stance. His sharp gaze swept toward a large tree diagonally ahead.
There, perched on a tree limb, was a young man.
He looked to be in his twenties, dressed in black robes embroidered with dark cloud patterns. He stood high above, looking down coldly at Lu Lin.
A cultivator from the Xuesha Demonic Sect!
"Your reaction is quite sharp," the young man said indifferently. He took a step forward, descending as lightly as a fallen leaf to the ground.
"May I ask, Immortal Master, why you attacked me?" Lu Lin asked with feigned confusion, cupping his hands respectfully.
"Shut up! Why should I explain myself to you?" the young man snapped in an icy voice, a cold glint in his eyes. "Tell me: did you just come from that mountain over there? Don't deny it; I saw it with my own eyes."
Lu Lin narrowed his eyes slightly.
If the other party had seen him come from the mountain, then this person… absolutely could not be allowed to live.
Supposing the two Foundation Establishment cultivators later finished off the Mingxue Beast King yet found the Skeleton Nether Flower missing, and then learned that he had approached the beast king's lair… what would they think?
The Xuesha Demonic Sect had soul-searching techniques, after all.
However, he had never fought a cultivator before. He didn't know the other's exact Realm, nor what strange means he might possess. He was not fully confident of victory.
"I must increase my strength further to ensure success… I have to take the risk!"
Lu Lin's thoughts raced. In that instant, he decided to break through the Body Tempering Seventh Level immediately!
The "Steel Elephant Body" or the "Nimble Cat Technique"?
Without a moment's hesitation, he chose the "Nimble Cat Technique."
The physical strength improvement from these two martial arts was much the same, but the "Steel Elephant Body" emphasized defense, while the "Nimble Cat Technique" focused on speed.
In this complex environment of a mountain forest, speed was undoubtedly more advantageous.
With a thought, a vast amount of Training Time poured madly into the "Nimble Cat Technique" as if from an opened floodgate.
[First Year: Lacking Tendon Tempering Pills, you can only rely on food and the sparse natural energy. The progress is slow.]
[Second Year: The progress remains slow…]
Previously, Lu Lin had only raised his mastery of the "Nimble Cat Technique" to the Sixth Level. To reach the peak of the Sixth Level, the point where he could attempt the breakthrough into the Seventh Level, he still needed a great deal of time.
He poured in time without hesitation.
It cost a full thirty years of hard training to push the "Nimble Cat Technique" to the peak of the Sixth Level before he worked to step into the Seventh Level.
[The Body Tempering Seventh Level, the start of the Bone Forging Stage, requires channeling Qi and Blood into the bones to forge them. This is a perilous process. Without the aid of Bone Protecting Pills, the slightest misstep can shatter all bones.]
[Lacking pills, you can only split your Qi and Blood into thousands of threads, slowly infusing them and meticulously polishing the bones. The progress is many times slower than normal. Thirty-First Year: Beginning with the hand bones, the polishing proceeds sluggishly.]
[Thirty-Second Year: The progress is slow…]
[Thirty-Fifth Year: The progress is slow…]
...
The training time flew by in the blink of an eye, yet the young cultivator was completely unaware.
Lu Lin was set on killing, yet on the surface, he gave no indication, even deliberately adopting a respectful posture as he bowed and said, "Reporting to the Immortal Master, this subordinate indeed came from that mountain just now, and… even had ventured deep into the mountain."
"What? You went inside? What did you see?" the youth immediately pressed, his gaze sharp.
"A flower. A flower that looks… like a skull," Lu Lin described truthfully.
The young man's eyes instantly blazed scorchingly!
"The Skeleton Nether Flower! Yes, that must be it!" He couldn't suppress his excitement, but then his eyes turned cold as he glared at Lu Lin. "You… you didn't touch it, did you?"
"That flower is clearly an immortal treasure. How would this subordinate dare to act recklessly? I merely took a glance and immediately withdrew. I was just looking for an Immortal Master to report to," Lu Lin replied, mixing truth with falsehood.
"Good! You did well!" the young man's tone softened slightly as he ordered, "Now, lead the way in front. We'll go back into that mountain together."
Clearly, he didn't fully trust Lu Lin. Having him lead the way meant that if there was any danger, he could immediately abandon or even kill him.
What Lu Lin precisely needed was time, so he naturally agreed, nodding repeatedly before turning to pretentiously take the lead.
The moment he spun around, the young man patted his storage bag as a gleaming, pitch-black bone nail quietly slipped into his palm.
If Lu Lin showed any suspicious sign, he would strike immediately.
[One Hundred and Fiftieth Year: Lacking Bone Protecting Pills, with unparalleled patience and perseverance, you slowly forge your bones with threads of Qi and Blood, trying your best to minimize the strain. Heaven rewards the diligent. After long, arduous years of polishing the bones, you finally complete the forging of bones with Qi and Blood, stepping into the Body Tempering Seventh Level!]
A warm current instantly surged through him. His Qi and Blood churned like a raging river, swelling by a large margin. His muscles and tendons became more resilient, his bones as hard as iron. His strength also increased sharply.
"One hundred and twenty years… I never expected that, without Bone Protecting Pills, going from the peak of the Sixth Level to the Seventh Level would actually take one hundred and twenty years of hard training." Lu Lin smiled bitterly to himself.
It seemed that an ordinary person, without Bone Protecting Pills, simply couldn't break through the Body Tempering Seventh Level.
Even if they knew the method, they wouldn't have such a long lifespan to grind through.
"Hmm? The increase in strength seems a bit off."
This thought came to Lu Lin as he sensed carefully.
He found that the strength increase this time was a little over seventeen hundred jin.
Training in the "Demonic Ape Blood Qi Art" from the Sixth to the Seventh Level should have added two thousand jin to his physical strength. It's true that the "Nimble Cat Technique" was slightly inferior, but his strength should still have been enhanced by eighteen hundred jin.
This time, however, it was nearly sixty jin less.
"Perhaps it results from clearing the bar of ten thousand jin? Is the one elephant's strength a certain limit for the human body? After breaking through this limit, the strength gained from further training would gradually decrease?"·
Lu Lin's thoughts raced as he speculated.
Actually, last time when breaking through the Sixth Level in the "Demonic Ape Blood Qi Art", he had sensed that what should have been a thousand-jin strength growth had turned out to be slightly less.
At that time, his strength had just soared beyond ten thousand jin.
"If my guess is correct, the human body does indeed have a limit. One's strength cannot increase indefinitely. After ten thousand jin, the strength increase from each breakthrough will diminish step by step."
"Following this logic, if my strength mounts to twenty thousand, or thirty thousand jin… further breakthroughs will bring even smaller growths, until reaching an ultimate limit where it can no longer be improved even the least bit."
These thoughts flashed through his mind, and Lu Lin couldn't help but feel somewhat disappointed.
He had originally envisioned that even without martial arts leading up to the Inherence Blood Qi Realm, mastering multiple Body Tempering martial arts could infinitely boost his physical strength. He had even fantasized about knocking down a Golden Core cultivator with a punch while still in the Body Tempering Realm…
Now, it seemed that was indeed a pipe dream.
"I still have Training Time left. Continue!"
Lu Lin gathered his thoughts and continued pouring Training Time into the "Nimble Cat Technique."
[After breaking through the Body Tempering Seventh Level, you carries on your hard training. First Year: Lacking Bone Forging Pills, you can only rely on food and the meager natural energy. The progress is slow.]
[Second Year: The progress is slow!]
...
[After fifty years of hard training, you finally make another breakthrough! Your mastery of the Nimble Cat Technique reaches the eighth level, and your Realm also rises to the Body Tempering Eight Level!]
"Fifty years. That's still acceptable."
Lu Lin was satisfied with this progress.
Without the help of pills, the training had advanced more than ten times slower.
"Bone Forging Pill… it seems it is the key pill for the Body Tempering Seventh Level and above." Lu Lin filed this away.
Bone Protecting Pills were for the bottleneck, while Bone Forging Pills were for daily training.