Body Tempering Third Stage

Inside the cave, he had already dealt with the Rock Wolf's corpse.

Relying on the Rock Wolf's flesh and blood to replenish his vital energy and blood, coupled with the Modified Tiger-Subduing Fist continuously nourishing his body, in just two days, more than half of Shen Yuan's broken ribs had healed. The wounds on his body had scabbed over, and his movements were no longer hindered by his severe injuries.

But he could not remain trapped at the bottom of the cliff forever.

Shen Yuan walked to the cave entrance, his gaze fixed firmly on the vast tangle of old vines winding across the sheer cliff face.

The vines varied in thickness, and many had already withered and rotted. They stretched upward in segments, with several breaks in between that required him to maneuver across protruding rocks. Danger lurked at every turn, but this was the only path out of the cliff bottom.

"Let's gamble on it."

Shen Yuan took a deep breath and suppressed the apprehension in his heart.

He roughly straightened his tattered coarse cloth garments, tucked the sharp stone at his waist, and gripped the thick, ancient vine nearest the cave entrance with both hands.

It felt rough to the touch and was covered in burrs. In some places, a mere squeeze sent flakes of dry bark rustling down.

"Hope it can hold."

Shen Yuan braced his feet against a protruding rock in the cliff wall, exerted strength through his arms, and slowly climbed upward along the vine.

A fierce wind howled through the cliffs, making the vines sway without cease. Beneath him lay a bottomless abyss; one glance downward was enough to make his head spin.

Each time he climbed a short distance, Shen Yuan had to repeatedly tug at the vines to make sure they were stable before daring to continue upward.

Whenever he encountered a break in the vines, he had to step on protruding rocks and leap sideways to shift his position.

The physical strength of the First Stage of Body Tempering supported his ceaseless ascent.

Several times along the way, the rocks beneath his feet slipped, and the decaying vines creaked as though they could no longer bear the burden. He nearly plunged straight into the abyss, yet every time, Shen Yuan desperately managed to steady himself.

Cold sweat soaked through his clothes, while his arms and palms were pricked full of dense, bloody wounds by the vines.

He had no idea how much time had passed.

Then, above his head, he finally saw the familiar forest canopy—the cliff top of the back mountain!

Shen Yuan used the last shred of his strength, his arms suddenly bursting forth as he flipped himself onto the cliff top and crashed heavily into the dirt and fallen leaves.

He gasped for breath in huge mouthfuls, every muscle in his body aching so badly it nearly cramped.

He had made it back alive.

Back to the Azure Cloud Sect's back mountain.

The sky was already nearing dusk, and the setting sun stretched the shadows of the trees long across the forest.

Shen Yuan lay amid the fallen leaves for quite some time before finally pushing himself up from the ground.

The surroundings were silent, without a single person in sight.

The two servants under Zhou Hu had probably returned long ago after pushing him off the cliff, reporting that he had fallen to his death.

"If I return to the Servant Compound now, I'll be walking straight into Liu Er's line of sight." Shen Yuan's eyes turned several shades colder.

If he swaggered back just like this, then once Liu Er saw that he was still alive, he would certainly find another way to strike from the shadows.

He lowered his head and examined himself. His clothes were in tatters, and he was covered in blood and grime, looking utterly bedraggled.

"First, I need to find somewhere hidden and stabilize my condition completely."

Shen Yuan got his bearings, avoided the main paths through the back mountain, found a secluded cave in a dense forest, and slipped inside.

The stone cave was not large, but it was enough to conceal him and block the view from outside.

Sitting cross-legged, Shen Yuan began to circulate the Modified Tiger-Subduing Fist.

After the slaughter at the cliff bottom and the life-or-death ordeal of climbing the cliff, his body had been thoroughly tempered. On top of that, the Subduing Tiger Fist continuously nourished his innate foundation.

The vital energy and blood within his body surged ever more vigorously, like a snowball rolling downhill.

The barrier of the Body Tempering Second Stage broke through without a sound.

His vital energy and blood continued to rise wildly, showing no signs of stopping.

Shen Yuan's heart stirred. His consciousness entered the Martial Arts Simulation Space, where he expended his last 1 Martial Dao Point to once again deduce the vital energy and blood eruption technique of the Subduing Tiger Fist.

Within the Martial Arts Simulation Space, countless phantoms shifted and maneuvered. Every point of force in the fist technique, every node in the circulation of vital energy and blood, was calculated over and over again.

Boom!

The vital energy and blood within his body exploded upward.

Body Tempering Third Stage!

A surging power flowed through his limbs and bones. His sinews and bones were repeatedly washed by vital energy and blood, and the strength of his body rose by a great margin. Though his shattered innate foundation had not fully recovered, its cracks had been filled with fresh life, and it was no longer as brittle as before, ready to shatter at the slightest touch.

"Body Tempering Third Stage." Shen Yuan slowly clenched his fists, feeling the surging power within him as a flicker of joy passed through his eyes.

In just a few short days, he had gone from a cripple on the verge of death to the Body Tempering Third Stage. For an ordinary servant disciple of the sect, such progress would often require years of bitter cultivation.

This was the terror of the Martial Arts Heavenly Stele.

Yet beneath his joy, Shen Yuan did not let himself be carried away.

His current strength at the Body Tempering Third Stage was considered respectable among low-ranking servants, but against official outer sect disciples, it was still far from enough. Zhao Kun was a true expert at the Body Tempering Eighth Layer or above.

The gap remained immense.

"I can't expose my strength." Shen Yuan made up his mind.

After returning to the Servant Compound, he would still have to pretend before others that his injuries had not healed and that he was a weak, useless cripple. In secret, he would accumulate strength and search for clues about how his innate foundation had been destroyed back then.

Just then, footsteps and voices drifted over from outside the stone cave.

"Now that Shen Yuan fell off the cliff today, the steward can finally rest easy."

"Who would've thought he'd be smashed to death just like that? We won't have to wait on that jinx anymore. We need to keep our mouths shut about this and not babble everywhere."

It was the two servants under Zhou Hu!

They were patrolling this stretch of forest. By the looks of it, they had come to confirm whether there was a corpse at the bottom of the cliff.

Shen Yuan instantly held his breath, pressing his body tightly against the stone wall of the cave as his hand silently gripped the sharp black stone at his waist.