Li Tianfeng led Gu Chang'an through the inner courtyard.
Stepping around several corner pavilions, they finally arrived in front of a quiet room with a heavy wooden door.
He reached out and pushed the door open, and a wave of wood and medicinal fragrances hit them. The room was lit with dim candlelight, and several manuals on cultivation techniques hung on the walls.
In the exact center stood a table covered in parchment, upon which lay an entire set of neatly copied secret cultivation manuals.
Li Tianfeng sat down and pointed at the manual on the desk. "This is the complete true transmission of the Iron Cloth Shirt."
Gu Chang'an stepped forward and looked closely, seeing that the technique was divided into three stages: skin tempering first, bone tempering second, and tendon tempering last.
Every movement matched his breathing, and the methods of Qi and blood circulation were recorded in meticulous detail. At the very end was a separate page of secret medicinal recipes listing over thirty kinds of herbs and brewing methods.
Li Tianfeng picked up the medicinal recipe, his gaze solemn.
"A true body-tempering technique, even for the most rudimentary skin and flesh cultivation, can never be achieved solely through hard work."
He looked at Gu Chang'an, his tone stern.
"Qi and blood scouring the skin and membranes naturally make them tougher, but without the nourishment of medicinal properties, the meridians will gradually wither and vital energy will scatter. The more you train, the more you harm your body. Those martial artists in the martial world who rely on self-created body-forging methods are like iron men before thirty, but by forty they are riddled with chronic illnesses and rarely live past fifty."
He put the recipe away and handed it to Gu Chang'an. "This is yours alone, and it must not be passed on to others."
Gu Chang'an took it with both hands and nodded solemnly. "This disciple understands."
Li Tianfeng stood up and pushed open a secret door to the side. "Follow me."
He led Gu Chang'an into a deep stone chamber. The floor was paved with bluestone, and several pale blue night-pearls were embedded in the walls.
Right in the middle of the room stood a huge wooden tub. Steam rose from the tub, and the water was a deep, inky black, emitting a strong, pungent medicinal herb odor.
"This is a medicinal bath," Li Tianfeng said calmly. "It has been brewed for seven days with Black Bone Grass, Crimson Blood Vine, Tiger Tendon Flower, Snake Slough, and other ingredients, supplemented by surface-breaking catalysts. Since this is your first medicinal refinement and the intensity is slightly high, I've also mixed in some Blood-Calming Wood Sap to prevent your vital energy from running wild."
"Take off your clothes, get in the tub, and run the Iron Cloth Shirt."
Gu Chang'an nodded without hesitation. He untied the cloth belt around his waist and took off his upper garments.
His physique was already much sturdier than when he first arrived. His muscle lines were well-defined, his skin emitted a faint bronze sheen, and there were several faint old scars across his chest and abdomen.
He slowly stepped into the wooden tub.
In an instant, a wave of heat rushed over him. That black medicinal liquid felt like a living thing, fiercely wrapping around his limbs and bones!
"Hisst!"
He drew a sharp breath. The intense heat felt like fiery needles piercing his bones, and the medicinal power turned into tens of thousands of ants drilling into every inch of skin and pore, making his internal organs feel as though they were churning.
"Hold your ground!" Li Tianfeng shouted. "Circulate your Qi, and drive the flow of your blood! Let your skin and membranes meet the medicinal power head-on!"
Gu Chang'an clenched his teeth, closed his eyes, and slowly circulated the cultivation formula of the Iron Cloth Shirt.
Qi and blood surged between his meridians like a mountain torrent crashing into blood vessels. The pain, however, was gradually diluted by the hot current, transforming into a wondrous sensation of swelling and burning—as if his skin and flesh were being hammered by a raging fire, and beneath the flesh, a toughness like iron was gradually being born.
Li Tianfeng watched from the side, a growing look of gratification in his eyes.
"His natural bone structure is passable, and his temperament is extremely steady... He truly lives up to my first disciple's name."
In the stone chamber, only the sound of Gu Chang'an's heavy breathing and the roaring of his churning blood remained.
The medicinal liquid churned, black water sending out ripples as if some behemoth were stirring restlessly beneath the surface.
Gu Chang'an was flushed red all over, his skin looking as though it had been roasted by charcoal coals while his muscles twitched in spasms.
Li Tianfeng stood to one side, initially just watching quietly with the gaze of an old monk in meditation.
However, after half an incense stick of time, his brow twitched.
Another quarter of an hour later, the corners of his mouth began to twitch.
After yet another incense stick of time, he finally couldn't help narrowing his eyes, a flash of surprise crossing them. "Eh?"
To his astonishment, a layer of faint bronze light was actually gleaming across Gu Chang'an's skin, with wisps of heat rising from the surface.
Even more bizarrely, his vital energy was actually gushing out through his pores, only to be sucked back in as if by a magnet.
With a swish, it rushed back down in reverse, as if the medicinal liquid was being "counter-scraped" by his body.
His aura fluctuated erratically, chaotic at first, but gradually it returned like the tide to the sea, growing steadily calmer and beginning to take shape!
"This brat... could he be breaking through to the Skin Tempering Realm?" Li Tianfeng's mouth parted slightly, the corners of his eyes twitching uncontrollably.
"He's been practicing martial arts for less than a year, and on his very first medicinal bath, he's attempting to break into the Ninth Rank?"
Are you kidding me! Acting so recklessly before even adapting to the medicinal bath—reverse-surging Qi and blood will cause pores to burst!
Immediately, Li Tianfeng intended to stand up and intervene.
But just as he rose halfway, he suddenly paused and slowly sat back down.
He rubbed his chin as reason reasserted itself.
"Forget it... Let him hit a brick wall. Failing once and suffering a heavy loss will teach him that the sky is high and the earth is thick. Such precocious saplings need their arrogance battered down."
"With me here, even if he fails, as long as he rests for a few days he'll recover."
"There's no major danger..."
Yet the longer he watched, the stranger his expression became, and the tighter his brow furrowed.
Half an incense stick later—he began to doubt his view of reality.
Because Gu Chang'an still hadn't burst his pores.
Not only had he not burst them, he was actually trembling slightly, rhythmically undulating as if in the process of "skin-refining." Circles of faint, indistinct patterns were even appearing on the surface of his body, neither quite gold nor quite bronze, faintly emerging like cast bronze bones.
Li Tianfeng's breathing became somewhat unsteady, and he even reached out to wave a hand in front of his own face.
"Am I seeing things... How is this kid about to succeed?"
"Could this disciple of mine not just be a genius, but... a monster?"
Gu Chang'an in the medicinal vat finally opened his eyes, a flash of red light seemingly piercing through his pupils.
A wave of heat erupted with a bang, and he let out a roar:
"Haaa—!!!"
Accompanied by this shout, the area around the medicinal vat instantly shattered with a series of crackling sounds. A wave of force exploded outward, sending medicinal liquid splashing everywhere like raindrops right across Li Tianfeng's face.
The old man had been completely focused and caught off guard, getting drenched into a sorry state. His entire face looked as though it had just been hauled out of a soup pot, with strands of hair plastered against it.
Gu Chang'an stood up from the vat, breathing heavily. Steam rose from his entire body, his muscles were tense and powerful, and his skin emitted a faint bronze sheen like newly cast iron.
"I... I did it!"
"I've broken through to the Ninth Rank! Master—your disciple has not let you down, skin tempering is complete!"
Li Tianfeng wiped his face while clearing his throat.
"Ahem, ahem, ahem... Well... hmm, very good, Chang'an, I knew you could do it."
"Get dressed quickly and stop swaying around in front of me."
Gu Chang'an chuckled foolishly, grabbed his clothes, draped them over himself, and rubbed his hands together.
"Master, then this time... can we have another vat of medicinal bath?"
Li Tianfeng rolled his eyes, turned and walked out of the house, dropping a sentence behind him:
"Do you think your old master runs a mint? For that single vat of medicinal bath, the medicinal herbs alone cost fifty taels of silver! You brat still want to soak a second time?"
With his hands clasped behind his back, he said in a flat tone:
"From now on, I permit you to soak once a week. However, the quality will be a bit lower, I'll gather the herbs myself, and if I have time, I'll boil it for you personally."
"At all other times, if you want a medicinal bath, shell out your own silver, prepare your own herbs, and start your own fire!"
Bang!
With that, the wooden door was casually swung shut behind him with clean, decisive finality.
Inside the house, only Gu Chang'an was left draped in damp clothes, murmuring to himself:
"Alright, thank you, Master."
He lowered his head to look at his arms still soaked in medicinal liquid. His skin was like refined mutton-fat jade, smooth and dense, yet solid to the touch like stone.
"The feeling of a breakthrough... feels amazing!"
Then, he opened his status panel. His eyes shone with light, and the corners of his mouth couldn't help curling upward...
Before you continue