From then on, Tang Feng's life ran like precision gears, turning day after day without the slightest gap.
At the start of the hour of the Rabbit each day, just as a fish-belly white appeared on the horizon, Tang Feng strapped twenty kilograms of dark iron to his legs and ran twenty laps around the training grounds. Sweat soaked his hemp clothes, only to be quickly dried by the mountain wind, leaving rings of white salt stains.
At the hour of the Snake, lessons began punctually in Black Tortoise Hall. Tang Feng still chose the most inconspicuous corner. Spread across his stone desk was either the Complete Compendium of Pharmacology or the Complete Compendium of Toxicology left by his maternal grandfather. At first, Tang Lin tested him from time to time, but once he saw that Tang Feng had truly mastered and integrated the basic theories, he left him to his own devices.
Afternoons were devoted to Disorder Splitting Wind Hammer practice without fail. Rather than use an iron hammer, Tang Feng directly summoned his Martial Soul, the Clear Sky Hammer. Its weight of over fifty jin bore down on his right arm, every swing straining his sinews and bones.
Tang Feng began with the first strike, striving to make every movement perfectly precise. He swung, swept upward, swept across, and smashed down, the hammer's wind howling and making the air hum. Only when his strength was exhausted did he put away the hammer, his arms trembling so badly that he could not even hold a rice bowl steady.
At the hour of the Pig, all was silent. Tang Feng sat cross-legged on his cold stone bed, banished all distracting thoughts, and followed the advanced meditation method to guide his Soul Power slowly through his meridians.
At first, his newly formed Soul Power circulated sluggishly, and completing one grand circulation took an hour. With day after day of persistence, its flow gradually grew smoother and its circulation faster, until eventually he could complete a full cycle in forty-five minutes.
Whenever he finished cultivating and examined himself internally, he could clearly sense that the Soul Power within him had grown a little stronger and denser. Though slow, its progress was unwavering.
One evening two months later, Tang Feng had just finished a round of hammer practice beside the training grounds and was wiping the sweat from his brow with a cloth when he suddenly heard hurried, familiar footsteps approaching.
"Little Feng! Little Feng! I'm back!"
He looked up to see Tang Jian rushing toward him, travel-worn, his mouth stretched into a broad grin and his whole body brimming with irrepressible excitement.
Tang Jian ran eagerly up to Tang Feng. Before he could catch his breath, he stamped his right foot hard against the ground and shouted in a low voice, "Watch closely!"
Before his words had faded, the Soul Power around him suddenly surged violently! Immediately afterward, a bright, dazzling yellow ring rose in a haze from beneath Tang Jian's feet.
Steady and brilliant, the ring gave off the pure energy fluctuations of a Hundred-Year Soul Ring. It finally settled around Tang Jian's waist, slowly revolving and lending him a more imposing, martial bearing.
"Congratulations, Brother Jian! You successfully obtained your First Soul Ring!" Tang Feng's eyes lit up, and he felt genuinely happy for Tang Jian. He hurriedly asked, "Tell me, how did it go? What Soul Beast was it?"
Tang Jian chuckled and gestured animatedly. "It was a Great Strength Gorilla over three hundred years old! It was so hard to find. In those woods behind the mountain, even a glimpse of a Soul Beast was rare! We wandered around the woods for an entire month and almost thought we'd have to return empty-handed.
"We finally found traces of it in a cave on a cliff! It took a tremendous effort to bring it down... but it was worth it! After absorbing the Soul Ring, I felt my strength jump, and my Soul Power shot straight to the peak of level eleven! Hehe!"
Tang Jian rubbed the back of his head, his smile honest and content. He was clearly extremely satisfied with what he had gained on this trip.
Looking at the Yellow Soul Ring around Tang Jian's waist, which symbolized his status as a true Soul Master, and sensing the markedly denser fluctuations of Soul Power coming from him, Tang Feng felt happy, but the yearning for strength deep in his heart also grew clearer and more searing.
One year later, gauzy morning mist shrouded the Clear Sky Sect, hidden away from the world.
During that year, only one major event had occurred in the ancestral grounds: Second Elder Tang Zhen had broken through to Level 90.
With Sect Master Tang Xiao's assistance, he had secretly traveled to the Star Dou Great Forest and hunted a strength-type Soul Beast exceptionally well suited to the Clear Sky Hammer, an eighty-three-thousand-year-old Earth Violent Bear. After absorbing its Soul Ring, his Soul Power had reached the peak of level ninety-one.
He had become the sect's second Titled Douluo after Tang Xiao. His title: Heaven Shaking.
To conceal the journey from prying eyes and ears, they had traveled in utmost secrecy, even hurrying through the night on their return.
After advancing to Titled Douluo, the Second Elder seemed to have broken free of the shackles of time. His body, once aged and stooped from years of worrying over sect affairs and stagnation in cultivation, now stood straight as a towering ancient pine.
His deeply furrowed face had smoothed like withered wood meeting spring, as though he had grown more than ten years younger. Even his back was much straighter, and with every movement, his oppressive presence made the air warp slightly.
Every disciple in the sect looked at him with reverence mixed with burning longing.
The sect master personally cut lean meat from the giant bear and distributed it fairly to every disciple throughout the sect. Its flesh and blood contained tremendous Soul Power and vital essence.
Tang Feng naturally received half a bowl of meat broth and a fist-sized chunk of meat as well. Although he felt it was pitifully little, the instant it melted in his mouth, a scalding current flowed down his throat and surged into every limb and bone.
He dared not delay and immediately sat cross-legged to refine it. He felt his Soul Power grow at a rate visible to the naked eye, the gain actually equaling ten full days of arduous cultivation!
Tang Feng could not help marveling inwardly, A Soul Beast is a treasure from head to toe, especially a high-level one... those words truly aren't false.
A year later, at a quarter past five in the morning, before the dawn bell had rung, the ancestral grounds still lay immersed in the deepest stillness before daybreak. The training grounds were empty. The figure that ran every day without fail, with black iron weights strapped to his legs, was nowhere to be seen today.
Within the cramped space of stone house number six, Tang Feng sat quietly cross-legged on his icy stone bed, eyes tightly shut and breathing deep and steady.
Time trickled by, but the Soul Power within Tang Feng circulated faster and faster, more and more urgently. Like a stream long blocked by a dam, its level kept rising, battering that invisible barrier.
"Crack..."
An exceedingly faint sound, like shattering glass, reverberated clearly within his spiritual perception.
The next moment, the Soul Power accumulated to its limit burst through the invisible shackles that had troubled him for so long, like a raging flood breaching a dam!
A presence several times stronger than before spilled uncontrollably from his body, stirring a faint current of air within the stone room and gently lifting the dust in the corners.
Tang Feng slowly opened his eyes. Deep within his dark pupils, a sharp gleam flashed like lightning, then quickly subsided, returning to the stillness of an ancient well. He parted his lips slightly and slowly exhaled a long, concentrated stream of stale breath.
"Finally... I've broken through to level ten!"
His murmur echoed softly through the silent stone room, carrying a faint sigh of relief.
He lowered his head and spread his hands. Years of friction from gripping a hammer had covered his palms in an even layer of thin calluses, and his knuckles stood out distinctly and powerfully as he exerted strength.
Tang Feng examined himself. At seven and a half years old, he had already shot up to one meter forty, half a head taller than his peers.
Long-term weighted training had not made Tang Feng look bulky, but lean and sleek as a young leopard. His shoulders were broader than those of ordinary children, his arm muscles clearly defined, and thin pectoral muscles outlined themselves beneath his coarse hemp clothes.
He was like a small dark iron hammer hidden in its sheath, his stillness carrying a hint of danger.
Exactly one year and two months had passed since his Martial Soul Awakening at six years and three months old. His Soul Power had risen from level seven to level ten, a net increase of three levels.
Although this pace was not slow, Tang Feng knew very well that compared with those legendary favored children of heaven who possessed Innate Full Soul Power, his progress could only be called thoroughly mediocre.
Those people were like the chosen children of heaven, their Soul Power like a surging great river, naturally broad and unobstructed. Tang Feng, however, was like a trickle among mountain rocks. Every step forward required several times the sweat and perseverance of others, and even a harsh squeezing of his body's limits.
Precisely because of this, over these years, Tang Feng had almost become a "monster" who knew nothing but cultivation in the eyes of his clansmen and elders. Silent and withdrawn, he had only cultivation on his mind and scarcely relaxed at all.
Thus, if the comparison was limited to his peers within the Clear Sky Sect, this pace was enough to make the vast majority look up to him.
After obtaining his First Soul Ring, Tang Jian's Soul Power had gone straight to the peak of level eleven. Yet a year later, he had only just reached level thirteen and a half, an increase of less than two levels.
Most of the other disciples whose Innate Soul Power had been around level five or six were still struggling bitterly at the thresholds of levels seven and eight.
Tang Feng stood, sensing the abundant Soul Power within him. He knew his own mediocrity, but he also understood how hard-won this "mediocrity" was.
He pushed open the stone door and stepped out of the stone house. Looking toward the depths of the ancestral grounds, toward the mist-shrouded exit that connected to the wilderness behind the mountain, his gaze grew sharp and resolute.
"A Soul Ring... it's time to prepare."