The liquid wasn’t like water, but rather mercury—only thicker and heavier. It rolled gently in the indentations, faint ripples occasionally spreading across its surface to the edge before bouncing back, as if it had a life of its own.
Lin Yan wasn’t curious as to why the Jade Box had exactly nine indentations. He knew without thinking that the clan likely had many such boxes, all with different sizes and numbers of indentations to accommodate varying quantities of Cold Dew.
His gaze was fixed on the nine drops of the special liquid.
’So this is Cold Dew?’
Instead of immediately taking out the Cold Dew, Lin Yan retrieved the Warm Sun Pills his fifth uncle had given him, tipped one out, and popped it into his mouth.
The elixir melted the moment it entered his mouth. A gentle warmth spread from his throat to his chest and abdomen, like holding a cup of hot tea on a winter’s day as the heat slowly radiated outward from within.
Before long, a faint, warm aura enveloped his body, and even his breath carried a hint of warmth.
’Time to begin.’
Lin Yan reached for the first indentation. The moment his fingertip touched it, he felt an intense chill.
He then poured the Cold Dew from the slot onto his palm.
The moment the Cold Dew touched his palm, a bone-piercing chill erupted from his skin, as if thousands of ice needles were stabbing into his flesh and spreading up through his meridians.
Even though he had been mentally prepared, Lin Yan’s body still trembled involuntarily. The hairs on his arm stood on end, and his skin turned visibly pale.
The Warm Sun Pill’s Medicinal Power was activated in that instant. A warm energy surged from his chest and abdomen to his arm, causing the hairs there to settle back down.
Not daring to delay, Lin Yan began circulating the complete version of the Eight Desolates Dragon Elephant Technique.
The Cold Dew’s energy entered his body through his palm. The chill traveled up his meridians like an ice snake slithering through his veins, coating the meridian walls with a fine layer of ice crystals wherever it passed. However, the Qi Blood from the Eight Desolates Dragon Elephant Technique followed close behind, washing over the ice like warm water, melting the crystals and carrying the chill along with it on its journey.
One Circulation, Two Circulations, Three Circulations...
One hour, two hours...
With each cycle, the cold gradually weakened. It wasn’t dissipating; rather, his meridians were adapting and widening. The initial, body-wracking chill was being assimilated by his Qi Blood, inch by inch.
Lin Yan closed his eyes and focused his mind, sinking his entire awareness into his body to observe the process of the chill and his Qi Blood merging together.
In his Dantian, the golden ball of blood began to slowly expand, only to be unwillingly compressed under Lin Yan’s control. Expand, contract. Expand again, contract again. With each cycle, a trace of the chill was forced deep into the ball of blood, making the golden mass even more condensed and solid.
After an unknown amount of time, the coldness in his palm finally dissipated.
The first drop of Cold Dew was completely refined.
Lin Yan opened his eyes and looked inward at the Martial Arts Tree in his mind: twenty-one feet!
’It actually broke through twenty feet?’
Seeing the height of his Martial Arts Tree, Lin Yan’s eyes filled with astonishment. He had previously estimated that reaching twenty feet at the Blood Exchange Fourth Transformation would be considered Great Perfection. After that, he was supposed to assault his Gang Acupoint. Only once the acupoint was opened and he stepped into the True Gang Realm would the Martial Arts Tree experience a massive growth spurt.
He never expected that his Martial Arts Tree would break through to twenty-one feet before he had even opened his Gang Acupoint.
’What’s the normal height for a Martial Arts Tree of a Blood Exchange Fourth Transformation Martial Artist? How far beyond the standard am I?’
Lin Yan pondered for a moment. Once he finished refining all the Cold Dew, he would have to find Brother Song. If Brother Song had already broken through to the True Gang Realm, that would be a different story. But if he hadn’t, then after absorbing the energy from five drops of Cold Dew, he should at least be at the Great Perfection of the Blood Exchange Fourth Transformation, or maybe even Half-Step True Gang.
He could use the height of Brother Song’s Martial Arts Tree to judge just how far he had surpassed the norm.
’Continue.’
Shaking off his thoughts, Lin Yan took out the second drop of Cold Dew and resumed the Refinement process.
This time, the coldness struck a beat slower.
It wasn’t that the chill had weakened; Lin Yan knew his body was starting to adapt.
The Warm Sun Pill’s Medicinal Power was still in effect, the Eight Desolates Dragon Elephant Technique circulated more smoothly, and the fusion of his Qi Blood and the chill was far more harmonious.
As the sky gradually darkened, Lin Yan finished refining the second drop of Cold Dew. He checked his Martial Arts Tree—this time, it had only grown by half a foot.
Twenty-one and a half feet.
’My Martial Arts Tree has already reached the limit for the Blood Exchange Fourth Transformation.’
He could clearly feel that the Qi Blood in his body had reached a critical point. The golden ball of blood in his Dantian was now as condensed as a true Golden Core. Surging Qi Blood churned in his Dantian, carrying this core as it began to slam into the area below his heart.
With every surge of the golden ball, a wave of Qi Blood energy would crash forward, as if trying to force open a mysterious gate.
The Gang Acupoint: a point that absorbs the Power of Heaven and Earth and gathers it within the body.
In a way, it was the gate connecting the human body to Heaven and Earth.
Lin Yan took a deep breath. Instead of moving on to the third drop, he took out and consumed a second Warm Sun Pill. He closed his eyes and meditated for half an hour to bring himself to peak condition before finally turning his gaze back to the Jade Box.
「Lin Clan Elders’ Assembly Hall.」
At this moment, in addition to the five elders, there were also nine middle-aged men present.
The five Lin Clan Elders and nine of the clan’s twelve strongest True Gang Realm experts were all present.
As for the other three, it wasn’t a deliberate absence. They were out adventuring—not only were they away from Qing State, they weren’t even in Shandong Dao.
Among them, one of the elders had a particularly dark expression on his face.

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