This Martial Saint is Too Cautious

Chapter 148: Chapter 16: Blood Exchange

STAB!

STAB!

STAB!

After seven consecutive stabs with his Longsword, confirming Lin Mingyu was deader than dead, Lin Yan finally knelt and pried the Purple Essence Fruit from his hand.

This battle had been the most dangerous one since he first stepped onto the path of Martial Arts.

Ever since beginning his journey in Martial Arts, he had done his best to avoid fighting opponents of a higher level, but some accidents were simply unavoidable.

’In the end, I was still too careless this time. I didn’t consider that someone would tip them off.’

He glanced at the two other corpses. The informant must have been one of them.

The good news was that Lin Mingyu had been acting unscrupulously himself, secretly letting people onto the mountain to search for the Treasure Medicine. He must have done it in extreme secrecy. Now that Lin Yan had killed him and there were no other living witnesses, he didn’t have to worry about the news getting out.

Lin Yan spent half an hour cleaning up the corpses at the scene. After confirming he had left no clues, he grabbed the few silver banknotes he had looted, took the Purple Essence Fruit, and departed quickly.

「Half a day later.」

Lin Yan climbed to the canopy of a large tree on a mountaintop. The dappled leaves concealed his figure, while the high vantage point allowed him to notice if anyone approached.

He needed to properly reflect on this battle.

First, there was the matter of his own current strength.

’Lin Mingyu claimed he already had one foot in the Blood Exchange Realm. Does that mean he had reached the Peak of Fourth-Time Skin Smoothing, the Half-Step Blood Exchange Realm?’

For some reason, his intuition told him that Lin Mingyu was not a true Half-Step Blood Exchange Realm powerhouse.

’After I get out of here, it’s time I properly learned about the Martial Arts Realms.’

Finally, there was the Purple Essence Fruit. To consume it now or not.

It was a fruit that even Lin Mingyu had coveted. Using it merely to increase his Qi Blood did seem a bit wasteful.

But on second thought, Lin Yan abandoned the idea of saving the Purple Essence Fruit.

What had enabled him to kill Lin Mingyu this time?

It was his Martial Arts Realm and his Jinghong Sword Technique.

The improvement of his Martial Arts strength had allowed him to slay more of his old enemies, which in turn let him accumulate Martial Arts Fruits to infuse into his Jinghong Sword Technique.

It was a positive feedback loop.

If he had saved the Purple Furred Beast and the Purple Lingzhi back then instead of consuming them, he feared his strength would not have reached its current level.

Treasure Medicines, unlike Martial Arts Fruits, could not be refined in an instant. They required time. If a true emergency arose, it would be too late to try for a last-minute power boost.

’Besides, I’ve "wasted" Treasure Medicines before. One more time doesn’t matter.’

’Increasing my strength is all that matters.’

Having thought it through, Lin Yan no longer hesitated. He popped the Purple Essence Fruit into his mouth.

The fruit melted the moment it entered his mouth. A sweet liquid slid down his throat, at first a gentle, warm trickle.

But the next moment...

BOOM!

A vast, almost violent wave of Medicinal Power erupted from his belly. Like a volcanic eruption, like a river bursting its banks, it instantly surged through his entire being.

Lin Yan’s skin turned crimson at a speed visible to the naked eye, like a glowing iron ingot. Veins bulged, snaking like earthworms beneath his skin, and his heart hammered as if it would burst from his chest.

Pain.

This wasn’t the pain of flesh and skin, but a soul-deep agony originating from the depths of his bone marrow.

The Medicinal Power of the Purple Essence Fruit was scouring his bones, forcing out the impurities hidden deep within them, one bit at a time.

Lin Yan gritted his teeth and activated the Thunder Sound Technique.

The subtlety of the Thunder Sound Technique lay in using Qi Blood to strike the bones, producing a thunderous hum.

And now, bolstered by the Purple Essence Fruit’s Medicinal Power, each impact of Qi Blood became exceptionally fierce.

BANG!

BANG! BANG!

A dull Thunder Sound emanated continuously from within his body, each peal louder and more frequent than the last.

What began as a sound every few breaths became a continuous roar, like rolling summer thunder echoing across the mountaintop, startling flocks of birds into flight.

With each peal of thunder, sweat mixed with black impurities seeped from his pores. These were the impurities forced from the depths of his bones, scoured out and carried to the skin’s surface by his Qi Blood.

Under this continuous scouring of his bones, Lin Yan’s physique also began to change.

His entire frame was slowly "stretched," his bones growing thicker and his joints faintly glowing. It was as if he were being reforged, becoming taller and more solid.

This process lasted for a full hour.

When the final Thunder Sound faded, the Medicinal Power in Lin Yan’s body at last grew calm.

He didn’t rush to open his eyes. Instead, he focused on the sounds of his surroundings.

The sound of the wind, the rustle of leaves, the babbling of a distant stream, the scuttling of insects underground... Countless sounds flooded his ears simultaneously, each distinct and clear, without interfering with the others.

During his Third-Time of Skin Smoothing, he had also been able to hear these sounds, but back then they had blended into a cacophony. It was nothing like now, where everything was so distinct he could even pinpoint the location of an insect by sound alone.

After a moment of sensing his surroundings, Lin Yan opened his eyes.

Everything before him was also much clearer than before. The feeling was like someone with a slight astigmatism suddenly having their vision corrected.

It was just that, having always been in that slightly blurry state, he had never realized anything was wrong.

However, the biggest change this time wasn’t the enhancement of his five senses’ Perception, but the explosive, order-of-magnitude increase in his internal Qi Blood.

The Martial Arts Tree, which was originally just over three feet and eight inches tall, had now shot up to a height of four feet and three inches.

A terrifying increase.

Lin Yan estimated that at his normal Cultivation pace, growing from three feet eight inches to four feet three inches would have taken him at least half a year.

Moreover, this didn’t just save him half a year of time, but also the expenses in silver coins that half year of Cultivation would have required.

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