Minor Skin Refinement, Supernatural Changes

Li Feng walked slowly, doing everything he could to rein in his strength.

It had some effect, but overall, the difference was hardly noticeable.

Halfway there, a thought suddenly struck him. He manifested part of his consciousness in his mind space, lay straight down on the bed, and yanked the covers over himself.

Instantly, a cool sensation swept over him, and all his strength and aura were firmly sealed beneath the covers.

When people passed Li Feng again, their expressions no longer changed. They simply walked past him as normal.

Only then did Li Feng relax. With concealment this effective, the people at the Investigation Department probably would not notice anything amiss either.

Well, if they still noticed, there was nothing he could do. He had already done everything within his current abilities.

Then Li Feng quickened his pace, striding toward the Investigation Department's southern branch.

It was nearly ten when he reached the Investigation Department.

As usual, he clocked in...

Since Yuan Chengfang and the others were absent, he chatted with the staff for a while. Once he confirmed there was nothing to do, he left the Investigation Department again and returned to Pine Court Residential Community.

After resting for a while at home, Li Feng began his cultivation for the day.

Mind fog billowed around him as he performed the skin-refinement movements one after another. Mixed with the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, it slowly seeped into his skin.

"Hiss!"

The moment he began, Li Feng could not help sucking in a sharp breath.

After the past ten days or so of training, he had gradually grown accustomed to the pain of Skin Tempering, becoming numb enough to it that he barely cared anymore.

Today, however, the tingling, itching, and stabbing pain of Skin Tempering were far worse than before.

That was why Li Feng found it so unbearable at first.

In the end, though, he did not stop. He gritted his teeth and continued performing each movement, trembling all the while.

Once he finished the last movement, Li Feng could endure no more. Just as when he first began cultivating, he collapsed onto the floor and rubbed the skin all over his body with both hands.

At the same time, of course, he did not forget to refine his hair.

The abilities of his tempered hair had already proven themselves in the earlier battle.

Naturally, he wanted to temper another strand, or even several more, to ensure his safety.

As he rubbed his skin to ease the tingling, itching, and stabbing pain, Li Feng gathered mind fog and began tempering a new strand of hair.

Once the pain gradually subsided and disappeared, Li Feng clenched his fists and felt tremendous strength well up within him.

"Is this... minor skin refinement?"

Li Feng froze for a moment, then was overjoyed. He began carefully examining the changes in his body.

His skin had become more sensitive. A cool current seemed to flow through it, and even his strength appeared to have increased considerably.

And as for defense, the most important aspect...

Li Feng first tested it with his fingernail, leaving only an extremely faint white mark.

Even with a fruit knife, he needed to apply some force to leave a distinct red mark on his skin.

His skin now felt as though it were covered in tough calluses, the very hallmark of minor skin refinement.

Unlike other people who attained minor skin refinement, however, Li Feng's skin had undergone some other strange changes.

Li Feng raised his hand and willed it slightly. The skin on his arm began to ripple and shift.

The movement was slight, but Li Feng truly could control the changes in his skin.

And this was only minor skin refinement. Once he reached major skin refinement, or even perfected skin refinement, he would undoubtedly be able to manipulate it much more extensively.

Then, by controlling the skin on his body and face, he might even be able to alter his appearance in countless ways, to some extent.

Just imagining that level made Li Feng look forward to it.

Next, Li Feng tested his strength again. It had reached two hundred kilograms.

The increase was not large, but it still delighted Li Feng.

After all, he had not been cultivating for very long.

He had never expected that strengthening his mind fog would not only help with visualization cultivation, but also accelerate body tempering, allowing him to break through to minor skin refinement in one go.

On reflection, though, it only made sense.

Since he used mind fog to temper his body, stronger mind fog would naturally speed up the process.

This ability of the mind fog once again stirred Li Feng's eagerness. He wished another anomaly would appear so he could devour it and strengthen his mind fog further.

But recalling his earlier battle, he once again reined in that urge.

It would be safer to improve his strength some more first.

Yes, he needed to reach perfected skin refinement at the very least. Only with stronger defenses could he seek out anomalies like the Wedding-Dress Bride, or ones weaker than her, to practice on.

Thinking about the future filled Li Feng with motivation, and he immediately began another round of cultivation.

Perhaps because he had attained minor skin refinement, the tingling, itching, and stabbing pain felt much weaker this time.

That allowed Li Feng to perform the skin-refinement movements more easily and precisely, giving the skin all over his body an even more thorough tempering.

He alternated between refining his skin and his hair until evening, when he finally stopped and began his final visualization session.

By then, not only had his skin refinement advanced a little further, but the strand of hair undergoing intensive tempering had also changed noticeably.

Stretched to its limit, it was almost a meter long, equivalent to a full three or four days of his previous cultivation.

In another two or three days, this newly tempered strand would more or less match the previous one.

Naturally, this too was an effect of his strengthened mind fog.

The next day, just as Li Feng arrived at the Investigation Department, he spotted Wu Cheng getting out of his car.

"Oh? Brother Li, what a coincidence!"

"Brother Wu, it really is!"

Unlike Li Feng, who walked, Wu Cheng had his own car.

As a full-fledged third-tier Full Investigator, he certainly had no shortage of ordinary money.

Li Feng, by contrast, had only just joined and could not scrape together twenty thousand yuan. Naturally, he had no money to buy a car.

Of course, with his status as an Investigator, he would not even need to spend a cent if he wanted one.

Plenty of wealthy people would gladly pay for his car.

But that would leave Li Feng owing them favors, which was something he did not want.

Besides, Li Feng felt that the Investigation Department was close enough that walking was more convenient, and it counted as exercise too.

So, at least for the foreseeable future, Li Feng had no plans to buy a car.

As the two entered the Investigation Department compound together, Wu Cheng kept glancing at Li Feng.

"What's wrong? Is there something wrong with me?"

Noticing Wu Cheng's behavior, Li Feng's heart skipped a beat.

Could Wu Cheng have noticed something unusual about me?

"Hmm, you seem a little different..."

"Different? How?"

"Well... I can't quite put my finger on it..."

Wu Cheng held his chin and looked Li Feng up and down.

Just as his scrutiny was beginning to unnerve Li Feng, an exasperated voice suddenly rang out from outside the entrance.

"Hey, what's wrong with your eyes?

Can't you see that Li Feng's skin has become firmer and smoother?"

"Captain?!"

Both turned to see Yuan Chengfang striding toward them.

Then, as though realization had struck him, Wu Cheng abruptly turned back to Li Feng, his face full of shock.

"Your skin...

Brother Li, you..."

"Hey!"

Yuan Chengfang quickened her steps and came up to them, looking at Li Feng with the same astonishment.

"Li Feng, you're something else! It's only been a little over half a month, and you've already attained minor skin refinement."

"Uh... it's not that impressive, is it?"

Li Feng did feel that, with the help of his mind fog, his cultivation probably progressed fairly quickly.

But he had not thought it was anything extraordinary.

After all, although he had always heard how difficult cultivation was, the help of his mind fog meant he had never truly felt that difficulty.

The way Yuan Chengfang and Wu Cheng reacted left him rather taken aback.

"Not that impressive? It's incredibly impressive!

Well, I'll be damned. You actually broke through to minor skin refinement without saying a word...

At this rate, won't you surpass me in another two months?"

Now finally certain that Li Feng really had attained minor skin refinement, Wu Cheng could not help exclaiming loudly.

His shout immediately drew the attention of all the nearby staff, who turned to Li Feng in astonishment.

Even the Human Body Tempering Art, the method best suited to human cultivation, required at least a month or two to reach minor skin refinement.

With other cultivation methods, simply reaching the introductory stage within half a year was already excellent.

Of course, the introductory stage of those other methods often surpassed the perfected stage of the Human Body Tempering Art.

They also possessed strange, wondrous abilities that the Human Body Tempering Art lacked.

Comparing the two made the gap between them clear.

That explained why, despite being listed on the first page, the Human Body Tempering Art was eventually replaced by other methods.

Regardless, Li Feng had taken only a little over half a month to attain minor skin refinement, showing that his aptitude far exceeded that of ordinary people.

As for the Skin Tempering Realm being only one part of the Human Body Tempering Art...

Other cultivation methods could not be mastered in one leap either. They also had successive levels.

They simply might not divide those levels into skin, flesh, tendons, bones, and the five internal organs as the Human Body Tempering Art did, instead categorizing them by different stages of physical and genetic transformation.

Overall, however, the progression was much the same, which made it clear that Li Feng had advanced to minor skin refinement at an exceptionally rapid pace.

Naturally, everyone was astonished.

Just then, Zhao Fei strolled in at a leisurely pace.

Seeing everyone's expressions, he could not help asking.

"Did something happen?

What did I miss?"

"Heh heh..."

At Zhao Fei's question, Wu Cheng immediately went over with a chuckle and told him about Li Feng's breakthrough to minor skin refinement.

Hearing that, Zhao Fei also looked at Li Feng in surprise and hurried over to him.

Wu Cheng, Yuan Chengfang, and the newly arrived Zhao Fei all surrounded Li Feng, marveling as they examined him and occasionally pinched his skin.

Farther away, the staff also kept glancing at him, whispering among themselves with astonishment written across their faces.

"Who would've thought!

Haha, our Investigation Department actually recruited a genius this year.

And better yet, that genius was assigned to me, Yuan Chengfang...

Hahaha, if the others find out, those bastards will be green with envy!

Hahaha..."

The more Yuan Chengfang looked at Li Feng, the more she liked him.

"It's just a bit of a shame..."

Wu Cheng looked at Li Feng with envy, but also a little regret.

Hearing Wu Cheng's quiet mutter, Yuan Chengfang suddenly realized it too.

Li Feng did have some talent for cultivation.

But the method he practiced was the weakest of all, the Human Body Tempering Art.

"Hmm, how about this? Stop cultivating the Human Body Tempering Art.

Just switch straight to a stronger method..."

After a moment's consideration, Yuan Chengfang's expression turned serious, and she spoke solemnly to Li Feng.

"Well..."

Li Feng hesitated briefly, but finally answered with conviction:

"For now, I'd still like to keep cultivating the Human Body Tempering Art...

I feel that this method suits me very well...

Maybe I wouldn't progress this quickly with other methods?"

For the time being, at least, Li Feng had no intention of giving up being human.

Besides, his rapid cultivation was not really due to extraordinary talent, but to the effects of his mind fog.

Moreover, switching to another method would merely allow him to draw upon the power of its corresponding entity.

How much those powers would actually help him was still difficult to say.

What if the mind fog devoured those powers too?

Without those special powers, whether the other methods would even work was truly uncertain.

On top of that, the Human Body Tempering Art now seemed to be showing signs of strange changes under the influence of his mind fog.

Thinking of his ability to control his skin, Li Feng felt even less urgency to change methods.

It would not be too late to consider switching once the Human Body Tempering Art offered him no further progress or gains.

"Well..."

Seeing that Li Feng had made up his mind, Yuan Chengfang sighed inwardly.

"In that case, let's leave things as they are for now..."

After all, how Li Feng cultivated was his own business. As an outsider, she could only offer advice, not force him.

At that, Wu Cheng, Zhao Fei, and the other staff all looked at Li Feng with regret.

Under everyone's stares, Li Feng was somewhat speechless. Was it really that big a deal?

After all, Li Feng had only just transmigrated here and had yet to adjust to this world, so he still placed considerable importance on retaining his human form.

For most people in this world, whether they could maintain a human form really did not matter much, as long as they could gain power.

Perhaps Li Feng's outlook would change once he had spent more time in this world and grown accustomed to its circumstances and rules.

It was not until the afternoon that everyone finally began leaving the Investigation Department.