Chen Yuan’s pupils shrank. He crossed his arms, sealing his chest with the wrapping power of the Cross Fist.
THUD!
Claws and arms clashed, producing a muffled sound like a beating drum. Chen Yuan felt an impossibly heavy and majestic force pierce through his forearms straight into his chest and abdomen. The bones in his entire arm buzzed.
With a CRACK, fine fissures spread across the cyan bricks beneath his feet. The impact forced him to stumble back three continuous steps before he could unload the force.
Before he could even catch his breath, Xu Heng’s second move arrived. Spinning his body, Xu Heng thrust both palms forward—Tiger Form: Fierce Tiger Pouncing on Prey. His tiger claws were cloaked in a fierce gale. One aimed high, the other low, striking at the face and the torso simultaneously. His aura was overbearing and heavy, exactly like a true fierce tiger descending a mountain.
Chen Yuan gritted his teeth and stomped his right foot hard against the ground to stabilize himself. He swung his left arm out horizontally, using the body-wrapping Cross Fist to forcibly block the upper tiger claw, while his right hand simultaneously whipped out from his waist. The spiraling power of the Drilling Fist condensed on his knuckles as he met the lower tiger claw head-on in a brutal clash.
THUD! THUD!
Two muffled impacts exploded almost simultaneously.
Chen Yuan was jarred half a step sideways. His left arm went numb and achy, while the webbing between the thumb and forefinger of his right hand burned hotly. The power behind Xu Heng’s Tiger Form was absurdly heavy. Even though Chen Yuan had secretly channeled a fraction of his Elephant Bone power, he was still suppressed to the point of breathlessness.
Xu Heng’s third move followed closely. Leaping into the air like a sparrowhawk piercing the sky, he flipped mid-air and slammed his right palm down—Sparrowhawk Form: Sparrowhawk Pouncing on a Finch. This strike was faster, heavier, and more urgent than the previous two. Before the palm even arrived, its wind had already blown back all the stray hairs on Chen Yuan’s forehead.
Chen Yuan’s gaze suddenly sharpened. He stomped his right foot into the ground. His spine coiled to its absolute limit like a tightly wound cable, and all the joints in his body emitted faint CRACKING sounds.
Dragon Folding Body.
At the same time, instead of retreating, he advanced. Turning sideways for a diagonal ram, he lowered his left shoulder, wrapping his whole body’s force to crash into Xu Heng’s descending figure.
Bear Form: Bear Leaning on the Mountain.
He hid something in this ram. Channeling his Elephant Bone power in secret, the force at the peak of his shoulder became thirty percent heavier out of thin air. He dared not unleash it all; doing so would expose the secrets of his Dragon Elephant Prison-Suppression Body. But even this thirty percent caused the aura of this Bear Leaning Mountain to spike drastically. Cloaked in a fierce gale, his shoulder was like a moving iron wall.
BOOM!
Shoulder and palm collided, producing an extremely muffled, deep, and massive thud. The dust on the ground was kicked up by the shockwave, rippling outward in a faint gray ring. The eardrums of several new disciples spectating the match buzzed from the impact, and they involuntarily shrank back half a step.
A hint of surprise flashed through Xu Heng’s eyes. He sensed an extremely heavy and majestic force hidden within Chen Yuan’s ram, as if he had just crashed into the foundation of an iron pagoda. While this force wasn’t enough to suppress him in return, it forcefully stalled his descending airborne momentum for half a beat. Mid-air, he retracted his palm, flipped, and swept backward. Upon landing, his toes tapped lightly against the cyan bricks, retreating another two inches before he completely steadied himself.
The two stood ten feet apart, their eyes locked.
Xu Heng glanced down at his hand; his palm was slightly flushed red. He looked up at Chen Yuan, a smile tugging at the corner of his lips. "Junior Brother, the ram of your Bear Form is heavy enough. This isn’t something you can achieve just by training the bear shoulder."
Chen Yuan rolled his numb shoulder and said nothing.
Xu Heng dropped his boxing stance. He brought his feet together, standing perfectly straight with his hands hanging naturally by his sides.
However, alarm bells blared in Chen Yuan’s mind. He had seen this posture before. Xu Heng putting away all his stances was the precursor to launching *that* punch. Almost instinctively, he crossed his arms over his chest. Secretly pushing his Elephant Bone power to fifty percent, he lowered his center of gravity, firmly nailing his Three-Body Posture stance into the ground.
Xu Heng moved.
He took an ordinary step forward. As his left foot landed, his right fist whipped out from his waist—Beng Fist.
This punch carried no explosive cracking of muscles and bones, nor the howling of wind. It was quiet to the point of being eerie. With the knuckles facing up, the fist traveled along the center line at a speed even slower than his previous strikes.
Chen Yuan’s pupils shrank to pinpricks. During his time at the Li Family’s Martial Arts Arena, Fan Dajiang would occasionally demonstrate the power generation of Hidden Force. The force was contained rather than exposed, originating from the bone marrow and penetrating the internal organs. Externally, there was no sound whatsoever. But wherever the fist touched, the force would penetrate in overlapping layers like an undercurrent. Skin could not block it, bones could not stop it—it damaged the internal organs directly.
THUD—BUZZ!
Fist and arms collided. The sound wasn’t loud, but it carried a dull, teeth-aching tremor. Chen Yuan felt an incredibly bizarre force drill right through his forearms and into his torso. It was unlike the brute collision of Manifest Force, nor the heavy majesty of the bone-refining stage. Instead, it was an oscillation with terrifying penetrating power.
His arms failed to block it completely. The residual force seeped into his chest cavity, shaking his internal organs until they went slightly numb. The punch lifted him off his feet, sending him sliding backward for over ten feet. His heels dug into the cyan brick floor with a THUD, plowing two shallow trenches before he finally stabilized himself.
Dead silence fell over the edge of the Martial Arts Arena.
Everyone had seen Chen Yuan knocked back by a single punch, yet when Xu Heng threw that strike, it made absolutely no sound.
Standing firm, Chen Yuan took a deep breath. The lingering force still faintly vibrating in his chest slowly receded like a receding tide. He looked up at Xu Heng. A flash of astonishment in his eyes quickly turned to understanding.
He dropped his fists and stood tall, offering a deep salute with cupped hands. His voice was steady and solemn. "Senior Brother Xu has already entered the Hidden Force stage. I am far from being your match. Thank you for showing mercy, Senior Brother."
He admitted total defeat, convinced wholeheartedly. If Xu Heng had channeled his Hidden Force with full power just now, that residual force wouldn’t have just numbed his internal organs—it would have caused direct internal injuries. Xu Heng had held back. Chen Yuan didn’t know exactly how much, but it was enough to make him realize the sheer gap between them.
The words "Hidden Force" were like a stone smashing into a tranquil lake. The spectating disciples fell silent in unison before erupting into irrepressible exclamations.
"Hidden Force?! Senior Brother Xu has already grasped Hidden Force?"
"How long has he been practicing martial arts? Same as Senior Brother Chen, only seven months, right? And he’s already at Hidden Force?"
Outside the arena, Fang Minghai smiled bitterly. The sudden sense of inadequacy in his heart plummeted like a waterfall crashing down three thousand feet. The Hidden Force he had struggled so desperately to comprehend seemed effortlessly within reach for Xu Heng.
Tao Ping stood in the crowd, his gaze complex. He glanced back at Huo Lin. Huo Lin stood with his hands behind his back, a faint, knowing smile playing on his lips. Song Bridge stood beside Huo Lin, arms crossed and expression calm. Clearly, they had known all along; they just hadn’t made it public.
Xu Heng dropped his boxing stance and walked over to Chen Yuan, reaching out to pull him up. This action stunned the watching disciples once again. Senior Brother Xu was usually aloof with everyone; it was rare for him to take the initiative to reach out a hand.
"There is no need for false modesty," Xu Heng’s tone returned to its usual indifference. "Right now, there are very few in the Bone-refining Manifest Force Stage who can hold their ground under my punch. Your foundation is solid, and your base is thick. Grasping Hidden Force is only a matter of time. I stand by what I said before—if you can manage to keep my back in sight, you can already consider yourself a success."
With that, he let go, turned around, and walked toward the Inner Courtyard.
Chen Yuan paused, then chuckled. "Don’t worry, Senior Brother. I won’t keep you waiting too long."
He thought, "You are so arrogant. Just wait and see how I deal with you in the future."
"Master, when did Junior Brother Xu comprehend Hidden Force?" Tao Ping asked as he followed behind Master Huo. He had been busy with other matters these past few days and hadn’t been staying in the Inner Courtyard the whole time.
Master Huo said mildly, "It happened a few days ago. Hidden Force is no big deal. Projected Force is the real hurdle. You must not neglect your own cultivation, either."
Tao Ping smiled bitterly and shook his head. He too possessed a Grade-B Root Bone back in the day and considered himself a genius, yet he had been stuck at Hidden Force for several years. Perhaps Junior Brother Xu would grasp Projected Force even before him. As for Junior Brother Chen—it wasn’t that he looked down on him, but there was a high probability he would end up just like himself, trapped before the heavenly chasm that was Projected Force.