Tiger Bone Secret Medicine! Thirty-Six Iron Bones!

Li Changsheng planned to break through to the Bone Refining Realm first. Only by breaking through to the Bone Refining Realm could his strength continue to improve.

He then began cultivating the Azure Steel Bone Refining Fist his master had passed down to him. The Azure Steel Bone Refining Fist used the bones to drive the vital blood, then used the vital blood to temper the bones.

He planned to begin by tempering the bones in both hands. As long as a single bone broke through into an iron bone, he would be in the Iron Bone Realm.

Li Changsheng tried cultivating it. The immense vital blood throughout his body began tempering his bones, and the efficiency was swift. Even without Bone Refining Secret Medicine, he was using the foundation of the Dragon Skin Perfection Realm to charge into the Bone Refining Realm. This surging vital blood surpassed that of other Skin Grinding Realm cultivators by an unknown amount, so condensing iron bones naturally came easily to him.

Before long, one bone in his hand successfully transformed into an iron bone.

Boom!!!!

As his realm broke through, subtle changes began occurring throughout his body. His physical condition was improving as well, but a single iron bone did not bring much transformation.

He continued tempering them, quickly completing the transformation of a second bone, then a third.

A day passed.

Six of Li Changsheng's bones had completed their transformation and become iron bones.

"Six iron bones in a day—this efficiency is far too slow!"

Li Changsheng muttered.

If other Bone Refining Realm martial artists learned that Li Changsheng found six iron bones in a day too slow, they would surely die of envy. This was a cultivation speed that other Bone Refining Realm martial artists could only gaze upon from afar!

"Six bones a day means one hundred and eighty bones in a month. Just transforming all three hundred and sixty-five bones into iron bones and completing the Iron Bone Realm throughout my body would take several months. Then cultivating these iron bones to the Perfection Realm Iron Bone would likely take another year or two. And after that come realms like Bronze Bone and Silver Bone. How many years would all that take?"

Li Changsheng felt this efficiency was too slow. Other people's goal was merely the Bronze Bone Realm, so they would certainly consider it fast. Breaking through to the Bronze Bone Realm in a mere few years would be an extremely Monster Prodigy-like pace. Many people cultivated for decades and still only reached the Bone Refining Realm. But he was different. His goal naturally could not be so low.

He had already spent more than three years in the Skin Grinding Realm. If he also spent a long time in the Bone Refining Realm, how much time would the later Tendon Refining, Blood Exchange, and Viscera Realms require?

Could it be that by the time his cultivation broke through to the Viscera Realm, he would already be seventy or eighty years old?

Martial artists did indeed live somewhat longer than ordinary people. Reaching one hundred and fifty years old in the Viscera Realm was no problem, but he could not spend so many years merely breaking through to the Viscera Realm.

"I need to buy a Bone Refining Secret Medicine formula and refine flawless-grade Bone Refining Secret Medicine. Only then can I break through faster. Besides, the Demon Slaying Dao Fruit and Vajra Dao Fruit need to be upgraded too. Then my rate of progress will become even faster!"

Li Changsheng went to the Black Market, intending to purchase a Bone Refining Secret Medicine formula.

Bone Refining Secret Medicine formulas were far more valuable than Skin Grinding Secret Medicine formulas, and much harder to trade for.

Li Changsheng did not dare buy Bone Refining Secret Medicine formulas from those stalls. He went to the Secret Pavilion instead; at the very least, the authenticity of Secret Medicine formulas there was much higher.

Of course, that did not mean there were no fakes here. The odds were simply lower.

"I want to buy a Bone Refining Secret Medicine formula."

Li Changsheng spoke at the counter.

Soon, the Secret Pavilion's shopkeeper brought out several Bone Refining Secret Medicine formulas, including the most common Tiger Bone Secret Medicine formula.

"I want the Tiger Bone Secret Medicine formula!"

Li Changsheng said.

Soon, he completed the transaction with the Secret Pavilion. This single formula cost him a full five thousand taels of silver.

"Refining Tiger Bone Secret Medicine actually requires the marrow and Demon Blood of a tiger demon."

After reading through the formula, Li Changsheng knew the ingredients would be difficult to buy—far harder to obtain than the ingredients for Skin Grinding Secret Medicine.

Demons were difficult to kill in the first place. Skin Grinding Secret Medicine did not have high requirements for Demon Blood; any Demon Blood would do. Yet Tiger Bone Secret Medicine required the marrow and Demon Blood of a tiger demon, which meant hunting a tiger demon.

He could tell that this formula should be genuine.

"Shopkeeper, does every Bone Refining Secret Medicine require specific demon bones and Demon Blood?" Li Changsheng asked.

Seeing that Li Changsheng was a regular customer, the shopkeeper explained, "That's right. Bone refining is difficult to begin with. Bones are inside the human body, so tempering and refining them is inherently hard. For skin grinding, one only needs to apply the Secret Medicine, but for bone refining, the Secret Medicine cannot directly touch the bones. Thus, demon bones are needed, and every type of demon bone corresponds to one Secret Medicine formula. Since you bought Tiger Bone Secret Medicine, you need tiger bones. If you use other demon bones, you won't be able to refine the finished product. Many Alchemists have tried refining it with other demon bones, but all failed. Even if they haphazardly managed to refine Secret Medicine, it would be some other Secret Medicine."

"Shopkeeper, do you have tiger bones and Demon Blood here?"

Li Changsheng asked.

"No!" The shopkeeper shook his head. "My Secret Pavilion doesn't sell such things. If we did, we'd be competing with other factions!"

The shopkeeper's meaning was easy to understand. If one shop wanted to monopolize every business in the Black Market, would anyone still buy things elsewhere? Would that still be a Black Market?

The powers behind the Black Market would absolutely not allow a single shop to grow too powerful. Every shop had to follow the Black Market's rules. Whether it was the Secret Pavilion or other shops, they could only sell specific items and could not interfere in other businesses.

Furthermore, the Black Market absolutely did not permit the sale of Secret Medicine, formulas, treasures, and the like at the Tendon Refining Realm level.

Seeing that the Secret Pavilion had no tiger bones either, Li Changsheng went to other shops in the Black Market. After asking around for a long time, he finally found a shop that sold tiger bones.

But there were very few tiger bones here as well. When he arrived, only one tiger bone remained. If he wanted to buy more tiger bones, he could only wait slowly.

Li Changsheng bought the tiger bone and some tiger demon blood there before leaving.

After returning.

Li Changsheng began studying Tiger Bone Secret Medicine, then started refining it. With his pharmaceutical skill, refining Tiger Bone Secret Medicine was not difficult, but it was his first time refining it, and he lacked experience. The Secret Medicine he produced was not of very high quality, merely low-grade Tiger Bone Secret Medicine. Still, it counted as a successful refinement.

Naturally, Li Changsheng had no use for low-grade Tiger Bone Secret Medicine. He continued refining it. Once a tiger bone had been ground into powder, it could only be used for five or six attempts.

Soon, after five attempts, he had begun refining high-grade Tiger Bone Secret Medicine, though he could not achieve a one hundred percent success rate.

He then applied the high-grade Tiger Bone Secret Medicine to his hands and cultivated the Azure Steel Bone Refining Fist.

Boom!!!!

The high-grade Tiger Bone Secret Medicine seeped through his skin and flesh, spreading onto his bones. It rapidly tempered them and aided his bone refining cultivation.

"My cultivation speed has soared—this is too fast!"

Li Changsheng was immensely excited. As expected of high-grade Tiger Bone Secret Medicine, its bone-tempering effect was outstanding. With these ten portions of high-grade Tiger Bone Secret Medicine, he should be able to cultivate quite a few bones into iron bones.

Soon, another day passed.

That day, he transformed all thirty-six bones involved in the Azure Steel Bone Refining Fist into iron bones, and his strength surged by another measure.