Muscle Tendon Transformation Complete, Greatly Increased Strength

Under the moonlight, amid the mountain forest.

Devastation filled the eye, the earth had collapsed, and the barren woods lay toppled.

The middle-aged man struggled to raise his head, a strange curve tugging at the corner of his mouth.

He lowered his head again, looking at the two fists that had pierced through his chest.

A piercing scream unlike any human sound burst from his mouth.

"Luo Chen of the Demon Suppression Bureau, we'll meet again!"

The Demonic Beast roared, its voice echoing across the wilderness.

The middle-aged man's skin began to swell and ripple. Centered on his brow, a crack rapidly spread open.

A whole layer of skin began peeling away and falling off.

The human skin rapidly expanded.

In the blink of an eye.

It seemed to turn into a massive net of human skin, shrouding Luo Chen beside it as it rapidly contracted.

In an instant.

A human-skin cocoon appeared on the ground, its flesh-like hide writhing and tightening.

It was as if it wanted to crush Luo Chen inside into pulp, then digest him.

Suddenly.

Scarlet cracks surfaced across the human-skin "cocoon."

Accompanied by the Demonic Beast's scream right beside him.

The human-skin "cocoon" instantly exploded into fragments that filled the sky.

Luo Chen's entire body bloomed with brilliant golden light, the Golden Bones throughout him gleaming brightly.

He looked at the scraps of human skin raining from the sky, his eyes grave.

"Damn it, it knew it couldn't beat me and still had to disgust me."

Luo Chen's tone was filled with revulsion.

He watched as the skin fragments rapidly turned to ash in midair.

At his feet, a corpse stripped of its skin lay silently.

"It isn't dead? Just an avatar? Or something else?"

Luo Chen waited for a long time, yet no kill notification appeared in his mind.

Glancing at the corpse on the ground, Luo Chen gradually understood.

That human skin just now had been the Demonic Beast's true power.

This body was merely some unlucky fellow whom the Demonic Beast had skinned and possessed.

Luo Chen calmed the surging blood and qi within him and continued on his journey.

The moon had climbed to the middle of the sky.

Qingyuan City's towering walls were already close at hand.

Luo Chen spurred his horse forward. Seeing the city gates shut, he took out his Demon Suppression Bureau token and entered through the Bureau's exclusive gate.

After returning to the city, the faint invisible pressure in his heart gradually faded away as well.

He didn't bring the Snake Demon's head on his back back to Liu Manor.

Instead, he headed straight for the Demon Suppression Bureau.

As Dagan's special institution for exterminating Demonic Beasts, the Demon Suppression Bureau operated around the clock.

He arrived at the pavilion where Yue Wuchang worked.

Captain Yue was not there at the moment.

Only after handing the Demonic Beast's head to a Demon Suppressing Guard on duty for registration did he return to Liu Manor.

He entered the main courtyard through the side gate.

A manor guard respectfully said,

"Young Master, the master asked you to see him when you returned!"

"Got it."

Luo Chen nodded. He happened to have questions he wanted to ask Uncle Liu.

Arriving outside the study, Luo Chen saw faint firelight seeping from within and lightly knocked on the door.

"Come in!"

Pushing the door open, he saw Liu Xingsheng seated behind his desk, calmly brewing tea.

Liu Xingsheng looked up at the Youth standing in the doorway, his clothes torn and his appearance rather bedraggled.

His tone couldn't help softening somewhat.

"Sit down and tell me."

"Tell me what happened on this trip."

Seeing Luo Chen return safely, Liu Xingsheng felt considerably relieved and began asking for the details.

He no longer continued blaming Luo Chen either.

Luo Chen nodded and recounted everything he had experienced during this trip.

Other than concealing his true strength, there were no major discrepancies.

But who was Liu Xingsheng?

He had served in the Demon Suppression Bureau for over twenty years. While he might not have seen all there was to see,

his experience was abundant. He could tell that Luo Chen was hiding something, but he didn't press the matter.

If you can't find a book by its title, try searching for the author's name. It may simply have been renamed!

After hearing Luo Chen's account, Liu Xingsheng quietly took two sips of tea as he pondered.

Only after a long while did he finally speak in a low voice.

"That Demonic Beast skin was likely a Skin Tempering Demon. It kills martial artists, strips away their skins, and refines those skins into its avatars."

"Such Demonic Beasts are difficult to locate in their true forms and move in strange, unpredictable ways. They usually travel the world through Skin Tempering avatars. They're also quite vengeful and extremely troublesome."

By the end, anger had appeared in Liu Xingsheng's eyes.

"This Skin Tempering Demon isn't the most important matter."

"The most important thing is who leaked your information, and who wants you dead."

Luo Chen wasn't some magnanimous person either. If someone wanted to kill him, he would certainly retaliate.

He immediately said,

"Uncle Liu, Li Tiankui's nephews came to challenge me to a sparring match some time ago. I imagine it was at that captain's instigation!"

Hearing this, Liu Xingsheng's eyes held a trace of contemplation.

"It shouldn't be Li Tiankui?"

Liu Xingsheng shook his head. He understood that old rival's character.

Besides, the grudge between them had never reached the point where they would kill each other's juniors.

What's more, ever since he had left the Demon Suppression Bureau, very little of that grudge remained.

After thinking for a long time, he still found no answer.

Liu Xingsheng spoke to reassure him.

"You don't need to be afraid either. At least within Qingyuan City, Demonic Beasts wouldn't dare enter."

"Tomorrow, you can tell Yue Wuchang the details of the mission. A Demon Suppression Bureau mission was ambushed by Demonic Beasts with premeditation—he'll investigate it."

"Understood. Uncle Liu, rest early."

Luo Chen nodded, bid Liu Xingsheng farewell, and headed toward his own courtyard.

He shut the door to his bedroom.

Luo Chen sat cross-legged on the edge of his bed, coldness mingling with the thoughts in his eyes.

"Strength is the foundation of everything."

Looking at his somewhat replenished lifespan, he decided to cultivate once more.

He also had a fear of insufficient strength.

His true strength had already been exposed to the Demonic Beast today.

Once he reported to the Demon Suppression Bureau tomorrow, those experts would surely be able to tell that he had concealed some of his strength as well.

No matter what, add points first!

With a thought, his lifespan began draining away like flowing water.

[Year One: You breathed and circulated your qi, tempering your blood and qi. Your strength improved slightly, and Bone Forging reached completion.]

[Year Five: Without the cleansing of great medicines or heavenly treasures, you relied on slow, grinding effort to break through into Muscle Tendon Transformation!]

[Year Ten: Muscle Tendon Transformation minor completion. The major tendons throughout your body became fierce and prominent, allowing a single punch to unleash twice its explosive force.]

[Year Fifteen: Muscle Tendon Transformation major completion. The major tendons throughout your body twisted like horned dragons, ferociously coiling around one another. Five times the explosive force and several times the speed.]

[Year Twenty: Muscle Tendon Transformation complete. You encountered a bottleneck. Grueling cultivation made your foundation deep and solid, but also increased the difficulty of breaking through.]

[Year Twenty-Five: Muscle Tendon Transformation complete. You bitterly pursued a breakthrough, and your strength improved slightly.]

[Year Thirty: Muscle Tendon Transformation complete. You fell into a bottleneck...]

[Lifespan: 16/91]

Inside the room,

Luo Chen's aura began to boil, while the countless major tendons throughout his body slowly became tougher.

Veins bulged across his body, writhing beneath his skin like living creatures.

Terrifying tremendous strength brewed within his body.

After a long while.

Luo Chen slowly exhaled. The Withered Glory Art circulated at full force, suppressing the boiling blood and qi within him.

Thirty years of time had bought him a severalfold increase in strength.

Yet Luo Chen didn't show much joy. Instead, he fell into thought.

He had evolved his cultivation, techniques, and martial skills quite a few times already.

Luo Chen had also summed up quite a bit of information.

The evolution of cultivation was closely tied to his innate talent, condition, cultivated techniques... and even his surroundings.

Simply evolving a cultivation breakthrough meant enduring painstaking cultivation according to the techniques he had mastered.

Without heavenly treasures or great medicine to assist him, that was why he had needed to spend so much lifespan to break through.

Although it consumed too much lifespan, it also had its benefits—his foundation was incomparably solid.

As for evolving techniques and martial skills, Luo Chen believed that accumulated martial knowledge was more important.

For example, with the Shouyang Demon Breaking Saber before, he had first learned the Basic Blade Art. It was like learning the prerequisite, making entry extremely easy.

But when it came to deriving the Withered Glory Art, if not for that final moment of enlightenment, it would probably have cost an enormous amount of lifespan.

"Deriving the later stages of a technique is no easier than creating a new one from scratch. It requires sufficient experience and knowledge in martial cultivation."

"Looks like I'll have to read more books in the future!"

"..."

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