Anomaly

"It's a bit light. I should be able to lift something heavier."

Shi Mu muttered to himself, then raised his hand again. With a boom, the stone lock was thrown to the ground nearby.

The entire plaza trembled slightly.

Only then did Shi Mu lift his hands and examine them closely.

His palms were long and sturdy, but no matter how he looked at them, they didn't seem like flesh and blood capable of unleashing a thousand jin of force.

After a moment of deliberation, Shi Mu walked back to the wooden rack and took down the long blade again.

Moments later, streaks of blade shadows burst forth across the plaza, like flying sand and rolling stones, or a flood dragon surging out to sea.

With a whoosh, a white ribbon of light swept out, engulfing a nearby wooden stake.

After a few crack crack sounds, the stake was instantly severed into seven pieces that rolled apart.

Six strikes in one breath!

His blade speed was now no slower than Li Canghai's earlier demonstration.

The blade shadows converged. Shi Mu stood still, holding the long blade reversed, staring at the broken stake with a thoughtful expression.

Evening.

Inside a crudely furnished large room, the heavy wooden door was bolted from within.

Shi Mu lay on the large bed in the center of the room, his eyes tightly shut.

His skin was flushed red, drenched in hot sweat. His entire body curled into a ball, and from his mouth came intermittent groans of pain. His limbs twitched uncontrollably, and he hovered in a semi-conscious state.

After an unknown stretch of time, his pained sounds gradually ceased. His limbs slowly stretched out, his skin returned to its normal color, and he opened his weary eyes.

Shi Mu took a few deep breaths, walked to the bedside, and moved his arms and legs. Then, with a sudden motion, he grabbed the edge of the bed and squeezed with all five fingers.

A crisp crack!

The seemingly sturdy solid-wood bedside shattered under his grip.

"My strength has grown a bit more, but not as dramatically as the last few times. The interval since the last episode was a month, and it only lasted half an hour. It seems the potential for further improvement is slim." Shi Mu murmured to himself.

This startling transformation had begun ever since he moved into this estate, and it had happened more than once. This was the reason behind his astonishing strength and exceptional blade skill during the day.

The first episode occurred during his first month in the estate, tormenting him for an entire night.

But the next day, after he recovered, he found that both his strength and physical reflexes had increased dramatically.

Then, two nights later, the second episode began.

And so it went. Over the past few months, he had experienced more than a dozen such episodes, each one granting his body remarkable benefits.

However, as the episodes grew shorter and the intervals between them longer, the boosts to his strength and reflexes began to taper off.

By this latest episode, it had only increased his strength by a small margin, far from the leaps of the earlier ones.

Even so, Shi Mu's current strength was well over a thousand jin, and his reaction speed was several times that of an ordinary person.

Even if Shi Mu were slow-witted, he could guess that this transformation was largely related to the giant clam he had rescued from the seabed that day.

After all, the entire process closely resembled the boiling sensation in his blood when he woke up on the shore that day, except the pain was more than ten times greater.

He had heard many tales of such fortuitous encounters from the storytellers' biographies of powerhouses, and he had once envied them deeply.

Now that such a miracle had happened to him, he was naturally overjoyed and felt much more confident about passing the Kaiyuan Martial Academy's test in over half a year.

Additionally, Shi Mu had learned from Li Canghai that even if one grasped Qi Sense and met the age requirement, entering the martial academy still required fierce competition.

After all, the Kaiyuan Martial Academy had limited resources and could only admit a fixed number of students. Based on past experience, the number of applicants from all prefectures in Kaiyuan Prefecture was often several times that.

Shi Mu was well aware that his talent was mediocre. Even after taking the Spirit Qi Pill, his chances of grasping Qi Sense wouldn't be much higher than an ordinary person's.

According to Li Canghai, once one passed the ninth layer of Body Tempering, each additional layer greatly increased the odds of grasping Qi Sense. If one could reach the tenth layer, even an ordinary talent would have a one-in-three chance. If one reached the thirteenth layer of Grand Completion, the failure rate dropped to less than half.

This was why some low-talent martial apprentices, even past the age of thirty or forty, could still advance to Postnatal martial artist by achieving Grand Completion in Body Tempering and taking multiple Spirit Qi Pills. But the time and money required were beyond what most apprentices could bear.

Of course, grasping Qi Sense at such an advanced age meant the golden period for martial cultivation was completely wasted. The difficulty of continuing cultivation was unimaginable. Even reaching the mid-Postnatal stage would be extremely hard, and the late stage was nearly impossible.

However, some true noble and wealthy families could gather rare auxiliary elixirs to increase the odds of grasping Qi Sense, but the cost was several times higher than acquiring Spirit Qi Pills.

Li Canghai himself had only reached the twelfth layer of Body Tempering and, after taking a Spirit Qi Pill a second time in his twenties, barely advanced to Postnatal. Every time he spoke of it, this mid-Postnatal martial artist still felt deep regret.

For Shi Mu, with his meager resources, buying auxiliary elixirs was out of the question. The only path was to raise his Body Tempering level.

But once Body Tempering passed the ninth layer, advancing further took far longer than most could imagine. Only true prodigies could reach the twelfth layer of Grand Completion before the age of fifteen. In the entire history of the Great Qi Kingdom, only a handful had managed it.

Thanks to the physical transformations over the past few months, Shi Mu had already pushed his Body Tempering to the ninth layer's peak, even close to the tenth layer.

By normal estimates, reaching the tenth layer in over half a year shouldn't be a problem. But reaching the eleventh layer was still a distant prospect. A one-in-three chance of grasping Qi Sense was hardly enough to put Shi Mu at ease.

If he wanted to go further in Body Tempering, he would have to resort to the extreme training method Li Canghai had once mentioned.

According to Li Canghai, this Body Tempering method came from a master he had encountered by chance. Though simple and crude, its effects were astonishing. However, the process was too dangerous and painful, with a non-negligible risk of death during training, so he rarely taught it to other apprentices. If Shi Mu was willing to pay a large sum, Li Canghai would gladly pass it on.

Danger? Ever since he made his vow at his mother's grave to become a powerhouse, he knew he would walk a thorny and difficult path. Why would he fear danger?

But for now, he needed to master the Crushing Stone Fist technique first, then devote himself fully to Body Tempering.

Shi Mu thought coldly, quickly making up his mind.

Seven days later, in the center of the manor square stood a three-foot-tall green ceramic vat, packed full of dense soybean grains.

"Hah!" "Hah!"

Shi Mu stood before the vat, bare-chested, wearing only a pair of loose black trousers. Both hands were clad in thick silver leather gloves, and he punched fiercely into the wheat grains inside the vat, striking again and again.

"Listen carefully. The power of the Crushing Stone Fist is directly tied to your own strength, but the toughness of your fists themselves is the key to unleashing its full potential. Otherwise, no matter how strong you are, if you punch a rock with bare flesh, your hands will be torn to shreds. You're just a beginner. Though your body-tempering is complete, your fists are only tough enough to strike wood. I'm having you wear these multi-layered fish-skin gloves to hit these soybeans, slowly tempering the tendons, bones, and flesh of your hands. This prevents severe damage at the start and rapidly builds up your hand strength. Once your fists can punch clean through the vat in one blow, I'll swap the beans for larger gravel and remove one layer of fish-skin from your gloves. When you can punch through the gravel in one go, I'll switch to real iron sand. Only after you've pierced through that can you practice on actual large rocks... Watch it—your left arm's swing is too wide!" Li Canghai stood nearby with his arms crossed, speaking expressionlessly.

"Yes."

Shi Mu acknowledged, swinging both arms tirelessly. Each punch sank half a foot deep into the vat. His upper body was drenched in sweat, every muscle bulging and twitching like rats, and he was enveloped in an eerie fervor.

Half an hour later, Shi Mu suddenly let out a loud shout. With a single explosive punch, he drove his fist over a foot deep into the vat, burying nearly half his forearm in the soybeans.

"Stop! Didn't I tell you not to use too much force at the start?! Let me see if your hand is injured!" Li Canghai's face changed drastically at the sight. He barked sharply and quickly pulled a medicine bottle from his bosom.

"Master Li, it's fine." Shi Mu grinned, pulling his arm out of the soybeans.

"Hmph, whether it's fine or not is for me to decide. Take off the glove!" Li Canghai snorted without hesitation.

Shi Mu, hearing this, could only shake his arm once more before peeling off the layers of the glove on that fist, casually flexing his slightly reddened fingers in front of Li Canghai.

"Huh, seems fine. Strange—based on my years of teaching experience, if someone used that much force all at once, all five fingers should be dripping with blood. Come over here and punch this wooden stake with full strength!" Li Canghai scrutinized Shi Mu's hand, a surprised look on his face. After a moment's thought, he pointed to a nearby thick wooden post.

"Yes." Shi Mu took a deep breath, walked over to the stake, and slowly circled it.

With a "boom"!

Shi Mu shook his shoulders, then threw a sudden punch, snapping the bowl-thick wooden stake clean in half. The upper half of the stake shot away with a "whoosh," flying out of the square and slamming heavily into the outer wall of a nearby house, shaking the entire building slightly.

His withdrawn fist was utterly unharmed!