*Boom!*
The impact sent him flying backward.
Perfect technique couldn't overcome two full realm's difference in raw physical power. His body crashed through one tree.
Then another. Bark exploded. Wood splintered. He finally stopped when his back hit a third tree hard enough to crack it.
Pain exploded through his torso. Multiple ribs cracked with sounds like breaking sticks.
Blood filled his mouth with copper taste. His vision blurred for a moment from the impact.
'Damage assessment,' he thought automatically. 'Four ribs fractured. Possible internal bleeding. Right arm partially numb. Left leg compromised. Combat effectiveness reduced forty percent.'
The leader walked forward slowly and confidently. "Impressive for Body Awakening Peak. I've never seen technique mastery like that from someone so young."
His scarred face showed genuine respect. "But you're still just an ant to me. Realm difference is absolute. Technique has limits."
Shen Tianxu struggled to stand. Blood dripped from his mouth onto frozen ground. Behind the leader, the twins screamed his name.
Shen Yue started running toward him. "No!"
Shen Xian grabbed her sister's arm. Tears streamed down her face but she held Shen Yue back. "We can't! We'll just make it worse!"
They thought it was over and they'll be captured just like before. The slavers wouldn't kill them because of their value but still...
'Maybe it might be better for us to die,' Shen Xian thought to herself.
Their earlier opponents lay unconscious or dead. The twins had won their fights. But against Bone Forging Realm, they were helpless.
They'd learned that lesson when the slavers first captured them. Their previous captors had included a Bone Forging cultivator. That's why even Shen Yue's aggression and Shen Xian's technique had failed.
The leader raised his fist. "Nothing personal. Just business."
Shen Tianxu's mind raced even through the pain.
'Options. I can't win direct combat. Can't run, too injured. Can't protect the twins if I'm dead. Need an edge. Need to change the parameters.'
His thoughts turned to the Boundless Martial Body Art. He'd comprehended the first realm completely.
Body Awakening focused on sensory enhancement and coordination. But there was more. A second chapter he'd analyzed but hadn't properly studied.
Muscle Tempering.
The technique wasn't about mystical energy transformation. It was about controlled destruction and reconstruction.
Muscle fibers torn and rebuilt denser. The body pushed past current limits through calculated stress.
'I can force a breakthrough. Use the damage I've already taken as catalyst. The pain and stress create the conditions. I just need to guide the process.'
He focused inward while the leader's fist descended. His consciousness dove into the Boundless Martial Body Art's second chapter.
The principles crystallized. Muscle fibers were already torn from the impact. His body was already flooded with stress hormones.
He just needed to direct the energy from his Body Awakening cultivation into the damaged tissue. Control the reconstruction. Force density increase.
It would hurt. Potentially cripple him if done wrong. But staying at Body Awakening Peak meant certain death.
He made the decision in the heartbeat before the fist reached his head.
His energy surged inward. Into torn muscle fiber. Into stressed tissue. He guided the reconstruction with understanding from the technique. Compressed. Multiplied. Optimized.
The pain was indescribable. Like being burned from inside. But Shen Tianxu had experienced trillions of years of existence. Pain was just information.
His body began changing visibly. Muscles swelled slightly as density increased. His skin took on a faint sheen as if oiled.
[Breakthrough Achieved]
[Body Awakening Realm Peak → Muscle Tempering Realm Stage One]
[Physical Capabilities Increased: Strength +150%, Speed +120%, Endurance +180%]
The leader's fist descended. Shen Tianxu's eyes snapped open. They glowed faintly gold from the energy surge of breakthrough.
His hand shot up. Caught the descending fist in his palm.
The impact still drove him back. His feet carved trenches through frozen ground for three meters. But he didn't fly. Didn't collapse. He stood.
The leader's eyes went wide. "Impossible! A breakthrough? During combat? And you caught my strike?!"
Shen Tianxu smiled through the blood on his lips. "Thanks for the motivation."
Then he moved.
The breakthrough made his already perfect technique devastating. Every movement had more power behind it now. More speed. More force.
Flowing Inferno Fist struck the leader's exposed torso. The man had been too shocked to defend.
The impact transmitted through his Bone Forging body with explosive force. He actually staggered backward, pain flashing across his face for the first time.
"You little—!"
Shen Tianxu didn't let him finish. Tidal Crushing Palm. Three rapid strikes to the same spot. Building pressure. The leader was forced to block.
Gale Shadow Steps repositioned. Thunder Piercing Edge with the borrowed sword aimed at joints where even forged bones had weak points.
The leader blocked desperately. His face twisted with rage and disbelief. He was being pressed by someone two full realms below him.
***
Hidden in her spatial fold, Yue Lianxing's hands trembled.
"Impossible," she whispered. Her voice actually shook.
She was over three thousand years old. In her time, she'd seen countless geniuses. Prodigies who broke through young. Monsters who comprehended techniques quickly.
None of them compared to this.
"A breakthrough during combat at his age? With a cursed bloodline that should have suppressed his talents totally?"
"But the most shocking thing is...how can..."
That's right, she noticed.
"He's using the Boundless Martial Body Art. Not just using it. Mastering it. That's the second realm technique. The Muscle Tempering chapter. He comprehended it and broke through in the middle of battle?"
'How long has it been?' she was shocked.
Her heart pounded. Completely inappropriate for someone of her cultivation. She was supposed to be beyond such reactions.
Three thousand years of life. Three hundred years of failed breakthroughs. She'd thought nothing could surprise her anymore.
"What are you?" she breathed. Her eyes were fixed on Shen Tianxu with an intensity that would have terrified mortals.
Then she caught herself thinking something strange.
'If I help him properly, guide his cultivation, he could become someone who stands beside me as an equal. We could explore the higher cultivation methods together. Perhaps even dual cultivate to break our bottlenecks and—'
She stopped. Her face flushed behind the veil.
'Wait. What am I thinking? Dual cultivation? With a teenage mortal? I sound like some desperate maiden daydreaming about romance. I gave up such foolish thoughts when I started cultivation three thousand years ago!'
But her eyes didn't leave Shen Tianxu. And her heart continued beating faster than it should.
'He is rather handsome though. And that intelligence. The way he fights. It's like watching art. And if the Phoenix constellation reacted so strongly, perhaps the heavens know something I don't...'
She shook her head violently. "Focus, Lianxing. You're three thousand years old. Act like it."
But she kept watching. And planning. And thinking thoughts that made her feel like a young girl again.