Cultivation

Dusk.

Li Yun left the Martial Hall and headed home.

"Third Senior Sister, at the very least, Tiger Subduing Fist would reach mastery."

Looking at the progress of Tiger Subduing Fist in his mind, Li Yun felt certain.

[Tiger Subduing Fist (Minor Mastery): 4653/10000]

After she gave him a few pointers, his proficiency had surged by nearly three hundred points.

Unfortunately, he didn't get many chances like that.

Earlier, he hadn't been opposed to seeking her out for a spar.

But the other senior brothers had already trodden that path into the ground.

When people tried to chat up Yu Qingqing, she would at most turn them down with words, only resorting to force when she couldn't stand it anymore.

Liu Lingyan, on the other hand, wouldn't say a word to her junior brothers. She went straight to sparring.

She struck them with Dark Force, leaving them laid up for two or three days.

Gradually, no one kept trying to chat her up.

Li Yun wasn't afraid of getting hit. It was just that lying in bed for several days would set back his stance training, so after weighing it over, he didn't seek her out for a spar.

If he had an expert to train with, one who would spar with him unconditionally—

and if he had no bottlenecks—

Li Yun didn't even dare imagine how quickly his fist technique would improve.

Lost in thought, he was almost home.

A glimpse of the scene ahead made his heart tighten.

Before they noticed him, he turned down another street.

Two people dressed in white were chatting with Li Yun's neighbor.

When Li Yun had bought his house, he'd asked the real estate agent about this neighbor.

They were a wealthy couple who had fled from the south. They'd become separated from their child along the way, and now only the two of them remained.

The two white-clad figures flanked their neighbor, Lady Song.

The person on the left leaned forward, their voice trembling and choked with sobs:

"Sister Song, when my son went missing, I couldn't eat or sleep either. At night, I clutched his clothes and cried until dawn."

She gripped the hem of her clothes, as if something had touched a raw nerve. Her throat bobbed:

"Later, I joined the Unity Society, and my brothers and sisters helped me search everywhere.

"They even kept me company and talked with me. Little by little, my heart settled, and I could finally swallow a couple of mouthfuls again."

The other white-clad figure chimed in at just the right moment. Her voice was gentler and warmer:

"Our Unity Society helps people who've suffered such misfortune. Who knows? Your son might turn up one day, Sister Song."

"R-really... I can find him?"

Lady Song was clearly grasping at straws.

The white-clad figure seized the opening:

"There's strength in numbers. Every bit of hope helps, right?"

"All right, I..."

Tap. Tap.

Footsteps rang out abruptly.

Lady Song and the two white-clad figures turned at the same time, only to see Li Yun emerge from the street, his face expressionless.

Lady Song's expression didn't change, but the two white-clad figures exchanged a glance, a flicker of panic in their eyes.

Li Yun ignored them and walked past without a word, returning to his own front door.

He opened the side gate and went inside.

He wouldn't interfere in this sort of thing. There was no way he could manage it all, anyway.

If he happened to come across it, he could at least interrupt them.

But most likely, Lady Song would still join the Unity Society.

It had nothing to do with him.

He made a circuit along the courtyard wall. The fine white powder scattered at the corners lay evenly in place...

After completing the round, he found all his little precautions intact, with no sign that anyone had touched them.

Seeing nothing had changed, he went into the courtyard and began practicing his saber technique.

His wrist turned, and the blade whipped up a howling gust. He chopped, slashed, and swept, each movement crisp and decisive, without the slightest hesitation.

The blade wind skimmed past his ears, whistling.

The Blood Blade Technique used speed to conceal its tricks, and tricks to hide its killing intent.

Its moves seemed as fast as lightning, yet secretly followed the positions of the Eight Trigrams and the Nine Palaces.

Every move held three feints and one true strike, aiming for a single lethal blow that drew blood.

The blade wind howled through the courtyard. Every movement was crisp and decisive, without a hint of wasted motion.

The technique's merciless ferocity and uncanny unpredictability were on full display.

[Blood Blade Technique: +1]

[Blood Blade Technique (Beginner): 12/5000]

Without anyone to guide him, all he could do was copy what he saw in the manual.

Fortunately, his golden finger had him covered. Every time he practiced the moves, he gained +1, and there were no bottlenecks.

Li Yun couldn't help but marvel at his own talent. It was truly excellent.

But if he wanted to reach minor mastery quickly, he couldn't keep practicing like this.

He needed to spar. He needed real combat.

That wouldn't be easy.

Once he'd practiced the saber technique until he was nearly exhausted, Li Yun returned to his bedroom to work on the Bone Shifting Technique.

The art was similar to a form of inner cultivation and required a secret formula for each stage.

Crispy Bone Soup for beginner, Marrow Nourishing Paste for minor mastery, and Bone Penetrating Pill for major mastery.

The ingredients for Crispy Bone Soup were still within Li Yun's means, costing about one tael of silver per dose.

He bought them from different herbal shops, sometimes getting extra portions and sometimes adding other medicinal ingredients to his purchases.

Then he brought them home.

He'd split up the ingredients for Marrow Nourishing Paste and asked around at the herbal shops. Even the main ingredients alone would casually cost dozens, if not hundreds, of taels.

As for the ingredients for Bone Penetrating Pill, the shopkeeper took one look and shook his head, saying he'd never heard of them.

In Li Yun's view, the Bone Shifting Technique was remarkably effective.

Ordinary people's bones were connected and bound by tendons and sinews. Forget moving them at will—even a slight dislocation caused excruciating pain.

Yet the Bone Shifting Technique could make the impossible possible.

It allowed for the slightest shifts and dislocations, just enough to avoid vital spots.

The technique also came with the ability to disguise one's appearance.

There was no need for creams or powders. A slight adjustment to the angles of the cheekbones and shoulder bones could change one's features.

Even one's height could be altered slightly by adjusting the spine.

The world was full of uncertainties.

If one day he needed to change his appearance and hide his tracks, this technique would surely come in handy.

In short, the more trump cards, the better.

He drank the Crispy Bone Soup he'd prepared and sat cross-legged.

He silently recited the incantation:

"Bones soft as cotton, breath taut as thread.

"Let intent sink into the bone seams; let form shift with thought.

"Guard the vital bones; leave the body without a flaw.

"..."

The moment his bones began to move, pain swept over him like a tide.

A tearing sensation deep within the bone seams felt like his sinews were being wrenched apart and ground beneath a blunt instrument. Every slight shift came with a piercing pain.

Cold sweat instantly beaded on Li Yun's temples, then slid down past his sideburns.

His jaw clenched tight, his muscles tensed, and veins stood out.

The pain made his vision go black.

Shifting one's bones went against the natural order. The pain was something he had to endure.

[Bone Shifting Technique: +1]

[Bone Shifting Technique (Not Yet Initiated): 675/1000]

After a long while, Li Yun slowly breathed out a mouthful of stale air, his breath trembling slightly.

His face was pale as paper. The pain had yet to fade, still lurking faintly between his bones.

After catching his breath and resting for a moment, he took out Introduction to Poisons and began reading.

The pain in his bones kept Li Yun from falling asleep.

So he saved his reading for last.

That way, he could distract himself from the pain without wasting time.

After a while.

[Introduction to Poisons: +1]

[Introduction to Poisons (Not Yet Initiated): 853/1000]

He memorized the recipes in the booklet: Knockout Powder, Yin-Yang Powder... all the various proportions.

His progress was getting slower and slower.

Perhaps knowledge-based skills worked differently. He might need to read more books before he could improve faster.

Relying on just one book, Introduction to Poisons, was ultimately a drop in the ocean.

He would have to test what he'd learned later.

But for now, he had no other choice. He could only keep reading.

Days passed one by one.

Every day, Li Yun could clearly feel himself getting stronger.

Life was fulfilling.

Crow Mountain City's population kept growing. Someone even came to ask Li Yun if he would sell his house for two hundred taels.

Li Yun naturally refused.

Sometimes, when he returned from the Martial Hall, he would find faint traces of blood beneath the courtyard wall.

They came from the medicinal powder he'd concocted himself, along with iron pieces smeared with "Tetanus."

At its worst, someone had even been left lying there.

And so it continued until the end of December.

The Year-End Tournament was about to begin.