Chapter 234: Leveling Up
Chapter 234: Leveling Up
Moving from the second level to the third didn’t take much time.
Each time his “Abnormal Martial Arts: Annihilation Wheel Fist” climbed a level, the Primal Rage Resonance Field grew stronger and more stable.
His Growth Value burned ferociously, like firewood thrown into blazing flames.
This pushed his Annihilation Wheel Fist upward. After spending about 120 points of Growth Value, he forcibly raised his “Abnormal Martial Arts: Annihilation Wheel Fist” to the tenth stage.
This was now his main martial skill, and the most powerful one he currently possessed.
(Abnormal Martial Arts: Annihilation Wheel Fist, Tenth Stage, Progress: 0%)
Fang Jing released his Primal Rage Resonance Field again. At this stage, the red glow it emitted was thick as blood.
Within a ten-meter radius, the Resonance Field pulsed slowly. The air around Fang Jing thickened and flowed sluggishly under its influence, a sign of the field’s increased power. It proved that the Annihilation Wheel Fist and his Resonance Field amplified each other. The stronger and higher-level the fist art became, the mightier the Resonance Field grew.
He stretched out a hand, gathering the Resonance Field in his palm. Energy rippled there, forming a lump of crimson flame.
Reaching downward, he pressed his palm against the floor. This spot was specially hardened with reinforced concrete, smooth and clean. Yet under his touch, a palm print sank deep into the surface.
The corroding force was unique to the Resonance Field at the tenth stage of the Annihilation Wheel Fist. In the five-fingered print, bubbles gurgled up. Beneath it pooled a sticky sludge.
“Not bad… It seems when the Resonance Field strengthens enough, it holds a special toxicity. This corrosion must come from an extraordinary poison.”
Likely, this was a special effect brought by the “Seal of the Asura Hand”. After all, the Annihilation Wheel Fist itself fused from that skill and others. Retaining some traces of that poisonous art was natural.
Fang Jing felt his Annihilation Wheel Fist could climb higher. He still had a large stockpile of unspent Growth Value. Without hesitating, he poured it in, strengthening his fist art nonstop.
He sensed potential for further growth beyond the tenth stage. Pushing upward was still possible.
Driven, he remained focused. Burned by sheer will, he directed a flood of Growth Value into the skill panel’s Annihilation Wheel Fist symbol. This propelled its transition from the tenth to the eleventh stage.
The progress bar flickered, jumped, changed. The moment he stepped into the eleventh stage, his Resonance Field began expanding outward…
Crack!
Instantly, the Resonance Field flared outward by one meter. Its radius stretched from ten meters to eleven. Its energy shifted subtly.
“Not enough…”
A sharp gleam lit his eyes as he muttered to himself.
The next second, he doubled his efforts, urging the Annihilation Wheel Fist onward. After burning a huge chunk of Growth Value, the fist art reached the twelfth stage.
Fang Jing’s expression froze. In that instant, he met resistance.
Spinning and pulsing, his Resonance Field stretched outward another meter.
Stopping, he checked his body. Certain he could still advance, he spent more Growth Value without pause.
The Annihilation Wheel Fist skill panel flashed blue once more.
This time, the fist art touched the thirteenth stage.
At stage thirteen, the Resonance Field emitted a harsh “hum.” It swelled outward by one more meter.
The Primal Rage Resonance Field’s radius now spanned thirteen meters.
Energy vibrations intensified. The magnetic rotation accelerated.
Fang Jing exhaled sharply. White vapor enveloped him. His entire body’s muscles subtly bulged. Beneath his skin, they seemed forged from steel. Without using the Inner Ghost Gate transformation, his skin took on a light dark shade.
After reaching stage fourteen, the field radius expanded again, nearing fourteen meters.
But upon completing stage fourteen, a strange, sharp pain bloomed in his chest.
Right where his heart stood, the home of the Primal Rage Beast.
Likely, his body struggled under constant upgrades to strengthen the Annihilation Wheel Fist.
Fang Jing paused, letting both his mind and body rest.
He recovered for nearly half an hour.
Then, he challenged once more. This time, he aimed to lift the Annihilation Wheel Fist from stage fourteen to fifteen.
Biting his lower lip, Fang Jing bore the relentless, stabbing pain in his chest. For ordinary people, such agony would shatter focus. But he ignored it, pouring perfect concentration onward, inch by inch moving the progress bar.
Unaware, his back grew soaked with sweat. A pinprick feeling crawled over his skin. Even his brows twisted slightly.
Time blurred. A hollow boom filled his mind. His body shook violently, driven as if something detonated within his brain and heart.
Abruptly, Fang Jing opened his eyes. His Annihilation Wheel Fist had completed the leap to the fifteenth stage.
Bringing a hand to his face, he felt dark blood trickling from every feature.
“Seems I’ve hit my limit.”
The magnetic field’s radius had stretched to fifteen meters.
Stepping into this stage, Fang Jing felt his Resonance Field solidify, becoming rock-like.
Within its fifteen-meter spread, the field itself underwent radical changes.
Stretching a hand forward, Fang Jing made a grasping motion. A cup on a nearby table wobbled, floated halfway toward him through the air, then crashed to the floor, spilling water everywhere.
“Within the Resonance Field’s zone, my power can freely transmit, like a force field. But energy decay makes it unstable. To master it, I need more practice.”
With the Annihilation Wheel Fist refined to the fifteenth stage, Fang Jing knew his power had transformed both in quantity and quality.
The Resonance Field’s reach now covered a broad fifteen-meter radius.
Within this area, his energy could flow according to his will.
Contemplating the traits of the Annihilation Wheel Fist and the Resonance Field, Fang Jing planned several unique combat moves.
For now, the Resonance Field possessed three features: “restraint”, “toxic corrosion”, and “energy conduction.”
How best to utilize these traits remained a puzzle worth solving.
A few days later…
Deep in the mountain forest by Kume Nansho’s small wooden cabin, a figure sat alone atop brown stone.
The Chemical Plant warehouse felt too cramped for testing his new powers. He’d sought this undisturbed spot.
Fang Jing hadn’t moved long. He stayed wrapped in thought as minutes crawled by. Only much later did he finally rise.
A single motion sent invisible force tearing through the air. It crackled like firecrackers.
This was the Resonance Field in action. Normally, Fang Jing kept it suppressed to a ten-meter radius.
Only when driving it with the Annihilation Wheel Fist did its power climb.
Through days of testing, he gradually refined his magnetic control.
By slowing its spin, he could maintain the Resonance Field’s initial, subtle state – undetectable by ordinary people. Still, a faint red glow veiled his skin, though barely noticeable.
But unleashing it fully transformed the power. Crimson light flared outward. From afar, he seemed crowned in flickering flame.
“Shadow Burn Palm!”
He raised one hand, a subtle crimson glow gathering in his palm. Swinging his arm forward through empty air, his palm imprint struck a tree trunk meters away. Hardened bark sizzled under corrosive force. A chunk vanished, leaving behind pale black ash.
“Hmph! Without channeling the Annihilation Wheel Fist fully, this move’s range and power are limited!”
Fang Jing had developed several standard combat skills. “Shadow Burn Palm” attacked enemies from six meters using the poison intrinsic to his Resonance Field. Below the Annihilation Wheel Fist entry, a new subcategory appeared: “Corrosive Radiance”.
Besides “Shadow Burn Palm” and “Corrosive Radiance,” a few more sub-skills now sat beneath the main Annihilation Wheel Fist entry. All were the fruits of his recent research.
“My body’s recovered enough.”
He rolled his neck and stretched.
Right after completing the Primal Rage Resonance Field, he had noticed minor internal injuries.
After resting, the wounds had healed about seventy percent. His Annihilation Wheel Fist pushed to the fifteenth stage, yet he sensed it wasn’t at peak.
Fang Jing suspected it could climb further. Yet, confined to his human form, this power was his limit.
Next, his training focus must shift: Smashing past human physical limits.
However, first came solving his biggest personal problem.
Fingering the back of his neck, Fang Jing sensed something he hadn’t before—an unseen thread coiling there, trailing far into empty space, stretching toward distant horizons.
“This should be… the Curse cast by the Ichinose Apartment.”
He snorted coldly. His strength finally caught up. This lingering threat needed ending.
(The old me hadn’t the power to handle this. Now… I’ve gained the leverage to resist the Apartment’s Curse.)