New Weapon Acquired

Within Small Mountain Village.

Lin Fan, seated beside his thatched hut and cultivating, had no idea that a conspiracy centered around him was slowly taking shape.

Beneath the morning glow and the setting sun, Lin Fan cultivated diligently every day without pause. After breaking through to the Late Muscle Refinement Realm, he cultivated for another eight days. With the two-thousandfold acceleration in cultivation efficiency each day, Lin Fan finally stepped into the Bone Tempering Realm on this day, his bones issuing low rumbles like thunder rolling through the clouds.

The Bone Tempering Realm—he had finally reached it. Feeling the three-thousand-pound surge of strength within his body, Lin Fan sighed with emotion. In this town, he could finally be considered a first-rate expert.

Each of the Three Body-Tempering Realms mainly strengthened a different part of the body. By Lin Fan's own estimation, his bones were now far harder than the sixty-pound spear in his hand, the one at Forging Grade 17.

Counting the days, it had been over ten days since he last returned from town. The Forging Grade 25 spear he had purchased at the Su Family Shop should have been finished by now. If this Forging Grade 17 spear weighed sixty pounds, then that spear should weigh roughly ninety pounds. It was just right for his current cultivation.

Moreover, even after reaching the Three Qi-Force Realms, he would still be able to use it for some time. The Three Qi-Force Realms primarily involved cultivating Inner Qi, and the increase in physical strength would not be nearly as great as it had been in the Three Body-Tempering Realms.

Lin Fan glanced at the spear standing upright beside him, rose to his feet, and pulled it from the ground. He casually swung it around for a while. "Sure enough, with my current three thousand pounds of strength, this sixty-pound spear already feels awkward to wield. It's too light—I can't put much force into it."

It was noon. Holding his spear, Lin Fan leaped several times through Small Mountain Village, his figure flickering as he swiftly reached the mountainside of the hill beside the village. After searching the forest for a while, he found a herd of wild boars rooting through the soil. With Lin Fan's current strength, these boars looked like newly weaned puppies in an adult's eyes.

Lin Fan charged into the herd, swinging his spear. In three strokes and two moves, he knocked two wild boars unconscious with the spear in his hand. The other boars panicked and scattered in all directions. Lin Fan found several vines and creepers, laid the two boars upside down on the ground, bound all four of their hooves tightly together, then grabbed one boar in each hand and returned to Small Mountain Village below the mountain.

Lin Fan decided that early the next morning, he would lead the hunting team to town again to sell their prey and pick up his custom-made Forging Grade 25 spear while he was there.

The next day, while the sky was still faintly brightening, Lin Fan woke up. Ever since he began cultivating martial arts, the quality of his sleep had improved greatly. Just a few hours of sleep each day left him brimming with energy for the entire day.

Lin Fan, Uncle Wang, and the rest of the hunting team once again loaded six or seven wheelbarrows to the brim. The two still-unconscious wild boars were laid upside down on the carts. That was right—after the boars woke up, Lin Fan had knocked them out again to keep them from struggling. Since they were merely unconscious, there was no need to slaughter them. Selling them alive would fetch a much higher price. Together with some scattered medicinal herbs, Lin Fan could earn roughly one hundred taels of silver this time. It was not much, but it was enough to cover a day or two of cultivation.

After two days of travel, Lin Fan and his group arrived at the Su Family Shop.

When the maid receiving customers saw Lin Fan enter, she swiftly turned an ornament on the wall behind her. Before long, Su Qingwei came downstairs.

The young woman wore a long lotus-root-colored silk dress. Her dark hair was arranged in a bun, with two pearl hairpins hanging beside her temples. At the slightest movement, the pearls on the pins trembled softly. The skin revealed at her wrists was creamy white like congealed fat, her brows were painted to perfection on her oval face, and her eyes were clear as water.

Su Qingwei smiled brightly. "Young Master Lin, the spear has already been forged. I'll have someone bring it over at once."

The back door of the Su Family Shop opened, and three Su Family servants carried in a spear. It was not that two people could not lift a spear weighing around ninety pounds. Rather, the spear shaft was only two or three fingers thick, yet its density was frighteningly high. If it were dropped carelessly, it could easily smash several holes into the floor.

Lin Fan lightly reached out and took the spear from the shoulders of the servants. At the same time, he returned the Forging Grade 17 spear he had previously borrowed to them.

Gripping the ninety-pound Forging Grade 25 spear, Lin Fan walked to an open area inside the shop. With a sudden exertion of force, a deep weapon hum instantly rang throughout the entire store.

That nearly ninety-pound iron spear seemed weightless in Lin Fan's hands as he wielded it. The shaft was a dark, iron-black color from end to end, while the spearhead was snow-bright and razor-sharp, flashing with cold light, bright enough to serve as a mirror and radiating a chilling aura.

Lin Fan held the shaft one-handed and gave his wrist a slight twist. The heavy spear spun a fierce arc of light before him, and even the porcelain vases displayed on the counters along the walls of the Su Family Shop trembled faintly in the wind it stirred.

"Good spear!" A sharp gleam flashed through Lin Fan's eyes as his fingers stroked the cold shaft, and he was deeply satisfied.

Forging Grade 25 truly lived up to its reputation. It felt heavy in his hand without being sluggish, its center of gravity steady, perfectly suited to the three thousand pounds of strength he possessed in the Bone Tempering Realm. After entering the Bone Tempering Realm, the old sixty-pound spear had felt light and floaty when he swung it. This ninety-pound spear was what finally allowed Lin Fan to unleash all the strength in his body.

Su Qingwei stood quietly behind the shop counter, watching Lin Fan wield the spear. Her beautiful eyes blinked slightly, and a trace of surprise flickered through them. She had long known that Lin Fan's cultivation was impressive, that he was at least in the Muscle Refinement Realm, but she had never expected that this youth, so young as he was, had already reached the Bone Tempering Realm.

To hold such a heavy weapon and wield it as lightly as if it weighed nothing, with such smoothness—without the three thousand pounds of strength of the Bone Tempering Realm, it was impossible to do so with such ease.

"It is good that Young Master Lin is satisfied. This spear was repeatedly forged and hammered a hundred times by veteran craftsmen. It is exceptionally sturdy and astonishingly hard. Should ordinary weapons collide with Young Master's spear, they would be no match for it at all," Su Qingwei said softly. Her voice was gentle, and her tone carried a faint hint of admiration for the youth's strength.

Lin Fan put away the spear, bent at the waist, and cupped his hands. "Thank you for going to such trouble, Miss Su. This weapon truly suits my wishes."

After speaking, he turned to look at the prey on the wheelbarrows outside. The two wild boars were still groggy, their heavy snores faintly audible even through the carts, while some medicinal herbs were piled beside them.

With the matter of the weapon settled, Lin Fan sold all the live wild boars, medicinal herbs, other beasts, and goods that he, Uncle Wang, and the hunting team had brought to the Su Family Shop. Su Qingwei nodded slightly and instructed the maid to step forward and tally the goods and calculate the price.