Third Spirit-Qi Level, Silver Bone Realm

By the time Chen Lingxi returned to the Marquis's residence, dusk had already faded away.

Back in his room, he placed the incense burner in the center of the table, sat cross-legged on the meditation cushion, and closed his eyes to regulate his breathing for a moment. Only after his breath had steadied did he press his right palm against the burner's lid.

The strand of azure qi in his dantian slowly circulated, passing through his palm and into the burner.

The dark golden viscous liquid at the bottom of the burner trembled slightly. Milky-white mist rose up, cradling that fragment of purple qi at its center.

The purple qi slowly drifted through the mist.

"Learn to refine the purple qi as Lin Suri did."

Chen Lingxi took a deep breath, stirred his spirit qi, and sent it into the mist, attempting to touch that wisp of purple qi.

The instant his spirit qi touched the purple qi!

An incomparably sharp aura surged back along his spirit qi, stabbing his meridians until they ached. His fingertips went numb, and his spirit qi scattered.

The purple qi continued drifting through the mist, utterly unmoved.

Chen Lingxi frowned, but he was not discouraged.

He tried again.

This time, he condensed his spirit qi finer and tougher, like a needle, slowly piercing into the purple qi.

The purple qi trembled once. That sharp aura struck back again, several times fiercer than before, and his spirit qi scattered once more.

A third time.

A fourth time.

A fifth time.

Every attempt ended in failure.

That wisp of purple qi seemed tiny, yet the power contained within it was unfathomable. Whenever his spirit qi entered it, it was like an egg striking a stone—he could not shake it in the slightest.

Chen Lingxi withdrew his hand and let out a long breath of stale air.

"This cannot be accomplished in a day."

Shaking his head, he wrapped the incense burner in coarse cloth again and stored it beneath the table.

Outside the window, moonlight spilled like water across the bluestone ground, cold and clear.

He rose to his feet and walked into the courtyard.

The night wind blew in from afar, carrying the lingering fragrance of evening flowers in the garden, some already withering and some not yet. It brushed coolly against his face.

He tilted his head and looked at the sky.

The moon was full, hanging high overhead. A few sparse stars were scattered around it, their light cold and secluded.

He planted himself in the courtyard and assumed the opening stance of the Seven Forms of Ceasing War.

Mountain-Winding, River-Entering—he practiced one form after another. His blood and qi surged through his meridians, crimson qi radiance bursting from his body and weaving a thin veil of light around him.

After practicing three rounds of the forms in the courtyard, he sat cross-legged and breathed in and out for another half hour before slowly opening his eyes.

"Just cultivate with a quiet heart."

Chen Lingxi murmured inwardly.

Over the following months, Chen Lingxi's life settled into a routine.

He left the residence twice each month, departing at dawn and returning at dusk.

The place he visited most often was Benevolence Hall, the largest apothecary in the eastern part of the city.

Naturally, he went there for medicinal baths.

Benevolence Hall had medicinal baths for martial artists, of course, but they were quite costly.

The ingredients for a single medicinal bath cost two taels of silver.

Two taels of silver were enough to cover half a year's expenses for an ordinary commoner.

Yet here, it was only enough for one bath. No wonder people said that practicing martial arts meant stepping into a house that devoured gold.

Still, Chen Lingxi was not short on money now. His monthly allowance was thirty taels, and together with the twenty-odd taels he had obtained from Wang Kong, it was enough for him to soak in a medicinal bath more than ten times a month.

Though Benevolence Hall's medicinal baths could not compare to those in the Marquis's residence, one bath was worth three days of breathing exercises.

If he wished to raise his cultivation as quickly as possible, this silver could not be spared.

Besides, Chen Lingxi had no other expenses.

By July, the height of summer had arrived.

The locust trees in the courtyard had grown lush and dense, their deep shade blanketing the ground. Whenever the wind passed through them, their leaves rustled like someone whispering softly.

Chen Lingxi rose from the medicinal bath barrel, water droplets rolling down his back and gathering into a small puddle on the bluestone floor.

He picked up the coarse towel hanging over the barrel's rim, dried himself, dressed, and let out a long breath.

The medicinal power seeped through his skin, nourishing his tendons and bones. A warm current slowly flowed through him, sweeping away all the exhaustion from his recent cultivation.

"Refreshing."

He muttered to himself.

Then his gaze fell upon the small musk-deer hide pouch he had prepared long ago nearby.

There was barely any Dragon-Drawing Powder left inside.

"This is the last time I'll take Dragon-Drawing Powder. I wonder whether I can break through the bottleneck and step into the Third Spirit-Qi Level?"

He poured the pinch of dark brown powder into his palm and swallowed it with warm water.

The instant the powder entered his stomach, that irresistible flood of spirit energy erupted again, charging wildly through his meridians.

The Concealed Edge Method quietly circulated within him. His spirit qi barrier firmly blocked the poison outside, gathering that violent spirit energy thread by thread, refining it and drawing it into his dantian.

Time passed bit by bit.

Outside the window, the sunlight shifted westward. The light and shadows filtering through the lattice moved slowly from the eastern wall to the western wall, then gradually dimmed.

When the final strand of daylight vanished beyond the horizon, Chen Lingxi opened his eyes.

He slowly exhaled a breath of stale air.

That breath condensed into a white arrow in the air, shooting straight out more than three feet before striking the wall and dispersing into a thin mist.

Within his dantian, that strand of azure qi had grown from the thickness of an infant's arm to that of an adult's arm, more than a full size larger.

It slowly circulated through his dantian, rich in color like jade, faint radiance flowing across its surface. It was like water in a deep pool—undercurrents surged beneath, while the surface remained calm and unruffled.

Chen Lingxi was overjoyed. He closed his eyes again, looking inward and carefully sensing the changes within his body.

"I've finally reached the Third Spirit-Qi Level!"

It was different from the Second Spirit-Qi Level.

At the Second Spirit-Qi Level, spirit qi cleared the meridians and tempered the marrow, removing old deposits and blockages bit by bit. It widened the meridians like riverbeds and brought new life to the bone marrow.

But the third level...

He stirred his spirit qi and guided it slowly along the surfaces of his bones.

Wherever the spirit qi passed, his bones grew faintly hot. Countless tiny threads of spirit energy seeped into the bone itself, compressing and reinforcing the originally porous bone matter layer by layer.

The density of his bones visibly increased.

Their original grayish-white color gradually became lustrous white, and from within that whiteness emerged an exceedingly faint, jade-like spiritual glow.

That glow was so faint that it would have been nearly impossible to detect without inner sight.

"The Third Spirit-Qi Level tempers the bones, and spiritual light appears upon them."

He murmured, rising to his feet and moving his limbs.

Bones throughout his body crackled sharply, like a string of firecrackers exploding inside him.

He pressed his fingers together like a sword and activated the Azure Edge Method.

A hazy azure edge burst from his fingertips, solid as a real sword, carving a cold arc through the dim room.

The edge sliced through the air with a hiss, shearing off a corner of the table. The cut surface was smooth as a mirror.

He curled his fingers, drawing in the lingering edge qi.

"The Azure Edge Method can be used four or five times now."

He calculated inwardly. With the abundance of spirit qi in his dantian, he could unleash the Azure Edge Method at full force four or five times without issue. If he merely released small bursts of edge qi, he could manage seven or eight times.

"In a life-and-death battle, that means many more cards to save my life."

He nodded in satisfaction, cleaned up the remnants of the medicine packets on the table, and pushed open the door.

The moonlight in the courtyard was excellent.

The midsummer moon hung overhead, its clear radiance like water, illuminating the entire small courtyard as brightly as day.

Chen Lingxi stood in the courtyard, looked up at the sky, and drew in a deep breath.

The night wind was cool, carrying the rich fragrance of gardenias mixed with the scent of grass and earth. It was refreshing to the heart and lungs.

He rolled his shoulders and back, planted himself in the courtyard, and assumed the opening stance of the Seven Forms of Ceasing War.

Mountain-Winding kindled the furnace fire, River-Entering parted the river and calmed the sea; after City-Crushing shattered the earth, Concealed Edge entered Great Harmony.

The incomplete scroll of the Seven Forms of Ceasing War explained it clearly: the Mountain-Winding Stance condensed blood and qi, while the River-Entering Stance made blood and qi boil and churn!

"As for the third form, City-Crushing... it is somewhat similar to Mountain-Crushing Force, but more importantly... it can help one break into the Silver Bone Realm!"

After three months of grueling cultivation, Chen Lingxi had long since reached the peak of the Copper Scarlet Realm and could already activate [Opening the Copper Furnace], the mark of Copper Scarlet completion.

And now that he had reached the Third Spirit-Qi Level, his innate constitution had greatly improved, and his physique had undergone an even more profound transformation.

"Today, I enter Silver Bone."

Chen Lingxi closed his eyes and concentrated, reviewing the nine variations of the City-Crushing Form from the incomplete Seven Forms of Ceasing War scroll in his mind.

Then, he moved.

He began with the stance of Mountain-Winding. His feet were firmly planted, his spine bowed like a drawn bow, and his right arm slowly lifted upward as though cradling some enormous object.

His blood and qi surged with it, pouring out from his dantian and filling every limb and bone. Crimson qi radiance burst from his body, weaving a veil of light around him.

Immediately afterward, he changed into River-Entering.

His body turned, his arms like flood-parting dragons. Blood and qi surged through him like river tides, wave after wave, layer upon layer, never ceasing.

His breathing grew rapid, and the qi armor around his body blazed brighter, crimson flames flickering unstably.

Then—[City-Crushing].

He suddenly let out a low shout, clenching both fists. The blood and qi within him abruptly reversed, changing from an outward surge to an inward collapse.

It was like a city tower crumbling and sinking inch by inch from its foundations, every brick and tile crashing toward the earth's core.

At that moment, the boiling blood and qi was compressed, condensed, and settled.

The blazing Copper-Molten Qi began to cool.

The crimson radiance gradually faded, replaced by a silvery-white, icy sheen that appeared and vanished across the surface of his qi armor, like moonlight falling upon snow.

Copper fire and silver threads intertwined, like ice and flame in the same furnace, yin and yang converging as they slowly circulated through his body.

Chen Lingxi's entire body shook.

He clearly felt something forming within his bones.

It was a silvery-white, flowing marrow that slowly seeped forth from the depths of his bones. Like a clear spring, it flowed through the bone cavities, and wherever it passed, his bones were plated with a faint layer of silver light.

Silver marrow had formed!

The mark of the Silver Bone Realm.

He drew in his stance and stood upright, lowering his head to look at his hands.

The crimson qi armor on his body had faded by more than half, replaced by a layer of faint silver-white radiance that flickered in and out of sight, like moonlight shrouding his skin—cold and restrained.

From the outside, the fluctuations of his blood and qi seemed far weaker, like those of a martial artist at the early Copper Scarlet Realm, perhaps even less.

Yet he could clearly sense that his blood and qi had not disappeared. Instead, it had settled deep into his bones, becoming silver marrow, hidden without revealing itself.

"Silver Bone Realm."

He murmured, his eyes carrying a trace of joy.