Chapter 36: Chapter 36
“Mm — that smells good!”
Shen Xiuhan’s Adam’s apple bobbed.
He reached out and tore off a chunk of breast meat — roasted golden and crispy, sizzling with tiny beads of oil.
Too hot to care, he shoved it straight into his mouth.
CRUNCH!
The charred skin shattered between his teeth. The meat inside was tender and juicy, springy and succulent.
A mellow, savory depth unlike anything he had ever tasted exploded across his tongue!
Treasure beast meat that had drawn on the essence of heaven and earth needed no seasoning whatsoever — as though the most exquisite flavor in the world was woven into its very flesh.
One bite. Two. Three…
Shen Xiuhan couldn’t stop eating.
Before he knew it, he’d gnawed through most of it — skin, meat, and all. Even the gristle and cartilage between the joints, he chewed to pieces and swallowed.
Only when two drumsticks remained did he smack his lips with lingering reluctance.
He scooped up a handful of snow to wipe his mouth, and was about to stand when he suddenly froze.
“Wait — something’s wrong!”
Shen Xiuhan hurriedly sat cross-legged, closed his eyes, and turned his focus inward, sensing the flow of qi-blood through his body.
A moment later, he opened his eyes, his face blank with bewilderment:
“Where’s my qi-blood?”
“Xu Chuan said eating treasure fish or treasure beasts raw wastes most of the potency — but even so, shouldn’t I have absorbed at least twenty or thirty percent?”
“How is there not the slightest sign of qi-blood growth?”
Shen Xiuhan felt a stab of panic.
Had this Azure Spike Fowl died for nothing?
Just as doubt gnawed at him, a line of archaic pale-golden seal script flickered across his vision, rippling like water:
“Intelligence +17”
Shen Xiuhan’s heart jolted!
Like a bolt of lightning striking his sea of consciousness, realization hit him all at once. His breathing quickened as he hastily called up the system panel.
Sure enough.
The Intelligence accumulation counter, which had been sitting at zero, now displayed seventeen!
“So that’s what happened… no wonder I ate the treasure beast meat and didn’t see any qi-blood growth. It was siphoned off and converted.”
Shen Xiuhan sat stunned for a moment, then slapped his thigh, elation surging through him.
The qi-blood contained in the Azure Spike Fowl’s meat was important, to be sure — but compared to Intelligence, it was expendable.
After all, Intelligence could be used to Deduce martial arts!
If qi-blood was gone, he could always spend time grinding through stance work to slowly build it back up.
But Deduction — that was the heaven-defying method that shattered martial bottlenecks, bypassed the need for personal enlightenment, and could even birth entirely new techniques!
He’d experienced this firsthand when he Deduced the Dark Eagle Stance.
【Deducible martial art detected: “Dark Eagle Stance.” Initiate Deduction?】
‘…No!’
Shen Xiuhan tested it briefly, and the familiar pale golden interface lit up.
But looking at those words, he didn’t accept.
The last Deduction’s gains were enough to sustain his cultivation all the way to the Peak of Bone Tempering.
What he lacked most right now was time to cultivate qi-blood, not realm comprehension.
Even if he Deduced the Dark Eagle Stance further — to Sinew Tempering, or even Hidden Strength…
Shen Xiuhan still wouldn’t be able to exert that level of power, nor would it give him the immediate, tangible combat strength he needed most urgently.
On the other hand…
Shen Xiuhan reached into his shirt and slowly drew out a yellowed old manual.
The Iron Bone Art!
If he Deduced this body-forging art…
Then Shen Xiuhan’s physical defense would skyrocket, giving him another life-saving card.
Tian Erhu — a sham fighter who hadn’t even sensed his qi-blood — had been able to tank a direct blow from a Manifest Strength martial artist just from cultivating this art…
If Shen Xiuhan trained sleeplessly for fifteen years…
What would happen?
At the thought, his heart hammered like a war drum, his chest burning with anticipation.
【Deducible martial art detected: “Iron Bone Art.” Initiate Deduction?】
‘Yes!’
In an instant.
The wind and snow around him froze.
The river of time surged through Shen Xiuhan’s sea of consciousness, rushing past like flowers glimpsed from horseback.
【You became consumed with this body-forging art, striking and tempering your flesh day and night with wood and stone, enduring suffering beyond what any ordinary person could bear. In the third year, you broke into the realm of Copper Skin.】
【After seven years of grueling cultivation, supplemented by medicinal baths and external forging, you brought the Iron Bone Art’s first stage, Copper Skin, to Full Mastery. Your entire body’s membrane of skin grew as tough as aged ox hide, your defensive power vastly increased.】
【In the ninth year, you finally achieved the second stage: Iron Bone. Your bones hardened like iron, your great sinews thrumming taut as bowstrings. Through external forging alone, you could fight evenly with a martial artist who had just entered Manifest Strength.】
【In the fourteenth year, your Iron Bone Art reached Perfection! You fully grasped the subtleties of resisting external force and redirecting impacts through bone. Your entire skeleton was like tempered steel, your physical defense at its absolute peak. At full power, you could withstand a direct blow from a Bone Tempering martial artist!】
【In the fifteenth year, your comprehension of the Iron Bone Art reached its zenith, and you faintly touched the true essence of the parent art from which it derived — the Dragon-Elephant Penetrating-Light Prison-Suppressing Body Method. In a flash of insight, you attempted to reverse-engineer and recreate the full Body Method. But with only a fragment to work from, you ultimately could not succeed… Yet in the final moment, your mind achieved perfect clarity, and from that fragment you realized a movement art — “Startled Swan, Roaming Dragon”!】
“Hoo…”
Shen Xiuhan’s eyes flew open.
He rose to his full height, and every joint in his body erupted in a chain of popping cracks like a string of firecrackers.
He lifted the hem of his rough cotton training clothes and looked down. His muscle lines were carved as if by chisel and axe — dense, compact, brimming with explosive power.
His entire bearing had been transformed beyond recognition.
Even standing perfectly still, he radiated the quiet menace of a spear with its edge sheathed — a deep pool, an unmoving mountain, yet suffused with pressure.
He looked around.
The vast Dali range, the wind and snow — still the same. The dry grass on the ground hadn’t shifted by a hair.
The campfire where he’d roasted the treasure beast still sent tendrils of smoke curling lazily upward.
Fifteen years in the dream. An instant in reality.
Nothing around him had changed — yet in the space of a breath, Shen Xiuhan had brought the Iron Bone Art to Full Mastery and comprehended a movement art on top of it —
Startled Swan, Roaming Dragon.
This art was born from the true essence of the Dragon-Elephant Penetrating-Light Prison-Suppressing Body Method — a footwork technique designed specifically for close-quarters killing.
At rest, it was as elusive as a startled swan — leaving no trace;
In motion, it was like a dragon gliding through the sea — impossibly slippery.
If he could bring it to Full Mastery, he would flicker and weave in combat, advancing and retreating as though dancing on a knife’s edge, turning on a coin — his fighting power would explode.
“Good! This is incredible!”
Shen Xiuhan’s eyes blazed.
“Not only has the Iron Bone Art reached Perfection, but I gained this movement art on top of it. Now, even if I run headlong into a Bone Tempering martial artist… even if I can’t win, I can get out alive.”
Joy was joy, but a thread of caution stayed taut in the back of his mind.
The Deduction had stated clearly that at full power, the Perfected Iron Bone Art could withstand a blow from a Bone Tempering martial artist.
But Shen Xiuhan had never actually fought a Bone Tempering opponent.
He hadn’t even truly fought a Blood Tempering one in a real life-or-death struggle.
Knowing it on paper was one thing — seeing it was another entirely.
In this world, even with cards in hand, you could not afford complacency.
And besides, he had only just grasped the basics of Startled Swan, Roaming Dragon. To truly forge it into a card he could play in a life-or-death crisis, he’d need relentless daily practice.
He gathered his thoughts. Shen Xiuhan stuffed the remaining Azure Spike Fowl into his fish basket.
Then he pulled out the azure tail feathers that had punched into the basket’s body.
Their penetrating power had inevitably widened the gaps between the bamboo strips, and he winced a little.
Fortunately, Madam Zheng’s handiwork was solid. The fresh bamboo strips had been water-soaked for excellent flexibility. Shen Xiuhan gripped both ends and tugged, more or less restoring the basket to its original shape.
After that, he returned to the campfire and gathered up every azure feather from the ground.
Treasure beast plumage was hard as metal — even at a glance, unmistakably extraordinary. It would surely fetch a good price.
Everything packed, Shen Xiuhan shouldered the fish basket and turned to leave. He’d gone only a few steps before he smacked his forehead and stopped short.
“Almost forgot!”
In three quick strides, he was back at the rocky nest where the two Azure Spike Fowl had been roosting.
He parted the dried grass deep within, revealing a hidden depression about the size of a human head.
Shen Xiuhan reached in and felt around.
A moment later.
Three eggs rested in his palm — each the size of a goose egg, smooth and warm as blue jade!
The spirit eggs still held warmth. Shen Xiuhan cradled them carefully against his chest.
Once he was certain he’d missed nothing, he turned and left with long, swift strides.