Chapter 151: Chapter 119: Traveling Two Thousand in a Day, Minor Achievement in Sonic Speed
WHINNY!
This so-called Swallow-Treading Horse, capable of traveling two thousand miles a day, was pulled out in a wheeled iron cage, frantically prancing and jumping within.
It was decked in black and red, with a mane on its back and tail that floated elegantly like tassels. Most importantly, beneath its ribs and around its hooves, it bore black and red scales uncharacteristic of normal horses.
"Junior Brother Chen, this Swallow-Treading Horse is said to possess the bloodline of a Great Demon. Its speed is extraordinarily fast, and the power of its iron hooves is immense. A single stomp feels like a massive elephant trampling the ground. Combining speed with strength, even experts with Great Perfection in Inner Qi would not dare to face it directly. It seems to have the strength of a ’Peak Demon of the First Realm.’ Although you possess Divine Power, you should still be careful," Qin Sheng advised, clearly worried.
"How about we get more people to help you?"
"No need. Having more people might actually lead to injuries. I’ll just be careful."
Chen Ku took this to heart and approached the Swallow-Treading Horse after it was let out of the cage.
Peak Demon of the First Realm.
In the same realm, humans are generally somewhat inferior to demons and beasts in terms of speed and strength.
However, once humans practice martial arts, their combat talent and skills surpass the brute force of demons.
Now, with his Inner Qi at Great Perfection, and supplemented by his Root Bone, Qi Power, and various other enhancements, he could compete even with a master who had just entered the Mystic Barrier Realm. It was a good opportunity to test his strength against this Demon Horse.
WHINNY!
Feeling Chen Ku’s imposing air, the Demon Horse exhaled a stream of white breath, reared up on its hind legs, and lunged its front hooves toward Chen Ku’s chest!
[A Peak Demon of the First Realm Swallow-Treading Horse intends to harm the Master. Slaying it will yield Evil Qi...]
BOOM!
As its front hooves struck, they created an explosive force in the air, as if piercing through it.
Chen Ku felt the terrifying airflow from the hooves brushing his forehead and was inwardly astonished. Good heavens! Such a mighty horse, turned into a Demon, is no simple matter. Just the posture of its front hooves rising and lunging carries the semblance of a Martial Path stance.
Within Medicine King Hall’s Six Ultimate Skills, five were derived from the forms of Demon beasts such as bears, eagles, tigers, deer, and apes.
Most Martial Arts in the world originated this way.
By emulating the forms and attack methods of Demons and beasts, Fist Techniques and Martial Arts were developed.
Chen Ku had no doubt that if the Swallow-Treading Horse’s lunging attack were integrated into a Fist Technique, it would surely become a tremendously powerful move.
This spurred him on even more.
Facing the descending hooves, his palms shot up as if lifting a pagoda toward the sky, firmly grasping the horse’s hooves that seemed capable of crushing stone.
BANG! BANG!
The moment he made contact, Chen Ku felt a tremendous force, resembling an elephant’s stomp, transferring through the hooves. If not for his own immense strength...
Qin Sheng was right; any expert of the Inner Qi Realm would not be able to easily withstand its power.
But he was Chen Ku. Even though he had released the Flower Fox Mink, losing the additional Five Elephants Power from his second Incarnation, his own strength, plus the support of his Inner Qi at Great Perfection, was sufficient.
He had actually managed to withstand these two heavy stomps.
WHINNY!
The Demon Horse, having "lost its forehooves" (Horse Loses Its Fore-hoof), immediately panicked, shaking its mane wildly and snorting, trying to withdraw its hooves.
But Chen Ku’s palms were like iron hoops weighing thousands of pounds, firmly gripping them.
Just then, Qin Sheng saw that when the beast realized it couldn’t pull its hooves back, its hind hooves prepared to kick toward Chen Ku’s abdomen.
With the front hooves alone possessing explosive power like an elephant’s, the hind hooves would only be even more formidable. If they struck, an Inner Qi expert would have their intestines ruptured and stomach torn open.
Qin Sheng cried out in alarm, "Junior Brother Chen, be careful!"
Chen Ku had, of course, noticed the beast’s actions.
How could he let himself be hit? He instantly stepped backward, pulling the Demon Horse’s front hooves sharply toward him!
Simultaneously, his body flipped in mid-air, generating a twisting force. He rotated himself and the horse in the air, then fiercely let go, slamming the Demon Horse hard onto the ground!
BANG!
The Demon Horse, weighing several thousand catties, hit the ground hard, letting out a loud WHINNY. Chen Ku stepped forward, planted his foot on the horse’s head, thrust a knife into its neck, swiveled the blade in his hand, and severed the Demon Horse’s head.
[The Diagram Master has slain the Swallow-Treading Horse, obtaining one strand of Peak First Realm Swallow-Treading Horse Evil Qi.]
Having obtained the Evil Qi, Chen Ku bent down to dissect the Demon Horse.
"Good job, Junior Brother! The most valuable parts of this Swallow-Treading Horse are the scales under its ribs and between its hooves—proof of its Great Demon Bloodline. Also, its bones are ’worth their weight in gold’; people have paid a fortune for these bones. All are extremely precious medicinal materials," Qin Sheng explained.
Normally, dissection was the job of an Apprentice. However, a Peak Demon of the First Realm like this was tough-skinned, especially around the Scale Armor on its ribs. It would have been extremely difficult for a Force Transforming apprentice like him to cut and retrieve them.
Chen Ku understood the challenge, so he personally assisted. Before long, he had removed a total of twenty-five beast-like black scales.
Then, using his great achievement bone-chopping butcher blade, he effortlessly disassembled the entire set of horse bones from the body.
Thousand Gold Horse Bones.
Just this one horse’s bones alone were worth a fortune. It was able to travel a thousand miles a day by relying on its ’Strong Bones and spirited flesh.’ If these bones were refined into Pills, along with some other ingredients, they would at least aim for a Second Realm Elixir.
Seeing that Chen Ku had finished his work, Qin Sheng bowed in gratitude. "Thank you, Junior Brother Chen! Thank you for your efforts. Go rest for a while now. With this Peak First Realm Demon slain today, we can handle the rest."
Chen Ku then returned to his resting room.
He began the transformation of the Swallow-Treading Horse.
Although he possessed the Golden-eyed White Jade Sculpture that could soar swiftly through the skies, he had now transferred its refining shape ability to the Flower Fox Mink, endowing it with the power of flight. However, this involved taking to the air and required the preemptive sprouting of wings...
Moreover, the flight of avian creatures like eagles and sculptures often lacked stamina. Once airborne, continuous flapping of wings led to significant energy consumption. Although fast, they could only fly a few hundred miles in a day before needing rest.
Like cheetahs, despite their speed, they couldn’t maintain it indefinitely.
In other words, the Golden-eyed White Feathered Sculpture lacked the capability for long-distance flight.
Horses, on the other hand, were different.
Naturally endowed with the capacity for long-distance travel, horses have historically been crucial military assets for forming cavalry in warfare.
[Swallow-Treading Horse Transformation! Transform!]
[Swallow-Treading Horse Transformation·Shape Shifting]
[Transformation Part: Horseback (bearing 10,000 catties)]
Chen Ku observed that the first Shape Shifting ability to manifest was surprisingly adequate.
This Demon Horse, though not large, has an extremely dense body mass, Chen Ku had gauged when he toppled it.
The horse weighed at least 3,000 catties, so its ability to carry 10,000 catties was quite normal.
The reason it could bear such weight and still travel 2,000 miles a day was, firstly, due to its ’Strong Bones’—which made its bones valuable—and secondly, its unique Demon Bloodline and demonic power.
CRACKLE!
Without hesitation, Chen Ku directed forty-five streams of Evil Qi from the Fire Beak Pot into the Swallow-Treading Horse.
If just the horseback offers such an augmentation, of course, I intend to transform it completely.
[Swallow-Treading Horse Transformation]
[The Swallow-Treading Horse: face long with a mane, scales under its ribs, all four hooves as if flying, kicking up no dust as it treads on swallows, traveling 2,000 miles by day, 1,500 by night... It contains one ten-millionth of the Ancient Great Demon ’Chi Si’ Bloodline...]
[Abilities: Back (bearing 10,000 catties), Legs (traveling 2,000 miles a day), Mane (thermoregulation), Tail (cold protection and warmth retention), Rib Scales (streamlining airflow, reducing drag), Hooves (Iron Hooves shatter stone), Teeth... Stomach...]
...
[Swallow-Treading Horse Transformation]
...
Inside his room, Chen Ku pushed the Swallow-Treading Horse transformation directly to the highest level, ’Transform,’ granting himself another Incarnation.
At this moment, feeling the power boost from the Peak First Realm Demon Horse, a single transformation (likely referring to the initial Shape Shifting) equated to the strength of one elephant. After full transformation (Transform), it offered an additional Two Elephants of power.
This was, so far, besides the White Elephant, the only other Demon Transformation that could enhance Chen Ku’s Root Bone Strength.
However, more than the horse’s strength, Chen Ku valued the speed it bestowed upon him.
Traveling 2,000 miles a day!
Unlike the Golden-eyed White Jade Sculpture, which required growing wings for flight, the Swallow-Treading Horse simply used its legs, allowing it to run on the ground.
Chen Ku left Medicine King Hall and went to a secluded, wide-open area outside the city. He wanted to test how much the horse’s speed enhancement, combined with his Piercing Sound Step, could accelerate his movement.
A dense forest lay in the distance. Chen Ku stood on a patch of yellow earth, activated Piercing Sound Step, and with a mere tap of his foot, his figure shot out like a bolt of electricity.
WHOOSH!
If someone had been standing there, they would have seen a continuous series of afterimages of a human figure stretch into a fifty-zhang-long line in an instant.
A moment later, Chen Ku stood fifty zhang away, looking back at the trail of smoke and dust. Only then did the disturbed earth erupt, as if a series of buried landmines had detonated with a delay, soaring into the sky like an earthen dragon.
With the Swallow-Treading Horse’s speed and innate talent, combined with Piercing Sound Step, one leap covers fifty zhang! Chen Ku observed his instantaneous speed, immensely thrilled.
This had already reached the Minor Achievement level of Piercing Sound Step.
His master, Shang Yunfang, had spent sixty years cultivating Piercing Sound Step to great achievement.
That day, right here, Shang Yunfang had leaped seventy zhang...
Though still thirty zhang short of the one hundred zhang distance marking the Perfection (’Supersonic Speed’) of Piercing Sound Step, Shang Yunfang, with such rapid pace and the Black Tiger Butcher Knife, was almost unmatched among Fourth Realm Martial Practitioners.
And now, I’m only in the Inner Qi Realm, yet I possess such extreme speed!
Just yesterday, in front of Master, I could only manage fifteen zhang, the entry-level stage of Piercing Sound Step. From entry-level to Minor Achievement, an improvement from fifteen zhang to fifty zhang! All in just one day!