World Within the Bell (3)

Chen Ergou pinched the flesh on his arm hard.

It felt remarkably tough and resilient, like a piece of tanned old cowhide.

This was the clearest sign that his skin-tempering had succeeded!

I'm a Martial Artist now?

Chen Ergou himself hardly dared believe it. It felt like a dream.

Too fast—far too fast!

Back then, under Chen Qiaoshan's painstaking guidance, he had exhausted every ounce of strength and still failed to achieve it. Yet today, he had succeeded so easily?

Chen Ergou gave himself another hard pinch.

This time, he chose his face.

It hurt a little.

Only a little.

Chen Ergou finally confirmed that he was not dreaming. His dream had come true!

He immediately leaped three feet into the air.

But in the next instant, joy turned to sorrow. With a thud, he crashed to the ground.

His legs had gone weak.

In fact, it was not just his legs. Chen Ergou felt as though his entire body was about to collapse, while thunder rumbled in his belly. The fierce hunger made his vision go dark.

Food!

He needed a great deal of food.

Chen Ergou immediately struggled toward the kitchen.

There was no time to boil water and cook sweet potatoes. He grabbed a strip of cured meat hanging by the windowsill and stuffed it into his mouth, chewing furiously.

This ten-odd-pound strip of cured meat was the family's only store of food. Normally, they would only slice off a few pieces at a time and add them to sweet potato mash to make porridge, enough to last them quite a while.

But Chen Ergou could not care about that now. He only wanted to fill his stomach.

He was simply too hungry!

Perhaps because he had broken through to become a Martial Artist, Chen Ergou's teeth