Logan Clark was utterly astonished. He knew his own punching power very well—it would take at least thirteen punches to break through a tree trunk! Yet just now, he had clearly only thrown three punches, but the fourth punch had smashed a large section of the trunk into splinters. What a terrifying destructive force that was!

He couldn’t help but stop and try hard to recall what had just happened.

“Just now, my fire-element true essence was about to run out, so I replaced it with water-element true essence. But there was still some fire-element true essence left, and the two faintly clashed, so I hurriedly unleashed my punch!”

“Could it be that water and fire are incompatible, and that actually produced explosive power?”

Logan Clark’s eyes suddenly lit up. The power of that last strike had even surpassed what could be achieved by simply combining the two types of true essence. If he could reproduce that strike, his strength would skyrocket!

“What exactly did that feel like just now?”

He took out a demon core and quickly replenished his depleted true essence, striving to recreate that earth-shattering blow. But after an entire hour, he made no progress at all. Instead, due to the mutual restraint of the five elements, the conflict of true essence left him with some internal injuries.

“Damn it, why just won’t it work!”

Logan Clark was furious. He slapped down with his palm, and with a crack, the section of tree trunk beneath his hand suddenly shattered into countless wood chips, swirling and drifting through the air.

Bang!

The three-zhang-tall pine tree immediately crashed to the ground.

“I understand now!” Logan Clark was stunned for a moment, then couldn’t help but burst out laughing.

Chapter 9: The Banquet of the Sullivan Family

To unleash that terrifying strike, the key was to balance the amounts of water and fire true essence, then strike at high speed, causing the two to repel each other and generate massive destructive force instead of mutually annihilating.

Whether it was water or fire, neither type of true essence could be too much or too little. If the balance was broken, it would cause a huge backlash to himself.

Logan Clark focused his mind, mobilized both water and fire true essence, achieved an absolute balance, and then suddenly struck out.

Crack!

A section of tree trunk was blasted into splinters, once again displaying wild destructive power!

“Haha, it’s a pity that I can’t circulate all five elements of true essence at once, but with this move, I can unleash power greater than the sum of two types of true essence! Hmm, since water and fire can repel each other, could it be possible for three, four, or even all five elements to mutually repel? If I could make all five elements clash, the resulting explosive power would definitely surpass the combined strength of all five!”

Logan Clark couldn’t help but feel itchy with excitement and immediately began experimenting.

Controlling all five elements of true essence at once was just too difficult. After all, multitasking with just two was already extremely taxing, let alone controlling five at the same time and achieving perfect balance!

Logan Clark settled for second best. After mastering the fusion of two types of true essence, he tried adding a third. But this was still beyond his limit, and every attempt ended in failure.

“It’s not that it’s impossible, it’s just that my control over true essence is still too weak! I’ll have to take it slow!”

“But even with just the fusion of water and fire true essence, the destructive power of this strike is at least tripled!”

“This move is so powerful, it needs a name! Since it’s wild and destructive, let’s call it... Thunderburst Kill!”

This could be considered a unique martial technique, but only martial artists who cultivated two types of true essence could use it.

But fusing three types of true essence was just too difficult. Several days later, Thunderburst Kill could still only fuse two types, but Logan Clark had made great progress in control—what used to take three breaths to prepare could now be unleashed in just one.

After stepping through the gateway of martial arts, Logan Clark was utterly engrossed, spending every day immersed in cultivation and contemplation.

“Logan Clark young master, you have an invitation!” Several days later, a servant appeared in the courtyard and handed a bright red invitation to Logan Clark.

Logan Clark was a bit surprised. He casually took the invitation and opened it, only to find that the daughter of the head of the The Sullivan Family, another martial arts aristocratic family in Whitewood Town, was holding a grand banquet for her twentieth birthday, inviting the outstanding young talents of Whitewood Town.

Although Logan Clark had the “glorious” reputation of being the The Clark Family’s good-for-nothing eldest young master, he was still the only grandson of Nathan Clark. And Nathan Clark was one of only three super experts in Whitewood Town at the twelfth postnatal level. As long as he was alive, Logan Clark’s status as the eldest young master would not change!

“It can’t be that simple!” Logan Clark had already learned to think deeply about the essence of things. “This is a case of ‘the wine is not the real reason for the banquet’—they want to use me to probe my grandfather’s situation!”

“The three great families keep each other in check, each with a twelfth postnatal level expert. But if my grandfather breaks through to the innate realm, or fails and his level drops, it will upset the balance of power!”

“If my grandfather is still at the twelfth postnatal level, the three families will continue to restrain each other. But if his level drops, then the Sullivan and Thompson families will probably join forces to target my The Clark Family!”

Who would have thought that behind a simple birthday banquet, there were so many twists and turns!