123 Combination Buff

Seeing Chen Jue standing before her with his mouth toothless and a silly grin on his face, Little Sister Yun couldn't help but be amused. "Brother Chen Jue! You look just like those old grannies in the village who have lost all their teeth!"

Chen Jue scratched his head in embarrassment. Without teeth, his mouth lacked structural support, causing the skin and flesh around his lips to cave in, which looked rather bizarre. However, this did not hinder his speech. "Little Sister Yun, that martial art I was practicing for so long—were you able to learn it?"

Little Sister Yun pondered for a moment, her large eyes darting about. She nodded and said, "The technique you practiced just now was like a tiger, like a dragon, and even like a newly sprouted bamboo shoot! I watched for a long time and managed to learn a bit of it."

With that, Little Sister Yun stood up. With a sudden burst of vital energy, she executed the Tiger-Form Thunder Sound, the Dragon-Form Bone-Searching, the Snake-Form Drilling Force, and the Turtle-Breath Inward Concentration—a simulation of forming the Golden Elixir—all at once. Moreover, the slight trembling of her skin was not the technique of the Golden Bell Shield or the Iron Cloth Shirt, but rather the "Old Bear Shaking off Lice" power-generating method.

She had effectively reverse-engineered Chen Jue's "Dragon and Tiger Intertwining to Form the Elixir" posture simply by observing and synthesizing the various Xingyi forms she already knew or had created. She was truly a peerless prodigy.

"You're amazing, Little Sister!" Chen Jue exclaimed in admiration. "When I get back tonight, I’ll send you all the materials on the Tiger-Roar Golden Bell Shield and the Dragon-Hum Iron Cloth Shirt. You should study them when you have time; with your talent, you’ll likely learn them faster than I did."

Chen Jue’s own "meager" learning talent was like the earth compared to the heavens when placed alongside Little Sister Yun’s self-taught brilliance. Yet, this was a good thing. With a naturally gifted "Mountain Lord" by his side, and with the martial arts he had taught her, perhaps one day Chen Jue could cultivate a companion with whom he could truly discuss the path of practice.

Thinking of this, Chen Jue realized that just giving her boxing manuals wasn't enough. He decided he should share all the materials he had downloaded from the group—excluding those overly esoteric ones that were energy-draining and unverifiable—covering Daoism, Buddhism, Confucianism, and medicine. Given her superior learning ability, she might spark even more inspiration for him in the future. It would be a way to return the favor for her guidance on the Snake-Form Bone-Shaking technique earlier. If it hadn't been for that insight—which helped him master the final, subtle aspect of Yin-Yang harmony—Chen Jue would have been delayed in breaking through the Dragon-Hum Iron Cloth Shirt by several days, or might even have had to waste precious free attribute points to force the breakthrough.

"Okay! Thank you, Brother Chen Jue!" Little Sister Yun nodded, then couldn't help but giggle again at the sight of Chen Jue’s puckered, toothless mouth.

***

Because Chen Jue had spent the afternoon practicing, it was already nightfall by the time they left the forest and reached the main road. After seeing Little Sister Yun off to a bustling tourist town and watching her figure disappear into the lights, Chen Jue had dinner in town and hired a car to take him to W寨, several dozen kilometers away.

Back at Wang Biao's old house, Chen Jue first rinsed himself off. The breakthrough to form the Elixir that afternoon had caused violent changes in his body, generating heat and sweat that left him feeling as if he were coated in a layer of oily grime. In reality, this was his body’s accelerated metabolism following the "rebirth of bones and marrow" that occurs after forming the Elixir, purging impurities from within.

It was much like when a normal person visits a sauna; after steaming, the pores open, the body relaxes, and one feels as if all the toxins are being expelled. Or, like finishing a day of heavy labor and washing away the dirt to feel refreshed and invigorated. Daoist classics refer to this state as "washing the marrow and cutting the bone," purging the impurities accumulated after birth to return the body to its innate, pristine state, much like a newborn infant untouched by the outside world. A high-ranking Buddhist monk in history, Zen Master Wenxi, vividly described this state of eternal purity with the verse: "Without grime or stain, the true state remains."

After his shower, Chen Jue felt incredibly comfortable, but forming the Golden Elixir was only the beginning. The "rebirth of bones and marrow" is a long process, and next, he would have to face the "Hundred Days of Foundation Building" mentioned in Daoist internal alchemy. Boxing manuals explain this as a process of "changing marrow and blood," hence the saying, "The hundred-day foundation building is the barrier of changing blood." The duration varies; those with strong natural bones complete it quickly, while those with weaker constitutions take longer.

This process consumes a significant amount of nutrients and energy. The meal he had just eaten, along with the travel and the shower, had already digested almost entirely. Chen Jue had to take five times the dose of the nutritional supplements, vitamins, calcium tablets, and cod liver oil he had brought, and brewed a pot of ginseng tea to fill his empty stomach.

Lying on the bed with a clear mind, he checked his attribute panel:

Character: Chen Jue
Age: 27
Health Index: 180% (↑)
Strength: 3.26 (↑)
Agility: 2.56 (↑)
Constitution: 3.60 (↑)
Intelligence: 1.61 (1.11)
Skills: [Omitted]
Status Bonuses: [Omitted]
Free Attribute Points: 0.57

Looking at the rows of rising arrows, Chen Jue understood that "nourishing the sacred embryo" or "hundred-day foundation building" was a process of continuous bodily improvement, similar to a persistent status buff.

He also studied the three new statuses awakened after perfecting the Dragon-Hum Iron Cloth Shirt:

[Dragon Hum across the Four Seas]: Qi flows like a long dragon, roaming the four seas! Status Description: A close-quarters lethal move; can use the vital energy emitted from the whole body to disrupt and intimidate any powerful enemy.

[Iron Garment Covering the Body]: Iron armor covers the body, immune to blades and spears! Status Description: This state significantly increases the player's physical resistance to piercing and cutting attacks and accelerates the practice progress of the same-named skill.

[Tiger Roar and Dragon Hum]: The Azure Dragon rides fire to roam the lotus pond, the White Tiger stirs waves to emerge from the bridal chamber. Status Description: A combo buff; by practicing the Tiger-Roar Golden Bell Shield and Dragon-Hum Iron Cloth Shirt in conjunction, it continuously improves the player's physical attributes until the growth limit is reached, at which point the status will automatically disappear.

The first two were easy to understand, but the final [Tiger Roar and Dragon Hum] status left him deep in thought. He suspected that the sudden formation of the Elixir that afternoon was closely linked to this unlocked combo buff.

"Growth limit?" Chen Jue stared at the panel with a strange expression. "For a normal person, the limit is probably like Little Sister Yun—naturally divine, with 40 teeth, only able to exert a constitution and strength of around 1.0... but my limit? Could it be that there is no limit?"

Because of the massive energy expenditure during the day's breakthrough, after studying the panel, his consciousness faded into chaos. He entered the state of "fetal breathing" faster than ever before, sleeping as "dead" as the "living dead" mentioned in earlier texts.

Throughout the night, his teeth grew frantically, rapidly consuming the calcium and nutrients he had ingested. Like bamboo shoots in spring breaking through the soil, they emerged from his gums, pulsating with vibrant life.