Winter had arrived.
The mountain wind began to carry knives. Half the leaves in the Bamboo Sea had yellowed, and whenever the wind swept through, they fell with a rustle, carpeting the paths in yellow.
Chen Chong's days followed a steady routine.
He rose before dawn and went through Four Saints Breathing on the level ground outside his stone house. Dragon, tiger, phoenix, tortoise-four breaths, taking nearly an hour to complete. Afterward, he practiced a set of punches, then drew his Tiger Roar saber and delivered three hundred cuts.
Once he finished, he ate breakfast and went to Elder Yang's little courtyard to refine pills. In the afternoon, he returned and kept cutting.
At night, he sat cross-legged and circulated the Four Saints Art.
Over half a month, he pushed the number on his panel to two hundred and sixty thousand, one batch of pills at a time.
His progress in the Four Saints Art advanced as well.
[Cultivation art: Four Saints Art (minor mastery 12000/100000)]
"Initial mastery" had changed to "minor mastery."
The gains were solid and tangible. He tested them once by having Zhang Yide strike his back with a staff at full strength. The staff broke, leaving only a red mark on his back.
His eldest senior brother stared at the two halves of the staff for a long while before saying, "Junior brother, you're a lump of iron now."
Yu Che took that pill.
On the third day, he came to see Chen Chong, his face bloodless and his steps unsteady.
"Senior brother, that pill..."
"Finished the cleansing?"
"I did," Yu Che said. "I sat on the Bamboo Platform for two days and two nights. I almost couldn't hold on."
Chen Chong smiled. "As long as you held on."
He could see the changes