Rapid Progress, Acupoint Opening Completion

Over the past half month, aside from setting aside some time each day to patrol the Mining Area, Lin Lin had spent all his remaining time continuously mining.

To be honest, mining in this Cold Iron Mine was far from pleasant.

Throughout the mining process, he was constantly surrounded by biting cold and the pain caused by the slight recoil.

At first, he could barely endure this environment.

But after staying for too long, all he wanted was to escape this harsh place and return to warm, comfortable Pavilions and Towers, leisurely embracing Fragrant Jade while drinking tea and eating pastries.

Human nature yearned for comfort and pleasure.

Yet whenever Lin Lin thought of how enduring all these hardships would make him stronger, he suppressed the persistent urge to flee and devoted even more focus and energy to this dull, somewhat painful cultivation.

Every day, he pushed his blood, Inner Force, and Mental Strength to near their limits before ending his training.

His trip to carry out the Elite Disciple Promotion Mission had brought Lin Lin not only a change in status, but also a spiritual transformation.

It allowed the current Lin Lin to calmly face any trial on the path of cultivation.

And under such concentration, his cultivation progressed at a rapid pace.

Originally, it had taken several days to nourish and illuminate a single acupoint. Now, the average time had shortened to nearly one acupoint every two days, and the pace was only growing faster.

Lin Lin had illuminated only forty-two acupoints when he left to carry out the Elite Disciple Promotion Mission. Now, just over a month later, he had already opened and illuminated his sixtieth acupoint.

Besides Lin Lin's own tireless efforts, the medicinal elixirs prepared from the Old Ginseng he had brought back also provided tremendously powerful assistance.

The Hundred Flowers Heart Clearing Pill, Star Moon Qi Boosting Powder, and other Cultivation Secret Medicines had likewise been used without interruption. It truly felt as though money was flowing away like water.

Fortunately, Lin Lin's father, Lin Yue, was no longer the only one earning money. Lin Lin himself could now earn some as well and help cover the expenses, allowing his family's finances to barely hold on.

Every new acupoint he opened and illuminated unlocked a portion of his body's potential.

Lin Lin had opened so many acupoints in a single month that both his Inner Breath and physical strength had clearly increased.

His Inner Breath, which had once felt somewhat meager, gradually began to fill his meridians and acupoints. Combined with the increasingly surging blood and qi within his body, it gave Lin Lin a powerful sense of strength.

Beyond such visible bodily changes as his Inner Breath and physique, which directly enhanced his combat power, Lin Lin could also feel his vigorous blood and qi constantly nourishing his brain. This made his Dual-Mindedness increasingly effortless to use, while his speed of thought continued to rise.

Reflected in his status panel, this meant that the upper limit of his Mental Strength was constantly increasing.

This confirmed something for Lin Lin: martial arts cultivation was not merely an increase in combat power, but an evolution of one's very essence of life.

Because of this, Lin Lin could not help but look forward to the future.

If he could cultivate martial arts to an unprecedented realm, what changes would his body undergo then?

Would he be able to extend his lifespan?

Or even become a legendary Land Immortal, or a true Immortal God?

With such anticipation in his heart, Lin Lin maintained an enduring passion for cultivation.

Other than setting aside time to visit the Skill Transmission Hall on days ending in five each month, where he consulted Elder of Teaching Skills Ji Yun about questions that arose during his cultivation, he spent all his remaining time diligently cultivating in the Mining Area.

Amid this focused effort, Lin Lin successively nourished and illuminated all the acupoints needed to channel qi for Cold Plum Swordplay and the Azure Lotus Sway movement technique.

This finally put Lin Lin's Superior Martial Arts cultivation on the right track. Whenever he grew tired from mining, he would draw the longsword from his waist and practice swordplay and movement techniques, gradually advancing these two newly learned Superior Martial Arts from the beginner stage toward minor mastery.

As Lin Lin's mastery of the two Superior Martial Arts grew deeper, his movements became swifter, as intangible as a clear breeze.

His swordplay was fierce and forceful, terrifying Sword Qi spreading forth as if it could pierce through everything.

By the time he had cultivated his swordplay and movement technique to this level, Lin Lin had also nourished and illuminated the acupoints required to channel qi for the protective art Immovable as a Mountain, bringing it to the level of minor mastery.

At that point, he directly abandoned his mining tools and challenged the hard Cold Iron Ore wall with his hand as a sword.

Without his tools separating him from the Cold Iron Ore, Lin Lin felt even greater cold and piercing pain.

Without a physical sword to help condense his Inner Force into Sword Qi, the power of his own Sword Qi dropped sharply. With both factors combined, overcoming the Cold Iron Ore wall became extraordinarily difficult.

But Lin Lin had no intention of giving up. Greater difficulty brought greater pressure, but it also brought greater motivation to cultivate.

Through his day-after-day efforts, the power of the Sword Qi condensed through his Sword Finger grew by the day.

It went from merely scratching the surface of the Cold Iron Ore wall to gradually leaving sword marks upon it.

Later, when Lin Lin held his fingers together like a sword and swung, he could sever an entire piece of Cold Iron Ore as easily as cutting tofu.

One had to know that even in its raw form, Cold Iron Ore was stronger than ordinary pig iron. The fact that Lin Lin could achieve this showed just how great his progress had been.

Besides his Sword Qi, his arms seemed to have been tempered into divine weapons through cultivation.

At first, after striking the Cold Iron Ore wall a few times, his arms would become red and swollen even with Inner Force protecting them. Now, he could clash head-on against the Cold Iron Ore wall without changing expression and emerge completely unscathed.

His body also steadily grew stronger through this cultivation process. At first, he had shivered violently from the cold. Then he could remain in the increasingly frigid depths of the mine with an unchanged expression. Later, Lin Lin's blood and qi became as vigorous as a furnace, even evaporating the chill that enveloped his body.

At this moment, Lin Lin had fully mastered all the Superior Martial Arts he knew.

The eighty-four acupoints required for Hundred Flowers True Qi to reach completion, the additional seventeen acupoints needed for Cold Plum Swordplay, the additional twenty-two acupoints needed for the protective art Immovable as a Mountain, and the additional twelve acupoints needed for the Azure Lotus Sway movement technique—

—as well as the additional fourteen acupoints needed to cultivate Hundred Flowers Wither to completion, had all been nourished, opened, and illuminated by Lin Lin.

His Sword Intent had also been tempered to become increasingly sharp and exposed throughout this cultivation process, and had now officially reached the realm of perfection!

Even though Lin Lin's internal cultivation had grown increasingly profound recently, allowing him to mobilize more and more Inner Force each day and causing his cultivation speed to rise until he could illuminate nearly one acupoint in less than a day—

—by the time he had cultivated to this point, more than four full months had already passed.

And reaching this stage meant that Lin Lin's cultivation in the Aperture Opening Realm had come to an end.

Next, he could break through toward the higher True Qi Condensation Realm!