Having left the hall where the aucation was being held, Cao Yaun hurried to the cultivation pavilion attached to the inn. Paid off the sleepy elder at the counter with a few coins and, clutching the key to the room in his hand, ran upstairs.
"hugh!hugh!...whew!"
"out of sight! Out of trouble!" Cao yaun wiped off sweet from his brows, feeling is heart drumming against his chest, as he glanced behind him to make sure that the door was properly locked, turning his gaze to the pill box in his hands. It was cold to the touch, a green wood about ten centimeters long and five centimeters in height, width. He felt a strange pull to look inside it, to see what was making it so cold in his hand and contrary to the blazing hot weather.
"Now let's see what sort of miracle you are," Cao Yaun muttered, rubbing his hands together with a smile.
The Shamanic Rune still had not healed, so since his arrival in Baixun City three days ago, he had been too afraid to go anywhere. Having heard from the conversation of some cultivators who were having tea in the inn yesterday regarding the new mission at the adventurers' guild, asking for bodyguards to accompany a merchant company to the next city.
Cao Yaun had decided that it was better to travel with other people rather than alone. There would be less risks on the road, he agreed. After all, the road is not only perilous with the beasts inhabiting the mountains, but the mountain bandits also lurked, waiting for unwary travelers to come by.
Gently pried the pill box open, revealing the Dragon Cleansing Pill within. It gave off a faint warmth. It was a golden pill the size of one's fingertip, smooth like glass, reflecting light. There was a faint medicinal aroma coming from it that was a mixture of fresh scent and warm earthy fragrance.
The Dragon Cleansing Pill was a prepared using the combined essence of rare herbs. It contained the Spirit bone Grass growing on the burial grounds of numerous bones, from which the negative qi of resentment and fiendish energy had been extracted, the Bone Strengthening Flowers, one of the other Bones series, and several other kinds of roots with powerful purifying properties.
The name of the pill, however, had nothing to do with the Dragon, as it would have been blasphemy to refer to it in connection with the Divine Beast. This name was given to it because of its ability to help a cultivator to overcome a particular bottleneck of the early stages of cultivation. According to legends, when a genuine Dragon Cleansing Pill was taken by a cultivator, its after-effect would be similar to the sensation of a Dragon flying in the sky. It allowed one from the Silver Bones stage to enter the Golden Bones stage for the first time, enabling the newly entered cultivator to shed his previous bones, comparable to the transformation undergone by the Dragon.
In this stage, the impurities in the bones and meridians were removed by the energy from the pill, thus cleansing the channel, making the breakthrough to the next step easier, and protecting against the damage during the transformation.
Cao Yaun settled down on a cultivation mat that was spread on the floor in the middle of the room,and regulating his breathing. with his legs crossed, he took the small golden pill in his hand, surprised at the weight for something so minuscule, and threw it into his mouth, swallowing it in one full gulp.
A surge of energy coursed through Cao Yaun's body as the Dragon Cleansing Pill worked, removing impurities, attacking his bones. He could feel the heat in his bones as they grew denser and stronger, and his meridians expanded, cleansing themselves of impurities.
CRACK-CRACK-CRACK!
His entire skeleton seemed to have compacted, extracting the last trace of impurities from his bones. The density of his bones was increasing, passing into another state – from the precious metal to the steel used in the battles.
Yaun bit his lip, grimacing. The pain was significant, but he was still experiencing a surge of energy – the density of his bones, and thus his strength, was increasing rapidly. The bottleneck that had held him back was simply washed away. When the energy surge stopped, Cao Yaun opened his eyes, a white flash of which briefly illuminated them.
He clenched his fists, testing his power, and found himself to be much stronger than before. He had reached the realm of Iron Bones.
Cao Yaun could feel the difference; his bones resisted, and he was much stronger than before, even on the level of physical power. His regeneration had increased; he could tell.
Standing up, Cao Yaun stretched his arms to test his muscle strength. Slowly raising his massive arms, Cao Yaun clenched them into a fist; the air in it instantly. He unclenched them, clenched them again, this time looking at his fists, a wide grin on his face. He felt amazing!
The Dragon Cleansing Pill had lived up to its reputation. With a deep breath, he was preparing to leave the cultivation room, and venture out to test his new strength against a monster or two in the wild to get used to the new power. Already, the aucation had long come to an end and the sun basking high up in the sky, the inn was empty except for the occasional creak from the first floor, where the auction was held this morning.
"Huh!"
Cao Yuan muttered as he was about to leave the meditation chamber, a strange warmth spreading across his skin. He stopped, blinking a few times, surprised by the strange sensation. Looking at the runes on his chest, he saw that the dull lines had returned to life. The runes had been devoid of energy ever since the exhausting battle in the forest.
The air around them was no longer frigid, dead, and he could feel the qi running through his body once again. Looking at the marks on his bare chest, Yaun's eyes widened in surprise. The runes were bright and healthy, one dark and the other green, looking like glowing tattoos on his skin.
"Ohh! … What is this?" muttered Cao Yaun, feeling something unusual in his head. "Seems like I can activate both runes at the same time!"
Without hesitation, instinctively, he activated both runes at the same time. A great surge of energy exploded in him, throwing him back. His massive body trembled as the floorboard cracked under his pressure.
"Illusion…" Cao Yaun muttered, quickly deactivating the runes. He was about to get up to check himself when, with a start, he realized he had sat on the bed instead. It trembled in the same way as the floorboard, almost breaking under his weight.
"What the hell?" He was stunned by what happened. For a few seconds, he could feel the power in him. By activating both runes at the same time, he actually had the delusion that he was strong enough to punch a hole right through the sky and the earth with his fists. Of course, it was all an illusion, but it was really incredibly impressive. It seems that activating two runes at the same time raised his power by a whole level higher.
In the past, although he could also activate both runes, he could not do it at the same time. Usually, it was the rune from the black-scale tiger that was more actively used, as it gave him more advantages over the rune of the human-faced centipede. However, this was only a slight advantage.
As for the ability to simultaneously activate both runes, Cao Yaun had no idea how it was possible, but he was glad that he could do it now. Thinking about how cool it would be to have ten such runes, he shuddered in delight with the idea of how cool it would be if he somehow could manage to do that at the same time.
Hmm-mm ... "Cao Yaun shook his head, trying not to laugh at the crazy thought that had just occurred to him. He would have exploded right there and then from such a powerful outburst.
"Hahaha!"
Cao Yaun suddenly burst into laughter, his heart pounding with thoughts of his strong potential. He imagined how cool it would be if he had ten such runes, and ten times stronger.
As he left the room, he bowed to the inn owner, saying goodbye and rushing out as quickly as he came in, not even noticing the old man's hand offering him the remaining change.