"Brother Chen Fan, I'll take you back."
Wang Chao walked over to Chen Fan and spoke.
The two of them returned to Chen Fan's residence, one in front of the other.
"Wang Tou, if you have things to take care of, go ahead. After all, you still need to handle the arrangements for our brothers who died. I'll be fine here on my own."
Chen Fan spoke.
The Ninth Squad had suffered terrible casualties this time. Wang Chao was the Xiaoqi Officer of the Ninth Squad, with ten men under his command. He had already spent most of the day running around on Chen Fan's behalf, and he still needed to arrange the funerals for the four brothers who had died, report the casualties, and apply for compensation. He would have to pull strings to get all of that done.
The amount of compensation would determine how the four brothers' parents, wives, children, and other family members would fare in the future.
"Alright."
"I'll come see you again later!"
Wang Chao nodded at that, then left Chen Fan's residence.
"Thirty-three years of Demonic Creature Lifespan. I hope this won't disappoint me!"
After Wang Chao left, Chen Fan bolted the door. His attribute panel appeared before his eyes. With a thought, he began consuming Demonic Creature Lifespan to deduce Body Tempering Fist!
The Demonic Creature Lifespan on the panel rapidly dwindled, while his Body Tempering Fist proficiency and his own strength continued to rise.
[You train hard in Body Tempering Fist. In the tenth year, you master it, ultimately reaching the realm of skin as tough as bronze and entering the Bone Vajra stage of the Spirit Concealment Realm's Second Pass!] [You continue practicing Body Tempering Fist. In the twentieth year, you perfect it, ultimately reaching the realm of bones as hard as iron and entering the Muscle Bodhisattva stage of the Spirit Concealment Realm's Third Pass!] [You train hard in Body Tempering Fist for thirty years and gain entirely new insights. You ultimately reach the realm of sinews as tough as steel and enter the Blood Martial Saint stage of the Spirit Concealment Realm's Fourth Stage!] [You train hard in Body Tempering Fist for thirty-three years. Your Body Tempering Fist has reached the point of consummate mastery, and your blood and qi continue to grow. But you are still unsatisfied. You feel that the Body Tempering Fist in your hands can be deduced further, yet you fail to do so...!] [Body Tempering Fist (Perfected)] [Realm: Spirit Concealment Realm (Fourth Stage: Blood Martial Saint)]
"So this is what it means to have skin like bronze, bones like iron, and sinews like steel!"
"Of the five stages of the Spirit Concealment Realm, I've perfected three and entered the fourth, the Blood Martial Saint stage!"
"This is a realm even Big Brother Wang Chao hasn't reached!"
"They say that the two Zongqi Officers in Ping'an County are the only Martial Artists at the Blood Martial Saint stage, while Baihu Master has merely perfected the fifth stage and hasn't yet entered the next realm!"
"Does that mean I've leapt to become the fourth-most powerful person in the Ping'an County Jinyiwei Baihu Office—or even the second-most powerful?"
Chen Fan spoke with deep emotion.
He felt the changes in his body. The wounds on him had completely disappeared, and the powerful flow of blood and qi had driven the Demon Poison and Yin Sha Qi out of his body.
He was now full of life and vigor, and felt like he could kill the thick-skinned Wild Boar Demon from before with a single punch!
How could it withstand a punch carrying thirty-three years of power?!
However, although Body Tempering Fist was the most universally suitable foundational boxing method, capable of helping people break through the five stages and unlock the hidden treasures of the human body, using it to reach the peak of the Spirit Concealment Realm was exceedingly difficult.
Body Tempering Fist was easy to learn but hard to master. Though it was suitable for almost everyone, even someone with poor aptitude could get started with it. With ten years or so of effort, they could even bring it to the minor mastery stage.
But Chen Fan had now deduced Body Tempering Fist to the Grand Perfection realm, and still, after perfecting it, he had needed more than ten years to raise his Martial Dao realm to the Blood Martial Saint stage of the Spirit Concealment Realm's Fourth Pass.
If he continued practicing Body Tempering Fist, perhaps he would need another ten years or even longer to break through to the Marrow Asura stage of the Spirit Concealment Realm's Fifth Pass.
Fortunately, this was only a deduction made using Demonic Creature Lifespan. If this had all happened in reality, he might not have reached the peak of the Spirit Concealment Realm even by the time he died.
Under normal circumstances, he was now sixteen and could expect to live another seventy years, to the age of eighty-six. That was already no small age.
But once a Spirit Concealment Realm Martial Artist passed the age of forty, their body began to decline. If they failed to reach the peak of the Spirit Concealment Realm before turning forty, it would be difficult to break through to the next realm.
So unless one had extraordinary talent, trying to break through the five stages and reach the peak of the Spirit Concealment Realm with a single book of Body Tempering Fist was almost impossible.
"No wonder the Zongqi Officers and Baihu Master chose other Cultivation Methods to practice. If they stubbornly stuck to Body Tempering Fist, they probably couldn't reach the peak of the Spirit Concealment Realm even after thirty or fifty years."
"And by then, even if they broke through to the peak of the Spirit Concealment Realm, their bodies would already have passed their prime. Breaking through to the next realm would be a distant dream!"
"But I have an attribute panel. As long as I have enough lifespan, I can easily use Body Tempering Fist to raise my realm to the peak of the Spirit Concealment Realm!"
Chen Fan thought, his heart soaring.
The life-or-death crisis he had faced earlier had long since vanished without a trace.
The woods on the outskirts of Ping'an County.
A monster with a human body and a toad's head, its body covered in green, pus-filled sores, sat on a smooth rock. It crossed one leg over the other and glanced sideways at the Masked Man in night clothes standing not far away.
"I've done what you asked. When are you going to bring me the virgin boy and girl I requested?"
"This lord is already starving."
The Toad Demon rolled its bulging eyes, then flicked out its tongue and wrapped it around a sparrow flying overhead, swallowing it whole.
"I told you to kill all five of them. Why did you leave one alive?"
"And the one you left alive is exactly the person I wanted dead!"
"Are you deliberately trying to oppose me?"
The masked man in black spoke in a low voice, his eyes glinting with murderous intent. A trace of anxiety edged his tone.
"You never told me which one to kill!"
"Besides, no Earthly Immortal can save anyone poisoned by me. He won't live much longer!"
The Toad Demon was taken aback, then replied with absolute certainty.
"I know he won't live long. I'm just afraid he'll say something he shouldn't before he dies."
The Masked Man sighed.
"Don't worry, brother. He may not even know about our business. And even if he does, who would believe him?"
"Tell me, why can't you keep it in your pants? Was the County Magistrate's concubine really that good?"
"She was nothing more than blood food!"
A hint of mockery appeared in the Toad Demon's eyes as it spoke.
"She was my informant by the County Magistrate's side. How could I have known that hotheaded fool Chen Fan would hunt demons right into my private Separate Courtyard, where he happened to catch me in bed with that saucy woman?"
"Keeping Demonic Creatures in a Separate Courtyard and fooling around with the County Magistrate's beloved concubine—those are the only two stains on my otherwise spotless life, and he stumbled across both of them. He really deserves to die!"
The Masked Man spoke viciously.
"Heh heh heh."
The Toad Demon snickered at that, though inwardly it thought the man before it was utterly shameless.
Those two stains alone were enough to get him killed without a trace, and he still called his life spotless? Bah!
It had never met anyone so shameless!
And it seemed he had more than just those two stains, too!
"Didn't you say he didn't know that was your Separate Courtyard?"
"And didn't you say yourself?"
"He never entered your room. You chased him off before he could, so all he knew was that a Martial Dao expert lived in that Separate Courtyard. He didn't know who you were."
"Even if he investigates, he won't be able to trace it back to you. After all, the Separate Courtyard belongs to a wealthy merchant from Longyuan Prefecture, not you."
"You're just far too cautious!"
The Toad Demon shook its head as it spoke.
Before you continue