The training ground was silent and deserted. The night dew was heavy, and with the cold weather, a layer of frost had already formed over the surfaces of the stone locks, leaving them white and hazy.
These stone locks were all made from hard bluestone. Even after being exposed to wind, sun, and rain here for hundreds of years, they would not lose weight from weathering.
In the Great Wilderness, people were accustomed to using jin, shi, and ding to describe a martial warrior's strength.
The jin was roughly equivalent to the kilogram used on Earth. One shi was one hundred jin, while one ding was ten shi—in other words, one thousand jin!
Seeing that no one was around, Yi Yun walked up to the stone locks. He picked up a fifty-jin stone lock and gently wiped away the frost. His body sank as he exerted himself. Up!
The stone lock was far lighter than Yi Yun had imagined. He had actually lifted it with one hand!
Yi Yun's heart leaped with joy. Just as I thought!
Next, Yi Yun chose a one-hundred-jin stone lock.
This time, lifting it with one hand was extremely difficult. But after switching to both hands, it became easy again.
Drawing a deep breath, Yi Yun stood before the two-hundred-jin stone lock. He squatted down and gripped the bottom of the lock with both hands. His spine tensed like a drawn bow, while the strength in his feet traveled up to his waist.
"Up!"
Yi Yun gritted his teeth and suddenly raised the two-hundred-jin stone lock above his head!
"I lifted it!"
Yi Yun was overjoyed. He held it for about three seconds before throwing the stone lock onto the ground.
An eleven- or twelve-year-old boy had lifted a two-hundred-jin stone lock—more than three times his own body weight. If this had happened on Earth, it would have been utterly inconceivable.
His strength had skyrocketed so much overnight!
Moreover, strength was secondary. What was even more astonishing was his speed!
As a child, strength had been his weakness, and he was far inferior to an adult in that regard. But his speed was not necessarily much worse. When facing Zhao Tiezhu's attack earlier, Yi Yun was confident that his speed had been at least twice his opponent's!
His body had undergone a tremendous transformation!
Thinking back to the process of vomiting black blood and sweating filthy sweat, it was probably the legendary Marrow Cleansing.
His physical foundation had been abysmal. After undergoing Marrow Cleansing once, both his strength and speed had increased by an enormous margin!
There was no need to think about it. This change had been brought about by the Purple Crystal. But why had the Purple Crystal caused such a transformation in his body? What was the reason?
Yi Yun instinctively reached for the Purple Crystal on his chest, but he had not expected his hand to come up empty.
"Hm!?"
Yi Yun was badly startled and hurriedly pulled open the clothes over his chest.
The Purple Crystal had vanished...
Yet the chill coming from his chest had not faded in the slightest.
What was going on...?
Yi Yun lowered his head and gently touched the place where his heart was. He had a strange feeling, as though the Purple Crystal were right there, having never left.
With every beat of his heart, the Purple Crystal trembled along with it, as if it had already fused with his heart.
That faint, intermittent chill was also released with each tremor of the Purple Crystal. Following the blood flowing from his heart, it streamed ceaselessly toward every part of Yi Yun's body.
Yi Yun raised his head and vaguely saw the scattered starlight in the sky gathering toward him—or, more accurately, toward the Purple Crystal.
The starlight entered his body and vanished just like that.
The various phenomena surrounding the Purple Crystal had already led Yi Yun to a certain guess.
The Purple Crystal could absorb energy!
In this world, in this universe, energy was fundamental!
From the movement of celestial bodies and the birth and death of stars, down to ants building nests and grass withering and flourishing, nothing could exist without energy.
According to the physical theories Yi Yun had learned on Earth, the entire universe had begun from a "singularity" containing boundless energy.
Energy could be transformed into matter, into life, into everything.
And in this other world, the Heaven and Earth Yuan Qi cultivated by experts was naturally also a form of energy.
The Purple Crystal possessed a wondrous affinity for energy by nature.
It could absorb starlight. And apart from starlight, even the two attacks with which Lian Chengyu had secretly harmed him were a form of energy. That energy should have been something akin to the "true essence" cultivated by Lian Chengyu.
It had lain dormant within Yi Yun's body, making his entire body stiff. But when that energy spread to his chest and touched the Purple Crystal, it had also been absorbed by the Purple Crystal!
As for where the energy absorbed by the Purple Crystal had gone, that was obvious.
That invisible chill accompanying his bloodstream was probably the manifestation of the energy. The energy absorbed by the Purple Crystal nourished his flesh along with Yi Yun's heart and blood flow. With every beat of his heart, Yi Yun felt as though his body had grown just a little stronger.
Looking back, the Marrow Cleansing his body had undergone earlier was naturally also caused by energy entering his meridians and blood.
Energy could alter the structure of matter. It could bring people vitality, strength, and power!
His strength had skyrocketed from thirty jin to two hundred jin. This change could be described as a complete rebirth.
Then what kind of energy possessed such an effect?
A mere bit of starlight—or the energy Lian Chengyu had left inside him to wreak havoc—obviously could not possess such heaven-defying effects.
The answer was beyond doubt. It was the Savage Bone!
When the rations had been distributed, Lian Chengyu had opened the wooden chest containing the Savage Bone. Yi Yun had seen many points of light fly out from the Savage Bone and into the Purple Crystal, where they were absorbed.
The Savage Bone was the most precious and refined part of a Savage Beast's body, even more valuable than Savage Beast Meat!
The essence refined from Savage Bones could help a warrior break through a realm. It could allow a genius like Lian Chengyu to grow from an ordinary warrior into a Purple Blood Warrior.
The preciousness of Savage Bones was self-evident!
Yi Yun had been a powerless boy whose foundation was virtually nonexistent. The muscles and bones throughout his body had been as weak as they could possibly be. With such a foundation, how could obtaining even a small portion of the Savage Bone's power not bring about a complete rebirth?
After understanding everything, Yi Yun felt as though he had suddenly grasped the entire picture.
He took several deep breaths and slowly calmed himself. The Purple Crystal was undoubtedly a supreme treasure. Having fused with his body, it injected energy into his bloodstream every time his heart beat, tempering his body and increasing his strength!
His strength grew with his heartbeat. His heartbeat was cultivation. The Purple Crystal possessed such an effect—it was truly heaven-defying.
Having obtained such a treasure, Yi Yun did not reveal an expression of wild delight.
On the contrary, Yi Yun's expression was somewhat grave. Having lived two lives, although Yi Yun's first life had not been particularly eventful, this reincarnation and rebirth had subtly brought about many changes in his state of mind.
When he had first arrived in this other world, Yi Yun had been utterly lost, his emotions fluctuating violently. But gradually, he had adapted to this place and grown calm.
With a supreme treasure before him, he could not be too greedy. It was not that he had no desires or was uninterested in such a treasure. On the contrary, it was precisely because he knew the treasure was too precious that he had to be cautious. If he became carried away with pride, it would be easy for perceptive people to notice something amiss. By then, he might invite annihilation!
Yi Yun knew clearly that he could not tell anyone about the Purple Crystal's secret.
At present, the only person Yi Yun could trust in this other world was his elder sister, Jiang Xiaorou. But the fewer people who knew, the less danger there would be.
A supreme treasure must not be shown to others. Jiang Xiaorou was merely a weak woman, making her even more vulnerable to harm. If she knew too much, she might very well invite disaster because of it.
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