Martial Arts Have Mastery - Chapter 36

Chapter 36: Practicing the Iron Body Technique

Translator: Tuiwen Editor: Tuiwen

Shen Ling felt disappointed that he didn’t kill the chief of the bandits.

After laying an ambush that got the madman the day before, he had been on the lookout for the chief.

However, the chief was as cunning as a fox. When he saw that the situation was no longer in his favor, he slipped away from the city without anyone knowing. Shen Ling searched for a very long time but didn’t find him.

Old Master Shen looked at Shen Ling and asked, “How are things in Qi Hua City now?”

Shen Ling shook his head negatively and said, “There aren’t many bandits, but the whole city is a huge mess. According to my estimation, it will take a lot of silver to restore it. It’s quite impossible to restore it to how it was before.”

Old Master Shen frowned. “Is it that serious?”

The bandits only occupied the city for a month. He didn’t expect it to turn out this way.

Shen Ling looked at the complicated expression on Old Master Shen’s face and said softly, “If you don’t believe me, you can go back and see for yourself. But remember to take Da Zhuang with you. It’s quite dangerous out there.”

“Let me think about it,” Old Master Shen said as he paced back and forth.

He was a native of Qi Hua City. The Shen family had grown up in the city for three generations. His feelings about the city were something that even Shen Ling would not be able to understand.

In comparison, Shen Ling preferred the sharecroppers’ village.

“No, I have to go back and take a look.” After hesitating for a long time, Old Masters Shen decided to go back and see for himself.

Shen Ling didn’t mind, but said, “Ask Da Zhuang to go with you. Otherwise, I won’t be at ease here.”

Old Master Shen replied, “Yes, I know.”

While he went to Qi Hua City to take a look, Shen Ling sat in front of his house in a daze.

After a while, he took out the Iron Body Technique from his pocket and began to study it.

Iron Body Technique, a rank-four low-grade cultivation method. It was a type of body refining cultivation method, and its value was extremely high. There were more than ten times of the Shen family’s property.

However, it was not easy to practice this cultivation technique.

As the name implied, the Iron Body Technique was to cultivate one’s body to be indestructible as iron.

According to the appendix at the back of this book, if the Iron Body Technique was cultivated to the extreme, the body would be as tough as iron, weighing ten thousand Jin with one finger.

Shen Ling didn’t know what this concept was, but he knew that the power of the madman was closely related to this technique.

He decided to practice it!

Shen Ling felt that this body-refining technique, which had reached rank-four low-grade, was quite awesome!

The Iron Shirt, which had only reached rank-nine upper-grade, had brought him such a huge change. This upper-grade Iron Body Technique would make him much stronger!

Shen Ling began to prepare for his cultivation.

The cultivation methods of the Iron Body Technique were quite different from that of the Iron Shirt.

The Iron Body Technique required one to maintain the stance of a horse and then circulate one’s strength to resist attacks from the surroundings.

If the Iron Shirt was used for internal defense, then the Iron Body Technique was purely used for strengthening the body.

Although the two were very different, they did not clash. They could even complement each other if need be.

But right now, there was one problem. The iron Body Technique could only be cultivated with the help of others.

Finding people to help him was not a big deal, but the sharecroppers had fought hard all through the night and needed to rest now.

Who could he ask for help right now?

All of a sudden, he looked towards Lily the tiger.

At that moment, Lily was lying lazily on the ground, enjoying the morning sun. Its sweet nap time was soon interrupted by Shen Ling.

“Roar-roar!”

Lily roared as it stood up unhappily.

“Hit me!”

He said to Lily. This shocked it as it wondered what Shen Ling was trying to do.

“Just hit me once!”

Shen Ling repeated the order when he saw that Lily didn’t make a move.

It still didn’t hit him. Instead, it sniffed around him.

“Come on, hit me once!”

Shen Ling said the third time.

“Bang!”

Lily pinned Shen Ling to the ground all of a sudden.

“Once more!”

Shen Ling said as he stood up and gestured to Lily to make it understand his instructions.

After a while, Lily finally understood that he really meant it when he asked it to hit him.

“Come on!”

Shen Ling quickly positioned himself.

Lily raised its palm and hit his chest hard.

“Ouch! It hurts so much.”

Lily hit really hard. Under the circumstances of receiving it head-on, even Shen Ling was unable to endure it.

However, with the Iron Shirt’s inner energy protecting his body and the healing of the Longevity inner power, Shen Ling was not afraid of being injured.

“Again!”

He yelled at it again.

Once more, Lily hit his chest very hard.

“Ouch…”

Shen Ling winced in pain as he sucked in a breath of cold air.

Lily saw that he was okay after the previous hit, so it increased its strength this time around.

However, he was very happy because he had successfully cultivated the Iron Body Technique.

Although he was yet to grasped the rudiments…

‘You have completed one successful training of the Iron Body Technique, proficiency + 5.’

Shen Ling’s eyes lit up immediately.

This was because the cultivation method of the Iron Body Technique was different, the proficiency obtained was also different.

Five points at a go?

To find out if this was some sort of bug in the system, Shen Ling started cultivating again.

“Hit me!”

“Pa!”

‘You have completed one successful training of the Iron Body Technique, proficiency + 7.’

“Again!”

“Pa!”

‘You have completed one successful training of the Iron Body Technique, proficiency + 12.’

“Again!”

“Pa!”

Just as Shen Ling was getting carried away by the irregular increase in proficiency, Lily’s another palm caused him to collapse.

Sensing that it had caused trouble, Lily whimpered in a low voice.

Shen Ling endured the pain and waved his hand. “It’s fine, don’t worry. I won’t die.”

The internal force of Longevity flowed through his body as he closed his eyes.

His broken ribs were reconnected and even the blood clots from the tiger’s palm earlier had disappeared without a trace.

“Again!”

Once again, Shen Ling took his stance and threw a provocative gaze at Lily.

Perhaps it was because Lily had hurt him some seconds ago, it hid in a corner in low spirits curled up like a ball.

When Shen Ling saw her appearance, he walked over to her and said, “I’m fine.”

As he spoke, he patted his chest to prove that he was completely fine.

When the tiger saw this, it felt better, but no matter what Shen Ling said, it didn’t have a move against him. It was afraid that he would die under its palms.

Shen Ling sighed.

He thought that he had found a suitable sparring partner, but he didn’t think that any problem would arise.

Right now, he couldn’t blame it. He just patted its head fondly and comforted it.

After a while…

Shen Ling stood in the courtyard, wondering who he could tell to be his sparring partner.

He was quite confused.

After a long while, he went to the military camp.

“Hit me!”

Shen Ling said softly as he looked at the soldier in front of him.

“What?!”

The soldier was dumbfounded.

Shen Ling repeated his request once more, but the soldier didn’t dare to make such a move.

Seeing that he couldn’t persuade this soldier, Shen Ling walked towards another soldier.

For some reason, the news that Shen Ling was in a bad mood and was looking for someone to vent his anger, spread around the barracks. Rumor had it that he was looking for someone to beat him up first.

In order not to become Shen Ling’s target, the soldiers in the barracks ran as soon as they saw him.

For a moment, Shen Ling was short of words.

What in the world was going on?