Martial Arts: Starting with Upgrading the Dilapidated Temple

Chapter 126 The Guardian (3k)

Xu Hao didn't turn around; he stared at the gray-robed priest.

Teacher Cai leaned against the wall, his grayish-white pupils showing no fear.

Some felt a sense of certainty as reinforcements arrived.

Seven people rushed out of the tunnel entrance first.

They wore matching grey robes, but in different ways—the hem was tucked into the belt, and the cuffs were secured with leather straps. This was work attire, not for chanting scriptures.

Qi and blood fluctuations: three Bone Forging Realm, four Tendon Changing Realm.

Five more emerged from behind.

The configurations are similar.

In the end, only one person came out.

One is enough.

He was nearly nine feet tall, with broad shoulders and a thick back, and a circle of black Sanskrit characters tattooed on his bald head.

He wasn't wearing a monk's robe; he was bare-chested, and his muscles bulged like iron blocks piled up in his skin.

A thick iron chain was wrapped around his waist, with an iron staff trailing from the end of the chain. The head of the staff smashed on the ground, sending stones flying.

Peak of the Inner Strength Realm.

The fluctuations of Qi and blood were so strong that they couldn't be completely suppressed even in the interference field of the mineral vein, like a furnace of molten iron, cold on the surface but churning underneath.

"Great Protector," the gray-robed priest's voice was hoarse, "the nails are still in the pit. He broke the magic circle."

The Great Protector did not look at the Priest.

He stared at Xu Hao.

To be precise, staring at the metallic patterns under the skin of Xu Hao's exposed right arm, which gleamed with an iron-blue hue in the light of the red gold stone, I could see the marks.

"Physical training."

His voice sounded like a hammer hitting a chopping board.

"No wonder they dared to venture into the restricted area of ​​the mining vein."

The Great Protector picked up the Iron Staff, the iron chain rattling and leaving a trail of sparks on the ground.

"But there's a problem with physical training."

He took a step.

The ground shattered beneath his feet.

It wasn't that he stepped on it and crushed it; rather, it was the release of his pent-up energy and blood that shattered the slag beneath his feet.

Even with a 60% reduction in health and mana within the restricted area of ​​the mining vein, a peak Inner Strength Realm cultivator can still achieve this level of performance.

"It can't withstand more mental attacks."

As soon as he finished speaking, the priest moved.

The gray-robed figure leaning against the wall suddenly sprang up, his hands forming a hand seal. A gray-white aura surged from between his brows, transforming into three threads that shot toward Xu Hao's temples.

A pincer attack from both sides, the Great Protector confronts the attack head-on, while the Priest launches a sneak attack on the Sea of ​​Consciousness from the side.

They have excellent teamwork and have practiced together.

Xu Hao didn't back down; he stomped his right foot.

Ripples of bone resonance spread out, and three strands of will broke apart at the edge of the ripples. The gray-robed priest groaned again, blood dripping from his nose onto the ground.

At the same instant, the iron staff arrived.

It's not a chop, it's a stab.

The cane was aimed at the throat, and the movement was straight, without any tricks.

A full-force thrust from the peak of the Inner Strength Realm.

Even with the protective aura reduced by 60%, the pure power and speed were still so fast that the air was squeezed out with a sharp whistling sound.

Xu Hao turned his head, and the tip of the cane flew past his earlobe, the airflow it generated cutting his earlobe.

The Sea Devouring Sword slashes horizontally with the left hand.

With a flick of his iron chain, the Great Protector pulled back his staff, the staff itself blocking the blade.

The metal collided, and sparks exploded between the two.

The Great Protector's tiger's mouth was cracked from the shock.

He glanced down at it.

Blood seeped from the tiger's mouth; the knife had ripped open the tiger's mouth. The opponent was using his left hand.

Xu Hao didn't give him time to process it, and followed up with his right fist.

Without any external force, the Iron Bone Realm's skeletal resonance transmits power, starting from the soles of the feet, passing through the tibia, femur, spine, and scapula, and finally converging on the right fist.

The entire power chain does not follow meridians and is not affected by mineral veins.

Full health output.

The fist slammed into the iron staff.

Click.

A crack appeared on the staff.

The Great Protector's arms went numb at the same time, and he was forced back three steps.

His heel crushed the slag on the ground, leaving two deep grooves.

His pupils contracted.

It's not fear, it's confusion.

The Qi of the Tongqiao Realm is only 40% remaining in this environment, so how can his punch be more powerful than his?

The answer is simple: Xu Hao's power does not follow the principles of internal energy.

"Kill!" the Great Protector roared.

The twelve gray-robed disciples rushed forward at the same time.

The old man grabbed a large knife and blocked the seven people on the left.

He hadn't really fought in thirty-three years, but his skills from those thirty-three years were still intact.

The blade swept out, sending three Bone Forging Realm experts flying horizontally, crashing into the wall, fracturing their bones, and fainting.

The remaining four Yi Jin Realm cultivators then entangled themselves with them.

The old man did not back down; he wielded his knife in a circle, shielding the four people in front of him.

Five people on the right rushed towards Xu Hao.

Xu Hao was too lazy to draw his sword.

The first Yi Jin Jing practitioner to reach him kicked out with a side kick aimed at his waist.

Xu Hao grabbed the other person's ankle with his right hand.

Clench your fist.

Click.

My ankle is broken.

It's not the infusion of internal energy, but pure grip strength.

After being tempered in the Iron Bone Realm, the density of the finger bones reaches the level of Xuan Iron. When the five fingers are closed, they can crush stones, let alone human bones.

Before a scream could even escape his throat, Xu Hao grabbed the man by the broken ankle and flung him toward the second one.

The two bodies collided and rolled five zhang away.

The remaining three paused.

This violence is unreasonable; it's not a matter of superior martial arts skills, but rather a difference in species.

The Great Protector attacked from behind.

The staff swept across with a whoosh. This time he held back, unleashing the pent-up energy within him that had been building up for over ten breaths.

A layer of dark red energy rose from the staff. He had forced his qi outwards within the restricted area of ​​the mine, at the cost of disrupting his blood circulation. But he didn't care.

One strike decides the outcome.

Xu Hao turned around.

He didn't dodge.

Raise your right arm and block with your forearm.

The staff struck the iron frame.

The sound wasn't like hand-to-hand combat, but like two iron plates colliding.

A long buzzing sound came from the forearm bone.

The dark red energy exploded at the point of contact, and the shockwave blew away the surrounding rocks.

The Great Protector's staff bounced off, the cracks on the staff widening to the end, and the entire staff trembled, emitting a mournful buzzing sound.

Xu Hao had a red mark on his forearm. The skin wasn't broken.

The Great Protector's arm was trembling.

The gash in his hand widened. Blood trickled down his staff.

"Your Bones"

"Harder than your staff."

Xu Hao took a step.

The Great Protector instinctively retreated.

The moment he retreated, the gray-robed priest moved.

This is not an attack on Xu Hao.

The priest lunged into the circular pit.

He pressed his hands on the top of the secondary nail, bit his tongue, and sprayed the blood that surged up from his throat all over the nail.

A suicidal fighting style.

He poured all his remaining life force and will into the secondary nail and forcibly pulled it out.

The secondary nail trembled violently and floated up an inch.

The six nail diagrams in my mind flashed wildly.

"Stop him!" the old man roared.

Xu Hao ignored the Grand Protector.

With his feet shattering the ground, Jingtao Step left afterimages as he ran through the enclosed hall.

Three steps to the edge of the pit.

He slammed his right fist down.

It wasn't about hitting the priest. It was about hitting the ground.

The same procedure was followed as before. The earth vein resonance of the Prison Suppression Technique was activated, and the mineral veins within a radius of a hundred feet trembled simultaneously.

But this time he added an extra layer.

The frequency of bone resonance does not diffuse outward, but rather flows downward.

Like driving piles.

The recoil force surged up from the ground and precisely impacted the secondary nail.

The secondary nail was pushed back.

One and a half inches.

The priest's hands were still pressed against the nails. The recoil force passed through the nails and into his palms, shattering the bones in both arms simultaneously.

The gray-robed priest looked up, and human emotions finally appeared in his gray-white pupils.

It wasn't fear, it wasn't anger.

It's resentment.

"The Eternal Mother—"

Before he could finish speaking, the old man's knife pierced his chest from behind.

It pierced through the chest.

The gray-robed priest's body hung on the knife, his hands still pressed against the secondary nail in the same position.

The mist in his gray-white pupils gradually dissipated.

In the end, it became a pair of ordinary, brown eyes belonging to a middle-aged man.

The old man pulled out the knife.

The priest's body lay on the edge of the pit.

The Great Protector's iron staff fell to the ground.

He glanced at the priest's corpse, then at Xu Hao and the old man.

He turned and ran.

Of the twelve disciples, the five who were still able to move followed closely behind and retreated towards the entrance of the passageway.

The old man wanted to pursue it.

"Don't chase after them," Xu Hao said.

"He'll come back even if he runs away."

"We can't come back." Xu Hao squatted down by the round pit and pressed the secondary nail down.

The nail sank into the ground and returned to its original position.

The light on the six-pin diagram stabilized.

What he didn't explain to the old man was that the vital energy of one of the great protectors was being forcibly released outwards from the restricted area of ​​the mine, causing his meridians to become disordered.

Once you run away, you won't be able to recover for at least six months.

With the Crimson Python and Iron Sand cutting off supply lines on the outskirts, the oasis city-states of the Crimson Sand Domain would not accept the people of the Unborn Cult.

It's only a matter of time before I die in the desert.

The old man leaned against the wall, catching his breath for a while.

We haven't fought a battle like this in thirty-three years.

I'm getting old, I really can't keep up.

"The stake your master asked you to guard hasn't been lost."

The old man's white eyebrows twitched twice.

"Nonsense," he scoffed. "You've thrown me down here to keep him company."

Xu Hao turned around, looked at the old man's face, which was as dry as orange peel, and thought of what had happened in Jingquan Town outside.

"Was the stone tablet with ancient inscriptions on the outside your master's work?"

The old man remained silent, placed the knife beside him, and squatted down.

Yes and no.

Xu Hao didn't respond, waiting for what was to come.

"It was done by our sect." The old man looked up at the extinguished inscription on the dome. "I can't figure out exactly when the monument was erected. It's definitely older than my master, maybe several or even a dozen generations back."

The old man chuckled self-deprecatingly, his voice hoarse: "Our sect doesn't even have a proper name. There's only one rule: single-lineage. Each generation takes in one disciple, brings them to this dark, sunless place, points to a pit, and tells them to 'guard it.' Then the master just walks away, never to return. That's how my master was tricked by his master. One generation tricks the next, and it's come to me now. Thirty-three years have passed like this."

After listening to the sect's legacy, Xu Hao commented with two words: "Absolutely amazing."

"What are those stone tablets outside for?" Xu Hao asked.

"It's a smokescreen, and also serves as an alarm." The old man tapped the ground with the hilt of his knife. "These stakes underneath are extremely important. Our ancestors erected several nodes at the confluence of the outer earth veins. If someone follows the earth veins, the first thing they'll touch is the stone tablet. While they're messing around with the stone tablet, the people guarding the stakes will have time to prepare."

The old man stood up and patted the dirt off his bottom.

"But then again, my old bones are almost at the end of their lives. I need to go out for a stroll, then the stone tablet outside will come in handy."

Xu Hao stood at the edge of the circular pit, looking down at the secondary nail.

The nail is dark gold in color, with an inscription on its surface that is the same as that of the main nail.

The seal is secure and there are no cracks.

But his attention was no longer on the nail.

Directly below the secondary nail.

Three zhang deep.

An aura of the same origin as the "Suppressing Prisons and Ten Thousand Bones Technique" is slowly pulsating.

The compass spun wildly in his mind.

The light is on.

It's right under your feet.

The third incomplete chapter of the Martial Ancestor's divine skills.

It was buried together with the secondary nail.

The old man noticed his expression.

"What's wrong?"

"There's something else buried down there," Xu Hao tapped the pit wall with his knuckles.

The old man squinted.

"What is it?"

Xu Hao did not answer.

He squatted down and placed his right hand on the rock strata at the bottom of the pit.

The pulse coming from my palm became three times clearer.

It is not as heavy as the "Suppressing Prison Ten Thousand Bones Technique".

It is a completely different frequency—light, fast, and sharp, like a knife humming in stone.