Fleshly Body Treasure, Mystic Blood Flood Dragon Tendons! It Is Said That All Who Achieve the Titled Martial Path Must Open This Gate!

Fleshly Body Treasure, Mystic Blood Flood Dragon Tendons! It Is Said That All Who Achieve the Titled Martial Path Must Open This Gate!

Huang Xuan rubbed his eyes, his face full of disbelief:

"You..."

"You actually reached the rudiments of such a level!?"

He looked at the mystical phenomenon gradually fading away, concealed within the treasure vault of the youth's fleshly body.

Even though he had merely touched upon it and had not truly attained it—

It still made him swallow hard.

Gold Muscle Jade Tendons.

The first great "treasure vault" of a martial artist's fleshly body!

Though people often used an elegant term, calling the first realm of the Strength Threshold—the Toughening Tendons Realm—"Gold Muscle Jade Tendons."

The two were simply not comparable!

Not just anyone who trained their tendons could reach such heights.

One needed a superior Pile Stance, great comprehension, training through the bitterest days of winter and the hottest days of summer, then the consumption of enormous resources before it could be achieved!

Even if it was only a rudiment.

It should not have been something a nobody with no foundation from some mere county-town gang could comprehend!

This kid.

This kid.

Just what kind of Pile Stance was he practicing!?

Stormy waves rose within Huang Xuan's heart.

Yet Ji Xiu looked entirely ordinary at that moment. Under the old man's horrified gaze, he even let out a long breath and could not help groaning:

"Awesome!"

He looked utterly unaware of what he had cultivated.

Huang Xuan's eyes widened round.

"Kid, could you be some hidden disciple of a Qi Refining Expert, or perhaps the illegitimate son of some official aristocratic clan from a prefecture!?"

"Otherwise, there's no explaining this!"

"How could my medicinal bath possibly be this incredible?"

The medicinal bath seeped through his skin, nourishing his tendons, bones, blood, and flesh without wasting a single bit.

Lowering his head, Ji Xiu saw that the originally verdant medicinal bath had completely changed.

All its essence had been absorbed by him. What remained was only dark filth, dead skin, and lingering residue floating on the surface.

Splash!

Ji Xiu waded out of the water.

He took a towel from the side and gave himself a light wipe. It was as though he had peeled off an old, worn skin, revealing a faintly golden hue beneath.

Watching that glint of gold swiftly vanish, leaving behind only jade-smooth skin, Ji Xiu could not help clicking his tongue in wonder:

"As expected of a grand medicinal bath that takes three or four hundred taels of silver to brew a single batch."

"With these effects, forget two or three batches a day. Even if you treated me like a workhorse and brewed ten or eight batches from dawn to dusk, so long as I got to soak two or three times a month, I'd be willing!"

"And don't be so modest, old man. The medicinal effect really is excellent—enough to equal more than a dozen rounds of my Pile Stance!"

"But what did you just say? Hidden disciple of a great sect, offspring of official aristocracy...?"

Ji Xiu raised his hand and looked at the thick calluses that had formed from saber practice and labor. After one soak, all of them had peeled away, leaving his hand crystalline and smooth.

After putting on his outer robes, he shook his head with a laugh:

"If I had that sort of background."

"Tell me, would I have spent a month as a horse slave at the Lin Residence?"

"What great sect prodigy or official aristocrat could endure the hardship of being 'beneath others'?"

"Besides... this so-called 'Gold Muscle Jade Tendons'—isn't it just some refined name those ancient, powerful clans in the prefectures and cities came up with for tendons, bones, and skin?"

Ji Xiu did not pay it much mind.

He vaguely felt that the reason he appeared somewhat "mystical"—

According to the prompt from the Primordial Dao Talisman—

Was most likely the benefit brought by the characteristic "Mystic Blood Flood Dragon Tendons," which he had comprehended after practicing the Tortoise Snake Great Pillar and breaking through the first so-called Fleshly Body Treasure.

It was no exaggeration to say—

Even though he was currently only at Minor Accomplishment in tempering his great tendons and activating his blood and flesh—

Still.

Based on what he knew of those martial artists at the Fire Kiln who were supposedly at "great accomplishment in sinew tempering"—

After completing this "rebirth and transformation," they might not necessarily be able to defeat him.

Ordination Master: Ji Xiu

Current cultivation: Toughening Tendons Realm (Forging Tendons)

Martial arts, Dao arts: horsemanship at great accomplishment, Heavenly River Saber Technique, ninth-rank alchemy, Tortoise Snake Great Pillar!

Characteristics: waist and horse as one, Ten Steps, One Kill, calming the heart and focusing the mind, Mystic Blood Flood Dragon Tendons!

Characteristic: Mystic Blood Flood Dragon Tendons

Responding above to the Mystic Void, tortoise and snake united in form; at the end of calamity and the beginning of calamity, severing and cutting down demonic essence.

Mystic Tortoise blood, Soaring Serpent tendons—when joined as one, they form the rudiment of the "Black Tortoise." Learn techniques of the outer path, prove the Human Immortal Martial Path; one who gains this "divine bearing" may be said to have broken the first shackle of the Mortal Threshold.

The true meaning above is derived from the superior Pile Stance, "Tortoise Snake Great Pillar."

Those who gain this characteristic stand with legs as immovable as mountains, their tendons and bones throughout their bodies like tigers and flood dragons. They may obtain the qualification to fully cultivate the first "treasure" of the fleshly body, far surpassing ordinary sinew-tempering martial artists!

"The first 'treasure' of the fleshly body, surpassing ordinary sinew-tempering martial artists..."

Having practiced the Tortoise Snake Great Pillar for so long, Ji Xiu had also looked forward to seeing what true characteristic essence he would comprehend once he mastered the Mystic Tortoise Great Toad Form and the Soaring Serpent Chasing Cloud Form.

After seeing the Mystic Blood Flood Dragon Tendons through this medicinal bath, he felt that everything had been fulfilled.

His current self.

Was frighteningly powerful!

Yet at that moment, an ill-timed voice rang out.

"You brat, what the hell do you know!"

"Refined naming?"

His words had made Huang Xuan somewhat anxious.

Old Man Huang watched Ji Xiu finish dressing, then stepped forward and grabbed his wrist. His expression had never been so solemn:

"In this five-hundred-li Anning County, there are no secret transmissions, no ancestral halls, and even less rumor of certain martial secrets. That is why your knowledge is so shallow, and you only think—"

"That 'Gold Muscle Jade Tendons' is merely a fancy name, nothing more."

"But do you know!"

"What are the true three realms of the Mortal Threshold?"

His words successfully drew Ji Xiu's gaze. Huang Xuan's face tightened:

"The human body is frail, which is why there is cultivation."

"And cultivation... is the struggle to break free of restraints, unlock shackles, and continuously surpass one's own limits, until the human body can stand alongside the 'Immortals,' 'gods,' and 'Buddhas'!"

"Great Xuan established the Three Gates, Nine Realms to measure the realms and martial artists under heaven."

"But in the ancient ages—"

"When martial artists sought to stand shoulder to shoulder with the high heavens, continually breaking through themselves—"

"They also called these so-called 'Three Gates, Nine Realms' the 'Nine Great Limits of the Physical Body'!"

"And the first great limit of the Toughening Tendons Realm is called 'Gold Muscle Jade Tendons.'"

"It is a manifestation achieved only by tempering one's tendons, channels, blood, and flesh to the utmost, until 'the skin gleams with gold and the channels are like jade.' It represents boundless potential."

"When I was in Jiangyin Prefecture, a direct-blood young master of my main family spent a full three years in the Toughening Tendons Realm, wasting away and taking countless medicinal baths before finally breaking through this shackle!"

"You gained its rudiment after only one..."

He took a deep breath:

"Nowadays, there are too many mediocre people in the mortal world and too many martial artists under heaven. As a result, tales of these 'Nine Limits of the Physical Body' have gradually ceased to spread through counties and villages."

"As for their mysteries, I only know a fragment or two."

"But there is one thing I have heard."

Huang Xuan's chicken-claw-like knuckles slowly tightened, as though he wished to seize every jade-like tendon beneath Ji Xiu's skin:

"That is—"

"It is said that those in the Strength and Qi Gates who fail to break through three limits—"

"Will never prove the Titled Martial Path in this life!"

Those words.

Made Ji Xiu, who had been straightening his clothes—

Pause with both hands.

Then his pupils slowly contracted.

The Titled Martial Path.

It was something he had not dared imagine again after hearing of it for the first time.

Yet now, Huang Xuan's superficial words had rekindled a restless fire in his heart, as though they had pushed open a brand-new gate that stood higher and farther away.

So, apart from Qi Refining Experts—

He, who had struggled and clawed his way through five-hundred-li Anning County like dust and weeds, could also glimpse the so-called Titled Martial Path, could also look toward—

A true—

Martial artist!?

"If that day ever came."

"What sort of sight would it be?"

The youth lowered his eyes and murmured inwardly.

Through the murky wooden barrel, he looked at himself, cleansed of all grime, no longer seeming like himself.

At that moment, in his reflection, he seemed to see the day he had sold himself into slavery. Back then, with cold wind scraping across him until his face was smeared with snot and tears, he had said, "I will never sink into this."

For a moment, he closed his eyes.

After a long while, he merely spoke softly:

"Struggle across."

"Struggle across."

"Struggle across!"

Then his eyes opened, divine light blazing within them!

Only after a long while did it gradually fade, yet the bearing of his entire person was no longer the same!

This five-hundred-li Anning County would eventually come to an end.

And once he ventured beyond it.

What would the world look like then?

Huang Xuan stood nearby.

As he watched the black-clad youth, who in an instant seemed to have undergone rebirth and transformation—

He was left staring, dumbfounded.