sound Step, he would have to unequip one of the other three Transformations.
The twenty thousand jin of Iron Essence from the Firewood Iron Shop still hasn’t been delivered, so I can’t open the fourth diagram yet.