Volume Two: The Mortal Realm Chapter 105: Fist and Circle

“This fist is called the Circular Calamity Fist.”

“Life and calamity form a circle; seeking life within calamity, life itself is calamity. The enemy’s strength becomes my strength, and my strength may likewise become the enemy’s.”

“Martial arts is the art of wielding power.”

A waning moon half-hidden behind thick clouds hung in the night sky, draped with curtains of falling snow.

Piercing, mournful howls echoed through the snow-covered mountain ridges.

Ye Mingke ran across the desolate snowy ridge under the night sky. Ahead, the mountains were swarming with massive snow wolves, their silver fur gleaming as they dashed like streaks of light.

These snow wolves were enormous, each over three meters long. The alpha wolf, adorned with dazzling golden horns, occasionally howled at the moon. Its length was several times that of a normal wolf, towering like a small moving snow mound.

Ye Mingke’s footsteps thundered as he charged into the wolf pack from behind, grabbing the long fur on the neck of a nearby snow wolf.

The wild wolf instantly turned its head, baring sharp fangs, and its raised front claws swiped fiercely at Ye Mingke with the force of a gale.

Clutching the wolf’s neck fur, Ye Mingke pressed close and swung his elbow horizontally, striking the underside of the wolf’s jaw, forcing its open mouth and razor-sharp teeth shut.

The wolf howled in pain but still slashed forward with its claws.

Ye Mingke released the fur and grabbed the wolf’s front paws. Using the momentum of the charging beast, he twisted the wolf off balance, sending it toppling sideways to the ground and relieving the crushing force of those claws.

At the same time, he rotated his hands and applied a sudden downward force.

Amid the wolf’s agonized howls, two crisp cracks sounded—the wolf’s front leg joints snapped under Ye Mingke’s precise manipulation.

The massive snow wolf collapsed, and Ye Mingke used the momentum to throw it off, slamming his back heavily against a large boulder on the ridge.

A dull “crack” resounded.

Ye Mingke bounced off the snow and leapt toward another wolf.

The fallen wolf, over three meters long and with its waist crushed against the rock, lay helplessly howling, unable to rise.

With a body as resilient as bronze and iron yet flexible like tofu, Ye Mingke’s precise control had fractured the wolf’s spinal vertebrae at the waist with that single impact.

Ye Mingke shook his right hand, numb from the powerful impact when grabbing the wolf’s claws, marveling at these wolves’ formidable strength.

That wolf’s raw power was nearly equal to his own, comparable to a martial artist newly entering the Innate Realm—a master akin to a cultivator who has attained the Dao.

Watching the fleeing pack, Ye Mingke recalled the information the old beggar had told him about these wolves.

Snow Demon Wolves, living in northern snowy mountains, delighting in human flesh. Possessing immense strength and running like lightning.

Though called demons, they are merely beasts with limited intelligence and cannot cultivate.

Yet, despite their inability to cultivate, these natural mutants reach a level roughly equivalent to Peak Postnatal Martial Artists upon adulthood. A rare few can attain Innate mastery, while the wolf king rivals a master who has ascended the Nine-Tiered Martial Dao.

These giant wolves, roaming the Dragon Ridge for years, rarely emerge, but each time they do, they bring great calamity to the nearby villagers.

The cultivators guarding the command post pay them no heed.

The old beggar had tracked them through the snowy ridges for years but, due to the vastness of the Dragon Ridge, never found them until this night. While teaching Ye Mingke the Circular Calamity Fist, they finally encountered these white devils of the snowy mountains.

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According to the old beggar’s laughter and words, the Circular Calamity Fist is not suited for sparring; it must be demonstrated in actual combat. Thus, these infamous northern giant wolves became living punching bags, with Ye Mingke practicing his technique as the old beggar instructed.

Before him were the gaping jaws and razor-sharp claws of the wolves. Yet Ye Mingke’s attacks, unlike before which relied on brute strength and fierce courage, flowed like drifting tumbleweeds amid the surging pack, moving with the wolves without ever being overwhelmed.

This was the power of neutralizing and redirecting force, learned on the third and fourth nights.

In a few strikes, his palms, fingers, and fists landed precisely on the wolves’ vital points and joints. Though their fur remained largely unbloodied, bones and joints shattered, leaving the wolves crawling in agony on the snow.

This was the joint technique he mastered on the second night.

Though Ye Mingke possessed precise control and spiritual perception, he had never trained in martial techniques before. His original combat style relied purely on instinct and reckless bravery, overwhelming foes with strength and momentum.

This was his first time fighting with such fluid grace, first time feeling the subtle artistry of transforming battle into martial Dao.

But this was no mere practice. Though the wolves frenziedly fled, Ye Mingke, deep within the pack, was nearing his limit. His once graceful robe was now stained with blood from the claws.

Ahead, the alpha wolf and a small group had already broken away from Ye Mingke’s harassment, nearly vanishing into the dense forest.

Tonight, all wolves must be exterminated. Not a single one can escape, or decades later, the wolf menace will rise again.

The old beggar, who had been leisurely trailing behind the pack, finally quickened his pace, slicing like a sharp blade into the midst of the wolves.

This was a circle.

The moment the old beggar cut into the pack, Ye Mingke sensed a circle encompassing the old beggar, himself, and the rushing wolves.

Though everything still moved at lightning speed, Ye Mingke felt time slow down around them.

No—both his movements and the wolves’ movements slowed together.

Heaven and Earth Harmony.

This phenomenon accompanies martial artists who have reached the Twelfth Tier of Dao cultivation, manifesting as they operate their inner microcosm.

Snowflakes do not cling; dust cannot approach.

The old beggar once explained that Heaven and Earth Harmony alters the great universe because the human body overlaps both the microcosm and macrocosm, making the human space denser than the surrounding universe.

Though the energy is intangible, the encompassed matter’s momentum suddenly shifts.

The old beggar struck amid the wolves.

The flow of power follows a trajectory, like water.

This was Ye Mingke’s impression as he watched.

Within the circle of Heaven and Earth Harmony, the wolves’ strength appeared bound, moving with the old beggar’s motions.

The old beggar tugged a wolf that lunged at him; it veered slightly, crashing into a madly fleeing wolf ahead, which in turn collided with another beside it. The latter, overwhelmed by the combined force, smashed into a boulder, blood spraying.

The old beggar weaved through the wolf pack with seemingly erratic, shifting punches—sometimes fast, sometimes slow; sometimes heavy, sometimes light—manipulating and deflecting them.

Two wolves once running side by side ended with their heads smashing together, killing each other. Another, attempting to flee sideways, collided with a third and tumbled into a deep valley beside the ridge.

One by one, the wolves’ forces were borrowed and turned against them.

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The old beggar seemed to have drawn a line of power through the wolf pack, moving along it through one beast after another. None could withstand this line, which almost connected all their forces.

Within mere breaths, dozens of wolves lay dead in the snow, loosely forming a circle.

The old beggar did not pause. In that brief time, only the wolf king and seven or eight of the strongest wolves remained, their figures fading into the forest.

He exhaled deeply, drawing on the remaining force in that line to surge up and intercept a dozen fleeing wolves nearly a hundred meters away.

The old beggar slowly raised his fists, his stance surging forward.

To Ye Mingke, the circle once again expanded, enclosing the alpha wolf and the strongest snow demon wolves.

But the alpha wolf, alone with its golden horns, rivaled a Ninth-Tier Martial Dao master—one of the highest martial realms today.

This was because the Snow Demon Wolf King could manipulate snow like a water-element cultivator and gather its pack to amplify this power.

Perhaps sensing no escape, the dozen snow demon wolves slowed and roared in unison at the old beggar. In Ye Mingke’s perception, the already intense azure light particles of the universe surged wildly toward these wolves.

Though Ye Mingke still lacked deep cultivation knowledge, he now roughly understood the tiny sprites of light he sensed with his spiritual eye in the small town were the most basic force of the immortal Dao—spiritual energy.

The spirit energy of the world is mostly divided into five colors, corresponding to the Five Elements. There are also exotic energies, like the gray mist Ye Mingke felt in the Mist Sea. Cultivators generally focus on only one elemental energy.

The azure light was water-element spiritual energy.

The water spiritual energy frenziedly converged on the alpha wolf.

Though lacking a spiritual eye, the old beggar seemed to sense the shift in the world. Standing before the wolves, his fist form subtly changed as he bent forward, like drawing a great bow.

His aged but vigorous voice echoed across the snowy ridge.

“Mingke, watch closely.”

“Boom!” “Howl!”

The wolves’ roars and the howling snow rose simultaneously.

Snowflakes exploded, obscuring Ye Mingke’s vision.

But with his spiritual eye open, he still perceived the raging azure spiritual energy within that space.

The old beggar did not use the previously employed protective energy to break through defenses but instead integrated his punches with Heaven and Earth Harmony.

All spiritual energy was guided and confined within that circle.

Repeated attacks by the snow demon wolf king failed, and it summoned more and more water spiritual energy from the heavens and earth to converge.

Ye Mingke sensed the azure circle glowing ever brighter, finally resembling a radiant blue moon.

Yet the light on this blue moon was riddled with cracks, as if about to shatter at any moment.