Whoosh!
Gao Han exhaled a long, frigid breath. After nearly a month of grueling training, his physique had grown far sturdier, his muscles coiled and defined.
He wore nothing but his lower garments and carried a low-grade longsword, which Fan Xiaoniu held for him. His upper robes and tunic had been stored away in his interspatial ring, which he no longer wore on his finger, but suspended from a white cord around his neck. The ring bounced gently with each of his movements.
Whoosh! Thud!
With a sudden heave, Gao Han hurled the thousand-jin boulder far through the air. It crashed violently into the ground and rolled away into the distance.
The prolonged training had left his legs throbbing and weak; even standing upright made them tremble with exhaustion. His entire body felt drained and limp, though his legs and back bore the brunt of the strain.
His back, pressed constantly against the rough stone, had been rubbed raw. In the first few days, the skin had torn and bled profusely, scabbing over each night only to be torn open again at dawn.
In time, however, his flesh healed and toughened. The boulder no longer broke his skin, though it still left his back bright red and streaked with faint traces of blood. Now only a flush remained, a vast improvement from before.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
Gao Han twisted his body, and a series of crisp, clear pops echoed from his bones.
Through his relentless journeying and training, his martial body had advanced another step toward the great perfection of the first tier. Once he attained that pinnacle, he could begin contemplating the breakthrough to the second tier, which would require tempering not only his skin and muscles, but his very bones until they were as hard as steel.
Night had fallen. Though they were merely ten li from the Misty Sect, Gao Han decided to halt for the day.
When the morrow came, it would be the final day of his six-month agreement. He planned to hold his duel against Zheng Yunfeng and take the inner-sect examination all in one day.
Time slipped by minute by minute. The sealed true essence within Gao Han gradually unlocked, and his body readjusted to the surging power.
Confined for nearly a month, the energy erupted into a wild, restless torrent—one Gao Han barely managed to contain. Even so, an icy, oppressive aura rippled outward from him in waves.
The lush green grass instantly wilted, coated in a thin layer of frost. The trees, too, glistened as if encased in ice.
The life force within the grass had been completely frozen out. Once the frost melted, this patch of earth would become a barren wasteland, the grass withering away entirely.
"Lucky we brought the quilts! We'd have frozen to death otherwise!" Fan Xiaoniu cheerfully draped the thick covers over himself and Yue'er.
Though the two had begun cultivating, they had not even reached the first layer of Qi Condensation. Even if they had, it would have made little difference—warriors of the seventh layer could not withstand Gao Han's frost, let alone them.
After roughly a quarter of an hour, Gao Han finally suppressed his aura, his body returning to stillness.
He immediately sat in meditation, circulating his true essence over and over to absorb the scattered frost in the air, lest his power draw too much unwanted attention.
Gradually, the chill dissipated completely. Warmth returned to the quilts, until Fan Xiaoniu and Yue'er grew too hot to stay inside, climbing out fully dressed.
Fan Xiaoniu tiptoed over to Gao Han and whispered softly, "Young Master… could you do us a favor and release that frost again?"
Gao Han smiled faintly. "I won't look. Do as you wish."
He turned away and resumed his cross-legged meditation, focusing on comprehending his Ice Momentum and Sword Momentum—his two greatest trump cards. He was determined to raise both to major attainment as quickly as possible.
Ice Momentum, in particular, was his signature art. He aimed to elevate it to major attainment, and soon afterward, transform it into a true artistic conception.
Should he bridge momentum to intent, his Third Layer True Essence cultivation would let him defeat Fifth Layer experts, and even stand against Sixth Layer warriors.
Seventh Layer experts, however, remained far beyond his current grasp. He could not even pierce their protective true essence.
The gap between those with and without protective true essence was staggering. If Gao Han attacked a Seventh Layer cultivator, that enemy could simply ignore his strikes, maintain their defensive barrier, and attack him endlessly.
Gao Han, by contrast, dared not underestimate a single blow from such an opponent. The difference in strength was self-evident.
As for what Fan Xiaoniu and Yue'er were up to, Gao Han understood perfectly. The two were deeply in love, and their closeness was only natural.
The next morning, Fan Xiaoniu and Yue'er slept late, worn out from the night before.
Gao Han, however, had cultivated through the night and awoke feeling refreshed and clear-minded, rising long before dawn, when the sun had only just peeked over the horizon.
He sat on the grass, eating heartily. Since advancing his first-tier martial body, his appetite had grown immensely; he could devour mountains of food without feeling stuffed.
He knew this was because his strengthened body demanded massive amounts of energy—not merely spiritual energy from heaven and earth, but physical sustenance, for his martial body was still low-ranked.
Higher-tier martial bodies could feed on the qi of the world alone, inhaling spiritual energy so densely it condensed into streams of liquid.
Knowing he would eat a great deal and take time doing so, Gao Han rose early to dine before the others.
Fan Xiaoniu and Yue'er woke halfway through his meal, washed their faces hastily, and stepped forward to greet him.
Gao Han nodded and patted the ground beside him, motioning for them to sit and eat.
"Young Master, why did you rise so early?" Yue'er asked as she sat down, popping a fruit into her mouth. As a woman, she cared little for meat, so they had bought fruits when passing a city.
"We enter the Misty Sect today. I wanted to get an early start," Gao Han replied casually, before returning to his meal.
An hour later, the three stood before the grand mountain gate of the Misty Sect, as imposing and majestic as ever. The guards, however, had been replaced by younger disciples, their cultivation only around the Fifth Layer of Qi Condensation—clearly new arrivals.
"Halt! This is the sacred ground of the Misty Sect! Begone, intruders, or you will be killed without mercy!"
Gao Han froze, then smiled bitterly. Half a year had passed, and his reception remained the same—if anything, it had grown worse.