In his room, Lin Dong sat on his bed as he very carefully took out a wooden box hidden in his clothes and then took out a Yellow Mud Fruit from within.

As the Yellow Mud Fruit was exposed, a delightful fragrance was emitted that could captivate anyone nearby.

Lin Dong gazed at this Yellow Mud Fruit as he placed it into his right palm. His thoughts twitched, urging a trace of Yuan Power to flow from the Yuan Power Seed within him into the Stone Talisman that was embedded within his palm.

"Humm!"

As the Yuan Power gushed in, Lin Dong could see the faint mysterious symbols on the underside of the skin of his palm start to glow as traces of a bright light seeped out from the pores of his palm and shined on the Yellow Mud Fruit.

The Yellow Mud Fruit rapidly wilted as the mysterious light shone on it. As the light faded, two dark-yellow pills laid quietly in Lin Dong's palm.

Upon witnessing this miraculous scene, awe filled Lin Dong's eyes as his fascination with the Stone Talisman once again deepened.

"It is said that some extremely powerful individuals are able to crystalize mental energy into symbols which possess all kinds of miraculous effects. Perhaps this was how the Stone Talisman was formed?

Lin Dong grabbed onto the lukewarm pills as he contemplated. He had occasionally heard of such rumours, but these stories originated from far away and he yet to experience the outside world to confirm them.

Compared to the large and majestic Great Yan Dynasty, Qingyang Town was simply too small...

"One day, I must venture into the outside world..."

Lin Dong smiled, deep in his heart an adventurous spirit emerged. He was confident that he would not be confined to this tiny Qingyang town!

"However, before that, lets start training first."

The adventurous spirit within Lin Dong's heart was swiftly washed off by cold reality as he helplessly spread out his arms. Right now, he was not even the top dog in Qingyang Town. How could be hope to venture out into the exciting yet dangerous outside world.

As he popped the dark-yellow pill into his mouth, Lin Dong sat on his bed as he felt a stream of pure medicinal power spread throughout his body. A smile formed on his face as he concentrated on absorbing the medicinal power, allowing the Yuan Power Seed within his inner channels to grow.

...

Ever since the fight with the younger generation of the Xie Family, in particular, the fact that he had not lost even against Lei Li. Lin Dong's reputation among the younger generation in the Lin Family suddenly skyrocketed. In fact, his reputation now exceeded Lin Xia's and Lin Hong's.

Young people tend to be rash and hot-blooded. In the past, whenever they clashed with the younger generation members from the Lei and Xie Families, they always came out on the losing end, forced to run away with their tails between their legs. However, thanks to Lin Dong, the situation has now turned for the better. At the very least, whenever the younger generation members in Lin Family encounter other younger generation members from Xie Family, the latter no longer dared to bully them outright.

Lin Dong was nonchalant even as his reputation surged. Rather, he chose to focus most of his time on training. Even when he occasionally visited the Lin Family, he would go straight to the Martial Arts Library. Whenever other younger generation members invited him to hang out with them, he would politely decline. Hence, he did not cause much ripples in Qingyang Town.

Two months swiftly passed as Lin Dong maintained this quiet lifestyle...

During these two month's time, Lin Dong did not once neglect his training. Thanks to his diligence, he could see the Yuan Power Seed residing within his inner channels grow more concentrated and bigger. Sometimes, when the Yuan Power Seed tried to breakthrough the Dan Tian, Lin Dong could faintly feel that the once impenetrable Dan Tian barrier, had begun to waver slightly.

During these two months of training, Lin Dong had completely used up all ten of the Yellow Mud Fruit Pills and the two Flaming Crimson Reishi pills he had. Therefore, he was forced to return to the underground bazaar and exchange the diluted Stone Talisman Ling Liquid for another ten stalks of Grade 3 Elixirs. This ensured that he had a constant supply during these two months.

Of course, when he returned to the bazaar, Lin Dong carefully chose another underground location. After all, it was best to be cautious when handling the Stone Talisman Ling Liquid.

During these two months, although Lin Dong made remarkable progress, Qing Tan had completely trumped him.

Perhaps it was due to her mysterious body constitution. Though Qing Tan rarely used elixirs, her training progress was almost as fast as Lin Dong, even with help from the Stone Talisman.

Qing Tan had smoothly progressed to Tempered Body 7th Layer. Even though she did not undergo rigorous training, her body seemed to absorb the Yuan Power between Heaven and Earth at a much more rapid pace than normal.

Lin Dong was stunned as he faced this peculiar situation. Once, when Lin Xiao returned home and learned about this matter, he too displayed the same shocked reaction. After much pondering, they were still unable to make heads or tails of the situation. In the end, they decided to attribute it to Qing Tan's unique body constitution.

Even though the facts remained fuzzy, Lin Xiao and Lin Dong could faintly feel that Qing Tan's body was indeed unique. However, this was both a cause for celebration and woe. After much discussion, both of them decided that it would be best to keep this matter a secret. After all, if news got out, it may lead to some unexpected problems.

Besides, after witnessing Qing Tan's rapid training progress, Lin Dong went to the Martial Arts Library to find some martial arts that were more suited for girls. After perfecting those martial arts using the Stone Talisman Glowing Shadow, he then personally taught them to Qing Tan, to allow her to protect herself.

...

As the Qingyang Town Hunt approaches, Qingyang Town got increasingly crowded. Even though there were still about two months before the hunt, many people were already excitedly discussing about it.

Everyone knew that his hunt was a guise for Qingyang Town's major factions to compete with each other. During each hunt, each faction would donate prizes, and of course, these prizes tend to be very lucrative. Naturally, the faction that won would be able to claim all the prizes. In past hunts, the Lei and Xie Families were able to take advantage of this fact to claim several exorbitant gifts from the Lin Family and the Raging Blade Dojo.

For the upcoming hunt, naturally, many people were speculating about who would emerge as the eventual victor among the four major factions. Of course, the faction that was heavily favoured was still the Lei Family. After all, they were the most well-established faction in Qingyang Town and they had vast resources to expend. Furthermore, up till now, no one had been able to threaten Lei Li's position as the number one younger generation member in Qingyang Town.

In fact, it was rumoured that Lei Li will advance to Earthly Yuan level before the hunt began. If so, the Lei Family would have about an 80% chance of victory for the upcoming hunt...

Under the brilliance of Lei Li, the younger generation members in the rest of the three major factions seemed lackluster in comparison.

...

Lin Dong did not know much about these speculations and discussions as he continued his seclusion to focus on his training. Nonetheless, even if he knew, he would probably ignore them as he knew that the future was not set in stone.

As he trained quietly, Lin Dong had managed to achieve excellent results in these two months. During this period, he had tried several hundred times to breakthrough the Yuan Barrier. Towards the end of the two months, he decided to conserve and concentrate all his resources and finally managed to breakthrough the Yuan Dan Barrier!

And when the Yuan Power Seed finally broke through and entered the Yuan Dan, to the delight of an excited Lin Dong, he could feel a transformation occurring within every part of his body...

That sensation was akin to a submerged dragon soaring into the sky, or a fish finally released into the ocean.