28: Copper Wall and Iron Barrier

Accompanying Zhao Tian's furious roar, filled with madness and killing intent, an unprecedentedly violent Aura instantly swept across the entire Arena Number Seven!

His iron fists, wrapped in dazzling white light, were like two whistling meteors, dragging long tails of flame, and with a determined, all-or-nothing posture, they fiercely slammed towards Lin Ye's seemingly wide-open chest!

This was his strongest attack!

This strike gathered all his spiritual power at the Peak of Qi Refinement Stage Three and contained all the essence of his Black Tiger Fist's Major Achievement!

Before the fists even arrived, the sharp wind from them already stung people's faces! The entire arena seemed to tremble slightly under this powerful Aura!

The crowd below was all horrified, instinctively retreating, afraid of being affected by the terrifying aftermath.

"It's over! Senior Brother Zhao is truly enraged, he's going for the kill!"

"I once personally witnessed Senior Brother Zhao use this move, 'Fierce Tiger Descends the Mountain,' to smash a giant rock to pieces! That kid Lin Ye is dead for sure!"

On the high platform, the expressions of several Elders also changed drastically, one of them even subconsciously stood up from his seat, seemingly ready to intervene at any moment to prevent the impending tragedy.

In their opinion, although Lin Ye's strange Body Refining Cultivation Technique was durable, facing such a powerful strike that condensed all his cultivation, he would certainly not survive!

However, at this critical moment, Lin Ye, who was at the center of the storm, still maintained his "vulnerable" appearance.

The panic and fear on his face seemed to have reached their Peak.

But this time, he didn't stand still and take the blows passively as before.

He crossed his arms to protect his chest, while his knees slightly bent, his body instinctively curled up, trying to resist the attack in this most primitive way.

This movement, in everyone's eyes, was so weak, so powerless.

A cruel, sinister smile appeared on Zhao Tian's face.

He seemed to have already envisioned the bloody scene of Lin Ye's arms being broken inch by inch, his chest caving in, and his entire body collapsing at his feet like a puddle of mud!

Finally, those two whistling "cannonballs" solidly struck Lin Ye's crossed, blocking arms!

"Dong—!!!"

A tremendous muffled sound, like the ringing of an ancient temple bell, suddenly exploded above the entire Martial Arts Training Ground! The sound made everyone's eardrums hum!

However, the imagined scene of broken bones, torn muscles, and flying flesh did not appear at all!

Instead, the moment Zhao Tian's iron fists touched Lin Ye's arms, a scene that would be unforgettable for everyone present and would overturn their understanding of cultivation appeared!

A dense, bronze-colored light suddenly erupted from Lin Ye's body!

It wasn't the faint, thin glimmer from before!

Instead, it was a brilliant light curtain, as if solid, as if cast from bronze! On the light curtain, there were even extremely subtle, ancient patterns slowly flowing, exuding a heavy Aura of unmoving stability and eternal resilience!

Zhao Tian's fists, capable of splitting stone tablets, struck this light curtain like two pebbles thrown into an endless ocean; apart from stirring up a violent ripple, they could not advance an inch!

That overwhelming power, like a clay ox entering the sea, was easily absorbed, dissolved, and dissipated into nothingness by that seemingly thin bronze light!

"Wh-what?!"

The sinister smile on Zhao Tian's face instantly froze!

He only felt as if he had struck an unshakeable, unfathomable ancient divine mountain! A rebound force, even more violent and majestic than his attack, swept back along his arms, destroying everything in its path!

"Crack! Crack!"

His right hand, which had only recently been reattached, and his unharmed left hand, simultaneously emitted a teeth-grinding sound of wrist bones shattering under this terrifying rebound force!

"Puff!"

Zhao Tian violently spat out a mouthful of fresh blood, his tall and robust body, as if struck head-on by an invisible giant hammer, flew backward at an even faster speed than he had attacked!

"Bang!"

He heavily crashed onto the edge of the arena more than ten meters away, creating a spiderweb of cracks in the hard black ironwood, struggled a few times, but couldn't get up!

The entire venue fell silent!

You could hear a pin drop!

Everyone stood frozen in place as if under a petrification Spell, staring intently at the figure slowly lowering his arms in the center of the arena, with eyes that looked upon a god or demon.

Lin Ye still stood quietly.

His slender body, at this moment, appeared incredibly tall and imposing!

The dense bronze light on his body slowly flickered a few times, like breathing, and finally quietly disappeared, as if it had never appeared.

He lowered his head and glanced at his arms, which only had two shallow white marks, and a monstrous wave surged in his heart.

"Is this... the power of the third layer of Golden Bell Shield?"

On the last night before the Minor Competition began, when he invested all his resources into the AFK Cultivate, the System panel finally delivered the long-awaited heavenly sound!

"Ding! Golden Bell Shield Second Layer 'Body Refining' has reached Perfection!"

"Detected that the Cultivation Technique is an incomplete scroll, with no subsequent path. The System will automatically deduce subsequent Realms based on the existing Cultivation Technique path... Deducing..."

"Deduction successful! Congratulations, host, you have comprehended Golden Bell Shield Third Layer — Bone Forging!"

That night, his strength underwent a true qualitative change!

If the first layer, "Skin Tempering," was tough cowhide.

The second layer, "Flesh Refining," was strong old vines.

Then this third layer, "Bone Forging," deduced by the System, was a veritable — bronze wall and iron fortress!

He moved his thoughts, calling up his status panel, only to see that the [Cultivation] column still displayed those dazzling words: [Qi Refining Stage One].

"Sure enough..." Lin Ye understood in his heart, "Iron Sand Palm and Golden Bell Shield both belong to external Body Refining, tempering the Physical Body. As long as I don't AFK Cultivate a true Internal Skill Mind-Cultivation Technique, my Qi Refining Rank will not change at all."

This huge disparity between Physical Body combat power and spiritual power cultivation was his perfect disguise, allowing him to deceive everyone!

On the high platform, several Outer Sect Elders had already stood up from their seats in shock, their faces filled with unprecedented astonishment and disbelief.

"Protective Aura?! Th-this is impossible?!" Elder Wang's fiery voice now carried a clear tremor, "Th-that's Protective Aura that can only be produced when a Body Refining Cultivation Technique is Cultivated to an extremely profound level, and Qi and blood are condensed like steel! H-how did he, an Outer Sect Disciple, achieve this?!"

"Prodigy... This child is a Body Refining Prodigy of our Qingyun Sect, rarely seen in hundreds of years!" Elder Liu's eyes burst forth with an unprecedented brilliant light.

This unshakeable bronze wall and iron fortress before them was the most irrefutable proof of absolute strength!