While having an accurate assessment of himself, Brian Bennett once again began practicing Bear Hug Technique in the courtyard. Although the moves were the same as before, at this moment, every punch Brian Bennett threw, he could feel a fine stream of heat flowing with his movements.

“Black Bear Shoulders the Mountain, Bear Shakes the Four Directions, Fierce Bear Strikes the Heart…”

As he performed these moves, Brian Bennett felt the stream of heat inside him grow thicker and more active.

The Bear Hug Technique, which had only been a familiar skill, now became almost instinctive. When he finally executed the last move, Iron Bear Crashes into the Tree, Brian Bennett felt as if he had become a bear.

A bear charging at a tree, yet with a mind as calm as an old bear.

In an instant, another layer of branches fell to the ground.

“Strength condensed like pearls, peak of the thirteenth rank!”

When Brian Bennett once again focused on sensing his cultivation, he could hardly believe his situation, so he practiced the Bear Hug Technique once more. Amazingly, his cultivation jumped directly from the early stage of the thirteenth rank to its peak!

His own elder brother Henry Bennett had taken a year and a half to cross this step, and according to his father Gavin Bennett, even he himself had needed two years.

These two were considered above average in talent within the Zheng family!

Yet he, with this Cang Bear Body, had only practiced twice and already reached the peak of the thirteenth rank. This speed was simply too fast.

Without any hesitation, Brian Bennett began practicing Bear Hug Technique again, but this time, although the internal energy in his body became even smoother, it did not break through to the twelfth rank as he had hoped.

Gritting his teeth, Brian Bennett practiced the Bear Hug Technique over and over, and finally, on the ninth repetition, a new stream of internal energy was born within him.

The power of two streams of internal energy was more than double that of one.

Fourth level of Bear Hug Technique—one punch carried eight hundred jin of force!

However, after reaching the twelfth rank, although continuing to practice Bear Hug Technique still had some effect, it was no longer the rapid progress of before.

Chapter 8: Random Card

At this moment, Brian Bennett also realized that while his Cang Bear Body played a huge role in practicing Bear Hug Technique, today’s rapid progress was not just due to the Cang Bear Body, but also the result of his years of hard work.

Over the years, although his Bear Hug Technique had not improved much due to his physical condition, the foundation had already been laid.

So after changing his body to the Cang Bear Body, he was able to make a breakthrough in Bear Hug Technique to the fourth level in one leap.

Stopping his cultivation, Brian Bennett looked at the courtyard floor covered with branches of various sizes, and at the tree that looked as if it had been ravaged by a storm, a smile appeared on his face.

He casually picked up a stone, formed a knife hand, and chopped down at the stone.

A green stone three inches thick was split in two by Brian Bennett in one strike. Yet his palm was completely unharmed—this was naturally the effect of internal energy.

For a moment, Brian Bennett was filled with anticipation for his two basic cards!

Standing under the tree, sensing the two face-up cards in his mind, Brian Bennett became even more solemn. This time, his choice had to be even more careful.

George Thompson’s mastery of basic fist techniques and the Jianghu herbs—right now, the basic fist techniques would certainly be useful to him, but after more than ten years in Great Jin, Brian Bennett knew even better the importance of pills in cultivation.

Even the lowest grade Dihuang Pill could provide a martial artist below the tenth rank with a month of focused cultivation, and was especially effective when breaking through bottlenecks.

So even the most ordinary Dihuang Pill cost over a thousand taels of silver each.

Back then, after learning the importance of pills, Brian Bennett had wanted to learn alchemy, but his father Gavin Bennett told him that alchemy required not only great talent, but also a good teacher.

And in all of Qingchuan County, there wasn’t a single alchemist!

Thinking that he would inevitably need pills for cultivation in the future, Brian Bennett felt that the Jianghu herbs might be even more useful down the line.

These two skills left Brian Bennett unable to decide.

“If you cannot decide, you may save the basic card and choose later.” The mechanical voice sounded in Brian Bennett’s ear again.

“When red reputation points reach one thousand, you gain a chance to draw a random card. You now have two thousand reputation points, for a total of two chances. Please choose which level of card to draw from!”

Draw a random card? What is a random card!

Just as this question arose in Brian Bennett’s mind, the mechanical voice gave an answer: “Random cards can be drawn infinitely as long as you have enough reputation points. Moreover, the range of cards is not limited by your current strength.”

Not limited by his current strength—could it be that the three basic cards he just drew were because his strength was limited, so he drew John Thompson and the other two?

“Which levels can I choose from?”