Chapter 42: Footwork

  At this moment, it was the grand competition among the outer door disciples. Just now, Yu Fa won against Song Ting, one of the three great masters known for their powerful techniques, on the stage. The air was filled with a deafening silence, the crowd's faces were frozen in shock, and their expressions were a mixture of astonishment, trembling, incredulity, mouths agape, eyes wide with wonder, and so on, forming an invisible picture of utter astonishment.

  Yan Zhen sneered and was shocked in this way? However, this is just the beginning of a big show, and there are even bigger ones waiting for them.

  Yan Zhen's next challenge is footwork.

  The footwork is very useful in terms of appreciation, if you don't know the footwork and just run past with a silly look on your face, sweating profusely, it doesn't look good. But if you master the footwork, then you can rush over like a white rainbow, and after landing, your sleeves will flutter beautifully and elegantly.

  In terms of practicality, a fast walker can win by chasing and escape after defeat, which is also extremely practical.

  In the Qingfeng Xianmen, the outer door disciples mostly cultivate the Lingchui Step.

  It is said that this Ling Chuan step method was created by a senior member of the Qing Feng Xian Men, who observed and studied the movement of cicadas flying and thus gained enlightenment.

  The Ling Chui Steps are divided into eight steps, namely One Step to Catch the Cicada, Two Steps to Catch the Cicada, and so on until the eighth step. Among them, the Eight Steps to Catch the Cicada is the most powerful, with extremely fast footsteps that can cover an extremely long distance. Wai Men disciple Yu Ling used only four steps to catch the cicada and instantly stepped over two zhang (about 6 meters) away. Yang Hu Xing, the master of the Stepping Arena, quickly followed up with six consecutive steps, instantly stepping over three zhang (about 9 meters) away.

  Yan Zhen was reborn and returned, naturally knowing the importance of footwork.

  In the first 15 days, I had to fight a life-and-death battle with Ouyang Song, so I didn't even have time to practice my footwork.

  But after killing Ouyang Song, Yan Zhen began to practice the Ling Chui Steps. If he had practiced it steadily and step by step, he would have succeeded naturally, but it would take a very long time. Therefore, Yan Zhen did not practice it steadily, but used a simple method instead.

  This simple method was learned in the previous life, which is to tie a heavy lead bag to the legs. Whether eating, sleeping or taking a bath, the heavy lead bag is always tied on. When the time comes to remove the lead bag, one will naturally feel as light as a swallow. Of course, tying the legs with a heavy load also puts considerable pressure on the leg bones during practice. The biggest result of this exercise for ordinary people is that their leg bones can't withstand it. However, Yan Zhen has another secret recipe. Yan Zhen has a bone nourishing prescription, which mainly uses Ling Zhu (Spirit Pig) bones. Spirit Pigs are a type of pig meat commonly consumed in the Xian (Immortal) realm, much stronger than ordinary pork. Adding eleven other medicinal ingredients to make a kind of Spirit Pig Bone Soup, Yan Zhen eats at least one catty (about 600 grams) of this soup every day to prevent his leg bones from being crushed by the lead bags.

  Like this, Yan Zhen was tied to a heavy sandbag at all times, with lead blocks and heavy iron being put into the sandbag from behind, making it increasingly heavy.

  Under such practice, Yan Zhen's footwork was also making progress, and it took a whole month to bring the Ling Chui step to the seventh step of chasing cicadas. But even so, he still didn't reach the eighth step of chasing cicadas, and at this time, Yan Zhen's practice seemed to have stalled.

  After Yan Zhen practiced the shell for several days, one day he perked up his spirit and decided to observe the cicadas carefully. After all, it was said that the predecessor who created the Ling Cicada Step of the Qingfeng Xianmen also gained inspiration from observing cicadas. Yan Zhen had been reborn for about 70 days, and the days were gradually entering early summer, when the cicadas were already active.

  A cicada, extremely small.

  The cicada's wings are thin as silk.

  Before cicadas fly, they vibrate their wings first.

  Then it rose into the sky.

  Its wings' frantic vibration brought forth the cicada's flight.

  Yan Zhen watched the cicada fly away and gained a lot of insight from it.

  The eighth step of this spiritual footwork must be taken with a sense of sudden flight.

  That feeling can be described in one sentence as "eight steps chasing the flying cicada, as if riding the wind".

  Yes, it's a feeling of riding the wind.

  The eighth step is also about taking a step out with a sense of dignity and grandeur.

  Yan Zhen was fully immersed at that time, constantly imitating the cicada's flight, trying to take the eighth step.

  This eighth step is the last step of the Ling Chi method, and it's not easy to master. Yan Zhen had been practicing hard to take the eighth step, but he always took a wrong one, feeling out of harmony all the time. One day, Yan Zhen finally took an eighth step that was in perfect harmony, as if chasing after flying cicadas with the wind.

  The highest achievement of Ling Chui's footwork - Eight Steps Hurrying Cicada, has been accomplished.

  Yan Zhen had nothing but endless joy at that time.

  Of course, all of this was seven days ago.

  ……

  Yan Zhen walked towards the second step of the fighting platform.

  The first arena, the Fa Li Arena, has a restriction that after stepping onto the arena, one must first lift up a 400-jin heavy Qing stone lock before being able to challenge Song Ting. The second arena, the Bu Fa Arena, also has restrictions. Before stepping onto the arena, a two-zhang long rope is used, and it must be swung from this end of the rope to that end at an extremely fast speed; if one falls off the rope, they will lose their qualification to challenge, and if the speed is too slow, they will also lose their qualification to challenge.

  Yan Zhen looked at the two-zhang-long rope, his right foot stepped on the rope, and he quickly swayed over the rope with incredible speed, easily landing on the second ring of the stepping platform.

  In this way, on the stage, one of the three great masters, Yang Huixing, and the dark horse Yan Zhen faced each other.

  Yang Hu Xing looked at Yan Zhen with a gaze that was both curious and appreciative. He too knew of Yan Zhen's true strength, for three months ago, Yan Zhen was only in the fourth stage of Qi Refining, but now he had appeared as a ninth-stage Qi Refiner in the Outer Disciple Grand Competition. The progress he made in just three short months was astonishing, advancing by five stages in terms of his cultivation level. Yang Hu Xing estimated that normally, it would take seven or eight years, even ten years to achieve such progress, but Yan Zhen had done it in a mere three months. He suspected that Yan Zhen must have encountered some extraordinary opportunity. Yang Hu Xing was indeed envious of this encounter. He had even thought about killing Yan Zhen and stealing his treasure, but the sect rules prohibited harming fellow disciples, and Yang Hu Xing didn't have the ability to deceive the Clear Wind Immortal Sect's investigating elder, so he could only suppress this idea.

  Yang Hu Xing secretly thought in his heart that now was the time to surpass Yan Zhen, make a great contribution for the Invincible Young Master and naturally there would be great benefits.

  Yan Zhen stretched out his hand with his middle finger and index finger pointing towards the sky.

  Yang Huo Xing looked at Yan Zhen's action and was also puzzled: "What does it mean for the middle finger and index finger to point towards the sky?"

  "What does it mean? The other day, I said in the Idle Chat Tavern that I want to surpass Song Ting in terms of magical power, surpass you in terms of footwork, and surpass Fang Jingtao in terms of swordsmanship. The words are still ringing in my ears. Just now, I have already surpassed Song Ting in terms of magical power, which is one. Next, I will surpass you in terms of footwork, that's two." Yan Zhen explained very seriously.

  "Hahaha, hahaha." Yang Hu Xing's lean body burst out laughing, he laughed so hard that he was doubled over: "You think you can surpass me in footwork? How naive and ridiculous." Yang Hu Xing was most proud of his footwork, now Yan Zhen said she wanted to surpass him in footwork, of course, he would laugh loudly.

  "It's laughable, you'll know once you try." Yan Zhen said calmly: "However, I also understand. After all, Yang Shixiong will soon not be able to laugh, so he should take advantage of it now and laugh while he still can. Yang Shixiong, go ahead and laugh some more."

  Yang Hu Xing was originally still laughing loudly, but after being spoken to by Yan Zhen like that, he became embarrassed, unable to laugh or not laugh.

  Yan Zhen said, "Oh, I won't laugh anymore. Yang Shixiong's laughter really doesn't sound good. One day, Yang Shixiong should practice his laughter and try to make it more heroic or clear and bright. Don't keep making that piercing laughter, it's so obvious you're a villain."

  Yan really made Yang Hu Xing furious, but thinking of how Song Ting had just lost to Yan Zhen in a battle of wits, he didn't dare to fight with Yan Zhen again.

  Yan Zhen looked at Yang Hu and saw that he was no longer speaking, so she couldn't help but let out a sigh. Her sharp tongue and sarcastic remarks had been too much for him.