Chapter 339: Advanced Continuous Flow of Qi Vessel (88)

Chapter 339: High Society—The Endlessness of Qi (88)

Li Xuelian: There are a few orders from the Civil Engineering Department. Do you want them? You might run into people you know.

Yu Xinghan: I'll take them.

Li Xuelian: You wouldn't want your classmates to find out you're running an underground massage service, would you?

Yu Xinghan: Understood. I'll conceal my identity.

Staring at the message from Li Xuelian, Yu Xinghan reasoned that the Civil Engineering Department held a massive market for massage; there was no way he would give that up so easily.

He recalled his time on the first layer, practicing disguise techniques alongside Zhang Yu under the tutelage of Perfected Master Xinghuo. A wave of appreciation washed over him: "Master truly possessed foresight, knowing that once we reached the upper levels, we would inevitably have to dabble in some shady business."

Yu Xinghan guessed inwardly, "For all I know, he might have started out giving people massages himself."

Looking at the addresses Li Xuelian sent over next, Yu Xinghan’s body rippled and shifted, altering his form until he looked exactly like a complete stranger.

"Ah, it's a pity Senior Sister doesn't care for massages."

Back when he was learning the trade at the massage parlor, Yu Xinghan had wished for nothing more than to have his Senior Sister massage him every single day.

Now that he had become an underground masseur, his only desire was to massage his Senior Sister in order to repay her kindness.

Yu Xinghan figured this was probably the definitive sign of a man reaching maturity.

He made his way to the destination, clocked in, got to work, and finished the job...

At the end of it, Yu Xinghan smiled and said to his client, "Brother, if you're satisfied with the service, be sure to call for me again."

Having finished his part-time gig, Yu Xinghan rushed without a moment's rest to the underground catacombs to continue his overtime shift at the construction site.

By chance, he was assigned to the same area as Zhang Yu today. From a distance, he could see a humanoid form of astral qi pacing back and forth, busy at work.

"This fellow Zhang Yu is getting sharper and sharper with his control over astral qi."

Even as Yu Xinghan marveled internally, that humanoid shape of astral qi suddenly came sprinting furiously toward him.

Zhang Yu's voice rang out: "It's rare for us to cross paths. Let's spar for a bit, brother."

Yu Xinghan chuckled and said, "You think you can take me on with just a single wisp of astral qi? Aren't you overestimating yourself?"

Yu Xinghan believed he had made immense strides during this period as well. His part-time massage job had bolstered his income, his Three-Eyed Divine Ability had drastically enhanced his training efficiency, and his work at the cemetery allowed him to absorb and exhale within the spiritual veins for extended periods...

Seeing Zhang Yu's humanoid astral qi charging at him, he let out a low shout, channeling a fierce torrent of astral qi into his right palm before striking out.

With a resounding boom, the humanoid astral qi shattered completely.

Just as Yu Xinghan thought he had obliterated the figure with that single palm strike, a skeleton radiating a piercing chill burst from the fractured qi, throwing out a palm strike of its own aimed squarely at his chest.

"Hmm?"

Yu Xinghan was slightly startled by this turn of events.

In his memory, although Zhang Yu’s humanoid astral qi could redirect opposing force, it was never particularly durable and could usually be shattered with ease, requiring a constant expenditure of mana to regenerate.

Yet, the humanoid skeleton attacking him now displayed an entirely different level of structural integrity.

Amidst a volley of sharp crackling sounds, Yu Xinghan clashed with the skeleton several times, feeling that the bones were not only incredibly hard but also imbued with a bone-chilling coldness.

After a few exchanges, a rolling wave of astral qi was once again infused into the skeleton by Zhang Yu, filling it back out until it returned to its original humanoid appearance.

Following this round of testing, Yu Xinghan roughly grasped what was happening.

"This kid Zhang Yu is freezing his astral qi to serve as a 'skeleton,' using it to reinforce the overall durability of the humanoid shape."

"The exterior of the 'skeleton' is then packed with ordinary astral qi, creating a layer that mimics 'flesh and skin'."

"An ordinary attack might shatter the outer layer of 'flesh,' but it won't break the underlying 'skeleton' structure."

"Then, all he has to do is refill the 'flesh' with astral qi to restore it entirely."

"His tactics are becoming more and more sophisticated..."

Yu Xinghan instantly realized that if he wanted to destroy Zhang Yu's humanoid astral qi, he would have to obliterate both the "skin" and the "bone" in a single, devastating blow.

"Heh, let's see how you handle the martial art I just pushed to Level 15."

Circulating his energy abruptly, he unleashed the Dragon-Elephant Vajra Palm, a technique derived from the same lineage as the Dragon-Elephant Mountain-Collapsing Palm.

Unlike the Mountain-Collapsing Palm, which could be driven purely by physical might, this Vajra Palm utilized explosive astral qi to augment the body's physical output.

Upon striking, the astral qi did not erupt outward but was instead retained within the body to bolster physical density and power. It was a martial art designed purely for close-quarters combat, and one of the techniques Perfected Master Xinghuo had mapped out for Yu Xinghan's cultivation.

With a low grunt from Yu Xinghan, lines of astral qi flooded every single fiber of muscle in his right arm, dyeing the entire limb in a shade of brilliant gold.

In the next instant, as his palm struck forth, a wild gale howled, and the air in front of him seemed to be completely vacuumed out by the blow.

The humanoid astral qi countered with a palm strike of its own, its hand carrying the exact force of Yu Xinghan's previous attack.

With a thunderous explosion, the two palms collided violently.

Under Yu Xinghan's blow, the "flesh" of the humanoid astral qi splintered inch by inch starting from the palm, bursting apart across its entire body.

Even the "skeleton" beneath the "flesh" groaned loudly under the strain, breaking out into a dense web of fractures, looking as though it might shatter at any moment.

Just as Yu Xinghan prepared to throw another palm strike to completely crush the humanoid form before him, the fractured skeleton raised its right arm, preparing to execute the exact same Dragon-Elephant Vajra Palm against him.

Sensing the explosive astral qi coiled within his opponent's palm, Yu Xinghan hastily retreated several steps, shouting, "Stop, stop, stop!"

"Fighting like this does too much damage to the body. I'm done, I'm done."

Yu Xinghan had no desire to take a hit from his own Dragon-Elephant Vajra Palm. Sustaining even the slightest injury would be far too heavy a loss for him.

He lamented, "Your Nine Heavens Cloud-Cleaving Energy was already enough of a cheat."

"Now that it's paired with this humanoid astral qi tactic, you can fight with reckless abandon and redirect force, while your actual body hides safely off to the side."

"It's a damn shame you aren't working as a security guard."

At the same time, Yu Xinghan could easily envision what would happen if someone fought Zhang Yu, thinking that destroying or bypassing the humanoid astral qi would grant them victory...

"They would discover that this guy is outrageously durable, to the point where they'd rather go back to trading blows with the astral qi."

Yu Xinghan pondered silently: "The only drawback to Zhang Yu's style is probably... the heavy consumption of mana required to continuously maintain the humanoid astral qi."

He summarized the strategy in his mind: "Attacking his real body is worse than attacking the humanoid qi. And when fighting the humanoid qi, one can't use overwhelming moves, or else it's too easy to have that force redirected back, resulting in self-inflicted injuries."

"Which means the most suitable way to fight this guy... is to slowly wear down his humanoid astral qi. Any frenzied onslaught will only increase one's own medical bills and repair fees for spiritual hulls."

"But a war of attrition takes time... He loses astral qi and mana, while I'm risking my own physical flesh, so I'd still have to match him with my own astral qi, which means my own depletion would be massive too."

"Furthermore..." Yu Xinghan thought of another detail: "Who knows what kind of shady deal this guy made with Le Mulan, but now a wave of frost accompanies every strike from either of them."

"If I try to wear him down, fighting him for too long carries the risk of frost building up inside my own body..."

"How disgusting."

The more Yu Xinghan thought about it, the bigger his headache became. His brow furrowed deeply; he felt that any battle against Zhang Yu was a losing proposition, a landscape riddled with deficits and hidden costs. Just thinking about it brought him a wave of discomfort, completely draining any remaining desire to fight the man.

"Thank goodness he's a good brother of mine whom I've spent money on and lent money to."

"In the future, whoever I want to torment, I'll just send them to fight Zhang Yu."

Zhang Yu was highly satisfied with today's test, thinking to himself: "Not bad, not bad at all. After freezing it, my humanoid astral qi can actually withstand a full-force palm strike from Yu Xinghan."

From a simple astral qi arm at the beginning, to a complete humanoid shape, and now to this frozen astral qi that formed a skeleton within the humanoid figure, his efficiency had been steadily rising. These were all the fruits of the experiments Zhang Yu had been conducting over these past weeks.

Because it was forged from the Formless Cloud Qi, he referred to the simple humanoid form as the Formless Muscleman.

As for the humanoid astral qi that utilized the Deep Frost Dharma Veins to create a skeleton, Zhang Yu called it the Deep Frost Muscleman.

Among them, the Formless Warrior moves faster, but its energy conduction efficiency is low, its strength endurance is poor, and it is relatively prone to shattering and dissipating. It can be generated instantly.

In contrast, the Deep Chill Warrior has higher energy conduction efficiency and greater strength endurance, but its movement speed is slower, its mana consumption is higher, and its generation is slower—taking at least five seconds to create.

Zhang Yu silently calculated in his heart, "With my current mana, if I release it all, I could probably create six Formless Warriors or two Deep Chill Warriors."

"But those would just be for show. To work at full capacity, I can only maintain one Deep Chill Warrior or three Formless Warriors at most."

"However, once the effects of Qi Vein Long Flow improve, these numbers should increase."

As he pondered, Zhang Yu looked at Yu Xinghan with a slight smile and said, "If you're afraid of getting hurt, let's change the training method."

"I'll help stimulate your spiritual root. Your spiritual root hasn't reached 100% fusion yet, has it?"

With that, Zhang Yu exhaled a burst of energy, transforming it into a Formless Warrior, and once again engaged in combat with Yu Xinghan.

This time, however, it was just like his past training sessions with Yu Xinghan—constantly stimulating the other's body and spiritual root to enhance their cultivation effectiveness.

Over the next few days, taking advantage of working in the same area as Yu Xinghan, Zhang Yu seized every opportunity to help improve the other's spiritual root fusion.

One day, Yu Xinghan let out a fierce shout, and the third eye in his mind trembled violently, causing the muscles all over his body to twitch incessantly.

"My spiritual root fusion has reached 100%."

Yu Xinghan felt his body, sensing an unprecedented clarity in his control over his flesh and blood. Both his physical and mana mobilization were now more than 10% faster than before.

Zhang Yu nodded with satisfaction beside him, thinking to himself, "To upgrade the Three-Eyes Divine Ability to Level 2, besides 100% spiritual root fusion, it also requires over 500 mana."

"Yu Xinghan will definitely achieve this before the end of the semester."

The only regret for Zhang Yu was that accumulating mana mainly relied on Yu Xinghan himself; at most, he could only offer some blood.

As for giving money to Yu Xinghan? That was out of the question. He didn't even have enough for himself, let alone to give to Yu Xinghan.

As time gradually approached the end of June,

the cemetery project officially concluded, and Zhang Yu's Qi Vein Long Flow finally reached the 8th level.

Superior - Qi Vein Long Flow (8/8): The more breathing techniques mastered, the lower the additional consumption of mana and mana derivatives during operation.

(End of Chapter)