It was not a gradual, natural process of water flowing to form a channel, but rather, after receiving a nudge, he suddenly realized that the wall before his eyes had been nothing more than a thin sheet of paper all along.
And what Yuanzhen excelled at most in his life was sustaining his growth through battle.
Unlike other martial monks who went into quiet, arduous seclusion, his Martial Dao had been honed through countless sparrings and real life-or-death combats.
Under the siege of five experts at this moment, the comprehension awakened by Chen Zui and his battle-tested instincts erupted simultaneously.
With a single palm strike, he forced back two men in black, then threw back his head and roared toward the sky!
True qi around his entire body swept outward in all directions like a raging tide, shattering the bluestone paving in the courtyard into webbed cracks!
Seeing this, the five men in black retreated several steps in unison before stabilizing their footing.
The barrier of the late-stage Mountain-Viewing Realm shattered with a deafening crash at this very instant!
In this moment, the monk Yuanzhen stepped straight into the Abyss-Facing Realm!
He felt the true qi flowing through his limbs and bones like never before, thoroughly unobstructed and exhilarating.
At the same time, the vertical golden mark between his eyebrows shone even more brilliantly!
Standing at the edge of the battle circle, Li Wu stared slack-jawed, unable to close his mouth for a long moment.
Though this monk had been formidable when fighting that gray-robed old man during the day, he had been nowhere near this fierce.
How had he turned into a completely different person by nightfall?
However, at the exact instant Yuanzhen broke through and his early-stage Abyss-Facing Realm true qi had yet to stabilize—
A man in black who had remained hidden in the shadows seized this flaw and silently pressed a palm into the center of Yuanzhen's back!
The force behind that palm strike was far from fierce; in fact, it was exceptionally light.
Yet Yuanzhen's face paled instantly.
A wave of bone-chillingly frigid true qi flooded in from the back of his heart, piercing straight through the Buddhist Vajra Physique he had spent decades cultivating and penetrating deep into his meridians.
Wherever the venomous palm's true qi swept through, it felt as though ten thousand poison-dipped steel needles were stabbing into his bone marrow all at once.
On the spot, he found himself unable to even raise his right arm.
The Buddhist Vajra Physique was originally a protective divine skill impervious to all evil, yet it happened to be uniquely countered by this poison palm.
This was because the insidious force of the poison palm avoided direct head-on confrontation; instead, it used softness to overcome hardness, corroding the golden body with toxin.
Yuanzhen had cultivated the Vajra Physique for decades and had never encountered such an insidious technique before.
Having landed his blow successfully, the man in black who wielded the poison palm gave a sinister chuckle.
“Master Yuanzhen, your Abyss-Facing Realm is indeed impressive.
“Unfortunately, true qi that has just broken through is at its most unstable, making it the perfect target for my poison palm.
“How does the poison palm taste?
“Rest assured, within three hours, this toxic qi will seep from your meridians into your internal organs.
“When that time comes, not even an immortal could save you.”
By now, hearing the sounds of battle, monks throughout the temple had rushed over from their various meditation rooms, surrounding the courtyard with staff weapons in hand.
But the moment they saw Martial Uncle Yuanzhen's face turning dark black and his right arm limply hanging down, every single one of their complexions changed drastically.
A few hot-headed young staff monks gripped their long staves tightly, preparing to rush forward and fight to the death, but were pulled back firmly by their senior brothers.
All of them knew deep down that although Guang'en Temple possessed a heritage of Buddhist martial arts, the monks had grown lax in their training over the years; Yuanzhen was the only true martial expert among them.
When even Yuanzhen, who had just broken through into the Abyss-Facing Realm, was severely injured by a single palm strike, swarming forward would merely yield a few more corpses.
The man in black with the poison palm swept a haughty glance over the crowd, taking in the terror of the monks. Satisfied, he smirked and turned to walk toward Jiang Lai.
Just then, a snort of laughter suddenly echoed from the crowd.
“Big talk. With such mediocre poison skills, you actually dare claim not even an immortal could save him? Absolutely laughable.”
The voice was not loud, yet it reached the ears of every single person present with utmost clarity.
Everyone's eyes shot toward the source of the sound in unison.
There, a young man clad in a faded green robe with a battered sword hanging at his waist was lazily sauntering out from the crowd.
It was none other than Chen Zui.
The man in black who wielded the poison palm slowly turned around, his eyes locking onto Chen Zui as he sized him up from head to toe.
There was not a single ripple of true qi across his entire body.
Unconcealed disdain flashed in his eyes as he sneered.
“Another one rushing to his death.
“Any Tom, Dick, or Harry dares to walk the martial world with a sword these days.
“Do you really think you're like that spear-wielding Grandmaster named Chen from Grand Zhao, blessed with fortune and supreme opportunity to break through realms at will?
“To dare walk the martial world without a shred of cultivation.”
Standing at the edge of the crowd, Li Wu stomped his feet in anxiety.
“Brother Chen!
“Why are you playing the hero at a time like this!
“Just because you said a few profound words during the day, do you actually think you're some grand master?
“Your martial skills are worse than mine—going up there is just throwing your life away!”
Right at that moment.
The man in black swayed, flitting past the crowd like a phantom to close the distance before Chen Zui, driving a palm strike straight toward Chen Zui's chest!
This palm strike was even heavier and far more ruthless than the one dealt to Yuanzhen!
The toxic, insidious true qi swept up in the palm gale was so dense it almost condensed into a visible dark-green mist.
“Brother Chen!”
Before Li Wu's shout could even fade, the palm landed squarely against Chen Zui's chest!
Yet, to everyone's utter shock—
Chen Zui did not budge in the slightest.
His body did not sway even a fraction, nor did his feet retreat half a step.
It was as if that palm strike was nothing more than a draft passing through a corridor, doing no more than gently ruffling his hem before vanishing.
As for the insidious toxic qi surging into his body, it vanished like a stone submerged in the sea, failing to raise even the faintest ripple.
Li Wu stared with wide eyes, his mouth agape wide enough to fit an egg inside.
Even more shocked than him was the man in black who wielded the poison palm.
The man in black's pupils shrank to pinpricks, and he instinctively lowered his head to look at his own palm.
His five fingers were intact, and the layer of dark-green toxic qi in his palm was still present.
It hadn't failed.
Refusing to believe it, he grunted under his breath and unleashed another palm strike, slamming it squarely into Chen Zui's abdomen.
Chen Zui remained completely motionless.
He did not even deign to glance down at the poison palm still pressed against his gut.
The man in black staggered backward several steps, unrestrainable horror finally surfacing in his eyes.
Impossible.
Absolutely impossible!
To cultivate this poison palm, he had immersed his hands in a solution of a hundred toxins for three whole years.
The fingerprints on all ten of his fingers had been completely corroded away, and the flesh beneath his skin had thoroughly fused with the venom.
The true qi unleashed by this poison palm could pierce through any body-protective art—not even the Buddhist Vajra Physique could withstand it!
The monk Yuanzhen just now was living proof.
Yet this young man before him, who appeared to possess no true qi whatsoever, had taken two direct palm strikes without even knitting his brows.
At this moment, his worldview cracked open a seam, and through that fissure, he caught a glimpse of something far beyond his comprehension.
“Who... who on earth are you?!”
A tremor finally crept into his voice.
【Immune to Ten Thousand Poisons active. Remaining uses: 9,893/10,000】
Chen Zui looked at the fading system prompt, his mind completely unruffled.
Aside from being triggered once back at Qingya Academy when he fought Cao Zhengchun...
...it had only been triggered a few dozen times here and there when he ran into members of the Five Poisons Sect while clearing out ambushes for the Furnace-Listening Pavilion convoy.
Rate on N.U.
