The plan for a day begins in the morning; the plan for a year begins in the spring.
The sky was already bright, and the streets of Qingyun City bustled with people; vendors had long staked their spots along the alleys, hawking wares, while the cold-faced Rice Hat Wanderer stepped out from the pharmacy and lted into the throng.
Soon after, he quietly slipped into a narrow alley; when he erged, he had transford into a young man.
Pushing open the gate of a residence on North Yanque Street, the courtyard was just as it had been last year, except for several stone blocks in the corner of varying smoothness.
These were all stones Wu Heng had used for Vajra Body cultivation. Vajra Body, top-tier Eighth-Grade Cross-Training Martial Arts from Qingyun’s Five Great Powers—Vajra Temple—was infamous for its extre threshold and difficulty.
Its cultivation process was excruciatingly painful, a tornt few could endure, bordering on self-abuse; Vajra Body’s first realm, Vajra Skin, required the practitioner to strike skin and flesh all over the body with blunt objects, supplented by a breathing technique and routes for power circulation.
Thus, Wu Heng brought in these stones—at first, he used only the smooth ones. Yet even so, at the beginning, Wu Heng’s skin was red in one place, purple in another; his whole body swollen and agonizing, as if he’d been thoroughly thrashed.
"Wu Xiaoyou, did you get beaten up again last night?"
The Celestial Pharmacists often teased him so when using silver needles to draw out poisonous blood; Wu Heng knew it was all jest and would simply laugh it off, but the Little Doctor would hurry to mix up extra trauma dicine wine for him and remind him to take care.
After braving the early tornt of "opening the paint shop"—as he joked—Wu Heng began switching out the smooth stones for the sharper, angular ones. The intensity of soreness and sting at this stage doubled then.
Now, whenever Wu Heng recalled the past months of training, he couldn’t help but suck in a cold breath.
But all was worth it; only through a thousand hamrs can steel be forged!
Back in the residence, Wu Heng removed his rice hat cloak and the snow silkworm inner armor on his body, revealing the thick, toughened skin beneath, continually destroyed and reborn through tornt.
Wu Heng stomped his foot, sending a stone chip bouncing off the ground; his hand snatched it midair and, with a forceful swipe across his forearm, it left only a faint white mark on the skin.
Tough as rhino hide—ordinary blades could scarcely cut it. This was the Vajra Skin.
The double protection of Vajra Skin and snow silkworm inner armor: this, alongside his fist and body technique, was why Wu Heng did not fear close combat with Zhao Xuan.
After Vajra Skin cos Vajra Bone. Compared to the previous realm, its cultivation was even more self-punishing; one had to use fierce fist techniques like Tiger Subduing Fist, and palm techniques, to temper all the bones under the flesh, alongside unique power circulation for nourishnt and strengthening.
Now, Wu Heng was still stuck at the initial stage of Vajra Bone. The reason was simple: without Bone-Forger Ointnt, progress in this realm was impossible.
If he forced the practice, it would only harm him and leave hidden wounds.
"Now the ointnt’s in hand, let’s continue with Vajra Body training."
Wu Heng first carefully checked the two boxes of ointnt. After confirming nothing was amiss, he quickly washed, dried his body, and applied the ointnt in a thin, even layer over every inch of skin, then began circulating power.
No sooner had the ointnt been spread than Wu Heng’s eyes glimred slightly. The White Jade Barbarian Bone Ointnt from Hundred Elixir Tower took ten breaths to show its effect; but this Black Jade Tiger Bone Ointnt showed effect in less than five.
"Li Zhihe said it’s thirty percent stronger... but it seems even more than that."
After a brief thought, Wu Heng realized why. Li Zhihe had no reason to deceive him about this, so he was telling the truth. But Wu Heng’s own instincts hadn’t led him astray either.
The more robust the power, the greater the bone-forging efficiency; and so too for the ointnt, which required power to activate.
Thus, with his power far surpassing that of normal people, the thirty percent increase was multiplied further.
"This ointnt feels about fifty percent better than the White Jade Barbarian Bone Ointnt!"
Fifty percent better!
Realizing this, Wu Heng was delighted—it was an unexpected boon.
Striking while the iron was hot, Wu Heng then circulated his power along the Vajra Bone route; at once, he felt his bones grow not only burning hot but also unbearably itchy.
Wu Heng then directed so of his power into both palms.
Pa!
Both palms slamd down on his chest, leaving two large handprints—not at random, but from the Ninth-Grade Martial Arts Iron Sand Palm.
Iron Sand Palm, too, was a fierce Cross-Training Martial Arts technique: as the secret manual described, one needed a pot of iron sand, daily grinding the hands in it to raise pain tolerance and bone density.
But with the Vajra Body training, Wu Heng didn’t need any extra endurance. Using the relentless pounding of Vajra Body, he had forcibly trained Iron Sand Palm to near Small Success.
Pa pa pa------
The slapping sounds continued one after another; the bones at the impact sites absorbed the Bone-Forger Ointnt faster with the unique Vajra Body power-circulation Dharma Gate with each strike.
During the process, bone temperature steadily climbed, ever hotter and sizzling.
"Tsk, the sting is real; with ointnt and without it is worlds apart!"
After half an hour of Iron Sand Palm warm-up, Wu Heng reapplied ointnt. The warm-up was over—now for the real challenge.
Wu Heng switched from palms to fists, changing Iron Sand Palm to Tiger Subduing Fist.
"Hmm?"
After striking once, Wu Heng vaguely sensed sothing; the ointnt in his hand had been exhausted before formal Vajra Body training, but now, aided by the ointnt, he noticed a distinction.
Wanting to confirm it wasn’t a fluke, Wu Heng relaxed and punched again, landing another blow on his chest.
Roar!
This ti, there was the faint echo of a tiger’s roar; Wu Heng couldn’t help but grunt, but his eyes grew brighter, beginning to see why Tiger Subduing Fist gave him such an edge training Vajra Body.
The tiger’s roar from Tiger Subduing Fist resonated inside, creating a miraculous harmony with the power-circulation of Vajra Body; with this, Wu Heng felt his bones at the impact site beco greedier than ever—like a tiger swallowing the ointnt in one gulp.
Instantly, his bones blazed hotter, as if roasting over a firewood heap.
"So that’s it... The tiger’s roar from attaining Great Success in Tiger Subduing Fist speeds up the absorption of Bone-Forger Ointnt—Vajra Temple’s martial arts really are extraordinary."
At once, Wu Heng entered introspection, firing off several more punches and arriving at a preliminary assessnt.
"Bone forging is a slow, silent process of nurture. After mastering Transforming Force, my efficiency is already triple that of ordinary folk; blend in a fourth strand of power, and it’s another twenty percent. If I combine Tiger Subduing Fist and Vajra Body, it may double again—sevenfold the efficiency of normal bone forging!"
Sevenfold efficiency—astonishing! If it takes an ordinary person a year to forge bone, Wu Heng would need less than two months. If others found out, it’d be a sensation.
This conclusion surprised even the youth himself.
"And more than just this—Tiger Subduing Fist and Vajra Body complent each other, and with ointnt aid, Vajra Body’s training speed has at least doubled!"
Wu Heng’s eyes burned with expectation; Vajra Body was his only Eighth-Grade martial art, and with Tiger Subduing Fist beforehand, he held great hopes for this treasure from Vajra Temple.
With new ointnt in hand, Wu Heng’s days beca quiet again; by day, he went to the Forging Workshop or Yunhe Clinic every few days, otherwise burying himself in training at the residence.
Each day, the youth grew stronger than the last.
A month slipped by in a blink.
Whoosh whoosh!
Several families on North Yanque Street heard fierce wind howling outside all night, and were puzzled—sumr hadn’t arrived, yet such gales and rains had co so early.
At dawn, as the sky grew light and Yanque Street residents prepared to set up their stalls, they found it odd: after such a night of roaring wind, the street wasn’t even damp.
"Strange—last night the wind howled from dusk to dawn, only dying down recently. Was I dreaming?"
Just as several North Yanque Street residents were left baffled—
At the end of North Street, in a secluded courtyard, a youth slowly withdrew his fist and exhaled gently.
The fist before him, on a stone the size of a basin three feet away, bore a punch mark an inch deep.
Gale Fist (Perfection)
Comprehension: 39
After a month, Wu Heng’s three fist techniques for breaking through Transforming Force had all reached Perfection; the power condensed by Gale Fist surged within him, making his formidable internal strength even more solid and profound.
Gale Fist, Wu Heng’s third Grade-Entering Fist Technique, was the main martial art of Wu Heng and Gang Leader Zhao Xuan of Black Tiger Gang. Gale Fist differed from the Tiger Subduing Fist’s fierce power and Rock Shattering Fist’s penetrating yin and softness.
Gale Fist specialized in condensed power, and, when unleashed, wind swirled wildly.
Now, with the leap from Great Success to Perfection, that consolidation was even denser—one punch could send invisible fist force slicing through the air, leaving a print on a stone two feet away.
Wu Heng could feel anew the ineffable bottleneck of comprehension; right now, his comprehension had reached the limit of Instant-Insight Level.
"Forty comprehension will unlock the next tier!"
But right now, Wu Heng’s thoughts weren’t there; his gaze rested on the punch mark in the stone, and a streak of inspiration flashed by, courtesy of Gale Fist’s upgraded comprehension.
At Perfection, Gale Fist’s force could penetrate three feet, but beyond that, the damage dropped to less than a third of original power—useless in a fight against powerful foes.
"Can Gale Fist... be rged with Rock Shattering Fist?"
If these two could fuse, even weakened force at long range—so long as it touched an enemy—would channel Rock Shattering Fist’s yin-soft force inside, dealing substantial internal damage.
Most crucial, if combined, he would not need to get close for Rock Shattering Fist to work—he’d gain a unique technique for striking from afar.
"But how to rge them?"
The spark of inspiration swirling in Wu Heng’s head always lacked one final hint of spiritual light; he had many feelings, but no way forward.
After pondering, the youth didn’t dwell; taking a deep breath, he activated Vajra Body—his muscles beneath every inch of flesh swelled like rcury flowing beneath the skin, suffused with a faint tallic sheen.
After a month, Wu Heng took a stone and forcefully scraped it on his forearm—the sharp point ground itself to powder, without leaving a mark.
His right hand made an empty grip—the air thrumd with a burst of sound.
Vajra Body, this top-tier Eighth-Grade Cross-Training Art from Vajra Temple, revealed its grandeur with resources invested: after a month, Wu Heng’s bones were at least thirty percent tougher and stronger, both in resilience and explosive force.
Now, Wu Heng was confident that if he t Zhao Xuan again, even without Double Tiger Overlap, as a single-ti bone-forger he could crush Zhao Xuan—the two-ti bone-forger—in a head-on clash.
After reviewing a month’s progress, the young man was satisfied but sighed: just days ago, the two boxes of prized ointnt had been all used up.
"Bone-Forger Ointnt really runs out fast... Once this long saber is done at the forge, I’ll visit the Demon Slayer Bureau and get the recipe sorted as soon as possible."
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