In the evening, Lu Hao returned home. He had slaughtered 60 pigs that day—not because he was slow, but because that was the pace of the deliveries, with one pig arriving every five minutes on average.
If too many were slaughtered at once, the later steps in the process would become a big problem. The animals would pile up and spoil.
That evening, after dinner with his mother,
Lu Hao told her he planned to break through that night and asked her to keep watch nearby. After all, his mother was a Rank Five martial artist, so if anything went wrong, she could step in immediately.
When he reached the Martial Arts Training Room, Lu Hao glanced at the panel.
[Slaughter Point System]
[Host: Lu Hao]
[Vital Blood: 179/179 cal+]
[Spirit: 269/269 Hz+]
[Storage Space: 1 cubic meter]
[Slaughter Point: 232]
Lu Hao was in peak condition. It was the perfect time to break through.
He looked at his mother and nodded, then swallowed a Blood Vitality Pill. He began practicing the Stance Technique while circulating the Tempering Method.
Then he focused on the plus sign after his Vital Blood value on the panel.
[Spend 100 Slaughter Points to increase maximum Vital Blood by 1 point?]
Confirm.
With a thought from Lu Hao, he immediately felt countless surges of vital blood carrying him forward. A barrier stood in his way. As long as he broke through it, he could temper his bones for the second time.
Nearby, Bai Qiuyao watched Lu Hao practicing the Stance Technique with a worried expression. Her right hand gripped a jade bottle containing a Life Recovery Pill, worth more than six million on the market. If Lu Hao's breakthrough failed, the pill could restore him to his former condition.
But what Bai Qiuyao cared about more was her son's spirit. A true martial artist had to possess an invincible, unyielding will. Only then could he become a high-rank grandmaster.
If he failed this time, the experience might plant a seed of doubt. Later, it could prevent him from uniting his essence and blood, and keep him from becoming a grandmaster.
Lu Hao could feel how powerful the surging vital blood carrying him along was. Normally, his meridians should never have been able to withstand such force.
But for some reason, the vital blood wasn't damaging his meridians. It seemed this was the system's power.
An hour passed.
When Lu Hao circulated the Tempering Method for the fourth time,
he suddenly felt the barrier blocking him give way. His maximum Vital Blood began to increase.
The bones throughout his body started to move, and his flesh trembled. Having already tempered his bones once, Lu Hao was overjoyed. This meant that his second bone tempering had begun.
Tiny traces of black, bloodied fluid seeped out through his skin, expelling impurities from his body.
Lu Hao didn't dare slack off. He hurriedly continued the Stance Technique. This was the best time to practice it.
Nearby, Bai Qiuyao saw blood beginning to seep from Lu Hao's skin, but she relaxed. She could tell the blood being expelled contained many impurities.
That meant Lu Hao had truly succeeded and begun tempering his bones for the second time. He had cleared the most difficult hurdle. From here, even if he simply lay still, his vital blood would automatically temper all his bones.
Seeing her younger son reach the point of his second bone tempering, Bai Qiuyao couldn't help thinking of Tian Bai. Both of them had tempered their bones twice.
If the Earth Caves didn't exist, their paths ahead would have been smooth and easy.
But there were no "ifs."
If not for Hao'er, she might have charged into the Magic City Abyss as soon as she heard the news.
Bai Qiuyao lost herself in thought. Martial artists looked mighty and invincible, but only they knew the pain in their hearts.
The Earth Caves had to be destroyed.
Half an hour later, Lu Hao had become a "black man." From the outside, not a single part of him looked clean.
Lu Hao stopped the Stance Technique and the Tempering Method. His second bone tempering was complete. Next, he needed to raise his Vital Blood to 199, then temper his bones for a third time—or break through to become a martial artist.
He immediately opened the panel to check his stats.
[Slaughter Point System]
[Host: Lu Hao]
[Vital Blood: 120/187 cal+]
[Spirit: 170/279 Hz+]
[Storage Space: 1 cubic meter]
[Slaughter Point: 132]
The results were astonishing. His second bone tempering had increased his maximum Vital Blood by 8 cal and his spirit by 10 Hz.
His maximum Vital Blood had risen to 187. He was only 12 cal short of the limit for the second bone tempering. Once he reached it, he could find a way to break through and temper his bones for a third time.
But the greatest benefit of tempering his bones a second time wasn't that. It was that every bone in his body had been tempered once. All 206 of Lu Hao's bones had now been tempered by 20%.
This would greatly speed up his future bone tempering during the lower three ranks. His skull, in particular, had already been tempered by 20%, which meant that tempering it at Rank Seven would go faster.
So Lu Hao wouldn't break through to become a martial artist immediately after tempering his bones twice. With the help of the panel, he was certain to temper his bones a third time before breaking through.
The boost from tempering every bone by 30%, and the improvement it would bring to his future training, would be immeasurable.
Lu Hao tried using Slaughter Points to raise his maximum Vital Blood, and the increase went through. Each point of Vital Blood now cost 50 Slaughter Points.
It seemed the earlier breakthrough had cost more Slaughter Points because he had been overcoming a bottleneck. Raising his Vital Blood normally was much cheaper.
Lu Hao looked up at his mother with a smile and waved his arm.
"Mom, look—I did it. I tempered my bones for the second time!"
"Mm-hmm, Hao'er, you did it," Bai Qiuyao said with a smile.
"I'm going to wash up first. I'm covered in dirty blood."
As he spoke, Lu Hao headed for the washroom. He was covered in blood, and it felt sticky. The stench was awful, too. If he hadn't needed to practice the Stance Technique during the bone tempering, he would have been unable to stand it.
"Mm, go wash up first. We can talk about what you gained when you come out."
Lu Hao entered the washroom. As the water poured over him, he thought,
He had taken his first step in this world. Next, he just needed to steadily increase his Vital Blood, temper his bones a third time until he reached the limit, and break through to become a Rank One martial artist.
The benefits of tempering his bones twice were already so obvious. With the help of the panel, and no shortage of talent, Lu Hao naturally planned to temper his bones a third time.
Lu Hao remembered that the difficulty of the third bone tempering lay in nurturing his vital blood until it reached its limit of 199. That alone would take a considerable amount of time. Lu Hao might make it look easy because Slaughter Points let him raise his Vital Blood so simply.
Most people had to spend half a year just to reach that point. They also had to buy pills regularly to help increase their vital blood, spending several million in the process.
After that, they still had to break through the barrier, and might not even succeed. A third bone tempering was even harder. That was why most people could only manage two.
As for the third bone tempering, Lu Hao remembered that in the original story, only Xie Lei of Magic Martial University had achieved it. But the process had worn him down, and his cultivation had become far too slow. After him came the protagonist, Fang Ping, who had succeeded in tempering his bones a third time with the help of his system.
With the panel's help, Lu Hao would have no problem tempering his bones a third time.
His body felt much lighter in the water. Even breathing felt easier. It seemed the hidden benefits of expelling the impurities were gradually becoming apparent.
After washing up, he still hadn't fully recovered to his peak, but Lu Hao could feel his vital blood circulating faster and more freely.
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