This Punch Carried Thirty-Three Years of Power!

"Brother Chen Fan, I'll escort you back."

Wang Chao walked over to Chen Fan and said this.

The two returned to Chen Fan's residence, one after the other.

"Chief Wang, if you have matters to attend to, go ahead. The affairs of our fallen brothers still need you to handle. I'll be fine here alone."

Chen Fan said.

This time, Ninth Squad had suffered grievous casualties. Wang Chao was Ninth Squad's Squad Leader, with ten brothers under his command. He had already spent most of the day running around for Chen Fan's sake. As for the four brothers who had died, their funerals still needed him to oversee, their casualties needed reporting, and compensation needed to be sought. All of that required calling in favors.

After all, the amount of compensation concerned the future livelihood of those four brothers' parents, wives, children, and other family members.

"Alright."

"Then I'll come see you again later!"

Wang Chao nodded at this, then left Chen Fan's residence.

"Thirty-three years of Demonkin Lifespan. I hope you won't disappoint me!"

After Wang Chao left, Chen Fan bolted the door. The Attribute Panel appeared before his eyes. With a thought, he began consuming Demonkin Lifespan to deduce the "Body Tempering Fist"!

He saw the Demonkin Lifespan on the panel rapidly dwindling, while his proficiency in the "Body Tempering Fist" and his own strength continuously rose.

You diligently practiced the "Body Tempering Fist." In the tenth year, you cultivated it to Major Accomplishment. You ultimately reached the realm of Bronze Skin and stepped into the second stage of the Divine Treasury Realm, the Bone Vajra level!

You continued practicing the "Body Tempering Fist." In the twentieth year, you cultivated it to perfection. You ultimately reached the realm of Iron Bones and stepped into the third stage of the Divine Treasury Realm, the Sinew Bodhisattva level!

You diligently practiced the "Body Tempering Fist" for thirty years and gained an entirely new understanding of it. You ultimately reached the realm of Steel Tendons and stepped into the fourth stage of the Divine Treasury Realm, the Blood Martial Saint level!

You diligently practiced the "Body Tempering Fist" for thirty-three years. Your "Body Tempering Fist" had reached the point of consummate mastery, and your vitality and blood continued to rise. Yet you were still not satisfied. You felt that the "Body Tempering Fist" in your hands could still be further deduced, but the deduction ultimately failed...!

"Body Tempering Fist" (Perfection)

Realm: Divine Treasury Realm (Fourth Stage: Blood Martial Saint)

"So this is Bronze Skin, Iron Bones, and Steel Tendons!"

"Of the five stages of the Divine Treasury Realm, I've already perfected three and stepped into the fourth-stage Blood Martial Saint level!"

"This is a realm even Brother Wang Chao has never reached!"

"I heard that only Ping An County's two Chief Squad Leaders are Blood Martial Saint martial artists, while even the Centurion has merely perfected the fifth stage and has yet to step into the next realm!"

"Doesn't that mean I've leapt straight into becoming the fourth-ranking figure in Ping An County's Brocade Guard Precinct, perhaps even the second-ranking figure?"

Chen Fan spoke with deep emotion.

He sensed the changes in his body. The wounds on his body had vanished completely, while the demon poison and baleful yin energy within him had been forced from his body by his powerful vitality and blood.

He was now bursting with life, feeling as though one punch could kill that thick-skinned Boar Demon from before!

This punch contained thirty-three years of power. How could it possibly withstand it?!

However, although the "Body Tempering Fist" was the foundational fist technique with the greatest versatility, capable of helping one break through the five stages and unlock the Divine Treasury of the human body, using it to break through to the peak Divine Treasury Realm was simply too difficult.

The "Body Tempering Fist" was easy to learn but hard to master. Though highly versatile, even someone with poor aptitude could get started with it, and might even spend seven or eight years, or perhaps ten years, cultivating it to Minor Accomplishment.

Yet Chen Fan had now deduced the "Body Tempering Fist" to the realm of Great Perfection, but after reaching perfection in it, he had still needed more than ten years to raise his martial realm to the fourth-stage Blood Martial Saint level of the Divine Treasury Realm.

If he continued cultivating the "Body Tempering Fist," he might need another decade or even longer before breaking through to the fifth-stage Marrow Asura level of the Divine Treasury Realm.

Fortunately, this was merely a deduction using Demonkin Lifespan. If it had truly happened in reality, he might have found it difficult to break through to the peak Divine Treasury Realm even before dying.

Under normal circumstances, he was sixteen years old and could still live another seventy years, dying at the age of eighty-six. That was no longer considered young.

But once Divine Treasury Realm martial artists passed forty, their bodies began to decline. If they failed to reach perfection in the Divine Treasury Realm before forty, it would become very difficult to break through to the next realm.

Therefore, unless one's aptitude was monstrously exceptional, trying to rely on a single "Body Tempering Fist" to break through the five stages and enter the peak Divine Treasury Realm was almost impossible.

"No wonder the Chief Squad Leaders and the Centurion chose other cultivation methods. If they stubbornly butted heads with the 'Body Tempering Fist,' they probably still wouldn't be able to break through to the peak Divine Treasury Realm even after thirty or fifty years."

"And by then, even if they broke through to the peak Divine Treasury Realm, they would already have passed their physical prime. Trying to break through to the next realm would be as distant as the stars!"

"But I have the Attribute Panel. As long as I have enough lifespan, I can easily use the 'Body Tempering Fist' to raise my realm to the peak Divine Treasury Realm!"

Chen Fan thought with high spirits.

The life-and-death crisis from before had long since vanished like smoke in the wind.

Dense forest outside Ping An County.

A demon with a human body and a toad's head, its body covered in green pustules, sat upon a smooth stone. It crossed its legs and eyed the masked man in night clothes standing not far away.

"I've already done what you asked of me. When will you bring me the boy and girl I want?"

"Your lordship is already starving."

The Toad Demon rolled its round, bulging eyes, stretched out its tongue, wrapped up a sparrow flying overhead, and swallowed it whole.

"Why did you leave one alive when I told you to kill all five?"

"And why was the one you spared precisely the person I wanted dead?"

"Are you deliberately trying to oppose me?"

The Masked Man in Black's eyes flashed with murderous light as he spoke in a deep voice, his tone carrying a trace of anxiety.

"You never told me which one to kill."

"Besides, once someone is poisoned by me, even a Terrestrial Immortal can hardly save him. He won't live long!"

The Toad Demon froze at first, then spoke with absolute certainty.

"I know he won't live long, but I'm afraid he might say something he shouldn't before he dies."

The Masked Man in Black let out a long sigh.

"Rest easy, brother. He might not even know about our dealings. And even if he does, who would believe him?"

"Tell me, why can't you keep your lower half under control? Is that county magistrate's concubine really so good?"

"She's nothing more than blood food!"

The Toad Demon spoke mockingly.

"She was the spy I planted beside the County Governor. How could I have known that Chen Fan, that blockhead, would track demons all the way to my private residence and happen to catch me sharing tender affection with that slut?"

"Keeping demons hidden in my residence, having an affair with the County Governor's beloved concubine—I've lived my whole life spotless and clean, and these are my only two stains. Yet he stumbled upon both of them. He truly deserves to die!"

The masked man spoke viciously.

"Hehehe."

The Toad Demon sneered. Inwardly, it thought this fellow before it was truly shameless beyond measure.

Those two stains alone were enough to ensure he died without a burial place, yet he still claimed he had lived his life spotless and clean. Pah!

I have never seen such a brazenly shameless person!

And it seemed he had more than just those two stains!

"Didn't he also not know that it was your private residence?"

"And didn't you say so yourself?"

"He never entered your room before you drove him away, so all he knows is that there was a martial arts expert in that residence. He doesn't know your identity at all."

"Even if he investigates, he won't be able to trace it back to you. After all, the owner of that residence is a wealthy merchant from Dragon Abyss Prefecture, not you."

"You really are far too cautious!"

The Toad Demon shook its head and said.