When the sun finally rose, Jiang Fei once again left his house under the premise of “going to school.” After leaving Manda Square he bolted to the training facility and headed towards a training room.
He prepared himself adequately and started carrying out his tests.
Force Punch!
WHAM!
As he activated the skill, Jiang Fei could feel a powerful surge of heat flowing into his right fist. One second later, Jiang Fei thrust his first forward. A huge force propelled Jiang Fei forward and towards the direction of a sandbag. When his fist touched the bag, it literally exploded, releasing all the sand, cotten, and other contents of the bag.
“Cough…cough…”
“That was a little too much… I must have overdone it.”
As remorseful as he sounded, he was practically screaming with joy in his heart. That power had been most gratifying and pleasurable. However, he had miscalculated the potency of the skill. He had chosen a wrong target and covered himself in sand.
“Once more!”
Jiang Fei head out of the training room and returned with eight more sandbags! This time, he arranged them in a straight row, leaving at least a meter-wide gap between each of them. He had also wrapped his face with his t-shirt to prevent himself from swallowing sand again. When everything was ready, Jiang Fei headed to the front and took his stance. He pulled his left arm back and…
Penetrating Qi Strike!
He dug his toes into the ground and threw out a left punch. What happened was something out of a movie. The first sandbag exploded horrifically. That was not all. The same thing happened with the second one which was one meter away, as well as the third, and the forth. The fifth sandbag did not explode, but was blown away a good distance. Upon inspection, the damage dealt to the fifth sandbag had been enough to cause a minor tear on the outermost wrapping.
“F*cking hell… Is my fist the legendary fist of the north star? Not even the right punch was that devastating. At the very least, he might still walk away with broken ribs. My left punch on the other hand…”
Jiang Fei could not even begin to wrap his mind around the lethality of his punches.
“Could this mean that I could punch something without even coming into contact with it?”
Jiang Fei suddenly recalled Han Tianyu saying something about martial artist masters utilizing their inner Qi to deal damage without the need to touch an opponent. With this, Jiang Fei might as well be a master or a grandmaster!
After a few more experiments with several more sandbags, Jiang Fei finally spotted a flaw with the Penetrating Qi Strike. It may be capable of attacking from a great distance, but he could not simply touch the air. His left fist had to physically come into contact with a target to cause the cascading damage.
“That’s it for active skills. How about the passive skills?”
Jiang Fei smirked again went out of the training room to retrieve more sandbags.
“HMPH!”
The sandbags that Jiang Fei had been using as sacrificial pawns were covered in strong kevlar. Even so, it could not stop Jiang Fei’s fist from breaking into the sandbag. Unlike his previous punches, this time, the sandbag did not explode. Instead, his fist merely sunk deep into it, almost going all the way through.
“Huh?”
At the same time, Jiang Fei noticed a faint flickering light. The light had been there when Jiang Fei threw out his first punch. However, since he was completely covered with fine sand, he had not noticed the light that was being emitted from his own body.
“Is this a shield?”
Jiang Fei recalled the properties of the Fists and remembered that all attacks granted him a shield that equated to 50% of the damage dealt. As he could not open up a status window in the real world, Jiang Fei could only surmise as much.
Five seconds later, the flickering light vanished. Jiang Fei concluded that the shield effect must have expired.
“Interesting,” said Jiang Fei with a smirk as he proceeded to “penetrate” the already ravaged sandbag.
“HUAH!”
“HAIK!”
“HURK!”
Jiang Fei punched the sandbag for a total of three times. The first and second behaved much like the previous punch, but the third one was different. When the third punch landed, the sandbag blew up. The explosion was unlike anything else. This explosion was the result of an internal combustion, as if Jiang Fei had forcefully stuffed a bomb within the sandbag. Based on the results of his experiment, Jiang Fei came to a verdict.
If physical attacks dealt damage from the outside, magical damage dealt damage from the inside! It also coincided with the words of Han Tianyu and old man Hai. They had repeatedly mentioned that External Qi and Internal Qi arts were different!
“If magic damage is Internal Qi, I should really think up of an excuse…” Jiang Fei remembered that the old man Hai and Han Tianyu had stated that Jiang Fei’s inner Qi was lacking. They had all been certain that he would never in this lifetime manipulate his own Internal Qi!
Jiang Fei had an item called an Energy Crystal. In the game, it filled up an entire Energy gauge. If he brought it into the real world and used it, would it provide Jiang Fei a source of proper inner Qi? Even if it worked, Jiang Fei could not properly cultivate his Qi like other Qi masters. However, the great Jiang Fei could always use Mana Potions! Who would want to waste time cultivating their Qi!
“Haha! I’m really going to be a god!”
Jiang Fei grew excited at the prospect of becoming stronger and stronger. He left himself a mental note to fetch the Energy Crystal out next!
Jiang Fei’s euphoria quickly fizzled out when he realized that the item slot occupied by the Energy Crystal had been greyed out. Once again, the ring had let him down! Jiang Fei had just got his c*ck blocked again! Apparently, the Energy Crystal had some sort of spatial capability, similar to an inventory system. It could not be extracted!
“Sigh… Looks like I gotta level you up again! But that’s fine! What you want, you shall have! As long as you are willing hand out that Energy Crystal!” Jiang Fei lifted a finger and yelled at the ring. He was more motivated than ever. It was a mutually beneficial relationship. The stronger the ring got, the more power Jiang Fei would gain!
Even though the ring was a glutton that made Jiang Fei bend over backwards feeding it, it gave back more than enough to make it worth his while. Jiang Fei truly believed that when the ring finally reaches the maximum level, he would be flying around in the skies, behaving like an omnipotent god!
“Huehuehue. I’d like to see anyone come up and challenge me on that day!”
Jiang Fei quickly wiped out his drool and continued his training.
With a clear goal in his mind, Jiang Fei’s training became more intense than ever. Even though Jiang Fei had removed the gloves, the stats from the Iron Will Helm had granted Jiang Fei 10 points of Vitality! That allowed him to train from the dawn of day all the way to noon without tiring out!
“Hmph! Come at me, Zhangs! Just wait, I shall teach you how to behave like proper dogs when I get my hands on you!”
Jiang Fei continued shouting motivational lines to himself as he continued training. The thought of punching the buggers that were targetting him was truly invigorating.