Awakened Talent: Sickly Tiger Bones

The sky had gone completely dark.

Qin Geng rubbed his stomach. He was so hungry his belly felt stuck to his back.

He glanced at the [Martial Artist] entry again.

[Martial Artist (Level 9)]

[Current experience: 24/90]

"It went up."

A faint smile touched Qin Geng's lips.

Just as he had expected, the medicinal power of the Dragon-Tiger Decoction had settled inside his body. It hadn't all washed away with that bucket of bathwater. Instead, as he went about his day, it seeped bit by bit into his fascia and marrow, quietly nudging his experience bar forward.

"At this rate, five days should be just right."

Qin Geng put his cart away and headed straight for the food stall, Stewed Delight.

Master Zhu Xin wasn't there today. Worried something had happened to him, Qin Geng asked around. He was told that relatives had come to visit and Master Zhu Xin was busy with them, which left Qin Geng puzzled.

Master Zhu Xin had said before that all his descendants were dead.

Maybe they're cousins.

Master Zhu Xin is a Tianjin local, after all.

So Qin Geng figured.

"Boss, two big bowls of stewed offal! Extra garlic sauce, and make sure the flatbread's cooked through!"

"Coming right up!"

Before long, the steaming bowls arrived. The pork intestines and lungs had been stewed until tender and full of flavor. The flatbread, soaked with broth, had been cut into a grid of squares and topped with a ladle of garlic sauce and chive blossoms.

Qin Geng dug in without ceremony, slurping down great mouthfuls.

By the time he finished one large bowl, warmth had spread through his whole body. The day's exhaustion seemed to drift away with that mouthful of hot food.

Fed and satisfied, he returned to the shack.

The day really had worn him out.

Qin Geng lay down and fell straight asleep.

He slept so deeply he didn't even dream. When he woke, it was already the next morning.

Over the next few days, Qin Geng settled into a strict routine.

He got up before dawn and headed straight to Hundred Herb Hall.

First came a dose of Bone-Strengthening Powder made with tiger bone. Then he practiced Coiling Dragon and Clawing Strike several times in the courtyard.

Zheng Tonghe continued to watch from the side, correcting him now and then.

Once he finished practicing, while his body was still burning hot, he immediately jumped into that bucket of pitch-black Dragon-Tiger Decoction.

He endured the stinging pain and savored the thrill of watching his experience rise.

At noon, he left Hundred Herb Hall, grabbed a quick bite, then spent the afternoon pulling his cart all over South City.

The county town had been far from peaceful these past few days.

Hongsheng Cart Company had only just staked its claim, but it clearly cared about collecting money, not keeping order. Fights were a common sight in the streets.

Qin Geng had no interest in meddling. As long as no one came looking for trouble with him, he didn't care.

In the blink of an eye, another four days passed.

Through those four days, Qin Geng's life followed a rhythm as steady as a clock's pendulum.

He ran to Hundred Herb Hall at first light.

He didn't rest in the afternoons, either. He pulled his cart all over town, driving the medicine's force deep into the seams of his bones through sweat.

At night, he returned to the shack, ate two bowls of stewed offal at a roadside stall—rich, filling fare—and fell asleep as soon as he lay down.

Master Zhu Xin had reappeared over the past couple of days.

The old man seemed to be in decent spirits.

When he saw Qin Geng, Master Zhu Xin explained with a chuckle that a few cousins had come to visit, so he hadn't been out and about.

Only then did the weight lift from Qin Geng's heart. If the old man had stayed out of sight much longer, Qin Geng would have gone to his home to check on him.

On the fifth day, in the afternoon.

The sun was slanting west, and the shack was quiet.

Qin Geng had slept deeply. When he woke, he felt languid all over, as if every bone in his body had gone soft.

He sat up from his straw bedding without thinking and stretched out of habit.

Crack—

A sharp snap rang out, followed by a volley of sounds.

Crack-pop-pop—

At that one movement, his muscles and bones popped like beans roasting in a pan, the sounds deep and forceful.

As he rose to his feet, an indescribable presence spread along the great dragon of his spine. The distinctive rhythm of the Six Harmonies Breathing Method flowed naturally to its peak in the instant he woke.

Xu Chun, who was wiping down his cart nearby, whipped his head around and stared at Qin Geng, eyes wide.

Qin Geng was still the same young man in a coarse-cloth jacket, his hands hanging beside his knees and his eyelids drooping, looking half asleep.

But to Xu Chun, he looked unmistakably like a white-browed tiger that had just woken from a nap deep in the mountains!

That loose, almost slack bearing still made every hair on Xu Chun's body stand on end. The feeling struck straight into his heart.

"Well, I'll be..."

Xu Chun swallowed and instinctively took half a step back. "Xiao Wu, what kind of martial art have you been practicing? You're just standing there, looking plain as can be, even a little sleepy, but somehow you're making my heart tremble... Like... like a drowsy tiger that's just woken up."

"Hm?"

Qin Geng paused. A sharp gleam flashed through his eyes and vanished, and that intimidating presence instantly drew inward.

He didn't answer Xu Chun. With a thought, he summoned that illusory page of the Book of a Hundred Trades.

The figures on the panel rolled over.

[Profession: Martial Artist (Level 10)]

[Experience: 1/100]

[Talent unlocked: Sickly Tiger Bones]

At last.

Joy rose in Qin Geng's heart as his gaze fell on the description of his newly unlocked talent.

[Sickly Tiger Bones]:

[A boxing proverb says: "The dragon moves with wind and thunder; the tiger moves as though sick."]

[Sickly does not mean weak. It means keeping spirit and energy within, sinking loose and heavy into the bones.]

[Your frame will grow broader, and your bones will differ from ordinary people's, dense as iron.]

[With tiger bones in your body, your great sinews naturally relax whether you walk, sit, or lie down. Your joints sink slightly, like a drowsy tiger just waking.]

[You may seem full of openings and limp with weakness, but in truth your vital essence is stored within, locked deep in your marrow. In an instant, wind and thunder will stir the clouds, and you will choose your prey and devour it!]

[Note: Raise the Martial Artist profession to Level 30 to unlock the advanced talent "Dragon-Tiger Convergence."]

"Sickly Tiger Bones..."

Qin Geng turned those four words over in his mind, unable to suppress the smile spreading across his face.

"Sickly" didn't mean actually ill. It meant an extreme state of relaxation.

Only by relaxing to the utmost could he, in the instant he struck, become taut to the utmost and hard to the utmost!

Paired with the explosiveness of Dragon Spine Through the Back, it truly made him a Born Killer!

That morning at Hundred Herb Hall, he had used up the last dose of Bone-Strengthening Powder and Dragon-Tiger Decoction. His experience had just barely broken through that final paper-thin barrier.

Qin Geng raised his wrist and studied it carefully.

His wrist had always been sturdy but fairly proportionate. Now it was more than a full size thicker.

It wasn't fat, nor was it merely swollen muscle. The bone itself had grown.

Tiger bones were thick and strong.

And it wasn't just their thickness. It was their density and weight.

Qin Geng tried clenching his fist. The sound from his knuckles was no longer a crisp crack, but a deep echo like metal striking stone.

If he one day trained to the profound realm of Marrow Washing and Blood Changing, this extraordinary frame would be his greatest asset.

"Looks like you've gotten quite a bit taller, too?"

Xu Chun picked up his rag, came over, and compared their heights. He clicked his tongue in amazement. "Good grief. A few months ago, you still had to look up at me. Now our shoulders are level. Is that what practicing martial arts does? That's downright uncanny."