Together, the 10 Ox Ford Sect disciples raised their weapons and charged towards Harry.
In response, Harry just stood still.
He wanted to gauge the strength of the 8th level of the Body Tempering Realm. He may have fought against plenty of high-level Ordinary Grade beasts, but he hadn't yet fought a human with that strength.
Seeing James not even move, the attackers were prepared to mock him for being an idiot. When their weapons landed, they could just see him get stabbed through like a pincushion.
10 weapons smashed onto his body, and 10 weapons bounced off. They left some shallow cuts in his robes, and their collective strength forced him back a couple steps, but Harry was completely unharmed.
Back during their first fight, Harry had yet to complete the First Minor Accomplishment. In fact, now he knew he had been nowhere near completion. Yet, his body was already hard enough to block attacks. Now that he completed Strengthening Flesh, these attacks couldn't even tickle him.
Not even an Earth Grade Magic Beast could break his defense. There was no need to worry over some Body Tempering Realm idiots.
"Is that all you have?" Harry calmly asked.
The attackers backed away, horror clearly reflected in their eyes. Especially Raymond.
He heard the boy's body was extremely hard, but he had difficulty believing it. In fact, he thought his junior disciples intentionally exaggerated it, as an excuse to account for their loss. But when he saw it with his own eyes, he had to reevaluate.
When they stabbed him, not only did they fail to even leave a scratch, their arms shook from the impact. They may as well have attacked the Ox Ford City wall.
"Y-y-you -" Raymond stuttered.
"I what?" Harry smiled as he unsheathed his sword.
"Y-y-you – he must be wearing a set of armor under his robes! Aim for his neck and head!"
"Idiot," Harry snorted, leaping into the battle.
If not for Strengthening Flesh, he would have become a corpse with that last attack. There was no doubt that these Ox Ford Sect disciples wanted him dead, so there was no need for him to hold back.
'I'll start with you,' Harry thought, focusing on the one with his arm in the sling. It seemed his previous lesson wasn't enough. Seeing Harry staring at him, said disciple gulped and backed away.
Harry appeared in front of him in an instant, and swung his sword down with all his might.
Their previous battle already traumatized the Ox Ford disciple's mind. His arm was cut so deep he could see his own bone, which left him with a grisly memory. Some nights, he even had difficulty sleeping, and was plagued with nightmares of his arms being chopped off. He would wake up in the middle of the night in a panic, and frantically check his arms were still there.
This time, he was in a group of 10, and had confidence his five senior disciples could kill Harry. Now, he realized he was too naïve.
He already lost his will to fight, so there was no suspense. He tried to dodge to the side, but was too slow. This time, Harry swung his blade and completely chopped off the arm in the sling. Blood spewed out of his shoulder, revealing red flesh and white bone.
"AAAAAAARRRRGHGGGGGHHH," he screamed in pain. It wasn't just a physical pain, but also a mental one. It was his nightmares come to life, his worst fear turned into reality. Screaming for help at the top of his lungs, he gripped his shoulder and fled the battlefield, not even bothering to pick up his arm.
Before Harry could give chase, two swords smashed into his neck. The impact sent his body jolting, but failed to cut his head off.
"He's not wearing armor!" the disciples yelled in panic, until Harry's blade flashed twice and stabbed them both in the chest. Spewing out mouthfuls of blood, they fell to ground, convulsing.
A sword was aimed right at his face, and Harry dodged it out of instinct. He ducked, and sprang back up, headbutting Robert right under his chin. The impact smashed Robert's jaw shut, and sent him flying a dozen meters through the air. A piece of red flesh flopped onto the ground, by Harry's feet. It was part of Robert's tongue.
The next to charge towards him was Raymond, whose face was twisted in anger upon seeing his fellow disciples getting injured. Wordlessly, Raymond and Harry began crossing swords.
In just a moment, the two of them exchanged a dozen blows. Raymond was at the 8th level of the Body Tempering Realm, while Harry was only at the 6th, so Raymond had an edge over Harry. But Harry had more fighting experience and impenetrable defense, which made up for the difference in strength.
Clang! Clang! Crash!
A couple exchanges later, Raymond found an opening and stabbed towards Harry's chest. Harry ignored it, and swung his blade at Raymond's neck.
Raymond realized the danger far too late. Any normal cultivator would choose to parry his sword, to avoid being stabbed through the heart. But Harry was no normal cultivator, and in the heat of the battle, Raymond forgot about Harry's defense.
The sword was almost at his neck, but Raymond still managed to twist his body, and redirected his sword to block Harry's attack. But most of his strength was put into offense, so he wasn't able to handle all of Harry's power. His sword was smashed out of his grasp, and he had to duck to avoid the next attack.
That spelled the end of the battle. Harry lashed out with his foot, connecting it against Raymond's stomach. He was sent crashing backwards. He landed right on top of Robert, who was crying in pain and clutching his mouth. Blood gushed out Robert's mouth and through his fingers.
Under normal circumstances, an attack from a 6th level cultivator couldn't injure an 8th level cultivator too heavily. But Harry's body was so hard that getting kicked felt like being smashed by a hammer. Raymond kneeled on the ground, clutching his stomach and groaning in pain.
Seeing their injured companions, the five remaining disciples nervously gathered into a tight bunch. Their eyes lost their hostility and arrogance, and were instead filled with fear.
The man in front of them… was his body made out of rock? Their swords definitely landed, but he wasn't injured. Why didn't any of their attacks work?
If their attacks didn't work, it didn't matter if their cultivation was higher, or how many of them there were! James would just shrug off their attacks, and sooner or later, given his savage style of fighting, he'd kill them all!
In a fight, one of the worst things one could do would be to panic. When faced against the unknown or unexpected, it was natural for one to freeze and hesitate. However, that was disastrous in the middle of a battle. A single moment could decide defeat or victory, a single moment could decide life or death.
Harry, who experienced hundreds of battles, understood this principle well. But the cultivators in front of him had no idea what to do.
"Raymond, what do we do?" one of them urgently asked.
From the ground, Raymond just stared at his injured companions with an ugly expression on his face. He previously believed killing James and robbing his pills would be a piece of cake, but know he knew differently. He felt like he picked a fight with a stray dog, only to find out it was a savage wolf.
"Ralph, Randy, summon your Magic Spirits!" he finally ordered. "I don't believe this brat's body is indestructible!"
A familiar looking brown ox appeared behind Ralph, while one made of earth and dirt appeared behind another disciple. Behind Raymond, a glistening ox made of shiny brown metal came into being. As one, the three oxes snorted and charged at Harry.
Strengthening Flesh!
His body instantly hardened, becoming tougher than the toughest Ordinary Grade materials. With this, he had no worries about his defense.
The ox Raymond condensed rammed into him first, yet Harry stood his ground, pushing back against the ox with all his might. Compared to the Scarlet Flame Wolf from last night, this ox was far too lacking. He wasn't able to overpower it, but the ox wasn't able to injure him either.
From his left and right, the brown and earth oxes charged into his body. In response, he simply stuck his arms out, and pushed against them with his hands. A tremendous amount of force was transferred into his arms, but they didn't budge at all.
Step by step, Harry was slowly pushed back. But even against all three of them, Harry was only at a slight disadvantage. Seeing this, the faces of the remaining disciples turned pale white in fear. They finally realized what they had provoked.
"R-retreat!" Raymond yelled, turning around and running. He completely lost all intentions to fight. The other disciples immediately abandoned the fight, and chased after their fleeing leader, three of them grabbing their fallen comrades as they did so. Robert turned so quickly that he tripped, landing with a crash onto the ground.
Harry struggled to break free from the oxes, but they blocked his way and bought time for their masters to flee. By the time they dissipated, the group of disciples minus Robert nearly reached the end of the street.
'They flee quickly,' Harry snorted. But they weren't fast enough. He gripped his sword and flung it as hard as he could.
It sailed through the air, like an arrow released from a bowstring. It easily pierced through Raymond's chain-link armor, entering the small of his back and exiting out his stomach. Raymond stared in disbelief at the sword protruding through his body as he fell to his knees, and spewed out a mouthful of blood.
"H-help me!" he croaked. Two of his fellow disciples grabbed his arms and lugged him between them, while the rest fled for their lives. The eight of them formed a half-limping, half running mob as they ran towards the city, following the steps of their one-armed companion. Very quickly, the road was empty of people, save for Harry and Robert, who was still cowering on the ground.
'That's it?' Harry sighed. He was looking forward to a good battle where he could fight to his heart's content. The 10 of them were initially so eager to fighter, but were actually even more eager to flee. He didn't even need to use Burning Blood – and then his eyes fell on Robert.
"Robert, Robert, it seems like your friends don't like you much. Why would they run away and leave you behind?"
Robert crawled backwards as fast as he could, but his panicked state and armor restricted his movements.
"You wanted to kill me the first time we met, yet I spared your life. Even though I spared you, you actually came back for more. You even demanded I kneel on the ground, and slap myself 100 times. I'll have to teach you a lesson today."
"D-d-don come cwwoser!" Robert screamed through his broken jaw and destroyed tongue. He managed to get on his feet, and turned to run away.
Burning Blood!
The Nameless Seed started releasing a stream of Fire Qi. The last time Harry used this move, he was nearly unconscious and didn't remember the experience. This time, he could clearly sense the changes in his body.
The Wood Qi was released into his flesh, but the Fire Qi was released into his bloodstream. As it did, the drops of condensed blood in his veins trembled in agitation, and started to burn. The heat emitted wasn't painful, rather, it was invigorating. Harry could tell that he had gained an enormous amount of strength. As for how enormous, he was about to find out.
He shot forward, and chased after the fleeing Robert.
With his blood burning in his veins, his strength increased dramatically. His speed was twice as fast as before, and he caught up to Robert in an instant.
His fists shot out with terrifying power, and landed on Robert's armor.
CRACK!
With a horrifying shattering sound, the armor was smashed apart. Chains of metal flew in all directions. After punching through metal, Harry's fists landed solidly on Robert's back, propelling him forty meters forwards and sending him crashing into the wall of a house.
Robert slammed into it face first, and flopped onto the ground. He was definitely unconscious, though he may also have died on impact. Harry couldn't be bothered to check.
He was actually this strong?
The first time he used this move, he was in too much pain to accurately measure his strength. Besides, it didn't seem like the wolf was hurt that much, so he underestimated his own strength. He didn't expect his very first hit to not just smash Robert's armor into pieces, but also send him flying.
The fire in his veins simmered down, and the Nameless Seed returned to dormancy.
It seemed like Burning Blood differed from Strengthening Flesh. Strengthening Flesh was a passive ability, which could be used without limit. In times of need, he could also activate it to get increased defense for a few minutes. However, Burning Blood had to be activated, and it only lasted for a few seconds. It provided a short, but extremely powerful, burst of strength.
He also felt a portion of his blood return back to normal. The Nameless Seed started releasing Fire Qi, slowly converting the consumed drops of blood back to their heightened state. However, he could feel it would take a few hours for that process to complete.
In that attack, around half the blood he'd converted was burned, and was now in a state of recovery. That meant he could only use that move one more time.
'In short, there's a cooldown. If I burn my blood, I have to wait a while before I can use it again. But as long as I don't burn all my blood at once, I can use multiple attacks.'
'I'll never underestimate the Nameless Technique again,' he vowed.
He underestimated Strengthening Flesh back when he started the Nameless Technique, thinking that its effects were too good to be true. And even after he experienced the might of Strengthening Flesh, he still underestimated Burning Blood.
Now, he was full of anticipation. How strong would he be when he finished Burning Blood? Beyond that, he was also looking forward to the other accomplishments. They were Rebirthing Muscle, Forging Bone, and Washing Marrow. When he first read their effects, all he felt was skepticism. But now, he felt they couldn't come soon enough.
Being able to fight one or two levels above was already extremely rare, and marked a cultivator as a genius. If he could fight three or four levels above, then would he be a genius among geniuses?
But he didn't let himself get too complacent. Instead, he looked towards the direction that the Ox Ford Sect's disciples fled in.
"It's a pity I couldn't deal with their Magic Spirits quickly enough. I was hoping to get those 24,000 Qi Crystals. And I also lost my sword," he frowned.
When he fought Magic Beasts, he'd get his sword back after the beast died. But in the midst of the fight, he hadn't considered that the disciples would carry Raymond away, with the sword still stuck inside him.
"It's just an Ordinary Grade sword," the cat snorted from nearby. "You can buy those pieces of junk for a few hundred Qi Crystals anywhere. And that piece of paper is worthless to you. You need to go to their sect and trade it in for the crystals. Do you think they'll let you do that?"
"Oh, I didn't realize that. Never mind then," Harry said sheepishly as the Exalted Cat reperched itself onto his shoulder.
"Hey, I had one more question. Back in Slughorn's place, there was a gray ring that you rubbed to get the letter. What was it?"
"Those rings are called Space Rings. They are precious items, which have been enchanted. They contain an independent space inside which can be used for storage. It's like Slughorn's basement, but the space is much smaller. Maybe the size of a drawer, or a closet."
"Where can I get one of those rings?" Harry immediately asked.
"Just rob one from the next person who has one," the cat shrugged. "Thievery is the best way to get rich."
Harry rolled his eyes, but before he could respond, the cat waved its paw and an old shoe appeared out of nowhere.
"Hold onto this."
"This broken shoe?"
"Just hold onto the shoe."
He did so, and the cat spoke again.
"Three Cliff's Bay."
The next moment, the shoe began buzzing. Harry felt a familiar hook behind his navel, a yank across a vast distance of space, and the next moment, he and the cat were gone.
Less than a minute later, four men arrived where Harry had just been, bodies radiating anger and killing intent. They exerted pressure on the very atmosphere, strong enough to collapse the surrounding buildings and kill anything around them. If Harry were still here, he would surely have been startled. He wouldn't have lasted a single move beneath their strength.
Seeing the unconscious Robert smashed into a house, a severed arm on the ground, and the clear signs of a battle, their expressions turned ugly. They spread out, quickly searching an area of many kilometers, but returned a few moments later, anger replaced by puzzlement. No trace of the other party could be found.