Stripping Mortal Skin to Forge an Iron Body, Reaching Perfection in the Gale Swift Saber

Cloud Perch Courtyard.

The first ray of morning sunlight spilled through the fine leaves into the courtyard.

Liu Yunche had already woken up, using both hands and feet to strike the Nurturing Origin Stance, relaxing his waist and drawing in his buttocks, hollowing his chest and raising his back, his posture impeccably perfect.

The Nurturing Origin Stance solidified the root and nurtured the origin, and every time he calmed his mind to practice the stance, a warm inner breath would breed within his body, continuously nourishing the origin of his flesh and blood.

Four days had already passed since the gathering at Small Yuan Tower.

Today, with his foundation accumulated to perfection, Liu Yunche intended to borrow the power of the stance technique to shed his mortal skin, make a breakthrough in one fell swoop, and step into the Iron Skin realm.

Following the method and trick told by his father Liu Wangzhou, he circulated the inner breath within his body, following a fixed meridian trajectory, and used fine threads of Qi to repeatedly hammer and scour the surface skin of his entire body.

The inner breath originated from the Lower Dantian, flowing upward along the meridians. Every fraction of an inch it traveled upward, it differentiated into a fine thread.

A moment later, the thick inner breath that had originally gathered into a mass completely dispersed.

It turned into countless imperceptible fine threads of inner breath, densely wrapping around and hammering every inch of flesh and skin on his entire body.

A warm current rose from his lower abdomen, swiftly sweeping across his entire body.

That was the warm, scorching sensation brought by the inner breath continuously hammering the skin, slowly spreading from the inside out.

The skin exposed to the air gradually flushed and grew hot, the dry heat growing increasingly intense.

Accompanied by the high-temperature baking, the old surface skin gradually lost its vitality, continuously withering and tightening, and fine cracks quietly spread.

Where it cracked and dried, the outer layer of dead skin and the fresh flesh and blood beneath slowly peeled and separated, a wave of lingering soreness and bloating mixed with minute, tearing stings spreading along the muscle grain.

Unlike the fierce intensity of sharp pain, it was a marrow-deep numbness and astringency, a sore and taut pulling.

The strange, lingering pain of the skin and flesh faintly separating continued endlessly.

Every expansion of the cracks carried the sore and stinging numbness of the skin detaching from the flesh, extremely difficult to endure.

Liu Yunche bit his teeth slightly, strongly enduring the continuous assault of soreness, tearing, and numb pain throughout his body.

His mind was as steady as a rock, not daring to scatter even a shred, and he stubbornly kept the inner breath circulating within his body without disorder.

Even though the faint pain of skin and flesh separation repeatedly stimulated his perception, he still remained motionless, his stance posture without half a tilt.

His father had long warned him that advancing from Copper Skin to Iron Skin would inevitably require experiencing the suffering of shedding skin and tempering the skin.

Liu Yunche could not afford to move the slightest bit at this moment; once his mind drifted and his form swayed, the disorder of his inner breath would ruin all his previous efforts.

Beads of sweat dripped down his forehead, his clothes were thoroughly soaked by sweat, his pores opened, and the dry heat and soreness of his whole body intertwined.

Sweat blurred his vision, and densely packed, crisp, and tiny cracking sounds rang in his ears.

This was not the decay and aging of appearance, but rather the old skin that had undergone martial arts tempering was drying, cracking, peeling up in layers, and slowly detaching from the flesh.

The old skin all over his body was covered in cracks, resembling withered tree bark, rolling up and peeling off piece by piece.

The old skin fell off rustlingly, and a brand-new, tight, dense, and tenacious new skin was slowly revealing itself.

On the surface, it looked no different from the skin of an ordinary youth, smooth, warm, and utterly unremarkable.

Only by concentrating and gazing closely could one see through the fair skin layer and make out densely intertwined scale patterns interwoven deep within the flesh and skin.

Liu Yunche slowly clenched his fists, his thoughts shifting slightly.

His fair skin instantly bloomed with a faint, cold luster, the patterns beneath his skin faintly emerging and uncurling, his skin solidifying like refined iron, hard and heavy.

Once he relaxed his mind, the luster quickly faded, the patterns submerged, and his skin returned to its ordinary, fair appearance, revealing nothing at all.

When the old skin all over his body had peeled off cleanly, the previous lingering soreness and tearing pain completely dissipated.

He stood quietly for a moment, feeling his brand-new flesh and body after the transformation; his tendons and bones were clear and light, his muscle grain tight and solid, and his entire person was poised and restrained, the inside and outside blending together as one.

At the same time, the countless fine inner breath threads that had permeated his body and scoured and tempered his skin suddenly began to gather and circulate.

Ten thousand Qi threads surged like a river rushing into the sea, rapidly backtracking along the meridians, orderly gathering and sinking back deep into the Lower Dantian.

When all the Qi settled and grew quiet, Liu Yunche clearly sensed that the total amount of inner breath stored in his Dantian was a full fold thicker than before the breakthrough.

The Qi was lingering and pure, its foundation far surpassing the Copper Skin realm.

Then he slowly relaxed his body, carefully self-checking all the foundation of his body after the transformation.

His physical defense underwent a qualitative leap and bounds, the iron patterns beneath his skin were indestructible, and ordinary punches and kicks simply could not break his defense.

His pure physical strength rose sharply, his force application steady and solid, and his movement footwork became lighter and crisper, growing increasingly agile and ethereal when matched with his Divine Movement talent.

His sensory sharpness and on-the-spot reaction speed were fully enhanced; the surrounding breeze, falling leaves, and subtle sounds were all clearly distinguishable, and with a shift of his thought, his form could follow immediately.

After finishing the contemplation, Liu Yunche's expression was as calm as usual.

On the outside, he was still an ordinary, fair youth; no one could tell that he had already been reborn, his physical strength rising to yet another level.

The corners of Liu Yunche's mouth raised, hanging a faint smile on his face: "Hunting outside the city... is truly something to look forward to."

He personally cleaned up the skin he had shed during his breakthrough.

These skins were entirely withered and deformed, unable to show half the appearance of human skin.

After cleaning up, Liu Yunche put these fragments of skin to the torch, and only then did he nod in satisfaction.

The reason he did this was to guard against someone obtaining his skin and using it to curse him.

In his past life, he had seen many books on this subject; although he did not know if this world had such things, taking precautions before they happened was necessary.

The flames danced, the dry skin fragments igniting upon contact with the fire and curling into ash in the blink of an eye.

The flame light reflected in Liu Yunche's pupils, condensing into tiny sparks, and he stood silently from beginning to end, without a ripple of emotion on his face.

Only deep within his heart, a blazing sentiment belonging to a martial arts expert quietly surged along with the flames—the martial arts path ahead now added a fraction more confidence.

When the dust scattered and everything was properly disposed of.

Liu Yunche stood quietly in place, carefully feeling the clear tendons, bones, Qi, and blood of his entire body after the Iron Skin transformation, savoring the heavy foundation of his renewed flesh and body.

His mind completely settled and calmed down, and only then did he dismiss the servants, walking slowly to the open space in the courtyard, slowly drawing the Concealed Edge at his waist.

A cool breeze swept past his sleeves, leaving no fierce piercing sound, nor any vast, violent sharpness.

At minor completion, the Gale Swift Saber had saber momentum roaring like the wind and a heaven-shaking presence; at major completion, the blade left sound in its wake, subduing enemies in an instant.

Only at the realm of perfection, the saber followed the body, and the thought was the blade.

Liu Yunche's form swayed slightly, shifting in an instant to match his Divine Movement talent, the blade's edge flashing and vanishing, so fast that the naked eye simply could not capture its trace.

There was no explosive sound, no wind whistle, and not the slightest abnormal movement.

The three-foot wooden stake ahead stood quietly, and the next instant it broke in half silently, sliding off smoothly.

The cross-section was smooth and even, completely integrated as one, as if it were naturally born in two sections, without a trace of splitting or tremor.

It was so fast that the airflow had no time to churn, so fast that the sound of the wind had no time to rise, and so fast that the opponent lacked even the split second to perceive the crisis, reveal pain, or make a reaction, before their life and soul had already vanished.

This sort of ultimate, soundless absolute-kill saber technique was something he had never displayed to outsiders in the slightest.

The blade turned lightly, and Liu Yunche calmly returned the saber to its scabbard as the courtyard returned to peace once more.