Flight-Like Cultivation Speed

The large and small bags hanging from his hands felt heavy, but Feng Chen was no longer the hunter who had once panted heavily from carrying two sacks of prey. The physical strength of the Body Tempering Second Layer allowed him to lift all the bags with ease.

The two returned to their new home and sorted everything away one by one: the meat was hung from the kitchen rafters, the oil, salt, soy sauce, and vinegar were lined up on the stove, and the coarse grain was poured into the newly bought rice jar in the corner.

The once-empty kitchen suddenly gained the solid abundance of a home being lived in.

After they finished tidying up, Lin Qing'er stood in the kitchen, looking at the meat filling the rafters and the rice filling the jar. She opened her mouth, but ultimately could not hold back. "Husband, after spending these several hundred taels of silver, do we really have that much money?"

Counting on her fingers, she added it up: ten taels for rent, three hundred taels for medicinal herbs, eighty taels for meat, plus the oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, and miscellaneous items. Nearly four hundred taels of silver had vanished in a single trip today.

Four hundred taels—back in Green Mountain Village, the entire village could not earn that much in ten years.

She could hardly believe how much that kindhearted person had given them.

Feng Chen smiled. "Qing'er, you need not worry about money. Just follow me."

He hung the last pork hind leg from the beam, then turned and dusted off his hands.

"All right, Husband."

Lin Qing'er did not ask any more questions.

Though she still felt somewhat uneasy inside, since her husband said there was no need to worry, she would not worry.

She went into the kitchen to arrange the jars and bottles, putting the salt into a clay jar, setting the rapeseed oil within easy reach by the stove, and sealing the soy sauce and vinegar with wooden stoppers before placing them against the wall.

Feng Chen went to the other side of the kitchen, opened a packet of High-Grade Blood-Qi Medicinal Herbs, poured it into a clay pot, added plenty of water, and set it over the stove to simmer.

The firelight from the hearth made the kitchen warm and cozy. The medicinal fragrance soon spread through the room, mingling with the scent of timber and lime from the new house, becoming a smell that belonged to them alone.

An hour later, the decoction was finished. The liquid in the clay pot had turned thick and dark brown, bubbling with tiny blisters.

As usual, Feng Chen ladled a small bowl for Lin Qing'er and set it aside, telling her to drink it while it was hot before practicing Tiger Fist and using the stance to guide the medicinal power in tempering her body.

Holding the small bowl, Lin Qing'er nodded earnestly.

Once the medicine had cooled enough to drink, Feng Chen lifted the clay pot and tilted back his head, gulping it down in large mouthfuls.

The scalding liquid poured down his throat into his stomach, and a familiar, surging heat rose violently from his abdomen, like a blazing fire rushing through his veins.

He set down the clay pot, suppressed the churning medicinal power within him, and immediately entered another room, assuming the stance of the Giant Strength Art.

His legs bent slightly, his hands held out before him as though embracing a massive boulder, his qi sinking into his Dantian.

The potent medicine stimulated the qi and blood within his body. Its power transformed into streams of scorching warmth that continuously washed over and tempered every sinew and bone.

His muscles swelled and tightened slightly under the medicine's saturation, while waves of hot, aching pressure rose from deep inside his joints, as though his bones were being hammered over and over within.

The Giant Strength Art had already reached Perfection, leaving no room for further advancement, but the tempering of his body would not stop because of that.

With every fraction of medicinal power he refined, his sinews and bones became denser, his qi and blood more vigorous, and his Dantian more stable.

He was using the most direct method possible to force his way toward the Body Tempering, Third Heaven.

Within a spacious courtyard of the Wang Clan Martial Hall in Green Mountain Town.

Wang Batian sat in a grand chair in the dining hall. A table full of dishes had already been laid before him, with fish, meat, and steam still rising from them.

Yet he did not pick up his chopsticks. Instead, he frowned at the woman pouring him wine beside him and asked, "Why have Tian Ping and Tian Fan still not returned for lunch? Usually, the moment it is mealtime, they come running back at the smell of food. Why is there not even a trace of them today?"

The man speaking was none other than the father of Wang Tianping and Wang Tianfan, a pillar of the Wang Clan Martial Hall and a Body Tempering, Third Heaven Martial Artist, Wang Batian.

He was broad and burly, with a square face covered in short whiskers. His brows carried the imposing air of one who commanded respect without needing anger.

The woman beside him was their mother, Zhou Shi. She wore a deep-purple silk blouse and a silver hairpin in her hair. Her features were reasonably well maintained, though a shrewd, worldly air showed between her brows.

Zhou Shi smiled as she set the wine pot on the table and replied unhurriedly, "Tian Ping and Tian Fan, those two children, heard that they went to help a junior fellow disciple deal with some trouble. It seems they went to a place called Green Mountain Village. That junior's father was harmed, so they went along to lend their support."

"Do not worry. Those two children love to play, and it is common enough for them to be delayed outside. They will naturally return later."

"All right."

Wang Batian nodded and lifted his wine cup for a sip. For some reason, however, he always felt that something was not quite right.

It was the faint intuition honed through years of roaming the martial world—something impossible to name or explain, yet enough to make his eyelids twitch twice.

He put down his wine cup, fell silent for a moment, then said, "If those two children have not returned by tonight, I will send someone to that Green Mountain Village to take a look."

"No problem, Master."

Zhou Shi nodded, picked up her chopsticks, and placed a piece of braised fish into his bowl.

The two said nothing more and lowered their heads to eat lunch.

Yet Wang Batian's movements as he picked up food were a little slower than usual.

In the blink of an eye, evening came.

The setting sun slanted through the old window lattice into Feng Chen's training room. Tiny specks of dust floated in the beam of light, settling on the front of his clothes, soaked through with sweat.

Feng Chen suddenly threw a punch. His fist smashed through the air, and a thunderous boom exploded through the room.

It was not an ordinary sound of air being torn apart. It carried a dull, explosive force, as though the air itself had been crushed apart by the power of that punch.

The qi and blood within him surged and roared like boiling magma, wave after wave battering against the barrier to the Body Tempering, Third Heaven.

A realization naturally welled up in his mind, a subtle understanding of how qi and blood circulated at the limit of the Body Tempering Second Layer.

Feng Chen closed his eyes and quietly absorbed it. When he opened them again, a sharper gleam flashed through his pupils.

He slowly exhaled a breath of stale air, which turned into a wisp of white vapor and gradually dispersed.

He could clearly feel that he was already extremely close to the Body Tempering, Third Heaven, lacking only the final kick.

The invisible barrier within him had become as thin as paper. If he used the remaining five portions of High-Grade Blood-Qi Medicinal Herbs to train again tomorrow morning, he should be able to break through.

But... this cultivation speed was truly beyond belief!

He had only broken through to the Body Tempering Second Layer yesterday, yet he would reach the Body Tempering, Third Heaven tomorrow.

If such speed spread, it would be astonishing enough to shock people in Green Mountain Town, let alone in a great martial sect. It was the level of a monstrous prodigy.

But that was the power of his Destiny Talent, Rapid Mastery. A road that took others years to travel required only days for him!

He immediately stopped training!

Because his stomach was growling.

That familiar, violent hunger surged up from his abdomen. After cultivating all afternoon, the energy within him had been thoroughly drained by the stance and medicinal tempering. His stomach was completely empty, without even a trace of oil or fat left.

He walked out of the room, where Lin Qing'er had already prepared dinner.

A pot of pork stewed until tender sat on the table, along with a plate of stir-fried wild vegetables and steaming white rice. It was no worse than the meal they had eaten at the restaurant at noon.

Lin Qing'er was laying out the chopsticks. Hearing his footsteps, she looked up with expectation in her eyes. "Husband, have you finished cultivating?"

Feng Chen nodded. "Yes. Let us eat dinner."

"Okay."

Lin Qing'er placed a bowl of rice before him, then pushed the large bowl of stewed meat closer to his side.

She knew her husband would be ravenous after cultivating, so she had deliberately cooked an extra half-pot today.

A little while later!

The two finished dinner!

After resting briefly!

Feng Chen guided Lin Qing'er in practicing Tiger Fist.

He had Lin Qing'er assume the Tiger Fist Stance in the courtyard while he adjusted her posture bit by bit from the side!

Her knees turned outward another three points, her tailbone tucked in slightly, her spine like a drawn bowstring, her shoulders lowered, and her breath returned to her Dantian.

Lin Qing'er adjusted each point as he instructed, the expression on her face as serious as if she were facing a matter of heaven-shaking importance.