“At that point, you’ll barely be considered at the level of a martial artist. Martial artist is the most basic rank in martial arts, measured purely by strength. No matter if you practice external techniques, internal boxing, or anything else, once your strength surpasses two thousand jin, you’ve reached the martial artist level. If you surpass ten thousand jin and gain further insight, you’ll step into the realm of martial masters. Martial masters can no longer be measured by strength alone. Beyond that, there are martial grandmasters and innate grandmasters.”

“Martial artist, master, grandmaster, innate grandmaster—the gap between each is enormous, like the difference between a child and an adult. Honestly, calling you a little ant is already giving you too much credit; it’s lucky I didn’t call you a microbe.”

Martial artist, master, grandmaster, innate grandmaster—this was the first time David Carter had heard of these. He never expected such things to exist in modern society.

“You mean in modern society?” This idea was truly shocking and hard to imagine.

“Just because you haven’t seen it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. It’s like when your ancestors created the twelve zodiac animals—think about it, the other eleven zodiac animals all exist in real life. Can you really say there were no dragons in the world that person lived in? Let’s not get into that for now; don’t aim too high. All you need to know is how powerful grandmasters and innate grandmasters are—they’re far more terrifying than you can imagine.”

“Are they really more terrifying than guns and cannons?” David Carter did believe Chinese martial arts were powerful, but having grown up in modern society, he had a deep-rooted belief in the power of firearms.

“Those are just minor tricks. Unless a grandmaster stands there motionless waiting to die, ordinary guns and cannons can hardly do anything to them. As for innate grandmasters, they possess power beyond your imagination. And those who reach the level of alchemy possess supernatural abilities that can move mountains and seas. Even though spiritual energy is becoming scarcer and such powerful people are fewer and fewer, they’re still far stronger than those guns and cannons you mentioned. Of course, you can reach that level too.” Old Smith’s meaning was clear: you’re still a long way off.

“In ancient times, there were plenty of people with great power. But they had their own rules and circles, just like ordinary people can’t imagine what princes do.”

“What exactly is alchemy? Cultivation, training, Old Smith, do you know how?” David Carter had heard Old Smith mention this several times and was very interested.

“Do I know? You should ask if there’s anything in this world I don’t know. But don’t even think about asking more, because this stuff isn’t suitable for you to know right now. Knowing too much will only harm you.” Old Smith’s tone suddenly changed, refusing to reveal anything further.

“Since I’m too weak to learn about these things, then hurry up and teach me internal energy techniques and qinggong, so it’ll be easier for me to kill and silence people.” After hearing so much from Old Smith, David Carter was itching to learn.

“Internal energy, qinggong—what’s the point of learning those? They’re just minor tricks, created by weaklings who don’t even know about alchemy. So-called qinggong is just using your own strength to resist the planet’s gravity. As long as your strength is great enough and your speed is fast enough, you can even use the planet’s gravity to your advantage.”

“Your body has already undergone some initial strengthening. If you want to learn from me, it’s not impossible, but I won’t teach you those minor tricks. If you’re going to learn, you should learn the great path. Why bother with internal energy? I’ll teach you the method of body refinement directly. Unfortunately, the spiritual energy in the world is too thin now, so many methods can’t be used. For now, you should do some training on your own. Your physical foundation is already there. Once you meet the basic requirements for a martial artist, I’ll teach you the most unique, greatest, most awesome, and most powerful technique for traversing the heavens and earth.” As Old Smith spoke, his confidence and pride were palpable, evident just from his tone.

“Come on, even if I can’t learn it now, since you say it’s so awesome and amazing, at least tell me what it is!” For David Carter, this was a whole new world. Even just hearing Old Smith talk about it was full of temptation and allure.

“Listen up, what I’m going to teach you is the ‘Ninefold Five Elements Body Refinement Technique.’ Even those alchemy experts who can move mountains and seas are only at about the fifth fold. Haha… Well? Scared yet!!” Old Smith laughed triumphantly.

But David Carter was a bit confused, because he had no real concept of martial artist, master, grandmaster, or innate grandmaster—no concrete reference points. As for alchemy, he understood even less. So for David Carter right now, the idea of a peak martial artist unleashing ten thousand jin of force was more direct.

He was already so strong with just a thousand jin of force—how terrifying would a peak martial artist with ten thousand jin be? And there were even stronger beings above that.

Just as he was about to ask more about this “Ninefold Five Elements Body Refinement Technique,” David Carter unknowingly found himself back at Shuguang Sixth Street. It was very quiet around him, but from a distance, David Carter could hear people arguing in the yard. He paused his conversation with Old Smith for now, hurried a few steps, and as soon as he pushed open the door, he was blocked by a wall of flesh.

Chapter 9: The Repressed Fatty