WU DONG QIAN - KUN
chapter 3: the mysterious stone pool

"A voice!"

In the open space, Lin Dong stared blankly at his fist as an excited expression appeared on his little face. However when he raised his head, he saw that Lin Xiao's figure had already slowly walked out of the forest.

"Heh heh, tomorrow I'll show you dad, I'm sure he'll be surprised." Lin Dong grinned. Suddenly a wave of pain emanated from his arm, he hurriedly lifted his sleeve only to find that his entire arm was filled with blood red marks, blood-soaked, such that there were even places where his skin was peeled off as blood continued to flow out.

“Hss..

Previously, he was so busy practicing that he didn't notice it, but now that he had stopped, his pain suddenly flowed out, causing Lin Dong to grimace in pain. He knew that this pain was caused by the Penetrating Punching exercise: friction-induced wounds that had accumulated from rubbing his skin against clothes for long periods of time.

“There's still time, I think I'll go to that place first to soak for a while.....”.

Lin Dong raised his head to glance at the color of the sky before suddenly running to the back of the mountain. About 10 minutes later, a steep cliff appeared before his eyes. He scanned his surroundings carefully, before following the cobblestone path that jutted down the cliff. These rocks are not easy to find, but are well formed into a secret passage.

Lin Dong was quite familiar with this path, so as he descended carefully, there was no accident. After a while, a cave hidden from view by some huge boulders appeared before him.

The location of the cave was very well hidden and also very hidden behind some large rocks in the vicinity. If one did not specifically look for it, it was almost impossible to find it. Moreover, in normal situations, no one would bother to do this kind of thing.

Jumping into the cave, the cool and refreshing feeling dissipated the foul smell and sweat on Lin Dong's body. Compared to the scorching hot weather outside, the cave was like a different world, and also a great place to take shelter from the heat.

The inside of the cave was not very large. Other than the 6-10 meter wide stone pool in the middle of the cave, there was nothing special about this cave.

Walking towards the stone pool, one would see that it was filled with clear water, and on the slightly cold wind water drifted back and forth.

"Sweals!"

Arriving beside the stone pool, Lin Dong quickly took off his clothes, and immediately jumped into the water. The somewhat cold air caused his body to shiver slightly but he quickly adapted to the cold.

Lin Dong had discovered this cave by chance during his youth. Only Qing Tan and him knew about this place. The water here was much colder than anywhere else and at the peak of summer, Lin Dong was happy to come here and immerse himself in the pool. However, other than being cool and refreshing, there seemed to be no other effect.

Of course, this was inaccurate because every time after Lin Dong had soaked in the water here, he would involuntarily feel his mind become extremely sharp and no matter what he did, he would subconsciously feel his mind become extremely sharp, he would be able to quickly get into a concentrated state.

There seemed to be no benefit to this kind of feeling before, but now that Lin Dong had learned the Penetrating Punch, he realized that being in a concentrated state had a considerable effect on his training progress. Or else, he might find it difficult to take the Penetrating Fist in such a short amount of time, not to mention training until he managed to produce a sound.

“Is it just me?”

As he lay in the stone pond, Lin Dong cupped the water in his hand and watched it slowly flow. His little face wrinkled, if this matter was so magical, he would have reached the level of Yuan Power long ago, unlike his current slow pace.

"After I practice up to the 6th Layer of Tempered Body, I will be able to purify the essence into Yuan and with Yuan Power, I will eventually become a true practitioner!" Lin Dong excitedly declared as he slapped the side of his face, looking forward to the day. Nonetheless, within the younger generation of the Lin Family, there were only a handful that had reached that level.

Yuan Power is the most important thing in training. It is said that a strong practitioner will be able to cause landslides with just a sweep of his hand. This earth-shattering power was hard for Lin Dong to imagine, as he was still a small boy at the first stage.

Lin Dong leaned against the edge of the stone pool, as he relaxed, his head facing upwards with his eyes closed. His mind went wild for a while before suddenly, he gradually fell into a deep sleep. This period of training was too extreme for him and now that he finally found time to relax, his pent-up fatigue began to spread from his bones.

As Lin Dong was sound asleep, the cave once again became peaceful as the pool water flowed gently.

"Giggled……"

Amidst the silence, a disturbance suddenly began in the clear water. A drop of dark red blood flowed from Lin Dong's injured arm and quietly fell into the pool.

The moment this drop of blood fell, the originally peaceful water suddenly began to boil. One by one, bubbles with faint traces of blood-like color emerged from the surface of the water before bursting around Lin Dong's resting body. Traces of faint red-colored liquid scattered in the air and as if they had minds of their own, moved to wrapped around Lin Dong's body before finally swiftly entering through his pores.

Just as this faint red-colored liquid permeated into Lin Dong's body, it gave rise to a sensation as if the muscles throughout his body were compressed violently. Like a tide, bursts of sweat gushed out, gathering together and then flowing into the water.

Just as sweat filled with black impurities seeped out from his body, Lin Dong, whose body had previously grown by a centimeter after he had broken through the Layer 3 Tempered Body, had already broken through, feeling that his body had shrunk back to its previous size. This sensation was similar to squeezing all the water from a wet sponge ferociously.

After about 10 minutes, the water in the pool stopped boiling. As the pool water started to calm down, Lin Dong suddenly woke up and shouted: "Hot!".

"Sweals!"

As he screamed, Lin Dong quickly lowered his head and immersed his entire body in the pond. After a while, he finally broke the surface to catch his breath. A look of confusion was plastered on his face just before he woke up, he felt as if he was being roasted in a furnace, and it was that burning sensation he experienced that caused him to involuntarily shout.

"Why is it so hot here?" Lin Dong pondered as he stood in the pond for a while to calm down, before he finally decided to climb out.

Standing beside the stone pool while thinking for a moment, Lin Dong speechlessly shook his head. Just as he took his clothes and started wearing them, his gaze suddenly stopped on his arm.

"Huh?"

Lin Dong looked at his arm in disbelief. He clearly remembered that this arm was previously injured with a bloody wound after his training, yet now all of his injuries seemed to have miraculously disappeared?

Confused, Lin Dong gently stroked his once injured arm, suddenly, his body stiffened. An expression of disbelief quickly surfaced on her face when she discovered that the skin on her arm had hardened substantially.

This kind of situation was a sign that he was rapidly approaching the 4th Layer of the Tempered Body.

"How is this possible?!"

This discovery left Lin Dong stunned as he stood dazed on the spot.

(TLN: – Zhang is a Chinese 'foot' which is equivalent to about 3.3 meters, Chinese RAW states about 2 to 3 )