164: Chapter 164 The Fifth Life, The Blazing Sun Illuminates the Martial Path (112)

Before he knew it, the sun had set, and the golden afterglow painted the entire courtyard in a warm shade of orange.

Chu Shi put away the last chess piece and stood up. "Uncle, Aunt, it's getting late. I should head back."

"What's the rush? Just stay for dinner," Cang Yuehua urged him to stay.

"No, Aunt, I still have some things to take care of back home."

Chu Shi shook his head with a smile. "Once I return from the Four Seasons Holy Land, I'll come visit you and Uncle again."

Deacon Chu Feng didn't insist, instead walking him to the courtyard gate.

"Be careful on the road," Deacon Chu Feng instructed. "Before you go to the Four Seasons Holy Land, if there's anything you need help with, don't hesitate to ask."

"I know, Uncle."

Chu Shi waved his hand and turned to leave the courtyard.

He hadn't walked more than a few steps when a hushed complaint from his Aunt drifted clearly into his ears.

"Tell me, why are you being so stubborn! You've been stuck at the peak of the Copper Bone Realm for five years! It's not easy for Ah Shi to offer his help, so why did you refuse? Didn't you finish gathering the breakthrough materials last month?"

Following this was Deacon Chu Feng's helpless defense. "What do you know! Ah Shi is at a critical juncture right now; don't you know how important the Temporal Secret Realm is? How could I cause him trouble at a time like this? Once he returns, his status will be different. Wouldn't it be more certain to seek guidance from the Peak Master then?"

"You're just being stubborn!"

Chu Shi didn't stop walking, but a warm smile slowly curled at the corners of his lips.

He looked up at the brilliant sunset in the sky, his gaze becoming incredibly resolute.

The Four Seasons Holy Land. He would definitely go, and he would definitely return with a full harvest. Not just for himself, but for these people who treated him with genuine sincerity.

Time, like sand slipping through fingers, flowed by silently for three months.

The spiritual spring in Tingyang Courtyard continued to bubble, and golden mist churned in the morning light, though it was a bit thinner than in the past.

Chu Shi sat cross-legged in the cultivation room, surrounded by a layer of nearly solid golden-red light. It was no longer the explosive and flamboyant flame energy of the past, but rather as dense as mercury and as heavy as a mountain.

He inhaled and exhaled slowly, the last wisp of stray golden energy being absorbed into his Dantian, immediately merging into that vast sea of True Essence.

The three hundred and sixty strands of True Qi had now all collapsed into fifty drops of crystal-clear golden-red True Essence and three hundred and ten phantoms of True Essence.

Each drop shimmered with a cold, metallic luster, weighing heavily in the depths of his Dantian.

Only then did Chu Shi truly understand the heaven-and-earth difference between the peak and the perfection of the Iron Skin Realm.

This was the benchmark. It was the lower limit of quality and the upper limit of quantity for the True Essence he would condense in the Copper Bone Realm from now on.

Compared to ordinary martial artists who broke through at the peak of the Iron Skin Realm, not only did each drop of his True Essence contain twice as much energy, but the quantity was also the same. With this increase and decrease, the gap was far more than four times.

After reflecting, Chu Shi flicked his finger, and a drop of True Essence broke out of his body, turning into a golden ray an inch long at his fingertip. In an instant, it sliced a piece of black iron raw stone nearby cleanly, the cut as smooth as a mirror.

However, as he withdrew the True Essence and felt the unprecedented, surging power within his body, he felt no joy, instead knitting his brows slightly.

Condensing True Essence was only the first step; the real difficulty lay in tempering the mortal bones.

During these three months, he had never stopped. In the gaps between switching mental cultivation methods and condensing True Essence, he would draw upon the newly condensed True Essence to gradually imbue the mortal bones of his right arm.

To speed up the process, he even used the three Bone Tempering Pills his father had given him before he left home ahead of schedule. They were originally meant as a trump card to be used later when tempering critical areas, capable of increasing tempering efficiency by a full thirty percent.

Yet even so, having exhausted the three Bone Tempering Pills and endured three full months of arduous cultivation, he had only just managed to finish tempering five bones in his right arm.

Chu Shi raised his hand to touch his right arm, clearly feeling the indestructible power contained within the bones, yet his heart felt ice-cold.

The human body has two hundred and six bones. With his Top-grade Root Bone aptitude and the assistance of Bone Tempering Pills, it took him three months to temper five bones. If one didn't count any auxiliary resources, tempering a single bone in an ordinary area would actually take twenty full days.

Excluding the entire spine that had already been tempered during his breakthrough, as well as these five bones, one hundred and seventy-five bones remained. At twenty days per bone, that would require another three thousand five hundred days, nearly ten years. And this was only for ordinary areas. If he reached the later stages of tempering the ribs, sternum, and even the final skull and auditory ossicles, the difficulty would only increase exponentially.

Chu Shi leaned back in the cultivation room, looking at the morning sun outside the window, and sighed softly. That old guy's words, "I can save you ten years of hard work," were truly not empty talk.

If he was like this, those with High-grade Root Bones would likely need twenty or thirty years to have a chance at reaching the peak of the Copper Bone Realm. Those with Mid-grade Root Bones would probably never be able to finish tempering all the bones in their body in their entire lifetime. On the path of martial arts, the further one goes, the more cruel the gap in root bones becomes, like a chasm.

"As expected, I still have to count on the Temporal Secret Realm." Chu Shi whispered to himself, his eyes becoming resolute once again.

As for the old guy's evasive nonsense, that could be put aside for now. He understood clearly that although the old guy was playing the riddle-monger, he would never let him go to his death. After all, the sunk cost was right there.

Immediately after, Chu Shi glanced at the calendar; it was exactly the three-month mark. He stood up, dusted off his robes, hung a palm-sized black storage bag at his waist, and pushed open the door to leave the cultivation room. Inside were his personal belongings.

By the morning sun, Chu Shi's gaze swept around the courtyard where he had lived for nearly three years. A faint sense of melancholy inexplicably welled up in his heart.

Going to the Temporal Secret Realm this time, it would be at least two years before he could return. And by the time he returned, the meager concentration of golden energy in Tingyang Courtyard would long since be unable to keep up with his cultivation speed. This place, in the end, was destined to be left for the next disciple.

Chu Shi walked to the spiritual spring and gently placed the formation token engraved with the words "Tingyang" on the stone table. The moment the token touched the stone surface, it emitted a slight hum, and the courtyard's protective formation slowly closed.

He took one last look at the courtyard gate, then turned and stepped onto the stone stairs leading to the peak. The courtyard gate creaked shut automatically behind him, cutting off the morning light and the sound of the spiritual spring inside, quietly waiting for its next owner.

The stone stairs wound upward, the pine trees on both sides growing increasingly straight and tall, with golden dew drops condensing on the pine needles. As Chu Shi walked, he took a stack of communication jade talismans from his robes and brushed his fingertips over them one by one. The jade talismans were ice-cold, without a hint of warmth.

Three months ago, on the day he broke through to the Copper Bone Realm, he had sent a message to Seventh Prince Xiao Yuan, Princess Xiao Xiao, and Wang Teng, asking them to meet at the base of Jinwu City. He was actually holding onto a sliver of expectation, expecting that at some moment, the jade talisman in his robes would suddenly heat up, bringing their boisterous voices saying they were already waiting for him at the peak of Lieyang Peak. But as expected, no surprises occurred.