The Secret of Jade Bones!

Inside a secluded courtyard, Li Hongzhuang and Lu Changsheng sat in a room. Lu Changsheng looked around, a hint of surprise in his eyes. "You're certainly bold, daring to live so close to the Zhao clan." Lu Changsheng looked at Li Hongzhuang. He was very familiar with Nanyang City and naturally knew the location of this courtyard. The Zhao clan's compound was right nearby, separated by a mere hundred paces or so. "It's darkest under the lamp." "The Zhao clan is powerful, to be sure, but there's nothing suspicious about this courtyard of mine. They won't find this place." Li Hongzhuang got down on the floor and opened a hidden passage beneath the bed. The passage was quite small, likely only large enough to conceal a few slightly bulkier items. Li Hongzhuang hauled up a large chest from within. *Clack.* Li Hongzhuang threw open the chest. It was packed to the brim with volume after volume of ancient manuals. Moreover, when Lu Changsheng caught sight of the titles on their covers, a strange light flickered in his eyes. Martial arts! The books filling this large chest were all sorts of martial arts. From the look of it, there were at least a hundred martial cultivation methods and martial skills. It seemed this Li Hongzhuang's background was anything but simple. However, Lu Changsheng did not pry into her identity. Everyone had secrets; why interrogate someone to the bottom of things? He had only followed Li Hongzhuang here to trade for some martial arts. Li Hongzhuang looked up at Lu Changsheng and said in a calm tone, "The martial skills and methods you bought before were all copied by hand, one by one, by me. "The original manuals are in this chest. "You can take stock yourself and see which ones you still need." Li Hongzhuang had brought Lu Changsheng to her secret hideout and even directly produced the original manuals, showing obvious trust in him. Lu Changsheng carefully examined them one by one. Most of the contents were martial skills, some of which Lu Changsheng had already practiced. Yet there were still many martial skills that he had never touched. Furthermore, Lu Changsheng could tell that several were exceptionally profound—likely third-tier or even fourth-tier martial skills. As for Tempering Bone martial arts, Lu Changsheng found quite a few, including no lack of superior Tempering Bone techniques. There were also several Refining Organs arts. After browsing for half an hour, Lu Changsheng took a deep breath. When he looked up again, his gaze had turned exceedingly grave. "Name your price." Lu Changsheng wanted most of the martial arts and skills in the chest. Yet he knew the price would certainly not be low. "If I were to sell these martial arts slowly on the black market, a single manual could be sold far more than once—it could be sold many times over." "But right now, I need silver urgently. "Still, you saved my life tonight, so I won't overcharge. Three thousand taels of silver, flat!" Lu Changsheng weighed it over and felt the price was quite reasonable. Besides, he had no shortage of silver at the moment. "Very well. Three thousand taels of silver. Here are the banknotes." Lu Changsheng directly handed over three thousand taels in banknotes. "Done." Li Hongzhuang accepted the banknotes and let out a long sigh of relief. Lu Changsheng strapped the chest to his back, then asked, "You've offended the Zhao clan. In Nanyang Prefecture, I'm afraid there won't be any room left for you to stand." "Indeed. The Zhao clan is the local tyrant; I can't fight them." "Fortunately, I've saved up enough silver. I expect I'll leave Nanyang very soon." Lu Changsheng nodded at her words. Then, without looking back, he turned and vanished swiftly into the night. "If fate wills it, we shall meet again in the Jianghu..." Li Hongzhuang watched the direction where Lu Changsheng had disappeared, a strange look flickering in her eyes. Lu Changsheng returned smoothly to Miaoshou Garden. He shut the doors and windows tightly and set down the chest from his back. Taking out one manual after another, he organized them briefly. A total of eight Tempering Bone arts, three Refining Organs arts, and eighty-six martial skills—ninety-seven manuals in all! This was a tremendous harvest! These martial arts and skills would be enough to keep Lu Changsheng occupied for a very long time. Right now, what Lu Changsheng cared about most was Tempering Bone techniques. He carefully went through all eight Tempering Bone manuals one by one. Seven of them were ordinary Tempering Bone arts. However, one was a superior Tempering Bone technique called the Cold Ice Tempering Bone Technique. Inside this manual of superior Tempering Bone martial art, there were actually some annotated notes. He had no idea whose notes they were. Some of the hidden secrets of bone tempering mentioned within opened Lu Changsheng's eyes. As it turned out, the Tempering Bone Realm was not as simple as merely tempering one's bones a few times. Some people could form jade bones after tempering only a few times. Yet others tempered dozens of times and still failed to achieve them. The reason was simple: human bones could be divided into three regions—the outer layer, the inner layer, and the bone marrow. Only by tempering bone to the marrow could one forge bones into jade bones. For the outer layer, ordinary Tempering Bone arts could suffice after tempering a few times. However, the inner layer was exceptionally difficult. To drive qi and blood deep into the inner layers of the bone required superior Tempering Bone arts to temper the inner bone bit by bit through specialized methods. Moreover, dedicated bone-tempering medicinal cuisine was required to heal the injuries and latent perils caused by the tempering process. As for tempering bone to the marrow, that required the most supreme Tempering Bone martial arts before it was possible to temper bone to the marrow in one go. Lu Changsheng furrowed his brows. He had never even heard of supreme Tempering Bone arts. If one lacked a supreme Tempering Bone art, did that mean reaching the level of jade bones was impossible? Lu Changsheng read on. The annotator of this Cold Ice Tempering Bone Technique had actually left behind an alternative method at the very end. If one lacked a supreme Tempering Bone art, then one could use the clumsiest method: using ordinary Tempering Bone techniques to temper the bones again and again. Tempering the bones enough times would inevitably produce some effect. Accumulated over time, letting quantitative change trigger a qualitative transformation, it was still possible to achieve tempering bone to the marrow. However, ordinary people could never possibly use this method. A single Tempering Bone art already took several years to master completely. To reach the point where quantitative change prompted qualitative change, how many Tempering Bone arts would one need to practice? It would cost years or even decades, and even then, achieving true jade bones was far from guaranteed. Yet for Lu Changsheng, this method was something he could attempt. Moreover, Lu Changsheng now understood why jade bones were so vital. Any martial artist with the means would do everything possible to forge jade bones. The reason was that only jade bones could endure immense pressure when breaking through to the Divine Strength Realm. The tougher the bones, the greater the power they could withstand. Once one attained the Divine Strength Realm, a martial artist with jade bones could practically sweep through peers of the same realm. *I must cultivate jade bones.* *The two Tempering Bone arts I practiced before tempered my bones eight times, but that merely amounted to tempering the outer layer.* *If I master this Cold Ice Tempering Bone Technique, I should be able to temper the inner layer!* Lu Changsheng began to practice the Cold Ice Tempering Bone Technique. This technique could be practiced under normal conditions, but to achieve better results, one had to stay in a freezing environment as much as possible. Or better yet, tempering the bones directly on ice blocks would yield the greatest effect. Winter had just begun, and before long, the weather would turn cold. When that time came, there would certainly be plenty of ice. In addition, bone-tempering arts required specialized medicinal cuisine to nourish the bones and improve the efficiency of tempering. *Bone-tempering medicinal cuisine... Tomorrow I can go to the apothecary that sells the Eight Treasures Blood-Replenishing Powder to ask about it.* Lu Changsheng practiced the Cold Ice Tempering Bone Technique a few times. Because he had neither ice blocks nor bone-nourishing medicinal cuisine, the results were not very significant. Lu Changsheng did not bother to practice any further; he lay down directly to sleep and get a good rest.