Chapter 73 - 72: Relax your muscles and bones! Aggressively strengthen your skin and fur! (Seek follow-up reads)

When Yang Kai launched his attack, the entire classroom was already enveloped in an extreme silence. Everyone held their breath, their gazes fixated on the center. Thus, when Jiang Shu channeled Force through his finger, that crisp sound rang out as if it were right beside everyone’s ears. The collision of fist and finger. BANG. Jiang Shu furrowed his brows, retreated a step, and quickly diverted some of the impact. A slight pain was already emanating from his finger. Channeling Force was a distinct skill. But he had only reached the second stage of Skin Grinding; his skin was merely as tough as stone. His bones were barely any harder than an average person’s. Under the full burst of Manifest Force, I still overreached. Internal Force is the software; the skin and bone membranes are the hardware. Teacher Xie Feichen could do this solely because he had reached the Dark Force Realm, having trained his Force into his very bones. Only with a body of copper skin and iron bones could he directly shatter wood and stone. He himself needed to advance at least one more step, to the realm of iron skin, to do the same. Understanding this in his heart, Jiang Shu switched hands, preparing for another round. In front of him, Yang Kai, who had always been extremely confident, had now lowered his head, his eyes filled with some confusion and despair. "Student Jiang, I’ve lost." How... how can I fight this! The Force channeled from Jiang Shu’s finger was like a thunderclap that suddenly exploded beside his ear.NovelFire He did not know what state Jiang Shu was in. He only knew that from this single collision, his entire fist felt as if it had been violently whipped! Intense, burning pain attacked in waves!View the correct content at NovelFire) Just a flick of a finger had reduced him to this state. Switching hands? How could I still fight! This... is this a martial arts genius from the Rookie Leaderboard? If the nineteenth rank is like this, then how terrifying must the first, Shang Jibei, be! He gasped, and Yang Kai couldn’t help shaking his head. After hearing about the university martial arts genius competitions, his somewhat eager heart had been shattered into pieces by Jiang Shu’s finger flick. My past achievements... would they only amount to signing up to make up the numbers? Yang Kai looked downhearted. The classmates in the training classroom, however, all wore faces of shock. Classmates who had been defeated by Yang Kai looked up to Jiang Shu, feeling utterly dwarfed. And those like Yang Kai, who had just stepped into the Manifest Force Realm, felt a deep sense of dread. They imagined themselves in the center, fighting a duel. A flick of a finger, the sound of Force. Is this really a classmate from our class? What kind of monster is this? No, a martial arts genius like him... shouldn’t he be at Shengjing Academy? A storm seemed to sweep through everyone’s mind. Their past self-confidence was completely crushed at this moment. So, even among those in the Manifest Force Realm, the gap could be so vast. In a corner, Shou Junming was grinding his teeth in resentment, unlike the other students. He felt that in just half an hour, he had played the fool twice. The first time, he mistook Jiang Shu for an even bigger nobody than himself. The second time, he mistook Jiang Shu for the weakest among Manifest Force Martial Artists. No, is he sick? He’s clearly nineteenth on the Rookie Leaderboard, yet he sits in the classroom corner? He clearly channels Force through his finger, yet he said, ’Let me give it a try’? I’m so naive, I even pick clothes with cartoon pictures on them. And Jiang Shu had the audacity to deceive me? Bullshit! Utter bullshit! Pah! Taking in the expressions of everyone in the training room, Xie Feichen took a step forward. As a Martial Arts teacher whose Realm was between Dark Force and Transforming Force, Xie Feichen, with his extraordinary vision, clearly saw that Jiang Shu had actually suffered a considerable hidden loss from that finger flick. Although it was still channeling Force through the finger, it wasn’t as the students had imagined—to suppress the full-power burst of a Manifest Force Martial Artist with the strength of a single finger. However, even so, Jiang Shu still gave him a huge surprise. Self-exploration, channeling Force through the fingers. This kind of martial arts Talent was definitely not inferior to the top few on the Rookie Leaderboard! Walking to the center, Xie Feichen broke the calm in the training room, "You see, the Martial Artists on the Rookie Leaderboard don’t neglect their Martial Arts. You are working hard, but they are likely working even harder. Take Jiang Shu, for example. He has completely mastered the first thirty-six forms of the Innate Guiding Skill. In his daily actions—walking, stopping, sitting, or lying down—he maintains the postures of the Guiding Skill." "Moreover, in battle, his fine hairs stand on end, and his pores constrict. This, none of our classmates who have entered the Manifest Force Realm have achieved." "But is this very strong? It’s not. In our Xia Country’s Martial Arts, there is a saying: ’Muscles and bones should be loose, skin and hair should be attacking. Connected throughout, with spirit in the void.’" Xie Feichen paused for quite some time after saying this. Only when all the students had refocused and were listening carefully did he continue, "Student Jiang Shu has only achieved ’skin and hair should be attacking.’ His muscles and bones haven’t fully relaxed yet. Martial Arts is also a philosophy. It advocates for action and stillness, for hardness and softness. Manifest Force is hard, it is action. Dark Force is soft, it is stillness." "Hardness and softness, action and stillness, internally relaxed and externally taut, freely opening and closing. When one’s entire body’s Force can erupt naturally in combat, moving without conscious intent, one will always be a step ahead of the opponent." "Of course, when I say that Student Jiang Shu hasn’t reached this step yet, it doesn’t mean he can’t make it. Rather, those who can reach this step are either already at the Dark Force Realm or are on the verge of reaching it." "As far as I know, Shang Jibei has already reached this stage." Although Xie Feichen’s words were calm, they were like a meteorite crashing into a shallow pond. Indeed, the first on the Rookie Leaderboard was truly the first. While they were still practicing Qi Blood Transport, he had already become a Manifest Force Martial Artist. They had barely managed to become Manifest Force Martial Artists, and he was actually about to break through to the Dark Force Realm. And then, they were all to compete in a major tournament. How could they compare? Yang Kai’s gaze grew even more desperate. Now he felt that the gap between different levels within Manifest Force was even greater than the gap between a Manifest Force Martial Artist and a regular Martial Artist. "’Muscles and bones should be loose, skin and hair should be attacking.’" A single teaching from a True Inheritor is worth more than ten thousand scrolls of falsehoods. While Xie Feichen was still speaking, Jiang Shu was already muttering and assuming a stance. Although he had been continuously sparring with Qi Yuan, Qi Yuan was merely a Skin Grinding Realm Martial Artist and didn’t know much more than him. And with Master Chou, although they had a master-disciple relationship, Master Chou clearly had other identities. He adopted a laissez-faire attitude towards his disciples. So, even though Jiang Shu had visited many times, he always received only vague martial arts platitudes, completely incomparable to these eight words from Xie Feichen. It was truly like seeing the sun after the clouds parted! Jiang Shu’s eyes shone with clarity; he didn’t care what Realm Shang Jibei was in now. It’s not like the competition is tomorrow. One month. That’s enough time for me to undergo another qualitative transformation! His right hand pressed against his ribs, his left hand rose steadily. His fine hairs bristled, and then he secretly tried to relax his entire spine and limbs. He wanted to reach this stage. But knowing and doing are always two different things. When the skin and hair channel Force, the muscles tense up. It’s always taut on the outside, and also taut on the inside. He couldn’t achieve being taut outside while relaxed inside. "This step isn’t so simple." Xie Feichen, who had been observing Jiang Shu closely, saw that he hadn’t grasped the key point and reached out, speaking directly, "Come, let me give you a hand."