Night time, in the room.

Lin Zichen sat on the bed with his back against the wall, leafing through the Blood-Tempering Art that Liu Chuanwu had given him.

The book wasn’t the original ancient text; it was a modern-language translation filled with annotations.

With the effect of his Innate Wisdom boosting him, Lin Zichen flipped pages at a ten-lines-at-a-glance pace.

In less than half an hour, he had finished the thick Blood-Tempering Art from cover to cover.

He learned that the Blood-Tempering Art was divided into three stages.

First Stage.

Perceive the existence of vitality and try to control it.

Second Stage.

Control vitality to temper the body—first temper the skin, then the flesh and finally the bones.

Tempering the skin and flesh was simple. Whether or not you had talent, as long as your vitality was sufficiently abundant, you were guaranteed to succeed—it was only a matter of time.

The hard part was tempering the bones. Without enough talent, you couldn’t control vitality to seep into the bones for tempering at all.

Even if you had talent and could control vitality to temper bone, you might not be able to endure the intense pain that arose during the process.

However, the harder something was to do, the greater the reward afterward.

As long as the skin, flesh and bones were all tempered, the body’s toughness could reach the level of Ordinary Level 9.

If you could carry out a second round of tempering, your body’s toughness could rival that of a High-Level Gene Fuser.

Even better, with a third round of tempering, your body’s toughness could surpass that of a High-Level Gene Fuser.

According to the ancient text, the maximum number of temperings recorded was five.

But up to now, only Liu Chuanwu—after decades of cultivation—had arduously achieved three rounds of tempering. No one knew how powerful the body would be after a fourth or fifth.

In his notes, Liu Chuanwu speculated that after three rounds of tempering one could crush a High-Level (Stage 1) Gene Fuser; after four rounds, one should be able to crush a High-Level (Stage 2) Gene Fuser; and so on for five rounds.

Third Stage.

After completing body tempering, use vitality to open the body’s acupoints.

There were a total of 366 acupoints and the power gained from opening each one was comparable to another round of tempering.

Once all the acupoints were opened, one could achieve the legendary sanctified flesh.

The annotations in the book speculated that even opening a single acupoint would allow a pureblood human body to break the shackle of the Ordinary Level and evolve into an Advanced Being.

* * *

After comprehending the Blood-Tempering Art, Lin Zichen began attempting the First Stage—perceiving vitality.

He closed his eyes, calmed his mind and focused.

Following the operational guidance in the book, he used his spiritual power to sense the flow of vitality in his body.

In under three seconds, he successfully sensed it.

It was simpler than he had imagined.

After perceiving vitality, the next step was to try to control it.

This process was a bit difficult.

It took Lin Zichen nearly half an hour before he finally managed to control the vitality in his body.

Being able to control vitality meant he could temper his body.

Not wanting to wait even a second, he immediately began tempering on his own, without a teacher.

The first place he chose to temper was the skin of his entire right hand.

During tempering, the skin being tempered felt like it was burning—some pain, but not severe.

[You are using vitality to temper your skin. Skin toughness +1, Blood-Tempering Art proficiency +1…]

A little over half an hour later, the tempering was complete.

The skin of his right hand looked unchanged on the surface, but it clearly felt tougher than before.

At that moment, less than 1% of his vitality had been consumed; it was still plentiful.

‘I wonder how tough the skin on my right hand is now. I’ll grab a knife and give it a slice.’

Thinking that, Lin Zichen quickly went downstairs to the kitchen, picked up a fruit knife and slashed the back of his right hand.

He found that nothing happened to the back of his hand—there was only a faint scratch on the surface.

‘Just one round of tempering and it’s already practically impervious to blades. No wonder Liu Chuanwu with three rounds of tempering could tank Wu Tiancheng’s feather barrage. I have to say, this Blood-Tempering Art that only pureblood humans can cultivate is the real deal. I can’t help but wonder how tough the body will be after five rounds of tempering.’

At that thought, Lin Zichen was fired up. He immediately returned upstairs to continue tempering his skin.

* * *

Shanhai University.

A training ground in the Martial Arts Academy.

A woman in a martial arts uniform, her hair in a single ponytail and her figure graceful, was working out at high intensity inside.

Just as she was passionately sweating, Liu Chuanwu came in humming a little tune, his face full of delight.

“Dean, what’s got you so happy?”

The woman stopped training, wiped the sweat from her forehead and asked curiously.

With a curl of his lips, Liu Chuanwu said smugly, “Under the irresistible charm of my personality, the provincial runner-up of Southern River Province—and number one in the provincial physical test—has already become a member of our Celestial Pavilion.”

“Seriously?”

The woman was full of disbelief.

She’d experienced firsthand over the past ten years how unpopular the Celestial Pavilion was with geniuses. It was hard to imagine any genius giving up the Gene Fusion path to join them.

“It’s true, I’ve even added him on WeChat.”

Liu Chuanwu brought up his phone, opened his WeChat contacts and showed her.

When she saw Lin Zichen’s name, her almond eyes widened—she hadn’t expected the ‘useless’ dean to actually recruit the provincial runner-up.

“Dean, how did you pull that off?”

“With my personal charm.”

“Heh, enough bragging. Spill it.”

The woman had no patience for his boasting and wanted the truth.

“Honestly, I didn’t do much,” Liu Chuanwu said, “I just told him that whatever benefits the Evolution Academy would give him, the Celestial Pavilion would give triple.”

“Triple?!”

The woman froze. A moment later she snapped to, looking anxious, “Dean, our Pavilion’s funds are almost gone—no, not almost gone, we’re already deep in debt. Where are you getting the money to give someone triple benefits?”

She hurried him on, “Dean, stop chatting with me and go reconnect with your old flames—sell your body and bring some funding back!”

“Relax,” Liu Chuanwu said confidently, “I just set it up—one for the first half of the night, one for the second half and another tomorrow morning. Triple benefits will be more than covered.”

Then he looked at the woman and asked, “By the way, Yuyan, when you first got the translation of the Blood-Tempering Art, how long did it take you to sense vitality?”

“That was ten years ago,” she said after thinking, “But if I remember right, it took me a week to sense it.”

“And controlling it?” Liu Chuanwu asked.

“For controlling vitality, that I remember clearly—it took exactly two months,” Song Yuyan replied.

“A week to sense vitality, two months to control it—worthy of being the Kyoto exam runner-up of your year. Outstanding talent,” Liu Chuanwu sighed, “I consider myself a genius, but just sensing vitality took me nearly two weeks back then. Comparing people to people is maddening.”

“Dean, don’t say the words ‘Kyoto runner-up’ in front of me,” Song Yuyan said, distressed, “Ever since I gave up Gene Fusion and chose to join the Celestial Pavilion to study the pureblood path, I’ve never managed to evolve into an Advanced Being. I’ve been mocked as mediocre for years—I’m sick of it!”

“Let them laugh if they want,” Liu Chuanwu said indifferently, “What’s there to be upset about? I’ve been laughed at for decades and I’m still standing, aren’t I? This is what we call ‘enduring hardship for future revenge.’ The more stifled we are now, the sweeter the eruption will be later. In a few years, when you evolve into an Advanced Being with a pureblood human body, you’ll shock everyone and string up those Gene Fuser classmates of yours for a beating.”

“A few years?” Song Yuyan smiled bitterly, “I don’t think even ten years would be enough.”

The acupoints were just too hard to open.

Ever since completing her first tempering five years ago, Song Yuyan had tried to open them.

But five years passed—she had tempered her body twice—and she still hadn’t opened a single acupoint.

To be honest, she felt that opening acupoints was a ‘within-my-lifetime-if-I’m-lucky’ sort of thing.

If she could open one before fifty, that would count as a success.

Thinking of this, Song Yuyan suddenly asked, “By the way, Dean, did you give that Lin Zichen a copy of the Blood-Tempering Art translation?”

“Of course I did. I wouldn’t forget something that important,” Liu Chuanwu said, “I’m expecting him to master vitality control before school starts and then, as soon as the term begins and his Biological Level evolves to Ordinary Tier 4, he can start tempering right away.”

“How long do you think it’ll take him to sense vitality?” Song Yuyan asked.

“I estimate ten days,” Liu Chuanwu said, then explained, “The kid’s physical-test numbers are outrageous. Compared to your entrance-exam data back in the day, he’s only a hair behind.”

Song Yuyan looked expectant. “I bet he thinks there aren’t many geniuses in the Celestial Pavilion and that he’s the top talent. I wonder if he’ll be stunned speechless when he sees me—a pretty senior whose talent surpasses his—once school starts.”

Seeing how expectant she looked, Liu Chuanwu realized what a double standard she had.

She always said he liked to show off and that it was annoying.

And yet here she was, planning to show off in front of a gifted junior.

He hoped that when the time came, Lin Zichen would perform even better and slap-slap-slap her face swollen!