Chapter 168: Life Force Reverses the Martial Path

Lu Family.

Martial Training Grounds.

The spectators had completely surrounded the training grounds, yet not a single person dared to make the slightest unusual sound.

They merely focused all their attention on the three figures in the arena.

The gazes directed at Fang Han contained disdain, confusion, and doubt.

But there was not a trace of anticipation.

No one believed that Fang Han could contend against two Grandmasters with nothing more than the peak of the Astral Qi realm.

Much less break through his current realm and advance further.

Yet Fang Han paid no attention to the reactions around him. He simply stood alone at the center of the arena.

Lu Feng and Luo You stood side by side ten zhang away from him.

"Fang Han, twenty-five years old." Fang Han cupped his fists. "Today, I wish to borrow the strength of the two of you to knock upon the gate of the Grandmaster realm."

His words immediately caused another commotion among the spectators.

Even if Fang Han failed today, reaching the peak of the Astral Qi realm at twenty-five years of age was still something rarely seen throughout history.

"Luo You," Lu Feng called out.

"Disciple is here."

"You and I need not hold back."

Luo You was silent for a moment before nodding in agreement.

The battle began at that very moment.

The pressure of the Grandmaster realm descended like a shadow, arriving in an instant.

The stone ground beneath Fang Han's feet cracked silently. Several fissures spread outward, rapidly branching like a spiderweb.

It was as though he had fallen into a swamp, or had a mountain pressing down upon his body.

Fang Han felt that even lifting his hand had suddenly become exceedingly difficult.

"So this is the might of a Grandmaster!"

There was not the slightest trace of fear in Fang Han's eyes. Instead, they burned with incomparable excitement.

He had sparred with other Grandmasters before, but the pressure he was experiencing now was worlds apart from anything he had felt previously.

Fang Han understood clearly that Lu Feng had not been exaggerating.

The two Grandmasters standing before him truly were holding nothing back.

"Yes, just like this!"

Fang Han's eyes instantly turned crimson.

His skin began cracking inch by inch, with fresh blood continuously seeping from the fissures.

This was the manifestation of his blood and qi being pushed to their absolute limit.

Fang Han easily broke through the cage formed by the pressure of the two Grandmasters. He stomped down fiercely, and his figure shot forward like lightning.

Facing two Grandmasters simultaneously, Fang Han took the initiative and attacked first.

Left fist, Razing the Imperial Court.

Right fist, Stabilizing the Nine Tripods.

Two techniques of the Imperial Fist were unleashed simultaneously.

The Razing the Imperial Court Fist carried the murderous aura of countless troops trampling across mountains and rivers as it violently struck toward Lu Feng.

The Stabilizing the Nine Tripods Fist carried the magnificent momentum of establishing dominion over the entire world, shooting straight toward Luo You.

Although Lu Feng had already attained the Innate Grandmaster realm many years ago, he was old and physically weakened. Thus, he was better suited to dealing with Fang Han's attack through pure brute force.

Luo You, on the other hand, had only advanced to the Grandmaster realm a few years ago and was currently at the peak of his physical condition.

He was better suited to suppressing Fang Han through intent.

Yet when facing the two Grandmasters, Fang Han instantly assessed their respective characteristics and formulated completely different approaches for attacking each of them.

"Excellent technique!" Lu Feng praised without reservation.

Faced with the overwhelmingly domineering Razing the Imperial Court Fist, Lu Feng did not dodge.

He merely took half a step forward.

Fang Han suddenly felt the heavens and earth change color.

The air in every direction abruptly became incomparably viscous. Fang Han felt the momentum of his Razing the Imperial Court Fist being weakened layer after layer. His fist force seemed to have crashed into an invisible wall, with every additional foot of progress requiring ten times the strength.

At the instant his fist's momentum was effortlessly suppressed, Luo You moved.

He drifted in from the side.

His speed was incredibly fast and completely silent.

Fang Han only caught a glimpse of a blurred shadow seeping into the edge of his vision. By the time he reacted, Luo You was already less than a step away from him.

Luo You brought his fingers together into a palm, avoiding the trajectory of the Stabilizing the Nine Tripods Fist before lightly pressing it toward Fang Han's shoulder.

The movement looked almost weightless.

But Fang Han knew that if this palm landed solidly, he would undoubtedly suffer severe injuries, perhaps even die on the spot.

At the same time, Lu Feng's attack arrived as well.

His figure appeared before Fang Han like a ghost.

His withered right hand emerged from his sleeve, five fingers slightly spread as he pushed his palm straight toward Fang Han's chest.

Every hair on Fang Han's body stood on end.

He sensed the same deadly danger.

Lu Feng's palm was now covered in a faint layer of golden radiance. Fang Han vaguely heard a soft cry that seemed to tear through the air.

In an instant, offense had turned into defense, and Fang Han found himself attacked from both front and back.

Fang Han knew he could not retreat.

The reactions and speed of a Grandmaster were far beyond his own.

His only advantage was the seemingly inexhaustible vitality provided by Verdant Wood Invocation.

"Let's see who fears a head-on clash!"

A cold gleam flashed through Fang Han's eyes. His blood and qi instantly boiled like a furnace.

He poured all of his strength and will into the punch that followed.

Imperial Fist, Sacrificing for the State.

At that instant, Fang Han seemed to transform into a massive cauldron weighing ten thousand jun.

His legs rooted themselves into the earth like the tangled roots of an ancient tree, merging completely with the foundation of the entire martial training grounds.

Faced with the killing techniques of two Grandmasters about to descend upon him, Fang Han astonishingly neither dodged nor retreated.

He intended to exchange injury for injury!

Boom!

A deep, muffled thunderclap immediately reverberated across the martial training grounds.

Countless fragments of stone were swept into the air by the shockwave, while the entire ground shook violently.

At the instant their attacks collided, Fang Han felt the power of the two Grandmasters crashing into him like mighty waves of a vast river, one after another.

Both fists of Sacrificing for the State felt as though they had struck something incomparably hard.

The bones in his hands emitted faint cracking sounds.

From his wrists to his elbows and then to his shoulders, his bones shattered inch by inch, flesh becoming a mangled mess.

Both arms instantly went limp, hanging down like twisted ropes.

Then the injuries spread into his internal organs and even his brain!

Without a doubt, Fang Han, who had chosen to withstand the attacks head-on, was blasted backward.

Blood flowed from his body, blurring his vision.

It seemed as though a gigantic bell was ringing violently inside his mind again and again.

He could not even form a single thought.

At the brink of death, his mind was completely blank.

Yet the physical instincts forged through countless battles came into play at that very moment.

As he was blasted backward and still hung suspended in midair, Verdant Wood Invocation naturally began circulating at a frenzied pace.

The vitality of heaven and earth poured into his body like a great river flowing backward.

At this moment, the sheer amount and astonishing speed at which Verdant Wood Invocation gathered vitality was so great that it even formed a massive vortex above the martial training grounds.

The vortex was invisible and formless.

Yet many martial artists present sensed it immediately.

"Hm?"

Lu Feng and Luo You, the two Grandmasters, were even more visibly shaken.

They did not pursue Fang Han while he was down.

Instead, they stared intently at the astonishing transformation taking place within his body.

The devastating injuries inflicted by the two Grandmasters were still manifesting.

The sound of bones breaking continued one after another.

But...

At the same time, the shattered bones were regenerating.

The torn flesh was healing.

Life and destruction were unfolding simultaneously within Fang Han's body.

His bones automatically returned to their proper positions amid a series of creaking sounds, while the fibers of his flesh wriggled and intertwined like living creatures, weaving themselves back together.

In merely an instant, the injuries covering Fang Han's entire body had completely healed.

Such recovery speed was simply too horrifying.

It had long since exceeded the limits of what a normal martial artist could achieve.

Fang Han raised his head.

He was smiling.

Against his blood-stained face, that smile appeared almost ferocious.

"That was satisfying," he said. "Again."