Chapter 18 External Refining of Sinews, Bones, and Skin

Little Jiu was still a child, after all.

Seeing Zhou Ping'an accept her "gift," she brightened up again.

Today, she didn't pester him to demonstrate beautiful knife techniques or throw impressive punches; instead, she wanted to hear stories.

With Zhou Ping'an's past experience of looking after a younger sister five years his junior, dealing with such a little creature was a piece of cake.

He casually told two mythological fables, satisfying Little Jiu Girl immensely.

Little Jiu mentioned she was actually quite busy every day.

Not only did she have to learn Women's Handicrafts and practice other crafts, but she also needed to practice the Stance Method and familiarize herself with various families of fist, knife, and sword techniques.

As for literacy and etiquette, as well as physical form, those lessons were also starting to be scheduled.

Thus, she could only sneak out to play during a short time in the afternoon each day.

This statement greatly shocked Zhou Ping'an.

He only knew that in the modern world where he grew up, kids studied too much and lived very harsh lives.

However, he had not expected that in this ancient world, the first child he met was still incredibly overburdened.

How were children from poor families supposed to survive if it continued like this?

Are you trying to reach the heavens?

After playing with Little Jiu for a while,

the blue pill that the little one had "forcibly" made him swallow

finally revealed its "fearsome and terrifying" effects.

It started with an itch that seemed to emerge from deep within his bones, from every minute part of his body, like sprouts breaking through thawing soil, gradually emerging and blossoming.

A little later, the itching turned into a sensation of heat.

Until it transformed into a raging torrent of flames that swept through his entire body.

Zhou Ping'an almost thought he had taken the wrong medicine.

He thought he was about to become a spectacle of "spontaneous combustion."

Looking down at his skin, nothing seemed amiss.

The fire did not seem like actual flames but more like a fire of the mind.

At this moment, he recalled the information Little Jiu had inadvertently revealed…

Her older sister used the Blue Wave Pill for Blood Renewal and to break through to higher levels.

From her few words, it could be deduced

that the nature of the Blue Wave Pill was to "Cultivate Origin, Consolidate Foundation," to strengthen one's base to allow the body to withstand higher levels of Transformation, which was obviously very beneficial for his body.

Exactly how far the stage of Blood Renewal was from his current stage of "Flesh Refining," Zhou Ping'an was not quite sure.

But he knew that to support that level of Transformation, his body's essence must be undergoing an earth-shattering change.

It was not visible, just misunderstood.

The various sensations inside the body were, in fact, very real.

Not seeing them didn't mean they didn't exist.

If analyzed from the perspective of modern scientific worldviews, it would be cell fission and recombination, genetic Transformation…

If put in the terms of mythological stories, it was the enhancement of one's Root Bone.

And at this moment, Zhou Ping'an was enjoying these benefits.

While practicing the Tidal Breath Technique, there was no longer that feeling of being under the uncertain assault of the tides.

Instead, it felt like experiencing waves of gentle, white foam softly washing away his body's impurities…

Closing his eyes, visions began to form.

The sunlight was warmly shining through the sky.

The breeze was gentle…

Lying on the soft sand, the waves felt like countless little hands, gently pressing on various points of his body.

This was some kind of Hawaiian pleasure.

When the sky turned completely dark, Zhou Ping'an lit a candle again and looked into the bronze mirror.

He wasn't sure if his eyes were deceiving him, or if the reflection in the bronze mirror was unclear.

For a moment, he even thought that the figure in the mirror radiated an immeasurable, splendid light.

Looking closely, he realized that his complexion was no longer as pale as a ghost's.

His muscles were rosy, faintly radiating a silky precious light.

His hair was pitch black and shiny.

It looked as if it had just been oiled and was exceptionally lustrous.

The pupils, darker than hair itself.

Zhou Ping'an just gazed and could see his own pitch-black pupils, seemingly reflecting the starry sky…

When blackness reached its extreme, indeed, it could conjure up a spectrum of colors.

"My eyes!"

"If a romance novelist were to describe them, they would definitely say they 'sparkle like the stars in the night sky'…"

He looked at his hands and saw those previously skinny, bony "chicken claws," which were now evenly fleshed out and warm as mellow jade.

"A transformation from the inside out."

This was a true transformation from the inside out.

Zhou Ping'an sighed deeply from the bottom of his heart, realizing he had taken the wrong path for the past twenty years.

The human body inherently possessed endless treasures.

It all depended on whether there was a way to open those doors and windows.

The Tidal Breathing Technique was one such key.

Clearly, the Blue Wave Pill was another.

In his world, however, things like Alchemy and Breath Control Technique, including Qigong and herbal medicine, had been dismissed as pseudoscience over a thousand years ago.

Without belief, how could they be inherited and enhanced?

Without practice, how could innovations be introduced?

When "legends" completely became "nonsense."

When science ran wild like an unleashed wild horse.

Humanity, apart from being able to kill each other more swiftly and easily… had made no progress in understanding the essence of life or exploring the potential of the body for thousands of years.

A lifespan of around a hundred years had remained unbroken, as if permanently fixed.

Life was as short as that of a mayfly.

Living by the morning, dead by the evening.

The seemingly flourishing and magnificent castle, with just a gentle push one day, would collapse thunderously, leaving only ruins and remnants.

...

After the first transformation from the inside out.

Zhou Ping'an no longer needed to experiment meticulously to know that his speed, strength, nerve responses, and thinking speed had all improved significantly.

At this moment, he was not as worried and anxious as he had been in days past.

He was completely immersed in the feeling of growing stronger day and night, unable to extricate himself.

If the past talk of studying various scientific and cultural knowledge, learning various technologies, and enriching and strengthening himself was merely a description,

then Zhou Ping'an now could truly feel that each day, he was a new version of himself.

...

The first day Xiao Jiu did not appear.

Zhou Ping'an frantically consumed ten Qi and Blood Pills and spent a day and a night continuously practicing the Tidal Breathing Technique.

He forcibly turned himself into a beefy, muscular guy.

Then he slimmed down again.

In just one day, he had shed his skin seven times…

His flesh swelled like an air-filled leather ball, then compressed again.

He swelled and shrank repeatedly seven times.

He looked almost the same as before, just slightly more robust.

But with just a slight intent, his skin immediately became tough, like rubber wrapped with steel wire.

The Tang Knife gently sliced across his palm, leaving only faint red marks, not cutting through.

Applying a little more force enough to penetrate, he only managed a tiny blood spot at the force of an average person.

The skin had just been broken when the muscles spontaneously trembled; the pores crazily contracted, dissipating the force of the stab into nothingness.

The blood from the wound stopped, and it seemed it would heal shortly.

He grabbed a stone weight used for Strength Training.

Zhou Ping'an no longer felt the desire to lift it.

Instead, he just grabbed both ends, gently bent it, and broke the stone weight.

His hands twisting…

With a "crack," he broke the green stone weight into a pile of rubble by hand.

Looking at his hands and fingers, still covered in stone dust, they remained smooth and delicate, not at all like those of a rough muscled giant.