Time flew like an arrow, and more than two years soon passed.
Li Chen traveled several times between Xining Commandery and the surrounding cities, leaving his footprints across thousands of miles. Whenever he appeared before others, he did so as part of a traveling merchant team purchasing materials.
After leaving the cities, he found places in the nearby wilderness to build huts and live in. Sometimes, he simply hid the Beacon Spirit Ring deep underground or in a river or lake, then buried himself in studying the methods and skills he possessed.
The "clay" in "Knead Clay, Transform Flesh" was actually something Li Chen had encountered before: Cloud Mud, one of the materials needed for his Shape-Stealing Skin-Painting.
Although Cloud Mud had "mud" in its name, it was actually an artificial material with biological activity and a structure extremely similar to living tissue. By blending it with magic power, one could simulate skin, fat, and other substances to achieve the effects of Painted Skin.
Some people differed greatly in bodily appearance and facial features, making this material necessary to bridge those differences. Only when the skill reached a profound realm, where magic power could replace all of this, could the need for such materials be eliminated.
Li Chen could now dispense with this material and use Shape-Stealing Skin-Painting at will. Strictly speaking, he had already dabbled in Knead Clay, Transform Flesh.
The Creation-Promotion Secret Arts were closely interconnected rather than isolated, so such links were hardly surprising.
It was precisely for this reason that Li Chen possessed the relevant foundations and chose Knead Clay, Transform Flesh as his point of breakthrough.
There was a saying about following the vine to find the melon. Once he identified the right thread and set the whole in motion, initiation into the other related