"I'm going all out!" Qinjin poured his fighting spirit into his legs, his muscles vibrating and seizing violently as if he were having a seizure, yet a hundred times faster than any epileptic fit. The searing pain felt as if someone were trying to rip the muscles from his legs with their bare hands. Sweat instantly covered his entire body, and the wooden plank beneath his feet shattered instantly! He plunged downwards!
The target in the eyes of Qinjin Number Two vanished in an instant. Qinjin had already appeared at the Number Two's flank, his fist transformed into a blacksmith's hammer, smashing the air that dared to obstruct it, descending toward Qinjin Number Two's head. [Myriad Shadows]! *[Ascending Peak Eighteen Hammers, First Hammer!] *
Enlak suddenly stood up, his eyes blazing with a startling intensity. Qinjin Number Two, who seemed unable to evade, suddenly bent sharply at the waist!
Qinjin’s pupils erupted with an astonishment he had never known before. Qinjin Number Two had done something he absolutely could not have done; with the driving force from his waist, his upper body twisted a full one hundred and eighty degrees! His chest and back formed a single plane! Both arms shot up high! Bang! Bang!
The First Hammer of the Ascending Peak Eighteen Hammers, which always traced a bizarre arc that seemed to ignore any enemy defense, struck the arms Qinjin Number Two had raised for the first time. It did not hit his head. The immense burst of fighting spirit, combined with the strange force of the First Hammer of the Ascending Peak Eighteen Hammers, slammed Qinjin Number Two onto his knees, causing them to hit the wooden floorboards together, shattering several planks.
"Myriad Shadows? Ascending Peak Eighteen Hammers? The old blacksmith's apprentice?" Enlak stared blankly at Qinjin. "You possess such an ability?"
Pfft! Qinjin Number Two, under Qinjin's fist, suddenly vanished, dissolving into a visible current of air that coiled and swept toward Enlak, instantly entering his body. "This..." Qinjin’s brow furrowed deeply, his expression unusually grim as he stared at Enlak. "Is this... the Second Fighting Body?"
"You even know about the Second Fighting Body?" Enlak tutted twice, nodding repeatedly, his pupils full of mirth. "No wonder the old blacksmith was willing to teach you [Myriad Shadows] and [Ascending Peak Eighteen Hammers]." "Is it truly the Second Fighting Body?"
Qinjin took in Enlak's appearance anew. The Second Fighting Body, which he had only ever encountered in the powerful warrior notes in books, was now right before his eyes! Legend held that when fighting spirit reached a certain level, it could be condensed into a human form. Unless a warrior of equal power could discern the reality, almost no one could tell if it was composed of fighting spirit or a real person.
But how was this Second Fighting Body cultivated? And what medium did it require? Qinjin had scoured countless books but found not a single clue. Every record left by a powerhouse was vague on that point, never stating it directly. If he hadn't witnessed Enlak retract Qinjin Number Two back into his body as fighting spirit, he would never have suspected that the entity he'd been fighting for so long was a Second Fighting Body.
"Losing to the old blacksmith..." Enlak waved his hand and chuckled. "It’s no disgrace! I truly didn't expect you to know Myriad Shadows. Actually, even if I had known, I likely still would have lost. Your use of Myriad Shadows just now was desperate; the extent you employed it was beyond anything you've managed in practice, wasn't it?"
Qinjin looked down at his legs, which were still trembling uncontrollably, and managed a wry smile. If he hadn't pushed his control past its limits, how could he have defeated himself? If he hadn't achieved that extreme burst of power, why, after slamming his opponent to his knees, didn't he follow up with a kick to take complete victory? It was because his legs were utterly beyond his control! "Kid, you passed." Enlak sat back down heavily beneath the character [Dou], looking at Qinjin, and gestured for him to approach. "Now, you can ask your questions."
Qinjin took a deep breath. "I want to know how to break through my current realm. While I feel I've found a direction, it also feels incomplete."
Enlak frowned, looking troubled. "It's not that I can't tell you, but the feeling you get from discovering it yourself is always different from me just telling you. You should understand that well enough." "Yes," Qinjin nodded. "I just need a hint." "That, I cannot help you with," Enlak shook his head. "Telling you would harm you. However, there is one method that might work: me fighting you..."
Before the words were finished, Enlak surged forward, his Subduing Demon Strike fist descending with a sinister trajectory aimed at Qinjin's head. The pressure Qinjin felt was infinitely greater than when he faced Nila that other day. He barely managed to block Enlak's trajectory with both hands, but his lower abdomen was inexplicably struck. His body was sent flying high, much like when he severely hit the Tenth Commander with the Ascending Peak Eighteen Hammers that day—it seemed like the blow was blocked, but ultimately, it wasn't.
Qinjin gasped, his stomach churning, sighing inwardly: Just a few days ago, he was beating someone up like this, and now he’s the one getting beaten...
The powerful fighting spirit surged like a torrential river, violently tearing through the layers of defense of the Wind and Cloud Golden Body. The Wind and Cloud Golden Body, which could usually be assembled instantly, was, for the first time, truly pierced by the onslaught of fighting spirit. Qinjin felt the energy within his fighting meridians warring and colliding endlessly.
Enlak lightly tapped the ground with his fingertips and leaped high, his ten fingers interlaced above his head, slamming down heavily onto Qinjin's back.
Pain! Qinjin thought he heard the sound of his spinal column cracking. The speed of this attack was too terrifying! The same attack somehow felt utterly unstoppable.
His body smashed through the wooden floorboards and bounced slightly off the ground, but Enlak’s foot had already lashed out towards Qinjin’s abdomen—a merciless kick that cleaved into his lower abdomen like a battle saber! Enlak followed up his successful strikes without any pause, unleashing a storm of continuous attacks. Strong! Truly too strong! Qinjin managed to maintain a semblance of defense, secretly marveling at how the gap between warriors of the same level could be stretched this wide. Enlak was exerting the same level of strength as a heavily injured Nila from that day, yet the resulting destructive power and combat effectiveness were on entirely different planes! If Nila had been this powerful back then, even his trump card, the throwing knife, wouldn't have been very effective, would it?
The entire fight lasted less than a minute. Enlak returned to his seat beneath the character [Dou], looking at Qinjin sprawled on the ground. "Take your time to reflect. As for the technique scrolls you’ve earned, they are all here. Oh yes, you still have a choice for one Fighting Spirit cultivation scroll. Find me again after you've absorbed all this."
"How could he be so strong? Why?" Qinjin lay on the ground, his mind filled entirely with Enlak's movements. Facing Enlak, even his own speed of attack felt slow; it wasn't intentional, but rather similar to the feeling he had when facing Nila.
The difference was that Nila hadn't truly affected the speed of his attacks or reactions, whereas facing Enlak’s strikes, he was genuinely affected.
"What is this?" Qinjin closed his eyes, recalling Enlak’s movements, the mental images replaying incessantly. Gradually, Enlak’s form began to blur and distort.
A giant dragon! Enlak’s image twisted and morphed into a colossal dragon! A dragon that only appeared in books, the strongest magical beast constantly celebrated by bards: the Dragon!
Those fists and kicks were like the gaping maw of a dragon! Facing Enlak felt like an ordinary magical beast facing a dragon; it carried the weight of Draconic Might!
"I know what I’ve been missing..." Qinjin suddenly snapped his eyes open to look at Enlak. "The progression of the Fighting Apertures is technique, but fighting spirit is never just technique. Technique without life will never possess tension..." Enlak smiled and nodded. "Continue to feel it with your body."
Qinjin kept his eyes closed, and the image of Enlak in his mind continued to expand, as if a hatchling dragon were growing, its aura becoming more potent as the fight progressed further into his memory.
"Dragon?" Qinjin's self-image in his mind began to shift. Initially, it was water! A river! The river overflowing in the frontier lands. The eruption of fighting spirit in his body gradually transformed, and even the progression of his Fighting Apertures began to change, following the relentless surging of the river. One thousand one hundred, one thousand one hundred fifty...
In a brief moment, his method of progression in terms of control increased by fifteen hundred cycles! Qinjin dispersed the fighting spirit progression within his body; continuing to practice on the ground was pointless now. Once the direction was grasped, the rest was hard training, hard training, and more hard training!
"Collect the techniques you've earned first," Enlak pointed to the scrolls on the floor. "You've gained quite a bit today. Winning again in the future will be much harder."
Qinjin grinned, flipping through the technique scrolls in his hands. Although he didn't know if
"You learned your movement style from a loach, didn't you?" Enlak commented approvingly. "Very slippery! But it hasn't formed a complete system yet. Since you're pursuing a slippery movement style, this
"
"It has no use for you currently," Enlak slowly stood up and walked across the broken training ground. "But that might be hard to say in the future. Perhaps you'll have a friend who could use it."
"A friend? Rorin?" Qinjin sighed. It was a shame the fatty was dead; otherwise, this would have been perfect for him.
"There are two more Fighting Spirit cultivation scrolls here; pick one," Enlak waved his hand lightly, and two long, narrow, pitch-black wooden boxes appeared in the air before Qinjin. "Only I know what's inside them. This time, you must rely on luck to choose." Fighting Spirit scrolls? Qinjin bent down and casually picked up the box on the right. "I want this one."
"Oh? No hesitation?" Enlak looked at Qinjin with a squinting smile. "There are many ways to cultivate Fighting Spirit scrolls. Perhaps the one you chose only cultivates twelve Fighting Apertures."
"Then I'm unlucky," Qinjin shrugged. Even if this scroll detailed one hundred and eight Fighting Apertures, unless he completely abandoned his Wind and Cloud Fighting Spirit, he couldn't cultivate any other Fighting Spirit scroll. The number of apertures was irrelevant.
"Is that so? Congratulations, you have obtained a special elemental Fighting Spirit cultivation scroll." Enlak yawned and stretched before turning back toward the character [Dou]. "Alright, I'm tired today. Come back to challenge me next time. Just remember one thing: winning here earns you a reward. If you lose, you'll have to pay a fee to challenge again next time, and the amount will vary depending on the strength of the opponent you face; the stronger the opponent, the more expensive the fee."
Qinjin bowed deeply and exited Enlak's Fighting Spirit Chamber, hastily opening the wooden box to examine the scroll. Even if he couldn't learn the Fighting Spirit scroll, just looking at it was beneficial! Elemental Fighting Spirit scrolls, whether in the True Policy Dynasty, the Lucifer Dynasty of the Demon Race, or among the Barbarian tribes, were exceedingly rare. Every great family and lineage would pay a fortune to acquire them. [Great True Gold Fighting Spirit]
"Strange name," Qinjin muttered, flipping to the first page. His eyes instantly lit up. This Great True Gold Fighting Spirit was different from most cultivation methods in the True Policy Dynasty. After reaching Level Ten, the Fighting Spirit secret arts practiced usually involved a fixed number of Fighting Apertures. For instance, the Wind and Cloud Fighting Spirit started with one hundred and eight Apertures, meaning the cultivation method was largely set, with only minor variations based on the realm achieved.
The Great True Gold Fighting Spirit, however, was a phased, special Fighting Spirit cultivation secret art. Initially, a Level Ten warrior would only practice twelve Fighting Apertures, making it a rather inferior, low-level secret art. But as strength increased, upon reaching certain thresholds, it could advance to thirteen, fourteen... twenty-four... thirty-six... fifty... seventy-two... ninety-six... one hundred and eight!
All one hundred and eight Apertures! Qinjin's heart trembled violently. The description of the Great True Gold Fighting Spirit was very detailed: it was a special Metal/Iron attribute Fighting Spirit. Paired with Metal/Iron attribute techniques, it could sever anything under the heavens! It granted skin like copper and bones like iron, making the body unbreakable by anything under the heavens!
"What if two practitioners of the Great True Gold Fighting Spirit fought—one attacking, one defending?" Qinjin smiled. "There might be some exaggeration in the claims, but it seems to be an incredibly powerful elemental Fighting Spirit. I'm tempted! Truly tempted!"
Cultivating all one hundred and eight Apertures! Qinjin lamented while reading the Great True Gold Fighting Spirit, feeling a strong urge to abolish his Wind and Cloud Fighting Spirit and cultivate this scroll instead.
Qinjin flipped another page and saw the cultivation method, causing him to sigh and shake his head repeatedly. "This is a Fighting Spirit of the wealthy. Those who haven't succeeded in life probably won't achieve great success with it."
The cultivation of the Great True Gold Fighting Spirit could be described as both simple and incredibly complex. It wasn't just about practicing slowly or using Fighting Stones like other cultivation methods; it required a special element: metal!
For initial cultivation, one could absorb bronze and iron artifacts. As strength grew, ordinary bronze would turn to mere rust after a single absorption, necessitating silver, gold, mithril... essence gold... Oltacraghon...
In short, the purer the metal, the better! These high-grade metals were usually used to forge magic weapons, magic items, powerful Fighting Weapons, or even Super Fighting Weapons—metals so expensive that buyers would sell themselves into debt to afford them. To use them for cultivating Fighting Spirit...
"Extravagant... too extravagant..." Qinjin shook his head repeatedly. To cultivate all one hundred and eight Apertures of the Great True Gold Fighting Spirit, one needed not only superior warrior aptitude but also immense financial backing! If the practitioner lacked the right talent, it would be like throwing handfuls of gold coins into the sea just for sport.
"The purer the metallic aura, the better?" Qinjin blinked. "Then using refined iron of Grade Two would certainly be better than Grade One refined iron, right? And giving it a piece of natural essence iron would be even more effective? Or perhaps just using a Fighting Weapon? How extravagant would that be..."
Qinjin continued flipping through the
Qinjin sat on the steps outside the door of Enlak’s Fighting Spirit Chamber, mentally energized as he read
"Techniques truly depend on who uses them," Qinjin mused to himself while reading the technique. "They are both cutting-type techniques, so there should be commonalities, right? Even if one is a bloodline-matched technique and the other is for a regular warrior. The fusion capability of the Wind and Cloud Fighting Spirit is good; it can simulate some abilities of the Splitting Gold Chain Slash..."
Qinjin rapidly flipped through all the technique manuals he had obtained, then stood up and let out a long breath. "I should find time to practice them. Once I master them, finding the common points for fusion will be the proper way forward."
"The little fellow is smart," Enlak remarked faintly from behind the door. "You can look at Fighting Spirit scrolls to understand the cultivation methods, but techniques are not mastered just by reading. Looking at them is useless."
Entering the Fighting Spirit room again to study various technique books, the time available before leaving the village was insufficient. Qinjin proactively sought out Oulala the mysterious alchemist and was brutally tormented by her. Afterward, he briefly visited Adams to discuss the pharmacology of bone-setting and regeneration before being kicked out of the Endless World again.
"Another new day~" Qinjin stretched languidly. "It's so chaotic in the frontier lands now; I wonder how Teacher Rodriguez and the others are doing? With Biluo protected by Huangquan, they should be safe, right? Nila's punches and kicks were too heavy; those three competitive guys will likely need some time to recover from their injuries. I truly wonder if they can still make it for the final assessment? I should start making potions first..."
The once somewhat disorganized apothecary was now neatly arranged. Granny Yao sat early in the room, waiting for her teacher Qinjin to appear, looking just like an elementary school student.
In the small apothecary, Qinjin was not only preparing bone-setting and regeneration potions but also brewing medicines to repair internal organs and fighting meridians. Compared to bone injuries, the organs and meridians were far more critical—they determined whether the three of them could become greater warriors in the future. If it were just bone issues, once the bones were set, they could depart without waiting for a full recovery.