Chapter Five: The Young Swordsman

  "It seems your training method is incorrect, I won't keep you company." He picked up the stone and continued running.

  As Ye Chen left, everyone's voices grew louder.

  "Unbelievable! Ye Chen actually won, he must have used his Diamond Fist!"

  "Golden Fist and Kai Bei Palm are both human-level intermediate martial skills, in theory they should be evenly matched, but Wang Gang's cultivation is actually higher than Ye Chen's, what's going on?"

  "The reason is simple," said the calm-looking young man after a moment of contemplation: "Ye Chen's Diamond Fist has reached an extremely high level, with a perfect balance of hardness and softness."

  Someone asked in doubt, how did you know?

  "Calm and composed, the young man smiled faintly. 'The teaching elder once said that a true mastery of martial arts requires a balance of gentleness and firmness. That punch Ye Chen used to block Wang Gang's attack may have looked fierce, but it actually contained the technique of rebounding force. Of course, I only realized this after careful analysis.'"

  The mountain road is rugged and difficult to walk.

  Sweat-drenched Ye Dust ran around the mountain peak for over ten miles before arriving at a wide river.

  Boom!

  He threw a stone on the ground and Ye Dun took off his outer garment and jumped into the river.

  Practicing boxing at the bottom of a river is tens or even hundreds of times more difficult than on land, with the massive water pressure squeezing in from all sides, making one's heart feel fearful.

  Breath sunk into the dantian, Ye Chen stood steadily at the riverbed filled with stones and mud. With a casual swing of his fist, the hidden currents surged, yet his power was only about 30% of normal.

  But this is exactly what Ye Chen means, otherwise there would be no need to practice boxing at the bottom of the river.

  The river water rapidly becomes turbid, rolling and swirling, as if a large water monster is hiding in the depths, stirring up waves and trying to emerge.

  In this harsh environment, Ye Chen could feel that his entire skeletal and muscular system was exerting itself to the limit, resisting the turbulent influx and gradually integrating into a cohesive whole, increasing efficiency.

  I don't know how long it took, but Ye Chen couldn't hold his breath any longer and finally emerged from the water.

  Hoo hoo hoo hoo......

  Ye Chen panted heavily and smiled: "Practicing boxing at the bottom of the river is simply twice the result with half the effort, I don't know how many people know this method?"

  ……

  Qingfeng Town is less than ten miles away from Qingfeng Mountain.

  Lai Fu Dai Jiu Lou 2nd floor!

  Yedust, who had been starving for a long time, didn't care about his image and started eating the delicious food on the table with gusto.

  Originally, Ye Chen would come to Qingfeng Town every few days to have a meal. After all, he was just an outer disciple of the Liuyun Sect, and the meals they had were all cooked in large pots, which couldn't be said to be very delicious, but at least guaranteed sufficient nutrition. Although Qingfeng Town wasn't big, there were still some precious dishes to be found.

  Moreover, Ye Chen also likes to listen more about rumors from Jianghu people, in order to make preparations for his future travels.

  Not to mention the second floor, apart from Ye Chen, there were also some Jianghu figures, each carrying a knife and wearing a sword, full of energy.

  "Have you heard? Quick Sword Wu Wanshan was defeated by a young swordsman."

  "I also heard that the young swordsman was called Lin Qi, the third disciple of Beixue Manor. He wielded a swift and deadly sword, defeating Wu Wanshan in just ten moves."

  "You must be joking! Wu Wanshan's cultivation has already reached the early stages of Hugging Yuan, with profound skills, how could he lose to him?"

  "Lao San, you're really out of the loop. This matter has already spread far and wide, how could it be fake? However, Lin Qi's cultivation in the late stage of Cong Zhen Realm is indeed frightening, especially when compared to Wu Wanshan's early stage of Bao Yuan Realm. I wonder how he would compare to the eldest disciple of Liu Yun Sect."

  Ye Chen's expression changed, and he recalled the stories of Wu Wanshan and Lin Qi.

  Wu Wanshan, no door and no faction, over 30 years old, with a quick knife technique that is said to be self-created, can split a drop of water into five parts in an instant, has single-handedly killed more than 40 horse bandits who are good at fighting, cut off a solitary wooden bridge from a distance of several feet, and was sealed as one of the fast knives.

  Lin Qi, the third disciple of Beixue Manor, started practicing at the age of 9, reached the Condensed True Realm at 13, mid-stage at 15, and peak late-stage at 17. His actual combat ability is comparable to that of Beixue Gongzi, the eldest son of Beixue Manor, and he has an unparalleled talent in knife techniques.

  These two people are currently unattainable existences for Ye Chen, but Ye Chen doesn't think Lin Qi has the ability to defeat Master Sister. He occasionally heard the teaching elder say that Master Sister's innate talent in martial arts is already on par with some inner sect elders, and no matter what kind of martial art it is, she can practice it to perfection, a rare genius in Flowing Cloud Sect for centuries.

  "I wonder how long it will take for me to reach this level?" Ye Chen had no doubts about his own potential, his only weakness was that he started late.

  Suddenly, a Jianghu figure said: "You say, among the younger generation of Liuyun Sect, which ones have great potential and can compete with the top disciples of the other four major sects in the future?"

  Needless to say, Liuyun Sect's Great Junior Disciple 'Dark Fragrance Sword' is a young master of the same level as Beixue Gongzi. As for others, I think highly of Jing Jue, the fourth-ranked Core Disciple, who is cold-blooded and ruthless with rich combat experience.

  "Jing Jue is not bad, but I think Tao Xiao Feng, the third-ranked core disciple, is very powerful and often wins with weakness, being clever and versatile."

  The person who brought up the topic smiled slyly, "You're all talking about the top five core disciples, if it were in the past I would have thought so too, but this time is different. The one I think highly of is actually the 23rd ranked core disciple, Xu Jing."

  "Why did you say that?" The others looked curious, and Ye Chen was also focused, he couldn't think of anyone mentioning Xu Jing Shizhi.

  "Three days ago I saw her once, at that time she was fighting against Jianghu's great thief Chui Tie Shou..."

  Before he finished speaking, the crowd began to discuss and speculate, "Iron Hand Li Tong, this man is not an ordinary person. He is cunning and treacherous, ruthless and unparalleled. He has been pursued for half a year but remains unscathed. It's said that his unique skill 'Iron Hand' was passed down from the country of Tuo Luo, truly capable of crushing gold and snapping iron. The Xu Jing you mentioned probably can't handle him!"

  "Wrong, in a hard-hitting situation, Xu Jing has been suppressing Li Tong's strike, causing the opponent's arms to break inch by inch, spitting blood and dying."

  "What? Li Tong is actually a late-stage True Realm cultivator at his peak, and he's being suppressed and beaten by someone?"

  "What's so strange about that? If you saw the scene at the time, you would know how powerful Xu Jing's boxing was. Compared to her, Li Tong seemed very weak in both momentum and technique."

  Ye Dust smiled faintly, knowing Xu Jing's ferocity. Generally speaking, there are three extremely high levels of martial arts skills. The first level is the integration of gentleness and firmness, the second level is the harmony of gentleness and firmness, and the highest level is the unity of gentleness and firmness. Xu Jing had already practiced the Fumo Divine Fist to the second level of harmony between gentleness and firmness, while Ye Dust himself had only been practicing the Diamond Fist for a short time, but had also reached the second level of harmony between gentleness and firmness. In his battle with Wang Gang, he had only used 70-80% of his strength.

  Of course, these three realms are not so easy to reach. People with low talent may spend several years or even a decade and still fail to reach the first realm. For example, Wang Gang in the past didn't even master the opening move of Bi Gan Zhang, let alone achieve the state of being both hard and soft.