Chapter 36: Chapter 316: Scale Armor Permanentization
Returning to the outpost at dusk, Li Yuan sat on the edge of his bed, in no hurry to begin cultivating.
With a thought, he unequipped the Iron Bull Skill.
A manual materialized in his palm, and the warmth that had been enveloping his internal organs deep in his abdomen receded with it.
Li Yuan put the manual away and retrieved the folded Iron-Scaled Serpent shed skin from an inner layer of his clothes.
’Equip.’
The shed skin dissolved into a faint, dark green light and sank into his skin.
In the next instant, an extremely subtle, strange sensation spread out from his chest and abdomen, creeping over his limbs, neck, and face until it covered every inch of his skin.
Li Yuan reached out and pinched his forearm.
His nails didn’t sink in nearly as deep as before. When he let go, the skin immediately sprang back, not even leaving a white mark.
After mastering the Iron Bull Skill, his skin and flesh were already a cut above any mortal’s. Now, with the addition of the scale armor, he was another layer tougher.
[Equipped: Iron-Scaled Serpent Shed Skin]
[Trait Acquired: Armored Skin (White) — Increases skin defense. Resists some toxins and negative effects.]
[Permanence Progress: 0/50]
’Fifty hits.’ Li Yuan stood up, walked out of his wooden cabin, and knocked on the neighboring door.
Since they had been on patrol for a while now and had grown accustomed to one another, they slept in separate cabins.
Xu Mao was sitting at his table polishing a short sword. Seeing Li Yuan enter, he quickly stood up. "Deputy Li, what can I do for you?"
"I need a favor," Li Yuan said, rolling his shoulders. "Hit me a few times."
Xu Mao was stunned.
"...What?"
"I’m practicing a mortal cultivation technique that requires external impact to stimulate my Qi Blood circulation."
Li Yuan rolled up his sleeve, revealing the firm muscles of his forearm. "Use your Spiritual Power. Don’t hold back."
Xu Mao’s gaze lingered on Li Yuan’s forearm for a moment before shifting to his broad shoulders and the powerful contours of his chest and back, taut beneath his patrol uniform.
For a Cultivator at the Qi Refining Fourth Level, Li Yuan’s build was indeed more than just a little imposing.
"How should I hit you?"
"With your fists is fine. Chest, shoulders, back—anywhere. And put some force into it."
Xu Mao set down his short sword, walked up to Li Yuan, and threw a tentative punch at his chest.
THUD. A muffled impact. Li Yuan didn’t budge.
The system panel showed no reaction.
"More force."
Xu Mao clenched his fist, channeled Spiritual Power into his arm, and drove a punch into Li Yuan’s chest.
THUD.
The sound was soft, but Li Yuan’s body swayed back half an inch. His feet remained planted.
The sensation of the fist hitting his chest was strange.
There was a layer of elastic resistance on the surface of his skin. Most of the force was buffered as it passed through, leaving only a dull vibration deep inside.
It wasn’t painful, just sore at most.
"Again."
Xu Mao threw another punch, this time aiming for the shoulder.
Li Yuan’s shoulder dipped, but he remained motionless.
[Armored Skin (White) Permanence Progress: 2/50]
’It went up by two.’
’Light hits don’t count. They have to have a certain amount of force to register.’
"Keep going."
Xu Mao stared at the spot on Li Yuan’s abdomen where even the red mark was already fading. He opened his mouth as if to speak, but said nothing, simply clenching his fist and continuing to punch.
The process that followed was tedious.
Xu Mao delivered punch after punch, moving from chest to shoulder, shoulder to back, and then around to his side. He poured Spiritual Power into every blow, striking with earnest.
Li Yuan stood his ground, unmoving as a wooden post.
Ten punches, twenty, thirty.
Xu Mao’s forehead began to bead with sweat; the expenditure of Spiritual Power was not insignificant.
"Take a break," Li Yuan said.
Xu Mao breathed a sigh of relief, shook his sore wrist, and leaned against the wall to catch his breath.
"What in the world did you do to train your body? My fists are numb."
"A Qi Blood cultivation technique."
Li Yuan glanced down at his torso. The area that had been struck dozens of times was faintly red, but there was no bruising or swelling, and the redness was fading at a visible rate.
Between the Qi Blood recovery from Five Grains Qi Nourishing and the foundation laid by his mortal cultivation technique, an impact of this level couldn’t possibly injure him.
After a short rest, Xu Mao had recovered some, and the two resumed.
Another twenty-odd punches followed. They stopped twice more, and all told, the process took nearly an hour.
As the final punch landed, a notification popped up on his panel.
[Armored Skin (White) Permanence Progress: 50/50]
[Permanence Condition Met]
[Make Permanent?]
Li Yuan thought.
’Yes.’
[Permanence Successful]
[Armored Skin (White) has become a Permanent Trait]
[Equipment Consumed]
The faint, elastic barrier on his skin’s surface didn’t disappear. Instead, it felt even more natural, as if it had become a part of his body.
[Current Equipment Slots: 1/2]
[Equipped Item: Origin Condensation Skill]
[Equipped Trait: Spiritual Power Condensation (Green)]
[Permanent Traits: Clean Physique (Gray), Spiritual Qi Filtration (White), Five Grains Qi Nourishing (White), Circulatory Acceleration (White), Armored Skin (White)]
Five permanent traits in total: four White and one Gray.
He was now only one away from meeting the condition for his third equipment slot: making five traits of White grade or higher permanent.
"That’s enough. Thank you," Li Yuan said, clasping his hands in a gesture of gratitude toward Xu Mao.
Xu Mao rubbed his knuckles, a strange expression on his face. He muttered, "Deputy, you’re almost as tough as a Demon Beast."
Li Yuan just smiled, offering no reply.
Having unequipped the Iron Bull Skill, he wouldn’t be able to equip it again for another twenty-four hours—this time tomorrow. In its place, Li Yuan casually equipped the Nourishing Essence Skill.
[Current Equipment Slots: 2/2]
After cultivating for four hours, Li Yuan stopped, stood up, and stretched his limbs.
Voices drifted from He Shou’s cabin next door; Chen Qi and Liu Ping were there too.
Li Yuan pushed open his door and walked over. The men were squatting by the doorway, chatting idly.
He Shou was leaning against the doorframe, chewing on a strip of dried meat. Chen Qi sat cross-legged on the ground, whittling a branch with a short knife. Liu Ping had brought over a wooden stump to sit on.
Li Yuan squatted down beside them without saying anything in particular.
The men were chatting aimlessly, their topic drifting from the Thorny-tailed Lizard they had hunted today to the recent abnormal activity among the Demon Beasts.
Chen Qi kept talking as he whittled his stick.
"So, what do you think? Did these Demon Beasts just wander out on their own, or were they driven out by something?"
He Shou kept chewing his dried meat, offering no reply.
Liu Ping chimed in, "I heard some powerful demons deep in the Yuanheng Mountain Range are fighting over territory, forcing all the weaker Demon Beasts out."
"Fighting over territory?" Chen Qi scoffed, tossing the whittled stick to the ground. "What does a turf war between powerful demons in the depths have to do with the outer edges? Besides, if one of them died, the vacant territory would just draw other Demon Beasts further in."
He Shou swallowed the piece of meat and brushed the crumbs from his hands.
"If you have something to say, just say it."
Chen Qi glanced around, then lowered his voice.
"Back when I used to roam these mountains, I knew a few old Loose Cultivators. One of them, an old man who gathered herbs, told me he’d seen this once before—different types of Demon Beasts all migrating in the same direction."
Chen Qi paused, drawing a circle in the dirt with his finger.
"That time, it was two market towns fighting over a mineral vein. One of them hired a group of beast-taming Loose Cultivators to specifically drive Demon Beasts toward the other town’s territory. They raised hell, drove all the other Loose Cultivators away, and the town lost the vein."
He Shou didn’t stop chewing, but his jaw moved noticeably slower.
Liu Ping frowned. "Are you saying... someone is deliberately herding the Demon Beasts?"
Chen Qi shrugged.
"I have no proof. But look at the situation. If this were a natural migration, it wouldn’t be this orderly."
"Logically, with how big and powerful they are, the Wang family must know about this. I just don’t know what they’re thinking... I just hope they don’t treat a Loose Cultivator like me as cannon fodder."
Chen Qi’s voice trailed off into a mumble.
He Shou finished chewing the last of his dried meat, swallowed, and leaned against the doorframe, silent for a few breaths.
"Stop with the wild guesses. This isn’t our problem to worry about. The Wang family can investigate it themselves."
The men exchanged a few more words on other topics before dispersing.
Li Yuan returned to his cabin, sat cross-legged, and resumed his cultivation.
