9: Chapter 9 Qualitative Change: A Body of Steel! Growing Stronger Without Taking Damage!

The entire cave fell quiet.

Lin Ye panted heavily as he jumped off Tuli's back, leaning on his staff to stand for a good while.

He was covered in scratches from sharp rocks, and his back still ached from where he had slammed into the wall.

But he was alive.

He pulled the staff from the back of Tuli's head, walked over to the stalagmite, and reached out to take the fist-sized jade essence.

The kun tu jade essence felt warm and smooth in his hand. The internal glow swirled around his fingertips, as if echoing his heartbeat.

Lin Ye didn't linger. He tucked the jade essence away, turned around, and slipped back into the passage he had come from.

In the Kuafu Clan's settlement.

The bonfire was still burning, but the atmosphere was somewhat gloomy.

Kuayan sat by the bonfire, holding an unroasted beast leg, staring at it blankly.

A-Yao stood on a high platform at the edge of the settlement, standing on tiptoe to peer toward the Chenyuan Cave, having done so countless times already.

The Great Elder sat beside the bonfire leaning on his bone staff, his turbid eyes fixed on the flickering flames without saying a word.

"Great Elder," Kuayan couldn't help but ask, "do you think... that brat might fail?"

The Great Elder was silent for a moment. "The Tuli is not among the top powerhouses of ferocious beasts, but it has thick hide, is difficult to deal with, and receives a steady supply of Earth Essence. If ordinary Qi Practitioners encounter it, nine out of ten will perish in there."

Kuayan's expression turned grim.

"However..."

The Great Elder changed his tone. "Is he an ordinary Qi Practitioner? The Divine Sense of that being from Mount Zhong resides within him. Zhulong's flames uniquely counter Earth Essence, so the Tuli's greatest reliance is like paper before him."

He paused, then added, "Still, that said, he is ultimately just a novice junior. In a real fight, the situation changes in an instant, and no one can say for sure."

A-Yao jumped down from the high platform, walked over to sit by the bonfire, and stared at the flames without a word.

"A-Yao," Kuayan opened his mouth to say.

"He will come back," A-Yao said.

Her voice was quiet, but firmly resolute.

Kuayan asked no further.

Time ticked away, and the whole world sank into total darkness.

The bonfire burned through several piles of wood, as several young giants took turns adding firewood.

Just as the atmosphere grew increasingly oppressive...

On the watchtower at the edge of the settlement, the young giant responsible for scouting suddenly stood up, his voice bursting out with pleasant surprise: "Someone's coming! Someone's coming this way!!"

Everyone stood up.

Kuayan snatched up his beast-bone spear and sprinted to the settlement entrance in a few large strides.

In the darkness, a small figure walked down from the mountain ridge.

His footsteps were steady and his posture upright.

A dark red short staff hung at his waist, and a piece of jade essence emitting a faint golden halo rested on his chest. Though the light was faint, it was particularly conspicuous in the dark night.

Lin Ye!

He was covered in stone dust and dried bloodstains, his clothes torn in several places, with a scabbing scratch on his face.

But he was alive.

And his aura was completely different from before he set off.

If before his aura was like a blade just taken off a whetstone...

...then now, this blade had been quenched and sharpened!

Kuayan froze on the spot, almost dropping his beast-bone spear to the ground.

A-Yao pushed through the crowd, glanced at Lin Ye, then turned her head away and quickly wiped her eyes.

Leaning on his bone staff, the Great Elder tottered over to Lin Ye and inspected him up and down, his gaze finally landing on the faintly glowing jade essence on his chest.

"innate kuntu jade essence... It really is innate kuntu jade essence..."

A glint of disbelief flashed in the Great Elder's turbid eyes. "You killed the Tuli?"

"Killed it," Lin Ye said.

Gasps echoed all around.

The Great Elder remained silent for a long while before letting out a long sigh. "In my seven hundred years of life, I have never seen a Qi Practitioner as daring and fierce as you. Young friend, if you do not meet an early end, I fear you will carve out a legendary name for yourself across this Great Wilderness!"

Lin Ye cupped his fists toward the Great Elder, then turned to Kuayan. "Senior, is there any meat left?"

Kuayan froze for a moment, then grinned broadly and laughed. "We saved it! We saved it! We saved a whole thigh for you!"

The bonfire burned even brighter, as an entire strange beast roasted, sizzling with fat.

After eating and drinking his fill, Lin Ye sat cross-legged in the wooden cabin, holding the piece of innate kuntu jade essence in his palms and examining it carefully.

He needed to craft the jade essence into a wearable accessory to maximize its body-refining properties.

Otherwise, simply keeping it in his robes would diminish its effectiveness.

After thinking for a moment, he used the thinned tip of his zhulong staff to carefully bore a small hole in the jade essence, then pulled out the bone needle and beast-tendon thread A-Yao had given him earlier.

The beast tendon was extremely tough, perfect for threading into a pendant.

Once threaded, he put it back on.

With the jade essence resting against the skin of his chest, what flowed from it was no longer that elusive warmth, but an endless, steady, warm current as firm as a mountain.

The warm current flowed slowly along his meridians, intertwining with the residual Zhulong Divine Sense inside his body.

The Zhulong Divine Sense, originally wild and fiery enough to burn through his meridians if he slipped up, became much gentler in part under the tempering of the kun tu jade essence.

Though still overbearing, it was no longer a brutal force threatening to tear his body apart. Instead, it was like a tamed ferocious beast—still fierce, but bound by rules.

"To think the effect would be this good?"

Lin Ye immediately sat cross-legged, immersed his consciousness into his Sea of Consciousness, and attempted to absorb this tempered portion of Zhulong Divine Sense.

A strand.

Two strands.

Three strands.

Severe pain was still present, but it was no longer a tearing feeling; rather, it was a swollen, stretching sensation.

Nourished by the kun tu jade essence, his meridians were continuously widened and reinforced, while his bones and sinews underwent a frantic metamorphosis under the tempering of the Zhulong Divine Sense.

If before his body had been moving toward the realm of "steel"...

...then now, he possessed a Body of Steel!

Lin Ye opened his eyes and exhaled a long breath of turbid air.

Mixed with dark red sparks and yellowish specks of light, the turbid breath hit the wooden cabin walls, scorching tiny dark marks into the heavy wooden planks.

He looked down at his hands and clenched his fists.

His knuckles popped and crackled, his arm muscles were sharply defined, and an extremely faint, dark red halo swirled across the surface of his skin...

That was the outward manifestation of the Zhulong Divine Sense intertwining with the kun tu jade essence.

"Next, the kun tu jade essence will continuously and slowly temper the Zhulong Divine Sense. Every so often, I just need to absorb the tempered portion, and I can grow stronger without harm!"

Lin Ye clenched his fist and smiled.

He got up, walked to the corner of the wooden cabin, and chose an inconspicuous spot.

Then he slammed a fist into the ground.

Boom!!!

He didn't use full power, throwing the punch with only seventy to eighty percent of his strength.

With his fist as the center, dozens of cobweb-like cracks fractured across the ground!

Each crack was as thick as a thumb, extending dozens of meters in all directions—cracking out of the wooden cabin and right onto the open ground outside!

The wooden cabin held up, but the open ground outside shook so hard that several young giants bolted to their feet, thinking an earthquake was happening.

Lin Ye withdrew his fist and looked down at the cracks, feeling in high spirits.

"The Classic of Mountains and Seas World is indeed a goldmine. In just three or four days, it transformed me from a weak, ordinary person into someone with a Body of Steel, but that's still not enough."

Lin Ye's eyes turned resolute. "There are still a few days left to complete the trial. I have to go big once more!"