The Bearded Man had spent a full twenty years cultivating this Basic Saber Technique to the Proficient Realm. To reach the Great Accomplishment Realm, even if he did not die, it would still be almost impossible.
From this, it was clear just how terrifyingly extraordinary Su Mo's talent and comprehension were.
And this was despite Su Mo not putting all his energy into this Basic Saber Technique. He had also been distracted by practicing archery, tempering his body, and mastering the innate traits of wild beasts and Fierce Beasts.
If Su Mo had devoted a little more energy to this Basic Saber Technique, then by now, he would most likely have already cultivated it to the Complete Realm.
"My body seems to have reached a limit. Eating Green Wolf Meat no longer brings out that faint warm current and heat. Only when I eat Mountain Boar Meat does that sensation continue to surface within me. Does this mean Green Wolf Meat is no longer effective for me?"
Over the past few days, Su Mo had also discovered something else: continuing to eat Green Wolf Meat no longer generated that warmth within his body. This meant that Green Wolf Meat could no longer imperceptibly strengthen his body.
Mountain Boar Meat, however, still could.
According to the Bearded Man, the Mountain Boar was a Fierce Beast, and the energy contained in its flesh surpassed that of Green Wolf Meat.
After discovering this, Su Mo set the Green Wolf Meat aside and ate only Mountain Boar Meat.
Afraid that the Green Wolf Meat would go to waste, Su Mo gave more than half of it to Uncle Chen Shan and his family next door. This frightened Uncle Chen Shan and Aunt Zhang Cuihua badly, and they refused to take it no matter what.
Su Mo could only give them a half-true, half-false explanation. In the end, Uncle Chen Shan and the others accepted the Green Wolf Meat, but this made the usually strong-willed Aunt Zhang Cuihua burst straight into tears.
With this meat, even if Uncle Chen Shan did not go into the mountains to hunt, his family would have enough to last until the beginning of next spring.
Su Mo gave the remaining Green Wolf Meat to Grandma Li and to some elderly people who had once helped and supported him. The old folks were even more moved. In the bitter winter, with snow flying thick and fast, this meat was life-saving food.
How could they not be moved?
Just as Su Mo was cultivating quietly and not entering the mountains to hunt, news suddenly spread through the village: someone had hunted a Plum Deer. This was a major event, instantly startling the entire Shuanglin Village.
When Su Mo had brought the Mountain Boar and Green Wolf back to the village, he had made sure no one saw him, so naturally, everyone remained unaware.
This time, however, the hunters who had caught the deer carried the entire animal back to the village in full view. This shocked many villagers. After all, with a deer's worth of meat, they would have nothing to worry about for the entire winter.
Uncle Chen Shan next door told him that the hunters who had caught the deer were not a single person but a father and son pair—the father and son Zhang Tieshan and Zhang Hai, who lived at the eastern end of the village. Together, they had hunted the Plum Deer in Qingliang Mountain.
At this point, Uncle Chen Shan was filled with envy.
Su Mo knew of the father and son Zhang Tieshan and Zhang Hai. Zhang Tieshan was a hunter of the older generation, older and senior even to Uncle Chen Shan. His son Zhang Hai, however, was younger than Su Mo, only sixteen years old this year. Zhang Hai also had a younger sister named Zhang Qian, who was only fifteen.
After the New Year, once she turned sixteen, her family would begin looking for a husband and discussing marriage.
The reason for this was that Zhang Tieshan had fathered both his son and daughter late in life.
In the village, it was often not easy for hunters to find wives. Uncle Chen Shan, for example, had been over thirty when he met Aunt Zhang Cuihua. Even then, it was only because Aunt Cuihua said that Uncle Chen Shan had a face she found pleasing that she agreed to marry him.
If he had been anyone else, Aunt Cuihua would never have married him!
Uncle Chen Shan also told him that the mountains had been very chaotic these past few days. The men and followers of Black Wind Stockade had been combing Qingliang Mountain everywhere in search of someone. It was said that someone had killed several men from Black Wind Stockade, one of whom had even been a Minor Leader.
While the people from Black Wind Stockade were combing the mountains, word came that one of their Major Leaders had accidentally encountered a Mountain Boar. The Mountain Boar had gone berserk and rammed the Major Leader to death, tearing his corpse into several pieces.
This Major Leader of Black Wind Stockade had been no weakling. He had been a Martial Artist in the mid-stage of the Body Tempering Realm.
Even so, when he encountered the Mountain Boar, he was still forcefully killed one-on-one. His body had been smashed and torn to pieces.
The people of Shuanglin Village knew nothing about this. Black Wind Stockade had deliberately concealed it, so Uncle Chen Shan was unaware, and consequently, Su Mo was unaware as well.
There was another piece of news: a Wolf King had now appeared in Green Wolf Ridge, and it was extraordinarily ferocious. Many hunters who had accidentally wandered into Green Wolf Ridge had suffered. Uncle Chen Shan warned him to avoid Green Wolf Ridge as much as possible whenever he entered the mountains.
This Green Wolf King was extremely powerful, comparable to a Fierce Beast.
Over the next few days, Su Mo kept a low profile. He trained hard in archery, crazily tempered and honed his body, and cultivated his saber technique all the way to the Complete Realm.
And on the night the Basic Saber Technique reached the Complete Realm,
Impurities and grime were expelled from Su Mo's skin. White vapor billowed from his entire body, and his strength surged. His skin tightened as if it had undergone some ultimate purification, while the sound of his surging blood and qi rang out clearly.
"Could this be the Body Tempering Realm?"
At that moment, Su Mo's eyes glittered. Blood and qi flowed through his body, and tremendous strength radiated from him. He discovered that even without using the Beast Hide Great Bow, he could kill a Mountain Boar with a single punch. Yes, even with its rough hide and thick flesh, the Mountain Boar could no longer withstand one of his punches.
The strength within Su Mo's body had undergone unprecedented reinforcement and enhancement. With the support of the [Tough Hide and Thick Flesh] trait, his physical defenses had also become even denser and more powerful.
He did not know whether Martial Artists in the Body Tempering Realm were all this strong, or whether only he felt this way.
In fact, the Bearded Man had previously concealed one crucial point about the Body Tempering Realm and had not told him. For an ordinary person to become a Martial Artist in the Body Tempering Realm, they had to learn a martial art to temper their body, causing a qualitative transformation and allowing them to enter the Body Tempering Realm.
The Basic Saber Technique did not actually count as such a martial art, because the words "Basic Saber" had already decided that.
But Su Mo had relied on his terrifying comprehension and formidable physique to forcefully break through this barrier and enter the Body Tempering Realm, washing away the impurities and grime in his body. This was astonishingly frightening.
At the same time, the Green Wolf's [Sharp Claws] trait had previously strengthened his hands. When he gripped a saber, it was as steady as Mount Tai. With each slash, saber-light swept in every direction, afterimages scattered, and the air shrieked. In Su Mo's hands, the Basic Saber Technique at the Complete Realm unleashed unimaginable power.
Su Mo did not know whether it was because he had cultivated the Basic Saber Technique to the Complete Realm, but when he performed the saber technique, a faint golden radiance actually flashed across the blade. It was so subtle and indistinct that it was almost impossible to see, but sharp-eyed Su Mo still noticed it.
He did not know whether it was because of the Basic Saber Technique at the Complete Realm or because of the Ancient Profound Pearl within his body. That thread of golden radiance was simply too faint.
"After breaking through to the Body Tempering Realm, I don't know whether it's because the impurities and grime in my flesh have been expelled or because I underwent some kind of tempering, but the level of my life seems to have changed. Before, although it wasn't obvious, I felt that my lifespan would not be very long. At most, I would live to seventy."
"But now, relying on eating wild beast meat, constantly nourishing my body with those warm currents, and breaking through to the Body Tempering Realm, my lifespan can reach at least ninety years. Even living to a hundred is entirely possible."
After breaking through to the Body Tempering Realm, Su Mo could faintly sense the changes within his body. It was an exceptionally mystical feeling—the ultimate sensation of one's lifespan increasing. The feeling was intoxicating.
Because they spent their entire lives hunting in the great mountains, many hunters and woodsmen actually failed to live past seventy. Hunting wild beasts and many large animals caused all kinds of problems and ailments to accumulate in their bodies over the years.
In Shuanglin Village, old hunters over sixty years of age could be counted on one hand. Zhang Tieshan, who had caught the Plum Deer, was one of them.
"If breaking through to become a Martial Artist can increase one's lifespan, then if I break through to the Meridian Opening Realm, will my lifespan increase even more? Above the Meridian Opening Realm, there are also the Tendon Changing Realm, Bone Refining Realm, and Blood Changing Realm. Once I reach them, how many years will my lifespan increase?"
"Wouldn't that mean living for two hundred years, or even several hundred?"
"When a Martial Artist cultivates to the extreme, can they truly live forever, looking down over the mortal world?"
Feeling his lifespan invisibly increase, Su Mo was delighted, while also sighing over how terrifyingly long the lifespans of Martial Artists above the Body Tempering Realm must be.
He even guessed that if things continued this way, then once he cultivated to the extreme of martial arts, would he not be able to live forever and roam freely across the human world?
At this moment, Su Mo's obsession with martial arts became incomparably intense. He wanted to extend his lifespan. He wanted immortality.
He did not want to die.
However, because Su Mo had spent so many years in Shuanglin Village, he did not know that even if Martial Artists outside cultivated to the Bone Refining Realm or Blood Changing Realm, their lifespans would not necessarily increase. An increase in lifespan required the strengthening and transformation of one's level of life to affect it.
For Martial Artists outside, to increase their lifespans, they either had to take life-extending pills to awaken their aged flesh and bring forth new life, or eat exotic beasts and demon beasts. Otherwise, they had to break through to the Blood Changing Realm, condense Divine Gang, reach the Transcendent Realm, shed their mortal bodies, and undergo a complete transformation of their level of life before their lifespans could increase.
But anyone capable of reaching such a realm was already an apex powerhouse who could sit in command over and look down upon an entire region. Even in the outside world, they were rarely seen.
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