Chapter 47: Hard as what? Metal hard!
Kian dizzily walked through places he couldn’t quite see.
And soon, he stood infront of a mirror and looked at his appearance. Apparently, his appearance had not changed much. Other than his entire body sweating like buckets.
But that couldn’t be right.
His body had changed so much that Kian felt that his appearance should have also changed.
He felt so solid now. So grounded.
[Proficiency Upgraded succesfully]
[Skin is now as hard as reinforced bronze].
With a single thought from Kian, a small knife flew out of a box. It slowly spun in the air, facing him.
The knife hovered before him, its edge catching the dying sunlight from the window.
Kian’s lips curved upward. He flicked two fingers, and the blade shot forward—straight at his own palm first.
It struck with a wet crack that wasn’t wet at all, and the metal ricocheted against his skin like flint against stone.
Ding.
The knife clattered to the floor with a crash.
With a thought, the fallen knife flew up and back infront of Kian.
Looking at it, it had chipped itself at the front.
Then, he turned to look at his hand.
There was indeed a white mark.
He rubbed it.
It got cleaned.
’Damn, is this the Iron Skin technique? Truly amazing.’
Kian was sure that his skin would still get butchered against a Qi weapon. But now, he didn’t have to worry about a lot of other things.
For example, Hua Shulong’s insects couldn’t harm him even even if he just stood there without defending.
With a deep breath, Kian called out his status window.
The translucent blue screen flickered into view, and Kian’s eyes dragged across the numbers with a hunger that hadn’t dimmed since the first time he’d opened this window.
—
[Status]
Name: Kian
Cultivation: Qi Building Stage 5
Qi Sparks: 16,507 / 100,000
Fortune: 0 points.
Abilities: Sucking Hero (Black), Twin Heart (Black)
Martial Techniques: Iron Skin (Medium).
Shop: Body Box, Divine Art.
Rewards: Absorb a unique aspect of Hua Shulong’s cultivation.
—
Zero Fortune.
He’d burned through all two hundred points in less than an hour, and the emptiness where that number used to be should have stung. It didn’t.
His skin hummed with the residue of three consecutive upgrades, tight and hot. Dense, too.
He dismissed the window and rolled his shoulders.
The sweat had cooled on his body, leaving behind a faint sheen that made his skin glisten in the amber light.
Then his gaze drifted back to the bed, and he sighed.
The pile of spirit stones in his bed was smaller.
Not by a little—by a lot.
Kian stared at the remaining low-grade stones scattered across the bare bed, their pale glint suddenly accusatory, and did the math in his head with a speed that made his temples throb.
Twenty-five thousand, six hundred and seventy-nine. Minus eleven thousand for the Iron Skin Technique.
He should have fourteen thousand and change left. He counted the rows with his eyes, then with his fingers, tapping each stack of a hundred until the numbers lined up.
Fourteen thousand, six hundred, and seventy-nine.
Exactly right.
So, the Divine Arts Shop worked like this.
The system had taken its payment, the technique was not free.
Kian scooped up a handful of the remaining stones and let them trickle through his fingers, their cool weight familiar but diminished.
Eleven thousand spirit stones—it was worth it!
Kian’s eyes then moved to the other skills in the Divine Art Shop. He did not have any more Fortune Points to upgrade his techniques, but he could purchase other techniques.
The moment he buys the technique, he would be initialized into training. So, it was a worthy purchase!
Kian scrolled past Iron Skin Technique and let his gaze settle on the next offering.
[Hawk Eye Art — 1,500 low-grade spirit stones]
[Sharpen your vision to spot the flight of a fly. At higher proficiency, you can perceive enemy attacks before they land.]
This one was cheap, but Kian was not sure he needed it. After all, though he could only use it once a day, he had the Blood Demon Eyes.
Kian’s thumb rubbed the pouch of remaining spirit stones.
[Wind Step — 7,000 low-grade spirit stones]
[A movement technique that lightens the body and speeds the feet. At mid proficiency, you can run on walls. At high proficiency, run on water. At mastery, you can run on air.]
Now that was more interesting.
His heartbeat kicked up.
Seven thousand was steep—half his remaining fortune—but Iron Skin had already proven the system’s techniques were great enough.
A movement art could mean the difference between dodging a Stage 5 strike and eating it.
Hmmm...
If he bought Wind Step, he’d have enough to fuse another batch into high-grade stones and keep pushing his Qi Sparks.
The math clicked into place.
He bought Wind Step.
[Purchase successful.]
[Martial Technique Wind Step, Low Quality, initiation begins.]
Warmth bloomed at the base of Kian’s spine, a thread of Qi unspooling from his dantian.
Then, a sudden awareness of a Qi pathway appeared in his mind, along with qi guidance.
Kian did not hesitate to follow the guidance and let his Qi flow along the path.
The system chimed, and Qi unspooled from his dantian in a dizzying rush, threading down his legs and coiling around his ankles like hot wire.
An image of a looping demonstration flashed through his mind.
A figure ran like the wind across the land, then sprinted up a sheer cliff without slowing.
The silhouette raced along a river’s surface, each footfall dimpling the water without breaking it, and at last it leaped into the air—and ran straight toward the sky.
Kian’s eyes snapped open, and the phantom sensation of the demonstration hung in his limbs like a memory he’d always owned.
He rose from the bed in one smooth motion, his bare feet pressing into the cool wooden floor.
He closed his eyes again and let the Qi pathway crystallize in his mind—a braided channel that spiraled down both legs and pooled in his soles like liquid wind.
His stance widened, knees bent, weight forward, and he breathed out once.
Wind Step!
Kian flickered.
The room blurred into streaks of amber light and gray wall, and he reappeared at the opposite corner with his shoulder brushing the plaster, the wind of his passage kicking up a cloud of dust that hadn’t existed a heartbeat before.
His hair settled slowly around his face, and he stared at the wall inches away from his face.
A laugh punched out of him, short and sharp and almost disbelieving. "Fucking fast!"
Now, it was finally time for him to claim his special reward from Hua Shulong!