Great Harvest

The moment the soul bone touched his right leg, a faint hum sounded. A cool sensation immediately flooded into his right leg from all directions, seeping into his flesh, bones, and meridians. It raced through his meridians at incredible speed, spreading throughout his body without the slightest discomfort or obstruction. The cool, soothing feeling made Lin Manshan's body tremble slightly.

Then came a series of crackling sounds as his bones shifted and ground against each other, yet he felt no pain at all. Instead, it was as if a heavy burden had been lifted from his entire body, leaving him incomparably relaxed. It also felt like plunging into a cool river in the sweltering heat of summer, refreshing him to his very bones.

Lin Manshan thoroughly enjoyed the sensation and gradually immersed himself in it.

The next moment, he flopped onto his side, and his breathing slowly evened out.

When he woke again, it was already the morning four days later. As he slowly opened his eyes, he saw a beam of white light shining down through a hole overhead.

Rubbing his eyes, Lin Manshan slowly stood up and secretly rejoiced. Good thing it was just as I guessed. Tang Hao didn't come. Otherwise, with how deeply I slept, I would've been smashed to death by a single hammer blow. A very peaceful death. With that thought, he clenched his fist and closed his eyes to sense the changes in his body. Then he opened them and grinned, unable to hide his delight. "My Soul Power rose by five levels. I'm level eighteen now."

After absorbing a Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bone and gaining five levels of Soul Power, Lin Manshan did not feel dissatisfied.

He was well aware of his own Cultivation Talent. It was terrible among the terrible.

Although the Hundred Thousand Year Blue Silver Emperor Right Soul Bone contained terrifying energy, the amount he could absorb and convert was limited. A five-level increase in Soul Power had already far exceeded his expectations.

Moreover, unlike Soul Rings, Soul Bones primarily strengthened the physical body rather than raised cultivation.

"My Physical Strength has increased by at least more than double compared to before. And there's still plenty of energy in the soul bone. It's only because my talent is limited and my absorption and conversion efficiency is poor that I couldn't make use of it in a short time." Lin Manshan threw a few punches on the spot. "But the soul bone will continue transforming my body. My Physical Strength will slowly keep increasing in the future."

"The only pity is, damn it, there really isn't a Soul Bone Skill." Lin Manshan stopped moving his hands and tugged at the corner of his mouth, his face showing a trace of helplessness.

The two Soul Bone Skills attached to the Hundred Thousand Year Blue Silver Emperor Right Leg Bone were undoubtedly extremely useful. Failing to obtain them was indeed regrettable. When he had first begun absorbing the soul bone, he had sensed the faint soul fluctuation inside it being blocked outside his body. At that moment, he knew things were going badly.

Now that it had been confirmed, it was merely what he had expected, so he did not feel too upset.

Besides, it was not as though there was no good news. At that thought, Lin Manshan's face once again broke into a smile.

Soul Power was stored in the flesh and bones, and those bones naturally included soul bones. While absorbing the soul bone, he had discovered that as its energy surged throughout his body, the Soul Power within him also flowed into the soul bone and combined with its vast Life Energy. That meant he could draw upon that Life Energy, and his Soul Power would continue strengthening the soul bone in the future. In other words, this soul bone would grow stronger as he grew stronger.

From a certain perspective, this soul bone had truly become one of his own bones.

Trading two top-tier Soul Bone Skills for a soul bone that was perfectly integrated and matched with his body, while also possessing growth potential, felt entirely worthwhile to Lin Manshan.

Besides, although the top-tier healing Soul Bone Skill, Wildfire Cannot Burn It All, Spring Winds Blow and It Grows Again, was gone, the foundation of that skill—the tremendous Life Energy within the soul bone—remained. He could completely draw upon it when injured and achieve the same effect.

Thinking of it that way, he had merely lost a flight skill.

This was no loss at all!

"What a pity. That Skull was only a Hundred Year one. If it had been a Ten Thousand Year one, it definitely would've been worth absorbing."

"Also, I'll probably have to go out less after returning." Lin Manshan walked over to the cliff, placed his palm atop his head, then turned to look. "Damn it, I grew four centimeters just like that. One centimeter a day. I'm already one meter fifty-six now. As expected of a Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bone. This transformation effect is absurd!"

But how am I supposed to explain such sudden growth to Tie Shan's Family? Lin Manshan could not help but wonder.

"Besides, now that my Physical Strength has increased so much, I'll definitely need to focus on cultivating Soul Power next, until my body is full before I can transfer the excess Soul Power to my martial soul and cultivate Soul Power alongside it. But if I do that, my height will probably skyrocket again in a short time."

"Also, with the Hundred Thousand Year Blue Silver Emperor Right Leg Bone, my cultivation speed should improve slightly. My Soul Power is already level eighteen, and once I reach level twenty, I can absorb another Soul Ring. Then my height will shoot up again. Is this what they call the troubles of happiness?"

"But it isn't without benefits. At least I can pretend to be more mature. When I go to Gengxin City to sell soul bones in the future, that'll be an advantage." After thinking on the spot for a moment, Lin Manshan shook his head. "No matter what, I should head back first."

He jogged over to the lead box, picked it up, adjusted its position, and put it back where it had been. Then he cleared away the traces around it once more.

He turned and left the stone chamber.

Following the original route back, Lin Manshan finally returned to Nuoding City after another seven days.

Because he had spent the two months before leaving cultivating at home and had barely gone outside, while the houses in this area were scattered apart, the neighbors naturally had never seen him. That was something he could use. After returning home, Lin Manshan quickly found the nearest neighbor and gave them a Copper Soul Coin to pass a message to Tie Shan's Family: his cultivation was about to break through, and he would be going into seclusion for the next few months.

Upon hearing that Lin Manshan was a Spirit Master, the neighbor agreed on the spot.

From then on, Lin Manshan threw himself back into intense cultivation. Apart from running to the mountaintop every morning to practice his blade and occasionally taking a detour to buy ingredients for his three daily meals, he barely left his room.

Days passed like that, one after another, until near September, when Lin Manshan finally emerged from seclusion.

Over nearly three and a half months of cultivation, the energy from the soul bone had slowly fed back into his body and increased his Soul Power somewhat, but he remained at level eighteen. It had to be said that his height had improved the fastest. With the soul bone's gradual transformation, coupled with the continued stimulation to his body from Soul Burning while cultivating Soul Power, his height had shot up another seven centimeters. He had now reached one meter sixty-three.

"Putting everything else aside, if I stood before Tang San now, I'd definitely be qualified to look down at him and call him a little shorty." Lin Manshan jumped off the bed and walked to the mirror, admiring himself. "I'm kind of handsome!" Then he could not help complaining, "It's only been a few months, and I need to buy new clothes again."

"My cultivation plan needs to change as well. Before, my physical body couldn't keep up with the speed at which I cultivated Soul Power. Now it's the other way around." Soul Power was obtained by burning the soul without damaging the Soul Origin. The burned soul would slowly recover through the body's nourishment. The stronger one's vitality, the faster it recovered, and every recovery made the soul a little stronger.

It was like building muscle through exercise. First, one had to do cardio to burn fat, then eat and replenish nutrients, and only then would the muscles grow stronger.

"Fortunately, I absorbed the Hundred Thousand Year Blue Silver Emperor Right Leg Bone. With my current condition, one night of sleep plus a day of rest should be enough for my soul to mostly recover. From now on, I'll still practice my blade in the morning, cultivate Soul Power in the morning, practice forging in the afternoon, make Hidden Weapons, and use the Beast Taming Technique to read the memories Tang San left behind in the spiders. At night, I'll continue cultivating Soul Power."

"With my current Physical Strength, tempering pig iron no longer provides much exercise, and I've more or less mastered the Disorder Splitting Wind Hammer. But even so, I can't neglect it. At the very least, this method will help me quickly adapt to the physical body that keeps being enhanced through cultivating Soul Power. Also, Hidden Weapons are still very useful to me at this stage, so I still need to make them."

At the very least, using Hidden Weapons to ambush Spirit Beasts' weak points was quite effective. The results had been excellent when dealing with the Golden Armored Rhinoceros Beetle last time.

With that thought, Lin Manshan slowly stood up and walked toward the door.