Martial Arts: My talent multiplier increased

The Blood Bat Dharma King's nostrils twitched again. The curve of his lips changed. It became more curved. And wider.

"It's not the original nine times. The base is four. You added something on top of that."

He tilted his head slightly. A thin, dark red film rippled across his face.

"Added five. Medicine? No, the taste of medicine is more diffuse. Your taste—it's tight. Tight as if it's being pressed together by something."

The bat-shaped shadow in the pupil flapped its wings.

"Interesting. Four times the base strength, plus five times the amplification, and he even swallowed a—" He gestured with the tip of his nose towards Fang Yuan. "—A pill refined from the essence blood of an ancient ferocious beast."

Fang Yuan clenched his right fist at his side.

He wasn't afraid that the Blood Bat King would know he had taken the Breakthrough Pill. Such information couldn't be concealed during battle.

What he feared was that the Blood Bat Dharma King could accurately distinguish between "innate talent multiplier" and "the superposition of temporary amplification".

This means that the other party's accuracy in identifying Qi and blood far exceeded Fang Yuan's expectations.

Fang Yuan's fourfold comprehension provided an assessment and correction within half a breath—

Annotation on page 44 of Gu Qingluo's notes: "Speculation: The Blood Bat Dharma King's actual combat power may exceed his apparent realm by one to two minor levels."

Fang Yuan had previously used this assessment as the upper limit.

Now he thinks Gu Qingluo might be too conservative.

Fang Yuan's right hand didn't stay clenched in a fist for long. He relaxed it, palm down.

The panel flashed through my mind.

Temporary increase points: 5 remaining.

12 times the stance training. 9 times the physical constitution. 4 times the comprehension. 4 times the spiritual power. The Breakthrough Pill is operating at full power.

The concentration of Qi and blood is approaching the threshold of the Qi and blood realm.

Fang Yuan took a half step forward with his right foot.

"Have you smelled enough?"

The Blood Bat Dharma King's mouth closed slightly.

Fang Yuan's voice wasn't loud. But the 12x power of his stance training allowed him to control his vocal cords so that every word sounded as steady as if it were nailed to the air.

"Once you've had your fill of the smell, leave this doorway."

The Blood Bat Dharma King did not answer immediately.

His gaze shifted from Fang Yuan. He glanced back—at the top of the doorframe of Fang Ying's room. There was that stone brick.

Fang Yuan's fourfold divine soul perception was firmly fixed on the Blood Bat Dharma King's blood energy signal.

He was waiting for the other party's choice.

Stone bricks. Or a battle.

If the Blood Bat King chooses to ignore Fang Yuan and directly take the item hidden in the stone brick—Fang Yuan must act before he touches the brick. The distance is eleven zhang. The opponent is at the Qi and Blood Realm. Fang Yuan is approaching the Qi and Blood Realm but hasn't crossed the threshold. The success rate of the first strike—

I ran it once with 4 times the comprehension.

Less than 30%.

If the other party chooses to deal with Fang Yuan first before taking the item—

Fang Yuan's right hand quietly touched the hilt of the short knife at his lower back.

Curved blade. Newly sharpened.

The Blood Bat Dharma King turned his gaze away from the stone bricks.

It landed on Fang Yuan's face.

In those dark red pupils, excitement completely overwhelmed everything else. It wasn't contempt. It wasn't caution. It was a pure, greedy light, akin to hunger.

"Little mouse."

The Blood Bat King's body moved away from the doorway. He then took two steps to the left, completely leaving the area directly in front of Fang Ying's room.

Fang Yuan's heartbeat calmed down a little.

Half a point.

They only managed to stabilize the situation slightly. This was because the Blood Bat Dharma King's move wasn't a sign of retreat.

It's about making room.

"Do you know?"

Two voices escaped from that mouth. The hem of the robe was drawn in circles on the stone slab.

"You possess four qualities. Your own vital energy and blood are the first. They are clean, robust, and nurtured by a foundation four times stronger than your physical constitution, resulting in excellent qualities."

His nostrils flared.

"That pill is the second type. The essence blood of an ancient ferocious beast has been processed by an excellent pharmacist. It has three nested layers. The outer layer is a crimson flame core. The middle layer consists of snow ginseng and green lingzhi. The core is pure beast god essence blood. The person who refined this pill—has excellent skills."

Fang Yuan clenched his fists and then relaxed them.

The thing that Liu Ruyan had worked on for three days without sleep was summed up by the other party with a single sentence: "Not bad craftsmanship."

"A third scent—" The Blood Bat King's dark red pupils flickered. "Amplification. Not the amplification of pills. It's something else. I can't smell what it is. But it's very clean. No residue. No side effects. Every single dose is precise to the millimeter."

He was talking about the system.

He couldn't name the system, but he could smell its presence.

Fang Yuan's spine remained completely still under the control of the twelve-fold standing meditation technique. However, all the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end.

"The fourth type—"

The Blood Bat King's voice suddenly changed. The two layers disappeared, leaving only the deep hum from the bottom layer.

It's very light.

It was so soft that Fang Yuan almost thought he had misheard.

"The taste of lifeblood. You killed twelve of my followers. Their lifeblood—was absorbed by you."

The corner of his mouth split all the way to behind his ear.

"You and I are the same kind of people."

Fang Yuan's answer was a punch.

No pre-strike sway. No running start. The 12x stance training compresses the interval between "intention" and "punch" to zero.

The thought was there. The fist arrived.

Eleven zhang away.

Fang Yuan's body shot out at the same moment he threw the punch. The explosive power of his blood and qi, enhanced by nine times his original strength, pushed his initial acceleration to an absurd level—his figure left only a gray-blue afterimage in the moonlight.

The stone slab beneath his feet shattered into seven pieces where he had stepped on it.

Eleven zhang (approximately 33 meters).

Fang Yuan used a single breath.

Layered Wave Fist. Triple Fist Intent. The triple layering of power under the enhancement of 12 times the standing meditation technique—the power density of each layer is at least 40% higher than when killing the evil cultivator in the alley in the northwest corner of the city.

The force of the punch created a visible distortion of airflow in the space between Fang Yuan and the Blood Bat Dharma King.

The Blood Bat King did not dodge.

He extended his right hand.

Five fingers.

Five fingers met Fang Yuan's fist.

The sound of Fang Yuan's fist and the Blood Bat Dharma King's five fingers colliding in mid-air was not a "bang".

It is "嗤".

It was like a scalding hot iron block being immersed in ice water.

The triple fist intent poured into the Blood Bat Dharma King's palm. The first layer pierced through the skin. Fang Yuan felt a cold membrane on his fist—the protective layer formed by the foreign essence blood in the Blood Bat Dharma King's palm.

The second layer was added. A piece of the ice membrane shattered. Fang Yuan's fist intent drilled into the gap between the Blood Bat Dharma King's palm bones through the shattered opening.

The third level—

It bounced back.

At the same moment Fang Yuan released his third level of fist intent, a violent, chilling force was forced out of the Blood Bat Dharma King's palm. The concentration of that chilling force was more than ten times stronger than the edge fluctuations Fang Yuan had sensed in the alley in the north of the city.

Fang Yuan slid three steps backward.

The sole of the shoe scratched two white marks on the stone slab.

Fang Yuan glanced down at his right fist—a thin layer of frost covered its surface. Dark red frost. Not normal frost formed from condensed water vapor. It was the residue left by the cold, corrosive effects of foreign blood essence on his fist.

Fang Yuan's nine times stronger constitution crushed the frost from his fist within three heartbeat cycles. Dark red fragments fell softly from between his fingers.

But Fang Yuan felt a belated pain in his fist.

It wasn't pain in the bones. It was a tremor deeper beneath the skin—at the end of a meridian. The cold energy had penetrated the skin and brushed against the terminal branch of the three Yang meridians in my right hand.

It only brushed against me.

Fang Yuan's four-fold divine soul instant internal scan—the terminal branch was undamaged. However, a layer of dark red marks, thinner than a hair, was left on the branch wall.

It is being cleansed by the Qi and blood of nine times the strength of one's own bones. It can be completely cleared within three breaths.

The triple punches were delivered with full force—resulting in a draw.

No. Fang Yuan's four times the comprehension provides a more precise qualitative assessment.

It's not a tie.

He used all his strength.

The Blood Bat King used only one hand.

Five fingers.

Blood Bat Dharma King withdrew his right hand from the fist-catching posture. He spread his five fingers. At the center of his palm—Fang Yuan's 12x stance training had detected it—there was a shallow fist imprint.

Fang Yuan's triple punch left a mark on the opponent's palm.

Blood Bat Dharma King looked down at his palm.

Then he looked up.

Within those dark red pupils, the bat-shaped shadow's wings flapped faster.

"Triple superposition".

A trickle of dark red liquid seeped from the crack at the corner of his mouth. It wasn't from being hit. It was from excitement.

"A body at the Bone Refining Realm, fists at the Blood Qi Realm."