Zhao Luo slowly fell on his spot while shivering.
"Ghaaa."
He moaned in pain while sweating like a wild beast.
An extremely boundless pain swarmed his body like a tsunami.
Mostly it was his upper body that felt like it was being torn apart by some internal force.
In the dark space, it was only him and the pain that resided inside his body.
"AHHHH."
And his screams.
Zhao Luo looked as if he was seeing his death.
"H-help."
Zhao Luo hardly cried out while squirming as he rolled on the dark floor.
The ones he was asking 'help' from, were none other than the emperas.
'Only they can save me from this pain.'
Zhao Luo felt his dark space shake along with his trembling.
'Everything's falling apart.'
Zhao Luo closed his eyes tightly, while strongly clenching his shoulders with his hands as his arms folded over one another and his nails etched into the skin of his shoulder as they almost reached his collarbone.
Zhao Luo had made a mistake.
This pain was caused by the mistake.
Zhao Luo was already in an extremely painful state after completing his last turn.
But then he absorbed his nine apparitions who were still recovering from the same pain.
All the pain of his apparitions added on to him as the assimilation started and now it was causing Zhao Luo to go through this excruciating pain.
"Agh."
"AHH."
Zhao Luo's painful screams rattled the whole dark space.
Inside the Heaven's Tomb.
[ Can't we help him? ]
The Empera who had guided Zhao Luo said to the other emperas while his brown eyes radiated with a sharp light.
[ We can't ]
[ Yes, we can't ]
[ I want to help him too, seeing how much pain he is in, but if we help him now then we won't be able to help him in 'THAT' moment ]
[ Yes, Our egos have a limit too. We may disappear if we meddle directly ]
[ Indeed. Let's just wait and let him recover. He will be fine no matter how badly he is injured here. Until he is inside his dark space, nothing can kill him ]
The other five emperas gave their opinion one by one.
The Empera who had asked couldn't help but click his tongue.
[ TSK ]
Then he looked at the middle and gazed at the beautiful crimson eyes.
[ Goddess... ]
The female Empera with crimson eyes closed her eyes.
Just this gesture was enough to show that even she won't be able to out rule the decision of others just to help Zhao Luo.
[ Sigh~ ]
Almost an hour later.
Zhao Luo looked unconscious as the side of his face was touching the dark floor while his drool continuously flowed out of his mouth.
He was fully awake, but because of the severe pain that had tortured him to death over this hour, had completely slowed down his other senses, for now.
The unbearable pain he was in was something similar to what a person goes through after eating extremely hot chilis.
The burning sensation that envelops one's mouth which is impossible to get rid of, Zhao Luo's pain was something similar to that.
Zhao Luo had already recovered but for some reason, he could still feel that lingering painful sensation in the muscles of his arm.
Zhao Luo suddenly closed his mouth.
Pushing on the dark floor, he got up and stared in the darkness of the empty dark space.
"Bastards."
"Heartless."
Zhao Luo mumbled out curses without targeting them towards someone.
"Ahhhhh."
A loud shout left his mouth.
It was so loud that the whole dark space trembled.
"I need to be careful from now on."
"I really need to be careful."
Zhao Luo repeated the same dialogue twice with squinted eyes.
"But this never happened to me before."
Zhao Luo wondered as he had absorbed his apparitions before too.
He couldn't remember a time when he had allowed his apparitions to recover before absorbing them.
'So why now?'
For a moment Zhao Luo felt very confused.
'Hmm.'
Then he tried to remember the previous training sessions.
'Ah.'
Zhao Luo realized something.
"Maybe because they were still fine after the training."
Zhao Luo remembered that every training ended with him being the most injured one.
"Sigh~"
Shaking off this ugly feeling, Zhao Luo calmed himself down.
It had already been 20 hours since he had started his training.
"I should be in the Explosive Fist Plane."
Zhao Luo told himself as he clenched his fist and enjoyed feeling the indescribable strength that was flowing towards his fist.
"Is this the power that can change the outcome of the losing battle with just a single attack?"
Zhao Luo felt excited and then moved his gaze towards the dark gray mountain that stood taller than anything else in the dark space '(Since it was the only thing there)'.
Zhao Luo chuckled as he slowly moved towards the mountain with a fiery look in his eyes.
Zhao Luo warmed up by moving his shoulder up and down in a funny way and raising his arms just to spin them like a rope.
If others saw this scene, they would have undoubtedly laughed at Zhao Luo for his crapy moves.
But if those who were watching him, focused on his arms they would be able to see the shadows of a whip coming forward and then disappearing at the same instant.
Zhao Luo wasn't simply spinning his arms, instead, he was throwing free-motion punches without any angle or any particular direction.
These punches would be impossible to dodge but Zhao Luo hadn't realized what kind of extraordinary punches he was pulling off in the name of a silly warm up.
THAP!
Zhao Luo clapped his face causing a slapping sound to resound around him.
"It's time."
Zhao Luo said as he felt that he had already warmed up enough to adjust to the improvement in his strength.
Zhao Luo now stood three feet away from the mountain which was made with the strongest metal known to humanity of his time.
"Huff~"
Zhao Luo breathed in and pulled his right arm back.
"Explosive Fist"
Shouting the name of the Bullet Fist's first stage, Zhao Luo threw his fist which contained all his strength, pain, and the endured torture.
'BANG!"
"RUMBLEE~~"
The mountain, not only trembled but a dent was left on it.
The dent was way larger than Zhao Luo and so deep that a big African elephant could easily fit in it.
"wow!"
Zhao Luo was shocked beyond words.
If his single punch could do this much to the World's strongest metal then what would the outer disciple do when he punches them with full force.
"With this..."
Zhao Luo grinned while looking at the humongous dent in the mountain.
"...I have officially stepped into the Explosive Fist Plane."
Zhao Luo clasped his hand and felt like saluting to himself.
