Forging Immortality: The Undying Blacksmith

Chapter 106: Challenging the Golden Armor Martial Arts Hall

Shengtian Inner City, Zhuqing Street.

This district belonged to the Golden Armor Martial Arts Hall, one of the imperial capital’s top three martial arts halls.

Recently, a demonic killer had carved a bloody swath through Shengtian City’s martial world. Initially, only the Feiyun Martial Arts Hall bled. Soon enough, disciples of the Golden Armor Martial Arts Hall began dying violently behind closed doors. Ultimately, none of the city’s three dominant halls escaped the slaughter.

Forced into a corner, the historically bitter rivals forged an ironclad alliance to survive the crisis.

Zeng Jinbao ruled the Golden Armor Martial Arts Hall. He practiced the Golden Armor Art—a seemingly pedestrian name for a remarkably powerful, top-tier external discipline. Relying on this formidable physical defense and his own formidable strength, Zeng Jinbao had carved out his territory in Shengtian City. Across the martial world, his name carried the heavy weight of an established master.

Now, Li Qing had selected this veteran Inner Force master as the first test after a long period of secluded cultivation.

Unflinching, carrying the confidence of a seasoned cultivator, Li Qing strode through the grand doors of the renowned hall.

The rhythmic thud of training ground to a halt. Dozens of disciples turned, eyes locking onto the stranger bearing a massive, iron-forged hammer across his back.

“Lost, boy?” a disciple spat, not even bothering to square his shoulders. “You want to pay tuition, the desk is on the left. This is the training ground. Piss off.”

Li Qing’s expression remained placid. He offered a courteous, shallow bow, his hands casually clasping together. “I have come to exchange pointers with Hall Master Zeng. I wish to test the limits of his martial truths.”

The formalities were spoken with a quiet, polite cadence, but the underlying challenge was unmistakable. He was kicking down their door. He was challenging the master.

The atmosphere instantly soured. Calloused hands dropped to weapon hilts and clenched into fists as every gaze fixed on the tall youth at the threshold. A mocking laugh broke the silence, harsh and grating.

Challenging a hall master at his age? If this wasn’t courting death, nothing was. The martial world always had an endless supply of arrogant fools who thought stepping on a veteran’s head was a shortcut to fame.

“The Hall Master isn’t seeing guests today, kid. Turn around before you do something incredibly stupid,” an older disciple warned.

At Zeng Jinbao’s echelon, he rarely wasted time on ordinary recruits. He only molded a select few personal disciples, who in turn functioned as instructors for the rest. It was an efficient hierarchy designed to consolidate power and churn out skilled practitioners. All three major halls operated under this exact structure.

Li Qing slowly shook his head. “Then send someone to fetch him. He cannot possibly be outside Shengtian City.”

The absolute absence of fear in his quiet voice was the spark that ignited their fury.

“Motherfucker, you really are courting death!” A burly disciple stepped out from the ranks, his face twisting in a snarl as he rolled up his heavy sleeves. “Let me crack some sense into you.”

Li Qing’s eyes coldly tracked the man’s heavy, uncoordinated footsteps. The sloppy center of gravity and shallow breathing betrayed him instantly—this disciple hadn’t even condensed Outer Force.

Li Qing frowned, an imperceptible tightening of his brow, before letting out a soft sigh. To reach the master, he had to defeat the disciples.

“Very well,” Li Qing murmured, his tone dripping with profound dismissal. “I will lower myself to instruct you.”

Muscles ticked in the disciples’ jaws. Such raw, unapologetic arrogance.

Roaring, the burly disciple lunged. Forgoing any formal stance, he drove a massive, street-brawler hook straight toward Li Qing’s jaw, intending to shatter bone.

Facing the descending blow, Li Qing didn’t blink. He simply raised a single index finger.

Bang!

The heavy collision echoed through the courtyard. The disciple froze abruptly, the kinetic shockwave deadening in his arm. It felt as if he had punched a spike of solid iron. The absolute kinetic transfer shattered his momentum.

Color drained from the burly man’s face. He ripped his hand back as if pulling it from an open flame, his knuckles violently trembling. He hissed through clenched teeth, clutching his bruised fist, humiliation strangling the words in his throat.

Li Qing dissected him with a clinical gaze. “You possess nothing but hollow, brute strength. If you learned to compress your physical mass and ignite your blood qi as one singular force, crossing into the Outer Force realm would be trivial.”

The courtyard went deathly silent. Outer Force—the very foundation of an elite martial artist—spoken of as if it were mud beneath his boots? A cold dread began to pool in the room.

Uninterested in their mounting terror, Li Qing dropped his finger. “Next.”

“Xiao Si, test him,” a senior disciple muttered, a grim look crossing his scarred face. He gestured to a young man wearing the hallmark golden sash—a direct, personal disciple of Zeng Jinbao.

“Understood, Senior Brother.” Xiao Si stepped forward, the arrogance bleeding out of his posture, replaced by a tense, coiled readiness.

Li Qing swept his gaze over the new challenger. Outer Force. A step up, but ultimately, another easy opponent.

Xiao Si locked into the rigid, heavy stance of the Golden Armor Art. He closed the distance with methodical, sliding steps. Two paces away, he planted his lead foot and detonated his stored power, driving a brutal straight punch aimed to cave in Li Qing’s chest—the Shattering Gold Fist!

Boom!

The air snapped with heavy, condensed force.

But Li Qing merely raised that same, solitary finger.

Bang!

The explosive momentum of the Shattering Gold Fist slammed into the fingertip—and completely vanished. The kinetic force was eaten alive, negated by a monstrous physical density.

The onlookers stared in mute horror. A golden-sash disciple, halted by a finger? Was this monstrous youth an esoteric finger-technique grandmaster? Was the grotesque iron hammer on his back a mere prop?

“Impossible!” Xiao Si recoiled, ripping his fist away. To his senses, Li Qing’s finger was a rod of immovable tungsten. The raw, terrifying density of the man’s physical form defied logic.

Li Qing’s icy, deadpan expression didn’t shift. “Next.”

The single word fell like an executioner’s blade across the courtyard.

The scarred Senior Brother finally moved. He walked out, his steps heavy and measured, shaking the floorboards. Cupping his fists, he spoke with grim finality. “I am the premier disciple of the Golden Armor Martial Arts Hall. Defeat me, and you earn the right to look upon our Master.”

Li Qing stood perfectly still. “Come.”

The utter disregard in his voice was chilling, but the sneers from the remaining disciples had completely vanished, replaced by an oppressive, suffocating dread.

The premier disciple erupted. He stomped the flagstones, spider-webbing the rock beneath his boots as he launched himself into the air. As he ascended, a metallic sheen washed over his flesh, visibly hardening his musculature into a bronzed cuirass. This was the true Golden Armor Art, miles above the crude imitations of his juniors.

Li Qing watched the airborne descent with mild, analytical interest. The technique vaguely mirrored his own Golden Body Art. Yet, his Golden Body Art possessed no flashy offensive maneuvers; it was purely, unapologetically designed to forge the human body into an indestructible weapon through slow, agonizing refinement.

Gravity and muscular torque combined as the premier disciple spread his right hand, bringing down a descending palm strike possessing enough localized kinetic force to powder solid jade.

Standing directly beneath the plummeting attack, Li Qing’s internal heart rate remained a flat, calm rhythm.

Long before he had even tasted the Inner Force realm, he was already casually pulverizing millstones with his bare hands. Now, with his physical foundation reforged and elevated to terrifying heights, this strike was nothing but a stiff breeze.

A ghost of a smile touched Li Qing’s lips. His blood roared to life like an ignited engine. Planting his feet, he drove an upward palm strike to meet the attack. He didn’t bother weaving the intricate threads of Inner Force. He simply unleashed the apocalyptic, bone-crushing brute strength of his physical form.

The sheer, concentrated mass behind the blow was staggering.

Boom!

Flesh met hardened flesh. A violent kinetic shockwave exploded outward, ripping the stagnant air from the courtyard.

The premier disciple’s eyes bulged as a terrifying, mechanical force utterly eclipsed his own. The armor of his technique buckled instantly. The impact launched him backward like a ragdoll, sending him crashing into a wooden pillar with a sickening crunch.

Li Qing casually lowered his hand, resting it against the small of his back. He had actively restrained the blow. Had he allowed his full muscular output to follow through, the counter-force would have violently detonated the man’s arm at the shoulder joint, rendering him a cripple.

He was here to test his blade, not to butcher an entire hall.

“Next.”

The word rang out—calm, precise, and colder than a grave. The disciples shrank back, staring at the youth as if a primordial beast had wandered into their halls wearing human skin.

The silence stretched, heavy and taut, until a subtle shift in the air drew all eyes to the main entryway. An unannounced figure now stood in the threshold.

“Heh. When did Shengtian City breed another young Inner Force monster like you? What a surprise.”

The grinding voice broke the spell of terror over the disciples. The shattered morale of the Golden Armor Martial Arts Hall instantly galvanized as they recognized their apex master.

“Master! The Master is here!”

“Thank the gods, we’re saved.”

It was none other than the master of Zhuqing Street himself—Zeng Jinbao.

Clad in flexible, light-golden scale armor, his physical frame belied the towering myths of his reputation; he possessed the unremarkable build of an average man. Yet, the dangerous, tightly coiled vigor radiating from his frame, paired with eyes as sharp as polished flint, marked him as a lethal Inner Force veteran.