Chapter 19 Finally Ready
Chapter 19 Finally Ready
"This is not a weapon."
Ye Chen spat a thick mouthful of dark blood directly onto the damp stone floor. He clutched his bruised ribs tightly and dragged air into his burning lungs.
He sat alone in the freezing darkness of his hidden mountain cave. He was slowly recovering from the initiation of the body tempering art.
The Iron Bone Vajra Skill had demanded physical torture to establish the very first Qi pathway. He had literally smashed his own joints with rocks for hours.
He held the glowing green jade slip up to the pale moonlight filtering through the hanging vines. He read the ancient characters carved into the stone much more closely.
The manual explicitly stated it offered zero offensive capabilities. It provided no elemental magic or flashy combat forms.
It was strictly designed to harden bones and multiply marrow production to an inhuman degree. It exponentially accelerated the healing of severe internal injuries.
The ancient art essentially turned the human skeleton into an unbreakable iron.
"Hong Lian was right," Ye Chen whispered quietly in the dark.
The wealthy cultivation elites wanted magical attacks and beautiful elemental spells. They ignored foundational arts that required decades of agonizing physical conditioning just to take a punch.
But this was the perfect foundation to support his destructive Chaos Body Tempering Art. He desperately needed a skeleton of iron to house his roaring chaotic Qi.
Ye Chen placed the premium jade slip carefully on a flat rock. He turned his attention to the three cheap parchment scrolls he had looted from the dead Enforcer.
He unrolled the crude outer sect manuals one by one in the dim light.
He looked at the Iron Skin Mantra. He examined the Swift Wind Steps. He read the crude ink drawings of the Mountain Crushing Palm.
He stared at the basic physical techniques for a long time. A sudden chilling epiphany washed entirely over him.
The Azure Cloud Sect was incredibly deliberate and deeply malicious in its teachings.
The Inner Sect elites like Su Rou strictly hoarded all true elemental and inner force arts for themselves. They locked the powerful magic away in highly guarded golden pavilions.
They exclusively taught these crude external physical arts to the Outer Sect guards and servants.
It was a method of control. The physical arts provided to the servants were dead end paths.
An outer disciple practicing the Iron Skin Mantra could never realistically challenge a master wielding Spirit Condensation magic. The limit of the human body would always fail against elemental destruction.
"You engineered a perfect slave class," Ye Chen realized coldly.
The sect masters gave the servants just enough strength to mine the rocks and guard the outer gates. They ensured the outer ring remained forever inferior and permanently subservient.
Ye Chen smiled a very dark and cruel smile in the freezing cave.
The righteous masters had completely miscalculated. They did not account for a discarded servant possessing an absolute multiplier.
With his System he could take these crude manuals and force them completely past their natural mortal limits. He would turn their discarded garbage into highly lethal weapons.
Ye Chen spent the entire next day practicing the crude forms of the Mountain Crushing Palm.
He struck the solid stone walls of the cave relentlessly. He pivoted his hips perfectly and drove his palms directly into the rock.
The impacts echoed loudly but the heavy stone barely chipped.
He stopped moving and looked down at his bruised hands. He was executing the forms flawlessly. The energy transfer detailed in the scroll was entirely correct.
"My strikes lack true weight," Ye Chen said aloud to the empty cave.
He analyzed his recent brutal battles against the corrupted wolf and the massive Enforcer. He realized a flaw in his own combat mentality.
He had been fighting to survive the encounters. He was reacting to their aggression and desperately seeking a way to stay alive.
"Survival is a passive mindset," he deduced coldly.
To truly master the chaotic arts he could not just fight to avoid death. He had to fight to annihilate his enemies.
He closed his eyes and visualized Su Rou sitting comfortably on her perfect golden throne. He pictured Elder Wang smiling cruelly as servant children were fed to mutated beasts in the dark forest.
A deep and incredibly malice flooded his heart. He aligned his mental intent perfectly with brutal violence.
He opened his eyes. They were completely dead and empty of all human empathy.
He struck the solid cave wall again with the exact same physical form. But this time he attacked with unhesitating malice.
The solid stone cracked violently. A massive web of deep fissures spread rapidly outward from his palm.
Ye Chen stepped back from the shattered wall. He breathed heavily in the damp cave air.
"System," Ye Chen commanded firmly. "Display my status."
The translucent blue interface materialized instantly in his vision.
\[Skill Registered. Mountain Crushing Palm is Uninitiated.\]
\[Skill Registered. Swift Wind Steps is Uninitiated.\]
He had successfully forced the basic pathways open through repetitive motion.
He looked closely at the available upgrade options on the digital screen. He knew perfectly well what would happen if he upgraded the combat skills right now.
His strikes would become exponentially more powerful. But the recoil would shatter his own frail bones upon impact.
He was still a fragile glass cup holding a roaring ocean. He had to max out his healing foundation first.
"System," Ye Chen declared clearly. "Select the Iron Bone Vajra Skill."
The blue screen highlighted the ancient premium art immediately.
"Spend ten points to forcefully upgrade it to Level One."
\[Acknowledged. Initiating forced physical evolution.\]
The internal upgrade process was instantly and incredibly violent.
Ye Chen collapsed directly onto the hard dirt floor. His entire skeletal structure cracked and popped loudly in the quiet cave.
The marrow inside his bones expanded with terrifying pressure. His skeleton was literally reforming into something as dense as forged steel.
His internal body temperature spiked to a terrifying degree. The ambient air in the cave literally began to boil around him.
The rapid evolution required massive amounts of fuel. He felt his body beginning to devour its own muscle tissue and organs just to sustain the rapid bone growth.
"No," Ye Chen screamed through tightly clenched teeth.
He dragged his heavy body across the dirt toward the massive pile of looted Spirit Stones.
He grabbed a large handful of the pure glowing gems. He did not bother extracting the Qi slowly through meditation.
He crushed the stones directly in his bare hands and violently inhaled the spiritual dust.
The external energy flooded his starving internal furnace. It provided the necessary fuel to complete the brutal transformation without destroying his organs.
He lay gasping on the cold stone floor for an entire hour.
The blinding pain finally subsided into a dull heavy throb. The boiling heat faded entirely from his skin.
Ye Chen sat up slowly and wiped the sweat from his eyes. He looked closely at his bare arms in the dim moonlight.
His skin looked completely normal. But a faint and highly distinct metallic sheen reflected slightly just beneath the surface of his flesh.
He knocked his knuckles gently against the solid rock floor. It sounded exactly like two heavy iron anvils striking each other.
He was finally ready to conquer the cursed Nine Hells Devouring Art.