Deep within his marrow, a strange energy was slowly flowing. He could feel an indescribable power emanating from his bones, eventually spreading to every corner of his body.
"Is this the Yuan Power seed?"
Wild joy flashed in Lin Dong's eyes. At this moment, it felt as if the entire world had suddenly become much brighter. He could even sense a very peculiar substance flowing in the air around him, a substance that was incredibly similar to the newly born Yuan Power seed within his bones.
"Yuan Power..."
Lin Dong stood up and couldn't help but laugh out loud. After such a long period of bitter cultivation, coupled with the assistance of the Stone Talisman Liquid, the Yuan Power seed had finally been born within his body today. From this moment on, he could be considered to have officially stepped through the threshold of cultivation!
"Roar!"
As Lin Dong laughed, the Scorpion Tiger not far away fixed its crimson eyes intently on him. It sensed a somewhat familiar aura from the human before it, but this was clearly not enough to make it back down. Opening its bloody maw, it let out a low growl. With a powerful kick of its hind legs, it lunged at Lin Dong like an arrow released from a bow.
Feeling the foul wind rushing toward his face, Lin Dong raised his head. He realized that the Scorpion Tiger, which had seemed incredibly swift to him earlier, now appeared to have slowed down significantly. In a mere instant, he had completely locked onto its trajectory.
"Is this the sixth layer of Body Tempering..."
Lin Dong's eyes grew even brighter. Taking a light step to the side, he easily dodged the Scorpion Tiger's pounce. Suddenly, he raised his right palm. A faint, almost imperceptible glow flashed across his palm, and he chopped down directly at the Scorpion Tiger's head!
*Slash!*
A muffled sound echoed as hot blood splattered. Lin Dong's palm had pierced straight through the Scorpion Tiger's tough hide and fur, driving right through its neck.
The Scorpion Tiger's body stiffened instantly before crashing heavily to the ground, its fresh blood rapidly pooling and staining a large patch of the earth red.
"Yuan Power... is so strong...!"
Looking at the Scorpion Tiger that had been killed in a single strike, Lin Dong couldn't help but gasp. So this was the power of Yuan Power. No wonder everyone said the fifth and sixth layers of Body Tempering were on two completely different levels.
"Fortunately, I didn't fight Lin Hong last time. Otherwise, I definitely would have suffered a setback." Lin Dong withdrew his hand and picked up some leaves to wipe off the blood, his heart still fluttering slightly. This was the first time he had personally experienced the terrifying power of Yuan Power.
Kicking the Scorpion Tiger aside, Lin Dong took a couple of steps toward the Crystal Vermilion Fruit. Looking at the translucent, sparkling fruit, his eyes lit up. The price of a Grade 3 elixir was naturally quite high. Normally, they could only be found deep within mountain forests. To have stumbled upon one here today, he had to admit his luck was incredibly good.
Lin Dong carefully examined the Crystal Vermilion Fruit. Without any hesitation, he bent down and reached out to pluck it. However, just as his hand touched the Crystal Vermilion Fruit, the mysterious Stone Talisman hanging against his chest suddenly emitted a faint warmth.
Startled by this sudden change in the mysterious Stone Talisman, Lin Dong took it out and placed it on his palm. After advancing to the sixth layer of Body Tempering, his senses seemed to have become much sharper. Thus, he could vaguely feel that the Stone Talisman was releasing a tiny suction force. Under this suction, a faint energy from the surrounding world was flowing into the Stone Talisman.
"The Stone Talisman Liquid is probably formed by the Stone Talisman absorbing energy from the heavens and the earth!"
Sensing this, Lin Dong fell into deep thought. He then turned his gaze to the Crystal Vermilion Fruit in his other hand. The sudden reaction of the Stone Talisman seemed to have been triggered by... this Crystal Vermilion Fruit.
Holding the Crystal Vermilion Fruit, Lin Dong hesitated for a moment before tentatively bringing it closer to the Stone Talisman. However, when the fruit was just an inch away from the Stone Talisman, a powerful suction force suddenly erupted from within the talisman. Right before Lin Dong's astonished eyes, the fruit shot directly toward the Stone Talisman and, upon contact, mysteriously vanished.
This scene left Lin Dong completely dumbfounded. In just an instant, the Stone Talisman had swallowed the Crystal Vermilion Fruit?
Did the Stone Talisman eat things too?
Lin Dong looked utterly bewildered. But just as he snapped out of it, he suddenly saw a crimson glow flash within a depression on the Stone Talisman. The light grew increasingly intense until it finally condensed into two pea-sized crimson pills. They rolled off the talisman, and Lin Dong quickly caught them.
As the pills landed in his hand, they emitted a warm glow. Lin Dong could vaguely sense a highly concentrated and pure energy condensed within them—an energy that was likely far superior to the Stone Talisman Liquid he had collected from the talisman.
"These pills must have been condensed by the Stone Talisman using the Crystal Vermilion Fruit..." From the pills, Lin Dong could smell an aroma identical to that of the Crystal Vermilion Fruit. Combined with what he had just witnessed, it was not difficult to guess how they were made.
"It seems this Stone Talisman can not only absorb energy from the heavens and the earth, but also absorb spiritual herbs to refine them into even purer medicinal liquids or pills..."
At this thought, excitement flashed in Lin Dong's eyes. A single Crystal Vermilion Fruit had been refined into two pills, and the medicinal efficacy of either one was far stronger than the fruit itself. This bizarre ability essentially maximized the effects of the spiritual herb to its absolute limit.
"It looks like I need to gather more spiritual herbs. The energy in these pills is much stronger than the Stone Talisman Liquid. If I have an ample supply, my cultivation speed will definitely skyrocket again!"
Just thinking about this sudden surge in speed made Lin Dong clench his fists in excitement. He carefully put the Stone Talisman away, then turned and quickly departed.
***
After discovering this special, miraculous effect of the Stone Talisman, Lin Dong was indeed excited for several days. However, once the initial excitement gradually faded, he sobered up and realized that things were not as simple as he had imagined.
First of all, he did not have enough elixirs to supply the Stone Talisman for refining. Although Lin Xiao's injuries were now fully healed, he still refused to accept resources from the Lin Family. Thus, Lin Dong had no choice but to search for elixirs on his own.
Furthermore, after Lin Dong experimentally fed two Grade 1 elixirs to the Stone Talisman, he was dumbfounded to find that it only spat out two oddly shaped, bean-sized pills. After several more experiments, he realized that to refine a pill similar to the one from before, he would need at least a Grade 3 elixir. But how could a Grade 3 elixir be so easily found?
Last time was pure dog-shit luck. Expecting a second stroke of such fortune was simply unrealistic...
Faced with this massive obstacle, Lin Dong could only temporarily cast that unrealistic hope from his mind. As long as he distinguished himself at the Family Competition, he would be able to openly enjoy the clan's resources in the future, and he would no longer have to worry so much.
Putting aside his unrealistic hopes, Lin Dong once again focused his mind entirely on cultivation. Although he had already stepped into the sixth layer of Body Tempering, directly using the Stone Talisman Liquid still had a significant effect on him. As time passed, Lin Dong could feel the Yuan Power seed flowing within his bone marrow slowly beginning to seep outward into his bones.
Once the Yuan Power seed broke through the constraints of his bones and flowed into the meridians of his body, he would reach the seventh layer of Body Tempering: Channeling Yuan into Meridians!
Of course, even with the assistance of the Stone Talisman Liquid, reaching that step would still take a considerable amount of time...
While Lin Dong's strength was rapidly rising, the midsummer heat quietly faded away, and the Family Competition—the most important event in the Lin Family—was fast approaching...