Chương 225: Rapid increase in strength

Long Feng slowly took up his top garment, leaving his upper body bare. His well toned figure shone under the sun as he jumped into the air towards the waterfall. His target was the rock that was visible within the waterfall. That was the only place available for him to stand under the pressure of the waterfall. He drew closer and closer to the waterfall untill he finally crashed into it. Long Feng's expression changed as a huge force slammed Into him from above.

It was like a mountain had been placed on his back, similar to when he had to endure the auras of two peak imperial realm masters, but even stronger. Long Feng's body was unable to resist in the slightest as he was flushed down into the river. And then the turbulent waters made him unable to swim to the surface. He was forced to use his full cultivation to barely swim out of the region of the waterfall and resurface, breathing heavily.

His expression blackened when he heard old man Solitude's loud laughter echoing through the valley again. Long Feng could only grit his teeth and jump out of the river, his entire body feeling sore and exhausted.

"Hahahaha! Kid, that was so entertaining! You have to try harder. Go a few more rounds. Practice makes perfect you know" old man Solitude laughed.

"Practice my foot!" Long Feng spat, his expression dark. How was this easy? He preferred to stand beneath the tree and spend the rest of the day trying to slice falling leaves than to do this.

"Come on kid, don't lose your courage. There are still a few hours till noon. You must keep trying. You'll definitely get a bit used to it after a few times" old man Solitude reassured Long Feng wanted to cry but no tears would come. Practice throwing himself into a waterfall to be flushed away like a log of wood? His body was already sore all over like he had received a beating. And the exhaustion was like he spent a few hours straight fighting.

"Hurry up kid. You're wasting time!" Long Feng glared at old man Solitude, gritted his teeth and jumped back into the waterfall, his target still the rock that was hanging there. His body was once again flushed away, the force of the water hitting him causing his bones to creak. He struggled to resurface once again and without waiting to hear old man Solitude's laughter and reassuring words, he jumped right back in. Again... Again... Again... And again.

He repeated it so many times that he couldn't even keep count again. His body was sore all over and he found it hard to move a single part of his body. He could only lay on the floor, breathing heavily and wanting to cry at the brutality of it all.

"Ha! Kid, you're quite resilient. Your body can take more beating than I expected. Come on still your heart! A bit over an hour left till noon!" Old Man Solitude cheered loudly. Though even he had to admit that he underestimated Long Feng's endurance and determination. He has lasted much longer than old man Solitude had initially expected. Long Feng was speechless when he remembered that Yan jian seemed to have said something quite similar to this before...

He ignored old man Solitude's attempt to get him to continue this torturous training and laid there on the grass. Old Man Solitude finally let him be after complaining a bit about his laziness. Time passed as the sun slowly reached the center of the sky and began to fall. Under old man Solitude's continuous urging, Long Feng grudgingly stood up and dragged his tired body to the side of the tree, only to be frustrated repeatedly as he refused the leaves to pieces every single time.

At the end of the day, he was exhausted both physically and mentally. After eating, he immediately fell asleep, all prior plans of comprehending skills thrown to the back of his mind and forgotten. Old Man Solitude quietly stared at Long Feng's figure as he slept soundly, his chest rising and falling rhythmically and a gratified smile appeared on his face. Then he jumped into his bed and began to snore soon after.

The next day, Long Feng woke up with renewed strength and vigor compared to the previous day. He could tell that his body strength had clearly increased a bit compared to yesterday due to the torturous training he had under the waterfall. This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. This obvious difference after a single day strengthened his determination to continue this train to the end.

He left early in the morning, bathed in the river and then jumped into the waterfall just like yesterday without using his inner energy to protect his body. As usual, his aim was to reach the protruding rock in the waterfall. That was the first milestone for him. If he could reach the waterfall, then the advantages that would bring to his body strength, sword energy and skills were inestimable. He failed again and again and again. He failed every single time but he didn't give up or let his determination waver.

He was so engrossed in his brutal training that he didn't even notice old man Solitude watching him from the river bank and smiling gratifyingly. Long Feng finally couldn't continue when there was less than an hour left till noon. His body was sore all over down to his bones and he was so exhausted that all he wanted to do was to go to sleep. But this time, he didn't lay down to rest. Instead, he steeled his heart and sat down cross legged to cultivate!

He knew one thing; the body's potential was squeezed out in times of either extreme danger or extreme exhaustion. Right now, it was the latter for him. He took the chance to cultivate and instantly realized that his cultivation speed was almost double of what he could normally achieve! His body was like a parched land and the natural energies he absorbed was like rain. His body naturally sucked up this energy rapidly to recover itself.

In this state, every cell in his body was tempered by the energy and became even more lively than before. Long Feng's eyes opened an hour later shining with shock.

"I've left that state of exhausted cultivation. But if I do this every day die just an hour, I can quickly reach the peak Yang realm much faster than I anticipated!" He sucked in a mouthful of air. It looked like this training was more beneficial to him than he thought. There was almost no disadvantages and so much advantages. No disadvantage except the pain and exhaustion... Long Feng grew even more determined to continue this training without pause.

The advantages it brought to his body were simply too great to be ignored. He quickly rushed over to the tree and began to practice his control. Today, he managed to actually slice one or two leaves irregularly before he mistakenly reduced the rest to pieces, or he wasn't fast enough to slice any more and they all fell on the floor. But there was progress nonetheless. Training his body under the waterfall was increasing his reflexes, which in turn made it easier for him to control his sword energy more easily.

At night, Long Feng forced himself to stay awake and he began to comprehend the heaven ripping finger skill he got from the Yihua clan.

"Heaven ripping finger, peak ranked spirit skill. Has five levels, each level harder to attain but also much stronger than the previous. The third level can compare to other normal peak spirit skills while the fourth level surpasses them a bit but falls short of an imperial skill. The fifth level can compete favourably with a low rank imperial skill!" Long Feng was satisfied with the skill just from the introduction. It's peak level was stronger than other spirit skills and could compare to an imperial skill.

This was already much stronger than his low rank spirit demon annihilation skill. The second level of the heaven ripping finger was already a bit stronger than the mastered third wave demon annihilation!

"To cultivate the first level of the heaven ripping finger, you must circulate your inner energy according to the specific meridians mentioned and condense the energy thrice at the tip of your finger. The second level requires condensing the energy six times while the third level requires nine times! The fourth level requires the energy to be condensed fifteen times. It gains a vibrating and extreme penetration effect that can pierce through various defenses.

The fifth level requires condensing the energy thirty times! There is a risk of crippling the finger while cultivating this skill and the risk grows with each increasing level. Proceed with caution" Long Feng sighed after reading the manual completely. He naturally wouldn't be frightened by a mere risk like this. He memorized the meridian paths specified and paid attention to all key points before he placed the jade slip back into his void ring.

Taking a deep breath, he began to circulate his inner energy through the meridians of his finger. This process that should have been a bit risky seemed quite easy to Long Feng. After pondering a bit, he realized why this was so.

"My ability to control my energy has increased greatly compared to before. The risk at the first level and probably the second level wouldn't pose a threat to me" He was slowly realizing more and more benefits of his training. Even cultivating this heaven ripping finger was easy to him. He completed this circulation three times and condensed the energy at his index fingertip. This was one condensation. He needed to do this two more times to reach the first level of the heaven ripping finger.

Long Feng stood and began to comprehend the Firmament Sword Art and the Nine Firmament Steps. He placed more importance on these two compared to the heaven ripping finger. The rest of the night was spent comprehending the two techniques. At sunrise, he stopped and left the cottage to continue his brutal training. This routine continued for three days. By he fourth day, Long Feng could tell that his raw body strength was much greater than before.

Without using his inner energy, a simple punch could defeat a Yin realm cultivator. Although it sounded weak, that was without using an ounce of his cultivation. It was his pure bodily strength! His sword energy was also at least twice denser than before. The sharpness and power of the sword energy was also greatly improved compared to before. His control has also increased. He could now slice much of the leaves before he lost control of the sword energy.

But his perception and arm speed still had much room for improvement. Over all, Long Feng could tell that he was much stronger than he was during the competition. He has also perfected the first level of the heaven ripping finger and was approaching the second level. His understanding of the Firmament Sword Art was also rapidly increasing, and his Nine Firmament Steps was much more agile than before. Long Feng was more than satisfied with his rate of improvement.

On the fifth day, Long Feng was able to grip the edge of the rock in the waterfall tightly with his right arm and stop his body from being flushed away under the force of the descending water. Although this caused the pressure he had to endure to rise sharply, it was still progress and Long Feng was extremely satisfied. His cultivation was also steadily approaching rank nine Yang realm. On the tenth day, Long Feng was able to land on the rock!

Although the force of the waterfall made him unable to move, he would still sit there on the rock for as long as he could before he was washed away. The benefits this brought to his body were simply astounding! His sword energy was almost five times as dense as before by now! And he could defeat weaker Yang realm cultivators with just his body strength! On the twelfth day, he was able to perfectly control his sword energy on his sword without destroying any of the leaves.

Now, he began to work on his arm speed and perception. His focus was to be able to slice all the leaves rapidly before they fell and also cut them all along the center. This was undoubtedly very hard to achieve, but he didn't even entertain the idea of giving up. He had tasted the benefits and wasn't willing to stop now. Old Man Solitude was also satisfied with Long Feng's performance. He returned to cutting his wood and farming while Long Feng trained diligently, neither of them interfering with each other.

Two weeks passed. Long Feng stood by the waterfall shirtless, his toned muscles looking elegant and beautiful under the rising sun. He didn't even blink as he jumped into the waterfall. The initial pressure barely fazed him now. He gently landed on the rock and his knees bent slightly under the force but he was able to endure. He calmly took out the Origin Spirit Sword, covered it in his dense sword energy and began to move about, repeating the same moves of stab, slash, hack, parry and slice.

The pressure on his arm was so great that his movements were very stiff and the veins in his arms bulged, looking terrifying. Soon, his arms began to shiver and slowly lowered under the pressure untill they fell limply by his side. Long Feng calmly sat down on the rock, enduring the force with his body and began to cultivate in this situation. His cultivation speed was as much as thrice faster than normally!

He began this method just two days ago and his cultivation already reached the limit of rank eight Yang realm. And his foundation was as solid as it could be. He had a feeling he would reach rank nine in a few days. Remembering the feeling of a breakthrough approaching in his sword concept earlier, he couldn't help but laugh. His body gradually became sore. At noon, he stood up and leapt out of the waterfall, landing unsteadily in the river and swimming to the land.

Without resting, he rushed to the tree, his steps light and fast. Lightly hitting the tree trunk, the leaves rained down as usual. The floor was already littered with so much broken leaves that they covered the grasses on the floor. Long Feng gracefully danced under the falling leaves, the sword in his hand leaving afterimages as it elegantly sliced around repeatedly. The leaves all broke into two in the air before they touched the ground. But Long Feng shook his head, barely satisfied.

"I'm still unable to slice them all in the center" he grumbled.

"Aiiiii kid, you're too greedy. Your skills are already enviable as it is. All you need now is patience and more time to become perfect" an old voice chided.