My Clones Can Cultivate

Chapter 139

Bang... bang... bang... bang... the sound reverberated endlessly as the arena groaned and creaked under the weight of Shi Mo’s attacks, coupled with the fact that the pressure in the air itself had become massive.

Shi Mo attacked without taking a breather, striking harder and harder than before, pushing himself... truly pushing himself to the absolute brink as he attacked with his full monstrous strength.

The attacks were powerful enough to completely crush and bring despair to the minds of even the most seasoned warriors, strong and brutal enough to end anyone below the late stages of the Qi Refining Realm... and even those who were in the Qi Refining Realm wouldn’t come out unscathed after taking a single one of those attacks head-on.

And then those same barrages of attacks were the ones he was continuously throwing at the opponent standing right across from him without holding anything back.

Bang! His attacks collided once again, and the heavy bangs that filled the air and rattled the very world energy itself were a testimony to just how much power was behind his attacks. And yet... all those attacks were not working.

Shi Mo felt strange emotions, ones that he had hardly ever felt... if ever. They rose within him and bubbled up at an insane speed, all appearing almost at the exact same time as he looked at the one causing him to feel this way.

Deep and unbridled fear welled up in his chest. It wasn’t the kind of fear that followed reason. No... it was the kind that screamed only one thing... run for your life. It was deep and primal as he felt the overwhelming urge to turn tail and flee. But he didn’t.

He couldn’t. Biting down all the thoughts and instincts screaming at him to run as fast as his legs could carry him, Shi Mo forcefully suppressed them all. He pushed those thoughts deep into the back of his mind before looking up once more. And then he met Liyu’s figure.

Liyu was still standing on his two feet, his head lowered as droplets of crimson blood fell from the side of his face.

The fact that he hadn’t fallen into a crater... the fact that he hadn’t collapsed onto his knees... the fact that he was simply standing there with his head lowered while his back wasn’t even arched... all of it made Shi Mo’s heart tighten. His gaze was filled with disbelief.

He opened his mouth, his voice sounding haunted... genuinely freaked out. "What the hell are you?!" He shouted in pure shock and disbelief.

With his fear piling up into a mountain, Shi Mo struck again. After all, when someone was cornered against a wall with no way to run, the first instinct of a human being was to destroy the threat standing before them. And that was exactly what Shi Mo tried to do.

Using a powerful Gravi-Punch, he struck forward, aiming directly for Liyu’s head. With how powerful the attack was, it was bound to finally make its mark and send Liyu flying. Perhaps... but Shi Mo genuinely hoped that Liyu would simply fall and faint.

Collapse... maybe even pass out for a few minutes... any one of those outcomes would be good. As long as Liyu fell, even if it was only for a minute... enough time for Shi Mo to be declared the winner. Then everything would be fine.

Defeating Liyu... breaking Liyu’s bones... those thoughts had long since left Shi Mo’s mind. Right now, he only wanted to end this fight as quickly as possible. He wanted to leave this monster behind. He was scared now... truly scared.

And just then... Shi Mo felt his attack make an impact. But he was certain that his fist hadn’t connected with Liyu’s head, which was where he had aimed. Instead... he had only managed to hit Liyu’s hand.

No... he hadn’t hit Liyu’s hand. It took a few moments for Shi Mo’s thoughts to finally catch up with what his eyes were seeing. His hand was being held by Liyu. His fist had been completely stopped.

He was unable to push it forward even a single inch, as if it had been halted in place by the laws of the world themselves. His eyes widened in pure and absolute terror.

He was able to move now... the twenty-fivefold Gravity Rise is still active... earlier, Liyu hadn’t even been able to lift a single finger. And now... he was able to halt Shi Mo’s Gravi-Punch in one place with a single hand.

And he had done so as casually as that... just who the hell is this?! Shi Mo screamed internally as his mind nearly shattered under the sheer absurdity of it all.

But he didn’t need to ask again. Liyu was more than happy to answer the question his heart was screaming. For him... Liyu slowly raised his head and looked directly at Shi Mo.

Blood was still dripping from the side of his face, but he didn’t seem to care about it at all. Instead... he was smiling at him. With his playful grin never fading, Liyu looked directly into Shi Mo’s terrified eyes before answering the question he had asked earlier.

"I am Liyu..." His grin widened. "And also..." "You have had your fun..." "Now it is my turn."

The voice of the system notification echoed within his mind.

Ding!

Adapting... 100%...

Ding!

Adaptation complete.

Your body has improved...

Liyu clenched and unlocked his fist, a small smile resting on his face. He felt stronger. Not just slightly stronger... he felt unbelievably stronger. Liyu took in a small, deep breath before slowly nodding to himself. "This feels good..."

He looked at Shi Mo with a playful grin before suddenly bringing him closer. With a burst of force, Liyu violently yanked Shi Mo forward before the latter even had a chance to speak or say anything. "Art of Face Slapping..." "First Form..." "First Slap."

Shi Mo was violently pulled forward. The hand Liyu had been casually holding suddenly exerted a small amount of force, dragging Shi Mo directly toward his waiting palm. The slap connected cleanly... and sharply.

Pah!

The sound was clean and fast. To those watching, it seemed simple... almost harmless. Yet Shi Mo, the victim of the attack, felt his cheek burn with something far hotter than normal heat. It was as if every inch of his nerves had suddenly been set ablaze with deep and unbearable pain.

The force behind the slap sent him shooting through the air like a cannonball.

Shi Mo managed to regain control of himself while still in midair before landing calmly on his two feet. His expression remained calm... but only for a moment. Because something soon started dripping onto the ground.

Drip...

Drip...

Drip...

Drip...

It fell one drop at a time, hitting the ground with small and almost imperceptible sounds. Shi Mo felt something. He slowly raised a hand toward his cheek.

And when he pulled his hand away... his eyes trembled in pure disbelief. Blood... he was bleeding. He was truly bleeding. And it had all come from nothing but a single slap.

His head snapped upward so quickly that, if he had been a normal mortal, his neck would probably have broken under the sudden strain. He stared directly at Liyu.

The expression on his face slowly changed into one of pure disbelief. "I was wounded... with a slap?" He spoke as if reality itself had twisted just to betray him. Maybe a powerful combat art would have made some sense.

Maybe Liyu striking him with a full-powered punch, enhanced to the absolute limit with Qi, would have made some sense. But all he had received from Liyu was a slap. A single slap... and now he was standing here bleeding. How?

His mind practically screamed that single word as he felt himself slowly losing his sanity from the sheer absurdity of the scene before him. He looked down at the crimson blood covering his hand. There was no mistaking it. It was blood.

His own blood, at that. Shi Mo slowly raised his head again. And what he saw made the disbelief in his eyes deepen even further.

Liyu was no longer looking at him. Instead, the latter was looking down at his own hand while examining his body as if he had just been given a completely new body. Or perhaps that wasn’t entirely correct.

Maybe Liyu was simply enjoying the feeling of being free again... the feeling of being able to move freely after being heavily suppressed for quite a while. Either way, it didn’t matter to Shi Mo.

Because at this moment, the only thing he was still trying to understand was... how?

There were so many questions... so many different hows. For example... how was Liyu able to stand up and move as if he were standing beneath the world’s natural pressure rather than being crushed beneath the overwhelming gravity that had suppressed him only a few minutes ago?

That was still only one of the many questions in Shi Mo’s mind. How was Liyu able to take all the attacks Shi Mo had thrown at him as if they were nothing? To Shi Mo’s despair, he hadn’t even felt a single one of Liyu’s ribs or bones break.

If anything... Liyu’s body... his build... and his defense... were beyond anything normal. They were totally and utterly abnormal. Like... just how?

And that wasn’t even all. There were still more questions. And perhaps the biggest question of them all was... how the hell was a single slap enough to make Shi Mo... the great Shi Mo... start bleeding?

It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that even a powerful combat art capable of making him bleed was extremely rare. People within the same realm as him weren’t even included among those who were supposed to come close to harming him.

Of course, there was one sole exception... Shi Tian. After all, that guy didn’t operate according to normal logic. Still, this wasn’t bragging. It truly wasn’t.

With how tough Shi Mo’s body was, only an overwhelmingly powerful and highly refined combat art should have been capable of coming close to hurting him or leaving a mark on his body.

His opponent would need to be at least at the peak of the Qi Refining Realm before a casual attack from them could even make him feel something.

And yet... all that logic... all the facts about his defense being almost on par with the Iron Behemoth of the Guan Clan... those facts alone were enough to show just how terrifying Shi Mo’s defense truly was.

No lie... his defense was truly that high. That was why the biggest question ringing endlessly inside his head right now was... just how was he able to make me bleed with a single slap?

Meanwhile, at the seat of the leaders... Shi Gubing’s eyes narrowed into a deep frown. The same question flashed through his mind over and over again... how?

So many how questions were flashing through his mind as he looked toward the stage, where Shi Mo was subtly bleeding.

The blood wasn’t pouring out in large amounts, but it was still clear enough for anyone and everyone with functioning eyes to see that he had been injured. And he had been injured by nothing but a single slap from Liyu.

Shi Gubing’s eyes twitched. He and everyone else in the arena had seen it. Of course, they had seen it. They had all witnessed the fact that Liyu had used nothing but mere slaps to completely overwhelm and crush the Twin Fiends of the Guan Clan.

And now... it seemed like he wanted to repeat the exact same thing again. Just this time... his target was one of the top two disciples of the Shi Clan. Shi Mo... the giant himself. If Shi Gubing hadn’t seen it with his own eyes, he would never have believed it.

Not in a million years. That Shi Mo could be wounded by nothing but a mere and seemingly casual slap from someone so far beneath him in cultivation realm and stage... the difference between their cultivation levels was so massive that, under normal circumstances, someone at Liyu’s stage shouldn’t even be worthy of licking Shi Mo’s boots.

That was just how enormous the gap between their cultivation truly was.

And yet... and yet... Shi Gubing clenched the armrest of his seat, his face slowly twisted into a deep scowl. And yet... Liyu had done it. Not only had he managed to slap Shi Mo and wound him... he had actually sent him flying through the air like a cannonball with a single slap.

And the worst thing was... that slap... it had seemed so casual. Almost as if Liyu were dealing with a small child who had stolen a piece of meat or something. Almost as if he were simply swatting a fly aside. This... this was too much.

Shi Gubing’s gaze darkened as his mind churned through countless thoughts. And then another question appeared inside his mind. How the hell was he even able to move?

Looking back toward the stage, Shi Gubing could see as clearly as day that the twenty-five-fold increase in gravity was still present. The pressure was still as crushing and terrifying as it had been before. Nothing had changed.

Not even a peak Qi Refining Realm cultivator would be capable of standing there as casually as Liyu was right now.

Yet Liyu didn’t even seem to know... or perhaps he simply didn’t care... that he was standing inside a space where gravity had been twisted and increased to such an unreasonable and terrifying level.

Instead, he was twisting his fingers and examining his hands and body as if he were someone who had long forgotten how to move... and had only now regained the ability to move normally once more.

Shi Gubing slowly shook his head, his eyes remaining locked onto Liyu’s grinning face. He wasn’t feeling a single thing inside that heavily pressurized space. Twenty-five-fold gravity? Twenty-five-fold my foot!

That bastard, Liyu... that brat might as well have been sitting down and relaxing. There wasn’t even a single bead of sweat on his face. There wasn’t the slightest sign of discomfort anywhere on his body.

And that brought the worst of Shi Gubing’s fears to the surface... this kid is a monster... no... not just a monster. A primal monster. Shi Gubing felt his spine curl slightly as he shifted his gaze away from Liyu’s smiling and almost innocent face.

He looked toward Shi Mo. The giant was still standing there with his hand raised as he stared at his own blood, his expression remaining frozen in pure disbelief. His eyes repeatedly shifted from the blood on his hand... to Liyu... and then back to the crimson blood covering his palm.

Shi Gubing’s face darkened. That kid is wrong... everything about him is wrong. "Are you sincerely telling me that he was able to adapt to a twenty-five-fold increase in the world’s gravitational pressure in less than twenty minutes?"

Shi Gubing’s frown deepened into a wild and uncomposed scowl, his expression having completely lost the calm and dignity expected from a powerful clan lord. How... just how...

Meanwhile, he wasn’t the only one caught in the sheer disbelief caused by this situation. The same could be said for the other leaders who understood just how extraordinary this discovery truly was... and perhaps even more importantly... just how threatening it was.

Elder Ting looked toward Liyu, his expression remaining completely unreadable. Yet deep inside his heart, a heavy sigh escaped him.

Despite himself... his heart was racing. This kid... he is really starting to scare the shit out of me now...