He understood. The young man from just now had clashed with him head-on, actually leveraging that force, taking the backlash and injuring himself without dispersing the energy. Instead, he used the momentum to charge at the middle-aged man, killed the incapacitated middle-aged man with a single punch, and then fled, leaving himself far behind and impossible to catch.
Just as the middle-aged man was coughing up blood, a voice on the ground shrieked, "Father! Father, how are you? Did you kill that little bastard?!"
The middle-aged man immediately glared viciously at Xu Wen, who was lying on the ground with broken legs. His eyes were bloodshot and filled with murderous intent. He stared at her like that for a long time, until Xu Wen felt almost frightened out of her wits. Only then did he coldly withdraw his gaze, look over at the headless middle-aged man in the distance, sigh, and mutter in a voice only he could hear.
"This is a disciple taken in by that reclusive Inner Qi Master... fighting with such desperation... Ten years of obscurity, ten years of silence, and now he is determined to astonish the world with a single feat..."
"Ten years to sharpen a sword. What a fine ten years sharpening a sword. Yet my Xu Family has become the whetstone for it..."
With a sorrowful expression, the middle-aged man muttered to himself before coughing up another mouthful of fresh blood, unable to say anything more.
Hao Qi forced his body to straighten, but with every fraction of an inch he extended from his hunched, curved posture, the excruciating pain increased. It was a terrifying pain that left him drenched in cold sweat, yet he straightened his body undeterred. Then he simply went through a set of Arhat Fist. In less than ten minutes from start to finish, Hao Qi was trembling all over, his entire body covered in cold sweat, with even a puddle of sweat beneath his feet. Just this single set of Arhat Fist left him completely drained of the strength even to twitch.
Despite this, Hao Qi was in quite a good mood because it meant his body had recovered a bit more. Compared to yesterday, when he could barely strike a fist stance and remain motionless, today showed a distinct improvement.
Hao Qi had sustained severe injuries—very, very severe injuries. Had he not already possessed Inner Force, these wounds would have been enough to kill him, or at the very least leave him permanently paralyzed with no hope of ever practicing martial arts again.
Five days ago, during the battle within the Capital Circle, Hao Qi had faced two Inner Force Experts head-on. Furthermore, before fighting these two, he had gone over thirty hours without sleep, eating only a single meat pie and a little water, right after his Inner Force had just erupted.
Though the battle's outcome could be called nothing short of a miracle—one Inner Force Expert dead, the other driven back, and Hao Qi himself escaping the Capital Circle—this single fight was enough to send shockwaves of renown throughout the entire Lanying Republic. Even as a newcomer to the Inner Force realm, he would be regarded as one of the most formidable fighters among Inner Force adepts.
Yet the true situation was known only to Hao Qi himself: he had been extraordinarily lucky to win that fight. In terms of actual combat power, either of the two Inner Force Experts present could have steadily suppressed him—that was beyond doubt. One need only look at the middle-aged man he faced: no matter how he threw his Arhat Fist, the man caught it with his eagle claws. That alone revealed the gap in their strength.
Merely speaking of it cannot convey this disparity; the actual gap between them was immense. For instance, when someone throws a punch at you, "blocking" means either dodging out of the way or taking the blow on a less vital, sturdier part of your body. But if you can clearly see the opponent's fist path, catch and envelop their fist with your palm, and most crucially, ensure their fist cannot break through your palm to harm you—then you are definitively stronger than them, and likely by more than a small margin. This indicates that your reaction speed, your physical speed, and your strength all surpass theirs. In a martial artist's duel, being stronger by just three parts is an insurmountable advantage, let alone being able to block every single punch with your bare hands.
Because of this, the first reaction of the Xu Family's Inner Force Expert had been to call out the other lurking Inner Force Expert. His actual intent was to kill Hao Qi. The consequences of a major family provoking an Inner Force Expert—especially one likely locked in a life-or-death feud—need no elaboration. If the Inner Force Expert had scruples, it might be manageable; but if it was someone like Hao Qi, an orphan with no ties or burdens, then the family's survival crisis was imminent. Vast scale also meant numerous vulnerabilities, and a single misstep could lead to the clan's downfall. Therefore, the options were either to kill this Inner Force Expert and resolve everything, or pay the highest price to make peace.
Realizing that Hao Qi had just experienced an Inner Force eruption and that the gap between them was immense, the middle-aged man knew he might not be able to kill Hao Qi alone. But with another person executing a pincer attack from front and rear, the probability of killing Hao Qi would skyrocket. Thus, his true objective at the time was indeed to kill him.
So, in the days following his escape, whenever Hao Qi thought back on it, he broke out in a cold sweat. He had essentially been dancing on the edge of a blade right in front of the Grim Reaper. Surviving, and emerging victorious, was not merely a matter of luck; he even suspected it might be the final blessing of Lin Xiong's spirit in heaven.
Regardless, he had survived. Through this battle, not only had the initial awkwardness of his newly attained Inner Force vanished, but he had also gained practical experience regarding the strengths and weaknesses of Inner Force adepts. Once he recovered and underwent a bit of targeted training in the utilization of Inner Force, even without using the Bana Palm, he would be no weaker than either of the two Inner Force Experts he had faced previously.
The most crucial aspect of an Inner Force adept is, naturally, their Inner Force. This Inner Force is an unknown breath—or energy—between heaven and earth. Drawing into the body through the crown of the head and the soles of the feet, it combines with the human body's native essence, Qi, and spirit to generate a unique energy. This energy circulates within the human body while constantly dissipating and regenerating. Far from being harmful, this dissipation—as Hao Qi carefully sensed—nourishes the blood, muscles, bones, capillaries, nerves, meridians, and more as it disperses throughout the body. While this nourishment is not instantaneous, acting rather like gentle spring rain that moistens things silently, its effects become apparent year after year. By Hao Qi's estimation, leaving everything else aside, the lifespan of an Inner Force adept vastly exceeds that of an Ordinary Person, easily surpassing a hundred years.
Before reaching the Inner Force realm, there is the Quasi-Inner Force Realm, a tier attained when humans temper their bodies to the absolute limit. Yet a Quasi-Inner Force Expert is still, strictly speaking, just an Ordinary Person. Their combat capability is roughly comparable to the pinnacle figures found in the internal martial arts novels Hao Qi read before his transmigration. Essentially, they temper the body to an infinitesimal degree of refinement, reaching the peak of perfection. They can rely on specific methods—such as internal martial arts, vocalization, vibrations, and precise movements—to control and train the most minute parts of the body, such as circulating blood, vibrating internal organs, and repairing hidden injuries. Such is a Quasi-Inner Force Expert. Their vitality is incomparably formidable, having reached the ultimate limits of the human physique; their strength, speed, and reflexes far exceed the imagination of an Ordinary Person. To call them a match for a hundred men is by no means an exaggeration—and this "hundred men" does not refer to a hundred ordinary people, but rather to matching a hundred soldiers or martial artists in a frontal engagement.
However, the gap between a Quasi-Inner Force Expert and an Inner Force Expert is unimaginably vast. Leaving aside other factors, the mere capabilities of self-enhancement and self-repair are worlds apart.
A Quasi-Inner Force Expert relies on sensation and experience for self-enhancement and repair. Having already tempered their body to its limit, they are exceptionally sensitive to minute physical changes, able to perceive hidden internal injuries as well as relative strength and weakness. This allows them to use Qi, blood, and vibrations in a targeted manner for healing and strengthening. Furthermore, their bodily control has reached its peak: if an Ordinary Person strikes a punch with a force of one hundred catties, a Quasi-Inner Force Expert executing the same physical effort can concentrate a force of one thousand catties at the point of impact. These are the advantages of a Quasi-Inner Force Expert.
Yet, in the eyes of an Inner Force Expert, these methods are mere child's play. The defining difference is simply this: Inner Force!
When Hao Qi currently mobilized the Inner Force within his body, he could literally perceive his internal condition. This was not a figure of speech; he could genuinely see it with his mind. It was not a vague sensation, but rather akin to how a bat uses echolocation. Inner Force was like a new organ acquired through biological evolution—formless yet tangible. As long as Inner Force circulated through his body, he could see at a glance where he was injured, where long-term training had left hidden damage, where blood and Qi were stagnant, or where malnutrition existed, without needing to guess or feel around.
Moreover, unlike the microscopic physical repairs and training of a Quasi-Inner Force Expert, adepts of the Inner Force path no longer needed any external methods. External boxing, internal boxing, vibration techniques—all became completely unnecessary. Relying on Inner Force to circulate blood and nutrients, and to purge impurities, was a hundred times more effective than those conventional methods.
When Hao Qi escaped the Capital Circle five days ago, both of his arms had suffered multiple fractures with dense cracks in the bones, countless ruptured capillaries, pooled blood, torn muscle fibers, and nerve damage right down to the root. Beyond his arms, his spine, legs, waist, and other vital areas were in a similar state, with several internal organs showing signs of internal bleeding.
Such severe injuries would have killed an Ordinary Person instantly, and even if a Quasi-Inner Force Expert had suffered them, survival would be the absolute limit. Any thought of unleashing Inner Force would be out of the question, requiring a decade or more of recuperation merely to recover basic martial prowess and engage in combat.
For an Inner Force Expert, however, such injuries required only about ten days to heal. With abundant food, herbal medicine, and modern medical treatments, recovery might take as little as four or five days—and completely without sequelae. The difference was simply too massive.
After escaping Old Street five days ago, Hao Qi had neither returned to the university nor gone to the Li Family's stronghold. Instead, he masked his presence and directly left the Capital Circle, covertly boarding a train at random. Unsure of where the train was heading, he disembarked in a small town. Relying on his Inner Force realm strength, he stole some wealth from a well-to-do household, checked into a mediocre hotel, and spent the past five days there. By now, his body had healed to the point where he could fight opponents below the Inner Force realm—a testament to the terrifying recovery speed conferred by Inner Force.
During these five days, Hao Qi had not spent his time solely on physical recovery. Though temporarily unable to practice martial arts, he continuously simulated and recalled that battle in his mind while experimenting with and familiarizing himself with the various properties of Inner Force.
First, Inner Force could be controlled, but this control had its limits. For example, Hao Qi could currently condense Inner Force only up to a certain threshold; trying to condense it further gave him a sense of helplessness, much like an ordinary person lifting a hundred-pound load—gritting your teeth, you might manage a hundred and twenty pounds, but one hundred and fifty pounds is utterly impossible. Inner Force gave a similar impression: it could be condensed, diffused, and extended outside the body. However, once condensed to a certain density, diffused to a certain thinness, or extended to a certain distance, it could no longer be sustained. This was the limit—or rather, Hao Qi's current limit.
He still clearly remembered that when he used the Bana Palm to condense a luminous palm imprint of a Buddha seal and blasted the Xu Family's Inner Force Expert away, he had shouted out the words "Inner Qi Realm." This suggested that the Inner Force Realm was likely not the ultimate tier of Inner Force, and that an Inner Qi Realm probably existed above it. Though not entirely certain, Hao Qi estimated that the Inner Qi Realm was likely related to the quantity of Inner Force, the density of its condensation, and the degree of control over it.
Those were the inherent characteristics of Inner Force. Secondly, Hao Qi discovered that Inner Force could grow. When he mounted the Muscle-Tendon Changing Classic onto his character template, he received a massive influx of knowledge: numerous postures, movements, methods of circulating and training Inner Force, techniques for gathering Qi and power at acupoints, principles of the microcosmic orbit circulation, and so on. These comprised the core cultivation methods of the Muscle-Tendon Changing Classic. Over the past few days, he had attempted to practice them, finding them immensely beneficial to his healing. Moreover, he distinctly sensed that after practicing the Muscle-Tendon Changing Classic, his Inner Force exhibited a noticeable sense of consolidation and growth. Though it was only an infinitesimal increment, the sensation of Inner Force was so acute that even this tiny fraction could be clearly perceived.
Hao Qi had sensed this previously. When facing the Li Family's Inner Force Expert, as their respective Inner Forces extended and sensed each other outside their bodies, he had felt as though his own Inner Force density surpassed the opponent's. He experienced the exact same sensation when fighting the Xu Family's Inner Force Expert. Thus, it seemed that even among those who had attained the Inner Force Realm, not all adepts possessed identical Inner Force; differences existed in both density and volume. True to its status as one of the system's three top-tier internal martial arts, the Muscle-Tendon Changing Classic produced an Inner Force that was extraordinary, even for a beginner.
Beyond that, Hao Qi had also experimented with various application methods for Inner Force. For instance, when he drew Inner Force into his body and distributed it evenly throughout, his strength, speed, cognitive reflexes, and physical resilience all increased uniformly. When he concentrated a large amount of Inner Force into his brain, his cognitive reflexes spiked dramatically, accelerating his thought processes by roughly ten to fifteen times. Under that state, he could watch a television program and see individual static frames; when he smashed a glass cup onto the ground, he could actually witness the instant the glass distorted and deformed before shattering. That level of cognitive reaction speed was terrifyingly fast.
Yet, correspondingly, his physical condition completely failed to keep pace with his thoughts. It was as if his consciousness was trapped inside a physical body that had turned into an uncontrollable prison, leaving him able to observe everything as if frozen in time. Conversely, when he channeled his Inner Force entirely into his muscles and physical frame, his speed and strength surged dramatically—increasing to two or three times the level of an even distribution—while his cognitive functions failed to keep up entirely. Walking forward would cause him to crash directly into a wall; when striking an object, he would only realize what had happened after the blow landed and the result was already produced.
At the same time, he verified a hypothesis he had formed five days ago when his Inner Force first erupted: using Inner Force to selectively reinforce a single body part yielded compounded effects. For instance, when he concentrated a massive amount of Inner Force into the muscles of a single arm, that arm's strength, defense, and recovery capacity increased exponentially, far surpassing the results of an even distribution. Through this, he understood the combat style of the two Xu Family Inner Force Experts—or rather, the true combat style of the Inner Force realm.
During a duel, one flexibly concentrated Inner Force: before making contact with the opponent, one absorbed and distributed more energy to the brain and nerves to observe the enemy's movements and attack trajectory more clearly; then, upon contact, the energy shifted rapidly to the point of attack or defense. This explained why the middle-aged Xu Family Inner Force Expert could consistently catch Hao Qi's fists with his eagle claws and block every single blow. That middle-aged expert had long since trained the application of Inner Force into an instinct. Before Hao Qi's fist even reached him, he reinforced his cognitive reflexes to observe and determine the punch's trajectory, then channeled power into his claws to parry and defend. Even during movement, he would reinforce his leg muscles and nerves; during a protracted battle, he would reinforce his pulse and heart. These were combat techniques of the Inner Force Realm that required rigorous training; simply having a greater quantity or higher density of Inner Force did not guarantee absolute victory.
With these thoughts, Hao Qi brought today's practice of the Muscle-Tendon Changing Classic and his physical rehabilitation to a close, breaking out in a cold sweat. He let out a breath and formulated a cultivation plan for himself. After all, his intention was to travel and see the entire world, something likely impossible without profound martial arts. Strength was a necessity, and without a doubt, his top priority.
First, his training plan for Inner Force needed to be put on the agenda. The density of Inner Force, its quantity, and the precision of its control were the three critical points. Next came mastering the instinctual ability to shift the distribution of Inner Force within the shortest possible time. While an even distribution provided the most balanced combat state, it was not the optimal one; the ideal approach was to absorb and distribute Inner Force to whichever area was needed most at any given moment—whether offensive, defensive, or reflexive. These were aspects he needed to practice earnestly.
Second was the planning of martial arts from the system. Having pushed Arhat Fist to its limit, he currently possessed 60 points in the fist coefficient, which was still insufficient to practice intermediate fist techniques requiring a coefficient of 70 or higher. Therefore, he needed to learn another fist technique. Furthermore, although he had just begun practicing the Muscle-Tendon Changing Classic and it was only at level one, his use of its internal training methods over the past few days had shown that experience points were actively accumulating, and the rate of acquisition was roughly ten times higher than simply executing empty strikes. Even though he could not train the Muscle-Tendon Changing Classic with reckless abandon like Arhat Fist—given the limitations of his physical meridians—he estimated he could raise it to level ten within three to five years, which was already quite remarkable.
Thus, his next goal was to select other internal martial arts with different special effects. Take the Arhat Demon-Subduing Skill, for instance—an internal art he had long set his sights on. Its in-game effect was restoring health every turn. Although its Inner Force bonus could not compare to the Muscle-Tendon Changing Classic, this special effect was simply phenomenal. If it functioned similarly in reality, Hao Qi would fear no group battles whatsoever. Of course, he expected numerous differences once actualized, but among the internal arts he wished to choose next, the Arhat Demon-Subduing Skill was high on his list.
Besides the Arhat Demon-Subduing Skill, there were two other internal arts he desired. One was the Primordial Chaos Skill, whose in-game effect was restoring stamina every turn. In the real world, this was equally crucial. Although Inner Force vastly increased physical stamina, Inner Force Experts were still living beings and could tire, especially during battles against peers, where stamina consumption was terrifying. Possessing this internal art would grant Hao Qi an absolute trump card.
And the final internal art was one of Hao Qi's ultimate targets: the Divine Illumination Scripture!