An adult had 206 bones.
Of those, 29 were skull bones, 51 were torso bones, and 126 were limb bones.
At each level, a martial artist had to temper at least ten percent of the bones in their body before their qi sea could grow and hold more qi and blood.
By the ninth round, all their bones would have been tempered, bringing their overall tempering progress to ninety percent and making them a Level Nine Martial Artist.
As for the method of tempering the body a tenth time, the book said nothing about it.
But for Qin Ze at present, this was enough.
The first round of tempering had to begin with the limb bones, followed by the torso bones, and finally the skull bones.
Qin Ze closed his eyes and followed the method described in the book, guiding his qi and blood into the bone he wanted to temper.
It was a tedious and lengthy process.
It was like doing laundry: he had to rinse it with water over and over again.
After tempering it dozens of times, Qin Ze opened his eyes.
Success!
Qin Ze held out the little finger of his right hand.
He had just tempered the very tip of his little finger.
From the outside, that part of his finger looked no different from the rest.
But his qi sea had clearly grown a tiny bit larger.
When he circulated the Lotus Visualization Method again, he could absorb qi and blood instead of being unable to absorb any more as before.
The administrator terminal only displayed qi and blood as whole numbers.
But Qin Ze felt that his qi and blood had now reached 999.1.
Qin Ze happened to glance at the clock on the classroom wall and saw that it was already four in the afternoon. School would be over in another half hour.
"It actually took the entire afternoon!"
And that was just his little finger, the easiest part to temper.
To finish tempering all twenty-odd bones in the first round, he would need at least two months.
That was too long.
An idea suddenly struck Qin Ze.
Since his clones could feed their cultivation back to him, could they also feed back their bone-tempering progress?
The book never said he had to wait until his qi and blood were full before tempering his bones.
It was just more efficient to temper bones when his qi and blood were full.
After all, with plenty to go around, he could save a great deal of time.
But he didn't need to worry about so much when he had his clones temper their bones.
As long as they could feed the progress back to him, that was enough.
With so many clones training together, little by little, it would add up.
He put the idea into action immediately.
Qin Ze immediately had all of his dozen or so current clones begin tempering their bones.
"It really works!"
As the clones tempered their bones, Qin Ze could clearly see the progress bar rise a tiny bit.
"Not bad, not bad!"
"I can keep lazing around!"
Qin Ze was delighted.
There was no way he was going to temper his own bones.
He had his clones, anyway.
He only needed to do a little tempering himself now and then for form's sake.
He had more clones every day. If they all went full throttle, Qin Ze estimated he could finish the first round of bone tempering in less than a month.
"Brother Ze, you're finally awake."
"You've got to learn some restraint. Wank too hard and you'll turn to ash."
Seeing Qin Ze open his eyes, Fatty muttered under his breath.
This was a self-study period.
Most of the students taking the martial arts exam were meditating, while those taking only the academic exam were frantically working through practice papers.
Teacher Yao was sitting at the lectern. When she saw Qin Ze wake up, she merely glanced over.
"Was it self-study all afternoon?" Qin Ze asked.
"Teacher Yao's self-study periods." Fatty nodded.
"Why didn't you wake me when class started?"
"I was going to, but Teacher Yao wouldn't let me." Fatty caught a whiff of gossip. "Brother Ze, is there some unspeakable PY deal going on between you and Teacher Yao?"
"I heard Teacher Yao was even wearing your school uniform when she came out of the Otherworld?"
"Kids shouldn't pry into adult business." Qin Ze pushed Fatty's face away as he leaned closer.
"I'm going back to sleep. Remember to wake me when school's over."
Bone tempering really took too much mental energy because it required constant concentration.
The slightest distraction would result in failure, and he would have to start all over again.
Qin Ze felt as if he had spent the whole night at an internet café. He was dead tired.
Fatty was heartbroken. "Restraint, Brother Ze!"
When school ended, Fatty woke Qin Ze up.
Although he had only slept for half an hour, Qin Ze felt refreshed and finally came back to life.
"Wait a moment."
At the classroom door, Teacher Yao called out to Qin Ze.
"Did you need something, Teacher?"
"Hold out your hand."
Qin Ze obediently did as she said.
Teacher Yao took hold of his wrist, and a moment later, delight lit up her face.
She knew Qin Ze had been tempering his bones all afternoon, so she hadn't let Fatty disturb him.
Teacher Yao was very curious to see how far this genius had gotten after an afternoon of tempering.
The geniuses at martial arts universities could temper two or three hand bones in an afternoon.
Qin Ze had only tempered one.
How average.
That made perfect sense.
A genius couldn't be a genius at everything.
When God opened a door, he also closed a window.
Qin Ze's qi and blood grew very quickly, but his bone-tempering speed was ordinary.
"Teacher Yao, did you win the lottery?"
Qin Ze couldn't understand why Teacher Yao had suddenly become so happy.
"Ahem, ahem, ahem~"
Teacher Yao withdrew her hand.
"It's nothing. I just thought of something that made me happy."
"Bone tempering is a very long process. You must keep at it."
"You can't become a martial artist if you give up halfway."
Qin Ze nodded. "Of course I know that."
Teacher Yao wanted to pat Qin Ze on the head like an elder to encourage him.
Then she awkwardly realized that Qin Ze was far taller than her. She couldn't reach even on tiptoe, so she had no choice but to give up.
"Mm, train hard. I'll be waiting for you at the martial arts university."
Teacher Yao stood on tiptoe and patted Qin Ze on the shoulder, then turned and left with the air of an expert.
Qin Ze didn't know what had gotten into her this time.
Could a high school teacher skip straight to a martial arts university?
Impressive, my Teacher Yao.
With the prize money, Qin Ze no longer had to worry about food.
If he lived frugally, he could make it last until his parents and Qin Yu returned from their trip.
After eating a serving of pork trotter rice downstairs, Qin Ze turned on his computer and searched for news about the Otherworld.
Just as Fatty had said, the Otherworld had been closed to outsiders again.
As he scrolled through the images, a conspicuous headline caught Qin Ze's attention.
[The Maka Race delegation will arrive in Jiang City next month to jointly develop the Jiang City Otherworld]
[As a strategic partner of the human race, Jiang City warmly welcomes the arrival of the Maka Race]
Other races are coming?
Qin Ze felt a little unhappy.
This was clearly an Otherworld on Earth, so why develop it jointly with an outside race?
Many people in the comments shared Qin Ze's opinion, and an argument had already broken out.
"What the hell are those officials doing? There isn't even enough cake for our own people, and they're giving some to outsiders."
"You're thinking too narrowly. The higher-ups made this decision from the perspective of all humanity."
"You're on the wrong side."
"I don't see a problem. The Maka Race treats us so well, so consider it protection money."
"Otherworlds should be in the hands of a civilized race. Handing the Jiang City Otherworld over to the Maka Race is the best choice."
"Leaving the facts aside, the Maka Race has more experience exploring Otherworlds."
"A bunch of human traitors above!"
Qin Ze frowned slightly.
The Maka Race seemed to be a pretty badass race.
Would they be able to withstand the poison gas in the passage?
Qin Ze panicked a little.
He couldn't slack off anymore. He had to hurry and temper his bones!
Qin Ze cast a reluctant glance at the computer screen. Maybe I could slack off a little longer?
Let's slack off a little longer. A few more minutes won't make a difference anyway.
Qin Ze scrolled down and found another trending news story that was a little strange.
[Rejoice, one and all! Wang Biao, the disgrace of the human race, will be executed in ten days]