It was a sunny day, and a mist was rising.

  Colorful flowers and trees were growing in a valley. It was already late autumn, but many of the flowers were still blossoming.

  There were also many translucent “Jade Bees”, which were much bigger than regular bees, dancing among the flowers to collect the pollen to make honey!

  In the deepest part of this valley was a waterfall more than a hundred meters tall. The water vapor near the waterfall was colorful under the sunlight. One person was sitting cross-legged on a rock right under the waterfall.

  The water from more than a hundred meters high was powerful enough to squash the rocks, yet the man was absolutely steady in the middle of it.

  Boom!

  Exactly at this moment, the man who was sitting cross-legged changed his expression, and the hottest air suddenly radiated from him and flung the waterfall above his head back for a while!

  Because of the dreadfully high temperature in the air, a lot of the water was vaporized!

  Whoosh!

  Ji Ye opened his eyes under the waterfall. The air that he exhaled darted more than three meters away like a sharp arrow.

  Just now, his Nine Yang Divine Art had officially reached the level of Greater Mastery.

  The Nine Yang Divine Art at Greater Mastery gave him a new ability, which was to establish an ultimate-yang protective layer around his body!

  Therefore, the waterfall could not reach him at all even though he didn’t control it with his Flood Dragon Bloodline.

  At this moment, it had been five days since the Twin Dragon Mount fort entered the Battlefield of Providence.

  “Master Ji, you’ve made a breakthrough!”

  On the other side of the waterfall, Yang Guo was training too.

  But his way of training was to simply slap the waterfall. The waterfall had an impact force of almost ten thousand kilograms, yet his slapping left a thick mark within a three-meter radius, which indicated his magnificent inner strength!

  “Brother Yang, how is your arm doing?” Ji Ye asked Yang Guo.

  “Thank you for asking, Master Ji. My right arm has grown for about an inch!” replied Yang Guo excitedly.

  His right arm was covered by the Sludge Monster’s skin that was embedded with the Black Mud and the Sweet Dew.

  Although it had only been slightly more than two days since they arrived at the Hundred Flowers Valley, his right arm had regrown a lot. His high speed of recovery was only because the Black Mud that Ji Ye used was unusual.

  The Black Mud that was taken into the City of Humans was all dug from the depths of the Black Mud Lake. It was only the size of a fist, but it was already Extraordinary Rank-5.

  Of course, such an investment was definitely worth it. After all, as the protagonist of The Return of the Condor Heroes, Yang Guo was very valuable.

  “Brother Yang, your fist is shockingly powerful, and I just made a breakthrough in my inner strength. I wonder if you’d like to have a practice with me.”

  \r \r \r

  Watching Yang Guo hitting the waterfall, Ji Ye was tempted and proposed the request.

  “If you’re interested in that, Master Ji, let’s have one!”

  Yang Guo nodded. ……

  Boom, boom, boom……

  The noises of physical collisions echoed in the Hundred Flowers Valley!

  Ji Ye’s Nine Yang Divine Art had reached Perfect in both aspects. Naturally, his inner strength was unusual!

  However, Yang Guo’s inner strength was no lower than his.

  In the beginning, Yang Guo learned Toad Art from Ouyang Feng. Then, he was sent to the Quanzhen Sect at Mount Zhongnan by Guo Jing to learn their techniques. After that, he entered an ancient tomb and learned the Jade Girl Heart Sutra. Next, he learned part of the Nine Yin Sutra from Wang Chongyang’s legacy, and after he met the Divine Condor, he was directed to learn Dugu Qiubai’s methods of cultivation on the east sea, where he had also swallowed a lot of snake gallbladders that could increase inner strength.

  At this moment, his inner strength was even more magnificent than that of the Five Top Experts in the past!

  Therefore, the collision of their inner strength was like one between a tide and burning magma.

  During the ten tentative moves at the beginning, the powers that their fists released already swept over like a storm and blew the petals on the flowers off to the ground.

  After the first ten moves, they gradually increased their inner strength output, and the aftermath of their collisions was enough to break the branches of the trees.

  “Master Ji, you’re quite strong!”

  Yang Guo was more or less surprised.

  After a few days together, he had learned that Ji Ye didn’t just practice martial arts but also some kind of strange technique, which was what caused the unusual phenomenon on the Black Dragon Swamp.

  In terms of the amount of inner strength, Ji Ye wasn’t as strong as him, but he had achieved his inner strength through all kinds of fortuitous incidents, and Ji Ye was almost as good as him even though he was ten years older. So, Yang Guo was rather shocked.

  More importantly, apart from the inner strength, the power of Ji Ye’s fists was astounding too.

  If he hadn’t practiced among the surging tides of the sea for years and mastered the Mystic Iron Heavy Sword thanks to the direction of the Divine Condor, he wouldn’t have dared to clash with Ji Ye’s fists at all!

  At first, Yang Guo was afraid that Ji Ye might not be able to take the force of his fist after the recent breakthrough, so he didn’t use his full strength. However, after the first ten moves, he realized that Ji Ye was no weaker than himself although he had just made a breakthrough and that he might be defeated if he was careless. So, he didn’t hold himself back anymore!

  Boom, boom, boom……

  Therefore, after the first ten moves, their auras were even more violent than before, like raging storms and bulldozers.

  The rocks nearby were shattered, and their broken pieces splashed multiple meters away and raised high waves in the lake around!

  “Master Ji, careful!”

  Seeing that neither of them was winning after thirty moves, Yang Guo, as the future “West Madman”, was finally provoked. He reminded Ji Ye and then performed the Deadly Grief Palm, the ultimate technique that he invented!

  Huff…… huff……

  Faced with the most delicate palm technique, Ji Ye was finally on the losing side.

  Just like his inner strength, Yang Guo had learned his moves from multiple schools too.

  As the protagonist, he was taught by many experts in his life. Not only did he learn the skills of the Quanzhen Sect and the Gumu Sect, but Ouyang Feng had also taught him the Toad Art, Hong Qigong and Huang Rong taught him the Dog Beating Technique, and Huang Yaoshi taught him the Flicking Fingers and the Jade Flute Sword Technique……

  It was safe to say that Yang Guo had learned the best martial arts of all the Top Five Experts, except Reverend Yideng. It was not hard to imagine the power of his Deadly Grief Palm, which was based on all those techniques!

  In particular, when he performed the technique as its creator, it was even more powerful than it should be.

  On the other hand, Ji Ye had learned his martial arts by practicing with Lu Zhishen, Wu Song, and the others.

  Unlike the world of The Return of the Condor Heroes, the heroes of Water Margin only used their True Qi as a support, and they mostly fought with their physical strength!

  After all, one might run out of inner strength in a consecutive battle on the battlefield, and physical strength could be more long-lasting.

  Also, this ‘Deadly Grief Palm’ contains mental attacks too! Ji Ye thought to himself.

  After cultivating this fist technique in the original novel, one would be able to influence the opponent with the moves. Even top experts couldn’t take a few attacks from Yang Guo without feeling lethargic, hopeless, and depressed.

  However, the mental attacks were pointless for Ji Ye.

  It was because he was protected by both the Nine Yang Divine Art and the Dragon Aura.

  There was also mental power in the Dragon Aura too. The solemnity and gravitas in it would dissolve the special features of the Deadly Grief Palm.

  Thanks to the dual protection of the Dragon Aura and the Nine Yang Divine Art, even Yang Guo’s Deadly Grief Palm couldn’t really hurt him!

  However, while he was able to protect himself, Ji Ye was unable to fight back against Yang Guo’s fist auras that were coming one wave after another, with each being more powerful than the last, due to the lack of his expertise in martial arts.

  Hum!

  Nevertheless, Ji Ye had a brilliant fist technique himself too.

  Ji Ye punched out almost soundlessly, as if the power in his punch could absorb sounds. It was exactly the opposite of Yang Guo’s blasting fists. It was exactly the Hollow Bright Fist that he learned from Zhou Botong!

  This fist technique was special in that it could deal with the enemy who had more inner strength.

  As it turned out, when he performed the Hollow Bright Fist, the power of Yang Guo’s Deadly Grief Palm, which felt like a surging tide, was instantly halved, as if it had hit cotton.

  Their battle that was destroying the environment like an avalanche earlier became peaceful and quiet suddenly.

  However, the martial arts that were involved in the battle were one level more sophisticated.

  There were altogether 72 moves in Zhou Botong’s Hollow Bright Fist, of which Ji Ye had achieved Lesser Mastery with his EXP during the past few days.

  He had only boosted the expertise in the skill before, and now that he had a chance to practice it with Yang Guo, a real expert, he naturally used all the moves.

  Hum! Hum! Hum!

  However, after performing twelve moves of the Hollow Bright Fist, Ji Ye suddenly had shortness of breath, and his veins were stinging.

  Pew!

  After that, he vomited a mouthful of blood, and the power on his fists was gone.