Chapter 16: Discovery

Another two months passed in the blink of an eye.

In the tomb chamber hall, Zuo Qingcang stood upside down, supporting his entire body weight with his palms. His whole body was twisted into a peculiar shape, like a budding seed ready to break through the soil, take root, and sprout. The Innate Primordial Breath throughout his body—or rather, his physical strength—was constantly vibrating, trembling, and seemed restless.

After a long time, a flush appeared on Zuo Qingcang’s face, and he let out a low grunt from his throat. Suddenly, he slapped the ground with both hands and executed a somersault, landing firmly on his feet.

As the flush on his face slowly faded, Zuo Qingcang exhaled deeply. Smelling the faint scent of blood in the air, a barely noticeable look of disappointment crossed his face.

This was his fifth attempt to connect the Innate Primordial Breath in his head, and he had failed again. Clearly, the complexity of the human skull was far beyond what Zuo Qingcang could overcome in a short time. The blood vessels, nerves, and muscles here were all more intricate and harder to break through than in any other part of the body.

As early as a month ago, Zuo Qingcang had successfully connected the Innate Primordial Breath in his hands and feet in one go. But until now, there had been no progress at all in the areas of his head and lower body. The recent failure had caused slight internal bleeding, and if Zuo Qingcang hadn’t stopped in time, he might have died instantly.

It could be said that at this stage of Qi Training in the Authentic Transmission Martial Arts, every step was like walking on thin ice, with the constant threat of death.

Although his Martial Arts training had hit a bottleneck, by connecting the Innate Primordial Breath in his limbs, Zuo Qingcang’s explosive power and endurance had increased once again. His strength was now at least two to three times greater than it was two months ago. After all, both hands and feet played a crucial role in human combat.

After performing a few relaxing movements, he turned his gaze toward the opening next to the stone slab.

“Why is it taking so long today?”

In fact, because Zuo Qingcang diligently practiced Martial Arts, he absorbed Spiritual Power from his body at an exceptionally fast rate. Originally, a Dwarf Spirit could provide enough nutrients for an ordinary person for seven days, but due to his training, Zuo Qingcang basically had to consume one Dwarf Spirit corpse every day.

This greatly accelerated the consumption of Dwarf Spirit corpses. According to estimates by the Old Man and himself, the remaining corpses would last at most one or two years.

As a result, the Old Man and Zuo Qingcang no longer ate at the same time. Now, it was the Old Man who crawled over alone to eat. But this time, it seemed to be taking longer than usual.

Suddenly, Zuo Qingcang’s eyes focused intently on the direction of the opening; he thought he had heard something.

“Although the environment is somewhat poor, I’ve maintained my physical and mental state very well. That sound just now probably wasn’t an illusion.”

Just as Zuo Qingcang was making this judgment in his mind, a piercing scream came from the opening.

“Hel～～～p～～～～!!” Following that was a series of sounds like cans hitting the ground, and then many strange hisses, shrieks, and roars, as if many things were on the other side of the wall.

As soon as the word “help” reached Zuo Qingcang’s ears, the muscles all over his body contracted violently. With a gust of wind shaking around him, Zuo Qingcang shot toward the opening like an arrow from a bow, moving as swiftly as a giant rainforest serpent.

Accompanied by Zuo Qingcang’s movement, a series of cracking sounds, like cloth tearing, echoed through the air. By the time the “p” sound of “help” was heard, Zuo Qingcang had already plunged headfirst into the opening. The narrow passage that an ordinary person would need to crawl through, he traversed in an instant by relying solely on the elastic movements of his abdomen, back, shoulders, knees, and elbows.

Thus, as the sounds of breaking jars and containers rang out, Zuo Qingcang had already arrived in the Dwarf Spirit tomb chamber.

At that moment, he could see more than ten palm-sized, wrinkled green-skinned little creatures chasing the Old Man toward his location.

They even held spears in their hands, their eyes wide with anger, and let out sharp, chattering screams from their mouths. Zuo Qingcang could even see rows of sharp teeth, like those of piranhas, inside their gaping mouths.

Zuo Qingcang’s expression remained unchanged as he took a single step, bypassing the Old Man’s body, and positioned himself in front of the Dwarf Spirits.

Seeing Zuo Qingcang suddenly appear, the Dwarf Spirits showed no fear on their faces. Instead, they leaped up fiercely and pounced on him.

Facing the Dwarf Spirits lunging at him, Zuo Qingcang’s fists shot out like two raging dragons, accompanied by the sound of wind and thunder. With two crisp thuds, two Dwarf Spirits were struck by his punches and sent flying. However, the imagined scene of them bursting apart from a single punch did not happen.

“With my current strength, one punch should be enough to burst a person’s head open. But hitting these Dwarf Spirits feels like striking iron.”

Seeing this, Zuo Qingcang shifted his footing and immediately retreated backward. However, he couldn’t dodge all the Dwarf Spirits at once, and several spear-like objects, about the length of chopsticks, stabbed into his body.

But except for his head and lower body, the rest of Zuo Qingcang’s body had long been connected with the Innate Primordial Breath. As soon as those small spears touched his skin—his muscles now resembling tire rubber—they were either bounced off or slid away due to the elastic tension of his muscles.

Zuo Qingcang seized the opportunity to grab one of the Dwarf Spirits in his hand, squeezing it tightly. His other fist, like a giant hammer, smashed fiercely into the Dwarf Spirit’s face.

The hammer technique in Martial Arts originated from battlefield hammer methods, transformed into fist strikes. It was the most fierce and explosive. Zuo Qingcang’s punch mobilized the power of his entire body—from his feet, waist, arms, to his fist. The force was so great that it could potentially collapse an earthen wall.

Then, with a squelching crunch, the entire Dwarf Spirit shattered like a watermelon, its green fluids splashing all over Zuo Qingcang’s hand.

If not for the martial arts and combat techniques he had learned in his previous life, Zuo Qingcang might not have been able to kill the Dwarf Spirit so easily. After all, having a strong physique without practical combat experience and fighting skills would only make him tough and durable.

Yet, after punching one Dwarf Spirit to pieces, the remaining Dwarf Spirits became even more enraged. Their sharp hisses grew louder as they all frantically charged at Zuo Qingcang.

“Their physical toughness is roughly between stone and iron. If I use full force, I can kill one with a single punch.” Zuo Qingcang sidestepped, evading the pounces of several Dwarf Spirits, but two of them managed to bite into his legs from left and right.

“With such loud noises, their reinforcements could arrive at any moment. I must hurry…” He saw the muscles on his calves bulge and contract, generating a force equivalent to an ordinary person’s full strength exploding at the bitten spots.

As a result, before the two Dwarf Spirits could pierce Zuo Qingcang’s skin with their teeth, they were instantly shaken off. Then, Zuo Qingcang took a step forward, raised his right foot, and stomped down. The entire ground seemed to tremble slightly, and the Dwarf Spirit was instantly turned into a mushy pulp.