As time passed, Chu Bai felt a low hum vibrating through his bones, which began to emit a faint, dark gold luster.
Two hours later, Chu Bai slowly stopped his practice.
He was soaked in sweat, as if he’d just been pulled from the water. His muscles trembled slightly, and a wave of emptiness washed over him, the aftermath of extreme soreness and numbness.
’My physical body has definitely grown a bit stronger, but the cost...’
Chu Bai smiled wryly.
The Body Refining Secret Technique’s demand for energy was terrifying. His stomach rumbled like thunder, and the intense hunger made him feel as though he could devour an entire ox.
’Looks like my spending on Spiritual Cuisine will have to increase significantly.’
He calculated silently.
In the Marketplace, the Spiritual Cuisine and Demon Beast meat meant to help Cultivators restore their physical bodies were quite expensive. The three-hundred-tael reward he’d received earlier would probably be devoured by his appetite all too soon.
But under the effects of his [Nourishing and Exquisite] Fate Chart, the more energy he consumed, the more efficiently his innate talent was converted into progress. The money would be well spent.
After a short rest, he took a few gulps of the Spiritual Liquid from his [Jade Treasure Gourd] to replenish his stamina. Then, without a moment’s pause, he closed his eyes once more and dove back into the arduous practice of the *Guiyuan Technique*.
To him, the physical body was a bottle, and Spiritual Power was water.
Only by widening the bottle could it hold more water, and hold it more steadily.
Inside the Cultivation Room, multicolored streams of light swirled and shifted.
Chu Bai’s figure flickered in and out of sight amid the dense Spiritual Mist.
He was like a piece of fine steel, repeatedly hammered in the forge—tempering his Iron Bones through pain and gathering Spiritual Power in silence.
Day after day, time slipped by in a cycle of tempering and meditation.
「The height of summer arrived.」
Inside the Martial Arts Arena of the Anping Evil Suppression Department, the rolling waves of heat were partially held back by the surrounding Array. Even so, the churning fluctuations of Spiritual Power made the air itself seem to warp and twist.
"Hah!"
Pang Song let out a low shout and slammed his palms on the ground. His Earth Element Spiritual Power erupted, forming three thick stone walls that hurtled toward Chu Bai in a triangular formation. In the next instant, a curtain of water rose around Pang Song, transforming into countless sharp Water Arrows that sealed off every path of retreat.
As the captain of the Demon Suppression Team and a cultivator at the Qi Cultivation Seventh Layer, Pang Song specialized in water and earth qi. Influenced by Chu Bai over the past six months, he had become far more diligent in his Cultivation. His transition from controlling water to manipulating earth was now exceptionally skilled.
However, Chu Bai, at the heart of the assault, seemed completely unconcerned.
He wasn’t using a Dharma Artifact, relying solely on his agile Body Technique to weave through the gaps between the stone walls and Water Arrows.
Whenever an attack was unavoidable, he would simply block it with a sweep of his sleeve. A faint, dark-gold metallic sheen would flash across his arm, shattering the Water Arrows—arrows powerful enough to pierce solid rock—into fine powder.
It was the telltale sign of his proficiency with the Secret Technique, the *Iron Bone Casting Body Technique*.
By now, Chu Bai’s body refinement had reached an initial stage of success, with remarkable results.
After dozens of exchanges, Pang Song’s forehead was already beaded with sweat. To him, Chu Bai was like an immovable mountain one moment and an intangible, fleeting cloud the next.
No matter how he changed his attacks, he found it impossible to breach Chu Bai’s near-perfect defense.
What’s more, his opponent’s body was so tough that even a direct hit wouldn’t cause much damage.
In fact, the damage he inflicted probably couldn’t even keep up with Chu Bai’s recovery.
The suffocating pressure of that impenetrable defense was causing his own Spiritual Power to drain away rapidly, while his opponent hadn’t even broken a sweat.
"I’m done, I’m done!"
Pang Song abruptly pulled back and retreated, slumping to the ground without a care for his image. He waved his hands in surrender and said with a wry smile, "Younger Brother Chu, your body and your Body Technique are just monstrous! If this goes on any longer, you’re going to completely drain these old bones of mine dry.
Either we settle this with one big move, or I’m calling it quits right here and now."
A burst of hearty laughter came from the sidelines.
Feng Qin, the captain of Team One, slapped his thigh and joked, "Captain Pang, I’d advise you to just give up! You know what Captain Chu is capable of. You can’t win, so why torture yourself?"
"If you ask me, you should spar with me instead. At least you’d be able to last a little longer."
Feng Qin and Pang Song were more or less equals in rank, and the two had known each other for a long time, so of course he wouldn’t miss this opportunity to poke fun at him.
The Deputy Captain of the Demon Suppression Team, who was watching from the side, also chimed in with a laugh. "The way I see it, even if the three of us attacked together, I’m afraid we still couldn’t break Lord Chu’s defenses. The young prodigy from the Daoist School truly lives up to his reputation."
Over the past six months, the captains in the department had often sparred. Although Pang Song was one Realm higher than Chu Bai, he lost far more often than he won.
Even though it was only a spar and neither used their life-or-death techniques, Pang Song still felt he was losing face in front of everyone. After all, they were both captains; he couldn’t just become a glorified sparring dummy.
Chu Bai came to a halt, the surging qi and blood in his body slowly calming. He nodded. "Since Captain Pang is so inclined, let’s decide the match with a single move. You specialize in Water Techniques. Coincidentally, I’ve had some recent insights into them as well. How about we use those to compete?"
"Oh? Perfect!"
Pang Song was overjoyed to hear this and flipped to his feet.
"Younger Brother Chu, don’t be overconfident!"
’He knew Chu Bai’s greatest strengths were that bizarre Five Elements Circulation and its explosive power. If they were only competing with Water Techniques, he felt that as a veteran Cultivator at the Qi Cultivation Seventh Layer, he still had a fighting chance.’
"Bring it on!"
’Finally, a chance for a straightforward battle!’
With a deep shout, Pang Song’s hands formed a seal. Spiritual Power poured from his body like a tidal wave, coalescing behind him into a wall of water dozens of feet high.
[Magic Technique: Water Dragon Tornado!]
As he pointed forward, the wave of water roared and coiled, coalescing into the phantom of a colossal water dragon. It charged straight at Chu Bai with overwhelming force, kicking up a storm of dust in its wake.
Faced with this shockingly powerful attack, Chu Bai didn’t dodge or flinch. His eyes were unnervingly calm.
He raised his right hand, index and middle fingers held together, and tapped lightly at the empty space before him.
VMMMM—!
In an instant, it was as if countless tiny rifts in space had torn open within the Cultivation Room, as innumerable specks of pale blue light gathered at Chu Bai’s fingertips.
Those were Spirit Water Needles!
Not ten of them, not a hundred, but a full thousand!
These Spirit Water Needles were no longer a chaotic barrage. Instead, they wove together in midair to form a miniature array. Each needlepoint glinted with a terrifyingly cold light, and they were so condensed that the very air around them began to crackle sharply.
"Go."
A thousand needles shot forth as one, like a torrential downpour flowing in reverse.
BOOM!
The seemingly unstoppable phantom of the water dragon, upon contact with the dense shower of needles, crashed as if it had hit an invisible wall of steel.
Immediately after, the thousand Spirit Water Needles precisely struck the vital points of the water dragon’s energy flow.
Before the astonished eyes of the onlookers, Pang Song’s prized Water Dragon Tornado violently disintegrated, exploding into a sky-filling mist.
The thousand Spirit Needles, their power unabated, came to a dead stop just three inches from Pang Song’s face. The chill they radiated was enough to form a thin layer of frost on his beard.
Pang Song’s face was deathly pale, his eyes nearly popping out of his head. He pointed at Chu Bai, speechless for a long moment before stuttering, "Y-y-you... How have you improved this much again?!"
He had seen this *Spirit Water Needle* technique before. Chu Bai had used it when killing the Water Monkeys. But back then, it had been a mere dozen or so needles. The scale and power today were on a completely different level—the difference between the heavens and the earth!
With a casual wave of his hand, Chu Bai dispersed the thousand Water Needles into nothingness.
He spoke calmly, "Captain Pang, you’re quite skilled yourself. The energy in that Water Dragon Tornado was incredibly dense. If I didn’t have an advantage in the refinement of my Spiritual Qi, I’m afraid I wouldn’t have been able to block it."
"Oh, cut it out. A loss is a loss."
"I’m afraid it won’t be long before you erase the only advantage I have left—my higher Cultivation realm."
Pang Song sighed, utterly defeated. He cupped his fist in salute and left the arena. His retreating figure looked somewhat forlorn, and he was muttering things like "monster" under his breath.
Chu Bai stood quietly in place, feeling the surging Magical Power within his body.
In the past six months, with the aid of the Spirit Gathering Array and the Earth Treasure, he had steadily advanced to the Qi Cultivation Sixth Layer.
More importantly, his *Spirit Water Needle* technique, following in the footsteps of his *Guiyuan Technique*, had officially advanced to the [Microscopic] level!
’In that last exchange, he had only used fifty percent of his true strength.’
’And my progress in other areas has been substantial as well...’

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