Movement Technique

"So fragrant!"

Shen Xiuhan's Adam's apple bobbed.

He reached out and tore off a piece of chicken breast, roasted golden and crisp, sizzling with beads of oil.

Ignoring the heat, he stuffed it into his mouth.

"Crunch!"

The charred, crisp skin shattered between his teeth. The meat was tender and juicy, springy and delicious.

An unprecedented richness burst across his tongue!

This kind of treasure beast meat, steeped in the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, needed no seasoning at all. It seemed to naturally contain the most exquisite flavor in the world.

One bite, two bites, three bites...

Shen Xiuhan could not stop eating.

Without realizing it, he had gnawed away more than half of it, skin and meat alike. Even the tendons and cartilage between the joints were crushed between his teeth and swallowed.

Only when two legs remained did he smack his lips with lingering reluctance.

He scooped up some snow to wipe his mouth, then was just about to rise when he suddenly froze.

"Something's wrong!"

Shen Xiuhan hurriedly sat cross-legged, closed his eyes, and calmed his mind as he sensed the circulation of his blood and qi.

A moment later, he opened his eyes, his face full of disbelief.

"Where's my blood and qi?"

"Senior Brother Xu said that directly eating Treasure Fish or treasure beasts would waste most of their medicinal power, but even if it was wasted... shouldn't two or three tenths of it have been absorbed by me?"

"Why is there not the slightest sign of my blood and qi increasing?"

Shen Xiuhan was a little panicked.

Had this Azure Awl Chicken died for nothing?

As he was puzzling over it, a line of ancient, pale-gold seal script suddenly flashed before his eyes, surfacing like ripples on water.

Information +17

Shen Xiuhan's heart jolted!

As though lightning had split his sea of consciousness, he suddenly realized something. His breathing quickened as he hurriedly summoned the system panel.

Sure enough.

The information accumulation slot that had originally remained at [Zero] now pulsed with [Seventeen]!

"So that's it... I was wondering why eating treasure beast meat hadn't increased my blood and qi. It was extracted and converted instead."

Shen Xiuhan stood stunned for a moment, then suddenly slapped his thigh, delight surging through his heart.

The blood and qi contained in the Azure Awl Chicken meat were certainly important, but compared to "information," they became almost negligible.

One had to know that this "information" could be used to "deduce" martial arts techniques!

If his blood and qi were gone, he could simply spend some time enduring the grind of stance training to replenish them.

But "deduction" was a heaven-defying method that could shatter the shackles of martial arts, ignore bottleneck insights, and even create martial skills from scratch!

He had already experienced this firsthand when deducing the Mystic Eagle Stance.

[Detectable martial art "Mystic Eagle Stance." Deduce?]

...No!

Shen Xiuhan tested it slightly, and the familiar pale-gold light screen appeared.

Yet as he looked at those words, he did not immediately agree.

The gains from the previous "deduction" were enough to support his cultivation all the way to the Bone Tempering Peak.

What he lacked most right now was time to cultivate his blood and qi, not insight into higher realms.

Taking a step back, even if he deduced the Mystic Eagle Stance to the Tendon Tempering Realm, or even Hidden Force...

Shen Xiuhan would not be able to display the corresponding strength, much less gain the tangible combat power he urgently needed with immediate effect.

Instead...

Shen Xiuhan reached into his robes and slowly pulled out a yellowed old booklet.

"Iron Bone Technique"!

If he used this external martial art for deduction...

Then Shen Xiuhan's bodily defense would surely soar, giving him another trump card to preserve his life.

Tian Erhu, a fraud who had not even sensed blood and qi, had been able to withstand a strike from him, a Bright Force martial artist, simply because he cultivated this technique...

What would happen if he himself cultivated it without sleep or rest for fifteen years...

At that thought, Shen Xiuhan's heart pounded like a war drum, and heat filled his chest.

[Detectable martial art "Iron Bone Technique." Deduce?]

Yes!

In an instant.

The wind and snow around him froze.

The river of time surged through Shen Xiuhan's sea of consciousness like fleeting scenes glimpsed from horseback.

[You immersed yourself in this body-tempering technique, beating and refining your flesh day and night with wood and stone, enduring suffering ordinary people could not endure. In the third year, you broke into the realm of "Copper Skin."]

[After seven years of bitter cultivation, supplemented by medicinal baths and external tempering, you brought the first realm of the "Iron Bone Technique," "Copper Skin," to mastery. The skin all over your body became as tough as old cowhide, and your defensive power increased greatly.]

[In the ninth year, you finally cultivated the second realm, "Iron Bone." The bones throughout your body became as hard as iron, and your great tendons rang like bowstrings snapping tight. With external martial arts alone, you could battle martial artists newly entered into Bright Force.]

[In the fourteenth year, your "Iron Bone Technique" reached complete mastery! You grasped the subtleties of resisting impacts with external force and dispersing force through the bones. The bones throughout your body became like steel and stone, and your bodily defense reached its peak. With all your strength, you could withstand a Bone Tempering martial artist!]

[In the fifteenth year, your understanding of the "Iron Bone Technique" reached its pinnacle. You vaguely touched upon a trace of the true essence of the source of this incomplete text, the "Dragon-Elephant Radiant Prison-Suppressing Body." In a flash of inspiration, you attempted to reverse-engineer and restore it, creating a Dharma Body of your own. Yet with only an incomplete text, you ultimately failed... However, at the final moment, your spiritual platform became clear, and you unexpectedly comprehended a movement technique from that incomplete text—"Startled Swan, Wandering Dragon"!]

"Whew..."

Shen Xiuhan's eyes flew open.

He rose to his full height, and a string of crisp cracks like exploding beans burst from every joint in his body.

He lifted the hem of his coarse martial outfit and looked down. His muscle lines seemed carved by blades and axes, taut and brimming with explosive power.

His entire bearing had undergone an earth-shaking transformation.

Even standing quietly in place, he was as still as an abyss and as firm as a mountain, yet like a spear with its sharpness concealed, radiating pressure.

He looked around.

The vast wind and snow of Mount Li remained unchanged, and the withered grass on the ground had not shifted in the slightest.

The bonfire that had roasted the treasure beast still sent wisps of green smoke curling upward.

Fifteen years in a great dream, one instant in reality.

Nothing around him had moved in the slightest, yet within a few breaths, Shen Xiuhan had cultivated the Iron Bone Technique to mastery and comprehended a movement technique—

"Startled Swan, Wandering Dragon."

Born from the true essence and inheritance of the Dragon-Elephant Radiant Prison-Suppressing Body, this was a footwork technique created specifically for close-quarters combat.

When still, one drifted like a startled swan, leaving no trace behind;

When moving, one was like a wandering dragon entering the sea, incomparably slippery.

If cultivated to mastery, one's figure would flicker in battle, advancing and retreating as though dancing on the edge of a blade. Within the space of an inch, one could maneuver freely, and combat power would surge.

"Good! Excellent!"

Shen Xiuhan's eyes shone brightly.

"Not only has the Iron Bone Technique reached completion, I have also gained this movement technique for nothing. Even if I run head-on into a Bone Tempering martial artist now... even if I cannot defeat him, preserving my life will not be a problem."

Joy was joy, but a string remained taut deep in his heart.

The deduction had stated that once the Iron Bone Technique reached mastery, he could withstand a Bone Tempering Realm martial artist at full strength.

But the problem was that Shen Xiuhan had never truly fought a Bone Tempering Realm martial artist.

He had not even truly fought to the death against a Blood Tempering Realm martial artist.

What one learned from books always felt shallow in the end.

In this world, even with trump cards in hand, one could not allow oneself to grow careless and complacent.

What was more, he had only gained an initial understanding of Startled Swan, Wandering Dragon. To truly turn it into a trump card capable of turning defeat into victory at the brink of life and death, he would still need to train day and night.

Collecting his thoughts, Shen Xiuhan stuffed the remaining Azure Awl Chicken into the fish basket.

At the same time, he pulled out several green tail feathers nailed to the basket.

Such piercing power had inevitably forced apart the bamboo strips, widening the gaps slightly and making Shen Xiuhan ache with regret.

Fortunately, his mother, Madam Zheng, was skilled with her hands. The newly split bamboo strips had excellent flexibility after soaking in water. Shen Xiuhan gripped both ends and pulled hard, barely restoring the fish basket to its original shape.

Then he returned to the bonfire and gathered up the green feathers scattered across the ground.

Treasure beast feathers were hard and looked quite extraordinary. They would surely sell for a decent sum.

Once he had finished packing up, Shen Xiuhan slung the fish basket over his back and turned to leave. After taking only a few steps, however, he slapped his forehead and stopped short.

"Almost forgot!"

He hurried back to the rocky nest where the two Azure Awl Chickens had been perched.

Pushing aside the withered grass deep within, he revealed a hidden hollow about the size of a human head.

Shen Xiuhan reached in and felt around.

A moment later.

Three treasure beast eggs, warm and smooth like green jade and each the size of a goose egg, appeared in his palm!

The eggs were still warm. Shen Xiuhan carefully tucked them into his robes.

After confirming that he had missed nothing else, he finally strode away.

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