Vitality Cleansing and Bone Renewal, Fire Forging the Golden Body Part Two

The eighth and ninth diagrams appeared one after another, and the resonance of the shockwaves grew ever more mysterious. More and more medicinal energy surged forth like schools of fish. The Vitality Pill, famed for healing ruptured meridians, hidden ailments, and internal injuries, is a priceless treasure for those whose martial arts have been crippled. But Jill Young’s meridians are so tough and wide that she doesn’t need healing at all. So all that medicinal energy was put to use elsewhere.

Endless medicinal energy seeped into her meridians like sweet spring water nourishing the earth. Under the dual effects of the medicine and the shockwaves, a gentle sheen began to appear on Jill Young’s meridians. The glow wasn’t colored or tailored to any particular type of inner power, but as it nourished her, the Supreme Skill spun faster and smoother than ever.

The diagrams grew ever more complex. After repeating diagrams seven through nine several times, a look of confusion and contemplation appeared on Jill Young’s sleeping face—she seemed stuck on the tenth diagram. While both the ninth and tenth belong to the middle set of six, the difficulty between the front and back halves is worlds apart. Even a once-in-a-generation genius might not be able to grasp the tenth diagram.

A spark of inspiration flashed in Jill Young’s mind—she wasn’t completely stumped. The Insight Technique automatically began analyzing the essence of the tenth diagram, and the progress bar was steadily climbing. It would just take a little time to finish.

Flames burned beneath the Bun Furnace, and after all this roasting, the temperature inside had started to climb. The wall of this 'bun-shaped' furnace was unusually thick, designed to provide steady, long-lasting heat and prevent wild temperature swings. It doesn’t heat up quickly, but once it gets going, cooling it down is a whole other story.

After all this time roasting, the temperature had clearly gone up. In her sleep, Jill Young mumbled, rolled over, and muttered, "It's kinda... hot..."

Calling it "kinda hot" was an understatement—any normal person would’ve been toast by now. The furnace wall had already hit eighty degrees, then ninety, and soon barreled past a hundred. At these temps, toss in a steak and you’d get a well-done cut in no time; throw in some dough and you’d have a fresh-baked bun. Jill Young’s body was freakishly tough, leagues ahead of anyone else—boiling water was nothing to her. But this furnace wasn’t stopping there.

One-forty, one-eighty—the temp kept climbing like a taxi meter as she made progress cracking the tenth diagram. When Jill Young mumbled "kinda hot" in her sleep, her skin was already tightening and toughening up to handle the brutal conditions. A hundred-something degrees was nothing to her—sometimes, when she pumped up her blood and inner energy, her skin temp could hit those numbers, but her super-strong body kept her from boiling away.

Two-forty, two-eighty—the air inside the furnace started to twist and shimmer, with flecks of ash floating out the vent. At this heat, most cooking oils would be boiling. That so-called "oil bath" stunt from Master Ram in Chiche Country? Child’s play. He needed a cold dragon to cheat the heat, which is hardly impressive. Meanwhile, Jill Young—still asleep—had her blood circulating on its own, and she finally started to sweat.

Three-forty, three-eighty—the temp was now hotter than lead’s melting point. The cotton clothes Jill Young wore caught fire without a spark, flames sweeping over her and casting a dark red glow. Fierce tongues of fire licked her body, and even though she was stuck in a strange dream state, she frowned, muscles tensed, skin toughened, and her Supreme Skill coursed through her, adapting to the extreme heat with ease.

Whoosh—after a brief flash of fire, all her clothes were burned away. Ash drifted down, and though Jill Young’s skin flushed red, she didn’t have a single burn—not even her hair was singed. The dye in her hair cracked and flaked off like dust, revealing her natural platinum color once more. She was on the final stretch of deciphering the tenth diagram, but was stuck at the last hurdle.

"Hot... hot..." The temperature in the furnace kept rising, and a look of irritation crossed Jill Young’s face. The annoyance built up fast, finally bursting out as full-blown mania: "Damn it... who cranked the heat up this high—!"

Whoosh—a sudden roar. Still asleep, Jill Young forgot all about her injuries and threw a punch straight out. Thud! Her fist slammed into the furnace wall, making the whole thing tremble and leaving a one-centimeter-deep dent. This wasn’t some flimsy iron plate—the furnace wall was thicker than two brick walls. A dent this deep was just bonkers.

Buzz—the mechanical shockwaves rippled out and echoed back, reverberating through the whole furnace and shaking her bones. At the same time, a flash of inspiration crossed her mind—the tenth diagram finally clicked, and just so happened to be a punching pose.

"Turn off the heat!" Thud—Jill Young punched again, her pose matching the tenth diagram perfectly. The Luminous Stone she clutched in her fist didn’t crack under the force; instead, its faint glow rippled like water, looking quite mystical.

A fierce buzzing rang through her whole body as all the medicinal energy was swept up and merged into her meridians. The gentle glow in her meridians reached saturation, and finally, under the fiery influence of the Supreme Skill, a trace of crimson gold appeared in the glow.

That touch of crimson gold—like flipping a switch from zero to one. It was like a race car driver waiting forever and finally hitting an unrestricted highway; the Supreme Skill instantly floored it, tearing through Jill Young’s meridians at full throttle.

The shockwaves in her body, the resonance in her meridians, and the surging inner power—all three worked together, deepening the crimson glow in her meridians. Not only that, all the medicinal effects from the spirit herbs and fruits Jill Young had eaten but never fully absorbed were finally drawn out from deep within her body, trickling into her meridians like a hundred streams flowing into the sea.

The Supreme Skill’s power skyrocketed at a mind-blowing pace—even faster than when she trained on the Killing Stone. This was the result of all those years of stockpiled medicinal energy finally bursting out. Her meridians crackled, and under the rampaging Supreme Skill, her tenth meridian started to loosen, on the verge of breaking through.

The temperature kept climbing—four forty, four eighty.

"So hot—!" Thud! She switched from left to right fist, leaving another dent in the furnace wall, this one even deeper than before. Her arm bone, not fully healed, threatened to crack again under the impact, but before it could, Jill Young—still in that strange state—instinctively started patching herself up.

"Ham-mum-mum..." She popped Secondary Meat Pills into her mouth like fish balls. In her dream, Jill Young felt like a planet, with the eighteen diagrams orbiting her like satellites. And beyond those, countless points of light spun around her like rings. Iron Arm, Ironhide, Iron Leg, Ironhead—the whole Iron Techniques Set chugged past her eyes like a train.

Passing through her dream, passing through her heart.

The Insight Technique instantly broke down these not-so-advanced martial arts, and Jill Young’s body started training the Iron Techniques Set on its own. With her massive life force and superhuman physique, she blitzed through four out of eight levels in a flash, charging straight toward the eighth like a battering ram.

But pure Iron Techniques only boost physical defense—they’re no good against high heat.

Five forty, five eighty...

"Hot-hot-hot-hot-hot—I'm gonna die from this heat!" Thud-thud-thud-thud—Jill Young, now totally fed up, hammered both fists against the furnace wall, desperately looking for a way out. Metal cracked, debris flew, but the nearly one-meter-thick, round furnace was basically indestructible. Then, in her dream, Jill saw another string of diagrams appear among the orbiting rings—a whole set of Golden Techniques.

As she broke through the seventh level of Iron Techniques, the rampaging Supreme Skill synced up with her body, and she started training the Golden Bell Shield. The Golden Techniques were way tougher than the Iron ones, mostly because they demanded way more inner power. First and second levels—no problem; third and fourth—easy. Fifth and sixth—she started to slow down. By the seventh, Jill glowed with a faint, nearly invisible golden light and her progress crawled.

The twelve-level Golden Bell Shield is said to make you immune to blades, bullets, water, and fire—and it really does block heat like a champ. Once Jill reached the seventh level, the protective energy shield kicked in, and the temperature she actually felt dropped by a good sixty or seventy degrees. Suddenly, things felt a lot cooler.

But lowering the soup’s heat isn’t as good as fixing the fire at the bottom—so long as the flames under the furnace keep burning, the temperature’s just going to keep rising.

Six forty, six eighty.

At this temperature, no living thing could survive. Proteins, fats—every building block of life would burn to charcoal, no exceptions. The mysterious old monk had only planned to roast for a bit and then come back to turn off the fire, slow-cooking her like a sweet potato. For some reason, he never returned, and the flames kept burning. Even Jill Young was starting to feel seriously uncomfortable.

A body with the strength of a dragon is nothing like a normal mortal’s—Jill Young had already set foot on the path of the Meat Pill, with all sorts of wild abilities. Even in molten lava at a thousand degrees Celsius, she could survive for thirty seconds tops before getting burned, and any longer would mean serious injury or death. Now, after all this roasting, she was nearing her limit.