At dusk, Li Yuan returned to the outpost and sat on the edge of his bed without rushing to cultivate.
With a thought, he unequipped the Iron Ox Technique.
The book appeared out of thin air in his palm, and the warmth wrapping around his organs deep in his abdomen faded with it.
Li Yuan put the book away, then took the folded Iron Scale Snake Molt from the inner layer of his close-fitting clothes.
Equip.
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The shed skin turned into a dark green glimmer and sank into his skin.
The next instant, an exceedingly subtle foreign sensation spread outward from his chest and abdomen, reaching his limbs, neck, and face, covering every inch of skin on his body.
Li Yuan reached out and pinched his own forearm.
His fingernails sank in noticeably less deeply than before. When he let go, his skin immediately sprang back without even leaving a white mark.
After the Iron Ox Technique had been cultivated to Mastery, his flesh had already become far tougher than that of an ordinary person. Now, with Scale Armor Protection added on top, it had hardened by another layer.
[Equipped: Iron Scale Snake Molt] [Obtained Affix: Scale Armor Protection (White)—Increases skin defense, able to resist some toxin erosion and negative effects] [Permanent Progress: 0/50]
He had to take fifty hits. Li Yuan rose to his feet, walked out of the Wooden Cabin, and knocked on the neighboring door.
Since they had been patrolling together for quite some time and had grown familiar with one another, they slept in separate rooms.
Xu Mao was sitting at the table wiping down his Short Sword. When he saw Li Yuan enter, he hurriedly stood up. "Deputy Captain Li, do you need something?"
"I need a favor." Li Yuan rolled his shoulders. "Hit me a few times."
Xu Mao froze.
"...What?"
"I've cultivated a mundane technique that needs external impacts to stimulate the circulation of Vital Blood."
Li Yuan rolled up his sleeve, exposing the firm muscle of his forearm. "Use spirit qi. Don't hold back."
Xu Mao's gaze paused on Li Yuan's forearm for a moment before shifting to his broad shoulders and the outline of his chest and back stretched beneath the Patrol Uniform.
Li Yuan's build was indeed more than a size larger than that of most cultivators at Qi Refining, Fourth Layer.
"How should I hit you?"
"Fists are fine. Chest, shoulders, back, anywhere. Put some strength into it."
Xu Mao set down his Short Sword, walked up to Li Yuan, and tentatively punched him in the chest.
A dull thud rang out. Li Yuan did not budge.
The System Panel showed no reaction whatsoever.
"Put some strength into it."
Xu Mao clenched his fist, poured spirit qi into his arm, and drove a punch into Li Yuan's chest.
Thud.
The impact was not loud. Li Yuan's body swayed back half an inch, but his feet did not move.
The feeling of the fist striking his chest was very strange.
There was an elastic layer of resistance on the surface of his flesh. Most of the force was buffered after entering, leaving only a dull vibration by the time it reached the inside.
It did not hurt. At most, it felt sore.
"Again."
Xu Mao threw another punch, this time at his shoulder.
Li Yuan's shoulder sank slightly, but he remained utterly unmoved.
[Scale Armor Protection (White) Permanent Progress: 2/50]
It had gone up by two points.
Light hits did not count. There had to be a certain amount of force for it to register.
"Keep going."
Xu Mao stared at the patch of skin on Li Yuan's abdomen, where even the red mark was already fading. He opened his mouth but said nothing, merely clenched his fist and continued punching.
The process that followed was exceedingly monotonous.
Xu Mao threw punch after punch, from Li Yuan's chest to his shoulders, from his shoulders to his back, then around from his back to his side waist. Every punch was infused with spirit qi, and he struck in earnest.
Li Yuan stood still in place like a wooden stake.
Ten punches, twenty punches, thirty punches.
Sweat began to form on Xu Mao's forehead. The consumption of spirit qi was no small matter.
"Rest for a while," Li Yuan said.
Xu Mao breathed a sigh of relief, shook his aching wrist, and leaned against the wall as he took a couple of breaths.
"Just what kind of technique have you cultivated for your flesh? My fists are going numb from hitting you."
"A Vital Blood technique."
Li Yuan lowered his head and glanced at his chest and abdomen. The places that had taken dozens of hits were faintly red, but there were no bruises or swelling. The flush was fading at a rate visible to the naked eye.
With the recovery of Vital Blood from Five Grains Nourishing Qi, combined with the foundation laid by the mundane technique, this little impact could not hurt him at all.
After resting for a while, Xu Mao recovered somewhat, and the two continued.
Another twenty-odd punches followed. They paused twice in between, and all told, nearly half a shichen passed.
When the final punch landed, a prompt popped up on the Panel.
[Scale Armor Protection (White) Permanent Progress: 50/50] [Conditions for permanent conversion met] [Make permanent?]
Li Yuan's thoughts stirred.
Yes.
[Permanent conversion successful] [Scale Armor Protection (White) has become a Permanent Affix] [Equipment consumed]
The faint elastic barrier on the surface of his skin did not disappear. Instead, it became even more natural, as though it had grown into his body.
[Current Equipment Slot: 1/2] [Equipped Item: Origin Condensation Art] [Equipment Affix: Spirit Qi Condensation (Green)] [Permanent Affixes: Clean Physique (Gray), Spirit Qi Filtration (White), Five Grains Nourishing Qi (White), Circulation Acceleration (White), Scale Armor Protection (White)]
Five Permanent Affixes—four white and one gray.
He was only one away from the condition for the third Equipment Slot—permanently converting five affixes of white grade or above.
"That'll do. Thanks." Li Yuan cupped his hands toward Xu Mao.
Xu Mao rubbed his fists, his expression somewhat complicated. He muttered, "Deputy Captain, you're almost as tough as a Demonic Beast."
Li Yuan smiled but did not respond.
The Iron Ox Technique had been unequipped, and he could not equip it again until twelve shichen later—tomorrow at this time. Li Yuan casually equipped the Nurturing Origin Technique instead.
[Current Equipment Slot: 2/2]
After cultivating for two shichen, Li Yuan ended his practice and rose to stretch his muscles and bones.
Voices came from He Shou's room next door. Chen Qi and Liu Ping were there as well.
Li Yuan pushed open the door and walked over. The others were squatting outside the doorway, chatting idly.
He Shou leaned against the doorframe, chewing on a strip of dried meat. Chen Qi sat cross-legged on the ground, shaving a branch with a Short Saber, while Liu Ping sat on a wooden stump he had dragged over.
Li Yuan squatted down beside them without deliberately speaking.
The few of them chatted in fits and starts, their topic shifting from the Spine-Tailed Lizard they had hunted today to the unusual movements of Demonic Beasts lately.
Chen Qi kept shaving the branch, his mouth never stopping.
"What do you think? Did these Demonic Beasts run out on their own, or were they driven out by something?"
He Shou chewed his dried meat without answering.
Liu Ping added, "I heard there are great demons fighting over territory deep in the Yuanheng Mountains, squeezing all the lesser Demonic Beasts below them out."
"Fighting over territory?" Chen Qi snorted and tossed the finished branch onto the ground. "What does a great demon fighting over territory in the depths have to do with the outskirts? Besides, if a great demon died and its territory was left empty, Demonic Beasts would crowd inward instead."
He Shou swallowed the strip of meat and patted the crumbs from his hands.
"Just say what you want to say."
Chen Qi looked to either side and lowered his voice.
"When I was roaming the mountains before, I got to know some old Rogue Cultivators. An old herb-gatherer once told me he had seen this sort of thing before—different kinds of Demonic Beasts migrating in the same direction."
Chen Qi paused and drew a circle on the ground with his finger.
"That time, two markets were fighting over a mineral vein. One of them hired a group of Rogue Cultivators who specialized in beast taming. They specifically drove Demonic Beasts around the other market, herding them toward their opponent. It turned the other side upside down, scattering the Rogue Cultivators, and they lost the mineral vein too."
He Shou did not stop chewing, but his movements visibly slowed.
Liu Ping frowned. "You mean... someone is deliberately driving the Demonic Beasts?"
Chen Qi shrugged.
"I have no proof either. But look at the current situation. If this were truly a natural migration, it wouldn't be so regular."
"By rights, the Wang Family is rich and powerful, so they must know about this too. I just don't know what they're thinking. As long as they don't use us Rogue Cultivators as cannon fodder, that's enough."
Chen Qi's voice lowered further as he muttered under his breath.
He Shou finished chewing the last bit of dried meat and swallowed it. He leaned against the doorframe in silence for several breaths.
"Don't make wild guesses. This isn't something we need to worry about. The Wang Family will investigate it themselves."
After chatting about a few other things, they each dispersed.
Li Yuan returned to his room, sat down cross-legged, and continued cultivating.
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