Apotheosis Begins with Tai Chi

For these two consecutive punches, Yu Shi had clearly held his breath, forcibly pushing the Blood Qi throughout his body to its absolute limit.

In an instant, veins bulged on his neck, his face flushed a deep crimson, and his eyes filled with bloodshot veins. Blood began to trickle from his nose...

As a result, both his speed and power had increased by a large margin.

Chen Cheng barely managed to block the first punch as it swept toward his neck. In truth, he was already struggling.

The second punch followed seamlessly, aimed straight for his heart.

Chen Cheng could no longer block with his arms, nor could he sidestep or retreat. After blocking the first punch, he couldn’t force a follow-up move. The key was, there was simply no time!

BAM—!

That punch, infused with Yu Shi’s peak Power, landed squarely on Chen Cheng’s Heart and Mouth Divine Seal Acupoint.

Chen Cheng’s frame shuddered violently, and his Training Attire was blasted to shreds.

The intense, muffled thud sounded like thunder suppressed beneath a mountain, thrashing as if fighting for its life.

That abrupt burst of sound made everyone nearby flinch instinctively.

”It’s over…”

Ye Yang shot to his feet.

The pupils of everyone from Dragon Mountain trembled, their faces turning deathly pale.

CRACK!

The teacup in Han Chuo’s hand shattered, porcelain shards digging into his palm, but he didn’t even glance at it. The composed expression he had maintained finally broke, replaced by a smile he couldn’t hide. The mirth spilled from the corners of his eyes, impossible to suppress.

Han Tianqi’s face was alight with ecstasy. He craned his neck and opened his mouth, a cheer already at his throat, just waiting to erupt.

”What a pity…”

Wu Shannan let out a quiet sigh. The smile on his face froze for a moment, but it quickly returned to normal.

He was certainly regretful to see a genius fall.

It was just that geniuses in this world were as common as fish in the sea. Those who could actually reach the other shore and achieve greatness were as rare as a phoenix’s feather.

In his decades of rising and falling through the ranks, Wu Shannan had personally witnessed more geniuses fall midway than he could possibly count.

This was just one more to add to the list.

”No… That’s not right…”

Just then, Pang Shixun suddenly spoke, his gaze extremely complex.

He was supposed to be the most powerful person present.

In that instant, what he saw with his naked eye was no different from what anyone else saw.

But his intuition, honed by a lifetime immersed in the Martial Arts, sparked a powerful thought in his mind at that very moment…

’What you see is not always the truth!’

One breath!

Two breaths!

Wind swept across the training grounds, making the flags snap and flutter.

Yet it was as if the sound was muffled by some invisible barrier. No one seemed to hear it, their ears filled only with the pounding of their own hearts.

And in that very instant.

Just as everyone’s eyes were riveted on Chen Cheng, certain that he—like Ye Qiluo—would have his chest cavity ravaged by the Dark Force, his heart and lungs shattered, and die on the spot…

A blood-curdling scream suddenly erupted.

The sound was shrill, piercing the dead silence like the squeal of a pig struggling for its life as the knife goes in.

But that was not Chen Cheng’s voice.

It was Yu Shi!

His fist, which was pressed against Chen Cheng’s heart, suddenly recoiled as if from an electric shock. He pulled it back so abruptly and violently that he staggered back several steps, nearly falling over.

A pure and powerful stream of Dark Force had transferred from Chen Cheng’s heart, suddenly penetrating Yu Shi’s fist.

This time, however, it was no longer just ten percent.

It was Dark Force equivalent to roughly sixty percent of Chen Cheng’s full strength.

It surged from Yu Shi’s fist all the way to his elbow, where it imploded like a Thunder Burst.

Everyone watched, wide-eyed, as the skin on Yu Shi’s palm suddenly swelled up like an inflating balloon.

What the crowd couldn’t see was that beneath the skin, his bones were shattering inch by inch. His tendons twisted and snapped, emitting a series of cringe-inducing crunches.

His forearm was in slightly better condition; the swelling wasn’t as extreme.

But the inside had been completely ravaged, as if by explosives.

The muscles were completely shredded and the bones were severely damaged. His entire forearm hung limply, like a hollowed-out skin sack.

It was completely ruined!

”This… How is this possible!?”

Yu Shi’s voice was hoarse and trembling, as if the words were being forcibly squeezed from his throat.

He stared, eyes wide enough to split, nearly suffocating from the shock.

He was completely unable to comprehend, much less believe, the result before his very eyes.

Meanwhile.

Even Chen Cheng himself was stunned for a moment. He lowered his gaze to his chest, his eyes trembling slightly. He also hadn’t expected his counterattack to be so overwhelmingly effective.

That’s right!

Just a moment ago, everyone had thought Chen Cheng was just passively taking a beating.

But in reality, faced with that unavoidable attack, Chen Cheng had decisively launched a counterattack.

Of course, such a counterattack had to be built upon a sufficiently powerful defense.

The Dragon Scale Shirt had negated nearly twenty percent of Yu Shi’s Power, and the Four Gods Profound Body had withstood another ten percent.

But the crucial part was this!

The Loose and Transparent Characteristic caused the major tendons throughout his body to instinctively buffer the external force. In an instant, it evenly distributed another thirty percent of Yu Shi’s Power throughout his body before expelling it, completely nullifying the impact.

In a single moment, only forty percent of the Power in Yu Shi’s punch remained.

Building on that, Chen Cheng mobilized all the Blood Qi in his body.

Over the past month, he had tempered his Four Gods Profound Body without pause.

The first Four Pillars of Blood Qi—located at his Great Dragon, Hundred Gatherings, Dantian, and Spirit Ruins—had all become far more powerful than an ordinary person’s.

In the blink of an eye, all the Dark Force in his body converged on his heart.

Then, using the Force Manipulation of Tai Chi Force, he compressed it into a sphere, collapsed it into a single point, and in the instant his chest rose and fell, he unleashed a sudden Instant Burst.

Thus, it was equivalent to Chen Cheng erupting with one hundred percent of his power to counter the remaining forty percent of Yu Shi’s.

The result was exactly what everyone now witnessed.

Chen Cheng was completely unharmed and hadn’t retreated even half a step.

Yu Shi’s palm was swollen like a ball, the muscles of his forearm were destroyed, and the bones and tendons of that arm were shattered. He couldn’t even move a single finger.

WHOOSH—

At that very moment, without even pausing for breath, Chen Cheng lunged forward, his speed exploding in an instant.