Lao Denuo's Leather Whip

To Tian Hao, the business with Lu Dayou was only a minor interlude. Once he returned, he resumed his daily forging routine while studying and practicing the Eagle Claw Stele-Smashing Hand and the Horizontal Crab Iron Shirt.

The Eagle Claw Stele-Smashing Hand was not particularly difficult. With the boost from Yue Lingshan's innate attributes, understanding and practicing it was easy enough. The Horizontal Crab Iron Shirt, however, was much harder.

There was no helping it. This external art was inherently a form of self-torture, requiring external blows of varying intensity, combined with inner force and A San Divine Oil, to temper the skin, sinews, and bones-especially the skin.

At major mastery, it could even make the body as hard as iron and stone, but the training process was sheer misery.

For Tian Hao, though, there was no question of whether he would practice it. What mattered was how to practice it, and how to master the Horizontal Crab Iron Shirt better and faster.

The three aspects of external training complemented one another. Only by mastering all three could he maximize his strength.

Moreover, Embrace Origin Force focused primarily on inner force and did little to temper the body. In gaming terms, it meant high attack and low defense. With the Horizontal Crab Iron Shirt supporting it, that weakness could be neatly covered, allowing the two arts to complement one another.

Besides, Jianghu was dangerous, and Mount Hua had rather a lot of enemies. If he wanted to live comfortably, he had to stack the thickest armor possible.

"You really want to practice the Horizontal Crab Iron Shirt?"

Early that morning, after hearing Tian Hao's request, Lao Denuo hesitated.

Although body-hardening external arts like the Iron Shirt could indeed aid the practice of Embrace Origin Force, their training was brutally harsh. Even watching could make an outsider's heart tremble, let alone actually undergoing it.

He had also read the Horizontal Crab Iron Shirt manual. It was even more vicious than the ordinary Iron Shirt: every stage required shedding a layer of skin. The pain involved was easy to imagine.

"Please help me, Second Senior Brother!"

Tian Hao made his request sincerely. He badly needed Lao Denuo's help.

Practicing the Horizontal Crab Iron Shirt required external blows. Naturally, he could not ask Old Yue and his wife to come help him train, and among his senior brothers, Lao Denuo was the only one he got along with.

He was also utterly determined to practice the Horizontal Crab Iron Shirt. To leave no weak spots, he had even sacrificed his beloved flowing hair so he could temper his scalp as well.

"All right. If you can't take it, don't force yourself!"

Lao Denuo finally agreed and took the leather whip.

"Wait a moment, Senior Brother. I'll go apply the divine oil!"

Delighted by Lao Denuo's agreement, Tian Hao hurried back into the cave and took out the jar of A San Divine Oil Old Yue had given him last time. He scooped out a little and spread it evenly over his entire body, leaving out neither his big head nor his little one.

He rubbed vigorously, stopping only once all his skin was red and hot.

Practicing the Iron Shirt was not simply a matter of being whipped. It also required specially prepared medicine; otherwise, the training would only leave a person injured or crippled.

After applying the A San Divine Oil, Tian Hao emerged from the cave wearing nothing but a pair of tight little shorts and assumed the Horizontal Crab Iron Shirt's Giant Crab Stance in the courtyard.

Training in the Horizontal Crab Iron Shirt had both moving and stationary components. The moving component consisted of external combat techniques, while the stationary component was the Giant Crab Stance he had assumed, which made his body resemble an enormous crab.

While holding the stance, he had to endure another person's whipping. Only after every patch of skin had been struck did it count as one training session.

"Forgive me!"

Without dithering, Lao Denuo gave that warning and swung the leather whip down, adding a red welt to Tian Hao's skin.

Then he lashed him again and again. Red welts multiplied across his entire body, with even his face receiving no mercy. Combined with the Giant Crab Stance, he looked just like a steamed mitten crab.

At the same time, Tian Hao circulated the Iron Shirt's distinctive inner force, helping the external blows and A San Divine Oil scour and temper his sinews, bones, and skin.

With Embracing the Origin Inner Force as his foundation and Yue Lingshan's innate attributes boosting him, condensing the Horizontal Crab Iron Shirt's inner force was not difficult. He had already managed it yesterday.

What a shame Second Senior Brother is a man.

As he trained, Tian Hao inwardly regretted that fact.

Although he treated everyone equally, being whipped by a man still felt strange. It also tended to stir up those awful memories.

As the saying went, time meant nothing in immortal cultivation... no, martial training. Tian Hao had indeed struggled to adjust at first, but the marked improvement in his physique pleased him greatly. Slowly, he accepted a life of being whipped by a grown man twice a day, morning and evening.

Perhaps when he had first transmigrated, he would not have been so ruthless with himself. After all, he had never been a ruthless person in his previous life, much less ruthless toward himself.

But his experiences after transmigrating, especially those dozen-odd years of slavery, had transformed his spirit and taught him how cruel this world was.

If he was not hard enough on himself, he might someday be hacked to death out there.

Although the Heaven-Defying Mirror had brought him through his transmigration, he had no idea whether it would take him through another transmigration and rebirth if he died again.

He had only one life. He had to cherish it.

And strength was the foundation that would let him establish himself and survive in this world of martial arts. He could not afford to slack off.

Crack! Crack! Crack!

Early that morning, a man swung a leather whip, repeatedly striking a burly young man. Strangely, although the lashes carried considerable force and left red welts on the young man's body, those welts soon faded on their own.

Continuing to endure the lashes, Tian Hao condensed the force within his body and used it to scour and temper his sinews, bones, and skin.

Suddenly, that force seemed to break through some shackle. It became denser and fiercer, and far easier to condense. He could produce a surge of force almost instantly.

"I did it!"

Joy spread across Tian Hao's face. After a full month of grueling practice, he had finally used the Horizontal Crab Iron Shirt's training to raise his Embrace Origin Force to the Minor Achievement stage.

Most martial arts had three stages: entry, Minor Achievement, and major mastery. Taking Embrace Origin Force as an example, being able to condense Embracing the Origin Inner Force meant reaching the entry stage.

However, condensing Embracing the Origin Inner Force at that stage was slow. Initially, Tian Hao had needed three breaths to produce a surge of it. After half a year of practice, he had only shortened that to one breath, and further improvement became increasingly difficult.

The last time he had fought Lu Dayou, he had needed one breath to condense the force for every staff strike. That was a potentially fatal weakness in actual combat.

Had Lu Dayou not underestimated him and let down his guard, he would never have given Tian Hao another chance to condense his force. Even having someone beside him lending support would have made victory impossible for Tian Hao.

The subsequent training therefore targeted this weakness. He had to further refine Embracing the Origin Inner Force. Once he could condense power into inner force in an instant, he would have reached Minor Achievement.

As for the major-mastery state of Embrace Origin Guarding the One, it required spreading Embracing the Origin Inner Force throughout the sinews and bones of the entire body. He would then be able to unleash it from any part of himself, giving every punch and kick tremendous might.

And now he had reached Minor Achievement, able to condense power into inner force in an instant.

The little senior sister cheat really packs a punch.

Feeling the force surging within him, Tian Hao could not help praising it inwardly.

With his aptitude, reaching Minor Achievement in Embrace Origin Force would have required at least another ten years of arduous training. Yet after receiving the boost from Yue Lingshan's innate attributes, he had broken through to Minor Achievement in just one month.

Clap! Clap! Clap!

"Congratulations on your breakthrough, Junior Brother!"

Noticing Tian Hao's change, Lao Denuo lowered the leather whip and clapped in congratulations. He, too, was delighted by Tian Hao's breakthrough.

There were few people in the Mount Hua Sect he truly got along with, and Tian Hao was the one closest to him.

Naturally, Tian Hao's breakthrough made him happy. Perhaps the young man could even lend him a hand in the future!

Moreover, Tian Hao seemed skilled at forging weapons. Once the Five Mountains merged, he could bring him to the Mount Song Sect, and the two of them could look out for each other.

After all, he had been away from his own sect for years and had little friendship with his fellow disciples. Even if he returned, he probably would not be treated particularly well. Once his master, Zuo Lengchan, passed away and he lost that protection, life would become harder still.

I have to mend the roof before the rain comes!

"It's all thanks to your help training the Iron Shirt this past month, Second Senior Brother. Otherwise, I could hardly have broken through in Embrace Origin Force so quickly."

Tian Hao thanked him sincerely. He was deeply grateful to Lao Denuo, and was even considering whether he could win him over and make him one of his own.

For someone like this, sufficient bargaining chips and a dose of threats should be enough to make him betray the Mount Song Sect. He could even feed false information back to Zuo Lengchan, buying both the Mount Hua Sect and Tian Hao more time to develop.

"The Horizontal Crab Iron Shirt is indeed very compatible with Embrace Origin Force, and the two complement each other well. But your achievement is mainly down to your unwavering dedication to martial training, Junior Brother Hao."

Lao Denuo was filled with emotion. Over the past month, he had witnessed what it meant to train as though one's life were on the line.

The Horizontal Crab Iron Shirt's training method was already somewhat self-torturous, yet Tian Hao had pushed its intensity to the very limit of what his body could withstand.

Even watching had made Lao Denuo's heart pound with alarm.

Still, such desperate training had indeed produced remarkable results. Moreover, body-hardening external arts like the Horizontal Crab Iron Shirt were easy to learn but difficult to perfect, allowing rapid progress in the early stages. Tian Hao had reached the entry stage in just one month.

Furthermore, training the Horizontal Crab Iron Shirt required inner force to constantly scour the sinews and bones and resist external impacts. That also tempered the force itself, making it an excellent aid to practicing Embrace Origin Force.

That was precisely why he had broken through in both arts. With his Embrace Origin Force at the Minor Achievement stage as a foundation, Lao Denuo believed the Iron Shirt would soon reach Minor Achievement as well.

He had high hopes for Tian Hao's future!

Still, he had his doubts. Tian Hao's physical recovery was somewhat beyond his expectations and did not quite fit his natural aptitude and capabilities.

By his reckoning, Tian Hao should have needed at least a year of hard training to reach the Entry-Level Realm in the Iron Shirt.

Could it be because of that A San Divine Oil?