Chapter 240: Chapter 238: Vajra Fearless True Sound

At the mention of this, Qian Lusheng’s hand paused mid-stroke on his beard.

A glint of admiration flashed in his eyes once more. "Friend Su, you have a sharp eye indeed! Correct. What I demonstrated today was an exceptionally rare Buddhist Cultivation Technique, the Vajra Fearless True Sound!"

"I acquired this Cultivation Technique by a stroke of luck from the ruins of an ancient temple while traveling the great desert of the Western Regions in my youth."

Pride flashed in Qian Lusheng’s eyes. "Although this Cultivation Technique is officially rated as High-Grade Mortal, sonic Martial Arts are exceedingly rare, like a phoenix feather! In terms of value, it’s not the least bit inferior to a typical Lower Grade Xuan Cultivation Technique!"

"As for its power, you saw it for yourself today, young friend. Unleashing it suddenly in the middle of a fight makes it impossible for the enemy to defend against!"

’The great desert of the Western Regions, a Buddhist Cultivation Technique... No wonder I’ve never seen anything like it before!’

’The Western Regions are the westernmost part of the Great Xia. Legend says they are a vast expanse of endless yellow sand. It’s too far from the Northern Domain, so it’s only natural that such cultivation techniques haven’t spread here.’

"Friend Su, are you perhaps interested in this Cultivation Technique?" Qian Lusheng asked with a smile.

Su Yu didn’t feign disinterest, nodding candidly. "I won’t hide it from you, Grand Elder. I am indeed interested in this unique sonic art!"

"Haha, since you are already the Chief Tributor of my Qian Family, what is a mere Cultivation Technique? I will gift it to you."

Su Yu nodded with some resignation.

’I really didn’t want to accept the technique just like that. A free favor is often the most expensive kind.’

’But now that I’m the Qian Family’s Chief Tributor, insisting on turning it into a transaction would seem ungracious.’

’Besides, he’s probably only offering it to me because of my status as Chief Tributor. Someone else likely couldn’t buy it even if they wanted to.’

’Oh well. What’s one more debt to worry about?’

Su Yu mentally filed this favor away.

’As long as my strength continues to skyrocket and I break through to the Muscle Forging Realm, the Profound Bone Realm, and even beyond, I’ll be able to repay these worldly debts with a wave of my hand!’

...

"Lion’s roar, fearless sound, shatters the minds of a hundred beasts. The mighty elephant stampedes, its power lost; the celestial dragon listens in silent bliss..."

「The next day」

The spring sun shone brightly. In the Su Mansion’s Martial Arts Arena, Su Yu was meticulously poring over a dark-gold beast-hide scroll, studying the energy circulation path for the *Vajra Fearless True Sound*.

This Buddhist Cultivation Technique was incredibly potent. It required one to inhale air like a whale gulping water, then use a specific Sanskrit breathing method to violently compress and vibrate it within the chest.

Su Yu closed his eyes, engaged his powerful internal organs, took a deep breath, and focused the air between his throat and chest.

"HAH!"

Su Yu abruptly opened his mouth, and a short, sharp shout with incredible Penetration Power exploded across the Martial Arts Arena.

"CRASH!"

In a nearby corridor, a young maidservant about to pass by with a fruit platter was so startled by the sudden, thunderous blast that she trembled violently. The tray slipped from her hands, sending expensive porcelain and fruit crashing to the ground.

The maidservant’s face went pale with fright. She immediately dropped to her knees with a THUD and began frantically gathering the sharp porcelain shards, terrified she would be severely punished for disturbing her master’s training.

In the next instant, however, a dark figure appeared silently beside her.

A broad, strong hand gently took hold of her wrist, stopping her just before she cut herself on a shard.

"It’s all right. Get up. Find a broom later and sweep this up slowly. Don’t hurt your hands."

Hearing Su Yu’s gentle, rich voice, which held not a hint of blame but only concern, the maidservant instantly relaxed. Her eyes reddened slightly as she nodded repeatedly in affirmation.

She looked up, her eyes full of gratitude, watching Su Yu’s straight, imposing figure as he turned and walked back to the Martial Arts Arena to resume his training.

’Master Su is so kind,’ she thought. ’He’s even kind to servants.’

Su Yu returned to the center of the Martial Arts Arena and, with a thought, called up his panel.

[Martial Arts]: Vajra Fearless True Sound (Entry-level 1/1000)

As the inky characters solidified on the panel, a profound understanding of the technique flooded his mind.

’One shout to deafen, a second to strike fear in the heart. Like the toll of a great bell, it shatters the darkness of ignorance!’

Su Yu carefully contemplated the insights in his mind.

Cultivating this Buddhist True Sound not only required the violent compression and circulation of one’s Qi and Blood, but also a deep understanding of the Zen principles of "subduing external evils and clarifying the mind to perceive one’s true nature."

If one simply roared with brute force, not only would they fail to produce the technique’s penetrating, internal-damaging power, but they would struggle to make any progress and could even injure themselves.

’However, this so-called comprehension barrier is practically nonexistent for me,’ Su Yu thought with a confident smile.

’As long as I have the panel, all the abstruse Buddhist principles will fall into place naturally as I rack up Skill Level!’

Su Yu once again planted his feet in a firm horse stance, his chest swelling high like a giant bellows.

"ROAR!"

Another dull sonic boom, roiling with Qi and Blood, erupted. A transparent shockwave, visible to the naked eye, swept forward in a fan shape like a gale, setting the blades on the weapon racks at the edge of the arena humming.

Two Su Mansion guards patrolling outside the courtyard wall felt a piercing pain in their eardrums. Their minds went blank with a momentary dizziness, and they nearly lost their grip on their sabers.

The two exchanged a look, seeing the horror in each other’s eyes, and quickly clapped their hands over their ears as they retreated farther away.

[Vajra Fearless True Sound Skill Level +2]

[Vajra Fearless True Sound Skill Level +2]

[Vajra Fearless True Sound Skill Level +2]

...

For over an hour, the entire rear courtyard of the Su Mansion rumbled with constant thunder.

Su Yu only stopped, still feeling unsatisfied, when his throat began to ache and his voice grew as hoarse as if he had swallowed hot coals.

[Martial Arts]: Vajra Fearless True Sound (Entry-level 60/1000)

’I can grind sixty points in a single day. This Skill Level is increasing surprisingly fast. At this rate, I should be able to break through to the Skillful Realm in half a month, tops.’

Su Yu chugged a large mouthful of warm water and nodded in satisfaction.

Under the effect of his Martial Godhood Trait, he gained double the Skill Level for any Martial Arts, no matter how obscure or difficult to understand.

The most incredible part was that this kind of grinding, which required no comprehension, had a snowball effect. As his Skill Level soared, the once-abstruse Buddhist principles and the minute control of Qi and Blood vibrations became instinctively ingrained in him, as if etched into his muscle memory.

’I wonder to what realm Grand Elder Qian Lusheng has cultivated this Martial Arts to?’ Su Yu mused, recalling the general principles written on the beast-hide scroll.

’According to the manual, only upon reaching the Minor Achievement Realm can one begin to channel the might of the Vajra’s Wrathful Gaze, achieving the terrifying power to subdue the four demons, shock an enemy’s mind, and even cause their Qi and Blood to flow in reverse.’

’Judging by the Grand Elder’s performance in the ring yesterday, while his presence was overwhelming, he was primarily relying on the sheer power and momentum of his Qi and Blood from the Perfection stage of the Muscle Forging Realm to suppress his opponent. He didn’t demonstrate the fine control needed to inflict penetrating internal damage or reverse Qi and Blood flow.’

’From the looks of it, he probably hasn’t even reached the threshold of Minor Achievement...’

A sharp glint flashed in Su Yu’s eyes.

’At my current, bottleneck-free cultivation speed, I’ll likely surpass his mastery of this sonic technique in just a few months. I wonder what kind of shocked expression that old man will have when I let out a roar in front of him then.’

...

「More than ten days passed in the blink of an eye.」

Early morning at the Su Mansion Martial Arts Arena.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Su Yu, bare-chested, moved like a furious primeval demonic ape. His fists blurred into afterimages as they hammered against the Ironwood Stake.

Sweat streamed wantonly down the chiseled lines of his muscles.

[Mountain-shaking Demon Ape Fist Skill Level +20]

[Martial Arts]: Mountain-shaking Demon Ape Fist (Minor Achievement 3500/7000)

As the Skill Level progress bar on his panel surpassed the halfway mark, the dormant Qi and Blood within Su Yu’s body let out a terrifying, muffled roar without warning!

RUMBLE!

Like a flash flood bursting through a dam, the vast Qi and Blood within his Dantian Qihai erupted into a violent frenzy.

This violent torrent of energy didn’t flow to his limbs. Instead, it surged with incredible precision up the great dragon of his spine, crashing like a mighty army against the first major pass on his back.

The Gaohuang Acupoint!

’I’m about to break through the first acupoint of the Double Dragon Pass for the mid-stage of the Flesh Refining Realm!’

Su Yu’s eyes flew wide open as he felt an agonizing pain deep between his shoulder blades, a sensation like his body was being torn asunder.

The Gaohuang Acupoint is located in an extremely deep spot between the shoulder blades that is very difficult for ordinary Qi and Blood to reach. This is the origin of the saying, "the illness has reached the Gaohuang," which means it has become terminal.

Once this acupoint is opened, it completely activates the terrifying potential of the latissimus dorsi and trapezius, perfectly fusing the power transmission of the spine with the muscles!

"Break!"

Su Yu let out a low growl. The Qi and Blood in his body acted like a great hammer, shattering the barrier in a single strike.

CRACK!

With a crisp cracking sound, the nigh-impregnable Gaohuang Acupoint was easily forced open.

The once-ethereal acupoint instantly transformed into a startling black vortex that began to greedily and madly devour the surging tide of Qi and Blood.

The extreme pain of destruction and rebirth swept over his entire body once more.

Su Yu clenched his jaw, clearly feeling the muscle groups on either side of his shoulder blades undergoing an inhuman process of reconstruction and metamorphosis.

Countless tendons, tougher and thicker than steel wire, twisted, intertwined, and swelled under the frenzied nourishment of his Qi and Blood.

From behind, Su Yu’s once-smooth, broad back muscles began to writhe like a living creature, bulging into a grotesque and terrifying new shape!

’Success!’

Nearly an hour later, the violent transformation finally subsided. Su Yu’s back muscles seemed to compress, returning to their normal appearance.

He exhaled a long, scorching white breath and slowly straightened up, feeling the changes in his back.

’Is this the ultimate transformation of the back muscles after opening the Gaohuang Acupoint?’

He moved his shoulders slightly. The two ridiculously large muscle groups on his back felt like a pair of indestructible shields, or perhaps a pair of fleshy wings ready to unfurl at any moment, containing terrifying explosive power sufficient to tear anything apart!

’Now *this* is a real Demon Back! What I built in the gym in my past life was nothing compared to this!’

Su Yu walked confidently to the weapon rack and, with one hand, drew a heavy Horse-cutting Saber forged from hundred-refined steel.

He didn’t mobilize the Qi and Blood from the Tianquan acupoints in his arms. Instead, he took a deep breath and engaged the muscles of his back.

"HYA!"

Su Yu swung the saber down with his right arm.

In that instant, the source of his power was not his arm, but his back!

The muscles of his monstrous Demon Back rippled explosively like a wave. A terrifying force surged up the great dragon of his spine, layer by layer, before pouring unreservedly into the saber’s blade!

SWISH—

There was no resistance.

The heavy, powerful Horse-cutting Saber sliced through the Ironwood Stake in front of him as if it were a block of soft tofu, cleaving it cleanly in two!

The cut was as smooth as a mirror, faintly steaming from the friction of the high-speed slice.

’Such terrifying full-body power generation!’ Su Yu thought, staring at the saber in his hand, his eyes filled with a mixture of shock and ecstasy.

Just with the Tongbei Force from opening the Gaohuang Acupoint, a casual swing of his fist or saber now packed no less power than one of his previous all-out killing moves!

This was the core secret of the Flesh Refining Realm: squeezing every last drop of potential from every inch of one’s muscles!

What gave Su Yu even more peace of mind was that his transformed back muscles were now harder than ordinary hundred-refined steel.

Even if he were ambushed from behind in the heat of battle, his rock-solid Demon Back could trap an enemy’s blade within its muscle fibers, giving Su Yu a fatal opportunity to counter-attack and turn the tables!

’I’ve broken through one of the two acupoints of the Double Dragon Pass. Next, I just have to open the Pohu Acupoint, which is right next to the Feishu Acupoint, and the great dragon of my back will be complete. When that happens, I will surely break into the Late-stage of the Flesh Refining Realm in one go!’