Chapter 16, Tempered Body 5th Stage

The discovery that he was near to a breakthrough left Yang Kai in ecstatic. For it took him three years to make it to the Tempered Body Third Stage. But on the second day of obtaining this book, he had broken through and now once again, will break through again. This training speed also made Yang Kai somewhat scared.

Practising the Tempered Body Record consumed a large amount of stamina. So Yang Kai rested afterwards and slowly regained his stamina. After he had regained his stamina he ate some of the remaining food he had and continued his search for the herbs.

Yesterday he had travelled to all the places from his memory that could potentially grow his required herbs. Today he would have to rely on luck. Fortunately, the value of these herbs was not high, so the chance of finding them today was still high.

After an entire day of searching, Yang Kai had found a total of seventy-eight herbs and two Three Leaved Chaos Spirit Flowers. This time he had finally found the herbs he required to activate the incense burner, but the quantity he had was still lacking.

Time passed by, and soon darkness came. Yang Kai was still awake though, it was not because he wasn't tired but rather that he was too hungry to fall asleep.

Originally he had planned to hunt some wild life, but had not even seen a single rabbit. Unfortunately, he could only find some fingernail-sized berries which were very sour. When he finished eating them, it only made him feel hungrier.

[Ah! If I knew that this was going to happen, I would have brought more rice balls!] Yang Kai repented. There is no shop in these desolate areas, where is he going to find food?

This hunger was a real embarrassment. Yang Kai then saw in the distance, a hint of a fire. Instantly his energy came back, picking himself up, he walked towards it.

They dared to light a fire in a forest; these people were either idiots or they had nothing to fear. This time, these people belonged to the latter.

When he approached, a person near the fire thundered: "Who!"

At that moment, Yang Kai felt his muscles tighten and his spine shiver. The two people by the fire were vigilant. One was tall and the other was short.

One had a burly physique and held a bow with an arrow notched, pointing the arrow at Yang Kai. The other was a young boy, aged about eleven and his eyes were bright and held no trace of fear. In this boy's hand was also a bow, and he also had notched an arrow back, but it was much smaller.

Although Yang Kai was faced with the two arrows, he didn't have the slightest intention to retaliate. Walking around, he acted as if their threats were nothing big.

"Take it easy. I only entered the mountain to collect herbs." Yang Kai quickly said.

After they heard this, the two people looked at each other. The larger male, slowly lowered his bow and arrow down. He then signalled for the boy to relax and laughed: "I had thought that the fire had attracted a wild beast, but it was just a false alarm."

"Sorry, I'm sorry." Yang Kai said slightly embarrassed and laughed.

Touching his forehead, the burly man waved towards Yang Kai: "Come, the nights are cold and surviving alone here will not be easy."

When he heard this, Yang Kai walked up and sat next to the fire. Beside him, the burly man kept looking at Yang Kai and couldn't but feel pity when he saw Yang Kai's thin, bony body.

Now that they were sitting together it would be natural to talk to each other. From this chat, Yang Kai learnt that this father and son pair lived at the foot of the mountain, and came here to hunt and earn a living. Although they weren't rich, it was enough to maintain adequate food and clothing. The boy, although he was young, was a veteran at hunting. And along with his father, they had come to Black Wind Mountains many times to hunt. Thus their knowledge of the mountain was far greater than Yang Kai's.

Yang Kai also told them a bit about himself. After he told them that he was a High Heaven Pavilion Disciple, the burly man was taken aback. While the little boy became more interested in Yang Kai and kept on glancing at him with his glossy, black eyes.

The Han man exclaimed, "My son also wanted to train to become a practitioner, but his talent was not enough and he was refused. So, he practically worships you people."

This statement made Yang Kai recall the past three years and his experiences. Not only did it move him deeply, it also made him softly rub the boy's head with affection.

When he was about to speak, Yang Kai's stomach interrupted with a loud *grrr*. The little boy stared blankly and suddenly laughing out loud, from his bag he took out some dry rations and gave it Yang Kai.

This once again made him very moved, but he didn't accept. Yang Kai looked at the burly man and he smiled: "Eat it. It seems that you did not eat anything today."

This time Yang Kai didn't reject the offering and quickly wolfed down the rations.

After chatting some more the three then went to sleep around the fire. Though Yang Kai didn't dare sleep too heavily, if any danger were to approach the father and son, he would be able to react. He also considered this to be returning the favour for giving him the rations previously.

Fortunately, the night passed peacefully and nothing happened.

When the morning arrived Yang Kai didn't wait for the father and son to wake before quietly leaving. But before he left, he left two herbs behind as a thank you for last night.

If these two herbs were crumpled they had a healing effect. Since they were constantly in the mountains, these herbs were bound to be useful to the father and son pair.

With the eastern purple gas increasing in volume, Yang Kai trained the Tempered Body Record for half an hour. When he finished his practise, Yang Kai took in a large breath of the purple gas causing his meridians to suddenly shake. A warm feeling then began surging through his body, with the energy in his meridians swirling endlessly

The Tempered Body Fifth Stage! His intuition was correct, he indeed broke through today. After practising for half an hour he really broke through to the next stage!

Yang Kai was extremely happy, and felt immense gratitude towards the Golden Skeleton within his body.

Although it had not been very long since he obtained the proud Golden Skeleton, he had broken through twice thanks to it and the Tempered Body Record. This speed was simply unmatched. And this was practising under quite a number of restrictions. If he could practise all the time, what speed would he reach then?

This thought left Yang Kai somewhat speechless. Though after all, the Tempered Body was only the foundation to becoming a true warrior. Training the early stages were easier, the higher the realms, the greater the difficulty to train in.

After a quick rest Yang Kai continued to search for herbs.

Today he had yet again gained quite a harvest. He had collected more than a dozen herbs and caught a plump rabbit, solving his food problems.

This was already the third day of his mountain journey and he had reached the end of the ten mile safety zone. Any further and Yang Kai dared not to enter inside, for with his current strength his only option was to become food for the beasts within.

Although he did not go too deep, his harvest was still quite good. He had collected more than twenty different types of herbs, and counting the previous two days he had forty different types making his journey here very fruitful. Unfortunately, the two main herbs that he needed were very small in quantity.

To find forty different types of herbs in three days was no small harvest. Even if they were all ordinary grade, lower rank herbs, he was still able to exchange them for a fair amount of contribution points. But this greatly reduced his training time, doing more harm than good.