Huang Rong from The Return of the Condor Heroes: Guo'er, calm down.

"Continuing from where we left off, Lin Daiyu, clad in silver armor and a red robe, wielding two ornate battle axes, led 800,000 imperial guards in a grand and imposing rampage, razing the Rongguo Mansion to the ground. The battle was so fierce that the heavens and earth seemed to darken, the sun and moon lost their light, all for the sake of avenging the humiliation of smashing the jade!"

Inside the ancient tomb, candlelight flickered.

Yang Guo sat cross-legged on the stone bench, holding a half-eaten steamed bun in one hand and making a chopping motion in the air with the other, speaking with spittle flying everywhere.

Little Dragon Girl sat opposite, her hands supporting her chin, a rare hint of confusion appearing in her usually cool eyes: "This Lin Daiyu... is she really that fierce?"

"That's right! You can't judge a book by its cover." Yang Guo's mind raced, and he continued fabricating, "Although the Rongguo Mansion was pacified, the imperial court was not happy. Arrest warrants were issued everywhere, and Lin Daiyu became a wanted criminal overnight, forced to wander the world. One day, she was surrounded by the imperial court's eighteen henchmen in the vegetable garden of the Xiangguo Temple, and it seemed she was about to perish..."

Little Dragon Girl leaned forward slightly, clearly immersed in the role: "And then?"

This is why Xiaolongnu listened with great interest. If it were Huang Rong, she would have slapped Yang Guo on the head long ago after hearing such a rambling story.

"At the critical moment! Lin Daiyu caught sight of a thick weeping willow tree beside the vegetable garden. She gathered her strength, swung her arms, and uprooted the willow tree, which was as thick as a water bucket!"

Upon hearing this, Xiaolongnu subconsciously lowered her head and examined her slender, jade-like hands. Her palms were as white and smooth as jade, revealing no strength whatsoever. Yang Guo, with his sharp eyes, chuckled and gently patted the back of her hand, saying with a smile, "Sister Xiaolongnu, don't look. These hands are for playing the zither, not for uprooting trees."

Xiaolongnu frowned, seemingly displeased, but then realized that his words made sense and that she did not possess such brute strength, so she did not retaliate.

Yang Guo continued, "Just as Lin Daiyu was about to sweep the willow branch across the sky, a thunderclap suddenly sounded from the horizon. The monkey that sprang out of the stone, riding on auspicious seven-colored clouds and wielding a golden cudgel as thick as a bowl, shouted, 'Hey! Which dog dares to touch my Lin Daiyu!' With that, the cudgel flashed, and in no time at all, he had beaten the eighteen henchmen to a pulp, their bones broken and their souls scattered."

Yang Guo took a bite of his steamed bun, sighed, and his tone suddenly turned melancholic: "The monkey turned around happily, his fiery eyes filled with tenderness, and called out: 'Sister, I, Old Sun, am late.' But who knew—"

"Who knows?"

Whenever Yang Guo uttered the words "who knows," Xiaolongnu's heart would involuntarily leap into her throat.

Yang Guo looked at her and chuckled inwardly.

Seeing her like this, Yang Guo chuckled to himself: This fairy-like sister is so simple-minded. If I want to coax her to follow Yin Zhiping in the future, it will probably only take two or three stories.

"Alright, to find out what happens next, stay tuned for the next chapter." Yang Guo patted the crumbs off his hands, stood up, and said, "I'm all hoarse from talking today, I need to practice my skills for a while and catch my breath."

A hint of melancholy flashed in Xiaolongnu's eyes, but she did not stop him. In the past few days, she had learned that although Yang Guo was glib-tongued, he was truly diligent and never slacked off when it came to practicing martial arts.

Although Yang Guo was genuinely practicing martial arts, he also had his own agenda. This Little Dragon Girl was unusually obsessed with stories. Although Yang Guo had endless stories to tell, Little Dragon Girl would eventually get annoyed if he really started telling them. So for now, he had to keep her hanging on, and only by keeping her hanging on could he stay in the Ancient Tomb with a clear conscience.

Yang Guo turned around and went straight back to the stone chamber with the jade bed. These past few days, he had been practicing his skills on this bed every night, and Xiaolongnu had never asked him to leave.

As soon as he stepped into the stone chamber, a bone-chilling cold hit him. He was already used to it. He took a deep breath, leaped onto the cold jade bed, and assumed a five-pointed-up-the-sky posture.

The Nine-Turn Life-Extending Pill that had tormented him to the point of near death was now at its last gasp after being attacked from both inside and outside by the Nine Yin Manual and the cold air from the Jade Bed for the past few days.

"The moment has come!" With a thought, Yang Guo's newly generated Nine Yin True Qi in his dantian instantly transformed into a torrent, following the broad meridians opened up by the Yi Jin Duan Gu Chapter, launching a final attack on the last clump of medicinal power entrenched near his heart meridian.

The medicine was domineering and ruthless, like a trapped beast, still struggling left and right.

However, Yang Guo's Nine Yin True Qi, after several days of cultivation, had become dense and resilient, like refined steel, and the cold Yin Qi from the Cold Jade Bed seeped in from the outside, surrounding him layer by layer.

He heard a faint, muffled sound from inside his body, and the stubborn medicinal power suddenly dissipated, transforming into an incomparably pure warm current that instantly merged into his eight extraordinary meridians.

Yang Guo felt all 36,000 pores on his body open up, and an unprecedented feeling of comfort spread throughout his body, as if a thousand-pound shackle had been removed, and his body was so light that he could ride the wind away.

The originally thin, thread-like true energy is now flowing continuously through the meridians, forming a babbling stream that circulates endlessly.

He suddenly opened his eyes, and two beams of light flashed by, as bright as lightning.

"It's done!"

Yang Guo stood up, rolled off the bed, clenched his right fist, and punched the air. This punch did not use any special techniques, but was driven solely by his internal energy, and it brought with it a sharp sound of air being torn apart. The wind from the punch almost extinguished the candlelight on the table in the distance.

If that punch landed on someone, it would probably break several of their ribs.

"Is this all the skill I've gained over ten years?"

Yang Guo looked at his hands and was overjoyed.

Ten years of training might not seem like much. But which of the renowned masters in the martial arts world didn't practice their "virginity-based" skills for decades?

But that's not how you calculate it.

For ordinary people practicing martial arts, half of the twelve hours a day are spent eating, drinking, relieving themselves, and sleeping. They also have to deal with mundane affairs, so their minds are often wandering. If they can truly calm down and meditate to cultivate their inner energy, they are considered diligent if they can do so for two hours a day.

Moreover, the internal strength cultivated must be refined and purified, leaving only the essential.

But this Nine-Turn Life-Extending Pill is different.

This was refined by generations of masters of the Quanzhen School using countless rare medicinal herbs; it is the true essence.

Yang Guo's current skill over the past ten years is pure and unadulterated, requiring no refinement whatsoever.

This is like other people saving money, one penny at a time, and then having to spend it. Yang Guo, on the other hand, directly inherited a huge sum of money, in cash.

More importantly, after being tempered by the "Yi Jin Duan Gu Pian" (a martial arts manual), his meridians became broad and resilient, as if a dirt road had been transformed into a main road. From then on, no matter what kind of martial arts he practiced, he would achieve twice the result with half the effort, making rapid progress.

"Hehe, if those Taoist priests from the Quanzhen Sect knew that the elixirs they treasured would end up benefiting me, they'd probably be so angry their beards would stand on end."

With a thought, he tried to practice the Toad Stance. In the past, when he practiced, he always felt a tightness in his chest and a lack of strength. But now, as he channeled his inner energy, that cold and domineering force flowed through his arms as easily as if they were his own.

He bent down, and with a burst of energy, the hard bluestone slab beneath him emitted a slight "crackling" sound and trembled slightly.

"Good! Good! Good!" Yang Guo said three times in a row, and was just feeling happy when he suddenly heard a light footstep outside the door.

Granny Sun came in carrying a food box. Seeing Yang Guo's radiant face and energetic spirit, a stark contrast to his earlier appearance, she was taken aback: "Child, you...you look like a completely different person!"

"That's right." Yang Guo didn't hide anything, and went up to her with a smile, taking the food box. "Grandma, thanks to your care, and the feng shui of this ancient tomb, my injury has healed completely."

He opened the food box and found a bowl of steaming rice porridge and two small dishes of light side dishes. Although there was no fancy food, in this cold and damp ancient tomb, it was better than any delicacy.

"It's all right now, it's all right now."

Grandma Sun watched him wolf down his food with a kind expression, and reached out to tidy his messy hair. "You child, you're really lucky. If it weren't for my daughter's kind heart, you would probably have turned into a pile of bones in that thatched hut long ago."

With his mouth full of porridge, Yang Guo mumbled, "Grandma is right. I will definitely repay Sister Long and Grandma's great kindness in the future."

"No need for repayment, just don't make the girl angry again."

Grandma Sun sighed, as if she had remembered something, and her expression turned a little strange. "Oh, right, child, there's something I need to tell you."

"Please speak, Mother-in-law." Yang Guo swallowed the porridge in his mouth.

"I just went out and found your master standing anxiously at the door, looking rather unwell."