In the mountain forest, Lin Yan warmed himself by a fire, taking large bites of bear meat.
After killing Bai Qingrang and his four companions, Lin Yan had scattered their five bodies. Here on White Cloud Mountain, it wouldn’t even take one night for wild beasts to pick the corpses clean.
The campfire flickered, casting Lin Yan’s profile in shifting light and shadow.
After five jin of bear meat settled in his stomach, a scorching heat grew increasingly intense, as if he had swallowed not meat, but a ball of fire.
Tiger, bear, deer, snake, fish... As expected of the second-ranked Treasure Meat.
Lin Yan stood up and walked to a clearing beside the fire.
He began his form: Mountain-Splitting Fist.
The first punch blasted out with an explosive gust. The powerful wind suppressed the campfire, making it shrink. The scorching heat in his body trembled and transformed into a warm current that surged through him, rapidly being absorbed.
’Again.’
The second punch, the third...
The shadows of his fists blurred, moving faster and faster. The wind howled, and fallen leaves were swept up, spinning in the gale of his blows. With every punch, the scorching sensation within Lin Yan was stirred and transformed into Qi Blood, surging into his limbs and bones.
Sweat beaded on his forehead, rolling down his cheeks and dripping to the ground. It wasn’t from exhaustion, but from the heat.
The Qi Blood from the bear meat was simply too rich, forcing his entire body to vent heat through its pores.
After finishing a full set of the fist technique, Lin Yan stopped, gasping for breath.
He looked down at his hands. His skin was flushed, and his veins were faintly visible.
Returning to the fire, Lin Yan cut off several more pieces of roasted bear meat, another five or six jin’s worth.
The fat dripped and SIZZLED, and a rich aroma filled the air.
As Lin Yan chewed, the scorching heat once again rose from his stomach.
’Keep eating.’
Only when the scorching feeling became overwhelmingly intense did Lin Yan stop. He stood up and began his fist forms once more.
After repeating this cycle several times and finishing off an entire leg of bear meat, Lin Yan finally stopped.
He turned his focus inward with Introspection. In his mind, the Martial Arts Tree had grown by just under half an inch.
Before today, he had been at the stage of the Third-Time of Skin Smoothing for half a month. In all that time, the Martial Arts Tree hadn’t even grown half an inch. But now, after eating five jin of bear meat, it showed obvious growth.
Glancing at the remaining bear meat, Lin Yan made a quick calculation. ’If I finish all this meat and supplement it with the Bone Tempering Pill, my Martial Arts Tree should be able to reach a height of three feet and two inches.’
’Since I can’t make any sudden breakthroughs in my Realm, I’ll focus on improving my Swordsmanship first.’
He had been able to deal with Bai Qingrang’s group of five so quickly precisely because of his Swordsmanship.
Right now, there were six Martial Arts Fruits on the Martial Arts Tree, representing a combined Cultivation time of eighteen years and three months.
"Refine!"
With a single thought from Lin Yan, all six Martial Arts Fruits were poured into the arduous Cultivation of the Jinghong Sword Technique.
The space around him changed once more. He saw a figure practicing with a sword.
That figure was himself.
This time, he appeared as an observer, watching the trajectory of his own sword tip as it cut through the air.
The Jinghong Sword Technique emphasized a sword that moved like a swimming dragon, swift and entangling like a startled bird in flight.
The Sword Momentum he had developed was an evolution of the individual Techniques. As he watched, Lin Yan gradually came to understand the true nature of Sword Momentum.
The so-called Sword Momentum was the enveloping presence of one’s Sword Techniques. What appeared to be a single strike was, in reality, a seamless chain of moves.
But this time, from a third-person perspective, he discovered a flaw in his Sword Momentum. While its enveloping presence was intimidating and difficult to defend against, more Sword Techniques also meant more resistance.
A true master swordsman wasted no excess energy with each strike.
Watching the trajectory of the Longsword’s traces in the air, a slow understanding dawned in Lin Yan’s mind. He began to focus on capturing this trajectory.
A trajectory like silk, like thread...
An unknown amount of time passed before Lin Yan suddenly whispered, "Silk Binding Sword Intent?"
The next moment, Lin Yan opened his eyes.
He looked down at the scabbard in his hand. The sword slid free, its blade reflecting the cold moonlight.
Lin Yan raised his sword and, aiming at a tree as thick as a bowl about ten feet away, swung gently.
The edge of the blade never touched the trunk.
But where the wind from the sword passed, fine cracks appeared on the tree trunk.
Walking up to the tree, Lin Yan reached out and gave it a gentle push.
CRACK.
The trunk broke into several sections, each severed surface as smooth as a mirror.
It was like wrapping sharp fishing line around a block of tofu and effortlessly slicing it into multiple pieces.
’Fifty-six years of arduous Cultivation, and I’ve finally comprehended Silk Binding Sword Intent.’
Lin Yan used Introspection again to look inside his mind. The leaf representing the Jinghong Sword Technique had now turned completely purple, and on this purple leaf, there was a fine white vein.
This white vein was the Silk Binding Sword Intent.
’Comprehending Sword Intent doesn’t mean I’ve reached the peak. The Silk Binding Sword Intent can still be strengthened further.’
...
「The next day, at dawn.」
Lin Yan decided not to stay in the mountains any longer. He worried that the master of the Cyan Pine Martial Arts Hall would discover his disciples were missing and lead a search party into the mountains. He couldn’t let the people from the Cyan Pine Martial Arts Hall find him.
Before descending the mountain, he made a trip to the ravine where he had thrown the bodies. Just as he had expected, after one night, the corpses of Bai Qingrang and his four companions had been picked clean. Even many of their bones had been carried off by beasts, making it impossible to piece together a single complete body.
He gathered the remaining bones and scattered them in the part of the forest where the black bear had knocked down trees, creating the false impression that the group had been wiped out by a savage beast. Only then did he head down the mountain.
’Encountering a black bear on my first trip into the mountains was far beyond my expectations. I’ll finish this bear meat, wait for the trouble to blow over, and then come back into the mountains.’
Lin Yan was very satisfied with his harvest from this trip into the mountains, but he didn’t let it raise his expectations too high. Just because he’d encountered a black bear this time didn’t mean he would be so lucky again.
In any given mountain forest, the number of territorial beasts like tigers and bears would not be high.
This was White Cloud Mountain, not Tiger Head Mountain. It wasn’t some place where one hunter could bag a thousand jin of game, and a thousand hunters could bag a million. The prey didn’t respawn daily.

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