Chapter 88: Chapter 88

“That’s…”

Yan Chuan fumbled to catch the dried meat. His Adam’s apple bobbed, and he hesitated.

“Isn’t… that a bit much?”

“Go on.”

Shen Xiuhan waved him off.

“The weather’s warming by the day. Let it spoil and it’s all wasted.”

“Thank you for the treat, Patrol Envoy!”

Yan Chuan was overjoyed. Clutching the venison, he turned and dashed toward the mess hall. His voice carried back from the distance.

“Patrol Envoy, go inside and rest a moment! I’ll fire up the wok and toss a couple of hot dishes — consider it your welcome-back supper!”

Out on Yunshui Lake, fish and shrimp were the one thing they never lacked. But eating them day after day, meal after meal, had left everyone’s palate flat as stale water — nothing but a lingering fishy greasiness.

Fortunately, it was mid-spring. Fresh bamboo shoots had begun pushing up through the island’s groves — crisp, tender things.

Pull a few, peel the thin husks, slice them into pale, gleaming slivers, then toss them into a screaming-hot wok with slabs of rich, cypress-smoked dried pork.

The sizzle and the fragrance of fat hitting heat — just the thought was enough to set the mouth watering.

“Patrol Envoy…”

Hu Zhi sidled over, admiration written across his face. He spoke in a low voice.

“Everyone on the island’s heard about the Chenjian Wu ambush during your escort run to Nanxiang Commandery — and how you brought both Young Ladies home safe and sound!”

“That was Qu Bushi! The kind of butcher who never leaves a single survivor!”

“Word is it was a hidden expert from the master’s house who shadowed the route and took him down. But for you to have traded blows with him — and killed Wang Neng, Zhu Jing, Sun Erniang, and the rest — that’s remarkable in its own right!”

Here he couldn’t help but add, “Patrol Envoy, were you hurt?”

Shen Xiuhan shook his head. “Nothing serious. Just a minor knock.”

During the fight with Qu Bushi, he had taken a direct hit from that colossal azure palm. The force had driven straight through his body, shaking loose a great mouthful of blood.

Fortunately, his foundation had been forged solid. The injury hadn’t gone deep, and over the past few days the damage had healed on its own — nearly back to full.

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

Ruan Linhuan, who had been standing quietly to the side as was his habit, stepped forward to offer his own congratulations.

“Mm. Thanks.”

Shen Xiuhan acknowledged him.

Since returning to the island, everyone — from Ji Ning to the patrol guards under his command — had shown a noticeably warmer, more genuine enthusiasm.

The root cause was simple: his breakthrough into Bone Tempering was the real deal.

Yunyi Island was garrisoned by four patrol squads — A through D — each led by a Patrol Envoy.

Aside from the doomed Lu Ya, every other Envoy was a Blood Tempering martial artist.

Now Shen Xiuhan had surged ahead into Bone Tempering, making him — after Garrison Commander Ji Ning — the second strongest fighter on the entire island.

In the world of martial artists, only fists talked.

When the strength was there, attitudes followed.

And the memory of what happened to Ji Guannan was still fresh in everyone’s mind.

Stationed on this island surrounded by water and crawling with bandits, who wouldn’t want a leader who could actually hold the line when lives were on the line?

At the end of the day, the martial world ranked its people by the size of their fists.

…

Seven days passed in a blink.

During this time, Shen Xiuhan split his hours between patrolling the waters and using every spare moment to forge his bones and drill his techniques.

In the first two days, he had taken the Sea-Overturning Pearl out during his solo night patrols and tested it thoroughly.

The results were exactly as expected.

The pearl was enormously beneficial for water-aligned arts.

When he used it to execute Thousand Lakes Fishing, Shen Xiuhan could faintly sense that he was touching the threshold of Dragon Gate Pulling — the secret art meant for Astral Strength practitioners and above.

However, the qi-blood cost of activating Dragon Gate Pulling was far steeper than he had imagined.

He had attempted it once, but was forced to stop halfway.

Seventy percent of his qi-blood had already been spent, yet the secret art’s manifestation had not even begun to take shape.

That day at the wharf, Qu Bushi — at Full Mastery of Bone Tempering — had used this same pearl to fire off four or five consecutive blasts of Force Projection.

The difference came down to this: Qu Bushi’s water-aligned martial art and Shen Xiuhan’s divine-power fragment were fundamentally different tiers of technique.

At his current cultivation, Shen Xiuhan would probably need to drain every last drop of qi-blood in his body to fully activate Dragon Gate Pulling even once.

“Bone Tempering doesn’t generate enough qi-blood to power Dragon Gate Pulling. But once I break through to Sinew Tempering and open the five primary sinews, my qi-blood reserves will increase dramatically. That should be enough to activate it.”

A keen light flashed in Shen Xiuhan’s eyes. He flipped his wrist, and a small porcelain vial appeared in his palm.

He tipped out the last dark-red Dark Blight Sinew-Bone Pill from the vial.

Tilted his head back. Swallowed.

BOOM!

The pill dissolved the instant it touched his tongue.

In the space of three breaths, a volcanic, searingly hot medicinal force detonated in his belly. His qi-blood surged and roiled beyond his control, like water boiling over.

SWISH!

Shen Xiuhan rolled off his bed, feet slamming into the floor like driven piles. He snapped into the opening form of Dark Eagle Stance.

His body sank, spine drawn taut — the very image of an iron-boned eagle, wings spread, on the verge of flight.

Following the unique breathing and circulation method of Dark Eagle Stance, he guided the churning medicinal force through his body, driving it again and again into the last two primary bones that had yet to be fully tempered.

“Next — pour everything into forging the last two primary bones. One unbroken push to break through the Sinew Tempering barrier!”

…

Day twenty-three since Ma Xianyang’s neck went crooked.

Yunyi Island. The small bamboo-house courtyard.

“Hoo — hss —”

Heavy breathing echoed through the early morning air.

The shriek of split air erupted.

Shen Xiuhan’s body flowed and shifted.

Now like a hawk launching from the earth, striking from above; now like a dragon skimming low, eerie and unpredictable.

As his movements accelerated, the qi-blood inside him surged like molten mercury, scouring every limb and bone, steaming off wisps of white vapor that curled away in the morning light.

Suddenly, his body halted. Both feet drove into the mud like iron spikes.

A current of force surged upward from his waist and hips, racing along the great dragon of his spine straight to the crown of his skull.

Shen Xiuhan’s head snapped back, then jerked sharply left and right.

CRACK! POP!

A rapid-fire chain of bone detonations erupted from the most vulnerable point — the cervical vertebrae.

“Done!”

Shen Xiuhan opened his eyes. A spark of elation lit the depths of his gaze.

Bone Tempering meant forging four primary bones: shoulders, neck, ribs, and spine.

Only when all four had been tempered with qi-blood to the hardness of hundred-times-refined steel could it be called Full Mastery.

And today, with this final section of cervical bone forged through, Shen Xiuhan’s Bone Tempering was at last complete.

He steadied his roiling qi-blood and stood still, a thought stirring.

Pale golden characters unfurled before his vision like an ink-wash scroll, silent and luminous.

Intelligence: Thirty-one.

Looking at that number, Shen Xiuhan let out a satisfied breath.

Before this, the highest he had pushed his cultivation through Deduction was peak Bone Tempering.

A few days ago, when he had accumulated fifteen intelligence points and attempted to Deduce further — hoping to glimpse a higher realm — he discovered that Deduction was not without limits.

Each time a technique crossed a major realm boundary, the intelligence cost was different.

All the arts Shen Xiuhan currently possessed — Dark Eagle Stance, Iron Bone Art, Heavenly Dark Eagle Force, Startled Swan Roaming Dragon, Thirty-Six Paths of Sky-Collapsing Legs, even Thousand Lakes Fishing — were fundamentally sub-Transforming Strength techniques.

Transforming Strength was another plane entirely.

This mirrored reality.

Over the past twenty years, Changyun County had produced martial artists who tempered their qi-blood in numbers beyond counting.

Manifest Strength fighters — even Hidden Strength fighters — had emerged in fair quantity.

But those who truly crossed the chasm and achieved Transforming Strength remained, as ever, a grand total of three.

Clearly, Transforming Strength represented a metamorphosis on the martial path — an entirely different world.

Fortunately… today he had finally accumulated enough.

Everything was in place. Shen Xiuhan drew a deep breath, his expression hardening.

‘Deduce!’

【Deducible martial art detected: Dark Eagle Stance. Proceed with Deduction?】

‘…Yes.’