Ding Hao sounded as if he just escaped from the deepest place in hell because his voice sent chills down Zhao Xingcheng's spine, leaving him to tremble in silence.
Zhao Xingcheng's young entourage stopped cheering.
The seemingly tough guys all froze on the spot like panicking ducks being wrung in the neck.
Then, Ding Hao sneered and retracted his sword.
Subsequently, he turned around and strode toward the cliff where Swordsmanship-seeking Sect dumped their waste every day.
Zhao Xingcheng and his entourage were so surprised that they froze on the spot, only when Ding Hao ran into the pale moonlight in the distance did they come around. In a state of shock, they slowly regained conciseness and then saw fear in each other's eyes. All of them remembered the conflict like a nightmare.
"Hell, that little bastard..." Zhao Xingcheng gasped and glared.
What had happened?
When did the stupid and obedient Ding Hao turn vicious and decisive?
It was like another man.
How could he wield a worn-out rusty sword in such an aggressive way?
Recalling the strokes Ding Hao played, Zhao Xingcheng could not stop his cold sweat.
Apparently, he had noticed, though unreluctantly, the "Pig of Swordsmanship-seeking" stroked faster and more skillfully than the Swordsmanship-seeking Sect disciple he knew... However, he found it confusing—how could it be?
"What now? Shall we chase him or not?" One of his entourage picked up Zhao Xingcheng's sword that had been tossed away and asked.
"Chase him? Why? Can you beat him? Do you want to get smashed?" Zhao Xingcheng was irritated. He took his sword and put it back in the sheath.
"Well, are we letting him get away with that?"
"We won't. We'll have someone deal with him. Does he think he can hide forever? Humph, I wish he'd been prepared before he took a stand against me. Let's go!" Zhao Xingcheng glared.
Though they could not do anything to him in broad daylight, they could, otherwise, end him in the dead of night.
Zhao Xingcheng was never a man of honor.
Today, Ding Hao embarrassed him in front of his entourage. Tomorrow, it would be time for Ding Hao to suffer 100 times more.
...
Ding Hao ran out of Zhao Xingcheng's reach, and soon reached his destination.
It was a rugged slope of 45 degrees. Every day, Swordsmanship-seeking Sect dumped their garbage via the slope to the unfathomable abyss under the cliff.
The abyss under the cliff was called the Great Abyss.
Under the cliff, the black fog rolled and the gale blew. Eerie howling could be heard and could drag people in.
It was said to be an entrance that led to monsters underworld.
Since its establishment, Swordsmanship-seeking Sect had taken an interest in the abyss and sent people down there.
However, they stopped exploring it after a great grandmaster, three grandmasters, and dozens masters did not return.
Later on, the sect simply forbade anyone entering the Great Abyss to search anything.
In the end, it became a place where the sect dumped their waste every day.
For thousands of years, countless garbage was dumped under the cliff into the Great Abyss. In the end, even at the rim of the cliff, it was filled with garbage that soured and fermented over the past countless years, turning the nearby stone wood into a toxic swamp.
Many people from the slum used to wander here, breathed in the toxic air and died.
Because of that, people living in the slum refrained from entering here.
As arrogant as the Swordsmanship-seeking Sect disciples, they would not bother wandering here.
On the other hand, the previous Ding Hao would come here every night to search anything useful. If in good luck, he would return home with some useful stuff. Then, he would keep them for himself or directly sell them on the market.
He used to be honest, brave, and dared to enter places others did not. In the end, he actually found a way free of toxic air and other traps to led him to the safe spot by the cliff.
That was why, before Ding Hao, no one had found that on the bump on the cliff wall, grew a couple of valuable third-stage herbs: Dragon Heart Seedling.
It was in other places, these Dragon Heart Seedlings would have been picked up ages ago, and how would he get a chance near them?
Actually, the present Ding Hao did not found the plants under the edge of the cliff until two days ago.
Third-stage herbs like these were exactly the right medicine for nourishing one's body and expanded one's meridians.
With them, in 15 days, Ding Hao could strengthen his body and grow his innate weak meridians to pass the sect entrance test.
This was where Ding Hao bet his last hope.
According to his memory, Ding Hao took the familiar route to the cliff soon.
He lay on the ground carefully and looked down under the cliff.
Under the cliff, the black fog swirled and chilly wind howled. A hundred meters under the cliff, streaks of red lights flickered in the dark. That was where the Dragon Heart Seedlings grew.
Ding Hao gasped.
This place was really dangerous.
Something in the dark mist was pulling him down. It was hard for him to pick the herbs.
Nevertheless, he had no other way.
After a simple preparation, he joined pieces of ropes, tied one end on the rocks on the cliff, and threw the other end under the cliff. Having measured the distance to the plants, he gripped tightly onto the rope and descended.
"Why do I go down under the cliff in the middle of the night? I don't even have a buckle. I'll be a meat pie if I fall!"
Climbing down the rope for a couple of meters, Ding Hao was feeling a little desperate.
His prophecy had unfortunately come true.
Before he could finish his words, there went a snap.
The seemingly solid rope actually snapped in the middle of it.
Ding Hao was scared as hell.
Before he could look up, he felt the gravity and fell down like a meteor.
He was like a falling star.
Before he could react, Ding Hao tumbled down and landed upon the bumps of the cliff wall. He was bleeding and feeling the ache in his bones as if he had been chopped into pieces.
The next moment, he lost consciousness.
"Ah, that hurts, I'm dying of pain... Eh? Could it be... I, I'm still alive? This... where is this place?" Ding Hao did not know how much time had passed. An indescribable pain that felt as if he was being burned by hot flames and bitten by tens and thousands of ants brought Ding Hao slightly back into consciousness. He wanted to move instinctively, but his body felt as stiff as cast iron and he could not move at all. He subconsciously opened his eyes slowly. All he could see was a patch of milky white light. He could not see anything else. He seemed to be enveloped in a soft liquid. This feeling was like when he was enveloped by amniotic fluid in his mother's womb as a baby. However, he felt waves of immense pain radiating from all parts of his body. Ding Hao floated in and out of consciousness and felt slightly disorientated. His eyelids felt as if they had been sewn together. He had to put in an immense effort to even crack open
Remembering the martial arts novels he had read in his previous life, he found that as long as the hero fell under a cliff, he would meet something or someone extraordinary. Ding Hao always thought himself lucky, and today's scenario really resembled what he read. Therefore, he probably might find some weapons or secret swordsmanship books here. However, there was nothing but a set of stone table and chairs. He almost wanted to turn the entire place inside out to find the treasures he expected. "I guess one has to be practical all the time. Too much greed is bad for you. I should feel lucky that I didn't get killed. And, the faint black liquid in the dent saved my life! It might be something. Only it's a shame that I can't take them." Ding Hao heaved a sigh and stopped searching. There was no water or food in the cave. It was time to go home. He walked through the tunnel and reached the entrance of the cave. It was a bottoml
Ding Hao pushed open the door and slowly walked in. At that time— Swoosh! Swoosh! Two shadows in the dark emerged without any warning behind the wooden door from both sides with forceful winds. They came fiercely and directly at the back of Ding Hao's head. They were two long black sticks. On the other ends of the long sticks were two sneering youths. They were Zhao Xingcheng's entourage last night. The black long sticks were hard like iron rods. They were wielding them against the back of Ding Hao's head with the force that could kill him. At that crucial moment, Ding Hao saw that by the door of the opposite thatch hut, the confident Zhao Xingcheng was sneering at him maliciously. Then, Ding Hao smiled too. At the next moment, Zhao Xingcheng's sneering turned into doubt, surprise, disbelief... and finally into shock. He saw it with his own eyes that the ambush he carefully set up did not work at all
Ding Hao's eyebrows twitched furiously. At that moment, he could not suppress the sense of extreme danger that crept up on him. Was this faint red light the so-called 'Dark Force'? "According to the memories I've absorbed, the human martial artists in in this world are able to control a supernatural force known as the Dark Force, and use this Dark Force to refine their 12 meridians and 108 acupoints… "The faint red light that appeared from his body earlier was probably the manifestation of the dark force. However, Song Jiannan's strength is just average. He probably would not even be able to last a second against a first aperture martial disciple so I've got nothing to be afraid of." Ding Hao thought quickly and soon figured out their individual strengths. "Little scum, today, I shall take your life," Song Jiannan said as his eyes sparked with killing desire. He had arrived like an esteemed emperor, not expect
At that moment, a ray of golden morning sun shone through the mountains and the fog, casting Ding Hao in its golden glow. This highlighted the lines of his muscles, his tall body and the sculpted features of his handsome face. He looked like a perfect piece of work sculpted by a master sect master. "Phew..." Ding Hao breathed out a breath of murky air and felt his whole body relax. He had not expected his comprehension ability to be so astounding. He had been able to mimic Song Jiannan's swordsmanship technique just after watching Song Jiannan display it. Not only that, he had managed to grasp this swordsmanship technique's nuance and essence in after just practicing three times. Ding Hao reckoned that although that encounter at the cave cliff stone cave had caused his body to undergo extraordinary changes, Song Jiannan was far too weak and his swordsmanship technique of a lower level, which was why he managed to mimic it so easily. If he
It was rumored that extreme experts, who dominated their races, could move mountains and defeat millions of soldiers with a single strike like gods. Even lower level martial artists could become terrifyingly powerful by practicing magic skills. However, Ding Hao was of a low social status and not very bright, so he knew very little about cultivation. He only vagely remembered that martial artists were ranked from the lowest Apprentice Realm to Artist Realm, then Master, Grandmaster, and Genius Grandmaster. He could not remember what came after that. Generally speaking, the first step of cultivation was exercising one's physical strength to the extreme. Then, one could cultivate Qi manipulating magic skills by stimulating a "Magic Qi Seed" inside their dantian. An amorphous magic Qi would arise in the body and enter into the meridians. Unfortunately, Ding Hao had no instructions on how to stimulate his Magic Qi Seed. This was currently his
As for basic magic skills manuals that were peddled in the black market, mysterious remaining copies of original texts or those of high quality aside, as long as they were ordinary copies recorded manually, there would ordinarily not be any reason to suspect that they were fake. It was one of the unwritten rules of the trade. The Qi Guiding Formula was a method of the lowest level for practicing mystical skills. It was not even considered as mainstream but just an ordinary skill. As such, it could not be classified as either of the four major ranks - Divine, Heavenly, Earth or Human. Naturally, there was no risk of counterfeit copies of it existing in the market. Even if it were so, its price was also not cheap for ordinary folk. Ding Hao browsed through it once, and paid 500 taels of silver to buy the manual after discerning that there was nothing wrong with it. With this Qi Guiding Formula manual, coupled with his otherworldly understanding capability,
"Qi, Qi is an incredible thing. The strength given off by the limitations of the physical body is an invisible force. It can crack steles of stones, move mountains and seas. It can defy the heavens and change fates; it can prolong life and make things appear out of nothingness... This incredible Qi, it attacks the 12 main meridians of the human body in order, and refine the acupoints. In that way, supreme power is produced and this is the foundation of a martial artist..." Ding Hao quickly became immersed in the contents of the book. So the humans on the Land of Infinity all had 12 meridians in their body. And within each meridian, there were nine main acupoints. Once martial artists activated the seed of Qi and grasped Qi, they could then use it to refine their physical body. The Qi would rush through their meridians and refined their acupoints. This was the most basic way of cultivation. The Martial Arts system had been perfected according to the evolut