"Morning, Head Chef Zhang Yu." Mo Bai pushed open the courtyard gate, which had just been installed last night, carrying the soy milk, fried dough sticks, potstickers, and soup dumplings he had scavenged from the restaurant.
"Mn, morning." Zhang Yu blinked his small eyes, looking up at the direction of the rising sun in confusion. After spending some time together, his memory of Mo Bai's wake-up time couldn't be described as lazy, but it definitely couldn't be called diligent either.
To describe it roughly, he was the type of person who would clock in at the office at the very last minute.
This was the first time Zhang Yu had seen an event like today, where Mo Bai went out earlier than him and came back with breakfast.
"Could it be, is this the effect of the opposite sex?" Zhang Yu tilted his head and looked at the three beautiful silhouettes sparring back and forth on one side of the small courtyard, estimating in his heart that he might have found the truth.
Placing the breakfast in the main hall, Mo Bai took a deep breath under the shocked expression of Zhang Yu, whose small eyes were popping out of their sockets.
Only the crisp sound of a fist's force exploding was heard; the fist struck out like a dragon!
Immediately afterwards, Mo Bai moved with steps that felt somewhat floaty yet were incomparably solid. The explosive sounds of his fist force striking the air rang out continuously like drumbeats.
With such a big commotion, even the three people sparring nearby stopped their movements to watch Mo Bai, whose every punch and form was filled with violent aesthetics.
"Hoh~, Little Mo still has this unrevealed skill?" Zhang Yu said in surprise.
"It's not Qi force?" After watching for a while, Zhang Yu saw the clues after Mo Bai's fierce-as-a-tiger operation.
The boxing technique could be considered first-class, but this person practicing boxing was just...
Who puts their life on the line with full force in every punch? Moreover, without an object to bear the force, punching with such full effort hurts the body more than hitting a person.
"Cough cough, Little Mo, stop for a moment." Zhang Yu hurriedly called for a stop.
"Ah?" The way Mo Bai suddenly retracted his fist halfway through a punch made Zhang Yu break out in cold sweat again.
"Is this your first time practicing boxing?" Zhang Yu breathed a sigh of relief only after pressing on Mo Bai's arm a few times.
"Correct, first time." Mo Bai looked strangely at Zhang Yu, who was patting and groping him.
After the Akihabara Summit Battle, Little Bai had issued a reward with a mocking nature: Invincible Iron Fist. Because his situation was comfortable and he had no use for it, Mo Bai chose to banish it to a corner of his mind.
Of course, Mo Bai didn't deny that part of the reason was because the boxing technique's name was too LOW.
Until today, having heard Dōjima Gin's secret news about the Qilin-level, and adding the group of ruthless people with superior martial power around him, he couldn't avoid training anymore.
"Boxing isn't practiced like this." Zhang Yu touched Mo Bai's bones once, then checked again for any hidden injuries. He finally relaxed after concluding that the latter's constitution was as strong as an ox.
"When hitting people, exert seventy percent force, reserve thirty percent."
"When practicing boxing, exert fifty percent force, reserve fifty percent."
"Moreover, punching halfway like you did... even if you trained Qi force to protect yourself, suddenly retracting power that has burst forth halfway will still cause injury."
Zhang Yu solemnly warned Mo Bai about the serious consequences his seemingly fierce-as-a-tiger operations would cause.
However, Mo Bai's mind was completely attracted by a term Zhang Yu had spoken.
"Qi force!?"
Mo Bai's eyes widened into perfect circles. As a person from the Hua nation, how could he not have a martial arts dream of flying over eaves and running up walls, and acting chivalrously for righteousness?
"Is it Neigong!?"
"Neigong? There seems to be that saying as well." Zhang Yu recalled for a moment and nodded.
"Are there also various levels of mental cultivation methods!? The kind where if you learn the top ones, you can fight thousands or tens of thousands alone."
The worshipful gaze in Mo Bai's eyes made Zhang Yu enjoy himself very much, but the words he spoke covered Zhang Yu's head in black lines.
"Where did you hear that from?"
"After honing boxing techniques to the microscopic stage, mobilizing the energy triggered by the vibration of every shred of muscle to strike or defend—this is Qi force."
"The stronger you are, the greater the power of the Qi force."
"Then what about Qinggong?" Mo Bai felt a bit disappointed in his heart.
"You mean the skill of lightness? That can indeed be achieved by controlling Qi force."
"I want to learn!"
Who needs to fight thousands or tens of thousands? Being able to fly, jump, and hop to fulfill a martial arts dream was enough to satisfy Mo Bai.
"My boxing technique is considered to be of the Han School lineage; it cannot be taught to outsiders without cause." Zhang Yu felt somewhat troubled.
"How about this."
"Although your horse stance is a bit weak, it can be seen that you do have some foundation. That set of boxing techniques isn't bad either." Zhang Yu came up with a compromise. "I will directly teach you the exertion and retraction of power in boxing. You just practice slowly according to the feeling I give you, how about it?"
Mo Bai nodded his head furiously.
"Since it's like this, come on." Zhang Yu confidently patted his somewhat soft chest. "Hit right here. I'll tell you directly how much force to use and how much to reserve."
"This... isn't too good, is it?" How could Mo Bai have imagined that Zhang Yu would use such a tough method of teaching?
"Relax. For a young lad like you, even ten of you couldn't hurt these old bones of mine."
"This will also let you understand the function of Qi force."
"Really?" Thinking of his own LV20 physical stats, Mo Bai felt inexplicably panicked.
"Would I lie to you? When Qi force rises, the martial artist's whole body becomes solid as refined steel. Relax, you can't hurt me." Zhang Yu patted his chest, and it actually emitted the sound of metal and stone colliding.
"Then I'm really coming, okay?"
"Come!"
"Here I come!!"
"Come!"
To tell the truth, after his physical stats reached LV20, he hadn't had the chance to test what level his strength had actually reached. Now that there was such a good, unbreakable trial stone standing there, Mo Bai completely couldn't refuse.
Mo Bai took a long, deep breath. His chest puffed up high, and the clothes around his body instantly burst out with the sound of ripping from being overwhelmed. His entire person seemed to swell by a large circle in an instant.
He took one step forward, and the cyan stone slab shattered!
Fine, crushed stones hit Zhang Yu's face, and the latter's expression changed drastically.
Zhang Yu had misunderstood one thing from the very beginning: whether Mo Bai was truly exerting full force with every punch when he was boxing, or if it only looked like he was exerting full force.
Some people deal 999 damage because their limit is 999, while some people deal 999 damage because the damage display only goes up to 999.
"Hah!" Zhang Yu, realizing his own mistake, had no time to think of anything else. With a furious shout, the Tang suit on his body swelled high; under the full explosion of Qi force, the clothes were propped up into a spherical shape.
And right at this moment, Mo Bai's fist swung out.
Instantly, the sound of exploding air blasted!
That wasn't a fist. Under the extreme crisis where the hair all over his body stood on end, what Zhang Yu saw was clearly an evil dragon that had opened its giant mouth, revealing its fangs as it galloped towards him.
The fist collided with the Tang suit. The first layer of defense, which should have been able to deflect even pistol bullets under the infusion of Qi force, shattered upon contact like soft tofu.
"Ah!!!"
Zhang Yu flew high up, breaking free from gravity. He flew over the high wall of the small courtyard and landed outside Mo Bai's line of sight.
"..." Mo Bai looked at his own fist, his expression frozen on his face.
What 'solid as refined steel'? Daddy just punched right through your refined steel!
"Pui pui pui! Is this the time to think about that?!"
"Head Chef Zhang Yu! Are you okay?!" Mo Bai hurriedly dashed towards the gate.
"Cough cough cough, I'm fine. Just a bit short of breath." Zhang Yu clutched his chest, coughing as he climbed the wall and jumped back, his face covered in dirt. "Little Mo, you—"
"Just practice according to your previous strength." Patting Mo Bai's shoulder, Zhang Yu coughed and walked back to his own room, his back looking desolate.
His worldview, built over years of practicing martial arts, had also received a shock.
A reckless brute's raw strength could actually be terrifying to this extent!
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