There were nine copper-coated puppets in total in the martial practice room, whose strength corresponded to the standards of nine levels in Martial Realm respectively.

It was worth mentioning that the copper-coated puppets were different from the Spirit Testing Stone. Spirit Testing Stone tested the spiritual strength of practitioners, while copper-coated puppets tested the martial power.

It was also easily understood that possessing spiritual power did not mean you could exert the matching combat power.

The exertion of combat power was closely related to the martial arts and realm cultivated by the practitioner.

After all, as the combat was the combat, cultivation was just a source of strength for the combat. If you wanted to play it out, you must use some kind of martial arts as a medium.

Lin Xun came to a copper-coated puppet marked “Burning Blood”, the sixth level of Martial Realm, and patted on the cardiac position of the puppet.

With a hum, this copper-coated puppet beamed a red ray from its pupils, as if waking up from sleep, and each and every inch of the body was bright and shiny.

Lin took a deep breath, and every inch of his muscles suddenly sturdy like a steel wire. His physical strength overflowed and wandered along his spine which like a dragon roaring.

At this moment, even Lin Xun’s breathing was indistinctly showing momentum of raging wind and thunder!

Boom!

He stretched his right arm out to clench the copper-coated puppet’s wrist like lightning. Meanwhile, the strength he had already stored up suddenly poured out like a flood, bursting into a formidable concussive force.

As one move of Manual to Break Tendons and Bones (MBTB), it could instantly dislocate an enemy’s joints, unloading all his strength and making him totally enfeebled. Used by an overmatch, it could even kill an enemy by smashing his internal organs in a movement.

Bang!

The copper-coated puppet was absolutely capable of resisting one strike from a practitioner on the sixth level of Martial Realm. However, it now was exploded as easily as a piece of paper, leaving its parts everywhere, except for a length of its arm grabbed by Lin Xun.

Lin Xun felt stunned abruptly upon witnessing this scene, wondering that the puppet was too weak.

He had roughly speculated that his physical body was powerful enough to fight with a practitioner on the sixth level of Martial Realm.

After all, he had entered the Heaven-accessing Place to try to pass the test every three days over these days. Even though each time he had ended up in failure, his physical body had been refined and promoted greatly.

Until now, even Shia Zhi said that the progress in body refining Lin Xun had made was absolutely quicker than that in his spirit energy cultivation.

Nonetheless, it didn’t occur to Lin Xun yet that his one random strike could destroy a copper-coated puppet with the strength of sixth level in Martial Realm.

It was just a martial strength test, of course. Even so, Lin’s physical body based on A Manual to Break Tendons and Bones was beyond his own expectations.

After thinking for a while, he walked up to another copper-coated puppet which was at the seventh level of the Martial Realm.

He changed his strategy this time. He simply threw a punch by use of the most direct force technique.

Bang!

The copper-coated puppet was knocked into the air with deeply sunken chest and a striking fist-shaped imprint on it.

At the same time, Ding, a sound came from the copper-coated puppet, “Congratulations, my guest! Your martial power has been strong enough to threaten an overmatch on the seventh level of Martial Realm.”

Lin Xun looked at his fists, deeply lost in thought, and turned around to walk out of the Martial Practice Room.

However, when he left, Lin Xun had to pay a high cost of 100 imperial silver coins to compensate the copper-coated puppet he had destroyed.

Although he was better off than before, it was still a big expense for Lin Xun. Lin Xun could not help sighing. He should have carried out the test with the copper-coated puppet on the seventh level of Martial Realm directly.

Nevertheless, having figured out that his power had been strong enough to threaten an overmatch on the seventh level of Martial Realm, LinXun was rather delighted.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Of course, it was only a test of martial power. The situation was ever-changing in a real fight, thus the experience of a practitioner, as well as his equipment and the power of martial arts he learnt, could be key factors of a fight.

“With the spiritual power of 4,900 jun (an ancient unit of weight; 1 jun is equal to 15kg) which was strong enough to match a top practitioner of the eighth level in Martial Realm, and the physical power strong enough to threaten a practitioner of the seventh level in Martial Realm, unexpected benefits may occur when I get to the Gang Spirit Realm as long as I keep practicing.” Walking out of the Donglin Martial Practice Hall, Lin Xun pondered and summarized the power he had owned while walking towards the home.

With the County Test to take tomorrow, Lin Xun had no interest in wandering any more.

But when he arrived at Courtyard 49, Lin immediately heard a stream of curses coming from the yard.

"Damn it! I am the young master of Martial Club of Shue in Donglin Town. How dare you bully me like this? You really have no idea of death or danger, uh-huh!"

"Let us go!”

"You will see, you have been in great trouble, and no one in this town can save you!"

Lin Xun raised his eyebrows, then pushed the door open and walked in. Immediately he saw more than a dozen well-dressed young boys lying on the ground, with disheveled hair, swollen faces and bound hands. They were just like prisoners, and looked miserable.

In the middle of the courtyard, Shia Zhi sat alone quietly, reading a book, as if she did not hear the abuses.

Beside Shia Zhi stood Fatty Diao and the Bones, but both of them were in a trance and seemed quite uneasy.

"What's going on?" Lin frowned.

"You tell him. I'm sleepy. I’m gonna go to bed." Shia Zhi closed the book and gave an order to Fatty Diao and the Bones. Then she turned around and walked into the room.

Lin Xun glanced at Fatty Diao, and the guy came up to Lin and told him the whole story with a distressed expression.

It turned out that not long after Lin Xun left home in the early morning, these young boys came here, claiming that they were from Donglin School and wanted to challenge Lin Xun to a competition of martial cultivation since they had learnt that Lin’s combat effectiveness was pretty good.

Shia Zhi hadn’t wanted to respond, but they stuck like a limpet and their words became insulting, which irritated Shia Zhi. Therefore, Shia Zhi beat them up.

If it hadn't been for Fatty Diao and the Bones who arrived in time, Shia Zhi would have killed these students from Donglin School.

Knowing all this, Lin Xun squinted his eyes. “County Test will begin right tomorrow, while more than ten students from Donglin School came to my home to try to challenge me at this point? That seems so strange!’

Would it be a conspiracy?

Lin Xun recalled Lian Fei hiding in Donglin School. He was quite sure that even if it was not the idea of Lian Fei, he would have something to do with it!

“You are Lin Xun? Let us go! Or I bet the consequence would be hard for you to bear. You wild boy from a rural area.”

“Shit! Untie me!”

Seeing Lin Xun's return, these students did not stop abuses, but became more and more arrogant and shouted much more dirty words out. They seemed to believe Lin Xun dared not to kill them.

A chill flashed across Lin’s eyes, and then a bright smile spread from his lips when he walked towards them.

“Please calm your anger, Boss Lin!”

Fatty Diao hurried forward, whispered anxiously to remind Lin, “Just now we got the news that these guys are not only students of Donglin School, but also young playboys from major forces in Donglin Town. We can’t kill them, otherwise we will meet endless trouble.’

“I see...”

Lin fell silent.

Seeing this, these well-dressed boys who had been badly beaten black and blue had their tails up and feared nothing with their families’ backing.

“What’s wrong? Now you are scared, aha? I knew you wouldn't dare to kill us!’

“Humph! You ignorant bastard! What are you doing! Loosen me quickly!”

These lads were all very young. The youngest one was only eleven or twelve years old while the oldest one was no more than fifteen years old. Each one of them put on airs and looked down on others, obviously having never experienced any setbacks before. Such people must have been so spoiled that they dare to behave so arrogantly.

With a smile, Lin Xun stepped forward, and crouched down in front of a lad with a smile, asking, “Who sent you here?”

“Nonsense! Who can command me in the Donglin Town? Cut the fucking crap. If you don't let us go, you later will suffer more than you can bear!”

The lad held his head high like a proud cockerel. With red and swollen cheeks and bruises around his eyes, he looked rather funny.

Thwack!

Lin Xun slapped him directly across the face, and the boy uttered a heartrending cry, and then fainted with his neck askew.

This scene made the group of lads aside all stiffen with fear. They did not expect, at this point, that Lin Xun should dare to hurt one of them!

Wasn't he afraid of their revenge in the future?

“Master, this…this…” Fatty Diao and the Bones were both stunned after seeing this.

“This guy’s damn foul-mouthed, without any good manners.” Lin Xun shook his head as if nothing were wrong.

He soon smiled again, turned to another lad, and said, “You tell me. Who sent you here?”

Apparently frightened by Lin Xun’s actions, the lad said, “We…We really come on our own initiative. We’re really telling the truth!”

Lin Xun frowned and looked toward other lads. Seeing all of them were seized with the same terror and knowing that they were merely dudes who hadn’t gone through any setbacks, he thought it unlikely for them to lie.

Their expressions already showed this. Considering that not a single one among them knew how to disguise their emotions, it would be an overpraise to regard them as simple and unsophisticated guys.

Lin Xun got up and thought about it. Then he turned around and took Fatty Diao and the Bones aside and whispered, "Later you call some people, tie these guys up and send them to the front of Donglin School."

Fatty Diao was shocked and took a deep breath, saying, "We cannot do that! If we make a big deal out of it, the consequences might be unimaginable!

With a smile emerging on Lin Xun's handsome face, he said containedly, "Even if I release them now, there will also be no end of disastrous aftermaths."

Speaking of this, he touched his chin and mused, "I need you to stage a farce, since we will be safe until the whole town knows about it."

Looking at Lin's earnest expression, Fatty Diao and the Bones finally realized that their master was not joking!

Next Chapter -> Public Clamor Can Melt Metals