Chapter 187: Chapter 164: Increased Strength, Avatar Transformation_1
After achieving the unity of man and martial arts in his Fiery Gold Body, Lu Yan began to mobilize the energy from the Dao Book to accelerate the progress of the Nine-turn Mysterious Knife.
The progress of his martial arts avatar needed no attention from him.
He began to explore the effects of the Fiery Gold Body.
When the Fiery Gold Body was activated, his physique did not change, but his skin turned crimson. On the surface, a layer of crimson glow was circulating, as if a layer of flames was burning.
He took out the Red Blood Blade and scratched it against his arm.
There wasn’t a mark, as if he had slashed on a smooth piece of metal.
Lu Yan began to inject bone strength into the Red Blood Blade. At first, he injected two streaks, but when he drew it across his arm, there was still no trace.
As he continued to increase it and used four streaks of bone strength, a white mark finally appeared on the surface of his skin.
However, when the bone strength increased to six streaks, a slash resulted in a gory wound with blood flowing freely.
He did not continue to try with seven or more streaks of bone strength.
"Impressive! Worthy of a pure body refining martial arts technique. The defensive power is astonishing. I just relied solely on the defensive power of the Fiery Gold Body without enhancing it with bone strength. If I were to use bone strength to enhance it, the defensive power would definitely be even stronger."
"I’ll try to see if the Fiery Gold Body and Vajra Indestructible Skill can be used in conjunction."
With that thought, he activated both martial arts simultaneously.
His muscles bulged and his skin turned into a golden-red color.
Bang!
He struck the valley wall with a punch, causing a massive tremor in the valley, and a pit with a diameter of two meters and a depth of one meter exploded on the wall.
"What a powerful force! The two martial arts techniques truly can be stacked. Excellent!"
Lu Yan was overjoyed.
Stacking the two martial arts resulted in amazing defense and strength.
Now, he was confident that even if he stood still and let the Martial Marquises attack him, they wouldn’t be able to break through his defenses.
Of course, he was referring to the Martial Marquises of the six counties in Lingdong.
Outside Lingdong, there were some with innate martial bodies, whose Qi-blood was ten times or even higher than normal people. Those with Qi-blood comparable to an elephant or dragon were simply too extraordinary, and naturally, they were a different case.
"I wonder if I can challenge a Grandmaster now."
Lu Yan clenched his fists tightly, filled with immense confidence.
The improvement was still ongoing.
After a while, the Nine-turn Mysterious Knife also achieved unity of man and martial arts, triggering another gift from heaven and earth.
This time, the rate of improvement was significantly smaller, but the richness of bone strength had also increased by more than 10%, bringing him one step closer to the Martial Marquis Level Four peak.
This alone could save a lot of time and martial food.
After the Nine-turn Mysterious Knife was elevated to the unity of man and martial arts, and there was still energy left from the Immortal Bone, Lu Yan transferred the energy to the avatar of the next top-tier knife technique.
This knife technique was called the Avatar Blade.
Unlike the Nine Divine Lightning Slash, which emphasized on dominance with each slash stronger than the last, the Avatar Blade emphasised on flexibility and variation. With each strike, countless blade shadows could be transformed, bewitching the enemy and making it difficult to distinguish between real and fake.
It was evident that the energy from this Immortal Bone was more substantial and rich than the last finger bone.
The last finger bone of the Immortal Bone was able to elevate the Nine Divine Lightning Slash and the level two Yinuo Lizard Meat avatar to the highest realm in one fell swoop.
So naturally, this piece of Immortal Bone could enhance more than just two techniques.
Not long after, the Avatar Blade also entered the realm of the unity of man and martial arts.
But this time, there was no acquisition of an Acquired Martial Body nor were there gifts from heaven and earth.
The top-tier martial arts was no longer effective.
Apparently, his foundation was too strong, which progressively weakened the effects of the top-tier martial arts. Now, it was completely ineffective, just like the previously inferior martial arts techniques.
Even so, the improvement had to continue.
Because the energy of the Immortal Bone had not been fully used up yet.
Next, he started to enhance the next top-tier knife technique, the Purple Gold Xuanxiao Knife.
Soon, the Purple Gold Xuanxiao Knife had also reached the unity of man and martial arts, and the energy from the Immortal Bone was completely depleted.
"One piece of Immortal Bone could elevate four top-tier martial arts techniques to the unity of man and martial arts."
"What a great harvest."
Lu Yan was in high spirits.
The gain from this trip to Kunwu Mountain was beyond his expectations. With the three pieces of Immortal Bone, he wondered how much martial food he had saved.
Now, the top-tier martial arts that had achieved the unity of man and martial arts totaled eight: Vajra Indestructible Skill, Fiery Gold Body, Cloud Walk, Nine Heavenly Blade, Nine Divine Lightning Slash, Nine-turn Mysterious Knife, Avatar Blade, and Purple Gold Xuanxiao Knife.
Still left beside the Dao Book were two avatars of top-tier knife techniques, Wind Chasing Life-taking Sword avatar, and a second-tier archery martial arts that hadn’t been enhanced.
"I now have five top-tier knife techniques that have achieved unity of man and martial arts. According to the principle of ’nine to one’, I wonder if I could merge the nine top-tier knife techniques into an ultimate knife technique once they have all achieved unity of man and martial arts."
"Also, having consumed three pieces of Immortal Bone in succession, I wonder how far the avatar can go from the body. Let’s give it a try."
With these thoughts in mind, Lu Yan made a mental command, and the avatar of Cloud Walk appeared.
But Lu Yan had a feeling that besides the Cloud Walk avatar, he could also summon another avatar.
With another mental command, a second avatar appeared - the avatar of the Vajra Indestructible Skill.
"I really can summon two avatars at the same time. Great, let’s test the distance."
Lu Yan was ecstatic.
As if he could multitask, he made a mental command, and the avatars headed off in a certain direction.
They quickly crossed five hundred meters and were still within his control range.
As the distance continued to increase,
In the end, only when the two avatars were more than five miles away from him did he lose sensing them.
The maximum distance the avatars could be from him was five miles.
The previous distance was five hundred meters, or one mile. This meant that the range of activity had increased by five times.
Using them this way would be far more flexible.
This way, his hidden strength increased once again, significantly boosting his overall strength.
"Head back and focus full-throttle on improving your cultivation level."
Lu Yan, with a cheerful smile, hoisted his bamboo basket and set off towards Baicao City.
The first thing he did upon returning to Baicao City was to enter his underground secret room and safely stash away his loot.
The Phoenix Blood Worm was kept in a jar, fed with Spiritual Medicine daily.
The Heart Orb, and the Mutated Heart Meat, were placed in a relatively larger food box.
This food box was something Lu Yan had exchanged for battle merits from the Zhao Clan. It was made entirely from Red Blood Jade and could accommodate several dozen pounds of Alien Beast meat, reportedly keeping it fresh for up to twenty years.
The leftover fourteen pounds of Mutated Heart Meat that Lu Yan previously had, he also placed within it.
Added to the ten pounds he had just acquired, he now had a total of twenty-four pounds of Mutated Heart Meat.
Lu Yan had no immediate plans to sell it off.
Once Mutated Heart Meat appears in the market, it gets snapped up quickly due to the unmet demand.
Sought but seldom found.
Sometimes, even with plenty of Silver, you can’t buy it when you really need it.
Better to keep it.
Sooner or later, as the cultivation levels of Wen Yuan, Wang Lin and others continue to improve, they would need the Mutated Heart Meat.
As for the Spiritual Medicine, it’s even easier to preserve. Dried and sealed properly, it can last for decades.
After storing everything, Lu Yan went to the Blood Land Vein in Changfeng City, hunted second-level Blood Armor Lizards, cooked their meat himself, and consumed it to accumulate Qi-blood.
With the Qi-blood depleted due to his Acquired Martial Body filled quickly, a surge of blood started flowing into his bones, giving birth to a new Bone Strength.
This was the tenth Bone Strength.
After the birth of the tenth Bone Strength, he didn’t stop. The remaining Qi-blood continued to flow into his bones.
The eleventh Bone Strength was born.
Only after eleven Bone Strengths were within his bones did it stop.
Only now could Lu Yan clearly judge that his previous two Acquired Martial Bodies had resulted in an increase of about one-tenth each, and anything beyond that, the first-rate Martial Arts become ineffective.
Previously, his Qi-blood was 9.6 times that of an ordinary person. He had increased by about one-tenth once, and by less than a half-tenth another time. Added together, he had more than 11 times as much Qi-blood as an ordinary person.
This is why he was able to condense eleven Bone Strengths.
Of course, the two newly born Bone Strengths were still very weak and needed time and resources to nourish.
...
The separate courts where Lu Qingshan and Wang Cui resided.
In the courtyard.
Lu Yan was shirtless, practicing Vajra Indestructible Skill with his fists.
Lu Qingshan stood by, watching attentively.
"My son, how did you manage to cultivate a first-rate martial art to such a level?"
Lu Qingshan was full of admiration.
In his eyes, Lu Yan’s Vajra Indestructible Skill was fluid as a flowing stream, seemingly natural and flawless.
Even the twitching of the muscles and the rise and fall of the skeleton on his body flawlessly integrated with the exercises.
Every movement perfectly pulled the Qi-blood and tempered the body.
"Our Yan’s talent is so astonishing, fortunately, I taught him martial arts. Otherwise, a generation’s martial prodigy would have been buried, and he wouldn’t have won the recognition of the Li Family to be gifted with first-rate martial arts," he thought.
"Yan said he has reached the Martial Marquis level. A Martial Marquis! Even the former Grandmaster of the Sanjue Martial Arts Hall only broke his limits three times. Those important figures high up in the Feudal Lords are only at the Marquis level," Lu Qingshan’s heart was full of pride.
His very own son, Lu Qingshan, was also a Martial Marquis.
He was upholding his family’s honor and standing up to his ancestors.
Because they were trying to protect Lu Qingshan and Wang Cui, they did not live in the Sanjue Martial Arts Hall and did not know much about Lu Yan’s matters.
Some were rumors from the neighbors.
But common people could only speculate so much and exaggerate the stories. How much could they know?
The rest was what Lu Yan himself had told them.
Lu Yan didn’t tell Lu Qingshan his actual cultivation level, he only said that he had broken through to become a Martial Marquis, and that the first-rate martial arts were bestowed by the Li Family.
Although Lu Qingshan had some suspicions in his heart, he didn’t ask more. He had unconditional faith in his son.
Soon, Lu Yan finished practicing one round of Vajra Indestructible Skill, ready to hear, he said, "Father, did you gain anything?"
"Harvested quite a lot. Many of the unclear parts became easily understandable just by watching you," Lu Qingshan replied.
"Father, if there is anything you don’t understand, feel free to ask me," said Lu Yan.
Lu Qingshan’s face turned slightly red. More than ten years ago, he was the one guiding Lu Yan in practicing Iron Thread Fist but now the roles were completely reversed.
However, in the way of martial cultivators, whoever reaches first is the teacher, so it is quite normal for a son to instruct his father. Lu Qingshan quickly adjusted his mindset, asked for advice humbly and Lu Yan readily answered him fully to the best of his knowledge.
His insight was profound that a few casual pointers were often highly beneficial, let alone when he was earnestly teaching.
Wang Cui appeared at some point, watching the serious father and son, she revealed a satisfied smile and said, "You two really are martial arts fanatics. It’s time to eat. Eat first, then continue practicing, or else the food will get cold."
"Father, let’s go, let’s have a drink today," Lu Yan laughed.
"Of course, don’t go easy on me," Lu Qingshan laughed back.
At the dinner table, father and son made toasts to each other.
A shot of liquor warmed their bodies, and their hearts as well.
With the continuous advancement in martial arts, Lu Yan had gradually surpassed the ordinary and began to forget the joys of mortal life.
Only when he was with Lu Qingshan and Wang Cui, did Lu Yan feel the warmth of the worldly life and the breath of the mundane world again.
