No Money to Cultivate Immortality?

Wang Yin’s strike, Heaven-Shattering Strike, was the most devastating move in the entire Collapsing World Fist series.

Its true ingenuity lay in how the force of the punch could stir up the opponent’s mana from within, causing a resonance that inflicted internal and external damage simultaneously.

In other words, it weaponized the enemy’s own mana against them—tremendously powerful and near-impossible to defend against, especially effective at breaking through Horizontal Refining Techniques.

He hadn’t used this move earlier in the fight for one reason only:

“Can’t kill him.”

“If he dies, how am I supposed to sell him at a high price?”

“Too mangled is no good either—healing costs money.”

Zhang Yu was locked in battle, mind razor-focused and body pushed to the brink.

But for Wang Yin, this wasn’t a fight—it was just another part of his job. His decisions in battle were driven by company profit margins, not combat efficiency.

After all, to him, this battle— “Victory is inevitable. The real question is winning beautifully, maximizing PR value and boosting profits.”

“Now that I’ve lost the boost from a Heart Technique, Heaven-Shattering Strike won’t be at full power, but it’s still more than enough to clean up Zhang Yu.”

Wang Yin’s fistprint slammed forward, wrapped in surging Martial Qi, crashing directly into Zhang Yu’s chest.

With a crackling boom, the surrounding air shattered, and the ground beneath them caved like it was being crushed by a mountain.

Wang Yin’s fist pressed into Zhang Yu’s chest muscles, breastbone, and internal organs…

Feeling Zhang Yu’s flesh collapsing under the weight of his strike, Wang Yin raised an eyebrow.

“This guy… he's all offense, no defense? He gave up on guarding himself entirely?”

At that moment, the violent Martial Qi from Wang Yin’s fist surged through Zhang Yu’s chest and rampaged throughout his entire body like a flood.

But then Wang Yin realized something strange—Zhang Yu’s body was completely empty. Not a trace of mana.

No mana meant Heaven-Shattering Strike couldn’t trigger its resonance effect. Without that, it couldn’t reach its peak destructive power.

“He knew how Heaven-Shattering Strike worked, so he gave up on defense altogether—even purged every last bit of mana from his body.”

“Tch. That old ghost Xinghuo must’ve told him.”

Amid the thunderous impact and explosive force, Zhang Yu’s body burst into misty clouds of blood.

“Even without full power, this one hit alone should leave you crippled.”

Wang Yin sneered in his heart. “And you gave your life for a worthless opening. There's no way you could hurt me—what?!”

Just as his fist connected, a wisp of milky-white fog appeared before Wang Yin.

Formless Cloud Qi.

But how had the Formless Cloud Qi bypassed the Blood Shadow and gotten this close?

The next instant, a hand tore through the crimson mist and clamped onto Wang Yin.

Behind that hand—Zhang Yu’s icy stare.

“Got you.”

Wang Yin couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Just ninety minutes ago, Zhang Yu couldn’t even scratch his Nether Blood Shadow Shroud without Bai Zhenzhen’s help. Now the guy had broken straight through it?

“When did he…? That last move of his, could it have breached the shroud?”

Zhang Yu’s Formless Cloud Qi had concealed the attack in thick mist, and Wang Yin hadn’t bothered analyzing it—he never took Zhang Yu’s offense seriously.

But in that brief exchange—while Wang Yin was landing Heaven-Shattering Strike—

Zhang Yu had unleashed a full eleven-strike combo using his level 11 Nine Heavens Cloudstride Force Technique, releasing all the power stored in his Martial Qi aperture.

As he struck, Xinghuo Zhenren’s teachings echoed in his mind:

“If you want to unleash brute force, use palm techniques.”

“To channel and redirect power, use grappling.”

“Throwing a dragging force into a palm strike is just wasting potential.”

“Your Nine Heavens Cloudstride Force Technique stores up strength, but to unleash it at full force, you must mold your own Martial Qi into forms best suited to each kind of power.”

The insights of level 11 Nine Heavens Cloudstride Force Technique flashed through Zhang Yu’s mind. Countless training scenes lit up in his Sea of Consciousness.

The pressure pushed his Sacrificial Oxheart Technique into overdrive, blanking his mind while sharpening his control of every physical and magical detail.

Surging with Formless Cloud Qi, the mist rolled outward—and from it, eleven Martial Qi avatars erupted, each formed from Formless Cloud Qi and moving in unique styles: palm strikes, fists, grapples, locks…

…

Zhang Yu heard Xinghuo Zhenren again:

“If a single move contains multiple strikes, they must work in concert.”

“Is it stronger if three people all use Black Tiger Heart-Claw on one brute?”

“Or if one pulls his head, one trips him, and one punches his gut?”

“In a burst of multi-strike chaos, synergy brings true destruction.”

…

Back on the battlefield:

Eleven Martial Qi avatars exploded forth.

The first two came from left and right, palm strikes using Dragon Elephant Mountain-Crushing Palm—Zhang Yu’s full power—slammed into the Nether Blood Shadow Shroud.

The barrier reacted just as Xinghuo had predicted—splitting to defend both sides, thinning the blood-shadow layer in the middle.

Zhang Yu’s heart raced. “Xinghuo Zhenren was right.”

“That shroud’s inner defense is managed by a low-grade Artifact Spirit—dumb as bricks. It just reacts to wherever it’s hit.”

“And after Wang Yin crippled his own cultivation, he can’t control it precisely. That means I can create my own openings.”

“Draw the defense left and right first—then…”

The remaining nine avatars all targeted the center.

One smashed the barrier open with a horizontal strike.

Another used grappling to block the shroud’s reinforcements.

Another used leverage to throw the back-up shadows into each other.

Another simply blasted the area with raw force, widening the opening…

Nine varied strikes working together, like nine Zhang Yus digging through solid rock—carving, bracing, hauling—until a narrow but unshakable tunnel emerged.

And as the final blow of all eleven avatars faded, Zhang Yu’s hand pierced through the Nether Blood Shadow Shroud, slipped through the gap—and grabbed Wang Yin’s face.

The twelfth strike.

Zhang Yu’s own full-power palm!

Boom!

Wang Yin’s head snapped back like it’d taken a cannon round.

“Incredible…”

Even as his skull whipped backward, a glimmer of admiration sparked in Wang Yin’s eyes.

“Knew he couldn’t outlast me. Knew his chances dropped the longer we fought. So he gambled it all on one suicidal opening.”

“And he really did crack my Nether Blood Shadow Shroud.”

“Zhang Yu, Zhang Yu… even if you bare your fangs and try to bite me back…”

“I’ve gotta say it. You’re one hell of a good dog.”

A cold grin crept across Wang Yin’s face. He withstood Zhang Yu’s twelfth strike—face still stinging—and straightened his neck.

“No matter what tricks you pull, you can’t pierce my Law Husk.”

“This is what absolute power looks like.”

Wang Yin curled his other fist, ready to deliver a second Heaven-Shattering Strike.

One more hit and Zhang Yu would be done.

“This ends now—”

But then Wang Yin’s expression shifted.

He sensed it—the lingering Martial Qi from his own Heaven-Shattering Strike was being sucked away, drawn like water into a vortex.

His punch’s force was being pulled through Zhang Yu’s body… into the Formless Cloud Qi aperture…

And then—

The thirteenth strike!

Heaven-Shattering Strike!

This was the special effect of mastering Nine Heavens Cloudstride Force Technique at level 10: the ability to absorb an opponent’s attack into an aperture and re-release it via Martial Qi.

The strength of the absorbed move depended entirely on the cultivator’s own level.

The stronger Zhang Yu became, the stronger the blow he could redirect.

“What?!”

Feeling that familiar Martial Qi surge into his body and trigger a dangerous mana resonance, Wang Yin’s face twisted with disbelief.

“Heaven-Shattering Strike? He knows the Collapsing World Fist?!”

“No—that’s some kind of counter-technique… he’s absorbing attacks?”

“At this level… could it be a military-grade technique?”

There was no time to analyze.

Wang Yin hurriedly activated his cultivation to suppress the mana reverberating inside.

And in that moment—Zhang Yu slipped through the still-closing opening in the shroud.

…

In Zhang Yu’s mind, Xinghuo Zhenren’s voice echoed again:

“The Nether Blood Shadow Shroud has a defensive radius—it’s like a glass dome over Wang Yin, not skin-tight armor. If it were tight, he couldn’t move.”

“In other words… if you force an opening and get inside to fight hand-to-hand, the artifact won’t help him anymore.”

Zhang Yu had once grumbled while lying on the surgical table, “It’s not that we’re tough, Master. We’re just too damn poor to rely on anything else.”