Dawn of a New Era

The full moon hung in the black sky, casting down a pristine, frost-like moonlight.

Outside one of the boys' dormitories of the Jiangnan Martial Arts Academy, now relocated to the Safe Zone, a large group of students whispered fearfully, their faces filled with terror and unease.

Inside the dormitory, bones and pieces of flesh were scattered everywhere, with blood almost covering the entire floor. The strong scent of blood was pungent, nearly permeating the whole floor.

The police had already arrived at the crime scene to investigate. At this moment, a middle-aged officer was questioning the students: "Did you hear any strange noises while you were sleeping?"

"No!"

"Didn't hear anything!"

"We're so exhausted from training every day that we fall asleep as soon as our heads hit the pillow."

The middle-aged officer frowned and asked again, "Who discovered it first?"

"It was me!" A strong student hesitated before stepping forward and saying, "I woke up at night because I had to use the bathroom urgently, and when I got up, I smelled blood, which is how I discovered the situation."

The middle-aged officer stared intently at him. He looked a bit nervous, but that was a normal reaction when facing the police and didn't prove anything. Moreover, his coat was open, revealing his pajamas, and there were no bloodstains on his pajamas at all.

In this kind of bloody dismemberment case, it was entirely impossible not to be stained with blood unless he changed his pajamas beforehand. However, without more evidence, these were just baseless speculations.

Just then, another officer whispered in the middle-aged officer's ear: "We found bite marks on the bones!"

Hearing this, the middle-aged officer was startled, his scalp tingling. He had originally thought the meat had been moved by the murderer, as many heinous crimes often defy common sense.

He had never imagined that it had been eaten—the dorm housed four strong adult men, weighing at least four or five hundred pounds in total.

He examined a skull among them, the flesh on its face bitten off and the skullcap lifted, leaving the inside completely empty, making the entire dormitory feel eerily sinister.

...

Shell Lady crouched on a tree, her eyes unblinking as she observed the distant naked Giant, occasionally lifting her little skirt to look down and make careful comparisons, her serious little face full of confusion.

It really is so strange.

And not pleasant to look at at all.

Like a vicious giant worm.

...

Chen Shouyi stood between four large trees, each as thick as an arm's embrace, with rough, layered bark. Thanks to the preservation efforts in recent years, these trees had not been felled.

However, it took Chen Shouyi considerable effort to find these four trees standing close by in the small mountain.

Taking a deep breath, his chest and abdomen began to expand as he adjusted his breathing with the Horizontal Training Thirty-Six styles. After a few breaths, he pushed off the ground sharply and lunged toward one of the trees.

"Bang!"

The tree shook violently as bits of bark and wood chips exploded in all directions. His chest felt tight, almost making him vomit blood, but he gritted his teeth and hurled himself at another tree.

Each of his impacts carried a force of several tons.

This was after he controlled most of his strength. If he used all his might, the trees might not break, but his bones would certainly be shattered.

Time and again, he crashed against the trees, new wounds appearing even before the old ones could heal. After about a dozen hits, he was covered in blood, feeling as though ants were nibbling his body, causing a mix of pain and itching.

With these relentless collisions, Chen Shouyi vaguely felt that his muscles seemed to be tempered, binding more tightly together. Power seemed to flow more freely, as if the optimized combination of the Thirteen Tai Po Horizontal Training and the Body Refining Thirty-Six styles produced a result greater than the sum of its parts.

He practiced for the entire morning.

After eating the leftovers from breakfast at noon, he practiced the Horizontal Training Thirty-Six styles a few more times, rested for a bit, and continued his physical resistance training.

...

Four days quickly passed.

On a small path in the fields outside the Safe Zone.

"Brother, you really want me to hit you!" Chen Xingyue held an iron bar as thick as a child's arm, looking both eager and torn. It was solid; the entire thing weighed nearly a hundred pounds.

Are you sure it won't be a problem hitting your body?

"If I say hit, then hit, stop talking nonsense, hurry up!" Chen Shouyi said impatiently.

He had made great progress in the past few days. Not only had his physique and agility each increased by 0.1 points, but his resistance to blows had also improved drastically.

As of this morning, he could no longer find any trees suitable for his training on the small mountain. Trees with a diameter of less than twenty to thirty centimeters could be knocked down with one hit, and even those with a diameter of forty to fifty centimeters couldn't last long before breaking after about ten minutes of training.

"Brother, you said it, so here I come." Chen Xingyue steeled herself, saying that her brother had always hit her when they were young, and she'd never hit her brother before.

With that, she lifted the iron bar and did not dare to exert too much force, fearing she would really hurt her brother, lightly tapping on his back instead.

"Harder." Chen Shouyi didn't even flinch as he said.

...

"A bit harder, don't hold back!"

...

"You haven't eaten, have you? Didn't you say you're a martial artist? Is this all the strength a martial artist has?"

"Thud, thud, thud!"

Chen Xingyue, enraged by Chen Shouyi's sharp tongue, gritted her teeth, her face darkened, and swung the rod wordlessly at his body. The iron rod whooshed through the air.

Her brother was simply like he was made of rubber; when the rod hit his body, his muscles would bounce it off faster, numbing her palms.

Even now, she could only use four to five parts of her strength, not because she didn't want to, but because she dared not. If she used too much force, she didn't know if she could bring her teasing brother down, but she knew her own arm would definitely dislocate or even fracture.

Are great martial artists this strong? This is simply abnormal!

"Don't just hit the back, also…" Chen Shouyi said.

"Thud!"

Before he could finish, the heavy rod struck his chest with a loud dull thud. Chen Shouyi nearly lost consciousness from the impact, and before he could catch his breath, the rod came down like raindrops on his abdomen and thighs.

"Hiss!"

A heavy strike with the rod hit his pelvis, the searing pain turning Chen Shouyi's face pale.

But he would endure the hardship he brought upon himself and immediately adjusted his breathing with the Horizontal Training Thirty-Six styles, continuing to withstand it.

When pain becomes constant, it becomes a habit!

Seeing that her brother was unbothered even when hit on the bones, Chen Xingyue no longer held back, striking wildly at the legs and arms. Had Chen Shouyi not caught the rod in the end, she might have even dared to hit him on the head.

Does she really want to commit fratricide!

His head hadn't been deliberately trained yet.

If the rod smashed down, even if it didn't spill his brains, it would surely cause a bloody mess.

...

The sun sets in the west.

A large and a small silhouette rode bicycles back to the Safe Zone.

"Brother, am I really not at martial artist strength yet?" Chen Xingyue asked, somewhat doubting her abilities.

"What do you think?" Chen Shouyi suppressed the itchy pain from his bones healing and said blandly.

"Maybe I'm still a bit short!"

"What's a bit short? You still have a long way to go; you can't even fully utilize your strength yet."

"Hmph, don't get smug. I'm only sixteen. You only became a martial artist in the second half of your seventeenth year. I have more than a year to go." Chen Xingyue rallied herself, feeling unconvinced.

...

Chen Shouyi and his sister returned home, put away their bicycles, and as they walked in, they saw Bai Xiaoling already sitting in the living room.