Apotheosis Begins with Tai Chi

”His body... it’s even tougher and more resilient than Refined Iron!?”

’No, that’s not right...’

Wang Peng heard Shen Chun’s cry of alarm but didn’t entirely agree, for he had perceived something deeper.

’Brother Chen’s physical fortitude is indeed astonishing! But that last exchange wasn’t a straightforward clash of brute force! Something else seemed to be hidden within his body, something that had forcefully negated a huge portion of the impact’s immense power...’

’What... what on earth could it be?’

Wang Peng couldn’t see through it. His mind raced with wild guesses, but he still couldn’t find an answer.

It wasn’t just him; no one else could have figured it out either.

Only Chen Cheng himself knew.

This was the deserved, inevitable reward for the hard work he had put in, all under the blessing of the Vertical Eye Mark.

Over the past month, he had focused on practicing Foundation Establishment Tai Chi and Four Gods Profound Body. His refinement of both had improved significantly, and he had broken through to new levels in each.

The Loose and Transparent Characteristic from his Foundation Establishment Tai Chi had just helped him negate thirty percent of the impact’s force.

And the ever-strengthening body from the Four Gods Profound Body gave him the confidence to withstand the remainder.

Crucially, the Four Gods Profound Body also had a synergy with the Unyielding Attribute.

Refining the Four Gods Profound Body simultaneously strengthened his first Four Pillars of Blood Qi and his overall physical constitution.

The Unyielding Attribute metabolized and eliminated his weaker physical cells.

Then, the cells enhanced by refining the Four Gods Profound Body would divide, creating new, stronger ones.

The Unyielding Attribute would then purge the relatively weaker cells from this new batch.

The stronger cells would then divide to create even stronger ones.

This cycle repeated itself, selecting the best of the best and refining the already refined. It was as if his body was receiving an additional, deeper and more fundamental layer of enhancement on top of the strengthening from the Four Gods Profound Body.

The only drawback was that the total volume of cells metabolized and replaced by the Unyielding Attribute each day was minuscule.

In the short term, the effects wouldn’t be particularly significant.

But even so, in the dozen or so days since unlocking the Unyielding Attribute, the improvement in Chen Cheng’s physical fortitude had already surpassed the gains from over a month of refining the Four Gods Profound Body.

It was for this very reason that a moment ago, Chen Cheng had truly used his mortal flesh and blood to withstand the Cloth-Wrapped Demon’s furious charge.

It looked as though Chen Cheng had been at a disadvantage, but in reality, he had won by a landslide.

He hadn’t used the momentum from his Thunder Treading Skill, nor had he activated his Dragon Scale Shirt to disperse the force. He hadn’t even circulated his Blood Qi or used his Dark Force.

He had simply used his pure physical body to withstand the Cloth-Wrapped Demon’s terrifying charge, one that far surpassed any of its previous attacks.

His goal had been to test the strength of his own body and the power of his opponent.

Now, the test was complete.

His placid gaze said it all. ’My opponent hasn’t seen the limits of my abilities. It’s time to end this.’

「At the same time.」

The Cloth-Wrapped Demon charged once more.

However, it seemed to have realized that this seemingly frail human was not prey that could be vanquished with a simple, brutish charge.

Its steps were heavier and steadier than before. With every footfall, the frozen earth caved in beneath its feet, sending packed snow blasting outward.

It no longer relied on a reckless charge. Instead, it lowered its head, hollowed its chest, and arched its back, concentrating all its power into its arms.

As it closed the distance, its right fist suddenly smashed down from on high. Larger than Chen Cheng’s own head, its skin was as hard as iron and its knuckles like protruding rock. The fist plummeted with the force of a meteorite.

The wind preceding the punch slammed down, blasting the snow at Chen Cheng’s feet in all directions and revealing the pale, frozen earth beneath.

Shen Chun’s heart clenched, and Wang Peng held his breath.

「In the next instant.」

Chen Cheng stepped forward to meet the attack.

The moment the fist was about to crash down on him, he ducked slightly and deftly evaded it.

The terrifyingly massive fist grazed the top of his head. The tearing gust of wind flipped up a corner of the black cloth masking his face, but he had wrapped it so meticulously that there was only more black cloth beneath.

He paid it no mind. Following the motion, his right arm whipped out like a long whip pulled taut to its limit, lashing out at the monster’s ribs.

It was not a move from the Hidden Dragon Fist, nor was it a technique from any school of Martial Arts.

It was, quite simply, a swing of his arm.

However, hidden within that swing were the fruits of his day-in, day-out refinement of Foundation Establishment Tai Chi.

In a split second, every muscle in his body suddenly coiled.

Every single muscle fiber, as fine as gossamer, acted like a highly coordinated ’living cord,’ twisting and layering around his bones, link after interlocking link, each one tightening the next.

This was not brute force, but an exceptionally precise mechanical structure.

Every fiber moved along its own trajectory, interlocking, borrowing power from one another, without the slightest bit of waste.

And this coiling was a process of storing power.

Like a spring or a rubber band, the tighter the coil, the more ferocious the explosive burst of Power upon release.

At this very moment, every muscle fiber in his body coiled to its absolute limit in an instant. They all trembled, yet achieved a perfect resonance—like the low hum of a bowstring pulled taut before release, or even more, like the tooth-aching static that fills the air just before a thunderstorm.

The entire process was so brief that an ordinary person would be unable to perceive it.

CRACK!!!

In that instant, all the muscle fibers throughout his body, which had been coiled to their absolute limit, simultaneously reversed their spin and snapped back into place.

It was as if countless bowstrings, stretched taut, were all released at once; it was even more like innumerable springs, compressed to their very bottom, all recoiling at the same time.

Countless streams of power surged up from the soles of his feet, passing through his toes, ankles, knees, waist and hips, back, shoulders, elbows, and wrists, all the way to his fingertips—flowing through each joint, transmitted layer by layer.

During this transmission, all of these forces compounded in a wave-like fashion, each surge more powerful than the last.

Finally, the power reached its absolute peak at the end of Chen Cheng’s whip-like arm—at the very tips of his middle and index fingers!