Chapter 53: Refining Skin

Lin Mu Yu was silent for a moment, he never thought that Zeng Fan would have such a background. He never thought that he would accidentally provoke such a formidable adversary.

Zhang Wei pat him on the shoulder: “Be careful brother, one false move could end your life!”

With that he said with a smile: “Lei Hong seems to appreciate you quite a lot, this is your opportunity, ask Lei Hong for advice. As you said, this is your great advantage.”

“En, Thank you!”

In the blink of an eye, a morning had pa.s.sed. Although Zhang Wei said that he was going to restrain his strength to an appropriate amount, Lin Mu Yu was still covered in cuts and bruises; however, it was certain that his Sonic Punch was getting ever stronger. Zhang Wei’s face had traces of several bruises, and in the afternoon he had to act as a training partner for a military instructor until the evening. He felt that his entire body, skin and flesh, would be ready to collapse and break down.

After dinner, Lin Mu Yu was sitting in the room wiping his bruises and wounds with a towel. He was s.h.i.+vering and felt the jittering of his teeth. He was like a wounded animal licking its wounds alone.

There was a creaking sound that couldn’t have been produced by itself because it wasn’t a windy night. Out of nowhere, there stood Lei Hong dressed in his white robe at the door.

“Master Lei Hong, you have arrived?” It seemed that Lin Mu Yu antic.i.p.ated that he would arrive, it couldn’t have been through coincidence alone that they met each other.

Lei Hong seemed gentle, his face seemed lovely as it creased in the moonlight. He kindly said: “You are Lin Mu Yu, correct?”

“I….” he was quite alarmed, for a moment he seemed like he was falling into a cave of ice.

“Rest a.s.sured, if you really are Lin Mu Yu, the student of Qu Chu, then it’s good.” Lei Hong with a smile said: “Child, Do you believe me, Lei Hong?”

“En, I believe”

“That’s good, come with me. Qu Chu... that old guy is too lazy to teach his students and only teaches them half. Ah, so many years it seems this is his natural temper….…”

Lei Hong arranges his white robe then turns away.

Lin Mu Yu hurriedly put on his coat, then followed while carrying his fire sword.

…….

Starlight fell inside the courtyard of the temple. On the stone paved trail were mottled shadows. Lei Hong urgently forcing Lin Mu Yu to unleash the Starfall Steps in order to catch up with him. As he moved with ghostly swiftness, Lei Hong was aware that Lin Mu Yu was able to keep up with him. He couldn’t help but feel pleased; this youngster was indeed truly talented.

After a few minutes, they stopped in an old house at the backyard of the temple.

Lei Hong slowly came in front of a pond and said: “I came here to practice every single day.”

“Oh, here?”

Lin Mu Yu stepped forward and reached inside the pond to fish up the water, but only to discover that there wasn’t water; moreover, it was evidently a pile of broken stones.

“Master Lei Hong, what is the use of this stone?”

“Don’t call me that, call me grandfather Lei Hong!”

Lei Hong amiably smiled and said:” I am around the same age as Qu Chu, it isn’t too much to call me grandfather?”

“It isn't too much, Grandpa Long Hei.”

“Hahaha…” This old man called Lei Hong, his heart is completely at ease, : These precious stone were picked up by me in the deep mountains. It is often said that the heaven and earth energy, the tens of thousands of years of experience, regardless of whether it is the morning dew or the suns.h.i.+ne, is contained in this ordinary stone. People will say that for them, ginseng and dragons are what is considered as treasure; however, for us cultivators, this stone, more than anything else is precious.”

Lin Mu Yu not really understanding the words, nodded.

Lei Hong said: ”Do you know why are you going to be injured many times today?”

“Why?” Lin Mu Yu asked in his head.

“Because your skin is not thick enough.” Lei Hong mysteriously smiled

Lin Mu Yu confused: ”Grandpa Lei Hong, do you mean that I have to be like the bear who rubs on the tree everyday, managing the sap of the tree to slowly condense a protective layer on its skin.

“HA HA…..,” Lei Hong laughed: “While you have some understanding, you deviate from the true meaning, but what you say isn’t too far off. You need to use these stones everyday and rub them on your skin. Your skin will then absorb the aura of the stone, it is such a simple method of cultivation that makes you stronger by giving you bones like iron and skin like copper.

“ I see…..” Lin Mu Yu went silent.

Lei Hong, stroking his beard, said “This process of cultivation is called “Refining”. Although other people have pa.s.sed this realm already, those ordinary talents rushed to finish this phase without a solid foundation. You will repeatedly train in this so as to build up a proper foundation for yourself.”

“En, Thank you, Grandpa!”

“En, I will go back to sleep, practice well.”

“Yes!”

………

Lei Hong quietly left Lin Mu Yu sitting down on the top of the mountain with a pile of broken stones.

Throwing oneself into the rubble, his arms were soon cut by the sharp stones, and this left his arms bleeding. He couldn’t help but doubt whether this was really an effective form of cultivation.

Suddenly, a bright light appeared and a beautiful fairy girl flew out from the sea, this was precisely the system fairy Guan Lu Lu.

“Big Brother!”

Lu Lu flapped her wings, it excitedly flew around Lin Mu Yu in circles and said with a smile: “I just heard your conversation Big Brother, there is no need to use such a ‘clumsy’ way to train. Don’t tell me you forgot Big Brother, you are the greatest alchemist and you refined various precious objects in your ancient cauldron before, so of course you can refine these odd stones. Afterwards you can use them to refine your skin!”

“Oh, really?”

Lin Mu Yu realised that he was unknowingly sitting at the centre of a mountain of treasure, how could he forget about his alchemy cauldron, it can be said that the cauldron was precious and close to him; however, it didn’t occur to him to use the cauldron to a.s.sist in refining and cultivating his own body.

“Thinking about it, there should be no other people here.

“Cras.h.!.+”

Rays of light flickered, the ancient cauldron started to appear and it shrouded him with a circle of light with about two meters in radius. Lin Mu Yu urged the smoke surrounding his cauldron to disappear so he could immediately use the cauldron to refine the spirit stones. Lin Mu Yu used his naked eye to check his surrounding, and then he went silent and said:”But which amongst those stones have more heavenly energy contained inside.”

Lu Lu narrowed her pair of pretty eyes checking her surroundings, then laughed: “Ai, Those stupid old fools don’t even know where the stone with the most spirit force is. They are merely guessing. Actually Big Brother, you see that large stone at the top there is a red stone with a lot of spirit force inside, but they only use it as decoration. Try using your sword to cut a piece, then you can test it first?”

“En.”

Lin Mu Yu leaps from the top of a rock. With his sword in his hand, he strikes downwards. He cuts a rock the size of a basin and catches it with his open hand. Then he holds the stone while slowly stepping near his cauldron. He gently drops the stone inside the cauldron and gas slowly pours out from inside. The flames begin to extend to the four walls of the ancient cauldron and quickly surround the stone.

Closing his eyes, he began to focus his consciousness into the stone, a.n.a.lysing the layer of the stone and its composition. It was as Lei Hong had said, the stones acc.u.mulated the Ling Qi over time. Each layer of the stone contained a rich amount of spirit force. This mysterious Ling Qi contained inside had been sleeping for tens of thousands of years, and inside the cauldron, the heat was slowly breaking down each layer of stone. However, Lin Mu Yu could not quickly break each layer, or he would risk losing small pieces of the stones in the process.

The process was lengthy indeed, and it took nearly an hour before the a.n.a.lysis was finished. Visibly, it can be seen that the stone was peeling layer by layer, inside it was shown the spirit force contained at each layer; moreover, each layer was suffused with the brilliant s.h.i.+ning moonlight. It was fascinating. Lin Mu Yu was covered in sweat while Lu Lu nearby was clapping her hands and smiling: “Big Brother that was amazing, look the spirit force is continuously increasing.”

Bits of spirits force floated near the top of the cauldron as others seemed to be randomly flying throughout the cauldron itself. It seemed as though these had the same consciousness as fairies. Some were calm, some were wild, but all could not seem to fly out of the cauldron. After two hours, all the spirit force within the the rock was finally released. Inside the cauldron was the remaining crushed stone deteriorated. What was left were tiny dots of fluorescent lights flying within the cauldron.

“Let’s begin!”

Lin Mu Yu stretches his arms and fully stretches his body to calm down his body. Soon after gas started to form around, and he then urged the cauldron to manage the spirit force inside to fly near his body to refine his skin.

For a moment, an intense burning sensation spread through his skin, almost making him faint; moreover, it made Lin Mu Yu suspect that this was such an insane technique, would such an outrageous method even work?

“Come on, Big Brother…” Lu Lu staring with her two big watery eyes in order to encourage him.

Lu Lu and him were like one, Lin Mu Yu knew that she would never harm him, so he continued to pushed on. Soon after the agonising pain, small dots of spirit force slowly seeped into his skin. Slowly his skin was being reborn until the spirit force completely integrated with him.

Inch by inch, new skin was quickly emerging.

This is refining one’s skin?

Lin Mu Yu was stunned, this was simply a devastating process for the body and soul. To destroy the skin, then later on use the fusion of the spirit force and skin to reconstruct it: this way of cultivation was simply too inhumane!

………………

However, nearly one hour later, the refinement of the stone was complete, his skin was l.u.s.trous as if he was reborn; moreover, those cuts he received during the day were already completely recovered.

Lightly making a fist, there was a dense mist surrounding his clenched fist showing a faint power. Testing seemed pointless. Lin Mu Yu already knew that his skin had already shed its mortal body and was being reborn. It was pointless to even mention the comparison of the capabilities of his skin’s defence from now and before the process.

Suddenly he threw a blow, “bang”, then broke a piece of blue stone. Lin Mu Yu’s wrist and fist felt like they were pulsating from the impact, but he didn’t feel much pain. In other words, he could still feel the sensations from his skin, but it was much tougher; moreover, even if he were to bombard the stones with his fist for some time, it didn’t feel like there would be much pain.

Trying again, no longer using Qi in the attack.

“Peng!”

The stones slowly s.h.i.+vered, leaving an imprint of a fist above it. His fist only felt a bit of pain. His skin was now entirely different from before.

Excited, he wielded his sword to cut another piece of the red stone and continued to practice.

……….

Under the stars, at the top of the distant pavilions, stood two people, one of them was Lei Hong.

“This kid has chosen the red stone to practice.” Lei Hong said.

Another elderly man, a good person named Ge Yang, and one of the 12 ministers, stroked his beard. He smiled and said: “ The red stone was named as the most solid stone, absorbing the spirit force contained in the red stone is too difficult.”

“But he seems to have done it, what were those rays of light in the end?”

“I don’t know, but this youngster gets more and more interesting.” Ge Yang said slightly laughing.

“Yes, but for Qu Chu to be interested in a person, it was inevitable that he would be an extraordinary talent. How do we deal with Zeng Fan, if he demands for Lin Mu Yu to receive punishment and Shen Hou appears to request for the same, I am afraid that speaking with them has no use.” Lei Hong said anxiously.

Ge Yang shook his : “You don’t have to worry about this, Zeng Fan is a crazed disciple that considers everyone beneath him, he must want to kill Lin Mu Yu himself. We just need to make Lin Mu Yu become strong enough to not be killed, so naturally this good seed can be preserved.

“En!”