11: Explosive steps! Is this what you call light-footed skill?

As night fell, a small courtyard on the outskirts of Qingyang City was silent.

Gu Yang sat cross-legged in the center of the yard, flipping through the Cloud-Treading Step Secret Manual in his hand by the moonlight.

"Sinking Qi into the Dantian, body light as a swallow, moving between leaps and bounds as if treading on the clouds..." Gu Yang gave it a try following the mnemonic.

He took a deep breath, attempting to make his body light, then lightly tapped the ground with his toes, wanting to perform a graceful 'Dry Land Green Onion Pull' leap.

Crack! A crisp sound rang out. Gu Yang did indeed jump up, about three feet off the ground.

But when he landed, the thick bluestone slab beneath his feet shattered into eight pieces, and his feet sank deep into the soil.

"..." Gu Yang pulled his feet out and stared at the hole in the ground, falling into deep thought.

"Light as a swallow? Doesn't exist."

His current weight, combined with his steel-like density of muscle and bone, totaled over four hundred catties.

This was even without activating the Dragon-Elephant Golden Bell Shield; once activated, his density would skyrocket, and his weight would approach a thousand catties.

Expecting him to float like a dragonfly? That would be violating the laws of physics.

"Since I can't float, I'll change my approach." Gu Yang's gaze turned fierce as he looked at the System panel. "System! I don't care about lightness, I just want speed! I want explosive power!"

"Modify this Cloud-Treading Step for me! Even if I have to stomp the air into exploding, I'm going to fly!"

[Command accepted! Cultivation Technique derivation in progress...]

[Direction: Discard airtime and agility, strengthen instantaneous burst and counter-force propulsion.]

[energy points consumed: 20 points!]

Boom! A violent heat flow surged into Gu Yang's legs.

His thigh muscles began to writhe and reorganize violently; the muscle fibers became thicker and denser, like powerful springs compressed countless times.

A tearing pain came from his Achilles tendons, which then became as tough as dragon tendons.

[Derivation successful!] [Obtained Mutated Movement Technique: Extreme Dao Burst Step]

[Special Effects: Air Shockwave (utilizes instantaneous explosive muscle contraction to stomp the air or ground, generating terrifying propulsion), Linear Extreme Speed (turning is difficult, but linear speed is unmatched).]

"Burst Step?" Gu Yang stood up and tentatively activated the new technique. His right foot suddenly exerted force, and the muscles beneath his feet contracted and snapped back like living things.

Boom! A muffled sound like a cannon firing exploded in the yard.

A large pit one meter in diameter instantly appeared in the ground beneath Gu Yang's feet, soil flying everywhere. Meanwhile, his entire person had turned into a black afterimage, instantly slamming into the courtyard wall!

"Holy crap! Stop!" Too fast! He couldn't brake at all! Bang!

A corner of the sturdy courtyard wall was directly knocked down. Gu Yang crawled out from the pile of broken bricks, covered in dust. Instead of being angry, he grinned and laughed.

"Hahahaha! Good! This is the kind of qinggong a real man should use!" "What Cloud-Treading Step? That's for sissies! A real man should just stomp through everything!"

...Late at night, the hour of the Ox. The moon was dark and the wind was high.

A group of stiff-moving figures, emitting a foul stench of decay, silently approached the outside of Gu Yang's small courtyard.

The leader was a minor headman wearing White Lotus Sect robes, holding several corpse-controlling talismans in his hand, his eyes cold.

"This is the place, the murderer who killed Hong'er." "Hmph, a mere external Martial Artist, so what if his blood qi is vigorous?

My 'Bronze-Armored Corpses' are invulnerable and possess immense strength; they'll wear you down to death!" He waved his hand: "Go, kill him! Rip out his heart and liver!"

"Roar—" Seven or eight zombies covered in green fur, their skin shimmering with a bronze luster, instantly smashed through the un-repaired courtyard gate and charged in roaring.

Crash! Wood chips flew. Gu Yang, who had just finished his practice and was preparing to sleep, walked out of the house wearing only a pair of large boxers, his torso bare.

He looked at the once-again destroyed courtyard gate, then at the yard full of green-furred zombies, his face as dark as the bottom of a pot. "Don't you know disturbing the peace is illegal?" "Also, I just fixed that door!"

"Roar!" Responding to him was a Bronze-Armored Corpse lunging at his face. The zombie's nails were black as hooks, thrusting fiercely toward Gu Yang's heart.

"Want to see who's harder?" Gu Yang didn't dodge or evade; he even puffed out his chest. Golden Bell Protection! Hum— A faint golden light flowed over the surface of his body.

Clang! The zombie's sharp claws struck Gu Yang's chest, producing the crisp sound of metal clashing. The zombie was stunned; it felt like it had struck a steel plate, and its nails had even split.

"Didn't eat today?" Gu Yang sneered and delivered a backhanded slap.

Slap! This slap didn't use any special Move; it was pure power. The head of that supposedly invulnerable Bronze-Armored Corpse spun eighteen times on its neck like a top, its neck bones suffering comminuted fractures as it collapsed limply to the ground.

"That's it? A Bronze-Armored Corpse?" Gu Yang kicked the corpse aside and looked at the remaining zombies. "Come at me together, I'm sleepy."

"Roar, roar, roar!" The remaining zombies swarmed him, some biting his arms, others grabbing his legs.

However, the next scene made the White Lotus Sect headman hiding in the shadows doubt his life.

He saw those zombies bite down on Gu Yang, only to produce crisp "crack, crack, crack" sounds—the sound of teeth shattering.

Gu Yang acted as if nothing was happening, even letting out a yawn. Then, he moved.

Black Tiger Steals Heart! Pfft! A zombie's chest was pierced through. Double Peaks Pierce Ears! Slap!

Two zombies' heads were smashed together like rotten watermelons. Savage Charge! Boom! Three zombies were smashed into meat patties against the wall.

In just ten breaths. Seven or eight Bronze-Armored Corpses were completely annihilated. The yard was full of severed limbs and broken arms, and Gu Yang stood in the middle without even a scratch on his skin.

"Mon... Monster!" The White Lotus Sect headman on the wall had his Soul Flying Away and Spirit Scattering in fear.

Is this a human? This guy is ten thousand times harder than the zombies he refined! "Run! I must go back and report to the Protector!" The headman turned to flee, using qinggong to jump onto the roof, moving as if on level ground.

"Since you're already here, you still want to run?" Gu Yang looked up, his gaze locking onto the figure flying across the rooftops. He squatted slightly, his right leg muscles tensing to the limit, the ground groaning under the unbearable weight.

Extreme Dao Burst Step—Launch!

Rumble! A loud bang, like a sudden thunderclap on level ground. The earth beneath Gu Yang's feet instantly exploded into a three-meter-diameter pit, soil churning.

With the help of this terrifying counter-force, Gu Yang's entire body turned into a black cannonball, soaring into the sky at an angle!

The speed was too fast! So fast that the air was torn apart, producing a sharp whistling sound!

The headman sprinting on the roof only felt the sky above him darken, a suffocating pressure descending from above.

He subconsciously looked up. He only saw a massive size 46 sole of a foot rapidly enlarging in his eyes.

"This... this is qinggong?!" This was the final thought in his mind.

Splat. Like a flyswatter crushing a mosquito. Gu Yang descended from the sky, stomping through the headman and the roof beneath him! Rumble— The house collapsed, and dust rose everywhere.

Gu Yang stood in the ruins, stepping on the headman who had long since turned into meat paste.

He bent down and picked up a partially intact token from the pile of gore. By the moonlight, he could vaguely see a white lotus carved on it, with the words "Yinfeng Cave" on the back.

"White Lotus Sect? Yinfeng Cave?" Gu Yang blew the dust off the token, a flash of excitement in his eyes.

"Perfect. Although that wave just now was satisfying, the zombies gave too few energy points." "Since you're so polite, delivering yourself to my door and even providing an address..." "If I don't pay a return visit, wouldn't I seem very impolite?"

Gu Yang looked toward the outskirts of the city, a sinister grin curling his lips. Tonight was a good day for "restocking."