Martial Arts: Starting with Upgrading the Dilapidated Temple

Chapter 128 Forging Nails (5K)

In the Yanzhou Rift Valley, he used the military spirit of 103 veterans of the Zhenbei Army to forge a broken nail and patch it onto the main nail.

It was a last resort; the main nail had already been removed, so the only option was to repair it using the most costly method.

The secondary nail is still there, so the situation isn't that extreme.

But strengthening the seal requires energy.

In Yanzhou, the source of energy is the spirit of the army; in Shuozhou—

Xu Hao's gaze fell on the remaining blood sacrifice array patterns on the hall floor.

He had absorbed most of the dark red spiral, but the structure of the magic circle itself remained intact.

The lines were carved into the stone slabs of the ground, drawn with a mixture of red gold scorpion blood and bone powder, making them corrosion-resistant and resistant to fading.

He absorbed the energy of the magic circle, but the structure of the magic circle can be reversed.

The principle of the blood sacrifice array is "using blood as a catalyst and life as fuel to loosen the seal." If the energy flow is reversed, instead of being pulled from the seal, it is poured into the seal—this structure becomes an energy infusion array.

It is theoretically feasible.

In practice, one thing is needed—a sufficiently large and pure energy source.

Xu Hao looked down at his hands.

The bones, tempered in the Iron Bone Realm, are inlaid with black iron patterns and are naturally connected to the earth's veins.

The essence of the Prison Suppression Technique is "to stand firmly on the ground and cultivate the body through practice".

He doesn't need to find energy; it's right beneath his feet.

The densest area of ​​basalt veins in the Red Sand Domain.

The area within a radius of hundreds of feet is entirely composed of high-purity ore bodies.

These mineral veins contain billions of units of earth vein power, which normally lie dormant in the strata, and only the Prison Suppression Technique can draw them out.

The power of the earth's veins was used to infuse the secondary nails, reinforcing the seal.

Meanwhile, the Iron Bone Realm of the Prison Suppression Technique had only recently been broken through, with the progress bar only reaching 68%.

Mineral vein restricted areas are natural training grounds where you can cultivate simply by walking.

What if he doesn't leave and instead starts driving piles in the same spot?

Sitting cross-legged on the densest node of the ore vein, with the secondary nail as the core and the reverse structure of the blood sacrifice array as the guide, he tempered his body while pouring in the seal.

one stone two bird.

Seven days, no more, no less.

"Old man." Xu Hao turned around.

"What?"

Are you familiar with the structure of this hall?

The old man gestured with his chin toward the dome.

"Before those bald monks dug that place in, I had been alone in this hall for thirty-three years. Do you think I know it well?"

"Which of the magic array patterns on the ground were added later by the Wusheng Sect, and which were original?"

The old man squatted down and used the tip of his knife to trace the spiral pattern a few times.

"The spiral was carved by bald monks."

The original patterns were straight lines converging towards the center from the four walls, like a water channel. He pointed to the faint old traces beneath the spiral lines, "They've layered them on top of each other."

"Could you scrape off the spiral to expose the original wiring underneath?"

The old man glanced at him, a glint of shrewdness flashing in his eyes.

"You should use the original array pattern."

"The original array patterns existed in ancient times, sharing the same origin as the secondary nails. The Wusheng Sect's array was added later, and its direction is outward. The original direction—"

"They're pouring it in," the old man replied.

Thirty-three years of prison service were not for nothing.

He may not understand the overall picture of the Dragon-Suppressing Nail, but he knows the intricacies of his own little plot of land better than anyone else.

"Give me half a day." The old man stood up, held his broadsword horizontally with the blade facing down.

"I've stayed here for thirty-three years, touching every part of it countless times. I remember about 80-90% of the original array patterns."

"Dry."

The old man didn't waste any more words and squatted down to start scraping.

A broadsword is far more precise for scraping through magic arrays than for cutting people.

Controlling the blade with precise, inch-like force, it scraped away bit by bit the spiral patterns formed by the crimson scorpion blood.

The ancient array patterns below gradually revealed a bold, straight line that radiated from the four walls of the hall and converged into the central circular pit.

It is consistent with the style of the inscription on the Six-Nail Dragon-Suppressing Diagram.

Xu Hao was not idle.

He cleared all the remaining puppet corpses and ritual artifacts from the hall to a corner, then found a spot to sit down by the circular pit.

The location was carefully chosen—it was right at the intersection of two ancient array patterns.

The intersection point is directly opposite the secondary nail, three feet away from the pit wall.

The moment I sat down, a familiar soreness came from my tailbone.

Standing on the Yongquan acupoint is the entrance.

However, when sitting cross-legged, the coccyx becomes the point closest to the earth's veins.

The Prison Suppression Technique automatically switched the extraction channel—shifting it from the soles of the feet to the coccyx and sacrum.

hum.

The metallic texture of the sacrum flashed.

The essence of black iron from the underground veins flowed in along the new channel, ascending from the bones along the spine.

The flow direction is different from that when traveling—when walking, it is from bottom to top, while when sitting cross-legged, it radiates from the center outwards to the limbs.

It's more efficient, and you can train your body without walking, but the price is that the soreness is twice as intense.

But he has seven days.

It hurts, so it hurts.

first day.

The old man spent five hours scraping the Wusheng Sect's magic array off the hall floor, revealing the complete ancient array patterns underneath.

The structure of the array patterns was more complex than expected.

Not only are there straight lines converging from the four walls to the center, but there are also horizontal connecting lines between the lines, forming a precise grid. At each intersection of the grid is embedded a small piece of pure gold—which has been oxidized to a dark copper color over time, but the energy pathways remain intact.

The old man pointed to the grid and said, "I pondered this when I first saw these lines thirty-three years ago. This isn't a magic circle; it's a water channel—drawing the power from the earth to the center to irrigate the pillars."

"It's for extending the life of the seal." Xu Hao said with his eyes closed, his voice muffled from his throat.

He didn't open his eyes; the body tempering technique of the Prison Suppression Technique had already entered the deep water zone.

He sat cross-legged for a full five hours.

The essence of black iron in the vein continuously flows into the bones, starting from the sacrum, passing through the lumbar and thoracic vertebrae, and all the way to the shoulder and clavicle.

The coverage of the metallic texture on the upper body's skeleton jumped from 30% to 50%.

Turbid fluid seeped from his pores, and grayish-black sweat smeared in a circle on the ground where he sat cross-legged.

The smell of rust was so strong that even an old man three meters away wrinkled his nose.

Progress bar for the Blessed Land Scroll: Iron Bone Realm, 74%.

Then he started doing the second thing.

Bone resonance.

It's not a short burst of energy used to hit someone; it's a continuous, low-frequency, and prolonged vibration.

The frequency was precisely tuned to synchronize with the resonance point of the ancient array pattern.

The power of the earth veins is drawn up from the soles of the feet—no, from the coccyx and sacrum. After being filtered and purified by the metallic patterns of the bones, it is transmitted from the legs to the ground and infused into the array patterns.

The array patterns lit up.

The dark bronze-colored red gold nodes were activated one by one, from the outer circle to the inner circle, like lighting lamps.

The rays of light converged along a straight line to the center of the circular pit.

The brightness of the inscription on the secondary nail has been increased by one point.

It was an extremely small amount, but it was indeed shining.

The old man squatted by the pit and stared at it for a long time, raising his white eyebrows twice.

"You are charging it."

Xu Hao didn't say anything.

The veins on his forehead bulged, and his masseter muscles were taut.

Running both body tempering and sealing simultaneously is like doing two jobs at once, requiring three times the energy of doing either one separately.

But he knew it was the most efficient way.

The energy of the mineral vein is a public resource, and its body is a converter.

It was drawn up, filtered, and a portion was kept for refining the bones, while the rest was poured into the seal.

It's like a waterwheel.

The river water drives the wheel to turn, grinding rice while irrigating the fields.

He is this wheel.

the next day.

The old man went out for a while.

After returning to the surface through the secret passage, he patrolled the outskirts of Burial Dragon City and took the opportunity to speak with Sha Fanzi, who was waiting at the Crimson Gold River.

I came back and reported the news.

"The Dragon Bone Platform is empty. After the Great Protector fled, all the tents on the ground were cleared. Judging from the footprints, they ran in a northeast direction."

Northeast, in the direction of the oasis city-state.

"The Crimson Python and Iron Sand are keeping an eye on things over there," Xu Hao's voice squeezed out from between heavy breaths. "They can't get far."

The old man didn't say much.

After observing Xu Hao's sitting posture and physical changes for a long time, he did something: he took out an iron pot and several packets of dried camel meat from a storage hole deep in the passageway.

A fire was lit in the corner of the hall.

"The passageway isn't well-ventilated, but it won't suffocate you," the old man muttered as he tended the fire. "With your training method, you won't be able to sustain it without eating."

A cast iron pot was filled with camel meat and a handful of dehydrated dried vegetables that had been stored for who knows how long, boiled in plain water. No salt, no seasoning—the taste was utterly disastrous.

But it's still warm.

Xu Hao would interrupt his body tempering every four hours, drink two bowls of camel meat soup, eat a few pieces of bread to satisfy his physiological needs, and then sit back down.

By the end of the second day, the progress bar for the Blessed Land Scroll had jumped to 81%.

The brightness of the secondary nail inscription was restored by 20% of what it had been eroded, and increased by another 50% from its original level.

The changes in the skeleton are also accelerating.

The metallic pattern radiates from the spine to the ribs, sternum, and scapula.

The patterns on the upper and lower body will soon be connected. Once they are connected as a whole, the transmission of power will no longer have any breaks, from the toes to the fingertips, with a single metal wire running through the entire body.

But the closer you get to the point of penetration, the more intense the pain becomes.

The collarbone is the most difficult hurdle to overcome.

The two collarbones are like two gates, stuck between the shoulders and the spine. With each step the metal grooves are pushed in, the collarbones swell and ache.

Xu Hao's jaw was so clenched that it could crush pebbles.

The veins on his forehead were bulging like tree roots.

The sweat is no longer grayish-black, but pale silver—after the metallic impurities are removed, what is released are excess trace elements produced during the bone tempering process.

"Your bones are growing." The old man squatted down beside him, holding a bowl, looking at him with a curious expression.

This is not a metaphor. The old man pressed his ear close to the ground and could hear the sound of bones growing inside Xu Hao's body—a fine, cracking sound, like bamboo shoots sprouting in spring.

Day three.

It's connected now.

There were no earth-shattering phenomena.

Only in the early hours of the third day, the metallic patterns on the collarbone finally connected with the last node of the spinal network.

Buzz—

The entire skeleton resonated simultaneously with a unified frequency.

From toes to skull, all the metallic patterns connect in that instant, forming a complete resonant network.

The sensation of force transmission has changed.

Previously, there were independent lines scattered here and there, like scattered strings on a musical instrument, each one producing a sound when played.

Now it's a net; press one point, and the whole net will vibrate.

He clenched his fist.

I didn't use any force; it was just a casual handshake.

Air was squeezed out between the fingers, making a crisp "hiss" sound.

The slag and gravel underfoot buzzed.

It wasn't shattered; rather, the frequency of his skeletal resonance when he clenched his fist caused all solid matter within a three-step radius to vibrate in sync with his bones.

The old man almost dropped his bowl.

"What level of mastery have you reached?"

"Iron Bone Realm Perfection".

The progress bar for the Blessed Land Scroll shows: 96%.

Not quite a hundred yet, just one last breath away.

However, from a practical standpoint, the differences are negligible.

With a physique at the peak of the Iron Bone Realm, he was unaffected by the suppression of Qi in the restricted area of ​​the mining vein, and his power output remained stable as usual.

Their bones are as hard as black iron, and their recovery ability is four times that of ordinary people.

The power is transmitted throughout the body without any breaks, and there is zero loss from the generation of force to the application of force.

He stood up, the hum of his bones rising and falling with his movements.

Every time you raise your hand or take a step, there is a subtle metallic texture, like a precise iron skeleton wrapped around flesh and blood in motion.

Then he drew his sword.

The moment the Devouring Sea Blade was drawn, the feeling of man and blade moving in unison was ten times clearer than it had been three days ago.

The metallic texture extends from the palm to the handle, and then from the handle to the blade.

The Devouring Sea Blade is no longer just a weapon; it is an external skeleton that can be removed from the body.

The trajectory of the first strike of the Nine Slashes of Innocent Delusion rolled through my mind.

He didn't try.

It's not that I don't want to, it's just that the hall is too small.

The power transmission pathway for the first strike is through the resonance of the entire skeletal system and the release of the blade; the upper limit of output depends on how much energy the skeletal network can hold.

The Iron Bone Realm's perfected skeletal network absorbed the essence of the earth veins for three days in the forbidden mining area, accumulating enough energy to split this domed hall open from the inside.

That would be too much of a commotion; it's unnecessary.

He sheathed his knife and sat back down.

Four more days until the seal is filled.

Fourth day.

The sand-turning machine is here.

Three long and two short knocks came from outside the stone door at the entrance of the secret passage.

The elderly man checked the signal and opened the door.

Sha Fanzi's face was covered in sand, and his lips were chapped. As soon as he came in, he started gulping down water.

He gulped down half a sachet before he could catch his breath.

"The Great Protector is dead."

He squatted in the passageway, his throat parched. "Red Python and Iron Sand intercepted him on the east bank of the Crimson Gold River. By then, his qi and blood were in disarray, his hands were trembling, and he fought back for over thirty moves before Red Python severed his neck with a single strike. Of his five disciples, three scattered, and the remaining two were dealt with as well."

Half of the potential problems have been resolved.

"Another matter," Sha Fanzi's tone turned serious. "New footprints have been discovered forty miles north of the Red Gold River; they don't belong to the Great Protector."

"How many people?"

"At most three, the footprints are very shallow, the strides are large, and they are walking on the dry riverbed and the dark sandbar—people who are not familiar with the terrain of the Red Sand Area cannot find this kind of path."

"Which direction are you coming from?"

"northeast."

Sha Fanzi looked at Xu Hao and squeezed out two dry words.

"Wolf Court"

The vanguard of the Bone Girl.

It arrived three days earlier than expected.

Xu Hao closed his eyes and sank into his sea of ​​consciousness.

On the Six Nails Suppressing Dragon Map, the radiance of the secondary nail from Shuozhou has returned to normal.

The effects of the four-day infusion were significant; the seal thickness was even 10% stronger than before the Wusheng Sect took action.

The compass remained silent, with no new points of light.

He opened his eyes.

"Any of the three people at the Opening Aperture Realm?"

"Judging from the depth of the footprints, it's highly likely to be from the Inner Strength Realm. The footprints of the Opening Aperture Realm wouldn't look like that—either too light or too heavy, not this regular."

The advance team from the inner stronghold wasn't there to remove obstacles, but to scout ahead.

The Bone Girl herself is still in the background.

"Keep an eye on her. Don't alert her." Xu Hao closed his eyes again. "Wait for her to arrive in person."

Sha Fanzi opened his mouth, but swallowed back the words that were about to come out: "You alone can defeat a barbarian bone shaman at the Tongqiao realm."

It's pointless to say anything.

This guy sat cross-legged in the restricted area of ​​the mine for four days, and the aura emanating from him was much stronger than when he came in four days ago.

The metallic-textured humming of the bones doesn't require you to put your ear close to it; you can feel the vibrations under your feet even standing three meters away.

He glanced back at the old man.

The old man waved his hand at him, meaning, "Don't ask me, his progress in practicing martial arts is too frightening."

Sha Fanzi quietly found a spot at the entrance of the passageway and sat down against the wall.

He took out his pipe.

After thinking about it, he put it back.

The ground is not well ventilated.

Day .

Day .

Xu Hao did not speak again.

Sitting cross-legged, tempering the body, and pouring in.

Three things in an endless loop.

By the end of the sixth day, the progress bar for the Iron Bone Realm in the Blessed Land Scroll finally jumped to one hundred.

[The second level of the Prison Suppression Technique, "Iron Bone Realm," has been completed. The player is about to enter the third stage of transformation and accumulation.]

The scroll doesn't say what the third layer is.

The fragmentary information of the Prison Suppression Technique only extends up to the Iron Bone Realm.

The road ahead requires higher levels of cultivation and deeper understanding.

However, the benefits brought by the perfection of the Iron Bone Realm were already enough for him to deal with the situation ahead.

The filling of the secondary nail seal is also nearing saturation.

The inscription was half a point brighter than the other two healthy secondary nails on the six-nail diagram. He poured six layers of celestial essence into it, which was equivalent to adding an extra layer of iron shell to the seal.

Even if Bone Mother came, she would have to break through this shell first if she wanted to remove this nail.

And he was sitting right next to the shell.

Seventh day.

It was before dawn.

Sha Fanzi returned from the secret passage, his steps three times faster than usual.

"They're here."

Xu Hao opened his eyes.

"How many people?"

"I didn't get close. But there's light on the sand dunes to the northeast." Sandman's voice was low. "White light. Bone fire. Something unique to the barbarian bone shamans."

The old man was also startled awake from his nap and grabbed his broadsword.

Xu Hao stood up.

My legs didn't feel stiff at all after sitting cross-legged for seven days.

The frequency of his bone resonance automatically switched to a standby state the moment he stood up; it was low, stable, and ready to be pushed to its limit at any time.

He reached out and took the Sea-Devouring Blade.

The moment the knife was in hand, man and knife moved in unison.

Dark silver patterns flowed along the blade's edge, producing a very soft and steady hum.

"You all stay underground." Xu Hao walked towards the tunnel entrance. "Guard the secondary nail. No matter what happens outside, don't come out."

The old man, carrying a large knife, opened his mouth twice, and finally uttered a single sentence.

"Don't demolish Dragon Burial City."

"As much as possible."

The stone door slid open.

The cold wind of dawn blew in, carrying the dry, metallic smell and a very faint odor of decaying bones.

The smell of rotten bones.

The smell of a bone sorcerer.

Xu Hao stepped out of the stone gate and stood on the base of the shortest stone tower.

The dawn in the Red Sands is crimson.

Before the sun had even risen, the light on the horizon had already turned the sand dunes blood red.

Northeast direction.

Behind the three sand dunes, a pale white light moved slowly.

Bone fire is not fire, but the phosphorescence produced by the burning of bone meal in the air.

When the barbarian bone shaman walks, bone fire spontaneously ignites, illuminating the path ahead, which is also a kind of announcement: "I have arrived."

Xu Hao gripped the Sea-Devouring Blade tightly.

He stood on the ruins of Dragon Burial City, his feet resting on the densest mineral veins in the Crimson Sand Domain, with the secondary nail seal behind him infused with the essence of seven heavenly veins.

Home game.

come on.