Chapter 41: Great Success in Skin Tempering (Please follow, bookmark, and vote with monthly tickets and recommendation votes)

In just over a month, he had accumulated three hundred points, enough to break through from the Small Success stage to the Great Success stage of his Golden Scale Skin Tempering Method.

This speed and rate of progress would make even the so-called geniuses of the Inner City feel inferior.

Su Mu lay down on the bed, adjusted his posture, and settled both his thoughts and his breathing.

At that moment, with a single thought, he tapped the "+" symbol following the Golden Scale Skin Tempering Method.

Boom!

It felt as if a mass of scorching, agitated blood was exploding within his body, instantly flowing from his heart through his entire system, surging toward the skin of every extremity.

An indescribable pain erupted in Su Mu's mind. In an instant, it felt as if his entire body was being pierced by needles from the outside and tempered by fire from the within.

The violent agony caused his legs to kick out and his eyes to roll back as he lost consciousness once again.

To instantly apply one or two years' worth of skin-tempering progress to the body was absoluteley beyond the limits of human endurance.

If not for a faint, ethereal power protecting him, Su Mu would likely have died from the sheer pain.

Fainting was merely the body's instinctive way of self-preservation.

After an unknown amount of time, Su Mu slowly regained consciousness.

Upon waking, he wished he hadn't.

Because his entire body was still aching—a pain far more intense than what he had experienced during the Small Success stage of skin tempering.

He curled himself into a ball, sweat pouring from his pores like rain. The bedding beneath him was already soaked through, looking as if it had just been pulled from a body of water.

It took a full fifteen minutes for the sensation of being stabbed by ten thousand needles to gradually subside.

Su Mu was near total exhaustion, lying limp and powerless on the bed.

The bed was a mess of filth: shed skin flakes, sweat, blood, and unidentifiable impurities.

Everything mixed together like sludge, emitting a foul stench.

But Su Mu no longer cared. He simply lay there amidst the filth, lacking even the strength to twitch a finger.

Another hour passed before Su Mu let out a long breath and managed to crawl up.

After gathering his strength for a while, he finally sat up fully. He first stuffed the pre-prepared meat and tonic into his stomach all at once.

Only then did the feeling of being hollowed out diminish slightly, and his strength began to recover.

Enduring the nauseating stench, he threw the bedding out and fetched several buckets of water to wash himself clean.

"Another wasted set of bedding," Su Mu muttered to himself.

Fortunately, Steward Xu had given him five hundred taels of silver last time; otherwise, his meager salary wouldn't have been enough to cover his expenses.

It was said that literature is for the poor and martial arts are for the rich. With the help of his system panel, Su Mu no longer required those exorbitantly expensive medicinal herbs for skin tempering.

Even so, Su Mu still felt like he was spending money like water.

The main culprit was eating. After skin tempering, his appetite had skyrocketed; a single meal could equal five or six meals for an ordinary person, and he got hungry easily. Eating four or five meals a day was commonplace.

Furthermore, every time he achieved a breakthrough, he felt a sense of being drained, requiring massive amounts of nourishment to recover.

For instance, the meat and tonics he had prepared this time had cost him over thirty taels of silver.

If he relied solely on his salary, a whole year's pay wouldn't even cover this one meal.

For other martial artists, the expenses would be even greater than his.

It was no wonder that among the many constables in the South City Division, so few had actually stepped into the Body Tempering Realm.

It was simply too expensive; even if one had the talent, they might not have the financial means.

Once everything was tidied up, Su Mu rested and regulated his breathing directly on the bedframe.

After about an hour, the meat and tonics were gradually digested and absorbed, and his physical strength slowly returned.

Su Mu felt revitalized. He clenched his fists, feeling a sense of stability and power in his body.

"Finally, Great Success in Skin Tempering!"

Su Mu could clearly feel the changes in his body.

Compared to before, his stamina was much greater. If he exerted his full strength with the Wave-Subduing Saber Style, he could execute the "Nine Layers of Waves" ten times in a row without the embarrassment of running out of breath.

Most notably, his skin had become much tougher.

If one could magnify it countless times, they would see that his skin surface seemed covered in countless tiny golden scales. These microscopic scales made his skin as tough as thick oxhide.

A slightly blunt blade striking his skin now would likely only leave a white mark, unable to break the skin or draw blood.

After reaching Great Success in Body Tempering, the skin's resistance and endurance were far superior to an ordinary person's. Even if Su Mu didn't know saber techniques, he could easily slaughter unconditioned thugs.

"I have mastered the Wave-Subduing Saber Style. At lower realms, the style can almost compensate for a gap of an entire stage. Now, even if I encounter a martial artist at the Great Success stage of the second level of Body Tempering, I have the strength to fight," Su Mu thought to himself.

Lately, he had been learning everything he could about the martial arts.

Mastering martial arts provided a significant advantage when one's Body Tempering realm was low, especially during the first and second stages.

However, as realms increased, the gap in raw power grew wider, and almost all high-level martial artists could cultivate their martial arts to perfection.

[Name: Su Mu] [Identity: Constable Squad Leader (Clerk)] [Points: 5] [Cultivation Method: Golden Scale Skin Tempering Method (Great Success)] [Martial Arts: Wave-Subduing Saber Style (Perfection), Archery (Beginner)]

With these thoughts, Su Mu summoned the system panel and focused his attention on the Golden Scale Skin Tempering Method.

To move from Great Success to Perfection in the Golden Scale Skin Tempering Method required one thousand points.

"One thousand points. Based on my base earnings as a squad leader, that will take fifty days," Su Mu calculated silently. "If I include performance bonuses, I could cut that time in half. I should be able to earn enough in less than a month."

Compared to other martial artists, his greatest advantage was his frugality.

Skin tempering did not require spiritual liquid, which saved him hundreds of taels of silver. If it weren't for this, he would likely be worrying about money.

Unlike others, he only had to focus on his work.

"Now that I've reached Great Success, I'll go push for my identification token tomorrow. I need to get into the Inner City as soon as possible," Su Mu thought. Suddenly, his ears twitched.

In the next instant, Su Mu grabbed his long saber, flung open his door, and rushed out.

As he stepped out, he felt his feet slip on something slick.

Looking down, he saw that the ground had been covered in a thick, black liquid at some unknown time.

"Fire oil!" Su Mu was startled.

At that moment, several torches flew in from over the courtyard wall, landing on the ground with a thud.

Whoosh!

The flames erupted instantly.

The fire oil burned too quickly and had too many ignition points; Su Mu had no time to stop it.

Seeing the fire spreading, he rushed to the courtyard gate and reached for the door.

With a clatter of iron chains, he realized the door had been locked from the outside.

Su Mu's eyes narrowed. In the next moment, his saber left its sheath.

With two sharp cracks, the wooden door was shattered into pieces.

Su Mu rushed out of the courtyard and saw several figures scurrying sneakily into an alleyway.

He turned to look at his house, which was already engulfed in flames. He hesitated for a moment but ultimately chose to stop.

The fire was already raging; if he didn't extinguish it quickly, it would surely spread to the neighbors.

As for the arsonists, Su Mu had already seen their silhouettes and appearances. They wouldn't get far!