Chapter 59: Chapter 56: The True Legacy, Soft Power

The skills on this panel can actually be sublimated!?

Xue Jing was shocked.

But when he looked at the requirements, his brows furrowed.

The skill level needs to be Lv10, which is relatively simple for him. Fitness was one of the easiest skills for him to grind, as long as he kept up with martial arts practice, it would eventually reach Lv10.

But needing 1000 Divinity gave him a headache.

Why the hell is it double the amount required to activate a Divine Skill?

However, by changing his perspective, the more Divinity needed for sublimation, doesn’t that mean the sublimated skill will be more powerful?

With this thought, Xue Jing felt much better.

Alas, there really was no surplus at home, and there were two children to feed. Now he had another use for Divinity, besides Divine Relics. Couldn’t there be some other channels…

And the remaining condition full of question marks…

Xue Jing guessed it probably had something to do with the Armor Shaking Skill.

It might be related to the Armor Shaking Skill itself, or something that triggers a bodily reaction during the practice of the Armor Shaking Skill.

In any case, he would find out if he continued to practice it.

He couldn’t help but have strong expectations for the effects of Fitness after sublimation.

[You have practiced the Armor Shaking Skill, earning +209 Fitness Experience Points]

[You have practiced the Armor Shaking Skill, earning +208 Channeling Energy Experience Points]

Looking at the skill experience gained, there was no surprise this time. It was normal for the Armor Shaking Skill to yield so much experience because it was so difficult to practice.

And also… Xue Jing pinched the skin on his arm.

He felt as if his skin had been awakened to some strange vitality. He wasn’t sure if it was an illusion, but it seemed more resilient when pinched.

This must be a benefit that was not reflected in the [Fitness] skill, but had a direct effect on him.

He had felt this when practicing the Coiling Dragon Art too, but it wasn’t as noticeable as with the Armor Shaking Skill.

“Turn on the nebulizer inhaler,” Li Qi said next to him.

Xue Jing did as told and pressed the button on the nebulizer inhaler.

The next moment, the nebulizer began to hiss, and light-red mist started to billow out in the oxygen mask.

“Use the breathing skills that accompany the Armor Shaking Skill I just taught you,” Li Qi reminded him.

Xue Jing recalled the sensation he had felt when Li Qi had controlled his body and started the breathing skills to absorb the medicinal mist.

The light-red mist had a strong traditional medicine scent, and it felt very thick and difficult to inhale, but Xue Jing endured the discomfort, continued the breathing skills, and drew it into his lungs.

He could feel the medicinal mist flowing down the trachea, into the lungs, into the alveoli, into the bloodstream, and, under the control of the breathing skills, permeating the blood while constantly delivering medicinal strength to specific locations.

Before long, he began to feel his skin become as hot as if ignited, scarily hot, and it started to turn red.

All the pores throughout his body began to open and contract rhythmically… open, contract, open, contract…

Half an hour later, the nebulizer inhaler stopped, and no more light-red mist came out. Xue Jing slowly ceased the breathing skills.

“How do you feel?” Li Qi asked with a smile.

Xue Jing got up, stretched out both hands, feeling as if he had been drenched in sweat on a hot summer day and then suddenly cooled by air conditioning—a refreshing sensation all over his skin.

“My skin… is breathing,” Xue Jing murmured with half-closed eyes.

“Very good, to catch the feeling on your first practice. If you follow this feeling, you will eventually learn one of the five lethal moves of the Hidden Dragon School,” Li Qi said contentedly.

“Its name is—Golden Scales Transformation.”

“Golden Scales Transformation?” Xue Jing repeated, brown-nosing, “Did Master come up with that? A great name.”

Li Qi sighed, humble, “I’ve told you, we in martial arts mustn’t always speak blunt truths, we need to get used to tricking…”

“Alright, I have prepared a medicinal bath for you, it should be ready now. Go and soak in it, and remember to keep using the breathing skills while soaking, to find that ‘skin breathing’ sensation. This way you can absorb the power of the medicinal bath…”

“The Armor Shaking Skill is extremely harsh on the body, and every practice requires a full set of Secret Medicine nourishment, otherwise, mere days of practice could kill a person…”

…

In the following days, Li Qi taught Xue Jing the remaining four sets of Armor Shaking Skill movements, corresponding to the muscle, sinew, bone, and blood.

Each set was harder than the last, and each one required different Secret Medicines, different medicinal baths, and sometimes Li Qi would even perform acupuncture personally, leaving him looking like a hedgehog.

Xue Jing couldn’t help feeling that this was the true nature of martial arts practice… The idea of just getting a manual and practicing at will described in novels was unrealistic.

The cultivation technique was only one aspect, even an insignificant aspect. These Secret Medicines and their corresponding methods that accompanied the technique were the real crux, the core heritage of the major Martial Arts Sects.

Time flies, and before long, seven or eight days have passed.

In the Hidden Dragon Dojo, inside the training hall.

“Ha!!” “Bang!”

In front of the strength-testing machine in the training hall, ordinary disciples, dressed in training garments, are lining up. One by one, they take their turns to accumulate power and punch at the machine, generating a stream of numbers on the display screen.

“Wen Zhaorong, punch force 201.3 kg…”

Xue Jing, dressed in a black training garment, stands upright next to the punch testing machine, his sturdy figure resembling a tough pine tree firmly rooted to the ground, conveying an unshakable sense of stability.

In his hand, he holds a stack of notebooks, and with a pen in the other hand, he writes in them, recording the results of the disciples’ punch force tests.

Today is the monthly minor test day at the Hidden Dragon Dojo, used to check the progress of the disciples’ martial arts practice.

Among the other direct disciples who were extremely idle, Xue Jing was pulled in by Li Qi to help, responsible for recording the results of the minors’ tests.

On the soft chairs in the nearby resting area, several female disciples who had already completed their tests sat watching Xue Jing while they giggled and whispered to each other.

“Junior brother!” Another young disciple approached the strength-testing machine, greeted Xue Jing with a bow, and upon receiving a nod from him, began to position himself in a fighting stance and threw a punch with all his might at the machine.

“Bang!”

Xue Jing glanced at the screen and wrote in the notebook, “Yi Yingyu, 212.2 kg…”

Yi Yingyu seemed a bit surprised by his score, his face showing delight as he bowed to Xue Jing again before happily moving on to the next test.

“Junior brother, why don’t you test too? Let everyone witness the prowess of a direct disciple!”

A pretty female disciple teased from the side.

No sooner had she spoken than many voices echoed in agreement.

“Yeah, yeah, junior brother, give it a try, we’re all very curious.”

“I wasn’t present the two times junior brother made a move, it’s such a loss. Show us a little of what you can do today~”

“Junior brother has only been practicing for a short time after all. Even if he’s a genius, his punching power might not be very strong, let’s not pressure him.”

And there were those who tried to provoke him.

Xue Jing simply smiled and said softly, “No need, there’s nothing much to test, and I doubt it would show anything special.”

Once he said this, the disciples immediately became more insistent.

“Hey~ why be like that? Showing us a little won’t cost you a limb.”

“Junior brother, are you really afraid of showing weakness? Don’t worry, you’ve only started not long ago; nobody will laugh at you.”

“If anyone dares to laugh at junior brother, I’ll be the first to not let them off. Just give it a try…”

The disciples were always curious about this very young direct disciple and rarely had the chance to get close to him, so they couldn’t help but want to tease him.

At that moment, a figure walked through the entrance of the training hall—it was Chen Fuguang.

He waved towards this side without saying anything, and only Xue Jing noticed him.

Xue Jing looked at the insistent disciples in front of him, considered for a moment, and then smiled, “Alright, I’ll just give it a quick try.”

The crowd immediately started clapping.

“Great! Let’s witness junior brother’s elegance!”

“That’s more like a direct disciple. It’s fine to not be strong for the time being, the most important thing is to not shy away from the spotlight.”

“Everybody make way, let’s watch junior brother perform!”

The disciples all laughed and made noise.

They didn’t mean any harm; they just wanted to use this opportunity to get closer to Xue Jing and join the fun.

The disciples cleared out, making space for Xue Jing.

He stepped in front of the strength-testing machine, not bothering to assume any particular stance, and with his body sideways, he casually swung a backhand punch at the machine’s padded surface, like tossing a bottle into the trash.

“Puff!”

A muffled sound emerged, but the screen showed no response.

“Huh?” The disciples looked perplexed.

But after Xue Jing threw his punch, he had already turned to walk towards the entrance of the training hall.

While everyone was still perplexed, the padded surface on the strength-testing machine suddenly ripped apart with a tearing sound.

Then, as if triggering a chain reaction, the padding continued to split at various points, and the foam within, like withered leaves, crumbled one after another, falling to the ground. All that remained in the place of the original padding was a bare metal pipe.

Seeing this scene, everyone looked as if they had seen a ghost, their expressions filled with disbelief.

“Is this… Soft Power!?”

…