"Feiyun City is far too dangerous nowadays. I only came out to hunt for Treasure, yet I ran into such a formidable enemy. I have no idea who this guy is. These chaotic times are perilous indeed."
Xu Guang sucked the blood while using his feet to strip the clothes off the man’s body.
A moment later, looking at the man’s somewhat shriveled body—drained of all its blood—Xu Guang’s expression turned solemn.
"Martial Artists react too fast. Quicklime rarely gets into their eyes," he pondered. "Its main purpose is actually to obscure vision, but quicklime powder is a bit heavy and settles too quickly. It’s actually not as good as... flour!"
Xu Guang’s eyes lit up.
"Compared to quicklime, incredibly fine flour stays suspended in the air for much longer. Most importantly, if I ever find myself in an enclosed space like an ancestral hall again, I can create... a dust explosion!" he thought.
Wild and imaginative ideas popped into his mind one after another. These were tactics he never would have thought of before his battle with this man.
"Indeed, combat is a Martial Artist’s best teacher," he concluded.
Having stripped the man clean, he set the items aside and looked at the corpse with a sincere expression.
"You are my teacher. You were so kind and generous to teach me a lesson with your Life. Now, your disciple will give you a proper send-off."
With that, he kicked the corpse into a tree hollow, blocked the opening with stones, grabbed his loot, and swiftly departed.
With the Searcher displaying the location, finding the Creation Pill in the ancestral hall wasn’t difficult. Xu Guang crouched on the ground, pried up the sixth floor tile, and forcefully smashed it.
Inside the tile was a flat box.
Overjoyed, Xu Guang packed up his things and quickly left the area. His "teacher" had met with a sudden disaster here, meaning the Lei Family Ancestral Mansion’s hall was clearly not a safe place.
On his way back, he passed by that foul ditch again. The child was already gone. He didn’t know if the boy had left on his own or had been taken away.
When Xu Guang returned home and saw that the kerosene lamp in Mrs. Xu’s room was still lit, a flash of deep emotion flickered in his eyes.
A voice came from Mrs. Xu’s room. "Is that Brother Guang? Have you eaten yet?"
"Mother, are you still awake? Didn’t I tell you I might be back late tonight?"
Hearing rustling sounds from inside, Xu Guang hurriedly added, "Mother, it’s cold outside. Don’t come out. I’m going to bed soon too. I’ll make you something delicious tomorrow."
Mrs. Xu said no more. Only when the light from the kerosene lamp went out did Xu Guang slowly breathe a sigh of relief. The earlier battle had been intense. His clothes were torn in many places and stained with a lot of blood. He didn’t want Mrs. Xu to worry.
He hurried into his room, changed into a fresh set of clothes, and stuffed the torn garments under his bed before heading to the courtyard to wash himself.
In the other room, sensing the commotion in the courtyard, Mrs. Xu let out a faint sigh.
Only after finishing all his chores did Xu Guang begin to examine the day’s harvest.
Five drops of Essence Blood in his Blood Eye.
Five hundred taels’ worth of universal silver notes of Qing State.
A confession document.
A small packet of medicinal powder emitting a faint fragrance.
A Saber Technique manual called the Fierce Tiger Saber.
A heavy Token made of complex materials.
Finally, there was his most crucial objective for this trip: the Creation Pill, which could awaken one’s Bloodline Power ahead of time.
What caught his attention was the confession document. It belonged to a clan elder of the Lei Family. This piqued his curiosity. Could it be that the Lei Family wasn’t doing well in Suiyang City?
The confession recorded a secret passed down by word of mouth within the Lei Family: a Treasure that could fundamentally transform a person’s body was hidden in the ancestral hall of the Lei Family Ancestral Mansion. The mysterious man had clearly come for this.
It seemed that not even the Lei Family themselves knew of the Creation Pill’s existence.
Notably, the confession mentioned a faction in Suiyang City—the State Capital. The Lei Family seemed to have offended them.
The only confusing part was that if the mysterious man was from the State Capital, why had he appeared in Feiyun City? Could it be that people working for the State Capital could easily take time off? He found that hard to believe. The most likely scenario was that a large group from the State Capital had come to Feiyun City together, and this man had taken the opportunity to sneak into the Lei Family Ancestral Mansion to steal the item.
A hint of worry rose in his heart. Now that he had killed one of their members, he wondered if he had inadvertently offended the State Capital.
He would have to be much more careful from now on. He hoped that the State Chief would be like the Soul Celestial Emperor and send his underlings one by one to serve as stepping stones for him to level up.
However, assuming his guess was correct and the people from the State Capital had likely entered Feiyun City secretly, they probably wouldn’t have the time to bother with him for now. Besides, in these chaotic times of war, who would ever know that he was the killer?
The Token most likely belonged to the State Capital.
As for the packet of powder... the so-called Chun Hua poison, Xu Guang found it a bit strange. After his Blood Eye consumed two drops of Essence Blood, he no longer felt any symptoms. That poison targeted Qi and blood. He considered himself lucky. If it had been any other type of poison, he didn’t know what kind of price he would have had to pay to kill the man.
The main meridians utilized by the Fierce Tiger Saber and the Golden Willow Skill were far too different. Practicing it would cost too much energy and simply wasn’t worth it.
Having finished tallying his loot, Xu Guang turned his gaze toward the flat box. Inside lay the highly coveted Creation Pill. He roughly opened the box and saw the thrilling prize. It didn’t look magical or profound; it was just a pitch-black pill that looked like it had been produced in some shoddy, makeshift workshop.
He hesitated for a moment before swallowing it in one gulp.
A wondrous sensation bloomed from his skin. It felt numb and tingly, as if undergoing various marvelous changes. In places he couldn’t see, wisps of Qi Mechanism were being born across his skin and flesh.
In the darkness, his originally bronze skin paled at a visible rate, rendering the blood vessels and blue veins beneath it starkly clear.
Xu Guang’s entire being entered a wondrous Realm. The third eye on his forehead abruptly opened, making everything in the dark extraordinarily clear. Looking down, he could see his own blood vessels, the bones beneath his skin, and even his internal organs...
It was like having X-ray vision. The Blood Eye had once again undergone a miraculous transformation. He had gained an ability that resembled the Introspection often described in novels.
An unknown amount of time passed until the crow of a rooster broke the silence. Xu Guang snapped out of that wondrous state of Introspection and opened his eyes.
He immediately inspected the changes in his body. Awakening Bloodline Power would inevitably affect one’s physical appearance. Although he knew this was a necessary price for strength, he still didn’t want to turn completely into a monster.
His skin had become smooth and delicate, as crystal clear as jade, even faintly shimmering. However, a strange, stone-like stratum corneum had formed on the surface of his skin. His muscle lines had also become flawless, like an ancient Roman sculpture. Each muscle group was sharply defined, exuding an overwhelming sense of raw power.
"My strength... has increased significantly, by at least fifty percent," he thought. "My speed hasn’t changed, perhaps even dropped slightly. But my defense..."
Xu Guang grabbed the pig-slaughtering knife from beside his pillow and brought it down on his arm with moderate force.
CLANG!
"If the defense of a typical Martial Artist who has achieved Skin Grinding Mastery is considered a one, then my defense is at least a three or higher," he assessed.
But that wasn’t all...
With his eyes closed, as if sensing something deep within, Xu Guang abruptly stood up. A low rumble echoed from inside his body, like something heavy surging through his veins.
The next moment, his body underwent a bizarre transformation. His jade-white skin seemed to engorge with blood, and dense grayish-black spots surfaced all over him. His defense and strength multiplied exponentially.
He felt incredibly powerful.
Highly satisfied, Xu Guang deactivated his Stone Skin Petrification state.
"Right, why don’t I use the Searcher to scan myself and display my current status as a stat panel?" he wondered. "I feel that scanning myself should be very fast. If this works, I can collect more data in the future to organize and integrate. Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be defeated. Fighting an information war in the cultivation world should be very interesting."
He opened the panel. The search page was still stuck on the interface from the last time he searched for the Skin Grinding Technique, back before he had reached Skin Grinding Mastery.
More than half a month had passed since then, and the progress bar had reached 70%. It should be completed in a few more days.
Xu Guang wasn’t in a rush. Although data was important, his own personal strength remained the crucial factor.
Having reached Skin Grinding Mastery, the next step was Bone Forging. The so-called Bone Forging involved utilizing physical exercise to mobilize the Qi and blood in one’s body to temper and wash over the bones.
Xu Guang took out the Golden Willow Skill manual and carefully studied the Bone Forging Chapter.