Shocking Improvement

Shi clan, Shi Li's courtyard.

The moon hung up on the sky like an ornament illuminating everything on the ground. At these moments, Shi Li's body that fell over suddenly moved and sat back up while maintaining its cross-legged position.

Noticing that his body was still cultivating the internal technique, Shi Li took control and stopped it. He then took a few deep breaths before opening his eyes.

In an instant, the view around Shi Li was clearer than before. He could see every individual blade of grass 500 meters away and he could also hear every sound made within a one kilometer radius around him.

Not long after, he could hear slapping sounds, pants, and moans though it was not really audible. Inferring the situation from the sounds, Shi Li decided to turn a blind eye to the sounds and looked at his current condition.

The first thing he did was look at his body. He looked all over his body and saw that there was no difference except for the cold sweat that covered his forehead. He then checked his memories to see if Tian Zhenfei's memories were there.

He closed his eyes and gradually got into a state of total silence as he shuffled through his memories. After a while, he was able to see that Tian Zhenfei's memories were still there, with most of them still being sealed.

'Senior's memories are still here...then that means, that wasn't some sort of dream at all,' Shi Li concluded after noticing the two things that happened in his so-called dream: Tian Zhenfei's memories and the cold sweat on his forehead from accepting his memories.

Afterwards, he looked out at the night sky and couldn't help but mutter, "I have been cultivating the [Steel Body Manual] for over a day it seems. I wonder how much progress I have made."

With that, Shi Li closed his eyes once more and sensed his soul. After a few seconds, a hazy feeling that was familiar to him emerged...but there was a slight difference.

Before he fell unconscious and met Tian Zhenfei, his soul was only around 45% part stone. Now that he has awakened and stopped cultivating, the first he saw was that his soul has exceeded 75% threshold and is somewhat close to becoming fully stone.

"What the..." Shi Li was shocked. "85% part stone? Does that mean I'm close to reaching the peak of the first stage?"

Unbelievable. A day of cultivation would usually net him around 15% of progress, but now, it was increased more than twofold!

"Is this the effect of a better aptitude?" Shi Li couldn't help but recall Tian Zhenfei's words about his aptitude being improved. If that was truly the case, he would surely become a Martial Emperor in no time.

He looked at the red pearl that was still pressed between his legs and lifted it up with a smile. He peered inside the pearl, viewing the world where he could be seen a few hours ago.

If he peered into the pearl even further, he would notice three wisps of extremely tyrannical and pure energy...but Shi Li couldn't notice it yet.

Since he had cultivated for over a day, he thought that it was a good time to take a rest for a change of pace. He slowly stood up but was unsuccessful as he kneeled down on the floor.

'What's wrong?' Shi Li thought.

He pondered for a bit before saying, "Ah. My legs have been stuck in the cross-legged position for a long while. Not to mention that I feel like my body has been sapped dry of its energy, it's not surprising if I couldn't move any of my body parts."

Realizing his current situation, he took a few deep breaths before attempting to stand up once more. It took him a few attempts before he could successfully stand up. He then ate some food to satiate his hunger before heading to sleep.

...

The sun rose up in the sky, shining its luminous rays at the land as it shared its vibrance towards every living thing.

It took a few hours for the light to be high enough to hit Shi Li's window, blasting him with the light of the sun. It was only at this time did Shi Li wake up.

After doing his usual morning routine, he went to the training space in his courtyard to check his current strength. He wasn't able to check it yesterday due to him lacking energy, but now that he had tons of it, he was able to do so.

As usual, he bent his knees perpendicular to the pillar and channeled all of his strength towards the tip of his fist, sending it towards the pillar with a...

Bang!

The familiar white light soon covered the pillar and not long after, a number materialized in front of it, showing Shi Li his current strength.

8.

In just one full day of cultivation, he was able to double his strength. At first, Shi Li thought that it was weird but then remembered that he improved a lot compared to before.

Not long after, he went back to his courtyard's living room area to cultivate some more and finish cultivating his soul to become purely stone.

Though all of a sudden, a memory flashed in his mind.

'I almost forgot about what Senior gave me!'

He then frantically searched all over his body for the book that Tian Zhenfei gave him and was unsuccessful in doing so.

He couldn't help but sigh at the thought that a precious technique like that was lost. Without any other choice, he started to cultivate.

As he cultivated, he glossed over Tian Zhenfei's memories and for some reason...

He found the book within Tian Zhenfei's memories.

'What the...well it does make sense. Since I could physically touch it in the dream and I can't touch it in reality, then he must've placed it in his memories.'

He then stopped cultivating his soul and proceeded to read the book thoroughly as if he was going to miss a chance of a lifetime.

...

"Oh my god..."

"This technique is definitely going to kill me!" Shi Li couldn't help but mutter after reading through the entire book.

Although the [Grand Steel Will and Vessel Fusion Manual] focused on bringing out the best of both the [Steel Body Manual] and [Iron Tempering Vessel Manual], the requirements needed to cultivate were harsher.

"To successfully cultivate the first level, one must visualize their soul being tempered while their body is also being tempered, finding the resonance between the two and allowing a connection to form. Once successful, the skin and the soul would fuse together and increase the cultivator's strength by 10 ren."

For the second level and the third level, the requirements were the same. The second level focused on fusing the muscles and the soul as one, giving an increase of 10 ren, while the third level focused on fusing the tendons and the soul as one, giving an increase of 20 ren.

Shi Li then calculated the amount of strength he would get if he successfully cultivated every technique of the peak of the Martial Novice stage and couldn't help but gasp.

"I would have a strength equivalent to 100 ren?!"