Tian Can Tu Dou - Wu Dong Qian Kun

Just as Lin Dong regained his wits, he suddenly noticed the crevice on the Stone Talisman flicker with a vermillion glow. Soon after, the glow intensified until eventually, it condensed into two bean-sized vermillion pills. As they tumbled down, Lin Dong quickly swiped them up.

Catching the lukewarm pills in his hand, Lin Dong could faintly feel that these pills contained a pure and highly-concentrated energy. In fact, this energy was even more potent than that of the Stone Talisman Ling Liquid.

“These pills should have been condensed from the Crystal Vermillion Fruit…” From the pills, Lin Dong could smell the same fragrance he had smelt from the Crystal Vermillion Fruit. In addition to the scene that had just played before his eyes, it was not difficult to guess how the pills were produced.

“It looks like Stone Talisman is not only able to assimilate the energy from Heaven and Earth, but it can also absorb Elixirs and refine them into pills or liquid medicine of a greater purity…”

Excitement surfaced in Lin Dong’s eyes as he contemplated this new discovery. One Crystal Vermillion Fruit was refined into two pills. Furthermore, the medicinal properties of each pill seemed to be more potent than an individual Crystal Vermillion Fruit. It was as if the Stone Talisman had the ability to upgrade the effects of elixirs to its peak.

“I must obtain more elixirs. The energy in these pills seem to be even stronger than the Stone Talisman Ling Liquid. If I utilized these pills, I can definitely accelerate my training progress!”

As he imagined the potential it held, Lin Dong’s could not help but tighten his fists. He kept the Stone Talisman properly before he sped away.

After discovering this miraculous property of the Stone Talisman, Lin Dong was extremely excited for a few days. However, his excitement gradually subsided, as he realized that things were not as rosy as he had imagined.

Firstly, he did not have enough elixirs for the Stone Talisman to refine. Even though Lin Xiao had recovered from his condition, he still refused any resources from the Lin Family. Therefore, Lin Dong could only rely upon himself to look for elixirs.

Furthermore, when Lin Dong tried to feed two Grade 1 elixirs to the Stone Talisman, to his surprise, only two flimsy beans were produced. After a few more experiments, he understood that if he wanted to produce pills like before, he needed to use a Grade 3 elixir or better. However, just where was he going to find these rare Grade 3 Elixirs?

He got extremely lucky the last time. It was almost impossible for lightning to strike the same spot twice…

Faced with these huge obstacles, Lin Dong was forced to temporarily suppress the greed in his heart. Right now, he could only hope to excel at the upcoming Family Competition so that he could finally utilize the vast resources of the Lin Family, and all his previous troubles would be swept away.

As he suppressed the extravagant greed in his heart, Lin Dong decided to refocus his energy back to his training. Even though he had advanced to Tempered Body 6th Layer, he knew that consuming the Stone Talisman Ling Liquid directly still held significant benefits for him. Therefore, as time passed, Lin Dong could clearly feel that that the Yuan Power Seed coursing through his bone marrow was gradually seeping out from his bones.

And when the Yuan Power finally breaks out of his bones and flows into the channels within his body, he would have reached the first step of Tempered Body 7th Layer: Refining Yuan into the Channels!

Of course, even with the help of the Stone Talisman Ling Liquid, it would still take some time before he could reach that step…

As Lin Dong’s strength continued to grow by leaps and bounds, the hot summer period gradually ended, heralding the most important upcoming Family Competition…

Time flows like water, in a blink of an eye, the summer heat had dissipated and was replaced by cool breezes that blew across the lands.

Even though the heat was gone, the fire within the Lin Family members only burned hotter and hotter. This was because, the most important Family Competition was about to begin.

In the dense forest, a shadow flickered, as a set of fist techniques were being perfectly executed, flowing as naturally as the clouds in the sky. A series of crisp echos constantly reverberated in the forest.

Just as the eight echo sounded out, the figure abruptly opened his fists into palms as drafts of wind followed behind each forceful thrust, blowing away all the leaves on the ground.

In his hands, the two completely different palm and fist techniques had become exceptionally swift and nimble. His performance clearly demonstrated his complete mastery of these techniques and the fact that he had drilled them countless times before.

As the display ended, the figure also withdrew his fists.

“Excellent.”

Just as Lin Dong stopped, a content voice sounded out nearby. Immediately, he saw Lin Xiao approaching with a wide smile on his face. Beside him, Qing Tan followed while secretly winking as she made eye contact with Lin Dong, an extremely adorable sight.

“Not bad, in less than 4 months, you have managed to reach Penetrating Fist eighth echo. Moreover, you have also became highly proficient with the Eight Desolations Palm. This is indeed a remarkable achievement.”

Lin Dong humbly scratched his head, yet in his heart he cheekily smiled. He had yet to reveal all his cards in that display. Eight echoes was an easy task for him who was already extremely proficient in ten echoes. As for Eight Desolations Palm, after two months of intensive training, he reached the step of coupling strength and gentleness. And its destructive potential definitely rivalled that of Penetrating Fist tenth echo.

By possessing these two powerful signature moves, Lin Dong was probably unrivalled among the younger generation in the Lin Family.

“The Family Competition will be held tomorrow. Since you are now Tempered Body 5th Layer, and equipped with Penetrating Fist and Eight Desolations Palm, it should not be difficult for you to achieve a decent result.”

For the nine Layers of Tempered Body, only the 4th Layer was particularly easy to observe. Beyond that, the changes normally occur internally. Therefore, unless one is carefully inspected, one’s level would not be known. Even though Lin Dong had already advanced to Tempered Body 6th Layer two months ago, he wanted to keep the Stone Talisman secret so he did not tell anyone about his frightening training progress.

As such, even his father, Lin Xiao, believed that Lin Dong was only at Tempered Body 5th Layer. Moreover, his father never suspected a thing, as it was already an outstanding achievement to rise from Tempered Body 2nd Layer to 5th layer within half a year.

“Father, have you recovered your strength?” Lin Dong suddenly asked as he looked at Lin Xiao’s face.

Upon hearing these words, Lin Xiao let out a chuckle. As he gently ruffled Lin Dong’s hair, he murmured: “ All these years, you, your mother and your sister have suffered immensely because of my illness. Rest assured, I will make sure this kind of thing never happens again.”

As Lin Dong gazed at Lin Xiao, he could vividly feel that the decadence within Lin Xiao had completely disappeared. Right now, Lin Xiao resembled his old majestic self, except he seemed a bit more calm and reserved.

Lin Dong lightly nodded his head, as he began to tear. All these years, his biggest dream was for his Father to pull himself together. Thankfully, he finally succeeded.

“Heh, it’s getting late. You can stop training today. Rest well tonight in preparation for the Family Competition tomorrow.” Lin Xiao said as he patted Lin Dong’s shoulder before turning to leave.