20demayo Chapter 15 Hammer Skin
Chapter 15 Hammer Skin
"Splash splash splash—"
A sudden downpour disrupted all of Cai Xuan's plans. He could only stay indoors, occasionally looking up at the roof to see if it was leaking.
The rain was heavy and torrential, with large raindrops pounding on the roof, making a dense, muffled sound, like someone was beating a drum on it.
The kitchen was filled with the fragrant aroma of stewed red-maned jackal bones and nine-oxen divine sweet potatoes. The soup made from the woody old sweet potato roots was much richer in flavor than that made from the tender ones. The aroma, mixed with the meaty fragrance, wafted into the nose, making one's mouth water.
Under the wooden frame, the eight little golden gourds seemed completely unafraid of the sudden downpour.
Instead, it swayed back and forth on the vine, joyfully welcoming the rain and trying to let more raindrops fall on itself.
Streams of moisture continuously flowed into the third small golden gourd, and layers of shimmering light slowly rippled out from it, like ripples activated by rain, one circle after another, gentle and mysterious.
Cai Xuan looked up for a while, and only after confirming that the roof was not leaking did he feel relieved.
Luckily, I was smart when I built the house. To prevent leaks, I laid layers upon layers of large leaves on top and then weighed it down with wooden planks. Without such careful preparation, the house would probably be flooded by now.
The aroma from the kitchen grew stronger and stronger, and Cai Xuan couldn't help but take a deep breath.
On a rainy day like this, you should cook a few dishes and have some wine; life would be wonderful.
Unfortunately—there was no wine!
"Um……"
Cai Xuan suddenly realized that he shouldn't have thrown away the residue left after grinding the Nine Oxen Divine Power Sweet Potatoes. That stuff could have been used to brew wine, and he had even brought yeast powder with him. But thinking about it now was useless; it only added to his troubles.
The aroma wafting from the kitchen grew stronger; the soup had been simmering all morning and should be almost ready.
Cai Xuan then got up and went into the kitchen, poured the red-maned jackal and nine-ox divine power potato soup that had been simmering in the iron bucket for half a day into a large iron basin, lit a fire, and prepared to make a hot pot.
The hot pot ingredients consist of dried dragon beard vegetables, red-maned jackal meat, and some freshly picked sweet potato vines.
It's said that "even immortals can't stand still after a good stew of dog meat"—at this moment, Cai Xuan didn't know if immortals could stand still, but the red-maned jackal meat was indeed excellent. The meat was firm and chewy, stewed to perfection, and every bite was bursting with flavor. The dried dragon whisker vegetables, after being cooked in the pot, absorbed the meaty flavor and tasted much better than when they were used as filling for steamed buns last time.
It rained early in the morning, and Cai Xuan was too lazy to cook breakfast. He was very hungry, so he buried his head in his food and started eating voraciously, one bite after another, unable to stop.
They ate for over an hour, and I don't know how much red-maned jackal meat they ate, before they finally filled their stomachs.
"belch--"
Cai Xuan patted his round belly and couldn't help but let out a burp. Feeling a bit full and uncomfortable sitting down, he walked around the room to aid digestion.
Unexpectedly, as the food slowly digested, bursts of vital energy suddenly surged through his body, rushing to every limb and bone. His blood and qi surged violently, like a pot of oil that had been ignited. Every muscle felt as if it had been filled with power, swelling and aching.
Cai Xuan's heart skipped a beat; this was bad!
He quickly got into a stance and started practicing his boxing, throwing out one punch after another with a whooshing sound and a powerful, imposing force.
The methods that usually worked to dissipate energy were completely useless at this moment. The energy was too immense, and the blood and qi were like a wild horse running rampant in the body. With each punch, the power not only did not subside, but seemed to be activated, becoming even more violent.
Cai Xuan's face turned bright red, veins bulged, and his eyes were bloodshot.
He felt as if his entire body was being roasted over a fire, every muscle trembling, every bone groaning. An unvented power surged through his body, making him want to roar, to smash everything, to kill.
"boom!"
Cai Xuan threw a punch, the sound of which boomed.
He had originally planned to practice the Zonghe Horizontal Training Method after a few days, but now it seems he has no choice but to continue.
Outside, the rain was pouring down, the water like a waterfall, and the world was a white blur, but Cai Xuan couldn't care less. He rushed out of the house and plunged into the rain, running barefoot towards the crevice between the boulders behind the wooden house.
Between those rocks grew a towering tree, as thick as two people could hug, with a straight trunk and bark as rough as dragon scales—perfect for practicing martial arts.
Cai Xuan walked to the tree, took a deep breath, and then slammed himself against it. There were no fancy moves, no techniques whatsoever. Only the purest, most primal brute force, striking the giant tree again and again.
"Bang!"
My shoulder bumped into the tree, causing the trunk to tremble slightly, and raindrops fell from the branches and leaves.
"Bang!"
The impact to my back left red marks on my skin from the rough texture of the tree bark.
"Bang bang bang..."
Cai Xuan was like a raging bull, frantically ramming against the giant tree, his arms, ribs, thighs, and chest all impacted. He seemed like a tireless, painless machine, crashing down again and again. Each impact carried a surge of unleashed, violent power, making the tree trunk vibrate and the ground beneath his feet tremble.
The rain was getting heavier, but the heat emanating from Cai Xuan's body was growing stronger.
With each impact, his skin began to change, gradually turning from fair to red, then rough, then firm, and finally hard. Every inch of his skin was like steel tempered in a raging fire, steaming with white vapor as it was washed by the rain.
The heat, upon encountering the rain, transformed into steam, rising like mist from his body and drifting into the air.
From a distance, it seemed as if a white mist was churning around the giant tree, and a blurry figure could be vaguely seen frantically crashing, pounding, and roaring within it.
Zonghe's Horizontal Training Method, also known as the Body Refinement Method, is a technique that strengthens the body by tempering the skin, flesh, tendons, bones, marrow, and internal organs. Cai Xuan is currently practicing the first level—Skin Tempering.
The method of hammering the skin involves repeatedly pounding the skin with an external object to make it hard and thick, thereby gaining the ability to deflect external force and block knife and spear attacks.
This layer has four levels: genuine leather, crocodile skin, rhinoceros skin, and elephant skin.
The True Skin Realm is the easiest to achieve. Once mastered, the skin becomes tough and its resistance to tearing and impact is greatly enhanced. The Crocodile Skin Realm is more difficult to achieve. Once mastered, the stratum corneum of the skin thickens, making it like crocodile skin. It can withstand ordinary sword and knife wounds, and the wound healing speed will also be faster. The Rhinoceros Skin Realm is a step further and can withstand heavy blows from blunt weapons. However, excessive training may cause the skin to lose sensation. As for the highest level, the Elephant Skin Realm, the skin layer is thickened to the extreme, making it difficult to be injured by external objects. It is almost like wearing a layer of armor.
At this moment, Cai Xuan no longer cared about realms or anything like that. He just kept crashing and crashing, pushing out the violent energy in his body inch by inch, and embedding that scorching power into his skin little by little.
He wasn't just crashing into things randomly. Every impact he made was methodical.
Start lightly and gradually increase the intensity, from slow to fast, from the left shoulder to the right shoulder, from the chest to the back, and from the arms to the waist and ribs.
He was like a blacksmith forging a piece of raw iron, using his own body as a hammer and a giant tree as an anvil, hammering his strength into every pore and cell of his skin, stroke by stroke.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
The sound of impact echoed through the rain, deep and powerful, like ancient war drums striking the heavens and earth.
The rain poured down harder, his energy surged stronger, and the heat emanating from his body intensified. Before the raindrops even touched him, they were repelled by the rising heat, turning into a white mist that swirled around him. From afar, he appeared as if enveloped in a ball of white flame, burning fiercely in the torrential rain.
Under the wooden frame, among the eight small golden gourds, the fifth one suddenly twisted its vine, turning its entire "head" towards Cai Xuan.
It stared motionlessly at the figure crashing wildly in the rain, as if it had witnessed something incredible—the whole melon froze, even the vines stopped swaying.
After an unknown amount of time, Cai Xuan finally felt the frenzied power within him dissipate, replaced by an unprecedented sense of clarity and comfort. Only then did he stop moving, panting heavily. The rain finally fell on him, icy cold, yet it made him exceptionally clear-headed.
He slowly walked back to the wooden house, soaked to the bone, but without feeling a chill.
On the contrary, he felt a warm glow inside him, as if he were holding a warm fire within him, and he threw a powerful punch—
"boom!"
The sound of the punch exploded, the air crackled, and a visible shockwave rippled out from the fist!
Cai Xuan looked down at his body. His skin had become firmer and more resilient than before, with a faint bronze sheen. When pressed with his fingers, he could clearly feel a rubber-like elasticity and hardness.
He never expected that he would achieve the initial stage of the Hammer Skin Realm after only one practice session.
This is simply unbelievable.
Cai Xuan stood at the doorway, gazing at the still torrential rain outside, and exhaled a long breath. The white mist of his breath slowly dissipated in the rain. He clenched his fist, feeling the power flowing through his body, and the corners of his mouth unconsciously turned up slightly.
Finally, I had a sliver of confidence to survive in this desolate world.