Once the thought arose, he could no longer suppress it.
Eat it.
Lu Chen's heart pounded heavily in his chest. His blood raced, leaving his mouth dry.
Reason told him this was demon flesh.
He had heard rumors that powerful martial artists hunted Demon Beasts and used their flesh and Inner Cores as Great Medicine to aid their cultivation.
But those had all been treated with special methods.
Eating demon flesh raw, with the violent demonic energy it contained, was enough to make an ordinary martial artist explode.
However, Lu Chen had a secret.
[Talent: Heavenly Dao Rewards Diligence (One part effort, one part reward; ignores bottlenecks)]
Beneath this talent was another line of tiny text, so small he had almost overlooked it.
[Body Immunity (Removes negative effects)]
This trait let him endure high-intensity training without sustaining hidden injuries. Perhaps... it could also let him withstand the violent energy in this demon flesh?
The path of martial arts was about fighting Heaven for one's life and wresting fortune from Earth.
If he was timid and hesitant, what right did he, Lu Chen, have to carve out a path to survival in this chaotic age?
He hesitated for only three breaths.
Then a resolute glint flashed in Lu Chen's eyes.
He stopped wavering. Quickly taking off his outer garment, he wrapped the Water Ghost's Severed Arm tightly inside it. Then, lantern in hand, he hurried away from the riverbank.
He didn't return to the gang's dormitory. Instead, he went to an Abandoned Temple in South of the City.
The place was deserted. In ordinary times, only beggars and stray dogs came by, making it the perfect place to hide.
After confirming that no one was nearby, Lu Chen went deeper into the Abandoned Temple and laid the severed arm on a relatively clean stone slab.
By the faint moonlight, he drew the Mountain Splitting Saber at his waist.
As the blade neared the severed arm, a cold, vibrant force traveled along it, lifting Lu Chen's spirits.
He chose not to start a fire.
For one thing, he feared the light would attract unwanted trouble. For another, he had a vague feeling that heating the flesh might destroy the strange energy it contained.
Taking a deep breath, Lu Chen held it and brought his blade down, slicing a palm-sized piece of flesh from the severed arm with precision.
The meat was dark green, its muscle fibers clearly visible. It gave off a revolting mixture of river stink and blood.
Lu Chen's stomach lurched.
Fighting down his nausea, he closed his eyes and shoved the cold, slippery demon flesh into his mouth.
He didn't chew. He swallowed it whole.
The instant the Demon Flesh reached his stomach, a violent surge of heat exploded inside him.
The heat was utterly overbearing. It rushed back up his esophagus, then flooded wildly into his limbs and every part of his body, battering each meridian and organ.
"Ugh!"
Lu Chen let out a muffled roar and curled up on the ground, his whole body convulsing violently.
His skin quickly turned crimson. Veins bulged and twisted beneath it, as if they might burst at any moment.
A tearing agony ripped through his meridians.
His organs felt as if they were being roasted over a fire.
A destructive force threatened to swell his body from within until it burst apart, tearing him to pieces.
Just as Lu Chen's consciousness was about to drown in the boundless pain, he bit through the tip of his tongue. The sharp pain brought him back to his senses.
Practice... guide the energy!
That was the only thought that flashed through his mind.
Relying on his extraordinary willpower, Lu Chen struggled to his feet and assumed the stance for Stone Crushing Palm in the cramped space.
His movements were twisted and stiff. Every palm strike felt as if it drained all his strength, and his bones groaned under the strain.
Yet as he practiced the palm technique, something extraordinary happened.
The violent energy rampaging through his body and wreaking havoc seemed to have found an outlet. It began to follow the paths of force used in Stone Crushing Palm, gradually being guided and refined.
The energy that had been so violent was being tamed.
Lu Chen kept his mind focused and practiced the technique again and again.
The pain remained, but the sensation of his body being torn apart began to fade, replaced by an indescribable tingling warmth.
He could clearly feel the bones, meridians, and skin on his palms transforming at an unbelievable speed under the energy's relentless wash.
An hour later.
Lu Chen slowly finished his practice and exhaled a breath of foul air tinged with a fishy sweetness.
He looked down at his hands, eyes blazing.
His palms, once covered only in calluses, now seemed to gleam faintly beneath the skin with a metallic sheen.
He checked his status panel.
[Martial Art: Stone Crushing Palm (2nd Realm, Proficient 80%)]
In just an hour, after eating only a small piece of demon flesh, his proficiency had surged by 45%.
The gamble paid off!
Lu Chen was ecstatic.
This demon flesh was practically a miraculous tonic made just for him.
[Body Immunity] let him withstand the impact of the energy without dying, while [Heavenly Dao Rewards Diligence] let him perfectly convert that energy into his own strength.
After resting briefly and recovering some strength, Lu Chen cut off another piece of Demon Flesh and swallowed it.
The same excruciating pain, the same violent surge of energy.
But now he had experience. He immediately began practicing the palm technique, guiding the energy.
And so he fell into a mad cycle.
Eat, refine, eat again, refine again.
For three days straight, Lu Chen didn't return to the gang.
He slept and rested in the Abandoned Temple during the day, recovering his strength. At night, he began crazily devouring Demon Flesh and practicing Stone Crushing Palm.
The Water Ghost's Severed Arm visibly shrank.
Meanwhile, the aura around Lu Chen climbed at a terrifying pace, rising higher and higher.
Late on the third night.
Just as Lu Chen swallowed the final piece of demon flesh and finished refining all its energy, a sudden transformation occurred!
He felt both palms jolt, and an unprecedented strength surged from them, coursing through his entire body.
Crack! Crack!
A flurry of sharp pops came from the bones in his hands.
He looked down and saw that his hands had turned as black as ink in the moonlight.
A feeling of effortless unity and free-flowing force welled up within him.
He looked at the status panel in the upper-right corner of his vision.
[Martial Art: Stone Crushing Palm (3rd Realm, Mastery 1%)] [Trait: Iron Hand (Beginner, hand bones harder than iron and stone), Bronze Skin (Beginner, resilient skin that can withstand blows from ordinary blades)]
He had broken through!
He had forcibly trained the low-grade Stone Crushing Palm to the Third Realm, "Mastery"!
And it had given rise to two new traits!
With [Iron Hand] and the [Iron Skin] he'd had before, which should now be called [Bronze Skin], his defenses had leapt to a whole new level.
Lu Chen walked to a corner of the Abandoned Temple, where an enormous discarded Stone Mill lay, weighing several hundred pounds.
He extended his right hand, black as ink, and pressed it against the millstone with an almost weightless touch.
Not a sound.
When he lifted his hand, an inky palm print an inch deep had been left in the hard bluestone!
The edges of the print were smooth, and the stone inside had been pulverized.
Force Penetrates Body!
This was the hallmark of the "Mastery" realm!
"What incredible strength..."
Lu Chen looked at his hands and felt the terrifying power within them. For the first time, he was filled with an unprecedented sense of security.
If he faced that Junior Leader of the Red Fish Gang again, he could probably shatter the man's internal organs from a distance with just one palm strike!
After the joy of his explosive growth in strength, Lu Chen calmed down.
Stone Crushing Palm had reached the Third Realm. Beyond that might lie "Perfect Mastery."
But he seemed to have exhausted this martial art's potential. If he wanted to improve faster and grow stronger, he would have to obtain a higher-level, genuinely "ranked" martial art.
Ranked martial arts were held by gang leaders or the great clans. Ordinary people had no chance of gaining access to them.
"It seems it's time to figure out how to climb the ranks in the gang."
A keen glint flashed in Lu Chen's eyes as a clear goal slowly took shape in his heart.
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