Seated inside the house, Jiang Yan saw that there was no rain today, but the sky was still overcast.
The room was dim. Jiang Yan sat on the bed, carefully studying the external cultivation technique he had gotten from Fei Shan.
The technique was called Golden Cloak. Judging by the name, it was a common, run-of-the-mill technique, not something lofty and grand like a divine art.
The ability panel appeared. Jiang Yan focused on it, and the status of Golden Cloak came into view.
Technique:
Golden Cloak:
Level: 4
Status: Not yet mastered
Upgrade (Available) Deduce (Unavailable)
A thought stirred in Jiang Yan's mind. Golden Cloak, upgrade, level one.
Hiss!
He spread his hands. Faint golden lines had appeared on his palms. They were very subtle, but visible if he looked closely.
He pressed the skin on his arm. It felt taut.
He clenched his fist, and power surged through his body.
But there was no obvious improvement.
"Golden Cloak, first level... The improvement doesn't seem that noticeable for me."
He knew why. A martial artist at the peak of the Martial Apprentice stage already had excellent physical attributes. Even though Golden Cloak was an external cultivation technique specifically for training the body, just the first level wasn't enough to make much of a difference for him.
In that case...
He continued upgrading. Second level.
The ability panel abruptly blurred, then reappeared in an instant.
"Hm?"
He seemed to have noticed something.
Jiang Yan raised his arm. The slightly brighter light from outside the house let him see it more clearly, in greater detail.
Fine golden lines showed on his arm, but when he examined it, nothing seemed to have changed much.
His skin was tighter and smoother, but what use was that? He wasn't a woman.
After thinking it over, he picked up the long sword from the bed. The only way to see if anything had changed was to try it.
He had the feeling that Golden Cloak wasn't an external cultivation technique for building strength and physical fitness. It seemed to focus mainly on defense.
Clang!
He drew the sword and held it against his forearm. He didn't apply any force. Before, the sword's weight and sharpness alone would have been enough to cut his arm.
But this time, no wound appeared.
The sword seemed to rest against a thick piece of leather, its edge blunted.
"Mm..."
It worked!
Jiang Yan's spirits lifted.
This tiny bit of extra defense was not to be underestimated. In a fight to the death, even a little extra protection could turn the tables.
He continued to apply pressure. The sharp blade pressed down, and his skin began to sink.
He kept pushing. A faint pain came, and Jiang Yan stopped, knowing he had reached the limit of his defense.
He raised his arm and saw a thin white line on it.
"This sword is very sharp. Even it needs some force to cut my skin..."
Jiang Yan thought back to how hard he had pressed.
"That means even if a little kid had a knife now, as long as they didn't hit a vital spot..."
"They'd only leave a white mark on me."
He estimated that his current defense was about the same as wearing a suit of leather armor.
In a fight, he could catch his opponent off guard by trading wounds.
For example, they could slash him and make him bleed a little, while he stabbed them through the heart.
"Mm..." Jiang Yan thought for a moment, a smile curling at the corner of his mouth. "Why does this feel like one of those fighting games from my past life?"
Although Golden Cloak didn't do much to improve his strength and physique, the defense it granted was a pleasant surprise. There were still two levels left, so he could try upgrading again!
Third level, upgrade!
Whirr!
Inside the house, Jiang Yan broke through once more.
The third level was clearly different. Golden spots flickered across his skin, and heat surged through his body.
Huff!
Inhale!
Sweat poured off him as if a dam had broken. His breathing came in great, rasping gasps, his chest heaving violently.
The strain on his body increased in an instant. After all, the Martial Arts Modifier could raise a technique through multiple levels in a brief moment, even when it would take others ten years or more to cultivate it. So the signs of his breakthrough were all the more dramatic.
Golden lines densely covered Jiang Yan's entire body. Then they split into even finer lines, before finally spreading out into a faint golden film that covered him.
It was almost like the protective Inner Qi of a Body Refining Realm martial artist.
Huff!
He exhaled a stream of scorching air, hot as boiling water. In an instant, the temperature in his little room rose considerably.
"Damn it, that's unbearable."
When Jiang Yan broke through to the third level, he cursed in pain.
As soon as he broke through, he had involuntarily entered a state of cultivation. But the breakthrough to the third level had hurt terribly.
Still, that was a good thing. It was probably because his body's tissues and structure were undergoing a drastic reconstruction.
That meant the third level of Golden Cloak was improving his strength and physique.
Sitting upright on the bed, he held the sword in his right hand and thrust it forward. A faint, sharp hiss of air sounded.
"My strength has increased by a little over ten percent."
Then, onward!
Fourth level!
Technique: Golden Cloak
Level: 4
Status: Fourth level
Upgrade (Unavailable) Deduce (Unavailable)
Weird Value: 2
Golden Cloak had reached the fourth level, perfected!
Fei Shan could never have imagined that, less than two hours after Jiang Yan took the technique away, he would have perfected it at the fourth level.
An ordinary person might never reach that level—not even in an entire lifetime.
At that moment, Jiang Yan's face was twisted in a grimace. His muscles began to vibrate at a certain frequency he couldn't understand.
His body also felt numb and scorched. It swelled little by little, as if filling with water, while strands of muscle coiled tightly around him like steel wires.
His entire body was covered in a slick, golden film.
At last, the changes in his body stopped.
"What is this..."
Jiang Yan raised his arm and saw that his muscles had bulged. He touched his stomach and found that his muscles had practically swelled to bursting.
"Right."
Jiang Yan's mouth twitched. External cultivation was still external cultivation; it was bound to improve his physique. He had simply broken through too quickly, making the change in his build rather dramatic.
He tugged at his clothes. Though he had grown much bulkier, they still covered him. Even if they didn't, it wouldn't matter. He could just say he had gotten bigger from training hard.
He clenched his fist and carefully assessed the change.
"My strength has increased by about fifty percent."
Jiang Yan's eyes shone brightly.
In this world, as long as he could become stronger, he could do anything.
"Besides," Jiang Yan said, reaching up to touch his hair, "I got stronger, but I didn't go bald."
"And there's more..."
Jiang Yan noticed that after he broke through to the fourth level, all the vulnerable places on his body—his lower body, throat, eyelids, and ears—had slowly gained a layer of skin-like material over their formerly thin, weak skin.
It was almost like an exceptionally tough membrane.
And that wasn't all. When he fully activated Golden Cloak, golden light would shine from his body, and a fine, delicate film would cover him from head to toe.
It left no blind spots in his defense.
Although the protection over his vulnerable areas might not be especially strong, it still made him much safer.
In fact, Jiang Yan's current state was practically the ideal outcome the creator of this technique had hoped a cultivator would achieve upon perfecting it.
Such a state should have existed only in the imagination. But now, with the Modifier's help, it had become a perfect reality.
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