A night passed, and morning light shone into the courtyard.
Han Yu lay on the ground, panting for half an hour before she felt control gradually return to her numb limbs.
Gritting her teeth, she braced both hands against the ground and slowly stood.
A series of faint cracks and pops came from inside her body.
Han Yu lowered her head and stared at her hands in shock.
Once thickly callused and large-knuckled from years of gripping a sword and doing heavy labor, her hands had become remarkably well-proportioned.
A faint rosy glow covered her skin, and the muscles beneath it were firm.
Even more unbelievable was the change in the strength within her.
She tried circulating the breathing method Su Yueli had taught her.
She sank her breath into her dantian and inhaled.
The once-disordered qi and blood inside her responded instantly, surging like a warm river through her newly laid meridians.
Not a trace of that power leaked away. All of it condensed deep within her bone marrow.
Han Yu clenched her fist.
A muffled sonic boom actually sounded in the air!
Second realm!
In a single night, she had actually leaped straight over the threshold of the first realm and joined the ranks of second-realm martial artists!
Back when she struggled to make a living in the outer city, she had seen the second-realm masters of those boxing schools.
Those people had cultivated for twenty or thirty years and consumed countless medicinal herbs just to barely condense their qi and blood to this degree.
Yet she had needed only a single night!
The gloom left by the agonizing pain vanished like smoke and scattered clouds at that moment, and overwhelming joy and shock flooded Han Yu's heart.
She looked at Su Yueli, seated on the stone stool,