Invincibility Begins with Mastery of Fist Techniques-Chapter 49: Tianlu’s Number One

Watching Huang Shuwen’s body crumple to the ground, Zhou Yuanjue fell silent, a flicker of regret in his eyes.

Huang Shuwen had been a worthy opponent. Using the stimulus of the Heart’s Desire Bursting Out to break through to the Holy and Bright state mid-battle was not something just anyone could achieve.

If not for the fact that one of his arms had been crippled in an earlier exchange, defeating him while his Spiritual Will was so stirred up would have undoubtedly come at a much steeper price.

To be honest, if it had been possible, he would not have wanted to kill him. In this era of peace, Martial Artists with such a determined will and natural Talent were becoming increasingly rare.

Unfortunately, this was a duel to the death. It was either his life or mine, with no room for holding back.

The scene was utterly silent. Only when Huang Shuwen’s blood began to pool on the ground did the crowd fully react.

SWOOSH!

The faces of the Tianji Sword Sect members changed drastically, and they immediately rushed forward to check on Huang Shuwen.

His blood flowed unabated, his pupils were dilated, and he was no longer breathing.

A sword through the heart—not even a Ghost God could save him now.

In a corner of the mourning hall, Luo Yongli, sitting in a wheelchair and wearing sunglasses, watched Huang Shuwen lie in a pool of his own blood. His face was devoid of expression, but the bodyguard pushing his wheelchair could clearly feel it trembling violently.

Zhou Yuanjue turned to leave.

His body was covered in scars and his clothes were almost completely dyed red with blood. He had just endured a battle to the death, and his stamina was pushed to its absolute limit. Yet, despite their fury, not a single one of the Tianji Sword Sect disciples dared to step forward and block the man as he turned to walk away.

Their eyes held anger, killing intent, and hatred, but also a deep, unconcealable admiration.

Even if they refused to admit it, the truth was that they had been conquered by the man’s skill, will, and courage during the fight.

’To cast aside life and death, to forget fear, to burn one’s own life force and achieve sublimation in the heat of battle... It’s truly something to aspire to...’

Yan Hao watched the retreating figure. Though covered in wounds, his back was ramrod straight, and the blood burned hot in Yan Hao’s veins.

He clenched his fists tightly. That defeat wasn’t the end of his Martial Dao, but the beginning.

He was now deeply grateful to have met this man, who had shown him the way and revealed the true face of the Martial Dao.

He would follow in his footsteps, tread the same path, until the day he could once again stand before this man, proud and upright, and issue a challenge.

It wasn’t just him, nor was it only the disciples of the Tianji Sword Sect. Everyone present from the Tianlu Martial Arts Realm had been utterly captivated by the battle.

In this age of peace, living their tranquil lives, many had witnessed for the first time just how dazzling the light could be when someone burned away their very life force.

Number one in Tianlu!

Watching the man’s retreating back, everyone in the Martial Arts Realm wholeheartedly acknowledged who deserved that title. 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

They were utterly convinced. The title was well-deserved!

Nearby, Li Qingxuan hurried to catch up with Zhou Yuanjue. She looked at the man, covered in blood yet with eyes that still shone with a soul-capturing light, and let out a soft sigh of relief. Her wide eyes curved into crescents.

Honestly, of all of Zhou Yuanjue’s battles she had witnessed, this was the one that had terrified her the most.

When their figures crossed and froze at the very end, the sight of Huang Shuwen’s sword tip emerging from Zhou Yuanjue’s back had made her feel as if her heart and lungs had stopped for an instant.

But thankfully, in the end, this man had not let her down.

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After some basic first aid, Zhou Yuanjue and Li Qingxuan returned to Wuhai.

This time, Zhou Yuanjue didn’t go back to his own villa, instead accompanying Li Qingxuan back to her luxurious one.

This was the most severe injury he had sustained since achieving Mastery of Fist Techniques.

He did a quick mental calculation. His body was covered in about fifteen sword wounds of varying depths. Twelve of them were superficial and of no major concern to Zhou Yuanjue.

The three wounds on his arms—sustained when he forced a charge from a disadvantaged position—were the most severe. His muscles had been severed, significantly affecting his Power Release. Even though his Mastery of Fist Techniques granted him a constitution far beyond that of a normal person—with abundant qi and blood, a vibrant life force, and extraordinary Recovery Power—he estimated it would take at least a week to regain his original combat strength.

An assassination attempt at this time would be extremely troublesome, so he hadn’t refused Li Qingxuan’s offer to stay at her villa.

However, despite his injuries and mental fatigue, his routine could not be broken.

When Li Qingxuan saw that Zhou Yuanjue, whose wounds had just been stitched and bandaged, had immediately commandeered her training room without a moment’s rest, she couldn’t help but shake her head in resignation.

"What a madman."

Li Qingxuan muttered to herself, turning away from the training room door to go and make some dinner herself.

Inside the training room, because his injuries were quite severe, Zhou Yuanjue didn’t stand as he usually would. Instead, he sat cross-legged in the center of the spacious room.

’If you can’t learn and improve from a fight, then a battle of life and death is meaningless.’

He was an extremely miserly person, refusing to let even a single insight or gain from the battle slip from his mind.

After all, these insights and gains were often paid for with blood, or even life itself.

They were far more precious than fame or fortune.

And the moments immediately following a battle were, without a doubt, when the skills, experiences, emotions, and stimuli were at their most vivid in his mind.

The battle with Huang Shuwen replayed in his mind with absolute clarity, an immersive experience repeating over and over again.

At the end of the battle, although Huang Shuwen had grasped the state of Holy and Bright, he was still short an arm. More importantly, he hadn’t anticipated that Zhou Yuanjue, spurred on by their clash, would also ascend to a higher level. This caused his mental state to waver, creating a significant flaw in his still-unstable Holy and Bright state.

This dual weakness, both physical and spiritual, ultimately led to his demise.

Through this battle, Zhou Yuanjue’s own Spiritual Will had once again ascended to a new plateau.

He hadn’t tested it specifically since the fight, but by his own estimation, the number of times he could execute a Heart’s Desire Bursting Out in a short period had increased by one or two. Furthermore, each burst no longer lasted for a mere instant, but could be sustained for one to two seconds.

The numbers might seem like a small improvement, but for a Great Master of Fist Techniques like Zhou Yuanjue, who possessed immense destructive power, this change was nothing short of world-altering.

He knew that from this day forward, in a head-on, life-or-death battle, an ordinary Great Master of Fist Techniques would no longer be his match.

Physically, they might still be on the same level, but in the utilization of one’s Spirit, they were now worlds apart.