Chapter 37: Force

The hunchbacked man took the scroll, opened it, and frowned slightly as he looked at the black iron piece drawn on it.

The refined man continued, "This black iron piece has no text or pictures, but it emits an incredibly strong divine-demon aura. It's much more powerful than the aura of typical divine-demon legacy fragments. We are, after all, mortals with limited experience, so we're concerned we might overlook a treasure."

"Then buy it," the hunchbacked man said, frowning at the drawing.

"The Blood Cloud Bandits are asking for a hundred thousand taels, not a single tael less," the refined man said respectfully.

"We don't even know what it is, and they want a hundred thousand taels? The Blood Cloud Bandits are truly mad," the hunchbacked man said, shaking his head. "Alright, I'm aware of this matter. You may leave."

"So, should we buy it?" the refined man asked.

"Are you going to pay for it?" the hunchbacked man retorted, glaring.

"Understood," the refined man said respectfully. "Your subordinate will not act on his own initiative." He then immediately withdrew with the silver-haired elder.

In this Eastning Branch, the two deputy hall masters were known for their eccentric temperaments, and their subordinates were quite intimidated by them. Ironically, the Hall Master commanded greater respect.

"What is this thing? Even if it's a divine-demon legacy, so what? We cultivate the 'Heavenly Demon Path,' so a divine-demon legacy would be useless to us anyway," the hunchbacked man scoffed, looking at the scroll in his hand. He then tossed it to the maid beside him. "After Old Tu the Second and the Hall Master emerge from their seclusion, they can take a look at it."

"Yes," the maid replied respectfully.

After Meng Chuan finished his medicinal bath and cultivation, both his mind and body had recovered to their peak state.

He went to his small courtyard and began his third daily mandatory practice: the Extreme Draw Blade! For over a year, he had been pushing his internal True Qi to its limit daily, which allowed his meridians to gradually adapt. His divine-demon body was particularly adaptable, and his meridians were very resilient. Now, his meridians were so wide and tough that they could instantly unleash twelve times his True Qi.

The power of a move is a combination of technique, physical body, and True Qi, ultimately unleashing the body's potential.

Even with a twelvefold True Qi burst, the blade technique's power only increased by about twofold. Before this, such a move was considered a killing blow 'without damaging the body'! Meng Chuan was unwilling to easily use certain divine-demon forbidden arts. For instance, Yun Fucheng, the eldest of the Yun family, had permanently damaged his foundation by using a forbidden art during a life-or-death battle, making it impossible for him to achieve divine-demon status.

"Now that I possess soul power, I can try an even stronger Extreme Draw Blade," Meng Chuan thought, his eyes lighting up.

He then focused his mind, and with an intense thought, the invisible 'soul power' instantly merged into every part of his body. His internal organs, bones, muscles, surging blood, and strands of True Qi slowly flowing within his meridians—every sensation in these areas became much stronger. His control over his physical body immediately improved to an incredible degree.

Each time he experienced this sensation, it felt incredibly profound.

He wondered when he would be able to control his body like this without relying on soul power.

"Boom."

In an instant, his True Qi burst to a full fifteen times its normal level. Under the guidance of his soul power, his meridians could still fully withstand this fifteenfold surge. Within his body, a large amount of lightning was generated, several times denser than usual. The formation of lightning within his body caused Meng Chuan's speed to explode to an incredible extent. Speed was the forte of his Thunder God Body, and by fully tapping into his body's potential at this moment, the increase in speed was the most exaggerated.

Even his less proficient strength increased severalfold.

"Whoosh."

A brilliant blade gleam streaked across the sky. The blade light sliced through the air, creating a blade aura that flew several yards and struck the rock wall, leaving a deep mark.

Meng Chuan stopped.

His soul power immediately retracted and was no longer consumed. It was used for only a fleeting moment during the execution of the move, which helped conserve his soul power as much as possible.

"This move consumed about twenty percent of my soul power," Meng Chuan muttered, nodding slightly. "It seems I can only perform five such killing moves with an extreme burst."

"Again."

Meng Chuan wanted to master his strongest killing move. He stared ahead as if an demon stood before him, intending to slay it. His killing intent had to be strong enough, and his mind and body had to be more deeply integrated.

"Kill."

Again, a terrifying blade gleam flashed forth.

"Kill."

Meng Chuan pursued the limits, striving for greater perfection. As his soul power integrated into every part of his body, he tried to uncover more of his body's potential. He felt that his physical body was like a massive iceberg, and what he had uncovered was merely the tip. According to divine-demon legends, even the most powerful divine-demons dared not claim to have fully unearthed the limits of their physical bodies.

This was because with continued cultivation, the physical body would grow stronger and stronger.

"Kill."

Meng Chuan felt exhilarated; it was truly satisfying to go all out without holding back. With his soul power integrated, he was even more immensely immersed in the practice.

His entire body was restrained when gathering momentum, but when he exploded, every part of his body unleashed its full power under the command of his soul power. His intent was like a blade; with one strike, all demons would be slain!

"Boom!" A terrifying 'momentum' formed around Meng Chuan. He seemed to transform into a blade himself. At that moment, his physical body and True Qi combined more perfectly under the guidance of this 'momentum,' erupting with even more terrifying power.

The blade gleam flashed, leaving a lingering crescent arc in the air that was truly breathtaking.

The blade gleam was so fast that the high-pressure air currents formed incredibly sharp 'blade qi.' This blade qi actually sliced through the courtyard wall several yards away, causing stones from the wall to tumble to the ground.

Meng Chuan then sheathed his blade and stood still.

"Is that 'momentum'?" Meng Chuan was pleasantly surprised. He had a premonition that he would comprehend 'momentum' within a few days, but he never expected that by integrating soul power into his 'Extreme Draw Blade' practice at night, he would comprehend 'momentum' with just the fourth strike.

Books described 'momentum' extensively.

But no matter how much was described, only at the moment of one's own mastery could one truly understand it.

All things in heaven and earth possess 'momentum': mountains have their momentum, water has its momentum, wind has its momentum, and fire has its momentum. Even the entire heaven and earth possesses a great momentum! Truly powerful blade techniques should possess 'blade momentum.' With blade momentum, a person seems to transform into a blade. Under the command of blade momentum, the body's potential can be unearthed at a deeper level. It can even, from within and without, draw upon a portion of the power of heaven and earth to empower oneself.

Under the command of momentum, control over True Qi becomes much more refined, even allowing True Qi to attack outside the body.

"What's going on?"

"Is this momentum?"

Inside Mirror Lake Meng Residence, Meng Dajiang and Liu Yebai both rushed out of their rooms in alarm. They had both sensed a 'momentum' appearing within the residence. This made their hearts race, because they knew that only the two of them possessed 'momentum' within the residence. For a third one to suddenly appear in the middle of the night, it was, nine times out of ten, an invading enemy.

"An enemy has infiltrated? And one who comprehended momentum? It's at Chuan'er's residence," Meng Dajiang and Liu Yebai thought anxiously. Both transformed into afterimages as they rushed over.

In a blink of an eye.

The two of them rushed into Meng Chuan's small courtyard and saw Meng Chuan standing there in a daze, his blade sheathed. A section of the courtyard wall had collapsed, with rubble scattered across the ground.

"Which friend has come to my Meng Residence? Please show yourself!" Meng Dajiang called out clearly upon seeing the scene.

"I didn't detect the other party; they're quite good at hiding," Liu Yebai quietly transmitted. "However, he didn't harm Meng Chuan, so he probably bears no ill will."

Both of them were very vigilant.

"Father, Uncle Liu, there's no one else," Meng Chuan said to the arriving Meng Dajiang and Liu Yebai, snapping back from the profound sensation of comprehending 'momentum.'

"No one else?" Meng Dajiang and Liu Yebai both froze in surprise.

"That unfamiliar momentum just now?" Meng Dajiang looked at his son, and a bold guess couldn't help but form in his mind. No, no, no... he must be overthinking it.

Meng Chuan nodded, admitting, "I comprehended blade momentum."