Chapter 8 – Beneath the Skin, the Storm
Ravine of Bones
The nights grew colder.
But Lin Feng's body… grew hotter.
He now trained in silence beneath the moon, bare-chested, hammering his body against the ancient training pillars left behind by unknown ancestors.
Each strike echoed through his tendons, bones, and marrow.
His blood moved like molten iron.
His breath grew heavier, deeper — no longer just for life, but for power.
> [Body Refinement – Fourth Layer: Blood Tempering – 73%]
Pain became rhythm.
Fatigue became fire.
He devoured hardship like a starving wolf.
---
> "You're changing," Han Yu muttered, watching him train.
He sat nearby, hammer on his shoulder, chewing on roasted meat.
> "You're not just getting stronger. Your Qi is changing. There's something wrong with your body."
Lin Feng paused.
His muscles were taut with a strange, quiet force — not Qi, not soul power — but something… other.
A resonance.
A weight.
He said nothing.
But deep down, he wondered:
> What am I becoming…?
---
High above the ravines, the elders began speaking quietly.
Elder Wei requested surveillance formations be placed around Lin Feng's quarters.
Elder Qingsong, strangely, denied the request.
Other elders grew divided — some saw Lin Feng as a threat, others as a pawn, others as… a variable.
Meanwhile, Wei Zicheng remained perfectly calm — cultivating in a jade pavilion, speaking to no one.
But rumors whispered he'd broken into the third stage of Sword Manifestation.
> "He's going to kill Lin Feng in the Outer Challenge," someone whispered.
> "No. He's going to ruin him. Slowly. Publicly."
---
Far away, in the Heaven-Peak Pavilion, at the sect's spiritual core...
Lan Xueyin sat beneath a crescent moon, her eyes closed in meditation.
She was a cold beauty — pale as snow, untouched by the heat of the world.
Talented beyond comprehension.
Proud. Unreachable. Dangerous.
And yet…
Her eyes suddenly opened.
A faint sting bloomed between her brows — as if the heavens had shifted by an inch.
She stood slowly, her robes fluttering in the breeze.
> "...What path is awakening in the dark?" she whispered.
She sensed it — like a blade being forged far beneath the surface.
A will that refused to bow.
And for a moment, something stirred within her — a curiosity that cracked the frost.
Then… she turned and vanished into the mist.
---
The night before the new moon, Lin Feng sat cross-legged on a jagged stone platform above a silent pool.
He exhaled once — and the pool rippled violently.
Veins glowed beneath his skin like thin red rivers.
His breath slowed. His pulse thickened.
His body shuddered.
Then, it roared.
> [Body Refinement – Fifth Layer: Marrow Cleansing – 2%]
The pain this time was… blinding.
It felt like every inch of his body was boiling from the inside out.
He bit down on a leather strap, blood seeping between his teeth.
It lasted through the night.
When he rose the next morning, his eyes were darker.
His skin harder.
His aura deeper.
The broken sword on his back remained unchanged…
But now, even dull, it seemed to hum in tune with his body.
---
Atop the mountain cliffs, storm clouds gathered unnaturally — though no rain would fall.
The Inner Sect buzzed faintly.
Outer disciples whispered louder.
And beneath the earth, where no light reached…
Something old stirred.
Not watching.
But remembering.
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