Seizing a Fortuitous Opportunity!

As the Mist Incense burned out, turning into wisps of black smoke that were drawn into the Divine Statue, his proficiency began shooting up, up, up!

[Realm: First-Rank Skin Tempering Realm (Initiation) 999/1000]

When the number reached 999, just as Zhou Chen had expected, he encountered no so-called Realm Barrier. At that moment, the Blood Vitality throughout his body gathered to an unimaginable degree!

He felt like a balloon filled to bursting.

The instant the number broke through 1000!

"Boom!"

Zhou Chen felt as though a basin of boiling water had been poured into his body!

The Blood Vitality gathered beneath his skin surged through his body like a great river, blasting open countless blockages in his meridians.

Zhou Chen's skin instantly turned red, wisps of heat rose from his head, and sweat poured from his entire body. Countless black impurities seeped from his pores, filling the air with a foul stench.

Before he could even wipe himself clean, another wave of intense pain erupted within his body.

"Hiss!"

Zhou Chen felt as though an invisible pair of giant hands were pulling his entire body apart. A series of crackling sounds like frying beans rang out from within him. Once the agony passed, an unprecedented sensation of comfort swept through his body, and he had actually grown a little taller.

Zhou Chen opened his eyes, a sharp gleam flickering within them.

[Realm: First-Rank Skin Tempering Realm (Minor Accomplishment) 1/2000]

Based on the degree to which one's Blood Vitality had been tempered in each realm, every realm was further divided into Minor Accomplishment, Major Accomplishment, and Perfection.

He had finally become a First-Rank Martial Artist!

Zhou Chen grinned and brought his fists together before his chest. They produced a series of thudding clangs, like metal striking metal.

"Could this be Copper Skin?!"

Zhou Chen froze. He circulated his Blood Vitality to its fullest and clenched his fist fiercely. His muscles tightened, and a dusky bronze sheen surfaced across his skin. Wild joy surged into his heart.

That was right!

This was Copper Skin!

According to what Lian Taoze had said, at the Skin Tempering Realm, aside from nurturing one's Blood Vitality, one also needed to temper one's skin membrane. The more thoroughly toughened the skin membrane was, the higher one's future achievements would be.

Thus, based on the degree of skin membrane tempering, this stage was further divided into Iron Skin, Copper Skin, and Golden Skin!

Most people would already be fortunate to attain Iron Skin. Yet some geniuses were not content with Iron Skin. Their ambitions soared high, and they would not rest until they had cultivated the stronger Copper Skin, or even Golden Skin.

But saying it was easy; doing it was hard.

Not only did one need to frantically temper one's Blood Vitality and skin membrane, one also needed all manner of rare medicinal ingredients to nourish the body. Only then would one have the slightest chance of finding the opportunity for Copper Skin. That was why, in the entire Zheng Family Martial Arts Hall, the number of people who had cultivated Copper Skin could be counted on one hand.

For instance, Lian Taoze had lingered in the Skin Tempering Realm for another year and a half back then, suppressing his realm before barely managing to temper himself to Copper Skin.

But the benefits had been astonishing as well. Right after Lian Taoze broke through to Second-Rank Martial Artist, he had actually defeated Shen Ao in a sparring match, even though Shen Ao had already spent more than a year at Second-Rank Martial Artist.

Zhou Chen had only just entered First Grade, yet his skin membrane was already as tough as Copper Skin. This meant that, at the very least, he could cultivate Copper Skin to Perfection. If he had sufficient resources, he might even strive for Golden Skin.

"But why? Clearly, the Stake-Standing Exercise and fist techniques I practice are the same as my senior brothers'. Could it be because there is no Miasma Poison left in my body?"

After thinking it over and over, that seemed to be the only explanation. His eldest senior brother had once said that before the Black Mist appeared, martial arts had flourished like a soaring dragon. People practiced martial arts several times more easily than they did now, achieving far more with the same effort!

But after the Black Mist arrived, everything changed! The path of martial arts became fraught with every imaginable hardship!

"Forget it. There's no use thinking so much."

Letting out a soft breath, Zhou Chen cast those thoughts from his mind. Then he casually clenched his fist, and it seemed as though the air itself had been crushed apart by his grip.

"My strength has surged tremendously too. Copper Skin not only increases the toughness of my skin membrane, it has also given me so much strength out of thin air. Senior brothers at the same rank as me probably couldn't even withstand a full-force punch from me!"

A smile appeared at the corner of Zhou Chen's lips.

Now that was more like it.

He had hands, feet, and a cheat. It was only normal that others could not compare to him.

Afterward, Zhou Chen washed up and prepared to sleep.

Those who practiced martial arts needed both diligence and nourishment. Sleep was the foundation for nourishing Blood Vitality.

Once he had rested well, he would report his breakthrough to Master Zheng tomorrow, then he could naturally begin cultivating the Wild Bull Fist. Otherwise, when facing enemies, all he could do was swing rocks around and smash people with them. That might work against a few hooligans, but if he encountered a proper Martial Warrior, he would surely suffer for it.

He just did not know whether his progress in cultivating the Wild Bull Fist would be fast. His natural aptitude was poor, but what if his comprehension was high?

But even if his comprehension was low, it did not matter. After all, he had a cheat.

How could the strength others painstakingly accumulated through bitter cultivation possibly be as steady and reliable as the strength he gained by adding points?

Once verified, forever verified—never retreating!

The future was promising!

As Zhou Chen pondered this, he suddenly noticed that the Divine Statue in his mind seemed somewhat off. He sank his consciousness into that mist-shrouded space and observed it carefully.

Inside the incense burner covered in ash, aside from that black Mist Incense which had burned down to its root, there was unexpectedly another tiny section of red incense, just emerging like a spring bamboo shoot breaking through the earth.

"Another stick of incense? When did this appear? How did I not notice?"

A string of questions arose in Zhou Chen's heart. Looking at that piece of incense, he hesitated over whether to light it and see what effect it had. But the moment that thought appeared, the Divine Statue conveyed a sense of refusal.

"No?"

Looking at the Red Incense, which was less than an inch long, Zhou Chen understood the Divine Statue's meaning. It was not that it could not be lit, but that to light this Red Incense, it needed to reach at least one inch in length.

It was not enough yet.

But Zhou Chen did not even know where this piece of incense had come from. He carefully recalled everything, and only then did he arrive at a guess.

"It seemed that only after I killed Zhang Mingfei and the others did this piece of incense appear in the burner in my mind. Could it be that this Red Incense needs killing people to accumulate?"

Zhou Chen could not be certain, but he could not exactly go kill someone right now just to test it.

Forget it. He mulled it over repeatedly for a while, but could not make heads or tails of it. In the end, he simply set aside his doubts for now.

The next day in Azure City, after breakfast, Zhou Chen went to the martial arts hall as usual to practice his fist techniques. Master Zheng had not arrived yet. He had originally planned to tell Master Zheng about his breakthrough as soon as he came.

That was fine. He would first run through a set of punches to warm up. Yet just as he had opened his stance and thrown fewer than two moves, the inner courtyard gate creaked open, and several people emerged, crowding around a tall, thin young man.

Ma Pengcheng, a collateral descendant of the Ma Family in neighboring Linhua District—the kind separated by more than five degrees of kinship—was, like Zhou Chen, an Ordinary Disciple at the martial arts hall. But he had studied there for several years. It was said that his Blood Vitality was deep and vigorous, his Iron Skin incomparably hard, and he had long since reached Major Accomplishment at First Grade.

Half a month ago, he had already come looking for Zhou Chen once. The moment he opened his mouth, he demanded that Zhou Chen give him his daily portion of Qi-Blood Soup. His reasoning sounded lofty and righteous: he had watched Zhou Chen practice martial arts for more than a month, and Zhou Chen's Blood Vitality had not advanced at all. Drinking it would be a waste anyway, so he might as well give it to him so that he could charge toward Skin Tempering Perfection. When the time came, he would surely repay him generously.

Zhou Chen had nearly thought he had misheard him.

Qi-Blood Soup was a Blood Vitality supplement distributed internally by the martial arts hall. One bowl cost one tael of silver. Outside, even two taels would have people fighting over it. Even if Zhou Chen did not drink it himself and simply sold it on, he could earn a clear profit of two taels a day, sixty taels a month.

Why should this Ma fellow get it for free just by flapping his lips?

He had merely seen that Zhou Chen had shown no progress after a month and had come openly to bully him.

"Junior Brother Zhou."

Ma Pengcheng stepped closer, wearing a well-practiced smile. "Are you truly not going to reconsider what we discussed before? Everything this senior brother said was for your own sake. Think about it. If you waste three months here and fail to complete Initiation, once you leave, the best you can become is a guard. Do you know why trading house guards are replaced with a new batch every so often?"

Without waiting for Zhou Chen to respond, he continued on his own. "Because they all die! Guards do work that trades their lives for money, licking blood from the edge of a blade! Junior Brother, think about it. You still have parents and a younger sister at home. If something happens to you outside, how will they live?! But if you give your Qi-Blood Soup to me, I will have an eighty percent chance of breaking through to Second-Rank Martial Artist. Eighty percent! Once I enter a Noble Family Trading House through the Placement Fair and settle down, I will surely repay you generously!"

He spoke with utter sincerity, as though he were truly worrying over Zhou Chen's long-term future.

The so-called Placement Fair he mentioned was a channel through which the major Noble Family Trading Houses periodically came to martial arts halls to recruit people for positions.

As the saying went, the poor pursued scholarship while the rich pursued martial arts. Martial Warriors needed meat, soups, and medicine to strengthen their Blood Vitality, and precious medicinal ingredients to temper their muscles and bones. Every single one of these things cost a sky-high sum of silver. Thus, anyone who entered First-Rank Martial Artist needed to find a placement and secure an income to feed back into their cultivation.

Zhou Chen's expression did not change. After quietly listening to him finish, he said nothing.

Seeing that he did not state his position, a pockmarked young man behind Ma Pengcheng impatiently stepped forward, his tone carrying a hint of aggressive pressure. "Junior Brother, don't be foolish! Your aptitude is ordinary. You've drunk Qi-Blood Soup for so long without the slightest movement. Frankly speaking, you're just wasting it! But if you give it to Senior Brother Ma, he'll gain a few more chances of breaking through! Once Senior Brother Ma breaks through to the Second-Rank Flesh Tempering Realm, would it be a big deal for him to give you a few bowls in return?"

He spoke with perfect confidence, as though robbing others of their belongings was only natural, and everyone else ought to give way to him.

Zhou Chen withdrew his stance, then turned to look at the pockmarked young man and said, "Get lost, Pockmarked Face! You're standing too close. All those pockmarks on your face make me sick!"

What a joke. Before his breakthrough, when these people came looking for him, swallowing his anger had been called judging the situation and acting accordingly. But now that he had broken through to First Grade, if they still dared to jump onto his face, he would not be so pleasant anymore!