134: Chapter 134 Retrieving Medicine from the Ice Cave, Lu Hu Breaks Through the Level (2)

Lu Changyuan made his move. No warm-up. No "You strike first."

The Spiritual Pressure of a Late Foundation Establishment Stage Cultivator exploded in the side hall—the Spiritual Pressure retracted inward—all the pressure concentrated on Lu Hu alone—

Lu Hu's knees sank the moment the Spiritual Pressure slammed down. He did not kneel—his two heels pressed two shallow indentations into the ground.

Lu Changyuan's first punch slammed into Lu Hu's left shoulder. Lu Hu turned sideways to deflect half the force—he took the other half head-on.

His body was knocked back a step—but as he retreated, his right heel had already stepped into a position to rebound.

A step back is a retreat—but he hadn't lost his center of gravity. Once his right foot landed firmly, his whole body sprang forward again—simultaneously, his left fist swung upward from below.

Lu Changyuan blocked the punch with the back of his right hand. At the moment of impact, he felt a tremor in the web between his thumb and index finger—pure arm strength, containing no Spiritual Qi.

Lu Hu had not achieved Foundation Establishment—but his fist, when slamming against a Late Foundation Establishment Stage Cultivator's Protective Aura, could still shake the back of one's hand.

A veteran of twenty years—his fists held the muscle density forged by swinging a heavy sword every single day.

"Faster."

Lu Hu's second punch came slamming in diagonally from the right—nearly twice as fast as the first.

Lu Changyuan tilted his head—the fist grazed the hair by his ear.

The sound of wind by his ear was dull—the muffled thud of pure strength tearing through the air, lacking the sharp whistling sound of Spiritual Qi breaking the air.

If this punch were to land on the chest of a Cultivator below the Foundation Establishment stage—three broken ribs would be the minimum.

Lu Changyuan did not give him time to throw a third punch.

The moment Lu Hu's right fist grazed his ear, his right hand clamped onto Lu Hu's wrist—twisting outward, twisting until Lu Hu's shoulder was forced to wrench backward along with the rotation of the wrist.

Simultaneously, his left knee drove into Lu Hu's abdomen—using no Spiritual Qi, just pure knee.

Lu Hu's abdominal muscles tensed the moment the knee drove up—tensing like an iron plate.

But even an iron plate could not block the short-range force of the knee thrust—Lu Hu's body arched from the abdomen, and he flew two steps backward.

He crashed to the ground—landing on his back.

But the moment his back touched the ground, Lu Hu used his heels to push off the ground—his entire body sprang up from the floor with the rebound force, landing back on the ground in a half-crouch.

A trace of blood hung at the corner of his mouth.

"Enough." Lu Changyuan withdrew his hand.

His breathing was faster than before—he was retracting his Spiritual Pressure, not tired.

It took a few breaths to retract the Spiritual Pressure of a Late Foundation Establishment Stage Cultivator—as the Spiritual Qi pressing down in the side hall retracted, it caused the cold light of the cold marrow ganoderma on the table to flicker twice.

Lu Hu half-crouched on the ground, panting.

His coarse cloth vest had ripped from the collar to the chest the moment he hit the ground—the veins on his muscles bulged one by one.

He raised a hand to wipe the blood from the corner of his mouth.

"Young Lord—your punch is nearly twice as heavy as it was last month."

"Your bones are also harder than last month—to be able to spring back up after taking three hits from a Late Foundation Establishment Stage Cultivator."

Lu Changyuan picked up the jade box on the far right from the table—that cold marrow ganoderma over a century old.

He took the ganoderma out of the box—the white-blue sap congealed on the tips of the five petals was as crystalline as freshly formed ice beads.

He rubbed all five drops of sap from the tips of the ganoderma leaves into his palm—the sap began to melt under the heat of his palm, turning from a semi-solid dew-like state into an extremely thin film of liquid.

The liquid film covered his entire palm—the Spiritual light in his palm changed from pale yellow to a brilliant sky blue.

He pressed his palm onto Lu Hu's back—right in the center of the spine, between the shoulder blades.

The moment the sap seeped through the skin, Lu Hu's body suddenly went rigid—his entire body's muscles contracted at the same instant.

As the medicinal power of the cold marrow ganoderma traveled up the spine, it released a burst of extremely cold Spiritual Qi—the muscle contraction was an instinctive spasm under the stimulation of extreme cold.

The cold Spiritual Qi pushed up along the Meridians on both sides of the spine—when it reached the back of the head, it suddenly turned downward, rushing straight toward the Dantian.

"Do not block it. Let it enter."

Lu Hu bit his lip—his teeth bit his lower lip until it bled.

Before Foundation Establishment, the Dantian was a sticky mass of Spiritual Qi—without a solidified core.

After the cold Spiritual Qi of the cold marrow ganoderma rushed into the Dantian, the mass of Spiritual Qi was compressed from the outside in by the extreme cold temperature—the sticky Spiritual Qi began to condense toward the center during the cold-shrinkage process.

The first condensation failed—the mass of Spiritual Qi was merely flattened. Lu Hu's body began to tremble—his teeth chattered loudly.

Lu Changyuan rubbed the sap from the tips of the second cold marrow ganoderma into his palm as well.

This time, he pressed the sap onto the skin directly over Lu Hu's Dantian—about two fingers' width below the navel.

The cold Spiritual Qi poured in from the front—and collided with the cold Spiritual Qi from the back inside the Dantian.

The two streams of extremely cold Spiritual Qi clashed inside the mass of Spiritual Qi—the sticky Spiritual Qi caught in the middle was crushed.

The shattered fragments of Spiritual Qi re-condensed in the extreme cold temperature—crystallizing, unlike the flattening from before.

A tiny crystal emitting a pale blue cold light appeared at the core of the mass of Spiritual Qi.

Foundation Establishment.

The moment the crystal formed, the Spiritual Qi in the side hall surged toward Lu Hu from all directions.

The blue threads at the roots of the third cold marrow ganoderma on the table flickered as they were pulled by the surging airflow—the Spiritual light changed from ice blue to a brilliant white-blue.

All of Lu Hu's pores opened—every inch of his skin was expelling turbid Qi.

The turbid Qi was dark gray—the remnants of old injuries, stagnant blood, and blockages in the Meridians accumulated in the body of a twenty-year veteran were all forced out by the newly formed Spiritual core at the moment of Foundation Establishment.

The sound of the turbid Qi being expelled from his pores was like tearing cloth—hissing, fine but dense.

After about half an incense stick of time, the turbid Qi had been fully expelled.

Lu Hu knelt on the ground—the muscles on his back were a layer thicker than before after the Foundation Establishment.

His shoulders were broader than before—his skeletal frame had been stretched a little by the Spiritual Qi during the Foundation Establishment, which was different from the breadth caused by muscle expansion.

A Foundation Establishment Cultivator—when standing on the ground, gave people a feeling of being heavier.

The crystallized Spiritual core in the Dantian was generating a faint Spiritual Qi repulsion against the ground—when a Foundation Establishment Cultivator stood in place, the pressure of their feet pressing downward was nearly twice that of the Qi Refining stage.

"How do you feel?"