Bone Perfection

“This...”

Yan Chuan caught the dried meat in a flurry. His Adam's apple bobbed as he hesitated, saying, “Is... is this really okay?”

“Go on,” Shen Xiuhan waved his hand. “The weather is getting warmer by the day. It would be a waste to let it spoil.”

“Thank you for the reward, Patrol Envoy!”

Overjoyed, Yan Chuan cradled the dried meat and turned to run toward the kitchen outside, his voice drifting back from afar. “Please go inside and wait a moment, Patrol Envoy! I'll fire up the stove and stir-fry a couple of hot dishes to welcome you back for dinner!”

The Cloudwater Lake had no shortage of fish and shrimp, but eating them for every single meal had long left everyone's palates incredibly bland and sick of the fishy taste.

Fortunately, it was mid-spring, and many crisp, tender spring bamboo shoots had sprouted in the island's bamboo forest.

Plucking a few, peeling away their thin husks, and slicing them into pristine white pieces to stir-fry with this rich, cypress-smoked pork—the thought of that sizzling, aromatic grease alone made one's mouth water.

“Patrol Envoy...”

At this moment, Hu Zhi leaned in, his face filled with admiration, and whispered, “The news of how you encountered the ambush from Chenjian Dock during your escort to Nanxiang Prefecture, yet safely returned the two young ladies of the main family, has already spread all over the island!”

“That was Qu Bushi! A ruthless character who never leaves survivors when he plunders!”

“Although we heard that an expert from the main family was secretly following and killed the villain, the fact that you could trade blows with him, and even slay thieves like Wang Neng, Zhu Yong, and Sun Erniang, is already incredibly impressive!”

At this point, he couldn't help but ask out of concern, “Did you get hurt, Patrol Envoy?”

Shen Xiuhan shook his head. “I'm fine, just a minor injury.”

When fighting Qu Bushi, he had taken a direct hit from a massive, deep-blue palm. The force had penetrated his body, making him spit out a large mouthful of blood.

Fortunately, his foundation was exceptionally solid, so the injury had not damaged his root. After a few days, the internal shock had already mostly healed on its own.

“Congratulations on breaking through to the Bone Tempering Rank, Patrol Envoy!”

At this time, Ruan Linhuan, who had been standing quietly to the side, also stepped forward to offer his congratulations.

“Yes, thank you,” Shen Xiuhan replied.

Since returning to the island, both Ji Ning and the patrol guards under his command had shown him a far more genuine warmth.

The fundamental reason was that he had truly broken through to the Bone Tempering Rank.

Four patrol teams—A, B, C, and D—were stationed on Yunyi Island. Except for Lu Ya, who was waiting to die, the other Patrol Envoys were all only at the Blood Tempering Rank.

Now, Shen Xiuhan had risen like a sudden star, breaking through to the Bone Tempering Rank. Across all of Yunyi Island, he was now the second strongest expert, surpassed only by the Garrison Master, Ji Ning.

In the world of martial artists, fists were the only currency that mattered. Once one possessed the strength, the attitude of others would naturally change.

Moreover, the incident with Ji Guannan was still fresh in everyone's minds. Living in this perilous place surrounded by water and teeming with bandits, who wouldn't want a capable leader to lean on in a life-or-death situation?

In the end, seniority in the martial path was determined solely by the size of one's fists.

Seven days flew by in a flash.

During this time, apart from patrolling the waters, Shen Xiuhan spent his free hours tempering his bones and practicing his martial techniques.

Two days prior, while patrolling alone in the dead of night, he had also spent some time carefully examining and testing the 【Overturning Sea Bead】.

The results were exactly as expected.

The precious pearl was indeed highly beneficial to water-attribute techniques. When using the bead to perform the 【Thousand Lakes Fishing】 technique, Shen Xiuhan faintly felt that he could already touch upon the 【Dragon Gate Attraction】, a secret technique that normally required reaching the Gangjin Rank to use.

However, the blood qi consumed to activate the 【Dragon Gate Attraction】 was far higher than he had imagined. He had tried to circulate it once, but had to stop halfway.

Even after consuming seventy percent of his total blood qi, the manifestation of the secret technique had still failed to condense.

On that fateful day, Qu Bushi, with his cultivation at the Great Accomplishment of the Bone Tempering Rank, had used the bead to unleash a "Palm Force" four or five times in succession.

Ultimately, it was because Qu Bushi's water-attribute technique was not even in the same league as Shen Xiuhan's divine ability fragment. With his current cultivation, he would likely have to exhaust every drop of his blood qi to fully activate the 【Dragon Gate Attraction】.

“My blood qi at the Bone Tempering Rank is insufficient to activate the 【Dragon Gate Attraction】. But if I reach Tendon Tempering and open the five major tendons, my blood qi will increase drastically. I should be able to use it then.”

A sharp light flickered in Shen Xiuhan's eyes. With a flick of his wrist, a small porcelain bottle appeared in his palm.

He poured out the last dark-red 【Mystic Fiend Tendon-Bone Pill】 from the bottle, tilted his head back, and swallowed it.

Boom!

The pill dissolved the moment it entered his mouth.

Within a mere three breaths, a violent, searing medicinal force exploded in his abdomen like molten lava, causing his blood qi to churn and surge uncontrollably like boiling water.

Whoosh!

Shen Xiuhan leaped off his bed, planting his feet firmly into the ground like driving stakes, and assumed the starting posture of the 【Mystic Eagle Stance】.

His body sank slightly, and his back arched tight, resembling an iron-boned grey eagle preparing to spread its wings and take flight.

Following the unique breathing method of the 【Mystic Eagle Stance】, he guided the churning medicinal force within him, washing over the final two unrefined main bones in his body again and again.

“Next, I will put everything into refining the remaining two main bones, and in one fell swoop, break through the barrier to Tendon Tempering!”

The twenty-third day of Ma Xianyang's crooked neck.

Inside the bamboo courtyard on Yunyi Island.

“Hoo— Ha—”

Heavy breathing echoed in the early morning air. Suddenly, the sound of tearing wind erupted!

Shen Xiuhan's figure shifted and leaped. At times, he was like a grey eagle soaring from the ground to pounce and kill from the air; at other times, he was like a swimming dragon gliding close to the ground, eerie and unpredictable.

As his movements grew faster and faster, the blood qi in his body became like boiling lead and mercury, continuously washing through his limbs and bones. Wisps of white steam rose from his skin, curling and dispersing in the morning light.

Suddenly, his body froze, and his feet dug deep into the mud like iron nails.

A surge of force traveled upward from his hips, running along his spine straight to the crown of his head.

Shen Xiuhan tilted his head back, then twisted it violently from side to side.

A dense series of bone pops exploded from his most vulnerable cervical vertebrae.

“It's done!”

Shen Xiuhan opened his eyes, a look of pleasant surprise flashing in them.

The so-called Bone Tempering referred to the tempering of the four main bones: the shoulder, neck, ribs, and spine. Once these four skeletal areas were tempered by blood qi until they were as hard as refined steel, it was considered the Great Accomplishment of the rank.

And today, with the final neck bone completely refined, Shen Xiuhan's Bone Tempering stage had finally reached Great Perfection.

Calming his surging blood qi, he stood in place and focused his mind.

Pale-gold words silently unfurled before his eyes like an ink wash painting.

【Intelligence】: 31.

Staring at this number, Shen Xiuhan let out a sigh of deep satisfaction.

Prior to this, the highest he had deduced his cultivation to was the peak of the Bone Tempering Rank. Some days ago, when he had accumulated fifteen intelligence points and attempted to continue the deduction to peek into a higher realm, he realized that this deduction was not without limits!

Each time a technique crossed a major realm, the amount of intelligence points required differed.

The techniques Shen Xiuhan currently mastered—the 【Mystic Eagle Stance】, 【Iron Bone Technique】, 【Heavenly Mystic Eagle Force】, 【Swift Swan, Swimming Dragon】, 【Thirty-Six Paths Sky-Collapsing Kick】, and even 【Thousand Lakes Fishing】—were, in essence, all techniques below the Huajin Rank.

Once it involved Huajin, it was a completely different level. This mirrored reality.

Over the past twenty years, the number of martial artists in Changyun County who tempered their blood qi was as numerous as crucian carp crossing a river. Many Mingjin and even Anjin martial artists had emerged.

But those who could truly cross the chasm to achieve Huajin had always been limited to just those three individuals. From this, it was clear that reaching Huajin was a complete rebirth in the martial path, a completely different world altogether.

Fortunately... he had finally accumulated enough today.

With everything in place, Shen Xiuhan took a deep breath and silently willed with a solemn face:

‘【Deduction】!’

【Detectable martial art available for deduction: 【Mystic Eagle Stance】. Deduct?】

‘...Yes.’