Bang!
A muscular, bare-chested young man was punching a tall stone monument. As he punched, there seemed to be a silvery glow around his fist, and deep fist marks could be seen left on the monument after he punched it. The young man was Jin Shu, who was testing his strength.
Jin Shu stopped punching the monument and picked up a towel to wipe his sweat. "Phew, this iron-stone monument can normally withstand the strength of a cultivator in the 6th stage of the Qi Gathering Realm without denting. That is equivalent to about 1000 pounds of force. Judging by the depth of my fist marks, I'd say that my current strength is beyond the peak class of 9th stage Qi Gathering Realm cultivators and nearing 1st stage Core Forging. So, around 1600 pounds of force. Normally, Qi Gathering doesn't increase the strength of a cultivator by more than 50-100 pounds of force. So, my punching strength would have been around 800 pounds before my transformation. That means the Living Metal inside of me has at least doubled my strength."
"Mew," Yin'er walked up to Jin Shu and sent a vague thought of eagerness.
"You want to test your strength as well? Alright, go ahead."
Yin'er crouched down, getting ready to pounce towards the monument. With a mighty push of her back legs, Yin'er jumped into the air, raising her right paw ready to swipe at the monument. As she landed in front of the monument swinging her paw, she tripped and her feet became tangled. She rolled towards the monument, slamming her head against it.
"MEW!" Yin'er yelped in pain, while rubbing her forehead with her paws.
Jin Shu pet her on the back to comfort her. "That was a good try, and look, you dented the monument, that means you are very strong."
Yin'er looked up and saw a shallow dent where her head slammed into the monument. She stood up and puffed her chest out as she sent Jin Shu a thought of accomplishment mixed with a little pride and a hint of wanting for acknowledgement.
Jin Shu chuckled and pet Yin'er while congratulating her. "Good job, Yin'er, you're the strongest little tiger."
"Mew!" Yin'er jumped up and fluttered her little wings, just barely reaching Jin Shu's shoulder as he was crouched down. She climbed onto his shoulders and rubbed her face on his while purring, evidently very pleased with his praise.
"Alright, let's head back and practice cultivation now."
---
Jin Shu was sitting cross-legged with his hands resting on his knees, and Yin'er curled up, laying in his lap. As he breathed deeply, natural Qi entered his mouth and moved downwards through his lungs, eventually reaching his lower dantian. He was currently cultivating. As he was breathing in the Qi from the air, he could feel an extra strand of Qi flow towards his forehead and into his upper dantian. That flow of Qi worked its way down to his middle dantian and eventually settled in his lower dantian, mixing with the natural Qi. This extra Qi was from his connection with Yin'er, and just as her Qi entered his body, his Qi also entered hers. These strands of Qi were the purified Qi and as they mixed with the natural Qi in their dantians, they increased their purification speed by double. This essentially allowed them both to cultivate at twice the normal speed.
---
A week had come and gone. Jin Shu sat down once again to begin cultivation. Just as the first strand of natural Qi was purified in his dantian, he felt a surge of strength and his dantian seemed to have increased in size slightly. This was the sign of a breakthrough. Jin Shu was stupefied. "It's only been a little over a week since I broke through to the Qi Gathering Realm. Even with my superior talent coupled with the increased cultivation speed with Yin'er's help, I shouldn't have broken through this fast. Let's focus on this next strand of Qi and see what's happening."
Jin Shu steadied himself and breathed in another strand of natural Qi. As he focused on the Qi as it traveled through his body, he noticed that the Qi seemed to get purer the further it traveled. It seemed to happen when the Qi traveled through his blood vessels. "Hmm... ah, it must be the Living Metal. It is purifying the Qi automatically as it travels through my blood. If that is the case, then with my connection with Yin'er plus the automatic purification from the Living Metal, my cultivation speed may have quadrupled. If I calculate based on my mother's superior cultivation talent, she took ten years to breakthrough to the Core Forging Realm and ten more to reach the 9th stage. My mother didn't have a rare Demonic Beast companion to boost her speed either. So if I cultivate at double that speed, it would take me ten years to reach the 9th stage Core Forging Realm. But if I double that speed again, it will only take me five years to reach the 9th stage Core Forging Realm. This is insane!"
---
Swoosh! Bang!
A snowdrift exploded into a flurry of sparkling snowflakes. Yin'er's silver head with its golden King symbol could be seen sticking out of the snowdrift. "Hahaha... Dada, look, the snow is sparkly!"
Jin Shu heaved an exasperated sigh. "Haa... Yin'er, I've told you I'm not your dad, why don't you call me brother instead?"
Yin'er thought for a moment, then shook her head, sending more snow flying. "Bwada... nope, I like Dada betta."
Jin Shu shook his head in defeat. "Ugh... fine, fine, do what you want."
A year had passed since Jin Shu's reincarnation, and in unprecedented speed, he had just broken through to the 7th stage of the Qi Gathering Realm. He was now on his way to see his father to learn the next set of runes from him.
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Jin Shu called out for Yin'er to follow him. "Come along, Yin'er!"
Yin'er was flying and crashing into the snowdrifts to watch the snow float up into the air and sparkle in the sunlight. "Yin'er gonna stay here and play."
Jin Shu chuckled and said, "OK... but watch out for my mother, she might come find you for snuggles."
Yin'er gave a startled yelp and quickly flew to Jin Shu's shoulder. "Ah! Yin'er don't want snuggles from Dada's Muda! Dada's Muda is scary."
"Hohoho... who did Yin'er say is scary? Certainly not me, right?" Sun Mei'er walked into Jin Shu's courtyard while laughing.
Yin'er, seeing Sun Mei'er walk into the courtyard, screamed and scrambled to hide in Jin Shu's robes, cautiously poking her head out.
"Yin'er wants to play in the snow more, doesn't she? You don't want to go to that stinky forge, do you? Why don't you stay with your Big Sister Mei'er and play in the snow some more?" Sun Mei'er asked.
Yin'er shook her head. "You're not Big Sista, you're Gwandma."
Hearing Yin'er call her Grandma, Sun Mei'er's Qi burst out of her body; Qi leaving the body was something only someone in the Core Forging Realm could do. As a result of the outburst of Qi, all of the snow that had piled up in the courtyard was blown up into the air. Then she asked through gritted teeth. "What did Yin'er call me!? I must have misheard, right!? RIGHT!?"
Yin'er screamed and her body shook violently, scared by Sun Mei'er's outburst. "Eek! Yin'er said Big Sista! Yin'er didn't say Gwandma!"
Sun Mei'er's expression switched in a fraction of a second. One moment, she seemed so angry it seemed she may blow up the entire courtyard at any moment, and in the next moment, a sunny smile bright enough to melt the snow appeared on her face.
"Hehe... Yin'er is such a good girl, isn't she? Come here and play with Big Sister." Sun Mei'er grabbed Yin'er out from Jin Shu's robes and held her in her arms, nearly suffocating Yin'er in her bosom.
Jin Shu chuckled and thanked his mother for taking care of Yin'er for him. "Thanks for watching Yin'er for me, Mom. I'll be back soon."
Yin'er struggled free from Sun Mei'er's embrace and yelled out for Jin Shu. "Dada! Wait! Don't leave meee! Nooo!"
---
Jin Shu found his father in the forge and asked him to teach him the next set of runes. "Father, I've just broken through to the 7th stage Qi Gathering Realm. Can you teach me how to inscribe intermediate runes?"
Jin Chen looked at Jin Shu in shock and lamented, "The 7th stage already!? If I had known that a Demonic Beast pet could make your cultivation speed skyrocket like that, I would have stopped at nothing to get one for myself back in the day. That way, I could have kept up with your mother's cultivation speed. You know, it took your mother only twenty years to make it to the 9th stage Core Forging Realm, whereas it took your old man here twenty years just to breakthrough into the Core Forging Realm."
Jin Shu replied, "Not just any Demonic Beast would work; it's only because Yin'er is a mutated Monarch Winged Tiger that my cultivation speed has increased by so much."
This wasn't the real reason, however. Jin Shu couldn't really go around telling people how he reincarnated from another world with an alien metal that transformed his body into Living Metal. Even if they believed him, it would expose him to the danger of people with ulterior motives who would use his body as cultivation material.
"Hum... that so? Well, anyways, let's teach you those runes, shall we?" His father hummed in acknowledgement.
"Let's start with the Qi Blade Rune. I'll show you how to inscribe it while I explain its function." Jin Chen turned and grabbed an inscribing tool off of the worktable behind him.
"The Qi Blade Rune allows cultivators in the Qi Gathering Realm to form a blade of Qi around their weapon. It can also be used by those in the Core Forging Realm and beyond to use less Qi to achieve the same effect." As Jin Chen inscribed the rune on a blank sheet of metal, he explained the uses of each rune.
"Next are the Intermediate versions of the Flame, Frost, and Wind Runes. They allow cultivators to emit Fire, Frost, and Wind energy. Additionally, the Intermediate Wind Rune further increases the speed at which a weapon can be swung." Jin Chen inscribed three more runes on the metal sheet and turned back to glance at Jin Shu.
"Did you get all of that?" he asked.
Jin Shu nodded silently while concentrating on remembering the forms of the runes and their effects.
Jin Chen continued, "Alright, this is the last one. This is the Qi Storage Rune. This rune allows cultivators to store extra Qi in their weapon to be used in emergencies or during a battle to gain an advantage over their opponents."
Jin Chen handed the inscribing tool to Jin Shu. "Alright, let's see you try it now."
Jin Shu grabbed the tool and started inscribing the runes on a blank space of the metal sheet. He started out making a few mistakes; however, he soon got the hang of it and could nearly perfectly replicate them.
When he was done, he turned to his father to ask how he had done. As he turned, he noticed an incredulous expression on his father's face. "How'd I do?"
"How'd you do? It took me months to learn those runes when I was around your age, and even then I still made mistakes occasionally. And at that time, your grandfather had praised me, saying how I would become a Master Runesmith in no time. So you tell me, how did you do?"
Jin Shu shrugged and said, "I did alright, I guess."
Jin Chen smacked him on the back of the head and guffawed. "You did incredible! You're a natural-born genius runesmith! That's how you did!"
Jin Chen grabbed Jin Shu by the shoulders and dragged him up. "Come on, let's go see your grandfather and tell him what a genius my son is."
---
Jin Chen dragged his son behind him all the way to the Jin family's great hall. Sitting on the main seat at the end of the Great Hall, his father, Jin Zhu, was resting.
Jin Chen barged through the doors of the Great Hall while boisterously laughing. "Gahaha! Father! Look at my son, he's the greatest genius in the history of the Qi Dynasty!"
Jin Zhu was startled awake from his son's yelling. "Zzz... ah! Who the hell is yelling so early in the morning!?"
Jin Chen laughed sheepishly. "Haha... Father, it's already afternoon."
Jin Zhu stood up with the help of a dragon-headed cane and walked up to Jin Chen while raising the cane overhead, bringing it down on his son's head. "You brat! You think I don't know what time it is!? Why the hell are you barging in here and waking me from my afternoon nap!?"
Jin Chen couldn't fight back against his father, so he crouched down and covered his head with his hands while trying to explain why he was here. "Ah, wait, wait! Father, listen to me for a second."
Jin Zhu brought the cane down even harder. "Huh, are you trying to order your father around now!?"
Jin Chen continued trying to explain while enduring the beating. "I'm here to share some amazing news with you, Father."
Jin Zhu stopped beating his son and rested on his cane, trying to catch his breath. "Haa... haa... What... haa... news...? haa..."
Jin Chen stood back up and pulled his son out from behind him. "Look here, Father, my son is a genius. He has reached the 7th stage of the Qi Gathering Realm after only one year from breaking through to the Qi Gathering Realm. And he has mastered the Intermediate Runes after only seeing me inscribe them one time."
Jin Zhu finally caught his breath and glanced at his grandson. "Hmm...? How old are you this year?"
Jin Shu cupped his hands in greeting to his grandfather and replied, "I am 17 years old."
Jin Zhu patted Jin Shu on the shoulder while laughing. "Hahaha! Good, good! I'd expect nothing less from my grandson!"