Chen Xuan was overjoyed. Not only had he felt his proficiency increase, he had also clearly noticed that, as that thread of warmth flowed through his limbs and bones, the originally heart-rending pain in his back and chest had actually eased by an almost imperceptible degree!
"The blood and Qi circulated by this Boulder Art can actually speed up healing, too?! Grind! Even if I grind until my lungs burst tonight, I'm seeing this through to the bitter end!"
Chen Xuan shut his eyes tight and clenched his back teeth, fully entering the same frenzied state he had fallen into while revising proposals against deadly deadlines in his previous life.
One circulation, two circulations, ten circulations...
Time slipped by, second by second.
A quarter of an hour, an hour, two hours...
The woodshed fell silent save for Chen Xuan's heavy yet highly rhythmic breathing. The hideous wounds on his back gradually went from excruciatingly painful to unbearably itchy. Large patches of dark red scabs began to crack and peel away, and tender pink yet resilient new skin regenerated rapidly under the nourishment of his blood and Qi. The meridians originally clogged by the young lord's kick were also forcibly cleared by that steadily strengthening warm current, while sweat mixed with blood soaked his ragged clothes.
Four full hours passed-
[Boulder Art: beginner (90/500)]
"Whew-!"
Chen Xuan's eyes snapped open, and he opened his mouth to exhale a cloud of foul, bloody-smelling breath.
He reached around to feel his back and chest. The barbed whip marks that had torn his skin and flesh open had now completely shed their scabs and healed, leaving not even a proper scar. His new skin was smooth and supple!
"My injuries have completely healed! Not only that, I'm at least half again as strong as this body's original owner was at his peak!"
Feeling the warm current slowly flowing through his body, Chen Xuan estimated his progress. "Eighty-nine points in four hours. At this rate, I still need four hundred and ten points to reach the five hundred required to complete the beginner level. With just a few more nights, I'll be able to become a true Ming Jin martial artist without anyone knowing!"
He stood, stretched his sore, numb hands and feet, and walked to the innermost corner of the woodshed. He tilted his head to listen. Once he confirmed that the footsteps of the night patrol outside had faded completely, he tore off the coarse clothes hanging from him in strips and wound them tightly around his right fist, layer after layer. Facing the thick yellow mud wall, he tried throwing a punch with all his strength-
Thud!
A soft, muffled impact sounded.
Chen Xuan unwound the cloth and took a look. His punch had left only a shallow impression in the yellow mud wall, less than half an inch deep.
Before he could examine it closely, a sudden boom rang out from the front courtyard's training ground on the other side of the wall!
The entire dilapidated woodshed shook violently, sending accumulated dust and cobwebs cascading from the rafters. Immediately afterward, the guard instructor's vigorous shouts and curses sounded outside:
"Look alive, all of you! Anyone who dares slack off during night drills will get their skull smashed in by my fist! See this three-inch-thick ironwood post? When you can punch straight through it like I can, then you can go collect your reward money from the inner courtyard!"
"Yes! Mighty instructor!" the guards roared in unison some distance beyond the door.
Inside the woodshed, Chen Xuan brushed the dust from his head and lowered his gaze to the shallow dent he had made, less than half an inch deep. His eyes turned utterly cold.
The gap was far too great.
Even the weakest of those patrolling guards outside was a skilled fighter at early-stage Bright Force or even the middle stage. Any one of them could easily punch straight through this mud wall and shatter his chest along with it.
Chen Xuan extended his thumb and slowly wiped the remaining dried blood from the corner of his mouth. Staring at the shallow dent in the wall, he murmured, "Xiao Yuxuan... and that courtesan queen Chu Miaoyin in her rose-red ruqun, and those lofty madams and young ladies in the front courtyard..."
Thinking of the dazzlingly white, jade-like stretch of Chu Miaoyin's calf he had seen that day, along with the noblewomen and young ladies in his memories who possessed peerless beauty yet regarded him as a stinkbug, Chen Xuan's Adam's apple bobbed. An intense desire to conquer and a savage hostility grew wildly in his chest.
"Xiao Yuxuan, today you beat me to death as casually as crushing an ant."
Chen Xuan spoke each word distinctly, his voice so low it sounded like an evil spirit's whisper forced through clenched teeth. "One day, I'll break that proud spine of yours inch by inch and make you kneel before me like a dead dog, wagging your tail and begging for mercy!"
"That position as heir you're so proud of, your power, and the women in your bed, every stunning beauty around you-I, Chen Xuan, swear I'll take every last one from you, one by one, and trample them beneath my feet!"
He paused, drew a deep breath of cold, rotten air, and forcibly suppressed his surging desire and killing intent. "But not now. No rush. I'll keep the score for now. Until I have the absolute strength to overturn the table, even if I have to play the groveling grandson and eat horse dung, I have to keep this sheepskin wrapped tight around me!"
Chen Xuan turned and returned to the straw pile, sat cross-legged again, and draped the torn, bloodstained straw mat over his back once more to maintain his disguise. Then he closed his eyes and continued circulating the Boulder Art like a madman.
[Boulder Art: beginner (91/500)] [Boulder Art: beginner (92/500)]
Every few dozen breaths, the number in his mind steadily ticked upward.
Though his progress looked slow, every increase meant his blood and Qi had grown a little stronger, his sinews and bones a little tougher.
Tonight, he intended to grind straight through until dawn!
The night deepened.
Pallid moonlight spilled through the broken window lattice onto the ground, shifting slowly as time passed. Outside the woodshed, he occasionally heard the yawning complaints of servants on night patrol, along with the clack of the night watchman's wooden clapper.
"The air is dry, beware of fire-"
The third watch.
The fourth watch.
The fifth watch.
Chen Xuan's breathing remained long and steady throughout. The blood and Qi within him were like a tireless shuttle, surging back and forth through his meridians again and again. His sweat dried and soaked him anew, then dried once more.
Until the following morning, at the beginning of the hour of the dragon, when hazy dawn light appeared outside.
"Damn it, having to do this unlucky work first thing in the morning... Brother Zhang, do you think that brat Chen Xuan's started stinking and drawing flies after being shut in there all night?"
"Who knows? Hurry up and roll him in a straw mat, dump him outside the city, and be done with it. Steward Zhao's watching from behind us!"
Bang!
Someone brutally kicked open the woodshed's battered wooden door from outside.
On the straw pile, Chen Xuan abruptly stopped circulating his cultivation a second before the door banged open. The instant he opened his eyes, the final results of last night's all-night grind appeared in his mind:
[Boulder Art: beginner (200/500)]
After an entire night of arduous cultivation, his proficiency had rocketed straight from 1 point to 200!
But Chen Xuan knew perfectly well that this was still nowhere near enough. At this rate, just accumulating the remaining 300 points to break through to early-stage Bright Force would take another two or three sleepless nights.