Dreams and fists shatter the sky

Chapter 228: Refining People

At this moment, Liu Dahuo leaned on his long spear, looking up at the two figures growing farther away. His hair was messy, his stubble rough, deep eye bags, and his skin darkened, making it difficult to connect him with the young man in white clothes who once rode proudly on a spirited horse.

Watching Ye An and Huang Zexun fiercely compete, he felt an itch in his heart. Although he said he could charge into battle again and again, deep down he wondered, if he were born in this era, still young at eighteen, could he compete with them?

Even in his current plight, his fighting spirit remained, albeit deeply buried. On Zhuque Star, there were no spectators, so he didn't need to act. He didn't want to act; he just couldn't help it.

That battle years ago left him crippled, changing his name from Liu Jun to Liu Dahuo, retreating from the public eye. But within the human realm, the high echelons of society didn't portray him as such. That year, Liu Jun's name echoed across the Nine Provinces, with countless fervent fans eagerly anticipating his return. No one could accept the reality of a fallen genius. Thus, the human leadership decided to downplay it, announcing to the world that Liu Jun had gained insights and needed years of seclusion to cultivate them.

Twenty-plus years passed, and the effect was satisfactory. In the initial years, many still remembered him, with search volumes about Liu Jun on major forums being extraordinarily high, as many awaited his comeback. But seven or eight years later, such voices gradually diminished, and entries about Liu Jun dwindled year by year. Over a decade later, Liu Jun's name faded from public memory.

This was why he sought to portray himself as an ordinary middle-aged man, hiding in the blacksmith's shop. His greatest fear was being recognized.

"Is that Liu Jun? How did he end up like this?!" Such words would cut him like a knife.

How did I end up like this? How would I know?

Suddenly, Zhuque laughed and asked, "Do you think Ye An and they can break your record from back then?"

"They can't break it now," Liu Dahuo shook his head.

"But what if they do?" Zhuque prodded.

"If they break it, then so be it. Records are meant to be broken," Liu Dahuo replied calmly.

"Liu Jun, this means they're stronger than you were at the Fifth Realm," Zhuque teased.

Liu Dahuo snorted softly. "Lady Zhuque, I'm not a child anymore."

"I don't care about those victories and defeats anymore. The rising generation surpassing the old is normal."

Zhuque glanced playfully at Liu Dahuo, saying, "With your face blackened like charcoal, you don't care?"

"If I could restore your meridians and return your body to its nineteen-year-old state," she continued, "would you want to win against all of them?"

Liu Dahuo's heart surged, his brows furrowing as if he wanted to say something. In the end, he lightly replied, "There aren't so many 'ifs'."

"Sigh, I don't want to watch anymore. I'm going back to find Old Liu."

Putting away his long spear, Liu Dahuo walked alone towards the Liu Family Blacksmith's Shop.

In reality, Liu Dahuo was someone else entirely—a highly skilled artifact refiner. Back then, an elder of the human race pointed Liu Jun, who had been left crippled, in his direction.

"Go find Liu Dahuo," he said.

Liu Dahuo was a secretive and powerful human refiner. But he was also half-mad and half-awake. His path in refining had gone too far; refining artifacts no longer satisfied him. He wanted to refine people, but this was the human realm, not the demon realm. There were no guinea pigs here.

So the real Liu Dahuo turned himself into an experiment, using his unique method of refining people. However, he ended up refining himself, causing serious problems with his mind. But he did achieve some results and had been waiting for the human race to provide him with a guinea pig.

Liu Jun was that guinea pig.

Meridians ruined? The real Liu Dahuo intended to completely reconstruct Liu Jun, using his unique method to restore him to his factory settings. But there were major issues along the way, which not only prevented Liu Jun from recovering but actually worsened his condition, making him look decades older.

Liu Jun was stubborn, feeling that the old man was unreliable. He hoped the elder would teach him artifact refining so he could research it himself. Eventually, he made a human skin mask for himself, disguised himself as Liu Dahuo, and opened the Liu Family Blacksmith's Shop.

The real master was renowned far and wide, attracting many admirers.

In the Liu Family Blacksmith's Shop, there were actually three individuals:

- Liu Dahuo, hidden in the basement, crazily simulating experiments in refining people.

- The fake Liu Dahuo, who greeted customers at the door, was actually Liu Jun.

- Liu Jun's son, the child of the spirited young man in white clothes. Wouldn't that be too much to say?

The child often went back to find his mother. But Liu Jun hadn't seen his mother for a long time. She felt unworthy of herself.

The child wondered why his mother, such a celestial being, had fallen for his father, a rustic fellow.

The truth was deliberately hidden. But Liu Jun's various records couldn't be concealed.

On Zhuque's steps, Ye An and Huang Zexun stepped onto the 5,000th step together. At this moment, the competition seemed to have truly begun.

Huang Zexun suddenly said to Ye An, "Now that our realms are similar, both at the early stages of the Fifth Realm, breaking the record of the Fourth Realm shouldn't be difficult for either of us."

"Do you know whose record it was in the Fifth Realm?" Ye An glanced at him and said, "The White Cloak Gun Immortal, Liu Jun. 6377 steps. Can you break it?"

"Today, regardless of the outcome, I think we can still compete to see who breaks that record first," Huang Zexun raised an eyebrow.

"Aren't you worried about losing a Tao Stone?" Ye An asked in surprise.

"A little bit," Huang Zexun shrugged, "I come from a wealthy family, it's different from you."

Ye An laughed, "You want to compete with me on this?"

"Who's your ancestor?"

"My ancestor is Ye Tianwen."

Huang Zexun shook his head, "Did he leave anything for you?"

"Did he leave a son named Ye Wuce to chase after you?"

Saying that, he couldn't help laughing twice.

Ye An also smirked.

Unable to refute.

But he felt that Huang Zexun wasn't a malicious person.

He was someone with considerable talent, who enjoyed competing fiercely.

The two stepped up.

Ye An casually asked, "The Thousand Enemies, what does the Shura Path mean?"

"It's the Great Way," Huang Zexun said lightly. "I know you're formidable, you've already condensed a Dao Fruit."

"You're probably the youngest Dao Fruiter in history."

"But actually, in this generation, there's another one, just six months older than you, who didn't deliberately suppress his realm and condensed it three months ago when he was in the Fifth Realm."

"He's also from our side."