Achieving physical sainthood begins with the Iron Shirt technique!

Deep within the underground treasure vault, the light was dim, with only a few fallen luminous stones on the walls barely illuminating the surroundings.

Lu Chen strode to the corner.

There stood a massive cast iron vat. Its surface was covered with densely packed dust-repelling and preservation array patterns. A magic lock, shimmering with a pale blue light, secured the rim of the vat.

Lu Chen raised his right hand, and his five thick fingers gripped the array lock directly.

He had no spiritual energy to decipher the complex immortal array patterns; he relied solely on brute force.

A force of 100,000 jin suddenly squeezed inward along the finger bones.

"Snap! Bang!"

A piercingly loud metallic cracking sound echoed through the treasure vault. The array lock, which even a peak Qi Refining cultivator would find difficult to unlock, shattered instantly. It broke into more than a dozen pieces of scrap metal, which clattered onto the floor tiles.

Lu Chen yanked open the heavy iron cylinder lid.

Inside the iron vat, a mountain of second-tier Crimson Flame Pig leg meat was instantly exposed to the air.

An extremely strong stench of blood, mixed with the distinctive stench of raw meat, rushed out of the vat and hit us in the face.

Lu Chen's shriveled stomach twitched violently again.

He had absolutely no intention of lighting a fire to cook it.

He reached into the vat with his two large hands, grabbed a piece of raw meat weighing dozens of kilograms, covered in blood and pale fascia, and shoved it roughly into his mouth.

"Sizzle—"

His teeth snapped open and closed wildly, tearing apart the tough raw flesh and fascia. Large chunks of flesh still attached to the bone were ripped off. The muscles on either side of his jawline bulged with extreme force.

The ultimate furnace within his body was running at full speed at this moment.

"Thump! Thump! Thump!"

Lu Chen's heartbeat was deep and powerful, echoing throughout the empty treasure vault. Each beat reverberated, making the surrounding air buzz.

A series of muffled thunderous roars emanated directly from the stomach.

The dozens of kilograms of raw meat, imbued with demonic energy, fell down the esophagus into the stomach without requiring a long digestion period.

An extremely terrifying surge of pure Yang energy instantly enveloped them from all directions.

Crush and incinerate.

Lu Chen stopped chewing and opened his wide mouth.

"call--"

He exhaled a scorching hot breath from deep within his lungs. The breath contained black bone fragments that were completely indigestible.

These bone fragments and foul air slammed against the bronze walls of the treasure vault, making the walls crackle and pop.

The entire thick metal wall trembled slightly under the surge of this energy.

The meat of a second-tier Crimson Flame Boar already contained the frenzied instincts of a demonic beast and a chilling demonic aura. This demonic aura attempted to surge upwards along the esophagus, freezing the internal organs and wreaking havoc in the stomach and intestines.

The moment the demonic aura emerged, it crashed head-on into that ridiculously powerful extreme stomach.

Lu Chen's pure yang energy directly overwhelmed it. Without any guidance from immortal techniques, the purest temperature and power completely incinerated the demonic energy.

All harmful impurities were forcibly removed.

At the bottom of the Ultimate Furnace, only the most primordial and purest essence of life remains.

This pure essence transformed into a scalding warm current, surging wildly through every part of the body.

When Lu Chen had withstood the Azure Wood Demon-Slaying Sword Formation of that Foundation Establishment cultivator outside the treasure vault, the blood vessels in his body that had been dried up by the sword energy and several thick tendons that had broken were immediately enveloped by this warm current.

The violent hematopoietic function roared continuously deep within every bone marrow of the body.

Dark red new blood was continuously squeezed out, filling the previous deficit.

The entire piece of Crimson Flame Pig leg was completely devoured, and the extremely intense, almost maddening hunger in his stomach finally subsided.

The meat is all eaten, the foundation is solid, it's time to use strong medicine.

Lu Chen turned around and strode to the other side of the dark wood shelf that was used to store pills and spiritual herbs.

His hands reached into those exquisite jade boxes and grabbed at them repeatedly.

He snatched up the priceless century-old blood ginseng and the scorching hot fire lingzhi mushroom.

These medicinal herbs were still covered in soil, with several thick roots intertwined, and their surfaces had a fresh, earthy smell.

Without the slightest hesitation, Lu Chen ignored the quality of the items, which would have made the rogue cultivators outside fight tooth and nail for them, and stuffed the mud and beard into his throat, forcing it down.

The potent drug instantly exploded between the stomach walls.

Without any alchemy furnace to buffer it, Lu Chen directly used his physical body as a furnace to absorb the medicinal power. The enormous medicinal power erupted unrestrainedly within his body.

The medicinal power was instantly refined by the extreme qi and blood, turning into wisps of crimson qi and blood smoke.

"Hiss hiss hiss—"

The smoke billowed outwards from tens of thousands of pores all over Lu Chen's body.

The temperature inside the vault began to rise sharply, and the previously chilly underground space instantly became unbearably hot. The air was violently distorted by this raging heat wave, blurring visibility.

At this moment, Lu Chen was like a human-shaped furnace spewing out heat.

In a corner of the treasure vault stood a steel cage. Inside the cage were two low-level spirit beasts, kept for the amusement and play of high-level rogue cultivators in the black market.

The raging, pure Yang heat swept over directly, carrying with it the undisguised bloodline pressure of a top predator.

The two low-level spirit beasts couldn't even utter the most basic screams.

Their eyeballs ruptured instantly, black blood gushing from their seven orifices, and they collapsed stiffly in the iron cage, dying on the spot. Faced with the oppressive aura of the extreme martial artist, they were too fragile to even catch their breath.

A massive amount of medicinal power and the essence of flesh and blood continuously circulate and infuse into the body.

On Lu Chen's iron-gray skin, the small cuts that had been made by the flying sword earlier were visibly itching and shrinking.

Soon, thick layers of scabs formed on these wounds.

Lu Chen stretched his broad shoulders, and his muscles twitched.

The scabs immediately fell off in a flurry, landing on the bluestone floor tiles.

After the scab fell off, new skin and flesh beneath were revealed, darker in color and with a more intricate metallic texture. No scars were left, and the skin and flesh exhibited a restrained blackish-gold hue.

With the massive accumulation of qi and blood, the twelve layers of "Iron Shirt" became completely stable and perfect.

It is located far outside the Duanxian Mountain.

In that extremely secluded cave halfway up the mountain, the 30,000-pound town-guarding stele still tightly blocked the entrance, leaving only a small gap at the very top for ventilation.

Anan curled up on the hard, dry boulder, covered with the blood-smelling Ghost Wind Wolf skin.

The little girl was sleeping very restlessly, her brows furrowed tightly.

She rolled over uneasily on the boulder. Her dirty little nose twitched slightly in the air.

Even from a distance of several miles, the newly formed jade bone's perception directly penetrated the darkness and the heavy miasma.

She detected a warm, surging energy fluctuation in the far distance, radiating an astonishing heat.

The little girl's tense nerves relaxed. The anxiety that had been lingering in her heart completely subsided, and she hugged the rag doll with the missing ear tightly in her arms, falling back into a deep sleep.

Inside the underground treasure vault.

Lu Chen walked to a hidden compartment at the deepest part of the treasure vault.

With a burst of strength from his right hand, he crushed the shimmering spiritual energy barrier outside the hidden compartment.

The hidden compartment opened, revealing an exquisitely carved jade box. A yellow seal with red characters was affixed to the box's surface, bearing the six large characters "Presented to the Inner City for Offering".

Lu Chen roughly tore off the seal and yanked open the lid of the jade box.

Inside the box, a blood-red vine was quietly preserved. A faint blood-red halo still flowed across the surface of the vine; this was the extremely rare century-old Blood Marrow Vine.

This medicinal herb has very mild properties and is extremely rare.

Lu Chen didn't plan to take it back and feed it directly to A-Nan.

He planned to take this thing back to the cave on Broken Immortal Mountain and swallow it himself.

Using his ultimate furnace, he utterly crushed the last trace of the immortal heavenly laws hidden within the vines.

Extracting the purest essence of life from it, and then condensing it into a drop of pure blood to give to A-Nan.

Next to the hidden compartment, there was a large pile of low-grade and mid-grade spirit stones, radiating a rich spiritual energy, neatly stacked there.

To a martial artist who doesn't even have a dantian (energy center), the spirit stones that the cultivation world values ​​as vital as life itself are no different from any glowing, worthless stones by the roadside. They can't absorb spiritual energy; they're just a burden.

The spirit stones shimmered in the dim treasure vault, enough to drive any rogue cultivator into a frenzy on the black market. But in Lu Chen's eyes, these glowing stones were less valuable than the second-tier pork leg meat in the jar from before.

Lu Chen turned his head away, too lazy to look at him again.

Without a second thought, they left all the wealth accumulated by these chambers of commerce behind.

He found a clean piece of animal hide.

He wrapped the Blood Marrow Vine, which could be refined to enhance blood and qi, along with a very few top-grade spiritual herbs selected from other hidden compartments, layer by layer. Finally, he pulled a tough leather rope and tied it tightly around his lower back.

After being tied up, Lu Chen stretched out his right hand.

The body's vital energy and blood forcefully converged at the fingertips, forcibly expelling a drop of pure yang blood at its extreme temperature.

He smeared the hot blood from his fingertips directly onto the surface of the warm jade box containing the blood marrow vine, and then casually smeared it on the outside of the animal hide as well.

The extreme heat of the Qi and blood cooled instantly, forming an indestructible blood-red barrier on the surface.

This membrane tightly binds all the spiritual energy and exotic fragrance emanating from the divine herbs to its interior.

Not a single bit leaked out.

Even a high-level cultivator scanning this area with their divine sense would only perceive it as a lifeless object devoid of any spiritual energy fluctuations.

Lu Chen finished organizing.

All core supplies are securely strapped to their bodies, ready for evacuation at any time.

He turned and strode toward the exit of the treasure vault.

The bronze gate, engraved with thick, insulating array patterns, remained firmly closed.

Lu Chen didn't even bother looking for the mechanism to activate the array plate, nor did he bother to search for the key on the corpse.

He walked straight forward, raised his thick arm, and pressed it directly into the center of the heavy bronze door.

His waist and hips suddenly sank, his feet firmly planted on the bluestone floor. A pure brute force of 100,000 jin flowed through the tendons and bones of his arms, slamming directly onto the metal door panel and pushing it forward with tremendous force.

"Clang—"

Amidst an extremely piercing metallic distorting sound.

The bronze gate, capable of withstanding a full-force bombardment during the early stages of Foundation Establishment, snapped on its hinges and collapsed outwards with a deafening roar. The heavy metal door slammed onto the floor of the outer hall, kicking up clouds of dust.