Third watch, Iron Clothes Village.
The ink-blue sky hung low, as if soaked in the ink of the deep sea.
Before dawn, the boundary between sea and sky blurred in the deepest silence, leaving only the ghostly blue waters that tore through the darkness when distant waves rolled over, and fleeting glimmers of phosphorescence.
The tide slowly retreated to rest like a sated giant beast, baring the vast tidal flats outside Iron Clothes Village.
Chen Yuan stood barefoot on the cold, slippery flats.
Although it had only just entered the Beginning of Winter, the seaside was already bitterly cold. Every step drove coarse grains of sand and sharp shell fragments into his soles, while the bone-chilling cold shot upward through his feet, making him shudder faintly.
The air was thick with a salty, fishy smell, mingled with the faint bitterness of rotting seaweed and the crisp freshness of the sea wind.
He removed the clean, coarse-linen short jacket from his body, revealing his bare torso.
The youth's muscles had already begun to take shape. His skin was taut, glowing with healthy luster beneath the faint morning light.
Yet he was still one invisible barrier away from the realm of "Tough Skin," where blades could scarcely cut and heat and cold could not invade.
The chill of early morning swept over him, quickly raising a fine layer of gooseflesh across his skin. It was a sign that his Qi and Blood could not yet completely lock in his body heat and permeate his skin and flesh.
He slowly performed the opening stance of the Black Water Body Tempering Art, his movements solemn and heavy as he tried to sense the Qi and Blood that had long been stagnant within him.
Every breath carried a plume of cold white vapor. The Qi and Blood in his chest were like a dead pool, capable only of maintaining basic nourishment and unable to shake that Fortification bottleneck.
It had been a month since he awakened his past-life wisdom.
A month ago, he had still been that "genius" struggling bitterly in the martial arts school, unable to advance even an inch.
Then, after a failed breakthrough, a high fever had sent him into a deep sleep. When he awoke, many bizarre and fantastical fragments of memory had suddenly appeared in his mind.
There had been another Chen Yuan in another world. His parents had died young, and after his grandfather had raised him, he too had soon passed away. Though Chen Yuan had later built a small career through his own efforts, he had still inevitably felt that something was missing inside.
Now, after awakening his past-life wisdom, Chen Yuan possessed all the memories and emotions of both lives. More importantly, he had gained a complete family—ordinary, perhaps, but warm all the same.
That made him cherish his family in this life even more, while also giving him a clearer understanding of the predicament he faced.
Before his awakening, Chen Yuan had indeed been a rare martial arts prodigy in Iron Clothes Village.
He was strong and robust, with an exceptionally solid foundation in his flesh, muscles, bones, skin, and membranes. Even in the county's Blackwater Martial Arts School, his aptitude could be considered above average.
When he was fifteen, his family had exhausted everything they had and even borrowed a considerable sum from Second Uncle's household before scraping together enough tuition to send him to learn the Black Water Body Tempering Art. They had hoped he could make a name for himself and bring honor to the family.
He had indeed lived up to their hopes. In little more than half a year, relying on his sound physical foundation and ample supply of meat, he had cultivated his Qi and Blood to the peak of completion—a feat that those of ordinary aptitude might not accomplish in two or three years.
Among the apprentices of the same period, he had been considered outstanding. When the news reached the village, it had made the Chen Family the envy of the entire fishing village, and his parents had walked with their chests puffed out.
But the thin barrier after reaching the peak seemed to have become a heavenly chasm.
At the peak of the Qi and Blood Realm, one needed to perfect the basic cultivation art and generate strength from one's Qi and Blood, wielding it as naturally as one's own arm, before beginning Skin Grinding.
That single step had stopped countless martial artists dead in their tracks.
His comprehension was decent among ordinary people, but before the martial arts threshold that required one to grasp the profundity of "strength," he had found himself stretched thin.
The Black Water Body Tempering Art contained a method for circulating strength: "Bind Qi and Blood like embracing the tide; release it in a single thought like waves surging." He had practiced it over and over, but although his Qi and Blood surged, they remained like loose sand, unable to gather that nimble "strength."
The instructor at the martial arts school had offered guidance several times, saying, "Strength is not force. It is the condensation of Qi and the eruption of intent." But Chen Yuan had been lost in a fog, never finding the way in.
An entire year without advancing even an inch!
Anxiety, unwillingness, and shame before his family's earnest hopes tormented him day and night.
The faintly mocking gazes of his senior brothers at the martial arts school, and the apprentices who had started at the same time gradually catching up to him, made it even harder for him to accept.
To seek a chance at a breakthrough—or perhaps simply to fit into the circle—he constantly asked his family for silver, befriended Senior Disciple Brothers who might have connections, and bought expensive medicinal bath packs said to aid comprehension.
For the already impoverished fishing family, this had only piled hardship upon hardship.
His parents labored day and night, while his younger sister Xiao Li secretly stuffed even the few copper coins she earned gathering shells, shrimp, and crabs by the sea into his hands.
Yet at home, he continued maintaining the dignity of a "genius," allowing his family to support him a little longer. But he knew that if he could not break through soon, his family could not possibly keep paying his expenses at the martial arts school year after year.
Then, a month ago, perhaps because he had been too anxious in his cultivation, or perhaps because his mind and spirit had been exhausted, his Qi and Blood went astray when he forcibly attacked the bottleneck. He collapsed into a high fever and lost consciousness.
When he awoke, the two lives had become one.
Over the past month, he had adapted to the changes brought by the fusion of his memories while observing in silence and refraining from rash action in his cultivation.
He continued tempering his Qi and Blood every day. Although he had made no progress, he had become more skilled at controlling them.
More importantly, at the moment of his awakening, an ancient stone stele called the "Tidal Stele" had appeared deep within his Sea of Consciousness.
The stele's body seemed neither stone nor jade. Natural, profound patterns covered its surface, like the rise and fall of tides cycling without end.
Several lines of information appeared on the stele:
Realm: Qi and Blood Realm, Great Accomplishment (79/100) Cultivation Art: Black Water Body Tempering Art (Proficient) Tide Luck Points: 63/100
Through the information transmitted by the stele, Chen Yuan understood the Tidal Stele's wondrous function. By persisting in daily cultivation and breathing exercises, he could perhaps accumulate one Tide Luck Point. If he or his Lineage did something beneficial to their status and reputation, he would gain even more Tide Luck Points.
Once the points reached one hundred, he could use them. One Rising Tide and one Ebbing Tide would alternate in an endless cycle.
During a Rising Tide, vast amounts of vital essence would pour forth to aid a breakthrough. During an Ebbing Tide, he could pick up treasures or even information about the secrets of the future. But just like fishermen combing the shore for whatever the tide had washed up, there was no telling what he would find.
This gave him hope.
Over the past month, besides cultivating as usual and accumulating that one point of Tide Fortune, he had carefully observed his surroundings, searching for an opportunity to rapidly accumulate more.
The turning point came yesterday.
The fishing boat led by his father, Chen Dahai, returned with a rich catch. When the haul was sorted according to the rules, his family received two plump Silver Knife Fish.
His mother, Lin Sanniang, happily prepared to nourish her son's body.
But Chen Yuan noticed that the fishing boat belonging to Seventh Great-Uncle's household had been smashed open by a reef some time ago and was still being repaired. The impoverished family had nearly run out of food these past few days, leaving young and old with gaunt, yellow faces from hunger.
An idea struck him. He took the initiative to persuade his mother to give one of the Silver Knife Fish to Seventh Great-Uncle's household.
The gesture moved the entire family to tears of gratitude. They repeatedly praised him, saying, "Brother Yuan is righteous. He'll surely achieve great things in the future."
At that very moment, the Tidal Stele in his Sea of Consciousness suddenly trembled faintly. The Tide Luck Points that had been increasing slowly leaped from 95/100 to 100/100!
Just as I thought! Chen Yuan said inwardly.
One hundred Tide Luck Points were enough to activate a "Rising Tide"!
Now, standing on the flats after the ebb tide, Chen Yuan sank his mind into his body and visualized the Tidal Stele.
Realm: Qi and Blood Realm, Great Accomplishment (79/100) Cultivation Art: Black Water Body Tempering Art (Proficient) Tide Luck Points: 100/100 (A "Rising Tide" can be summoned)
It was time. Chen Yuan's gaze sharpened. He suppressed the excitement in his heart and touched the "Rising Tide" option with his mind.
"Om."
There was no earth-shaking phenomenon, but the air within three feet of him seemed to tremble faintly.
An incomparably pure, gentle, and weighty vital essence surged out of the void. Rather than pouring into him violently, it slowly merged into his limbs and bones like a spring tide, nourishing his meridians and Qi and Blood.
The quality of this essence was extremely high, far surpassing the ordinary flesh-and-blood vitality provided by the martial arts school. His body absorbed it rapidly, and his previously stagnant Qi and Blood began to stir, accelerating of its own accord.
Even more wondrously, accompanying this vital essence was an indescribably mysterious "artistic conception"!
He seemed no longer to be a youth standing on the cold tidal flats, but a Divine Soul that had left his body and merged with the boundless Vast Sea.
He "saw" the rising of the moon and setting of the sun, the pull of gravity, and how the vast, boundless seawater accumulated power from the faintest ripples; how hidden currents surged beneath the surface until waves gradually rose; and finally how it transformed into heaven-shaking, earth-shattering, unstoppable towering waves!
This was not the accumulation of brute force, but a "momentum" containing the rhythms of heaven and earth—a perfect performance of "rising and falling," "condensation," and "advance." This artistic conception faintly echoed the formula of the Black Water Body Tempering Art!
Under the shroud of this artistic conception, his perception of his own Qi and Blood expanded to its utmost limit.
In the past, the Qi and Blood he sensed had been nothing more than a vague, restless energy. He could drive it to flow, but found it difficult to control precisely, let alone refine that nimble "strength" from within it.
At this moment, illuminated by the artistic conception, the obscure and difficult passages in the formulas of the Black Water Body Tempering Art suddenly became crystal clear!
So "embracing the tide" did not mean embracing it with one's hands. It meant using one's thoughts to imitate the tide's retreat, gathering and binding the scattered Qi and Blood and storing it in the Dantian's Sea of Qi.
Nor was "waves surging" a brute-force collision. It meant using one's thoughts to guide the Qi and Blood, allowing the rise and fall of the tide to occur naturally, then instantly releasing the accumulated power. The point where that eruption reached its utmost concentration was where "strength" lay!
In a flash of inspiration, he instinctively began imitating the rhythm of the tide within the artistic conception, attempting to drive the surging Qi and Blood stirred by the foreign vital essence.
His thoughts shifted. He visualized the tide receding and guided his Qi and Blood to contract with it. No longer dispersing through his limbs, they slowly gathered toward his Dantian.
At first, his Qi and Blood refused to obey and continued surging with their own momentum. But with the dual assistance of the pure foreign essence and the mysterious artistic conception, they began to follow Chen Yuan's thoughts bit by bit, gradually drawing together as if restrained by an invisible dike.
One failed attempt at contraction, two clumsy attempts at storing power... He sank into it with his whole being, forgetting the cold and forgetting the passage of time.
His body rose and fell faintly, and his breathing became long and rhythmic.
The essence transmitted by the Tidal Stele was slowly consumed, pushing the total amount of his Qi and Blood steadily upward. (83/100)... (85/100)... (88/100)...
His body trembled faintly, his Qi and Blood growing fuller and more active. But to Chen Yuan, the rise in numbers was secondary. His entire mind was immersed in capturing and condensing that thread of "strength."
At last, when nearly half the foreign vital essence had been consumed, he felt that the Qi and Blood in his arm's meridians were no longer a scattered mass. After reaching a high degree of concentration, they had developed an entirely different quality—more condensed, more nimble, and containing a penetrating force!
The thread of power was faint but real, like an undercurrent within the tide concealing tremendous energy.
Now!
He shifted his thoughts again and visualized a raging tide crashing into a reef.
The Qi and Blood gathered in his arm instantly erupted from his Dantian's Sea of Qi like an army receiving its orders, traveling along his meridians and pouring straight into his fist.
This time, it was no longer the scattered fullness of Qi and Blood. That newly born, unique "strength" was successfully guided and gathered upon his knuckles.
A faint black radiance flashed across the surface of his fist and vanished. The air around his knuckles seemed to twist faintly, producing an extremely soft hum.
It was not the red glow brought by simple fullness of Qi and Blood, but a highly condensed power held in reserve, faintly revealing a sharp edge.
Strength—the newborn strength of Qi and Blood!
He had succeeded!
Chen Yuan slowly withdrew his fist and exhaled a long breath of turbid air. In the cool morning air, his breath condensed into a white train a foot long and lingered for a long while.
This was the sign of abundant Qi and Blood under precise control.
A powerful weariness surged over him like the tide, the result of the double exhaustion of mind and Qi and Blood.
Yet his eyes flashed with unprecedented comprehension and joy.
Though the newborn strength within him was weak, it had taken root like a seed and slowly circulated on its own, nourishing the skin and membranes around his knuckles and bringing a faint tingling sensation. This was a sign that Skin Grinding was about to begin.
The "Rising Tide" exchanged for one hundred Tide Luck Points had brought him more than an accumulation of Qi and Blood. More importantly, it had given him that crucial artistic conception, allowing him to grasp the key to Qi and Blood Generating Strength in one stroke and truly step through the gates of the Skin Grinding Realm.
He had spent more than a year working bitterly at something without seeing the slightest hope. With the power of the Tidal Stele, he had succeeded in a single day.
The information on the Tidal Stele had also updated:
Realm: Qi and Blood Realm, Peak (97/100) Cultivation Art: Black Water Body Tempering Art (Perfected)—Qi and Blood Generating Strength; strength can be condensed at a single point! Tide Luck Points: 5/100 (Breakthrough +5)
He was filled with tremendous anticipation for the treasure he might pick up when his Tide Luck Points reached full again and he activated an "Ebbing Tide."
At that moment, rustling sounds came from the cracks between the reefs not far away.
Several palm-sized, translucent little creatures poked their heads out and crawled forth. They resembled monkeys, but dragged behind them crystalline shrimp tails.
Their bodies were almost transparent, revealing faint blue fluids flowing within. Their pea-sized green eyes rolled about, filled with curiosity and wariness. They were the low-level Spirit Beasts common in the coastal waters—the "Sea Monkeys."
They were sensitive to blood vitality and had clearly been attracted by the aura Chen Yuan emitted.
He glanced at the little Spirit Beasts leaping between the reefs but paid them no attention.
These harmless little creatures were also part of life by the sea.
"Brother Yuan..."
A familiar cry, filled with urgency and excitement, approached from afar.
It was his younger cousin Chen He, carrying a fish-oil lantern as he ran over, stumbling through the uneven ground. His face was flushed with excitement.
"Brother! Why did you come out to practice so early again?"
"Hurry back! Grandpa and the others' boat has returned! The waterline is riding low, so they must have caught something huge!"
Chen Yuan suppressed the turmoil in his heart and put on a smile appropriate for his age. He replied calmly, "I know. Let's head back."
Feeling the newborn strength of Qi and Blood surging ceaselessly within him, Chen Yuan felt utterly grounded.
This power would be the starting point from which he established himself in this world.
"There's more!" Chen He drew closer, lowering his voice excitedly as if afraid the sea wind might overhear him.
"I heard... I heard they caught a Golden Thread Sea Bream! The kind with golden lines beside its gills, still thrashing around alive! Old Zhang, the head fisherman, said its gall is an incredible tonic for martial artists!"
A Golden Thread Sea Bream?
Chen Yuan's heart jolted.
The martial arts instructor had mentioned it during a lesson as well. The fish was rare, living among deep-water reefs. Its gall contained a special vital essence and was an excellent tonic for stabilizing newborn strength and tempering the body. It was of great benefit to martial artists who had just broken through, and was worth a considerable sum.
It was usually available only occasionally at the large medicine shops in the city.
This Golden Thread Sea Bream had come at exactly the right time!
He took a deep breath of the cool, hopeful air and patted Chen He on the shoulder. "Come on. Let's go home!"
The two brothers walked toward the fishing village, one before the other, treading through the gradually brightening morning light.
Before you continue