Chapter 4 - The Magical Black Essence Force
Jiang Yi stared blankly at Jiang Bao rolling around on the ground in pain, and for a short while both of them could not comprehend what just happened.
In the Stellarsky Continent, almost everyone practiced martial arts, and the school of martial arts had a well-distinguished hierarchical system. From the lowest level to the highest, it went like this: the Cast Tripod Realm, Purple Mansion Realm, then Soul Travel Realm. Among all these, each realm was split into nine stages according to the essence force accumulated. The strength standards of each realm were also very different.
An average person at the first stage of the Cast Tripod Realm usually had the power of a horse. They could break a rock with a single blow and could lift 72 kilograms. Jiang Bao, a second-stage Cast Tripod Realm martial artist, had the power of two horses and could lift 144 kilograms.
Between two individuals, there would no doubt be some difference in strength but the difference would normally be negligible.
However, when Jiang Yi hurriedly circulated the Jiang Water Art essence force which only had about 72 kilograms of force, it unexpectedly fused with a cloud of black essence force from the nameless formula. One blow was enough to sent Jiang Bao tumbling back fifty feet away.
The spontaneous stroke that Jiang Yi delivered was just the Man-tier, medial-grade Wrestling Hand. Jiang Yi had practiced this unusual and difficult Wrestling Hand to perfection. The Grand Elder had once stroked his beard with a smile upon seeing him use it in such a deft manner.
But Jiang Yi was injured and lacking essence force, so there was no need to stress the vast difference in strength between them. Despite this, the unexpected blow managed to dislocate Jiang Bao’s elbow.
The only explanation for this bizarre situation was that the two essence force had fused perfectly, greatly increasing his strength. Other then that there was no other reasonable explanation!
It was just that… there were strict criteria in order for two different techniques or two different colored essence force to fuse. At least within the Cast Tripod realm, different essence force clashing lightly was enough to create a big problem. The repercussions spanned from the minor problem of having a Qi deviation due to chaotic essence force to the major problem of being seriously injured due to cracked meridians. The explosion of a dantian might even reduce a person into a cripple. This was common knowledge for all on the Stellarsky Continent.
“Ah… ah… Jiang Yi, you are a goner! You bloody bastard! How dare you break my arm!? You are a dead duck this time!”
An enraged roar pulled Jiang Yi back from his thoughts. He looked at Jiang Bao and saw him howling in agony; his eyes met with Jiang Bao’s dark, furious gaze.
“Hmph!”
Jiang Yi couldn’t help but feel angry. Among those who beat him up yesterday, Jiang Bao was the one who delivered the most vicious blows. The huge bruise on his head was the latter’s creation. Furthermore, today he started beating on him even before he could utter a word. The Shooting Star Punch was one of his most powerful trump cards.
He must have wanted to beat me unconscious. Perhaps… he even meant to kill me!With that, a ruthless expression suffused Jiang Yi’s face. Since he’d already thrashed Jiang Bao, he might as well stick it out to the end and act like a hoodlum.
“It doesn’t matter whether I am a goner or not. Either way, you, Jiang Bao, are definitely not going to make it past today!”
He jumped up from the ground and pounced at Jiang Bao. His leg slithered like a snake whip and swept towards the pathetic figure of Jiang Bao, leaving behind various afterimages.
Man-tier medial-grade martial art technique, Snake Whip Leg!
Jiang Bao did not expect this ever-honest fellow would rebel, let alone attack! He panicked for a moment. His left arm was already seriously injured and sent waves of unbearable pain coursing through his body.
Jiang Bao had lost all ability to fight back. He could only cradle his left arm and roll on the floor like a pathetic wretch.
Swish!
Jiang Yi had little essence force, but he was highly skilled at utilizing various techniques. Since he had already made up his mind to get rid of him, how could he let Jiang Bao escape? Jiang Yi pushed the Snake Whip Leg to its full potential, and his legs shot out like two ferocious snakes, sweeping across Jiang Bao’s back, again and again.
BANG!
BANG!
…
After Jiang Yi vented with his final kick, Jiang Bao cried out in agony as he rolled a full ten feet away before stopping. He bit his lips to suppress the searing pain and scrambled to his feet.
“Jiang Yi, just you wait!” Jiang Bao shouted as he ran down the mountain.
“Huh….”
Jiang Yi did not chase after him. His attention was focused on his legs. Earlier, he had exerted all his strength in the kicks he threw, but they only managed to send Jiang Bao flying ten feet back. Its power was definitely lacking compared to his earlier strikes. It was on par with his original strength.
Jiang Yi closed his eyes, faintly feeling the changes in his body.
At this moment, his meridians were all filled with blue essence force from the Jiang Water Art; not a sliver of black essence force remained.
Perhaps…
“From the looks of it,” Jiang Yi muttered pensively, “it has to be because there’s insufficient black essence force. I only tried practicing the nameless formula for one hour yesterday and stopped when the results were not ideal.”
“The sliver of black essence force I cultivated only accumulated in my left arm. The power of the Wrestling Hand exceeded the norm as it drained the sliver of black essence force. The force behind the Snake Whip Leg was average as it only used my regular essence force.”
“Eh… whatever, I’ll finish up here first and do a thorough study of it once I complete the mission!”
Jiang Yi’s heartbeat quickened as an unexplainable excitement washed over him. Having unwittingly picked up a method that could increase his strength, he could, at least, defeat Jiang Bao easily. This was despite not being able to change his body, which accumulated essence force at a snail’s pace. He would finally be released from his suffering.
With speed and accuracy, it took him almost an hour to finish counting the herbs in Plantation Four. Although he had not fully recovered from his injuries, he dashed down the mountain like a breeze, feeling full of drive and spirit.
After reporting to Chief Rong, Jiang Yi hurried to his compound. The yard was as quiet and deserted as ever. From the looks of it Xiaonu was not back yet. However, Jiang Yi couldn’t be bothered. He jumped onto his bed and sat down cross legged to meditate.
He wanted to continue cultivating the nameless formula from his dream and extract more black essence force for research!
Nearly an hour later.
As expected, he managed to extract a wisp of black essence force from his dantian.
Those who had attained the Cast Tripod Realm could look within their bodies. Jiang Yi fixed his eyes on the mysterious strand of essence force. It was like an inch-long hair strand that sat quietly within his dantian. The more he looked at it, the more adorable he found it.
Jiang Yi was thrilled. To him, this essence force wasn’t some random thing thinner than a strand of hair, but a life-saving straw that could pull him out of his predicament!
“Next, I’ll attempt to fuse it!”
He carefully transferred the black essence force to the Shaoyin meridian in his left hand before slowly circulating the Jiang Water Art in his dantian and also sending it to his left hand.
“Sure enough… another perfect fusion!”
When he felt the effect of the combined forces of two different attributes fusing together like twin brothers, Jiang Yi was elated. He jumped up and smashed heavily down onto the limestone slab beside the bed.
BANG!
The ground shook. His left fist smashed right into the limestone slab and split it into two halves. His fist did not even hit the ground below the slab.
“My strength has indeed increased greatly. If not, I would be unable to split up the limestone slab. For me to split it means that my strike carries the force of two horses!”
Jiang Yi pulled his arm out, not bothering with his torn sleeves and the few scratches on his arm. He was trembling with joy.
This was only a sliver of black essence force…
Would his strength be boosted even further if he continued to accumulate more of the black essence force by continuing to cultivate the nameless formula?
“Cultivate! Experiment! I must cultivate and try a few more times.”
Jiang Yi shook his head and forced himself not to laugh. Closing his eyes, he sat down cross-legged and seriously started to cultivate. This time he cultivated for four hours before stopping.
“These black essence force strands are too difficult to extract. I barely obtained six wisps after four hours of extraction…”
Jiang Yi scratched his head, vexed, but he quickly pushed aside his frustrations. He stood up again and transferred the black essence force to his right fist to fuse with the Jiang Water Art’s blue essence force once again. He smashed his right fist onto the limestone slab on the floor.
BANG!
His fist did not reach the ground below the limestone slab again.
Jiang Yi removed his arm and paced happily around the room. A thought surfaced suddenly. The black essence force increases my fist strength greatly. It could work for my legs, too, I suppose…
Swish!
Looking at the terrible state of the room, Jiang Yi shook his head and walked out to the back yard. He channeled a sliver of black essence force into his right foot and stomped down on a limestone slab on the ground.
BOOM!
The limestone slab split like before. Jiang Yi’s legs went through the slab but did not reach the ground; the strength of his kick seemed to exceed that of his fist!
“Oh… time to try my knee!”
BOOM!
“Time to try my elbow!”
BOOM!
Jiang Yi had a great time. All he needed was to fuse the two essence force, and his strength would increase threefold.
“Next, I could try other spots. Should I try my head? I have not yet grasped the Man-tier medial-grade Iron Head Technique fully. But that’s fine. Why don’t I try out a head blow…”
Having two slivers of essence force left, Jiang Yi randomly circulated one wisp to the blue essence force. He allowed it to flow randomly within his body. He felt like a nouveau riche sighing over not having a place to spend his money.
However, just when he wanted to transfer the essence force to his head, the merged essence force passed through the Zanzhu acupuncture point at the corner of his left eye. Suddenly, a black light flashed across his left eye. When he subconsciously blinked his eyes, he discovered the entire world in front of him had changed completely!
Jiang Yi stared at the clear and distinct surroundings in a daze. He could clearly see the hairs on the legs of the spider on the wall. Moreover, the spider’s movement was scarily slow, like a slow-motion picture.
“Holy cow!”
He quickly shut his eyes and opened them again; the scene in front was just as distinct and clear as before. Turning his head, he gazed at the dark corner far away. A bug as big as a grain of rice was crawling slowly like a snail. It had seven black spots on its back…
Jiang Yi thought of something suddenly. He looked abruptly into the distance across the yard. Similarly, the scene outside was just shockingly vivid. He could very clearly see the trajectory of a mosquito flying in the distance hundreds of feet away.
“Buzz—”
About half a minute later, after sweeping the surrounding with a baffled glance, he suddenly realized that his left eye viewed things in a blur. It was the same when he blinked. His vision had returned to normal—this time he could still see the spider on the wall but could not make out whether there were hairs on its legs…
“It’s the black essence force! It must be due to the black essence force!”
Jiang Yi snapped out of his daze. He immediately tried to sense the sliver of black-colored essence force, and indeed, it had already dissipated. The essence force left at the meridian near his eye was blue in color.
“This black essence force is just miraculous; it can even enhance one’s vision!”
Stifling a laugh, Jiang Yi once again transferred the final sliver of black essence force to the corner of his right eye’s Zhanzhu acupuncture point.
True enough…
The whole world turned distinct again, and time also seemed to pass sluggishly.
“How weird…”
Jiang Yi was overjoyed like a child who had just discovered a new toy. He swept his gaze left and right across the room, and towards the window and beyond. He took in the new world which was completely different from before while he gave out a hysterical laugh, finally failing to contain himself.
“Hahaha, yeah! This is a treasure, a real one. The heavens do favor me…”
The black essence force again dissipated before Jiang Yi could have his fun, restoring the world to its original state.
He wanted to try again but realized that he no longer had any black essence force within his body. The six slivers of black essence force that he painstakingly took four hours to cultivate were gone in minutes.
“Cultivate! Cultivate!”
Jiang Yi rubbed his eyes, his slightly tender face filled with ecstasy. He immediately sat cross-legged. He planned to cultivate even longer, extracting more of the black essence force and research more of its functions.
About two hours later…
He was awoken by a dull sound of a door being slammed open, instead of waking up naturally.
BANG!
His yard’s door had been slammed open by a young lady wearing a dress made of rough sackcloth. Her face was panic-stricken and the moment she charged in, she shouted, “Young Master Jiang Yi, Young Master Jiang Yi! Quick, come out, your Xiaonu is being beaten up! You had better come quickly before she loses her life…”
“Xiaonu!”
Jiang Yi’s body trembled as he opened his eyes suddenly. His face instantly turned grim. He looked like an agitated lion with a bristling mane. Jumping up from the ground, he dashed towards the front yard like a maniac…