Flesh Regeneration

Jiang Che decided to run some tests.

He went to his room and took a hand spike from beneath his bed.

His previous hand spike had already broken. This was a newly forged replacement.

The spike's blade was covered in twisted black patterns, looking exceedingly strange.

This time, it had been made from harder Secret Iron.

It was an alloy made by mixing iron with a metal said to have been refined from meteorites that fell from the heavens.

It was extremely rare and correspondingly expensive.

Just that tiny amount had cost Jiang Che fifty taels of silver.

But the results were indeed excellent. It could pierce ordinary swords and sabers without damaging its blade.

Holding the hand spike in his right hand, Jiang Che gently jabbed his left forearm.

A faintly unusual sensation immediately came from his arm, but it did not hurt.

Jiang Che slowly increased his strength.

After using eighty percent of his strength, he finally pierced his skin.

Jiang Che was somewhat shocked.

His strength had already reached five hundred jin.

Eighty percent meant four hundred jin.

"Four hundred jin of force, and only this incomparably sharp Secret Iron Hand Spike could barely break my skin..."

Jiang Che felt that his defense was already close to Stone Skin!

Of course, this was only his basic strength.

If he used the Layered Cloud Fist, the force he struck with would far exceed that figure.

One factor was the method of exerting force. Martial techniques could gather the strength of the entire body together, ultimately reaching an astonishing degree.

The better one executed the fist forms, the less strength was wasted and the more could be condensed.

That was why Jiang Che had been able to shatter the heart of a Stone Skin Realm Black Beast with one punch just after breaking through to the Ox-Hide Realm.

Although his strength had been low then, the Flow State combined with his skilled fist technique had amplified his power countless times over.

Another factor was that explosive force and slowly applied force naturally could not be mentioned in the same breath.

Strength without speed had extremely limited destructive power.

Jiang Che raised his arm and began examining the wound.

The wound seeped a few drops of blood, then quickly stopped.

Next, the flesh around the wound began healing at a speed visible to the naked eye, soon scabbing over.

Jiang Che gently picked off the scab. Beneath it was a patch of fresh, pale skin.

"A minor wound healed in less than a minute!"

Jiang Che was quite satisfied with this recovery ability.

"I wonder what the limit is..."

Then, he picked up the hand spike again and, using the force-exertion method of the Layered Cloud Fist, viciously stabbed it into his own arm.

"Hiss—"

The hand spike instantly plunged about an inch deep into his arm, making Jiang Che suck in a sharp breath from the pain.

This time, the wound healed somewhat more slowly, but it had still completely recovered after half an hour.

Afterward, he hardened his heart, avoided the bone, and pierced straight through his forearm.

This time, the wound recovered even more slowly.

Jiang Che waited two days before it fully healed.

"It seems ordinary blade wounds basically heal within half a day. If it's a serious penetrating wound, it takes two or three days."

Jiang Che reached his conclusion.

However, he did not test his internal organs or bones.

He vaguely felt that if his internal organs or bones were injured, things would not turn out so well.

But with results like these, he was already very satisfied.

Moreover, as his Qi-Blood increased, Jiang Che discovered that his consumption of Exotic Beast Meat had also risen.

Back when his Qi-Blood was low, merely a small amount of Low-Grade Exotic Beast Meat was enough to sustain him. If he ate a little more, it could continue increasing.

But now, he needed to eat a large amount of Low-Grade Exotic Beast Meat just to maintain all this Qi-Blood.

And if he wanted to keep improving, he needed to eat large amounts of Low-Grade Exotic Beast Meat at all three meals every day.

Of course, Mid-Grade Exotic Beast Meat had excellent effects even in small amounts.

But five jin per month was nowhere near enough, so Jiang Che could only mix the two together.

"After breaking through Stone Skin, I'll need even more Mid-Grade Exotic Beast Meat. What Shao Estate provides alone is far from enough..."

Jiang Che sighed. He knew the martial path was difficult, but he had never imagined it would be this difficult!

Not only did it depend on one's natural endowment and perseverance, it also demanded a fight for resources.

Of course, accordingly, the rewards after becoming a Martial Artist were also enormous.

That was why, no matter how difficult it was, people in this world still flocked to it like ducks.

Furthermore, since he had mastered another skill and had yet to break through the Stone Skin Realm, he could not train the Layered Cloud Fist or Flying Swallow Steps.

That left him with only Calligraphy to practice.

But after writing Calligraphy for several days in a row, Jiang Che had made no great progress.

"I still can't build a cart behind closed doors. I should see where I can buy the calligraphy and paintings of masters..."

Having made up his mind, Jiang Che went to West Market Street in the West District.

Yet compared with before, there were far fewer people on the street.

Only one-third of the vendors on either side of the road remained.

He remembered candied hawthorn sellers and monkey performers along the roadside before, but now they had all vanished without a trace.

The once bustling street now appeared somewhat desolate.

Jiang Che continued onward and arrived at Wonderful Heart Studio.

But he discovered that the once-familiar Wonderful Heart Studio had been completely abandoned. Even its signboard was gone.

Its main doors were half-open. Jiang Che looked inside and found the place in complete disarray, its contents long since cleared out.

"Young man, the shopkeeper of this store disappeared several months ago."

An old man sat at the neighboring doorway. Seeing that Jiang Che seemed to be looking for someone, he spoke up.

"Sir, weren't there a lot of people on this street before? Why is it so deserted now?"

Jiang Che stepped forward and asked.

The old man shook his head. "Alas, they all disappeared! No one knows what happened. You'd see someone one day, and they'd be gone the next! Little by little, people became too afraid to come outside!"

Jiang Che nodded, then turned and left.

When he reached the notice board, he found that disappearance cases had become increasingly frequent. The board was nearly covered in notices.

Jiang Che could not help thinking of the Green-Eyed Monster he had encountered before, as well as Li Estate.

Although he had grown stronger now, he still did not dare act carelessly.

Li Estate in particular was unfathomable. There might even be people at the Iron-Hide Realm or Force-Entering Realm within it.

But aside from Calligraphy, his other skills were either fully mastered or unable to improve due to the limitations of his Qi-Blood.

Jiang Che wanted to grow stronger, yet he had fallen into a situation where there was nothing he could do.

That day, Jiang Che made another trip to the Inner City and finally found a place that sold calligraphy and paintings.

However, one look at the works the shopkeeper displayed told Jiang Che that they were imitations, and their standards were even lower than his own.

"Do you have anything better?"

Jiang Che asked.

The shopkeeper shook his head. "These are already the best in the city. Customer, are you looking to buy authentic works? Then you'll have to go to Cang Prefecture. In a small place like ours, only the Five Great Families might have some genuine pieces."

"The Five Great Families..."

Jiang Che murmured.

At present, the only one he could contact was Shao Estate.

But genuine works like that were precious. He did not know whether they would be willing to let him see them.

"Forget it. I'll go ask anyway. Things like face don't matter anymore."

After some thought, Jiang Che decided to seek out Second Senior Brother Shao Jianbo.

Before long, he arrived at Shao Estate.

After presenting his guest elder token, a servant led Jiang Che to a lakeside.

A handsome young man dressed in white robes was scattering fish food into the lake.

It was Shao Jianbo.

"Young Master, Young Master Jiang requests an audience."

The servant reported.

"Oh, isn't this Junior Brother Jiang? Were you worried your senior brother would be lonely, so you came to keep him company?"

Shao Jianbo turned around with a smile.

"I..." Jiang Che was somewhat unaccustomed to his Second Senior Brother's way of speaking and did not know how to respond.

Seeing Jiang Che's awkward expression, Shao Jianbo found it amusing.

"I'm only teasing you. Come over!"

Jiang Che shook his head. He was beginning to understand this Second Senior Brother's temperament.

He slowly walked over and stopped beside Shao Jianbo.

Shao Jianbo scattered another handful of fish food. At once, more than a dozen enormous red koi leaped from the water, fighting over it.

"These fish are fed every day. They don't need to worry about going hungry, nor do they need to worry about being caught and eaten. Yet they can only remain trapped in this lake, unable to see the vastness of heaven and earth."

Halfway through speaking, Shao Jianbo turned to look at Jiang Che.

"Tell me, do you think these fish are happy?"