From bone collectors to the supreme ruler of humanity

Chapter 8 Introduction to Body Tempering

"Yan'er?" Chen's voice came. "Your complexion... seems better?"

Lin Yan touched his face.

He couldn't see his own face, but he could feel that his skin was no longer as dry as before and had a bit of luster.

"Mother, I'm alright."

Lin Yan smiled and said softly, "It's just that I've been resting well these past few days."

Chen looked at Lin Yan with a complicated expression, sighed softly, and ultimately said nothing more.

Lin Yan walked to the door and pushed it open.

The wind outside was still so harsh, and the mountains were still those withered, yellow mountains.

But he felt something was different.

It's not that the outside world has changed, it's that he himself has changed.

He looked down at his hands.

These are still the same hands that pick up bones.

But when he clenched his fist, he could clearly feel the presence of blood and qi inside.

"elder brother."

Lin Xiu ran up from behind and tugged at his sleeve. "What were you laughing at just now?"

"Did I laugh?" Lin Yan looked down at her.

"He laughed, but his laugh was really strange."

Lin Yan squatted down and looked his younger sister in the eye: "Xiuer, I have something to tell you."

"What is it?"

"I've learned a few skills," he said in a low voice. "From now on, our family's life will gradually get better."

Lin Xiu blinked and then nodded vigorously.

"I believe in my brother."

In the distance, the ridge of Black Wind Ridge was faintly visible in the twilight.

After standing there for a while, Lin Yan turned around and went back into the cave.

At this moment, Lin Yan had absolutely nothing left.

The brocade pouch was hidden in the mountains, the copper coins were hidden in the stove hole, but what truly belonged to him was only the fragments in his mind.

A few days later...

Lin Yan then realized just how outrageous he had become.

What used to be nearly impossible to carve into wild boar tusks, Lin Yan can now carve into shape with just a little effort in less than fifteen minutes.

Lin Yan stopped in surprise and looked at his hands.

The calluses from before are still there, but the flesh on my palms is thicker than before. It's not fat, but the firm, elastic flesh that you can press down on.

He clenched his fist, and then heard several sounds.

"elder brother!"

Lin Xiu poked her head out of the cave dwelling and said to Lin Yan, "Mother wants you to come in and have a drink of water."

"Um."

Lin Yan stood up, casually picked up the shaved tusk blank, looked at it, and said.

Inside the cave dwelling, Chen leaned against the kang (a heated brick bed), listlessly accepting the bowl of water Lin Yan handed her.

"Yan'er, have you finished shaving the bone skewers for today?"

"I've finished whittling down one fang; this afternoon I'll work on a few bird bones."

Lin Yan squatted down by the kang (a heated brick bed), drank the water, and then asked, "Mother, how are you feeling today?"

"Much better."

Chen looked at him for a moment, then said with a somewhat ambiguous expression, "Yan'er, have you... grown taller these past few days?"

Lin Yan was visibly taken aback upon hearing this, and only after regaining his composure did he say:

"It seems so."

Lin Xiu leaned closer to Lin Yan and gestured, saying, "Brother used to be about the same height as me, but now he's half a head taller!"

Lin Yan himself didn't notice.

He looked down at the old padded jacket he was wearing.

Only then did I realize that the cuffs were indeed too short, and my wrists were sticking out.

"Maybe I've been eating well lately."

On the night of the introductory session of [Basic Body Training], Lin Yan felt an indescribable sense of clarity throughout his body.

Now it seems that either Lin Yan's imagination was mistaken, or his body had indeed undergone changes.

I woke up the next morning.

Breathing in the fresh air outside, Lin Yan felt refreshed and invigorated.

He tried practicing the boxing style he learned from Wang Agou in the cave dwelling. His punches were more than 30% faster, and with each punch he could feel a surge of energy running up his bones from his feet to his waist and then to his shoulders.

After a set of wild punches,

This is Qi and Blood.

Madam Chen didn't press further, but glanced at him and said softly, "Yan'er, whatever you're practicing, be careful."

"Mother, I know."

Lin Yan took out the money bag and counted it carefully.

Last time I saved up 113 coins. These days I spent more than 30 coins on medicine and food, and also bought some coarse salt and groceries. Now I have 76 coins left.

There are still 224 coins short of 300 coins.

There are nineteen days left until the end of the month.

Within these nineteen days, he needs to find a way to raise three hundred coins, otherwise the government won't give him that much money.

Lin Yan put the copper coins back and stuffed them deep into the kang hole.

"Xiuer, I'm going into the mountains today. You stay home and keep Mother company."

Lin Xiu was munching on a leftover multigrain pancake from yesterday when she heard this. She immediately looked up and said to Lin Yan in a muffled voice, "Brother, didn't you say you weren't going these next few days?"

"I have to go."

Lin Yan slung the bamboo basket over his shoulder, thought for a moment, then tucked the wood-chopping knife into his waistband. With a slight smile, he said, "If we don't raise the money soon, we won't be able to pay the donation by the end of the month, and we'll have to sleep in the wilderness."

Chen opened her mouth as if to say something, but then swallowed it back.

Lin Yan walked to the door, glanced back at them, and smiled: "Don't worry, I'm not going to the north side of the mountain. I'll just wander around the edge of the old forest and be back before dark."

The door closed, and the cold wind blew in but then stopped.

Lin Xiu held the cake and said softly, "Mom, my brother has become so amazing these past few days."

This time, Chen didn't speak, but just stared blankly at the door.

Lin Yan didn't take the main road this time.

He went around the back of the cave dwelling, passed through a thicket of bushes, and then walked west along the ridge.

My proficiency with [Viewing the Mountain] hasn't increased much these days; it's still at the beginner level (19/100).

But Lin Yan discovered that this skill didn't require a high level of proficiency to use. As long as he concentrated, the surrounding environment would appear in his mind like an unfolded map.

Knowing which roads are easy to walk on, where there are hidden ditches, which groves have hollows underneath, and which stones are slippery to step on.

He doesn't need to consciously judge this information; it will naturally emerge from his own perception.

He walked for about half an hour and came to a narrow ravine between two mountains.

He had been to this place twice before, but hadn't found anything of interest. But today was different.

【Viewing the Mountain】pointed to a different path in his perception.

The fork in the road was blocked by a dense thicket of thorns, and from the outside it didn't look like a road at all.

Lin Yan pulled out his machete, cut a few branches, and squeezed in sideways.

Inside was a dry stream, with withered grass growing in the cracks between the rocks, and high cliffs on both sides, so that you could only see a sliver of sky when you looked up.

He walked along the creek for about a hundred steps, then suddenly stopped.

There's something under my feet.

He squatted down, brushed away a layer of dead leaves and loose soil, revealing a bone half-buried in the mud.

It's not animal bone.

It's human bones.

As soon as Lin Yan's fingers touched it, the perception of [Bone Identification] immediately emerged.

[Human skeleton, adult male, time of death approximately six months ago, skeletal integrity generally good, no obvious fractures, presumed to be natural death or death from hypothermia.]

half year ago.

Someone died in this place six months ago.

Lin Yan buried the bones back in, stood up, and continued walking inside.

He wasn't scared.

After working as a bone collector for half a year, I've seen so many dead people's bones that I've long since lost the initial unease.

Besides, the living are far more terrifying than the dead.