Breakthrough! Breakthrough! A wave of excitement swept through Yi Xing City, and Liang Qu's "righteous deed" was still fermenting.
Meanwhile, he hurriedly shut his door and entered seclusion to cultivate.
Before going with Uncle Chen to fish on the river surface, he had refined his skin once at the Martial Arts School. At the time, he had felt his skin reaching its limit. It was no longer the tautness from previous Skin Refining sessions, but a swelling sensation.
It was like winter chilblains, the swollen feeling of knuckles congested with blood and turned purple, yet there was no abnormality visible on the surface.
Hu Qi had said that going from tautness to swelling was the sign that the Skin Barrier had been honed to its limit. Breaking through would happen within the next one or two skin refinements.
They had set out by boat in the morning and returned in the afternoon. After most of the day had passed, his depleted blood and Qi had filled up again. Liang Qu placed the water vat in the middle of the room and smashed the layer of ice on its surface.
This vat had originally held rice, but Liang Qu had never cooked for himself. After paying the autumn tax, the rice vat had been emptied and used as a water vat ever since.
Liang Qu assumed a stance and began practicing his fists. Blood and Qi stirred under his guidance, then spread through his four limbs and hundred skeletons under an invisible control.
An even fiercer scorching sensation than usual surged forth in an instant. Liang Qu quickly stripped off his clothes and plunged naked into the water.
A great deal of icy water overflowed from the vat, soaking the dry, yellow earth floor.
For the final breakthrough, the heat would