The Favored Son of Heaven

Qilin Peak wasn’t a name dedicated to a fixed place. Rather, it was the peak where the Earth Martial God, Song Wendong resided.

On the peak of a verdant mountain was a small stone house, lacking in magnificence. It gave off the feeling of proud loneliness. As the strongest martial artist on Earth, he was lonely, but not many people could understand this loneliness.

Qin Fen, landing the plane slowly at the foot of the mountain, looked up at the majestic Qilin Peak before raising his feet towards the first step leading to the top of the mountain.

The simple stone house stood quietly there. Ordinary people would not pay much attention to this stone house if they saw it but it gave another feeling to martial arts experts.

Although this small stone house wasn’t magnificently decorated in any way, it was more regal and greater than the ancient forbidden city of Shengjing!

With a steady stride, Qin Fen stepped on the last step leading to the stone house.

CREAK… The worn hinges of the stone house’s wooden door made a harsh grating creak.

The dark room didn’t detract Song Wendong’s skyrocketing aura of power in any way.

This time, Song Wendong didn’t punch Qin Fen down the mountain with his fist energy like how he had done when Qin Fen had climbed the Qilin Peak to propose marriage.

Today, Qin Fen was no longer a fledgling martial dao master. He was a genuine grandmaster of martial arts valuable in the Federation, someone who could spar with Wu Zun and come out unscathed. If he wasn’t a martial arts grandmaster, then only a few people in the Federation were qualified to be called martial arts grandmasters.

Song Wendong, carrying his hands behind his back and sizing up Qin Fen up and down with his pair of tigerish eyes, said calmly, “The progress you’ve made is not small.”

“Mhmm.” Qin Fen replied, cupping his fist and bending his waist, “I came here for two things.”

“Two things.” Song Wendong was a bit taken aback. Is there anything else other than learning about martial dao?

“First, I want to see Qilin’s unique energy.”

Song Wendong raised his eyebrows as he pursed his lips into a sliver of a self-deprecating smile. Who would have thought that Song Jia would have better eyes than me? Over these years, Qin Fen has come all the way and touched the barrier of unique energy already.

“The second thing.” Qin Fen withdrew his cupped fist and straightened his slightly bent waist slowly. “I want to be a divine beast martial artist.”

At this moment, Qin Fen’s aura of power was like a cyclone circulating in a counter-clockwise direction. An extra aura of power that could crush everything had emerged in Qiling Peak!

Song Wendong’s pupil that had never shown any signs of changing all these years constricted suddenly. Divine beast!? He wants to become a divine beast martial artist!? He wants to be the first to become a divine beast martial artist before the Great Ensemble!? What a spirit! This is really surprising!

“Too many people are claiming to the best in the younger generation.” Qin Fen, carrying his hands behind his back, continued slowly with a calm look on his face, “Whether it’s Shangguan Chuanqi or Young Hades or Furious Beheader Xue Tian, all of them are outstanding heroes. Between us, I’m afraid neither one of us will take the initiative to challenge another.”

Song Wendong agreed with Qin Fen’s words and nodded gently. All four outstanding young martial artists believed themselves to be the best in this generation!

Where in the world would the strongest person in the world challenge the people under him? A real expert would stand at the peak and wait for others to come and challenge him!

Challenging others was tantamount to weakening one’s momentum first! Shangguan Chuanqi had never challenged other younger martial artists of his generation after becoming a legendary martial artist on Mars. He had always regarded himself as the best of this generation.

Hades had fought with Qin Fen but that wasn’t a challenge; it was a matter of killing one man according to Song Wendong’s will, nothing more.

As for Xue Tian, despite his usual carefree look, the thought that he was the best of this generation was ingrained in his bones. It was difficult for someone without such thoughts to be standing at such heights.

Suddenly, Song Wendong came to envy Qin Fen. The road of past martial artists was brilliant but it was never been brilliant.

Each and every one of the four would have deserved to be first in any other previous martial arts era. But they were born in the same generation, which was envied by the martial artists of other generations.

“Since no one will challenge anyone, I will walk to the end of the divine beast road first.” Qin Fen raised his head slightly, looking at the sky. “I believe that the other three are also thinking the same!”

Song Wendong smiled but said nothing. People standing at the same height sometimes had similar ideas. Not long ago, Shangguan Chuanqi had sent a letter stating that he would be coming for a spar and pointers sometime in the near future, but who would have thought that Qin Fen would arrive first.

“So… let’s get started.”

Just as the voice fell, Qin Fen stamped his feet and took the simple stance of drawing a bow before using the mid-range Tiger Lunge. His fist corked through the air, giving rise to a roar. Immediately, the entire Qilin Mountain echoed as if hundreds of thousands of tigers were roaring at the same time. The leaves and branches of thousands of trees shook again and again.

Song Wendong leaned his upper body slightly to one side, dodging the punch as his right hand pressed on Qin Fen’s fist while he pushed his left hand forward along the momentum! And using the Parting the Wild Horse’ Mane of the Twenty-Four Simplified Tai Chi Fists, he thrust it straight into Qin Fen’s armpit! The usual soft boxing technique was as swift as lightning at this moment. His arm was like an unstoppable spear killing through an army of ten thousand troops.

Right then, Qin Fen’s five fingers suddenly opened like tiger claws and pinched towards his opponent’s waist, going down along with the pressure applied by Song Wendong’s right hand! The distance of this blow was extreme. His fingers’ bones expanded inch by inch as his muscles twisted and contracted. giving the impression of a ghost hand forged from stainless steel. It was the move called Monkey Steals the Peach! Only, the peach this time wasn’t Song Wendong’s lifeblood but his kidney instead.

This dirty attack was filled with a violent and murderous aura. Song Wendong couldn’t help but praise Qin Fen for finally starting to merge all kinds of strange martial arts.

In the time it takes for a spark to fly off a flint, Song Wendong’s left hand poked up suddenly, his index finger piercing Qin Fen’s right arm muscle like a needle!

No retreat! No defense! They just competed for the lead! The moment the two started fighting, the two only resorted to attacking; they wanted to use their respective attacks to force their opponent to withdraw and defend himself.

After a few moves, Qin Fen took a step forward and threw a backhand punch like a whip! Owing to which, an incomparable gust of wind was set off on the entire Qilin Mountain in a flash. The trees that could stop all kinds of strong winds usually were rustling non-stop at this moment.

God Beating Whip!¹ Qin Fen combined whip punch from all kinds of boxing techniques and created God Beating Whip! Whether it was gods or demons, they would be whipped to death.

Song Wendong promptly straightened his back in the face of this whip strike carrying the momentum of heaven and earth! His joints crackled as he took the horse stance and confronted Qin Fen’s God Beating Whip with Both Hands Holding the Hammer move.

There were so many lethal weapons in history but there were only two weapons that could be considered the most fierce: the steel whip and iron hammer! Since Qin Fen was using the whip, how could Song Wendong, as a divine beast martial artist, retreat?

Song Wendong’s hammer technique was equally fierce and domineering. The wind set off by his move wreaked havoc with the wind set off by Qin Fen’s whip; it sounded as harsh and grating as thousands of hacksaws sawing against each other.

A hammer and a whip clashed with a deafening thunderclap. Qin Fen’s body shook slightly immediately after; his muscles bulged and his true energy expelled the hammer energy as he followed up with another punch, the Investiture of Gods!

Song Wendong didn’t dodge or retreat just as he always had. Instead, he answered Qin Fen’s violence with ferocity. Both of their punches clashed with another but no one retreated.

Be that as it may, the rising and falling majestic peak underneath their feet suffered from this. The powerful impact was like tens of thousands of heavy bombers had bombarded the entire ridge, raging it to the ground directly.

One after another, martial dao masters who were practicing on the Qilin Mountain flew into the air, staring at the grand battle in the distance in shock. Each of the oncoming distant shockwaves was powerful enough to keep them busy for a long time.

It was a savage way of fighting but without any decrease in skill. Their fight continued only for a short while but the devastation they had caused was really great.

Qin Fen hovered in the air with an extremely calm look, not even the slightest bit of fatigue could be found on his face. He pursed his lips into a smile as he looked at Song Wendong. “Well, how did I do?”

“It was really surprising.” Song Wendong didn’t hide his admiration for Qin Fen’s strength. “I am thinking that it’d be even more surprising if I knocked you out again.”

Qin Fen also burst into laughter when he recalled Master’s fight with Song Wendong. Song Wendong seems to have made a lot of progress since that fight. But if he thinks he can knock me out again, I’m afraid it will not be an easy thing.

“As for the rest, I will not speak.” Song Wendong waved his hand lightly. “You can go now. I wonder, where’s your next stop?”

“Jupiter.”

“Azure Dragon?” Song Wendong looked at the departing back and smiled softly. And then, he turned to the dumbfounded martial dao masters and said, “Let’s go, let’s change places.”

Jupiter! Qin Fen’s plane was buried under the mountain, so he had to first look for an airport and return to someplace in the outskirts of Shengjing.

He rang the bell as Song Jia’s big belly appeared on the intercom.

“So, you remembered to come back!” Song Jia, opening the doors, ran gently into Qin Fen’s embrace, tears dripping down her eyes. “It seems I will be holding the baby at the wedding.”

An embarrassed smile appeared on Qin Fen’s lips. He immediately helped Song Jia back to the sofa. “Well, what’s going on?”

“Some time ago, I vomited after eating.” Song Jia happily leaned on Qin Fen. “Are you planning on fighting in the Great Ensemble?”

“Not just that…” Qin Fen straightened out his thoughts. “Do you remember about the insect warrior and Founding Society I told you about?”

“Yes, what about it?” Song Jia’s curiosity was piqued with one sentence. She hastily asked, “Didn’t they want to rule the world? Did my heroic husband defeat them? Destroy their plot?”

“Not completely…” Qin Fen straightened his thoughts out. “It’s like this…”

Song Jia furrowed her brow and looked at Qin Fen after the long story. “No wonder Grandpa asked so much about your training. I understand. You want to tell me that if there is a war, you will have to participate, right? Then go! Isn’t it more dangerous to be killed by those aliens? I want my baby to have a stable living environment after his birth. But you have to come back alive. Children who don’t have their fathers are very pitiful.”

Qin Fen took Song Jia into his arms and kissed her gently on her forehead. He felt a lot of guilt in his heart. Martial arts has given me a lot but it has also deprived me of many things. I can’t be with my wife during her pregnancy.

“What are you thinking?” Song Jia, resting on Qin Fen’s chest, looked up at him. “Didn’t you say that you think Azure Dragon is your elder brother? Go to Jupiter and check it out. Any burden in your heart might become a stumbling block on your road of martial dao.”

“I will stay with you for a few days…” Qin Fen said with a smile. “I have given it a second thought. I will stay with you. We will go shopping, watch movies, go for dinners, travel here and there. When I see you, I realize that my life isn’t just about martial arts, I cannot be controlled by martial arts. Martial arts is just a part of my life. I want to control martial art, not be controlled by it.”