Refining the Heavens 4 (炼天四)

Chapter 23: Tommy's Promotion Trial (Part 2)

The strongest barbarians were the ones that headed the attack while the weaker ones shot arrows at Tommy from the side with power not weaker than Ki techniques.

Facing their brutal attacks, Tommy met them fearlessly. His figure became a blur before turning into a black line as he dashed forward. His sudden acceleration broke the dirt under his feet and caused the soil to hover in the air for a single moment before exploding outwards.

Standing at 1.9 meters tall, Tommy was like a battering ram as he charged over.

The first one that met him was at Huang Grade Titan Rank physical strength. In an instant, he was struck and flew back faster than his approach. The next few that attacked was around the same power or slightly weaker and without exception all of them were repelled. In a battle between External Cultivators, to see bodies flying all over the place isn't uncommon. In comparison, when Internal Cultivators fight each other, there are plenty of explosions.

While those that were hit by Tommy survived, everyone was struck on the weak points. Unlike Internal Cultivators that depended on their Meridian System and feared any attack that aimed at their Ki Centre, the External Practitioners are famously difficult to take down. Moreover, crippling them requires far more effort than killing them. Yet against Tommy, none of them lasted more than a single blow.

Tommy's background was something known to his brothers for the longest time, and thus enabling them to plan ahead. Before this fight, Alan had thoroughly revised the weakness and strike areas of the human body with Tommy. The most common weakness of an External Practitioner is their mental fortitude.

As cultivators that focus on physical strength, few have time to delve deep into mental exercises like Internal Cultivators would. As different cultivation methods have differing strength and weakness, the soft spots on most of these Frosthral soldiers are their head.

Internal Cultivators have uncountable schools of thought and innumerable techniques; Formation Arrays, Runic Arts, Sealing Arts, Elemental Arts, even Demonic Arts.

To defeat their enemies, a technique's variation is no less important than its strength.

Thus, Internal Cultivators have strength in adaptability and mental strength. They are not too unlike the Mages of the South, plus having Ki coursing through their bodies actually gave them far stronger physiques at the price of having a far smaller scale of attack when compared to magic users.

On the other hand, External Cultivators focus on the benefits brought by infusing Ki into their flesh. It allows them to fully take advantage of the strengthening effects and make them far more resilient.

Their methods may be simple, but they have comparable strength to wild beasts, even without scales and claws. It gave them inhuman stamina with jaw-dropping restorative strength and moreover, it made their five senses far more powerful.

This is what makes the strong both fear and respect those that train their bodies.

Amongst the most dangerous type of practitioner to offend, the Curse-type spell casters rank first while the External Practitioners are second.

To imagine having an enemy that is extremely difficult to kill and ceaselessly hunting you down is thing of nightmare for anyone.

When an army of External Cultivators amass, it can become a national crisis. If not because of Galahad changing the empire's stance to become pro-cultivator so many years ago, will there still be a Saint Empire this day is largely in the air.

Likewise, for three hundred thousand Frosthral troops to linger at their border, it is a serious threat to Saint Empire. To be able to spare only the same amount of Saint Empire soldiers to fight back speaks volume of how strained the current situation is for their empire.