Seventh Echo

“Groan…”

In the middle of his room, Lin Dong could already feel the sun’s rays shining down on his face as he struggled to open his eyes. As he glanced at the sunlight, he suddenly leaped forth from his bed. Though as his feet made contact with the floor, an extremely aching pain suddenly filled his body almost causing him to lose his footing.

“This..….”

The sudden aching sensation shocked Lin Dong. It was as if he had spent an entire night on intensive training.

“It was not a dream?!”

Suddenly, Lin Dong seemed to have recalled something as a look of awe surfaced on his face. Immediately, he gritted his teeth and positioned himself into a stance to begin practising Penetrating Fist. Looking at the proficient way he maneuvered his fists, it was as though he had already practiced these moves countless times. Only he knew that he had only just learnt this set of moves from Lin Xiao the day before.

Still in the room, the young man executed a familiar set of fist techniques with a serious expression on his face as a series of crisp echoes sounded out due to the friction between his arms and clothes.

“Pa Pa Pa Pa Pa!”

When he finally managed to produce five crisp echoes, Lin Dong’s body stopped. On his face, a mixed expression of shock, happiness and a slight tinge of fear was plastered.

“How could I have mastered it so quickly…”

Lin Dong muttered to himself as he gazed at his palms. He could feel that five echoes was definitely not his limit. In fact, if he wished to, he could easily produce seven echoes now!

This training progress bewildered Lin Dong. Among the younger generation in the Lin Family, there were several others who practised Penetrating Fist as well. Nonetheless, he was one of the rare few that could produce seven echoes at such a tender age.

“How did this happen?”

Lin Dong frowned, the eyebrows on his face knitting together. Moments later, his hand moved to his chest area and retrieved the mysterious stone talisman hidden in an inner pocket. This was the object that he retrieved from the cave yesterday.

If there were any items worthy of suspicion on Lin Dong’s body, then this stone talisman will definitely be at the top of the list.

“This object, is it really this powerful?”

As Lin Dong held the stone talisman, he felt a cooling sensation spreading out from his palm. Thanks to this sensation, the aching pain in his body was slightly soothed.

Swallowing the churning emotions in his heart, Lin Dong carefully hid the stone talisman back into the inner pocket. His intuition told him that this stone talisman possessed extraordinary powers and he knew that if news of this discovery got out, it would definitely invite a catastrophe. Therefore, it would be much better if no one else knew about it.

After he kept the stone talisman, Lin Dong opened the door and left his room. First, he proceeded to eat some breakfast prepared by Liu Yan before he slipped off back to the rock cave. Currently, his body was aching with pain, he knew that if he continued to his intensive practice now, it would definitely injure his body. Thankfully, he had discovered the miraculous properties of the rock pool, thus this was not an issue for Lin Dong.

Dripping fresh blood into the rock pool, Lin Dong enjoyed a half hour soak before he finally got out. The ache in his body had disappeared without a trace and his body had returned to its peak condition.

He felt the skin on his body, revelling at the fact that it had toughened substantially once again. This brought a smile to Lin Dong’s tiny face as he knew that at this speed, he could officially advance to Tempered Body 4th Layer within the next ten days.

Climbing out of the rock pool, Lin Dong decided to execute the entire set of Penetrating Fist moves again. This time, he used all his power, holding nothing back.

“Pa Pa Pa Pa Pa Pa Pa!”

Seven echoes!

As his fist fell to indicate the end of this session, Lin Dong’s tiny face flushed red with excitement. Armed with this seven echoes Penetrating Fist, he was confident that if he met Lin Shan again, it would definitely not be a repeat of their last encounter.He would not be so easily beaten without a chance to retaliate again.

Lin Dong’s excitement finally faded as he once again regained his calm. Chuckling at himself, he climbed out of the cave and started his daily intensive training. Even though he now had the aid of this miraculous rock pool, Lin Dong still understood a fundamental principal.

In the journey of mastery, the self is the most important. Outside aid can certainly make smooth the path to mastery, however, how far one ventures along this path is still ultimately in their own hands.

Hence, even though he had the aid of the rock pool, Lin Dong understood that he must continue to strive and work hard. After all, that was still his greatest asset!

A day of training passed. Some time in the evening, a stern-looking Lin Xiao came around to inspect the Lin Dong’s progress. With regards to Lin Dong’s training, he was often extremely harsh and strict.

However, after witnessing Lin Dong produce three consecutive echoes from Penetrating Fists, even though he tried to maintain a strict expression, a slight trace of surprise and satisfaction leaked out onto his face.

Seeing the expression on his father’s face, Lin Dong’s secretly heaved a sigh of relief. In his mind, he chuckled to himself as he imaged what Lin Xiao’s expression will be if he knew that Lin Dong could already produce seven consecutive echoes?

In the midst of the summer heat, every single member from the younger generation of Lin Family were earnestly training. They understood that the Family Competition that was coming up in six months was extremely important for them.

As the Lin Family was not an extremely powerful or reputable family, they were unable to provide every member with the best kind of treatment. Therefore, if one wants to obtain the best martial arts training and elixirs from the Lin Family, one must prove himself to be exceptional.

Therefore this Family Competition was a chance for them to showcase their talent and stand above the crowd. For most of them, this was also their first ever competition, yet on some levels, the results of this competition determined their fates for the rest of their lives.

A man that was heavily groomed by the family will definitely progress much faster in his training as compared to training by himself. Of course, there were some special exceptions…

As everyone was intensively preparing for the upcoming Family Competition, Lin Dong did not encounter much trouble during this period. And for the next ten nights after he fell asleep, he would find a perfect “teacher” waiting for him in the dark space.

It was increasingly difficult to produce the next echo from Penetrating Fist. Especially after the seventh echo, the difficulty soared exponentially. Therefore, even after ten days of intensive training, Lin Dong was barely able to produce the ninth echo. Moreover, he was still clueless on how to produce the final tenth echo.

Nonetheless, he was not discouraged. He clearly knew that being able to produce nine echoes after just ten days of training, was already a terrifying feat.

He knew this fact from Lin Xiao’s expression when he assessed his son’s training progress. After Lin Dong showed his father six echoes, Lin Xiao’s started to look at his son with a strange gaze. When he first started training Penetrating Fist, it took him two whole months before he was able to reach this stage. Yet, Lin Dong took only ten days to match that feat. Hence, upon witnessing his remarkable progress, Lin Xiao was at a loss for words.

Moreover even as Lin Dong was drilling in Penetrating Fist, he also continued to train his Tempered Body. Thanks to the miraculous effects of the rock pool, he was able to stealthily multiply the intensity of the training regime given by Lin Xiao. Every time Lin Dong dragged his aching body into the rock pool, he would wake up refreshed and re-energized after just half an hour of soaking, ready for another round of training.

Even though his training was painful and exhausting, its effects were extremely clear. After a few days, the skin of his body had toughened to such an extent, whereby at times, he could even directly punch at rocks without injuring himself. Furthermore, when he utilized Penetrating Punch, he found that the force produced had grown by more than one and a half times!

Based on this speed, it will only be a short while before he finally reaches Tempered Body 4th Layer…..