Duan Li put up a stance mid air as he circulated his spiritual Qi along his meridians and pathways. To his astonishment, his Qi efficiency right now is off the charts!"This... I can feel my powers to be... overflowing!"
Meanwhile, the old man gazed at Duan Li with a frown. "His aura continued to rise further... is he not reaching his limit soon? At this point, he would reach a battle prowess comparable to that of a late stage Foundation establishment realm!"
After a few breaths, Duan Li had finally reached the peak state in his realm right now. He could feel 9 Qi pools within each of his three dantians, rotating furiously as it churned out mighty powers around his body.
"Lord Guardian, here I come!" told Duan Li with an excited expression.
"En! Come!" gestured the old man casually with a nod, his hands still clasped behind his back as he showed a confident expression.
After all, he was just facing a mere junior whom was still wet behind the ears. No matter how outstanding the other party would be, how can it compare against someone of his realm?
Whooshh!
Duan Li moved his left leg half a step forward and clenched his right hand into a fist near his abdomen. With a glint in his eyes locking onto a prey like an eagle, he punched out!
"Nine Fists Shattering Meteor!"
BRRRR!
In a slow motion, the air was folded to an extreme degree that they heated up instantly around the area of Duan Li"s fist as it launched forward. When this glowing red punch reached half the distance to being fully released, vacuum was slit open along the way as the heated air rushed into it chaotically. The friction between the heated air causes spontaneous combustion of long flames, as it wrapped around Duan Li"s fist alternatingly like two coiling dragons!
However, the heat produced from this yet-to-be punched out fist has become too scalding hot that could melt iron and metals together!
Duan Li could feel the extreme temperature was about to burn right through his whole right arm!
"Holy moly! I miscalculated the force of this punch!"
Rriinggg!
Suddenly, time began to slow down to almost a halt, as the two coiling flames around his arm was now moving like a pair of snail. Duan Li exhaled in relief!
Fiuhhh!
"What a useful ability! So it can even try to stop a threat from my own undoing as well? Ah! I better punched out this fist first!"
Without wasting any more time, Duan Li completed the punch to its full momentum as he pulled back his right hand in a jiffy.
BBBOOOMMMMM!
However, what Duan Li did not realize was, the speed at which he completed that punch during the slow-mo time was even faster due to the time dilation differences. Thus, it had instead increased the overall power by a few more folds!
BBOOMMM!
The punch was shooting forward madly like a crazed bull, reminiscent of a raging meteor that threatened to flatten the whole continent as it approached the old man with extreme speed.
On the opposite side, the old man was shocked beyond belief to what he was witnessing right now!
"A Q-Qi condensation realm s-shouldn"t have a fist with this much torrential force behind it!" he exclaimed with a jumpy voice as he quickly unsealed himself to the early stage of the core formation realm. He then activated the force field barrier that is made up of spiritual Qi.
And it wasn"t on a whim as well, for this barrier will completely negate any skill arts attack from a Foundation establishment realm and below. After all, the distance between the first and second realms compared to the third realm could be described like the Earth and the Sky.
Or at least it should, but the next scene had destroyed that conception as well.
BAMMM!
The force field barrier that the old man used trembled rapidly as cracks spread out. The fist continued to ram at it relentlessly as he got pushed backwards.
"Grghh! To think that even the early stage of the core formation realm barrier that could negate attacks from the lower realm was not enough to stop it?! What sort of power is this!"
The old man gritted his teeth together. However, for the sake of his dignity, he refused to use both of his hands to stop the persistent fist art that was continuously a.s.saulting his barrier with extreme force. Instead, with his hands still clasped behind his back, he snorted and raised his cultivation level to the middle stage of the core formation realm!
Hmphh!
BOOOMM!
That trembling barrier just now was finally showing signs of stabilizing as the old man had rooted himself on the sky, no longer being pushed back by the fist.
Slowly but surely, the force behind Duan Li"s fist were being dissipated by the barrier. However, just as the old man was about to relax himself, another fist was coming straight at him.
BAAMM!
BAAMM!
BAAMM!
...
After a while...
BAAMM!
BAAMM!
"b.l.o.o.d.y h.e.l.l! Just when is this brat going to stop throwing his fists around?!" exclaimed the old man in astonishment. He was starting to feel a little bit scared right now.
The other party had continuously thrown out one punches after another left and right! Not only that, this brazen brat even started to circle around him while punching out rapidly with both hands!
Furthermore, the one thing that bugged him the most was... the other party hasn"t even shown any signs of growing fatigue at all! It seems as if his spiritual Qi reserves runs very deep and endless!
In addition, he could feel that every single punch was growing stronger and lethal with every consecutive punches!
"This is a combo fist art!" he said in realization.
Crack!
The barrier began to crack slowly as the brows of the old man twitched. He hadn"t imagined that the other party would be able to push him this far! Hmph!
Boom!
Late stage core formation realm!
Pinnacle stage core formation realm!
Boomm!
The old man lifted his cultivation seal all the way until the pinnacle stage of the core formation realm as the barrier around him slowly mended together and the cracked lines disappeared.
The punches no longer brought any sorts of ripples to the barrier. In fact, no matter how many hundreds of times Duan Li continued to punch against it, nothing would happen at all!
After all, the pinnacle stage of a core formation realm is extremely mighty!
"Alright, enough!" said the old man out loud.
Huuu!
Duan Li sucked in one more breath as he relaxed himself, his expression happy.
"I have seen your strength now and frankly, you are quite overpowered for someone of your realm! I suggest you tone down your powers a bit when you are outside, lest you would attract a lot of unwanted attention!" continued the old man.
His face was quite indifferent as he said this, but within his heart, he was extremely rattled. So shocked to the point that his world views were forced to see beyond the horizon!
How could someone like this even exist?
If his powers were to match that of the foundation establishment realm, then so be it. Because that would meant that he is a true genius and there are also others like that. But to match those of the core formation realm? This has never happened before in the history of the Tian continent, not that he know of at least.
And then, if he were to level up to the Foundation establishment realm, would he be able to take on the golden core realm experts? That would be simply going against the rules!
It seems that the person behind him is a truly powerful existence indeed!
Hais...
He deduced that Duan Li"s explosive battle prowess was all due to the help of the mysterious powerful existence"s backing.
After all, he refused to believe that a person"s talent could be so heaven-defying to such an extent! Even the heavens wouldn"t want to let him live!
Meanwhile, Duan Li on the other side was quite satisfied with his current battle prowess. If he remembered correctly, his other self in that timeline was only a quarter of what he is capable right now during the Qi condensation realm.
"Thank you for your guidance Lord Guardian!" said Duan Li with a 90 degrees bow. He was really amazed with the other party"s strength. To think that the old man would be able to block his fist without even using either hands.
"En!" nodded the old man casually, as if the matter wasn"t a big deal for him at all.
"Let"s get back to the ground!"
Psheww!
...
Tap!
Both of them landed gently onto the ground with their feet. The mother wolf had a stunned look to her expression as well.
"Human... You are pretty.. No! you are very strong!" she said with a trace of awe in her eyes. It was common for a beast to respect the strong, as it was in their nature.
"Arrff! Arrfff!" the cub nodded rapidly as well, like a chicken pecking on the ground while wagging its tails.
Duan Li just scratched the back of his head as he felt a little bit embarra.s.sed when he heard their compliments.
"Anyway brat, listen. There are three mazes in the first region, each is about tens of kilometres long and wide with varying difficulties!" said the old man, his expression solemn.
"I noticed that another one has entered the maze before you. She is currently in the first maze, while you are in the third!"
He then continued, "The location of the treasure boxes in the third maze is naturally more treacherous than the other two. It is located quite deep underground, and I can show you the entrance! But that is as far as I am willing to help you. The rest, you will have to depend on yourselves!"
In fact, as the Guardian himself, intervening this much was already unbecoming of someone with his t.i.tle. Thus, he decided to only tell the entrance towards Duan Li.
Hearing this, Duan Li nodded. His expression was serious as well before the old man spoke again.
"Although, with your current physical body structure and its density... I bet with a hundred percent confidence, you will die for sure if you head in right now! Hahahaha!" laughed the old man.
Ehh?
Duan Li hadn"t expected this at all. If that is indeed the case, how was he to come out from this eternal maze then?
"I also agree with the Guardian. With your battle prowess, no monsters here would be able to injure you. However, the force of nature is something else!" said the mother wolf by the side.
Hmm...
Duan Li contemplated as he cupped his chin. It seems that the only way out from this maze is to first temper his physical body.
Does he really have any other choices?
Haiss...
Duan Li shook his head and sighed. His eyes however, had a sharp glint to it as he made his decision with determind looks to him.
"Then... I will temper my physical body inside the One Hundred Thousand Graveyard lake!!"
...