In a remote area north of Yong'an County Town...
Chu Feng looked at the barren land around him and knew this place was remote enough.
Even vagrants and beggars were nowhere to be seen for half a day.
After informing his family, Chen Shi Tou followed Chu Feng here.
To isolate the source of infection, he could only live here for a time and wait for the Blood Gu Pill's effects to pass.
Because of the Blood Gu Pill, his family could not bring him meals either. Only Chu Feng could handle that.
After looking around, Chen Shi Tou asked worriedly, "Master, this Blood Gu Pill won't infect you too, will it?"
Chu Feng shook his head. "From Li Xuanhai's description, this Blood Gu Pill is a great tonic. Ordinary people's bodies are too weak to digest it, but once one reaches the Muscle Tempering Realm, the blood gu will be digested after entering the body and transformed into one's own blood and vitality. Not only does it do no harm, it is actually beneficial."
"That's good, that's good..."
Chen Shi Tou let out a breath. If he dragged his master down as well, then he truly deserved to die ten thousand deaths.
Chu Feng tossed an axe to Chen Shi Tou and said,
"Go chop down some wood and build a house. Before chopping, use the skin-grinding method to strip the bark clean..."
"Build a house? That'll take a lot of wood, won't it?" Chen Shi Tou's mouth turned bitter.
"If we don't build a house, are we supposed to live like savages?"
"Open your mouth first..."
With a flick of his hand, Chu Feng shot a Tiger Leopard Blood Vitality Pill into Chen Shi Tou's mouth.
Chen Shi Tou swallowed with a gulp and instantly felt his blood and vitality surge within him, his entire body burning hot.
He immediately stopped complaining, picked up the axe, and headed into the woods.
At that moment, Chu Feng also took out a pill and examined it.
This Tiger Leopard Blood Vitality Pill was the size of a longan. It was a translucent dark red, and a faint scent of blood drifted into his nose. Yet it was not foul; instead, it carried a sweet fragrance.
Fearing that the medicinal properties would dissipate if he looked at it too long, Chu Feng immediately flicked his finger. The pill turned into a streak of light and flew into his mouth.
The pill melted into a thin stream the instant it entered his throat, flowing down into his lower abdomen. Before long, warmth rose within him, and Chu Feng felt as though he were soaking in a hot spring, comfortably warm all over.
Then his blood and vitality rippled faintly before settling back into calmness.
"Is that it?"
He had not even begun to enjoy it yet.
And it was already over?
Chu Feng was puzzled. He could tell that the Tiger Leopard Blood Vitality Pill was highly potent, stronger than the Nourishing Soup Medicine by more than one level.
But it seemed to be nothing more than that. It could not produce any substantial effect on Chu Feng.
Unwilling to believe it, Chu Feng directly took out two pills. After hesitating briefly, he took out three instead.
There were still four pills left. That should be enough to replenish Chen Shi Tou's blood and vitality, right?
Without the slightest hesitation, Chu Feng stuffed all three pills into his mouth at once.
If Lu Yunfei had seen Chu Feng consuming them in such an outrageous way, he would probably have jumped in fright.
At the middle stage of Bone Forging, he only dared to swallow one Tiger Leopard Blood Vitality Pill every three to five days. Otherwise, his blood and vitality would boil over and backlash against him.
Yet Chu Feng had now swallowed four at once, an amount that was Lu Yunfei's supply for half a month.
The moment the three pills entered his mouth, Chu Feng instantly felt an enormous difference from before. Heat like a mountain flood bursting through a dam exploded in his lower abdomen.
In an instant, Chu Feng felt as if he had been thrown into a furnace, the temperature inside his body soaring sharply.
His skin turned incomparably red, his muscles swelled, and golden sinews surged one after another. The image of Vajra Mingwang surfaced on its own.
Chu Feng forcibly suppressed the agitation within his body, then looked at the seventy-two years and three months of lifespan remaining on his panel.
He shouted softly, "Deduce the Dragon Transformation Body Tempering Art for me!"
[Year 1: You consumed a Tiger Leopard Blood Vitality Pill and cultivated the incomplete volume of the Dragon Transformation Body Tempering Art. Surging blood and vitality coursed through your body like a raging flood, and your cultivation speed was astonishing...] [Year 8: You advanced with vigor and refined fifty-six bones in succession. Delighted, you thought that perhaps you could use this chance to enter the middle stage of Bone Forging...] [Year 19: You fell into a bottleneck. The bone-forging methods provided by the Fierce Bear Bone Forging Art had already reached their end, yet you had not even entered the middle stage of Bone Forging...] [Year 24: Unwilling to accept this, you believed all cultivation arts were much the same, that ten thousand techniques ultimately returned to one. You wished to deduce the later portions of the Dragon Transformation Body Tempering Art through your own efforts.] [Year 32: You cultivated recklessly, causing your blood and vitality to flow in reverse. Cracks appeared even in the bones you had already refined...] [Year 36: You spent four years repairing the cracks in your bones, making them even stronger. You seemed to have found a new method of bone forging.] [Year 72: After countless injuries and recoveries, you accidentally refined one hundred and eight bones, reaching the middle stage of Bone Forging.] [Remaining lifespan: Three months.]
Chu Feng opened his eyes and gave a bitter laugh.
This was complete nonsense, and horribly inefficient at that. He did not even know whether there were any hidden dangers.
But through this matter, Chu Feng discovered a loophole in Lifespan Deduction.
It seemed that during Lifespan Deduction, he would not die. As long as he still had lifespan left, the deduction would continue.
If he were poisoned with a fatal toxin in the future, or suffered grievous injuries, he could use Lifespan Deduction to evade death until he found a solution.
The same applied to cultivation. He could take pills that others could not endure, then slowly digest them within Lifespan Deduction.
This was absolutely a heaven-defying ability. But when Chu Feng looked at the mere scraps of lifespan he had left, he gave a bitter laugh. "I'm poor as a church mouse again..."
"It's time to find somewhere I can earn a great deal of lifespan. The Demon Suppression Division would be excellent—hunting demons and monsters while collecting lifespan to cultivate. It really is the kind of place I yearn for. Too bad it isn't easy to get in..."
After pondering for a while, Chu Feng stood and looked toward where Chen Shi Tou was.
He discovered that the boy was crazily ramming tree trunks like a wild boar. The coarse bark was gradually smashed into scraps by his repeated impacts, falling to the ground...
Chen Shi Tou's skin was flushed red, and in many places it had been rubbed raw. Yet he felt nothing and continued slamming into the trunks like mad.
"His cultivation progress is not bad. The skin-grinding is barely at the beginner level. If he fails to build a house properly, sleeping on the ground probably won't give him a cold."
Seeing Chen Shi Tou cultivating with such excitement, Chu Feng did not disturb him and left on his own.
Chu Feng walked through the streets of Yong'an City, stopping from time to time to determine his direction.
At last, he stopped before a blacksmith shop and slowly walked in.
"What weapon does the customer need?"
Hearing footsteps, the old blacksmith stopped what he was doing, turned around, and greeted him.
He did not recognize Chu Feng, because Chu Feng was now showing his true appearance. Back when he had bought the Heavy Mountain Mò Dāo to evade the Fang family's investigation, he had altered his build.
It was not until Chu Feng took out the Mò Dāo that had been broken into three pieces that the old shopkeeper said with a terrified expression,
"Young hero, we only sell weapons. We have never involved ourselves in fights!"
The old blacksmith's face turned deathly pale. He could not imagine that a young hero capable of wielding a three-hundred-pound Mò Dāo could have been killed.
But with the weapon broken like this, its owner was surely in grave danger...
Chu Feng smiled. The old blacksmith clearly had not recognized him and thought an enemy had come seeking trouble.
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