Ever since Lin Dong successfully made a breakthrough to the 5th Layer, his crazy training speed started to tone down. Although he still had help from the Stone Talisman Ling Liquid, he understood that too much excess will only bring harm upon oneself. Thus he decided to moderate his pace.

Consequently, over the next few days, Lin Dong seemed more relaxed than before. Whenever he had time, he would practise his almost perfectly mastered Penetrating Fist. Having previously grasped the secret behind it, Lin Dong was now finally able to smoothly execute the tenth echo of Penetrating Fist. However, he continued to keep this a secret, after all, this was his secret finishing move.

After relaxing at this gradual pace for a few days, Lin Dong finally resumed his intensive training. However, this time, he did not return to soak in the rock pool because it did not bring much benefit to him.

In fact, Lin Dong planned to start directly consuming the red liquid from the stone talisman.

Lin Dong had pondered for a day before he finally decided on this course of action. The Stone Talisman Ling Liquid was extremely rich in Ling Qi. Based on Lin Dong's calculations, he reasoned that the degree of Ling Qi within was greater than that of a normal Grade 3 elixir. Thus, if one was not careful, such a potent Ling Qi may instead do more harm than good.

However, he had little alternatives left, if he did not use this method. This is because the diluted Stone Talisman Ling Liquid already had little effect on him. Furthermore, there was only three months left before the Family Competition and Lin Dong desperately needed to advance to Tempered Body 6th Layer before that. Only then, could he secure his victory over Lin Hong. He knew that if Lin Hong managed to obtain a good result, he would definitely ask Grandfather for an engagement with Qing Tan. When that time comes, should Lin Xiao disagree, it would definitely cause some commotion. This was a scenario that Lin Dong did not wish to see play out.

Thus, to put an end to this matter, the only way was for him utterly humiliate Lin Hong until he lost all face to make that request!

However, although Lin Dong extremely disliked Lin Hong, he had to admit that the latter was indeed skilled. Lin Hong had already advanced to Tempered Body 6th Layer a few months back, who knew how much he had improved since then? Therefore, Lin Dong knew that he must be thoroughly prepared.

With all these issues in mind, consuming the Stone Talisman Ling Liquid to boost his training was clearly the only option.

"Gulp!"

In his room, Lin Dong stared at the bowl of crimson red liquid before him. As he gritted his teeth, he took in a deep breath before he immediately lifted the bowl, emptied its contents into his mouth with a 'gu lu gu lu' sound.

As the crimson red liquid entered his body, Lin Dong's cheeks instantly turned fiery red. White steam started to emerge from the top of his head before spiralling upwards.

"Glup glup!"

Lin Dong's teeth chattered uncontrollably. The crimson red liquid that he had poured into his body seemed to have transformed into lava as it flowed inside his body. An intolerable burning sensation struck Lin Dong in every part of his body that the 'lava' passed.

Both his arms hugged his body as he lay paralyzed on the ground. As he curled up in pain, he tried desperately to resist and endure the burning sensation in his body.

Within the room, a figure thrashed about in pain, rolling back and forth on the ground. His constrained gasps sounded a little hoarse as he was afraid that if he shouted too loudly, Lin Xiao and the rest be alerted.

The inhumane torment lasted for a full ten minutes before it gradually receded.

As the last wisps of burning pain faded from his body, Lin Dong's trembling self slowly calmed down. He gasped deeply a few times, before stretching out to lie powerlessly on the floor.

As he laid face flat on the ground, within his body, a sudden cooling medicinal effect appeared. This medicinal effect quickly infused itself into his bones, causing him to faintly feel slightly numb, as if something had entered into the deepest part of his bones.

"Refining force has entered my bones?"

When he became aware of the numbness that spread out from the deepest part of his bones, Lin Dong's mind abruptly jolted. What he was experiencing now, implied that he was slowly advancing towards Tempered Body 6th Layer. When the force channels merged with the bone marrow, a Yuan Power Seed will be born in the bone marrow!

"The pain was worth it!"

Lin Dong wiped the sweat from his face as he chuckled. Under normal circumstances, it will take at least two or three months before the refining force will enter one's bones. Yet the Stone Talisman Spiritual Liquid had shortened the time needed by an insane amount. Although consuming the liquid had caused him a tremendous amount of pain, comparing the rewards that he had gained, all the pain now seemed insignificant.

"The medicinal effect will linger in my body for a few days, I can't waste this opportunity. Time to start a hyper intensive training regime."

Lin Dong crawled up from the ground while he could feel the lingering medicinal effect of the Stone Talisman Spiritual Liquid in his body. This medicinal effect was quite valuable, hence he knew that he must not waste any of it. After all, he had a limited amount of Stone Talisman Spiritual Liquid and it was good for him to be frugal when using it.

As he wriggled his body, Lin Dong let out a satisfied grin. He pushed open the door and exited the house in order to proceed with his daily training.

Since he had tasted the benefits from directly consuming the Stone Talisman Ling Liquid, Lin Dong decided that he will consume one drop of Stone Talisman Ling Liquid every four days.

A drop every four days. This rate of consumption caused Lin Dong's heart to feel somewhat pained. Although he did not know just exactly how valuable the Stone Talisman Ling Liquid, he knew it definitely would not be lower than Grade 3 Elixirs. And, consuming a Grade 3 Elixir every four days was truly lavish and it was probably something only a handful of people in Qingyang Town could afford to.

Of course, though he consumed lavishly, the rewards was indeed bountiful. In a short half a month's time, Lin Dong could feel as if something was burning in the deepest part of his bones. This sensation was like something was about to be born in his bone marrow.

And when Lin Dong was taking a break from Tempered Body training, he once again went to disturb Lin Xiao in order get the latter to teach him more martial arts.

After several months of practising Penetrating Fist, Lin Dong had completely mastered it. Yet he was hardly satisfied, thanks to the miraculous powers of the Stone Talisman, martial arts were like a shortcut to becoming strong, as even a normal martial art would transform into an extraordinary one under the guidance of Stone Talisman Glowing Shadow.

Hence, for Lin Dong, it was definitely beneficial for him to learn more martial arts.

However, Lin Xiao held a contrasting view. To him, martial arts were important, but the most important factor was still the strength of one's body. He was worried that Lin Dong will neglect training his body if he focuses too much on learning martial arts. In that case, it would not be worth it at all.

However, despite his concerns, when Lin Dong executed the seventh echo of Penetrating Fist, the former was finally cornered. Lin Xiao looked at Lin Dong with a strange gaze for a good part of the day, before he eventually forced himself to admit that his son had an affinity with martial arts that even surpassed his own.

After convincing Lin Xiao with his performance, Lin Dong successfully obtained a set of martial arts from the former.

Eight Desolations Palm, Lower Category Level 2 martial arts.

Lin Dong was very satisfied because he knew that this set of palm techniques was the same martial arts that Lin Hong primarily focused on.

Lin Dong was very eager to see the expression on Lin Hong's face once he realized that Lin Dong's Eight Desolations Palm had immensely surpassed his, during the Family Competition.

In the quiet night, Lin Dong once again drifted into the dark Spiritual Domain.

This time, when Lin Dong appeared in the dark space, two glowing shadows also blinked into existence. As he gazed at the familiar palm technique the second glowing shadow was executing, an impatient smile formed on Lin Dong's face.

He was eager to know, just how much of an improvement will this Lower Category Level 2 martial art experience be, in the hands of the glowing shadow?

Sorry but first another not in relation to the story:

We have decided to term the 'red-liquid from the Stone Talisman' simply as 'Stone Talisman Ling Liquid' from now onwards or sometimes just 'Stone Talisman Liquid'.

I hope this clarifies everything and if anyone has any questions feel free to comment and we'll try to get back to you ASAP.