Chapter 102: The Trump Card Revealed, Shocking the Myriad Realms

His fists clashed together with a sound like muffled thunder.

"Dragon Overlord of the Four Seas, Twin Fists Suppressing the World!"

Long Aotian stomped the ground and charged forward, his fists like great hammers, shattering the void and triggering explosive airbursts, a ring of sonic waves forming around his fists.

This punch was utterly terrifying.

It contained a fearsome power capable of smashing all things, destroying everything.

Even his special 'oppressive will' was fused into it, making Jiang Ming feel something like a weakened version of heavenly might—but it had no effect on him. After all, he had experienced true heavenly pressure countless times, let alone a weakened version.

"This punch has some substance!"

Jiang Ming narrowed his eyes, and in a flash of his gaze, he had analyzed Long Aotian thoroughly.

The man's strength was immense—extremely, extraordinarily immense. His blood qi was so dense it had condensed into physical form, and behind him faintly flickered the shadow of a true dragon, inflating his might to monstrous proportions.

"Explosive Fist!"

Jiang Ming struck second but landed first, one fist blocking the opponent's attack.

Hard against hard. Strong against strong.

Not a shred of trickery.

Pure flesh-and-blood combat.

Boom...

Fists of flesh and blood were yet like the hardest steel in the world. As they collided, they actually rang out with the clang of metal striking metal, blasting apart layers of air. Long Aotian's body trembled, and he was sent stumbling backward.

With every step back, the heavy force made the very earth seem to shake.

He retreated a full hundred and eighty meters before stopping.

Long Aotian looked at Jiang Ming with disbelief in his eyes: "I cultivate the body as my main path, and I carry true dragon blood. Among those of the same rank, when it comes to physical strength, if I say I'm second, no one dares claim first. Yet you—you're stronger than me, ridiculously stronger. And the most crucial thing is, I can sense that you and I are both at the fourth-turn realm of body refinement."

He was genuinely shocked.

"I thought this punch would blow your arm clean off, but you actually withstood it!" Jiang Ming was even more surprised.

He had repeatedly deduced the Dragon-Elephant Heaven-Suppressing Art, even re-cultivated it from the start, tempering out Iron Bone, Copper Bone, Silver Bone, Gold Bone, and Jade Bone, then tempered his internal organs, and had now stepped into the marrow-washing stage.

Marrow like silver frost.

Strong beyond all reason.

Yet the result was only sending his opponent flying back with a single punch.

This truly astonished him.

"Is that even human language?!" Long Aotian bristled with fury. "My Long family has been passed down for over a thousand years, possesses an unparalleled body-cultivation method, and true dragon blood. My strength and physique have always been invincible among the same rank. Do you realize that this single punch of yours has completely smashed my pride? This is my True Dragon Battle Body—I planned to unleash it only in the final showdown of the Federation! I was forced to reveal it by Spear Nine, and I barely managed to nearly kill myself along with him. But you? One punch and you sent me flying! Had Spear Nine taken one of my punches, he would have died for certain, no other possibility."

He was losing his mind.

He knew Jiang Ming was strong.

But this was his proudest domain—the path of body refinement!

No one could take that.

Losing to Spear Nine was because the man's speed was too great, and he possessed the ultimate offensive power—a natural counter to him!

But now?

This was pure physical strength!

"Sending you flying is only natural. Do you know how hard I've worked?" Jiang Ming's gaze churned, a thought surfacing in his mind. It felt feasible—by exposing a limited portion, he could also display his own worth. "In my view, that punch should have blown you apart!"

"In the first secret realm world, I already walked the path of body refinement. I cultivated to the fourth-turn realm very early on, but discovered I couldn't fully develop my body's potential. So I gathered a massive collection of body-cultivation techniques, absorbed them, organized them, fused them, innovated, deduced step by step, attempted step by step, and finally..."

"I deduced a peerless body-cultivation art!"

"From that moment on, I began cultivating anew."

"The first turn was easy. In the second turn, I focused specifically on tempering my muscles and bones, until I reached the limit! The true limit. But I felt that above the limit, there was still even higher potential. Do you know? I nearly cultivated myself to death, but I finally broke through the limit again! At that moment, I was shocked, overjoyed, and filled with even greater expectations for the path of body refinement."

"After breaking through the ordinary limit, my strength surged explosively, and my bones glowed with black light, until black covered every bone in my body, and I reached another limit! I knew this certainly wasn't the true limit, so I continued cultivating—if I didn't die from it, I kept going. Because I knew I had no background, no resources. I could only dig out the treasure of the human body for power."

"I gambled and won again!"

"Breaking the limit once more, specks of cyan light appeared on my black bones!"

"I named them Black Bone, Copper Bone, then Silver Bone, Gold Bone, and finally the colors faded, transforming into Jade Bone!"

"Bones like jade!"

"Strength also reached the absolute extreme."

"At that point, I sensed vaguely that this was the true limit—the ultimate limit of muscle and bone tempering that ordinary humans like us can achieve!"

"And I was confident that among my rank, I could kill with a single punch!"

"No one could stop me!"

"I had planned to use it as my trump card in the Federation's final showdown, but you forced it out of me."

"Who would have thought that the physique I was so proud of would meet a stunning blow—I actually failed to kill you in one punch!"

"What does this show?"

"It shows I haven't worked hard enough!"

"It shows I haven't fully unearthed the power of my physical body!"

"It shows I haven't completely comprehended the great mysteries of the human form!"

Jiang Ming's voice was impassioned, rumbling like thunder, spreading through the entire arena and across all one hundred and eight provinces of the Federation through the live broadcast.

The moment his words fell, the entire arena fell silent. Everyone stared blankly at Jiang Ming.

The billions watching the livestream were equally stunned.

"It's plain for all to see—Long Aotian's body refinement is terrifyingly extreme, absolutely powerful to the pinnacle. Look at the other geniuses who fought him: Qin Zhiyan, Lan Xin, all defeated. Even Spear Nine, at the absolute peak of power, was nearly dragged into mutual destruction. And what was the result?"

"Fuck, the result is that he was sent flying in the very domain he excels at most!"

"Long Aotian—the Long family with its ancient legacy, supreme in body refinement across the ages. Not to mention he awakened the True Dragon Bloodline, making his physique even more extreme. And a commoner actually pushed him back? It looks like pure fantasy."

"And listen to him—if you don't die from training, keep training. What insane willpower, what terrifying perseverance."

"Train until you die or keep going? Just thinking about it makes my scalp tingle. No wonder he achieved so much!"

"No, no. If simply training until death was enough to achieve greatness, then the world would be crawling with experts! Haven't you noticed? He collected body-cultivation methods, organized them, fused them, mastered them thoroughly, then innovated. Using the art he deduced himself, he repeatedly broke the limits of the human body. That's the truly inconceivable part!"

"It only proves one thing: he possesses heaven-defying talent!"

"Great perseverance, great wisdom, monstrous comprehension. Jiang Ming—across the entire Federation, I doubt anyone can compare! Admirable, admirable!"

"Wait, does body refinement really have limits? And limits beyond limits? Bones turning black? Cyan? Silver? Gold? Jade bone? I've never heard of this. I just searched, and even online there's no record of it! Is it fake?"

"Fake my ass! Never heard of it? That just means you're ignorant. It's not online because it's top secret. But I've only heard of Silver Bone—never imagined there were Gold Bone and Jade Bone above it. Jiang Ming, he's really about to defy heaven!"

Discussions erupted everywhere; the entire network was shaken.

Because Jiang Ming's background was no longer a secret.

He had entered at most two secret realm worlds, yet achieved such accomplishments—absolutely beyond belief.

In martial arts, preliminary estimates put him at the Fifth Realm. He comprehended spatial, yin-yang, water-fire, and thunder concepts—even that list alone was earth-shattering, like something out of myth.

Who could have imagined he would walk so far on the extremely difficult path of body refinement?

Just listen to him.

Feeling he hadn't fully excavated the limits of his physical body, he gathered countless body-cultivation techniques, absorbed and fused them, then created an entirely new method himself. Is this even human?

Bull-fucking-shit!

Two secret realm worlds, at most no more than ten years.

Not only did he successfully innovate, he repeatedly broke the limits of the human body—Iron Bone? Copper Bone? All the way to Jade Bone?

Whoever heard this couldn't help but grin and curse inwardly: Damn, this act—the more you hear it, the faker it sounds!

But they saw it with their own eyes, clearly and unmistakably. It couldn't be fake.

City Lord's Mansion!

"Impossible!" Old Tang shot to his feet, for the first time deeply shaken, even utterly astonished.

"Impossible!" Old Song's expression changed.

"Breaking the limits of the physical body is extremely, extremely difficult. The body-cultivation method promoted by the Federation was created based on the human condition, training the body as a whole, from easy to hard, step by step. But Jiang Ming..." Old Tang sucked in a cold breath, "clearly walks the special path of tempering skin and flesh, forging muscles and bones, and refining the internal organs. That path is even harder—hard to enter, hard to practice, and prone to internal injury. Not only did he walk it, he created the path himself. Setting aside the fact that he created a body-cultivation art, he even broke the limits of his muscles and bones and cultivated to the legendary Jade Bone realm!"

"Jade Bone... I've only heard of it." Old Song was hardly better off. "According to records, only special bloodlines, or relying on heavenly treasures and the like, offer any possibility of breaking the limits of muscles and bones. As for Jade Bone? It's only mentioned in records—never once have I heard of anyone actually condensing it! A freak of nature!"

"Indeed a freak—a freak to the absolute extreme!" Old Tang nodded and slowly sat back down. "This young man is very mature. He never exposed it all this time. Why reveal it now? Just to test himself against Long Aotian? No—he's building his reputation, advertising himself, setting his own price, and protecting himself. Good lad. You really pulled it off."

"With the talent he's displaying now, could he..." Old Song pointed toward the sky.

"He will. He definitely will!" Old Tang nodded fiercely. "Too monstrous. Once in a century—no, once in ten thousand years. He'll certainly be put on the list up there. From now on, anyone wanting to make trouble for this young man will have a hard time. Good. Excellent!"

He was even more thrilled.

The Arena.

Long Aotian was utterly unhinged.

He stared fixedly at Jiang Ming, fire practically snorting from his nostrils.

"You collected body-cultivation techniques, fused them, and created your own?"

"And broke the limits of the human body repeatedly, tempering out Jade Bone?"

"Impossible. Absolutely impossible!"

"My Long family developed the path of body refinement to its extreme, and even we can only temper Gold Bone at best—and that is immensely difficult to achieve!"

"I awakened the True Dragon Bloodline. Even if only a trace, it's still a dragon vein! Yet I could only develop it to the Silver Bone level before I could no longer break the limit!"

"You... you... you, in just a few short years, relying entirely on yourself, achieved Jade Bone?"

"I don't believe it!"

"I really don't believe it!"

Long Aotian was nearly delirious.

Because this completely shattered his understanding.

He walked the path of body refinement, so he naturally knew the difficulty of repeatedly breaking the limits in forging muscles and bones. Each time was no less than climbing to heaven. Tempering Silver Bone was equivalent to comprehending one of the Ten Great Concepts.

Let alone Jiang Ming, who was of ordinary blood.

"The mysteries of the human body are endless. Besides, miracles exist to be created. I succeeded, so I stand here!" Jiang Ming stopped provoking him. "Brother Long, again!"

"Again!" Long Aotian roared. "I refuse to believe I can lose to you on the path of body refinement. I really don't believe it!"

"Power of the True Dragon!"

His body swelled another notch, reaching a full three meters in height.

A layer of flame emerged over his body—silver.

Clearly, he was activating some fearsome secret technique.

Boom...

With a single bound, he came killing over. Mid-air, the wind of his fist howled like thunder.

This punch was even more terrifying.

All variation stripped away, leaving only the most savage strength.

"Inch Fist, Triple Wave!"

This time, Jiang Ming truly unleashed the terrifying amplification technique of his physical body.

Triple Wave—amplifying his power by three times.

One punch delivered four times his physical strength.

Boom...

The void exploded. The sky thundered. Long Aotian was sent flying by a single punch. His arm, groaning under unbearable strain, split open with crack after crack, blood streaming down, as he tumbled and landed over two hundred meters away.

"Amplification technique!"

He made the judgment instantly.

"Don't tell me you created this one too?" Long Aotian's voice had gone hoarse.

Today's blows to him were too great.

"Yeah." Jiang Ming nodded honestly. "Originally, I drew on the surging waves of the vast river—wave upon wave, endless meaning—and created a fist technique. One punch could unleash several layers of power. But in the battle at the Heaven-Connecting Tower, I discovered I had gone down the wrong path. So I drew on the guardian's power-amplification method and developed the Inch Fist. One punch, several times amplified—with that kind of explosive power, all that wave-after-wave, all that a thousand changes and ten thousand transformations, gets smashed flat. Absolute force kills everything! Brother Long, your Long family walks the path of body refinement. You should have similar secret arts, right? Don't tell me you don't!"

"I... I... I..." Long Aotian was in disarray again, pointing at Jiang Ming with trembling fingers, "I'm only eighteen! I have to cultivate, develop my bloodline power, comprehend concepts, and practice various combat arts. Where would I find the time?! I've come into contact with power amplification, but it's too, too difficult. Really, too difficult!"

He was so aggrieved he wanted to cry.

"Difficult? Not at all. It's much easier than comprehending the Ten Great Concepts!" Jiang Ming said.

"You..." Long Aotian nearly spat blood.

Ten Great Concepts?

Damn it!

I want to pounce on you and bite you to death, you son of a bitch.

Infuriating beyond belief.

"Tell me, how did you cultivate? Did heaven give you a cheat code?" Long Aotian's eyes were bloodshot, his body swaying, his aura fluctuating unsteadily. He counted on his fingers: "Martial Fifth Realm, spatial concept, yin-yang concept, water-fire concept, thunder concept—those are just the known ones! Who knows what's unknown? Body refinement—you've developed the forging of muscles and bones to the limit I know of: Jade Bone! I don't even dare think of it, yet you actually tempered it to completion just by relying on a method you deduced yourself. Then what are my thousand-year-old clan and my True Dragon Bloodline—a pile of garbage? That old fellow in my family, strutting around like a proud rooster, saying our Long family's body refinement is unmatched, Silver Bone, Gold Bone, peerlessly invincible. Invincible my ass! A thousand years of accumulation can't measure up to a few years of your training. And he's still smug, still arrogant. Pah!"

"Wait, wait. You walked the path of body refinement long ago, then started over, repeatedly broke limits, and even deduced your own power-amplification technique!"

"Brother Jiang, you must be heaven's son."

"Its own son!"

"There's no doubt about it!"

"Otherwise, how could you be this monstrous?"

"Holy shit!"

"Am I fighting against heaven itself?"

Long Aotian had gone completely mad.

"Brother Long..." Jiang Ming grinned wryly. I only wanted to make a bit of a splash, how did I end up crushing this kid this hard? A sin, a sin.

At that moment, Long Aotian sprinted over, dropped to one knee before him, and hugged his leg: "Big brother, let me be your lackey from now on!"

Pfft...

Jiang Ming nearly sprayed.

Recently, things have been hard.

Exam subject two is on the fifth, but the kid got sick, and I haven't been able to practice driving these past two days.

The wheat at home sprouted, and though the weather's been good these two days, there's still no machine to harvest it.

Sigh.

Mentally and physically exhausted.

Today, just this one chapter.

Tomorrow, I'll try to pull myself together.

Looking in the mirror, I'll give myself a smile first. Everything will be fine.

Keep working. Keep going!

(End of Chapter)