Movement Technique

"Smells amazing!"

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, crispy skin shattered between his teeth. The meat was tender and juicy, springy and refreshing.

An unprecedented richness exploded across his tongue!

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

One bite, two bites, three bites...

Shen Xiuhan could not stop eating.

Before he knew it, he had gnawed through more than half of it, skin and meat alike. Even the tendons and cartilage between the joints were crushed and swallowed.

Only when two legs remained did he smack his lips in lingering dissatisfaction.

He scooped up some snow to wipe the corners of his mouth clean and was about to stand when he suddenly froze.

"That's not right!"

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

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

"Where's my qi and blood?"

"Senior Brother Xu said that directly eating Treasure Fish or treasure beasts would waste more than half their medicinal potency, but even if it was wasted... shouldn't at least twenty or thirty percent have been absorbed by me?"

"Why isn't there the slightest sign of increased qi and blood now?"

Shen Xiuhan felt a little panicked.

Had this Azure Awl Chicken died for nothing?

Just as he was puzzling over it, a line of ancient, pale-golden seal script suddenly flashed before his eyes, emerging like ripples on water:

"Intelligence +17"

Shen Xiuhan's heart jolted!

As though lightning had split his Sea of Consciousness, he abruptly realized something. His breathing quickened, and he hurriedly summoned the system panel.

Sure enough.

The intelligence accumulation slot, which had originally been at [Zero], was now unmistakably pulsing with [Seventeen]!

"So that's how it is... No wonder I didn't see any increase in qi and blood after eating treasure beast meat. It was extracted and converted instead."

Shen Xiuhan stood dazed for a moment, then slapped his thigh hard, joy surging within him.

The qi and blood contained in Azure Awl Chicken meat was certainly important, but compared to "intelligence," it became practically dispensable.

After all, this "intelligence" could be used to "deduce" martial arts!

If he lost qi and blood, he could simply spend some time painstakingly practicing stances to slowly replenish it.

But "deduction" was a heaven-defying method capable of shattering the shackles of martial arts, ignoring bottleneck insights, and even creating martial techniques from scratch!

He had already experienced that deeply when deducing the Mystic Eagle Stance.

[Detected a martial art available for deduction: "Mystic Eagle Stance." Deduce it?]

...No!

Shen Xiuhan tested it slightly, and the familiar pale-golden curtain of light appeared.

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

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

What he lacked most right now was time to cultivate qi and blood, not insights 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 still would not be able to wield the corresponding strength, nor could it provide the immediate, tangible combat power he needed most.

On the contrary...

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

"Iron Bone Technique"!

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

Then Shen Xiuhan's physical defenses would inevitably soar, giving him another trump card to preserve his life.

Tian Erhu, a fraud who had not even sensed qi and blood, could endure a strike from a Bright Force martial artist like him simply by cultivating this technique...

What would happen if he cultivated tirelessly for fifteen years?

At that thought, Shen Xiuhan's heart pounded like a war drum, his chest burning hot.

[Detected a martial art available for deduction: "Iron Bone Technique." Deduce it?]

Yes!

In an instant.

The wind and snow around him froze.

The river of time surged through Shen Xiuhan's Sea of Consciousness like galloping horses glimpsed through flowers.

[You devoted yourself to this body-tempering technique, beating and tempering your flesh day and night with wood and stone. You endured suffering that ordinary people could not bear, and in your third year, you entered the realm of "Copper Skin."]

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

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

[In your fourteenth year, your "Iron Bone Technique" reached complete perfection! You grasped the subtleties of resisting external blows and dispersing force through the bones. Your bones became like steel and stone, and your physical defenses reached their peak. At full strength, you could directly contend with Bone Tempering Realm martial artists!]

[In your fifteenth year, your understanding of the "Iron Bone Technique" reached its pinnacle. You faintly 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 your own Dharma Body. Yet with only an incomplete text, you ultimately failed... However, in that final moment, your spiritual platform became clear, and you actually comprehended a movement technique from the incomplete text—"Startled Swan, Wandering Dragon"!]

"Whew..."

Shen Xiuhan's eyes snapped open.

He rose to his full height, and a string of crackling pops erupted from every joint in his body, like beans bursting in a pan.

He lifted the hem of his coarse martial outfit and looked down. The lines of his muscles appeared as though carved by blade and axe, tight and brimming with explosive power.

His entire bearing had undergone an earth-shaking transformation.

Even standing quietly in place, he possessed the stillness of a deep pool and the poise of a towering mountain, 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.

Blue smoke still curled lazily from the bonfire where the treasure beast had been roasted.

Fifteen years in a grand dream, a single instant in reality.

Everything around him remained utterly motionless, yet within the span of a breath, Shen Xiuhan had cultivated the Iron Bone Technique to great mastery and comprehended a movement technique—

"Startled Swan, Wandering Dragon."

This technique had been born from the true inheritance of the Dragon-Elephant Radiant Prison-Suppressing Body. It was a footwork technique created specifically for close-quarters combat.

When still, it was as graceful as a startled swan, leaving not a trace;

When moving, it was like a wandering dragon entering the sea, slippery beyond measure.

If cultivated to great mastery, his figure would flicker when facing enemies, advancing and retreating as though dancing on a blade's edge. Within inches of movement, his combat strength would surge.

"Good! Excellent!"

Shen Xiuhan's eyes gleamed.

"Not only has the Iron Bone Technique reached perfection, I even gained this movement technique for nothing. Even if I run headlong into a Bone Tempering martial artist now... even if I can't defeat them, I'll have no trouble keeping myself alive."

Joy was joy, but a string remained taut in the depths of his heart.

The deduction had stated that once the Iron Bone Technique reached great mastery, he could directly contend with Bone Tempering Realm martial artists 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 a Blood Tempering Realm martial artist.

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

In this world, even with trump cards in hand, one could not allow carelessness or complacency to arise.

What was more, he had only initially comprehended Startled Swan, Wandering Dragon. To truly turn it into a trump card capable of turning the tables at the threshold of life and death, he still needed to practice day and night.

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

At the same time, he pulled out several blue tail feathers nailed into the basket's body.

Such piercing force had inevitably stretched the bamboo strips apart slightly, leaving Shen Xiuhan feeling rather distressed.

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

Afterward, he returned to the bonfire and gathered up the blue feathers scattered across the ground.

Treasure beast feathers were hard and clearly extraordinary. They would likely fetch a good sum.

Once everything was packed away, Shen Xiuhan slung the fish basket onto his back and turned to leave. After only a few steps, he smacked his forehead and halted.

"Almost forgot!"

He rushed back to the chaotic stone nest where the two Azure Awl Chickens had been roosting.

Pushing aside the deep, withered grass revealed a concealed hollow the size of a human head.

Shen Xiuhan reached in and felt around.

A moment later.

Three treasure beast eggs, warm and lustrous as green jade, 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 overlooked nothing else, he finally strode away.

If you can't find a book by its title, try searching for the author instead—it may simply have been renamed!