C7 Gu Family's True Strength!

In the end, the coveted item still ended up in the adversary's possession. Gu Tian returned safely to the Gu family, but this did not signify the end of their troubles. The Gu family had been living in seclusion for decades, enjoying a tranquil existence. Now that they had been discovered by their nemesis, could Gu Mong really let them walk away unscathed? His earlier restraint was only due to his concern for Gu Tian's safety.

The opposition had anticipated Gu Mong's attack. With a casual gesture, several men in black emerged from an alleyway, effectively intercepting the Gu family's strongest members.

"I'll entrust this to you. I'm going to deliver the item!" The man said coldly to his subordinates after receiving the Sky Mandate from Gu Mong.

"Yes, sir!" the men in black, resembling dedicated warriors, responded.

"Trying to leave? Not so fast!" Gu Mong, seeing the enemy attempting to depart, charged with his fists ready, intent on stopping him at all costs.

"It's me you're facing. Bring it on. I've been eager to test the Gu family's Pulse Break Fist," declared the men in black, standing before the Gu family elders.

"Pulse Break Fist!" The Gu family's most lethal technique targeted the heart meridian, shattering it upon impact.

The fist technique was formidable, but Gu Mong had underestimated these men in black. All of them were at the Nascent Flow Stage, capable of forming a protective Qi shield around themselves. They were not about to let Gu Mong shatter their heart meridians. Their longswords flickered like serpents, thrusting towards Gu Mong's heart. However, they only managed to force Gu Mong to pull back his punch and slam it onto the blade, sending the enemy's longsword flying. Gu Mong then focused his strength into his legs and delivered a kick to the left side of his opponent's chest.

With a resounding "Bang!" both combatants were pushed back several steps. Each step left deep imprints in the ground, breaking bricks and stones, with each footprint sinking over two inches deep, causing the stone slabs to crack.

"Could this be a martial skill beyond the Earth Level?" The man in black, who had been struck, staggered back a dozen steps before regaining his balance, feeling a searing pain in his chest.

"Fist shatters the heavens, die!" Gu Mong wouldn't entertain his adversary's questions.

Gu Mong hadn't anticipated the formidable strength of his opponents. The men in black averaged around the fourth level of the Nascent Flow. Unscathed after taking a kick from him, they even matched the elders of the Gu family in combat.

Since the Gu family's departure from the Martial Stage's history, they've been on a steady decline, shrinking back into the impoverished Tamura Empire. Reaching the Nascent Flow was considered an achievement here, due to the scarcity of resources and cultivation materials. While Reigh was abundant in such resources, the journey was daunting. It would take over a decade of flight, and the perils en route made survival uncertain. Only a combined effort from the great empires to activate the teleportation array could offer safe passage.

"Scram!" The adversary dismissed Gu Mong with contempt, launching a palm strike that sent him reeling back a dozen steps. Gu Mong's punch hadn't connected with his opponent's head, but the force still left him feeling swollen and groggy. As he steadied himself, he signaled to his allies amidst the fray, "Fall back!"

In this world, raw strength was secondary to the mastery of martial skills. The black-clothed assailants favored swift kills, but they were no match for the ancient martial techniques of the Gu family. Despite their protective Qi shields, once struck, their power seemed to be sealed away. Prolonged exposure would spell certain death.

"Trying to escape? Leave something behind!" Gu Mong, having been pushed back, shattered the stone tiles beneath his feet. Regaining his balance, he launched himself into the air, aiming a sweeping blow at his opponent's head.

With a resounding "Bang!" the two collided, the force of the impact echoing loudly. The man managed to block Gu Mong's leg, but he had sorely underestimated Gu Mong's power. The block was futile; he was propelled away like a cannonball, crashing through several surrounding walls.

The man in black, reeling from Gu Mong's kick, coughed up blood. With a swift maneuver, he flipped over and darted into a nearby alleyway.

"Blood Cutting Palm!" Gu Mong wasn't about to let his opponent escape that easily. As he sent the man flying, his fist transformed into a palm, and he launched a powerful attack.

"Scram!" The man in black felt a gust of wind at his back and spun around, countering with a palm strike that met Gu Mong's head-on.

"Bang!"

The collision of their palm strikes sent a shockwave that knocked everything within a ten-meter radius to the ground. It must be acknowledged that these men in black were quite formidable. Despite being injured by Gu Mong's palm strike, the man used the force to propel himself even further and faster, quickly regrouping with his comrades. Without a backward glance, they turned and disappeared into a nearby alley.

The Gu family was no pushover. Though they had stepped back from the limelight, they still retained some of their strength. The men in black realized that a prolonged battle would not end well for them. Continuing to fight would lead to certain death. Moreover, their mission was to secure the Sky Mandate, a relic the Gu family had guarded for generations, not to engage in a fight to the death. Having accomplished their goal, there was no reason to stay any longer.

"Chase them!" urged several Gu family elders upon witnessing the hasty retreat.

"Don't chase a desperate foe. Come back!" Gu Mong had intended to capture a few of them but realized these men were too shrewd to engage in a fight to the death. He then returned to Gu Tian's side and asked, "Tian, are you alright? Did they hurt you? And how did you end up in their hands?"

"Patriarch, what's our next move?" the elders asked, having failed to gain the upper hand against the men in black, as they regrouped with Gu Mong.

"Let's all head back inside. I have something important to discuss with you," Gu Mong said, sensing the complexity of the situation.

"Understood!"

It was puzzling. The Gu family had been hiding here for two generations, living in tranquility. How had the people of Reigh managed to find them? With the vastness of the Tamura Empire, how did they know the Gu family was rooted in this small town? It could only mean there was a leak or some other form of betrayal.

The fate of the Gu family was irrelevant to Gu Feng. At present, he was a high school senior from Earth in the 21st century. Aside from his mother, he had no interest in caring for anyone else in the Gu family. It wasn't that Gu Feng was heartless; rather, they were the ones who were cold and unfeeling.

Gu Feng, as he had done before, circulated the genuine energy within his body, directing the wakan from the third-grade soulstone, which was about the size of a ping-pong ball. He could feel that the spirit energy emanating from it was hundreds of times more concentrated than that of a first-grade soulstone.

Thrilled, Gu Feng's heart thumped with excitement. He employed the Body Tempering technique unique to the Gu family, compressing the spiritual energy in his palm onto his thumb, index, and middle fingers. As for his pinky, Gu Feng deemed it too short and lacking in strength, so he chose not to focus the spiritual energy there.

The robust power of the third-grade soulstone meant that it took Gu Feng a full five hours to absorb just one. That single soulstone refined his four fingers to be as strong as iron. After hastily consuming some dry rations, Gu Feng began to absorb the second soulstone, further fortifying his fingers until the surplus wakan coalesced in his palm.

Xianyue sat close by, intently observing the transformation in her son. Beyond the subtle glow emanating from Gu Feng's palm, she felt a twinge of disappointment. She had hoped that the two soulstones would enable him to reach the second level of Body Tempering, but it turned out to be less impactful than she expected.

"Mother, let me show you my strength!" Gu Feng, noticing Xianyue's look of disappointment, exclaimed, "Watch this!"

With that, Gu Feng transformed his fingers into claws and latched onto a nearby tree. His fingers penetrated deep into the trunk, and with a firm tug, he ripped away half of the tree as if an animal had taken a massive bite out of it. The tree, unable to stand without support, toppled to the ground!

"This..." Xianyue was taken aback by her son's display of power.

"I've concentrated all of the soulstone's wakan into my fingers and palm. Simply put, my palm now possesses the strength of the third level of Body Tempering, akin to the Diamond Claw. If a martial artist at the third level of Body Tempering were to be hit by my palm, they would be gravely injured, if not killed," Gu Feng explained to his reborn mother. "Unfortunately, there are too few soulstones. If I had dozens more of the third-grade variety, I could achieve the second level of Body Tempering."

"Is there something unique about your body?" Xianyue asked Gu Feng, sensing a deeper meaning in his words.

"Yes, I feel like this body is like a sponge, needing to absorb numerous soulstones to make a breakthrough," Gu Feng candidly shared with his mother. "But this is actually a good thing. I sense that my body is extraordinary. Perhaps it's an undying body, a Chaotic Body, a Holy Spirit Body, or even a Devouring Body, a Soul Body, a Divine Sword Saint Body, or best of all, an Immortal Divine Body. If that's the case, I would be immortal and indestructible."

Xianyue was momentarily at a loss for words. The idea of something being indestructible was unheard of, yet she couldn't help but feel a surge of joy as she engaged in conversation with Gu Feng.

"Why didn't you tell your father about this before?" Xianyue inquired, unsure whether to feel joy or concern.

"I've only recently discovered it myself. Besides, I'm better off away from that kind of family. Even within the Gu family, there's always the threat of being secretly killed by Gu Tian. Don't you agree?" Gu Feng reflected on the harsh realities of noble families.

Xianyue didn't know how to respond to Gu Feng's words. Her mind was preoccupied with calculating how many pills and soulstones she could afford for her son.

"Let's not dwell on these thoughts. Who knows, maybe once we leave this mountain range, I'll break through to the second level of Body Tempering," Gu Feng said, quite pleased with his Shaolin King Kong Claw technique. He was confident in his ability to kill a first-level Soul Beast with a single strike.

Finding a Soul Beast was no easy task. Beyond the ordinary animals, first-level Soul Beasts were rare, and only the fortunate would stumble upon one or two. Otherwise, cultivators would have to slaughter thousands in the forest. They wouldn't have to spend days hunting just to find a dozen first-level Soul Beasts, only to be ambushed and killed by Gu Feng before they could even profit from their efforts. In the end, their hard work merely served as a wedding gift for him.

It could be said that, once upon a time, the forests teemed with numerous Soul Beasts. Yet, as cultivators continued their relentless hunting, the population of Soul Beasts dwindled, much like the rapidly vanishing species on Earth.