Lord of the Desert

Chapter 577 Wandering Fiery Explosion Force

August 2nd.

North of Juehou Mountain lies the northern sea.

Hong Fan's hurried footsteps cut through the lake's surface, leaving a trail like a shooting star.

The sound of water splashing and leaping.

Dozens of shark-like triangular fins surrounded him from all sides, moving as fast as a wild beast, and finally encircled him.

Hong Fan stopped obediently and watched as the aquatic creatures of Shuohai used their tails to paddle and lift most of their bodies out of the water.

Standing over two meters tall, with a robust, human-like physique, cheeks growing from its ribs, webbed hands and feet, and four rows of sharp teeth in its mouth, its hard, leathery skin covered in keratinous scales, the color of copper green, with a metallic rust sheen.

These freshwater creatures often clash with the fishermen of Guangji City. They appear fierce but are actually quite unintelligent, less intelligent than apes.

They are said to share the same ancestors as the sea creatures, but since the latter were chosen as the sea god's kin, the two groups have gradually diverged in terms of social structure, appearance, strength, and so on.

Hong Fan stood still on the water, gazing at these beast-like alien races, imagining the state of humanity two thousand years ago before they encountered the Ancestral Dragon.

His behavior was mistaken by the aquatic creatures of Shuohai as fear.

"Heh, ha..."

The aquatic creatures of Shuohai emitted rough, muffled grumbling sounds.

The strongest of the group grinned menacingly, his claws outstretched, and approached Hong Fan.

Then, it exploded into a shower of blood amidst the towering water column.

"What a brilliant move, the Free-floating Fire."

Hong Fan smiled and nodded.

Free Fire is one of the two first-grade killing techniques in the Yuan Magnetic Realm of the "Blazing Explosion Manual"; as an advanced technique of Soul Chasing and Fire Jade, it can drive true essence to move at high speed in a medium of solid and liquid states and detonate at a time.

The sudden death of the chieftain enraged the aquatic tribe.

They groaned and approached Hong Fan, resembling the legendary Yaksha treading the sea, before being destroyed one by one in the explosion. The aquatic creatures of Shuohai did not know how to cultivate, and their combat strength was no higher than the Hunran realm. Their only advantage was their tough and sturdy bodies, making them perfect targets for testing their skills.

Water vapor filled the air; thick fog enveloped the lake.

The fire died down, the thunder faded, and the ripples in the water counteracted, neutralized, and dissipated.

Even in an extremely complex sensory environment, Hong Fan was still able to sense the approach of danger.

[Large organism, directly below.]

He looked down and saw a huge, dark blue shadow reflected in the slightly undulating water.

It was a giant water dragon beast that was over ten meters long and weighed more than ten tons.

"Just right."

Hong Fan silently recited the mantra, then leaped up, his toes barely touching the water, as graceful as a crane.

Movement, color, vibration, sound...

A neural reflex as short as five milliseconds gathers a wealth of sensory information.

The bulging column of water collapsed and splashed, reflecting brilliant colors in the pure white sunlight; the gaping maw bursting out of the water was reflected in Hong Fan's deep black pupils.

Stretching out, suspended in mid-air, upside down, curled up.

The dragons that burst out of the water were as large as buildings, making humans seem as small as insects.

But in terms of strength, it's the opposite.

[A section, accelerating.]

The blazing true essence roared gently.

In a mere 0.2 seconds, Hong Fan traversed a distance of 12 meters with a speed of 60 times the force of gravity, reaching a speed of 120 meters per second.

[Second stage, increased force.] Multiple micro-explosions were triggered at various points on Hong Fan's right arm, forming a straight-pointing combined force that propelled his fist to strike.

There was no equally matched storm.

The dragon beast's nose, struck, compressed and deformed like soft mud, followed by its upper jaw, cranial cavity, cervical vertebrae, and abdomen...

Bone and blood floated to the sky, and mutilated corpses fell into the water.

The waves spread out in a ring.

This punch pierced straight through the giant beast from head to toe.

"Soft tissue tear, hand fracture, forearm muscle strain..."

Amidst the floating waves, Hong Fan stared at the exposed bone of the fist, a slight twitch at the corner of his mouth.

"The explosive power is too strong; I must wear sand armor to unleash its full potential."

As the second first-grade killing technique in the Yuan Magnet stage of "Blazing Explosion Manual", Explosive Force uses a composite explosion with controllable power, direction and speed as its driving force to amplify the speed and striking power of the martial artist - the principle is similar to the jet propulsion and power hammer often seen in the entertainment works of the previous life.

In terms of both amplification effect and activation flexibility, it is a superior alternative to Hong Fan's self-developed killing technique "Instant Step"; of course, this does not diminish the value of Instant Step itself - the grade of a killing technique is not only related to its effect, but also to the minimum level that can be learned.

From the Yuan Magnetic Realm upwards, most of the combat modes in the Blazing Explosion Manual are based on the combined application of free fire and explosive force; it is no exaggeration to say that the proficiency of these two killing techniques determines the combat level of the practitioner.

Sitting cross-legged on the water, Hong Fan carefully summarized the battle.

The crimson color around him gradually diluted, and the drifting dragon and beast bones and flesh were dragged into the deep water by fish and turtles.

Under the blazing sun, the northern sea shimmered calmly, as if nothing had ever happened.

For the next few days, Hong Fan traveled between Fengsui City and Juehou Mountain daily, practicing civil engineering projects to adapt to the qualitative change in combat power.

Now, the "Super Desert Boundary" he launched has a radius of fifty meters, which can sink all weeds, trees and rocks within the area into the ground, and crush or weather them in the sand flow.

In just a few minutes, a messy and rugged path that would be difficult for an ordinary person to walk on can be transformed into a 100-meter-long flat rammed earth road, which is several times more efficient than the engineering machinery of the previous life.

Building bridges and roads, stabilizing slopes and cliffs, leveling terrain, and even deliberately causing landslides...

During the process of transforming Juehou Mountain, Hong Fan fully experienced the new productive forces that Yuanci Xingjun could unleash.

For him, the phrase "one man can form an army" has become a humble expression. An army composed of ordinary people and low-level martial artists is meaningless. With a change of perspective, he also fully understands the world's people's absolute pursuit of martial arts.

War is no longer absolute violence, but a game of restraint between warriors.

The Celestial Magnets distribute benefits in this "less harmful" way, avoiding endless attacks and assassinations between each other. As long as the martial artists are still alive, the core members of the aristocratic families will not have to worry about dying even if they are defeated.

The clan's fire is never scary; what's scary is when the ancestor stubbornly insists on going out for a one-on-one duel...

Between the cliffs, the rock bridge is formed as one piece, gleaming in the setting sun.

Hong Fan gazed at his creation, feeling both pleased and melancholy.

He alone could only build a highway between Liang and He prefectures by early next year at most, while there are several hundred people on the Jiuzhou Yuanci.

What would the Great Hua region be like if every martial arts master were to dedicate a few months each year to manual labor?

Hong Fan couldn't help but think about it, then shook his head and laughed at himself for "talking without understanding the situation."

Since his innate nature, he has not spent much time cultivating—or rather, cultivation is useless—his leveling up relies entirely on "spurring" on the Dragon Soul Tree and his Destiny Star; without these advantages, "Blazing Star" probably wouldn't be in the mood to travel back and forth to Juehou Mountain, but would instead stay in Xijing in seclusion every day.

Have you not seen how athletes in their prime always thought about improving themselves? How many of them retired at their peak to become teachers and mentors?

People in this world share the same mindset: Yuan Ci only cares about entering the Heavenly Realm, and the Heavenly Realm only cares about becoming a Martial Saint. No Qi Realm martial artist thinks about how to help more Inner Vision Realm practitioners advance to the Penetration Realm.

Human nature dictates.

Thinking of this, Hong Fan couldn't help but admire Mu Xianzun, Guan Qimai, Duan Tiannan and others even more.

[P.S.: Wishing everyone a happy mid-November!]

(End of this chapter)