Several hours later, Sikong Jing's human meridians had reached the pinnacle of the Dao Martial Realm—the pinnacle of the Martial Enlightenment Stage.
At this point, he hit a slight bottleneck.
After all, the next step was to enter the War Martial Stage. A few more hours should have been enough, but just as Sikong Jing was preparing to press on in one burst, the sound of subdued sobbing suddenly drifted in from outside...
Slowly opening his eyes, Sikong Jing thought to himself, "That crying... is it the girl called Yinlu?"
Sikong Jing remembered that Yinlu, the young girl who had cared for him, had been summoned away by the village elders.
The image of the girl's innocent, radiant face flashed through his mind. For her to be crying like this, something grave must have happened.
Naturally, Sikong Jing could not ignore someone who had saved him.
With that thought, Sikong Jing drew back all the true energy in his body and slowly rose to his feet.
At this moment, Sikong Jing was still covered from head to toe in demon scales. Though his human meridians had been formed and had even reached the pinnacle of the Martial Enlightenment Stage, his beastfolk dantian and meridians remained as shattered as ever.
They were only recovering bit by bit for now; the demon scales could not possibly recede at once.
For the true energy within his human meridians to nourish his beastfolk meridians in return, Sikong Jing had to grow stronger still. The gap between the Martial Enlightenment Stage and the King Realm of the Emperor Martial Stage was simply too vast, and he also needed to ensure the two did not clash.
In any case, being covered in scales was the norm on Demon-Scale Island, so Sikong Jing felt no psychological burden