Stellar Body Tempering Art

A master could lead you to the door, but cultivation depended on the individual.

Over the following days, Feng Cong came to Black Cloud Class every two or three days to answer the students' questions, but he no longer watched over their training every day.

Of course, White Cloud Martial Academy had long arranged daily training plans for its students, so they would not lose their way.

This delighted Chen Fan.

He could finally move freely!

From then on, whenever there was free training, he left White Cloud Martial Academy to search for opportunities for "enlightenment."

Time passed, and in the blink of an eye, two months went by.

This day.

Dark clouds filled the sky, and fierce winds howled.

A bolt of lightning flashed across the distant heavens with a thunderous boom, shaking the heart.

On the second floor of a house.

A young man stood by the corridor window, watching the lightning in the distance.

He was practicing a palm technique.

That person was naturally Chen Fan!

His eyes gleamed as he stared fixedly at the flashes of lightning and crashing thunder. A trace of joy flickered in his eyes.

"I've had another 'enlightenment'!"

As he watched the lightning and thunder, he indeed fell into "enlightenment."

After going through the moves, the progress of a martial art called Wind-Thunder Palm jumped. This palm technique, which he had only begun practicing a few days ago, instantly gained 50% progress, and its first move reached mastery.

Its training efficiency had doubled as well!

A technique that would originally have taken two months to master now needed only one month!

"The efficiency increased by this much?!"

Chen Fan's eyes shone with delight.

Wind-Thunder Palm and Tiger Fist were strength-training manuals of the same level. Yet one was merely lower second-rate, while the other was top-tier second-rate!

Aside from White Cloud Pine-Crane Palm, Wind-Thunder Palm was the strongest manual at White Cloud Martial Academy!

This time, the improvement brought by Chen Fan's "enlightenment" was far more terrifying than the increased speed he had gained when he watched the cat and attained enlightenment in Tiger Fist!

"The tabby cat only had an indirect connection to a tiger, but the wind and lightning are things I can truly see!"

Chen Fan gained a little more understanding of the hidden rules behind his special talent...

The closer something was to the imagery of the manual itself, the greater the boost to his training efficiency. Unfortunately, he was still too far away and did not dare approach real lightning. Otherwise, the change might have been even more obvious.

Over these past two months, this was not Chen Fan's first enlightenment. He had already completed two second-rate strength-training manuals, and another, Jade-Breaking Fist, was currently training automatically. At his present rate, it would break through within ten days to half a month.

The second-rate manuals Chen Fan chose all had imagery that was relatively easy to observe!

The three techniques currently training automatically were White Cloud Pine-Crane Palm, Wind-Thunder Palm, and Jade-Breaking Fist.

As for White Cloud Pine-Crane Palm, Chen Fan had only fully mastered two moves.

The progress of the third move had only just begun and was not even one-quarter complete.

Of course, to an ordinary person, this was already an utterly terrifying rate of progress.

And Chen Fan had only managed to master two moves because he had constantly spent money buying White Cloud Secret Decoction, which occasionally provided beneficial effects!

The silver in his hands was dwindling by the day.

At this rate, he would likely burn through all his money before mastering White Cloud Pine-Crane Palm!

Still, the effects of manuals like White Cloud Pine-Crane Fist, combined with the decoction, were truly frightening. Chen Fan's physical condition and blood vitality, which had originally begun to plateau, continued to undergo transformations!

He now had to eat five or six meals a day, and every meal had to include meat!

If he had not built good relationships with Bao Tianyou and the others and often mooched meals from them, he would probably have had to spend even more!

But because he was eating well, his entire appearance and spirit had changed drastically.

When people could not eat their fill, they became sallow and emaciated. No matter what, they would not look good.

Chen Fan had never been ugly to begin with. As his body gradually grew stronger, his features became increasingly handsome as well.

People even specifically came to propose marriage.

In this feudal society, it was hardly unusual to start a family at fifteen or sixteen.

Chen Fan was now thirteen or fourteen. If an engagement were arranged first, he could marry in two years.

But Chen Fan refused every one of them outright.

After all, his outlook was fundamentally different from that of ordinary people.

Besides, he was focused wholeheartedly on martial arts and had no interest in marriage proposals.

Night.

After dinner.

It had rained during the day, and now the stars and moon shone brightly in the night sky.

Chen Fan lay atop the roof, rubbing the black ring against his chest as he looked at the progress bars before him.

He was considering how to make money.

Now that he practiced martial arts, he naturally had no interest in his former bookkeeping job that paid three taels a month. But he was still a fledgling in the martial world and had no idea how he could earn money with the skills he had mastered.

"Should I become a thug and fight my way to a future?"

Chen Fan first thought of Pi Liu and the others.

Joining the Black Tiger Gang might not be a bad path.

But he quickly shook his head.

Naturally, he had no desire to join a place as shady as the Black Tiger Gang.

Moreover, he had killed Pi Liu and did not want too much involvement with the Black Tiger Gang.

"Or I could appropriately show my talent and strength, and make White Cloud Martial Academy devote more resources to me?"

Chen Fan fell into thought.

He was just planning to ask Bao Tianyou and the others about it when he saw them.

Suddenly, a wave of scorching heat came from his chest.

He abruptly sat up and looked at the black ring on his chest.

After absorbing moonlight for a month, the ring had finally changed.

Fluorescent light flickered over the ring.

The light it emitted gradually condensed, forming a tiny humanoid projection.

The little figure in the projection stood in a horse stance, seemingly practicing some martial art. Countless points of light flickered across its body like stars in the sky.

"A martial art?"

Chen Fan's eyes flashed. He immediately leaped down from the roof, returned to his room, locked the door, and began imitating the little figure's movements.

Every few seconds, the little figure changed its posture. Whenever it shifted moves, the star-like points of light within its body glimmered with different radiance!

Half an hour later, Chen Fan had followed the figure through more than a hundred different postures. Only then did the little figure stop moving, its glow fading as it gradually dispersed.

At the same time, beneath the three martial arts Chen Fan was training, which only he could see, another entry appeared: Stellar Body Tempering Art.

Chen Fan recalled Yuan Kuanglin's dying words—that he had obtained something belonging to Star Sect. Could this technique have come from Star Sect?

Chen Fan immediately willed it and examined the training efficiency of this manual.

At a glance, he could not help but gape.

The training efficiency of this technique was around 0.8% per day, not even one percent.

By that calculation, mastering just the first level would take five months.

One had to know that Chen Fan's most difficult technique at present, White Cloud Pine-Crane Palm, had six moves and would take less than six months in total.

Though surprised, Chen Fan was also exceptionally excited.

The harder a technique was to train, the greater the rewards after mastering it.

And judging by its name, this technique was clearly not some simple strength-training martial art.

It was perhaps not even a martial skill anymore, but a cultivation method.

Since he had no related manual in hand, Chen Fan did not even know how many levels this cultivation method had.

"I heard Bao Tianyou say that the later stages of martial cultivation involve choosing a true art and tempering the body. Could this technique be a true art? Can it temper the body?"

He shook his head, reining in the inflated mindset that had arisen from his growing strength these past days. He then silently put away the ring, lay back on the roof, and continued gazing at the dark canopy of the sky.

This technique was related to the stars. Perhaps watching the night sky could improve it.

Unfortunately, Chen Fan already had three techniques training automatically. The fastest, Jade-Breaking Fist, still needed nearly half a month.

The next day, when he arrived at the martial academy.

Before Chen Fan could go look for Bao Tianyou.

He saw that the entrance to White Cloud Martial Academy was crowded with students and bustling with activity.

Curious, he squeezed his way over as well.

There was a notice posted in front of the martial academy.

There was a small bug in Chapter 18, so I made a slight revision regarding the silver. Seven or eight taels of silver would not be enough for an ordinary family's annual expenses, though it would be roughly enough for one person. Thanks to the readers for helping catch the mistake. I occasionally read the chapter comments, and I'll correct errors when I spot them.