Skin-Hardening Method: Perfected

In the blink of an eye, three months passed in a hurry.

Over these past three months, nothing particularly out of the ordinary happened, and Li Feng lived quite a leisurely life.

Every day he was either on duty at the City Guard Office or bitterly practicing his skin-grinding method at home, making his days rather monotonous and dull.

The only happy event worth mentioning during this period was that the Black Jade Bone-Molding Paste promised by Jiang Yue indeed arrived as scheduled three days later, and the medicinal efficacy of this ointment was truly extraordinary.

After Sister-in-law used it, the recovery effect was quite good. Following three months of recuperation, daily activities were completely out of the question; as long as she did not lift heavy objects, she was no different from an ordinary person.

On this night, after finishing his dinner, Li Feng once again came to the courtyard to practice the skin-grinding method.

Hoo...

Half an hour later.

With his limbs somewhat sore and weak, Li Feng sat on the ground and rested for a brief moment.

Compared to the first time he practiced, when his skin would ache faintly each time he finished grinding, today he felt the pain had lessened considerably, with only his whole body still remaining a bit sore and weak. However, this should have been the result of him rubbing too forcefully and had nothing to do with the skin-grinding method.

There doesn't seem to be any pain today; could it be that I've already achieved mastery...

Li Feng thought to himself secretly.

Then he summoned the Heavenly Dao Advance Panel.

[Heavenly Dao Advance Panel]

[Advanced Item 1: Archery Mastery (Completed 100%)]

[Advanced Item 2: Water-Cutting Saber Art Perfection (Completed: 100%)]

[Current Available Advances: 1]

[Pending Unlock Advances: Iron Robe Skin-Grinding Method, Calligraphy, Bedchamber Art, Culinary Arts...]

[Current Realm: Qi-Blood First Stage]

He saw that on the Heavenly Dao Advance Panel, the Iron Robe Skin-Grinding Method had abruptly appeared under the pending unlock advances column!

This showed that his skin-grinding method had achieved mastery, and next he could upgrade it to the maximum level with a single click.

"Finally..."

Looking at the Heavenly Dao Advance Panel, Li Feng felt a sense of steady peace in his heart.

Considering that the last time he directly upgraded the Water-Cutting Saber Art to the maximum level, it had concurrently boosted his martial dao realm, causing huge changes to his body and rapidly exhausting his physical stamina.

He decided that he still needed to perform a mysterious ritual before advancing the skin-grinding method.

This mysterious ritual was to bathe and wash his body clean.

He had endured three months, so he wouldn't rush for this single moment.

Sitting on the ground to relax for a while, Li Feng went to take a bath once he had recovered some of his strength. After washing away the mixture of medicinal dregs and sweat on his body and changing into clean clothes, he came back out to the courtyard.

He picked up a piece of coarse burlap and rubbed his arms fiercely. Although there was still a trace of a slight stinging sensation, it was already much better compared to before. If he had rubbed like this previously, his skin definitely would have become red and swollen, but now there were only some faint, barely visible white marks that vanished in a moment.

A wave of fiery heat surged in Li Feng's heart.

Merely achieving mastery could bring about such a huge improvement, so what about perfection?

He returned to his room to begin resting, and half an hour later.

Once his own physical strength had completely recovered and he could feel the abundant Qi-Blood within his body, he took a deep breath and once again summoned the Heavenly Dao Advance Panel.

"Add points for me! Iron Robe Skin-Grinding Method!"

Buzz!

This time, the sensation was different from his previous upgrade of the saber art.

The last time he upgraded the saber art, countless springs and autumns, along with the memories of countless battles, had appeared out of thin air in his mind as if he had experienced them firsthand, with everything pouring into his brain in an instant.

But upgrading the Iron Robe Skin-Grinding Method...

"Hiss..."

There was simply no way to use language to describe the terrifying sensation of this moment.

It was as if the long, enduring agony of a person spending years, day and night without stopping or pausing, fiercely rubbing their skin with coarse burlap, had all erupted at this very instant.

This heart-rending, soul-shattering excruciating pain exceeded the limits of what human spiritual consciousness could bear.

In an instant, Li Feng stopped thinking and passed out on the spot.

Although he passed out on the spot, the panel's modification of his body would not stop just like that.

He saw his skin undergoing drastic changes, gradually blooming with a layer of deep, dark cyan-black that resembled the luster of hard metal. After flickering repeatedly several times, it gradually restrained itself and dissipated as his Qi-Blood calmed down, returning once again to a normal skin tone.

He did not know how much time had passed.

Li Feng slowly woke up.

Instantly, as he instinctively wanted to use his right hand to prop himself up into a sitting position, he felt a wave of intense, stabbing pain transmitting from the skin all over his body, hurting him so much that he nearly cried out.

He immediately clenched his teeth and maintained a flat, lying posture without daring to move at all.

"It seems that upgrading this internal training method is more than ten times fiercer than upgrading external skills..."

Enduring the agonizing pain brought by the perfection of the skin-grinding method, Li Feng slowly adjusted his breathing to adapt while thinking to himself in his heart.

Saber art perfection, although it also instantly poured all memories into his brain, was after all only experiential comprehension at the level of consciousness, plus it only consumed some physical strength.

Yet this Iron Robe Skin-Grinding Method was completely different; it relied on the unreasonable ability of the Heavenly Dao Advance Panel in an extremely short period of time to forcefully allow his physical body to complete thousands of refinements in this single instant.

If he had not been prepared beforehand, having rested properly and recovered a good deal of physical stamina beforehand, enduring the transition from mastery to perfection over several years and thousands of refinements all at once right now probably would have caused him to drop dead on the spot from insufficient Qi-Blood.

Although Li Feng did not dare to move randomly right now due to the piercing pain all over his skin, he could incomparably clearly feel that his own Qi-Blood was already several times stronger than before.

This pain was not leaving behind internal injuries; after all, how could something produced by the system leave behind internal injuries?

It was simply that the strength of his skin had increased manifold in a very short period of time, causing his physical body to temporarily fail to fully adapt to this newly born formidable power.

As time ticked by little by little, that piercing pain gradually dissipated.

Moving his arm slightly and seeing that there was no pain, Li Feng finally sat up slowly and let out a long breath.

He lowered his head to look at his pectoral muscles; the skin tone and surface texture did not look like they had become rough, still remaining no different from ordinary people's.

Reaching out to press on his chest, he could clearly feel that the touch was no longer soft flesh, and the toughness of the skin was extremely astonishing, obviously improving a lot compared to before.

"So this is skin-grinding method perfection."

Li Feng slowly stood up and began to execute the Water-Cutting Saber Art in the courtyard.

Saber wind whistled, and Qi-Blood surged.

Martial dao body tempering-skin grinding, flesh training, tendon transformation, and bone forging-is a step-by-step refining process from the inside out.

The most core foundation among these is the martial artist's own "Qi-Blood." Only the Qi-Blood naturally generated by a strong physique is the foundation of the martial dao.

Skin grinding, serving as the first step of body tempering, is also the most fundamental step.

Li Feng could now clearly feel that previously, when he was at the Qi-Blood First Stage, the Qi-Blood inside his body was still only a vague, flickering current of heat, but at this moment it had become clear and thick.

With a movement of his mind, he summoned the Heavenly Dao Advance Panel:

[Heavenly Dao Advance Panel]

[Advanced Item 1: Archery Mastery (Completed 100%)]

[Advanced Item 2: Water-Cutting Saber Art Perfection (Completed: 100%)]

[Advanced Item 3: Iron Robe Skin-Grinding Method Perfection (Completed: 0%)]

[Current Available Advances: 0]

[Pending Unlock Advances: Calligraphy, Bedchamber Art, Culinary Arts...]

[Current Realm: Qi-Blood Second Level Perfection]

"Not only has my explosive power increased a lot, but even my physical strength and endurance have welcomed an explosive surge. If I execute the Water-Cutting Saber Art at full strength now, I could probably take down that semi-crippled Liu Wu I encountered before in just one minute. As for that Tiger Lord, as long as he hasn't mastered momentum, I could also slaughter him in a short moment."

Li Feng roughly judged the changes in his body.

The enhancement of explosive power gave him the possibility of instantaneous slaughter, while the soaring physical strength and endurance under the condition of full-out combat should allow him to support himself for half an hour longer than before...

Half an hour-a very exaggerated amount of time.

A martial artist at the Qi-Blood First Stage could probably only persist for a little over ten minutes before running out of stamina under full-out combat conditions, whereas his current Qi-Blood and physical stamina were estimated to be three times what they were before.

With this terrifying endurance, if he were to advance the bedchamber art next...

And this defensive power-he did not know how much it had improved.

Li Feng walked to the side of the wall, picked up a piece of broken stone from the ground, and then pressed it against his arm without hesitation, scraping forcefully.

If it had been placed before, even if this action did not immediately draw blood, the skin definitely would have split open a red and swollen bloody mark while accompanied by a faint stinging sensation.

But now, he could only feel the sensation of the stone scraping by, leaving behind a faint white mark. With a gentle wipe of his hand, that white mark vanished without a trace, and other than that, there were no other sensations.

"Truly a terrifying defensive power."

Tossing the stone away casually, Li Feng muttered to himself.

Since this Iron Robe Skin-Grinding Method had already reached perfection, his skin was now as tough as an iron robe. Although he still did not dare to use his flesh directly to hard-wire sharp blades, during a close-quarters clash, if the opponent used weapons like blunt instruments, as long as the force was not too great, striking him on the body wouldn't even break his defense.

Even slightly blunt saber tools, chopped down with force, could only reveal a trace of a white mark and were unable to slice through.

Back then in the black market, facing a multi-person encirclement, he could only rely on the advantage of saber art perfection to handle the three-person encirclement in a narrow space. If there were one more person, or without the terrain advantage, once it dragged on into a protracted battle, he probably would have flipped over and capsized on the spot due to insufficient physical stamina.

But now, this biggest shortcoming had finally been mended.

"External skills and internal methods complement each other and are indispensable. Having only external skills without a physique means being fragile and shattering at a single touch, whereas having only a physique without techniques means being toyed with by someone whose techniques far exceed yours."

Feeling the endlessly surging Qi-Blood within his body, Li Feng felt a sense of steady peace in his heart.

Until this moment, he could be considered to have gained a shred of foothold and foundation in this outer city.

Skin-grinding perfection was merely the first step of the body-tempering method, but for Li Feng, it was also taking a completely brand-new stride.

Possessing the Heavenly Dao Advance Panel, ordinary people needed two or three years of hard training to practice the skin-grinding method to perfection, yet he had only used three months.