[With the powerful aid of the Tendon-Tempering Pills, the injury in your chest is healing rapidly. After ten days, when the medicinal power runs dry, the injury has practically recovered. Over the following month, the Pills continue to take effect, and your muscles and tendons are growing increasingly resilient through continuous tempering.]
Without a moment's hesitation, Lu Lin took out three more Tendon-Tempering Pills and swallowed them, while pouring a month's worth of Training Time into Steel Elephant Body.
Time flew by in focused, arduous training.
Month after month, six full months were put in, along with eighteen Tendon-Tempering Pills.
As his muscles and tendons increasingly toughened, his Realm steadily advanced, gradually nearing the threshold of the Body Tempering Fifth Level.
"This kind of slow, drip-feeding improvement is not thrilling enough! At this rate, a breakthrough within a few days is impossible. It's better to pump the brakes for now, wait until I've accumulated enough Training Time, and then pour it all in at once—that's the way to feel the true thrill!" Lu Lin secretly resolved.
Another ten days passed in the blink of an eye.
He concentrated his mind for internal inspection. The panel of the Martial Dao Furnace surfaced.
Owner of Martial Dao Furnace: Lu Lin.
Realm: Body Tempering Fourth Level.
Training Time: 6 years 3 months.
Martial Arts: Demonic Ape Blood Qi Art (Third Level), Steel Elephant Body (Fourth Level).
Essential Guidance for Miners: Proficiency.
Self Concealment Technique: Proficiency.
Internal Space: One Foot.
After making sure there was no one around, Lu Lin retrieved a handful of Tendon-Tempering Pills and stuffed all into his mouth, then willed the Training Time to cascade like a flood through a breached dam into Steel Elephant Body!
[First Month: With the powerful aid of Tendon-Tempering Pills, your training steadily progresses, as your muscles, tendons, skin, and membranes become increasingly resilient.]
[Second Month: As the medicinal power continues, you make significant headway...]
…
[One and a half years later, you have endured the monotony and loneliness of prolonged training, practicing day and night without slack. Heaven rewards the diligent; you have broken through the bottleneck at last, stepping into the Body Tempering Fifth Level!]
Lu Lin stopped pouring Training Time, carefully experiencing the earth-shattering changes in his body.
The Qi and Blood within him surged like a great river's tides, having grown ampler than ever. Upon exerting his Qi and Blood, his muscles glowed with a faint reddish-black luster, harder than Xuan-iron, evoking the image of a Steel elephant.
When he retracted his Qi and blood, everything returned to normal.
"With the supplementary pills, my training speed has truly made a world of difference!" he sighed inwardly.
As far as he could remember, the breakthrough from the Body Tempering Third to the Fourth Level had taken seven full years.
The difficulty in training mounted as one progressed further and further. Without pills, going from the Fourth to the Fifth Level would likely have required over a decade's efforts. Yet now, it had been accomplished in just two years (including the previous six months)!
Of course, the cost was seventy-two Tendon-Tempering Pills, leaving him with only twenty-eight.
He looked at the Training Time and found there were still 4 years and 9 months left.
"Go on!" Lu Lin didn't hesitate, swallowing another handful of Tendon-Tempering Pills and willing the remaining Training Time to gush in.
Lines of prompts flashed one after another.
Initially, with the aid of the Pills, the progress remained rapid. But after they were exhausted, the rate at which his muscles and tendons were tempered plummeted, becoming as slow as a tortoise.
Lu Lin did not use those Qi and Blood Pills.
They were highly effective for the "Qi and Blood Nurturing", but helped little at the "Tendon and Flesh Tempering" stage. Using them now would be pure waste; he planned to save them for training in other martial arts in the future.
Soon, all Training Time was exhausted. Although his training had advanced further, the Body Tempering Sixth Level still seemed far beyond reach.
Next would be the day-after-day accumulation through mining…
In the blink of an eye, another fifty days had passed since the breakthrough into Body Tempering Fifth Level.
During these fifty days, he toiled diligently and, with a stroke of incredible luck, discovered another small "nest of spirit stones." Apart from setting aside a small number of shoddy spirit stones for contingencies, he exchanged all the rest.
In the end, the Training Time he had accumulated reached a staggering forty years!
"Pour in, now!" In high spirits, Lu Lin willed the vast, ocean-like Training Time to pour into Steel Elephant Body.
[First Year: Without the aid of pills, solely relying on food and the thin natural energy, your progress is extremely slow. The strength of muscles and tendons shows a slight increase.]
[Second Year: Your progress remains slow…]
…
[Twenty-third Year: Heaven rewards the diligent. After enduring a full twenty-three years of mind-numbingly dull, day-and-night arduous training, relying on a perseverance far surpassing ordinary people's, you have at last broken through again, stepping into the Body Tempering Sixth Level!]
[Remaining Training Time: 17 years.]
"Finally… a breakthrough!" Lu Lin let out a long puff of relief, actually feeling a trace of mental exhaustion.
A full twenty-three years!
On top of the time spent before, it took nearly thirty years to break through this single Level!
How many thirty-year periods does a person have in their life?
Without the supplementary pills, sparing no time and grinding through was imaginably daunting.
How many people, when seeing no clear hope of a breakthrough over such a long span, can still keep up arduous training day after day and stay positive? Most only idle away the years, wrapping up their life with a silent failure.
And, mind you, this was only how things stood with the Fifth to the Sixth Level of the Body Tempering Realm. The time that the subsequent Levels demanded would likely be even more terrifying.
Regardless, his breakthrough into the Body Tempering Sixth Level had brought another six hundred jin into his strength! Now he boasted a Titanic strength of a staggering four thousand five hundred jin!
"There are still seventeen years left. It could enable me to practice the first combat skill of Steel Elephant Body—' Ferocious Elephant Charge'!"
Again, he willed Training Time to flood into this combat skill.
[After three months of arduous training, you've cleared the bar of a Beginner in 'Ferocious Elephant Charge'.]
[After another two years of arduous training, you've reached the Small Proficiency stage in 'Ferocious Elephant Charge'.]
[After another ten years of arduous training, you've achieved the Proficiency stage in 'Ferocious Elephant Charge'!]
[Remaining Training Time: 4 years 9 months.]
At this point, Lu Lin finally came to a stop, satisfied.
The remaining Training Time was clearly insufficient to raise this combat skill to the Perfection stage. However, his Proficiency in 'Ferocious Elephant Charge' was already quite formidable and could serve him well for now.
"Let me test its power!"He took a deep breath and sank slightly, as his Qi and Blood all over instantly surged, resonating wonderfully with his tough muscles and tendons.
The next moment, his legs abruptly pushed off. His body charged forward like a ferocious, mad elephant. The power from all of his body linked up into one, ultimately converging in his fists, crashing forward with fierceness!
BOOM!
His fists smashed into the hard rock wall of the mine tunnel with a deafening roar. Rubble flew in all directions like rain. A shocking, gaping hole had been punched in the rock wall!
"Excellent! Fearsome power!" Lu Lin showed a delighted look. "In the past, I had brute strength but no method to put it to use, leaving me at a disadvantage in combat. Now, with this combat skill, my immense strength finally has a way to be unleashed!"
"Tomorrow is another rest day. I need to go to Xuesha City again and purchase a batch of copper essence in advance. Also, I have to buy another martial art for later use." Lu Lin already had a plan.
...
The next day.
"You have broken through the Body Tempering Second Level?" The goateed superintendent took a slightly surprised glance at Lu Lin.
"Yes, Superintendent." Lu Lin replied calmly.
It had been three months since he had "broken through" the Body Tempering First Level. Now was a perfect time to reveal himself at the Body Tempering Second Level.
Breaking through the Second Level in three months was considered above-average talent. It wouldn't attract too much attention, yet it paved the way for quickly obtaining the rest of the Demonic Ape Blood Qi Art.
After all, the Sect stipulated that one must reach the Body Tempering Third Level to be granted the "Muscle and Tendon Tempering" training method for the Fourth to Sixth Level.
Whatever martial arts bought from outside were all the commonplace sort, inferior to the Demonic Ape Blood Qi Art, which led up to the "Inherence Blood Qi Realm."
Sure enough, no doubt arose in the goateed superintendent. Instead, he said with mild approval, "Great! I remember you showed poor talent when you were joining the Sect and risked being knocked out. Who would have thought you'd become so brilliant now? Rest assured, I'll report it for you. At the Body Tempering Second Level, you will receive one more Qi-Blood Pill a month."
"Thanks a lot, Superintendent!" Lu Lin cupped his hands forward as a sign of thanks, then asked for a rest day to go to Xuesha City.
After getting the approval, he received his rewards that had been deducted as ever and strode away.
Having arrived in Xuesha City again, after a simple disguise, he visited several shops selling materials in succession, purchasing thirty jin of copper essence.
All these shops promised that if he was seriously interested, they could source from other cities, and even a hundred jin was not difficult to gather.
After paying deposits and signing contracts, Lu Lin went to the "Tens of Thousands of Volumes" and purchased a martial art called Nimble Cat Technique.
It was divided into nine levels, thus he could reach at most the Body Tempering Ninth Level in it. What he valued was its unique characteristic: after mastering it, one would acquire the lightness of a feather, one's footstep soundless.
Especially its first combat skill, "Nimble Cat Step," could greatly increase movement speed and stealth, which was precisely what he currently lacked.
Finally, out of habit, he made another round of the marketplace, hoping to get lucky again.
Unfortunately, luck was not on his side; like last month, this time he also had nothing to show for it.
It seemed this type of windfall was to be met, not sought.
By evening, Lu Lin returned to the bunkhouse. Not long after, he saw the other warriors trickling back, but almost everyone was injured, sporting bruised faces and swollen eyes.
"What happened to you all?" Lu Lin was taken aback at the sight.
"It's all because of those Blood Wolf Gang bastards!"
A young man, a hand over his bruised eye, indignantly cursed, "Still remember that Li Zitong? His younger brother, Li Zitian, is back. Hearing his elder brother has gone missing, he flew into a rage on the spot. Now he's leading the whole Blood Wolf Gang and searching everywhere like a mad dog, seizing people and pressing them for word, beating them up if they can't give a useful answer!"