Chapter 22 — Section Twenty-One: The Underestimated Shen Yuan

Facts had proven that the students of Tianjing Academy were exceedingly wealthy.

There were three soul-general cards alone, and every one of them a silver card: the second-tier movement art [Empty Wooden Stakes], the third-tier movement art [Eight Steps to Catch the Cicada], and the third-tier finger technique [Iron Mud Finger].

The two movement-art cards were a timely solution to Tang Duo's urgent need. Tang Tang was short precisely such cards just now, and he had never expected someone to deliver them to his door; in an instant, the unconscious Yang Yong on the ground looked far more agreeable to him.

[Iron Mud Finger] was a metal-attribute finger technique, which Tang Tang could not cultivate, but metal-attribute techniques were quite popular, and he could perfectly well use it to trade for a soul-general card he could employ.

What a good man!

Tang Ke was brimming with gratitude.

The look he cast at Shen Yuan turned fervent at once. But soon Tang Xuan calmed down—the strength Shen Yuan had displayed was truly astonishing.

It was the first time Tang Tang had ever seen Amori so thoroughly suppressed by another.

Shen Yuan well deserved the title of Iron Palm. His palm technique looked plain and unremarkable, yet every palm was vigorous and unyielding. Amori was born with divine strength, and the giant wooden saber in his hands was exceedingly heavy; driven by true force, when it came to sheer momentum and crushing weight, Tang Tang admitted he could not match it. Yet that saber force, heavy as Mount Tai pressing down, was always blocked firm and fast by those two swarthy iron palms.

True force surged through Shen Yuan's whole body; his footwork seemed slow, yet each step carried the weight of ten thousand catties, and every step inevitably left a clear footprint on the ground. In just that manner he pressed toward Amori step by step, his palms glinting with a deep black radiance, the wind of his palms moaning low.

How fierce Tang Tang was!

Tang Tang stared somewhat dazed; the Shen Yuan before him actually gave him a sense that there was no blocking him. Amori's saber force was beginning to grow disordered, while Shen Yuan's iron palms were plain and unadorned, yet their might was startling—often a single palm strike would blanket an area several zhang wide.

Shen Yuan seemed utterly indifferent to the shifts in Amori's saber force; palm after palm, Amori's saber force could never break through his palm force.

What vigorous true force!

Tang Tang saw the crux of it: Shen Yuan's mastery of the iron palm was indeed astonishing, but what truly drove Amori to such a pass was Shen Yuan's abnormally vigorous true force.

Tang Tang, who had just mastered the Crane Body, felt the tiny pride in his heart take an immediate and heavy blow.

Either the mental cultivation method Shen Yuan practiced was very special, or he had fourth-tier true force!

Amori's true force was no weak thing either—third-tier high-grade true force, no mean feat at his age. Tang Duo's true force was weaker still; he had only just entered the third tier. Though he had cultivated the Crane Body, and the explosive power of an instant's true-force burst could give him the strength of third-tier mid-grade, in all other respects he fell far short of third-tier mid-grade.

Even Amori, at third-tier high-grade, was completely suppressed by Shen Yuan; his own pitiful scrap of true force would likely be swept aside by a single brush of that palm wind.

Tianjing Academy truly hid dragons and crouching tigers.

Shen Yuan did not even look older than himself, yet his true force had already been cultivated to such a terrifying degree.

Seeing Amori's saber force on the verge of scattering, Tang Yi was seized with panic—if Amori were defeated, the spoils he had just obtained would fly away at once, and Shen Yuan would certainly not let them off either.

Gritting his teeth, Tang Tang exploded forward from his feet, his whole body darting out like a cheetah.

Flash Fist!

When Shen Yuan caught Tang Tang rushing over from the corner of his eye, his heart tightened, but when Tang Tang unleashed the Flash Fist, a disdainful curve rose unbidden at the corner of his mouth.

A second-tier martial skill was, in his eyes, of no use whatsoever.

With this little ability, you wish to challenge Tianjing?

Today I will make you understand how laughable your thinking is!

Brilliance burst in Shen Yuan's eyes; the true force throughout his body surged to its utmost, his hair standing on end. His palm force grew slower and heavier still, as though the very air had suddenly turned viscous.

Tang Xuan was like a tiny fly dropped into a swamp, unable even to flap its wings. Before his Flash Fist could come near Shen Yuan, the gale stirred up by those inconspicuous iron palms made his figure lurch to one side.

The Flash Fist collapsed of itself.

In the blink of an eye, the two were in dire peril.

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Amori struggled to hold on; Shen Yuan's iron palms seemed to be everywhere, and no matter how he varied his saber force, it was of no use at all. The Earth-Splitting Slash, ordinarily fierce beyond compare, today carried none of its usual majesty.

Among Tianjing's experts, Shen Yuan was not conspicuous, and in daily life he kept a low profile. Amori had never in ten thousand years imagined that Shen Yuan's strength could be so formidable!

When he saw Foundation Tang also leap into the fray, Amori bit hard on his lip.

With Foundation Tang's strength, entering the battle circle was no different from courting death.

Bastard!

Amori did not know why, but anger rose in his heart—yes, anger! Anger that he should be so weak; anger that his own strength should be so lowly; anger that he should actually feel a trace of fear!

Anger flowed in all directions like molten lava, and his whole body trembled faintly.

It was as if a voice kept echoing in his heart.

What a disgrace!

Amori!

You are a man resolved to create a martial path of your own!

How can you be so incompetent? How can you be so cowardly?

How can you!

What of your dream? What of the oath you swore?

You do not even have the courage to struggle and fight for your life—Amori, you coward!

You are a coward...

"...You lack that ruthlessness of Tang Duo's..."

Wei Zheng's words suddenly surfaced in Amori's mind, and Amori froze.

His gaze turned involuntarily toward Foundation Tang.

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While watching from the sidelines, Tang Tang had been shaken to the core, but once he entered the battle circle, all his stray thoughts were cast behind him. His eyes wide, glaring furiously, he swung his fists without cease.

Flash Fist!

His fists vanished into the air at an astonishing frequency, and at an astonishing frequency emerged again from empty space.

Having entered the battle circle himself, Tang Tang experienced Shen Yuan's iron palms in a completely different way. A seemingly ordinary palm thrust from Shen Yuan sent a howling palm wind rushing out like a solid wall of wind, crushing straight toward him!

There was no way to dodge at all.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Tang Duo's Flash Fists fell on the wind wall like raindrops, setting off dense bursts of sound, and transparent ripples bloomed in the air before him.

Boom!

The wind wall shattered, and countless fine streams of air, sharp as broken glass, flew in all directions. Whish, whish, whish—Tang Duo's clothes were slashed open in several places, and blood welled quietly out along the small cuts.

Tang Tang seemed not to notice at all, because Shen Yuan had sent another palm strike his way.

Flash Fist again!

A flicker of surprise crossed Shen Yuan's eyes; Tang Tang's mastery of the Flash Fist was unexpected to him. To this point, not one of Tang Tang's punches had failed—that is, Tang Duo's Flash Fist success rate had reached one hundred percent.