In the back mountains of the Lin Family, the terrain gradually rose, and the trees grew sparse. In their place stood a vast area enclosed by crude wooden fences and low stone walls. Before one could even approach, a thick, pungent stench mixed with the cries of livestock came rushing in on the mountain wind, making one nearly vomit.
This was the Lin Family's Crimson Flame Pig farm.
Completely different from the refined elegance of the Lin Family estate's front courtyard and the solemn majesty of its inner court, the pig farm was rough and chaotic. The ground was a muddy mess, mixed with black sludge, scattered feed, and dried or fresh animal dung. Rows of crude pigsties built from logs stood there, filled with the distinctive grunts, squeals, and occasional shrill cries of Crimson Flame Pigs.
These Crimson Flame Pigs were a full size larger than ordinary domestic pigs. Their hides were dark red, their tusks protruded from their mouths, and a savage wildness glinted in their eyes. Though they were low-grade demonic beasts, once they went mad, even ordinary strong men would struggle to withstand them.
Some Lin Family servants and branch-family descendants, dressed in coarse work clothes and covered in grime, were shouting as they herded the Crimson Flame Pigs or laboriously cleaned the filthy pigsties. Every face was numb with exhaustion.
Lin Chen's arrival did not attract much attention. Or rather, even if someone noticed him, they merely cast him a glance, their eyes either indifferent or carrying a faint, barely concealed contempt. A piece of trash about to be driven from the Household had come to a place like this—he had probably been assigned here by the higher-ups to do hard labor.
Lin Chen paid those looks no mind. He walked straight toward a relatively clean little house in the corner of the pig farm, where the farm steward lived and handled affairs.
The moment he reached the door, a rough, impatient voice came from inside. "Who is it? Can't you see I'm busy? Get lost!"
Lin Chen's brow furrowed almost imperceptibly. Stopping outside the door, he said clearly, "Lin Chen, ordered to report to the pig farm for work."
The door flew open with a creak, and a short, fat middle-aged man with a face full of flesh appeared in the doorway. He wore a greasy silk short jacket, open at the chest to reveal a patch of dark chest hair. Around his waist was a belt inlaid with cheap jade, and shrewd, vicious light gleamed in his tiny eyes.
This man was Lin Zhong, the steward of the Crimson Flame Pig farm and a distant nephew of Great Elder Lin Zhenhong. Relying on that connection and his position as steward, he threw his weight around in the pig farm, barking orders and acting like a tyrant.
Lin Zhong narrowed his small eyes and looked Lin Chen up and down. Once he saw that the visitor was the "famous" trash Lin Chen, unconcealed disdain and disgust immediately flashed through his gaze. His lips curled, and he spat on the ground.
"Oh? So it's you, you trash?" Lin Zhong said in a strange, mocking tone. "What's this? Finished showing off in the council hall, realized how much you really weigh, and came running to my godforsaken hole to look for work? Let me tell you, I don't keep idlers here, much less trash!"
His words were viciously cutting. Several servants passing nearby could not help secretly laughing, and the contempt in their eyes when they looked at Lin Chen deepened.
Lin Chen's expression remained calm, as though he had not heard Lin Zhong's insults. He merely said flatly, "It was arranged by the Lineage."
"Arranged by the Lineage?" Lin Zhong snorted, digging at his ear with a finger. "Fine! Since it's a Lineage arrangement, I, Lin Zhong, can't refuse to give face. But..."
He deliberately drew out the word, sweeping an appraising gaze over Lin Chen's somewhat lean frame again. Malice flashed in his eyes. "Looking at that tender skin of yours, I'm afraid you can't even carry a pig. How about this? Don't say I, Lin Zhong, bullied you. See over there?"
He raised a hand and pointed toward the most remote corner of the pig farm, where the stench was also the strongest. Several dead Crimson Flame Pig carcasses had been piled there along with a great amount of cleared filth. Flies buzzed through the air, and the sight was enough to turn one's stomach.
"That's where we deal with sick and dead pigs. The work's a little dirty and a little smelly, but it's quiet. Nobody will bother you." A gleeful smile appeared on Lin Zhong's face. "You'll be responsible for dragging those dead pigs to the designated pit in the back mountains and burying them. While you're at it, clean all the dung and filth over there. Do it well, and you'll get two black steamed buns a day, enough to fill your belly! Do it badly... heh heh, then go hungry!"
This was clearly deliberate harassment!
Handling dead pigs and cleaning manure pits were the dirtiest, most exhausting jobs in the entire pig farm, jobs no one wanted to do! Moreover, the dead pigs were often diseased. Ordinary people considered even approaching them bad luck, much less dragging and burying them. By assigning this work to Lin Chen, Lin Zhong was obviously trying to humiliate and torment him, to make him retreat in the face of difficulty—or simply work himself to death or fall sick and die here!
The servants around them looked at Lin Chen with sympathy, but there was even more gloating in their eyes. Those who offended Great Elder's faction deserved it!
Lin Chen sneered inwardly, yet his face remained calm and unruffled. He did not even frown.
"Fine." He said only one word before turning and walking toward the corner Lin Zhong had indicated.
That reaction instead left Lin Zhong, who had been prepared to watch Lin Chen rage, argue, or even weep and beg, momentarily stunned. This brat... why was there no reaction at all? Had he been beaten stupid? Or had he completely accepted his fate?
"Hmph! Trash is trash!" Lin Zhong spat toward Lin Chen's back, contempt written all over his face. "Let's see how many days you can last!"
What he did not know was that Lin Chen felt not the slightest humiliation or anger at that moment. Instead, an irrepressible excitement and anticipation surged through him!
Handling dead pigs? Cleaning filth?
To others, it was a miserable job they avoided like the plague. But in Lin Chen's eyes, it meant—resources! A vast amount of flesh and blood essence that could be refined by the Myriad Dao Furnace!
This was exactly what he wanted!
The more remote the place and the fewer people there were to disturb him, the more convenient it would be for him to act in secret!
Suppressing the excitement in his heart, Lin Chen walked steadily toward that foul-smelling corner.
The instant he approached, an intense stench of blood and rot nearly suffocated him, making him almost vomit on the spot. Several Crimson Flame Pig corpses lay piled on the ground, already stiff and even beginning to give off a rotten odor. Beside them were heaps of foul filth, while swarms of flies circled like dark clouds.
The environment here was a hundred times worse than he had imagined!
Even with Lin Chen's firm will, he could not help knitting his brows tightly.
He did not begin working immediately. Instead, he first carefully observed his surroundings. This corner truly was remote, some distance from the main pigsties and the areas where people moved about. Only thick weeds and a few crooked-necked trees stood nearby. If he was careful, he indeed would not be easily discovered.
"Very good." Lin Chen nodded.
Enduring the stench, he first found some tools and began cleaning the mountain-like piles of filth. The work was indeed dirty and exhausting, but he did it meticulously, even more seriously than the servants specifically assigned to cleaning.
It was not because he was willing to toil without complaint. He was preparing for what came next. Only by tidying the surroundings a little could he handle the pig corpses more conveniently and find a hidden place to carry out the refining.
Sweat soon soaked through his thin clothes, and mud and foul-smelling grime covered his body. But he did not care. He merely worked silently and intently, like a truly numb laborer.
Whenever Lin Zhong or other servants happened to see him in this state, all he earned was a round of mocking laughter and even more contemptuous looks.
"Look at that trash, he's actually doing it!" "Heh, probably afraid of starving to death!" "Putting on an act! I bet he won't last half a day!"
Lin Chen turned a deaf ear to their remarks.
After spending more than an hour, he had finally cleared away most of the piled filth and become somewhat familiar with the surrounding area. By then, the sun had risen higher, and the people in the pig farm had begun bustling about. Yet this remote corner had become even more neglected.
The opportunity had come!
Lin Chen's eyes flickered. He swiftly swept his gaze around, and after confirming that no one was watching, he immediately walked to the side of a relatively "fresh" Crimson Flame Pig carcass that had not yet fully rotted.
This Crimson Flame Pig appeared to have died of illness. There were no obvious external wounds on its body, but the life within it had already been completely extinguished.
Lin Chen drew a deep breath, held it, and cautiously pressed his palm against the Crimson Flame Pig's cold, stiff hide.
Then, with a thought, he connected to the Myriad Dao Furnace within his dantian!
"Refine!"
Buzz—!
A sensation completely different from absorbing Spiritual Qi or refining medicinal dregs swept over him!
The Myriad Dao Furnace seemed to transform instantly into an invisible, greedy maw! A powerful, tyrannical suction force acted directly upon the Crimson Flame Pig's corpse!
It was no longer drawing in intangible Spiritual Qi or Medicinal Power. It was directly extracting the essence from physical matter!
The Crimson Flame Pig's dark red hide rapidly dried and lost its luster. The flesh beneath its skin shriveled at a speed visible to the naked eye!
Strands of energy carrying a dense smell of blood and the deathly aura of living things were forcibly drawn from the pig corpse like viscous liquid. They passed through Lin Chen's palm and surged into his meridians!
This energy was entirely unlike Spiritual Qi or Medicinal Power! It was filled with violent, scorching force, mixed with the savage Baleful Intent unique to demonic beasts and the chill brought by death!
If an ordinary martial artist, even one at the higher levels of the Body Tempering Realm, forcibly absorbed this energy, his meridians would surely burst and he would suffer qi deviation!
But Lin Chen possessed the Myriad Dao Furnace!
The moment that mixed, violent flesh-and-blood energy entered his body, before it could cause him any harm at all, an invisible force instantly seized it and swept it into the furnace at his dantian!
Boom!!!
Inside the furnace, it was as though true Divine Fire was burning!
The viscous, violent flesh-and-blood energy, filled with impurities, was like scrap iron thrown into a steel furnace the instant it entered!
The Baleful Intent within it, deathly chill, diseased toxins, and all the useless bloodwater and fat were instantly burned away, purified, and broken down beneath the furnace's terrifying heat and mysterious power!
Sizzle, sizzle—!
Large amounts of black smoke and foul aura churned within the furnace before vanishing into nothingness!
In the end, only streams of incomparably pure, pale-red energy remained!
This energy was no longer as ethereal as Spiritual Qi, nor as gentle as Medicinal Power. Instead, it was filled with explosive force and vigorous fluctuations of blood and vitality!
This was the—Vitality Essence purified by the Myriad Dao Furnace!
The next moment, that pure and majestic Vitality Essence burst from the furnace like a flood after a dam collapse, instantly surging into every limb and bone of Lin Chen's body!
Boom!
Lin Chen felt as though his body had been thrown into a massive furnace!
An indescribable scorching heat and sense of power instantly spread through his entire body!
His blood seemed to be burning! His muscles seemed to be cheering! His bones seemed to be trembling!
The fatigue brought by a night of hard cultivation and heavy labor was swept away in an instant! Replacing it was an unprecedented fullness brimming with explosive strength!
Under the wash of that vast Vitality Essence, the strength of his body was rising at an unbelievable speed!
The cultivation barrier that had held him at the Body Tempering Realm Double Layer Peak began to shake violently beneath the impact of that savage power! It seemed that with just one more push, it would shatter completely!
"It works! The effect is astonishing!" Lin Chen rejoiced inwardly!
Refining demonic beast flesh-and-blood essence was far more effective for strengthening the body and increasing vitality than refining medicinal dregs! This was practically a cultivation method tailor-made for the Body Tempering Realm!
He could feel every inch of muscle and every bone in his body greedily absorbing the Vitality Essence, becoming tougher and stronger! Even his strength, speed, and resistance to blows were soaring in tandem!
"Continue!"
Lin Chen's eyes burned as he pressed his palm onto another Crimson Flame Pig corpse without hesitation!
Refining! Absorbing! Purifying!
Again and again!
In the corner of the small yard, Crimson Flame Pig corpses shriveled at a visible rate, eventually becoming heaps of lifeless hide and bones. Meanwhile, Lin Chen's aura rose and strengthened at a terrifying speed!
A faint red glow even seeped from the surface of his skin due to the excessive vigor of his blood and vitality. His entire body resembled a red-hot furnace, radiating astonishing heat!
The barrier at the Body Tempering Realm Double Layer Peak swayed like a candle flame in the wind beneath his deliberate assaults, on the verge of collapse!
Just as he was about to refine the third pig corpse and make one final push to break through the bottleneck—
"Hey! You trash! What are you doing? Slacking off, are you?!"
Lin Zhong's rough, angry voice rang out nearby like a thunderclap!
Lin Chen's heart jolted. He abruptly withdrew his palm and forcibly interrupted the refining! The Myriad Dao Furnace in his dantian instantly concealed its aura, while the red glow radiating from his body due to his boiling vitality swiftly faded.
He spun around and saw Lin Zhong striding toward him with his hands on his hips, fury written across his face and suspicion and displeasure filling his tiny eyes.
"Damn it! I told you to handle the dead pigs, so why are you standing around here?" Lin Zhong approached and saw the obviously shriveled pig corpses on the ground. His brows furrowed even tighter. "What happened to these pigs...? Why do they look like they shrank?"
Though he sensed that something was wrong, he could not think of a reason for it. He merely assumed the dead pigs had dried out or been gnawed on by some insects.
Lin Chen secretly counted himself fortunate. Luckily, he had stopped in time. If Lin Zhong had witnessed the refining process, the consequences would have been unthinkable!
He immediately lowered his head and put on an exhausted, timid appearance. In a hoarse voice, he said, "R-Reporting to the steward, I... I was moving the corpses just now and accidentally... twisted my waist. I wanted to rest for a moment..."
As he spoke, he bared his teeth in a grimace and clutched his waist, as though he had truly been injured.
Lin Zhong eyed Lin Chen suspiciously. Seeing his face covered in sweat, his labored breathing, his body smeared with filth, and that weak expression so fitting for a "piece of trash," the suspicion in his heart immediately dissipated by more than half.
After all, in his eyes, Lin Chen was trash through and through. How could he possibly stir up anything in such a short time?
"Hmph! Trash is trash! Can't even handle this little bit of work!" Lin Zhong cursed disdainfully, then raised a foot and kicked a pig corpse that had not yet been dealt with. "Stop playing dead in front of me! Hurry up and drag all this stuff to the back mountains and bury it! If you don't finish before dark, forget about dinner!"
With that, he waved a hand in disgust, as though even looking at Lin Chen brought him bad luck, then turned and left while cursing under his breath.
Watching Lin Zhong's departing back, Lin Chen slowly straightened up. The cold sharpness in his eyes instantly returned.
That had truly been close!
It seemed that even this remote corner was not absolutely safe. He had to be even more cautious!
However...
Lin Chen felt the surging power within him, on the verge of breaking through the barrier, and a cold curve lifted at the corner of his lips.
Body Tempering Realm Triple Layer... was within arm's reach!
He hesitated no longer. He immediately found a battered wooden cart and, enduring the stench, laboriously loaded the pig corpses that had been drained of their essence and reduced to hide and bones, along with the remaining intact corpses, onto it.
After finishing all this, he pulled the heavy cart toward the designated burial site deep in the back mountains.
The journey would let him familiarize himself with his greatly increased strength. At the same time, it would take him away from the pig farm's eyes and create an opportunity for his final breakthrough!
The cart was heavy, especially on the rugged mountain road, where it was exceptionally difficult to move. Yet Lin Chen did not feel the slightest strain!
After being tempered by the Vitality Essence, his physical strength had become several times greater than before! Pulling this heavy cart was as effortless as strolling through a quiet courtyard!
He even deliberately slowed his pace, carefully sensing the flow of strength through his muscles. He controlled the range and force of every step, gradually merging his surging power into his body's instincts.
After roughly half an hour, he finally arrived at an even more remote and deserted mountain hollow in the back mountains. A massive pit had long been dug there, emanating a rotten stench. It was clearly a place specifically used by the Lin Family to dispose of waste.
After confirming that no one was nearby, Lin Chen shoved all the pig corpses from the cart into the deep pit in one go.
Having finished that, he did not hurry away. Instead, he found a relatively clean boulder and sat down cross-legged once more.
He could feel that the power within him, on the verge of breakthrough, had accumulated to its peak! Like a volcano about to erupt!
Only the final kick at the gate remained!
"Now!"
Lin Chen's gaze sharpened, and his consciousness instantly sank into his dantian!
"Furnace! Open!"
This time, he did not refine anything from the outside world. Instead, he concentrated all his will within his Dantian Sea of Qi, guiding the vast, majestic power accumulated from refining a great amount of Vitality Essence toward that tough, invisible barrier that obstructed his entry into the Body Tempering Realm Triple Layer—launching the final assault!
Boom!!!
It was as though thunder from the ninth heavens exploded within his body!
The power accumulated to its limit rushed forth like a fierce tiger released from its cage, smashing into the barrier with an unstoppable force that crushed everything in its path!
Crack!
A crisp sound, like glazed glass shattering, rang clearly in the depths of Lin Chen's soul!
The solid barrier that had troubled him and kept him wandering at the Body Tempering Realm Double Layer Peak shattered at once beneath the impact of that savage power!
Rumble—!
Like a river bursting through its banks!
Even more majestic and condensed true qi instantly filled Lin Chen's Dantian Sea of Qi! The spinning vortex abruptly expanded by more than twice its original size. True qi circulated faster, while its power grew purer and more robust!
A feeling of power far surpassing anything before spread through every limb and bone!
Body Tempering Realm Triple Layer!
Success!!!
With six days remaining before the Family Test, Lin Chen had finally broken through and stepped into the Body Tempering Realm Triple Layer, relying on the heaven-defying cheat that was the Myriad Dao Furnace and his own will of steel!
He had reached the minimum standard for the Family Test!
"Haa..." Lin Chen slowly exhaled a long breath of scorching turbid air and opened his eyes.
It was as though stars flowed within his eyes, glittering with confident, powerful light!
Feeling the endless, surging strength within his body and the sense of control brought by his further strengthened physique, Lin Chen slowly rose to his feet and raised his head toward the sky in a silent shout!
The humiliation he had suppressed for three years!
The crisis that had pushed him to the edge of despair!
At this moment, they seemed to have found their first release along with this breakthrough!
But this was only the beginning!
The Body Tempering Realm Triple Layer merely met the minimum standard set by Lin Xiaotian. It had only allowed him to temporarily escape the immediate crisis of being driven out!
If he wanted to truly shock everyone at the Family Test seven days later! If he wanted Lin Zhenhong, Wang Teng, and the others to pay the price! If he wanted to take complete control of his own fate!
This little strength was still far from enough!
His gaze became firm and sharp once more.
"Myriad Dao Furnace, refine the myriad daos..." Lin Chen murmured, thought glimmering in his eyes.
Since it could refine medicinal dregs and demonic beast flesh, could it perhaps... refine even higher-level things? Such as... cultivation techniques? Martial skills? Or even... an enemy's cultivation?!
An even bolder, crazier thought quietly took root in his heart.
The furnace door had opened!
The true path of refining the myriad daos had only just unfolded before him!
Over the next six days, he would make Qingyang Town go completely mad at the name Lin Chen!
Before you continue