From a chaotic world of folk customs to becoming a god through extreme methods.

Lin Yuan looked at the panel, mainly the equipment slots.

The top square is already occupied by water poison, and water poison body tempering can be performed at any time.

"Becoming stronger is now an urgent matter for me."

"With this equipment, I can improve my combat power beyond just martial arts."

"Let's begin now."

Without much hesitation, he immediately chose to begin the water poison tempering process.

[The water-based body tempering has begun.]

[Estimated tempering time: one hour.]

The system countdown began.

In an instant.

Lin Yuan felt a surge of icy energy suddenly burst forth from his body, piercing his skin like a thousand ice needles, bringing excruciating pain as if he were being bitten by a thousand ants.

The excruciating pain continued to surge through his body, flowing into his dantian, permeating his energy, and gradually merging with it.

Lin Yuan was in so much pain that his face contorted in agony, and he quickly sat down cross-legged.

He placed the sword in front of him, gritted his teeth, and had no choice but to endure it.

There is only one hour left. If you can get through this hour, the Water Poison will be successfully equipped, and your body tempering ability will be raised to a higher level.

And so, time slowly passed.

One hour later.

Lin Yuan was covered in sweat and almost collapsed to the ground, panting heavily. He felt that even the slightest movement caused excruciating muscle pain.

The chill in my body had already circulated back and forth eighteen times.

Finally, it completely merged with the Qi and settled into the Dantian, no longer bringing intense pain, but instead bringing a cool and comfortable feeling.

Lin Yuan gasped for breath on the ground more than ten times before he finally regained some strength and got up.

He looked at his hands; the veins along the edges of his palms were slightly bluish, as if covered with a very light layer of frost.

But soon, the bluish hue seeped under his skin, almost invisible to the naked eye.

"Water-based body tempering".

"It seems to have completely integrated into my body, bringing about a certain improvement."

"Let's give it a try."

Lin Yuan drew his sword, ready to see the effect.

I've endured so much pain, I can't let it all be for nothing.

He immediately aimed at a bamboo pole in the courtyard and swung his sword.

The sword tip did not touch the bamboo pole, but a faint force transformed into sword energy and swept out, landing on the bamboo pole.

Where the sword energy grazed, the green bamboo skin quickly turned black, as if it had been corroded by something.

Furthermore, the corrosion is spreading, from the bamboo skin to the inside.

Finally, it corroded most of the bamboo stalk, causing it to fall to the ground.

Seeing the effect, Lin Yuan's eyes flickered slightly.

"Is this what water-based body tempering is? It can adhere to my energy and cause a corrosive effect."

"It corroded the bamboo without even touching it."

"What would be the effect if the real sword's edge were to strike flesh and blood?"

There is currently no opportunity to verify this.

Lin Yuan simply pulled his thoughts back and stopped thinking about it.

All you need to know is that the power of this sword strike, brought about by the water poison tempering, is already enough to allow him to achieve many unexpected effects.

He is currently at the second level of body tempering. If he makes good use of the water poison, he might be able to go toe-to-toe with a martial artist at the third level of body tempering.

He clicked on the panel again to take a look.

[Water-based body tempering is complete.]

[Current Equipment Slot: Water Poison (Tier 0, Common) "Water Poison Tempering Underway, Permanent Refinement in Progress"]

[Note: Your equipment slots are full. After thirty days, the Water Poison will be permanently refined, freeing up one equipment slot.]

[Tip: Consuming 50 points of Folk Essence will add one equipment slot.]

Lin Yuan glanced at it briefly and nodded slightly.

The equipment slots are structured like this: aside from the initial fixed slot, subsequent slots require consuming Folk Essence, which is essentially skill points, to increase.

Fortunately, once you equip certain items and reach a certain time, you can...

It can then be completely refined, permanently fixed, and will no longer occupy an equipment slot.

For my next equipment setup, besides the [Water Poison] equipment which is permanently fixed, the only option is to collect more Folk Essence to forcibly add more equipment slots.

He pulled himself out of his thoughts and looked at the fifteen points of folk customs he had collected this time.

This is just from killing one water monster, yet we've already gained so much.

If, in the future, they went to attack and kill the water bandits every night, it might become a stable channel for collecting folk customs.

Lin Yuan then thought about his own strength.

Only by improving his strength can he gradually open up new possibilities, gain more initiative, and leverage more of his advantages.

Thinking about this...

He then focused his attention on the "Raging Waves Sword Technique" on the panel.

Without hesitation, I chose to directly utilize the essence of folk customs to improve myself.

[Consume Folk Essence to upgrade this skill?]

"Yes."

In an instant, the essence of folk customs that I had only just begun to appreciate was quickly lost.

[Consuming 10 points of Folk Essence increases the proficiency of "Raging Waves Sword Technique" by 50%]

The numbers on the panel jumped.

【"Turbulent Sword Technique" (1.2%→51.2%)】

It consumed most of the essence of folk customs, increasing the proficiency of this sword technique by half.

As Lin Yuan's proficiency with this new technique increased, he felt that his mind had gained a lot of new sword knowledge.

This allowed him to gain a deeper understanding of the techniques.

At the same time, he noticed that the muscle lines on the joints of his wrists, ankles, forearms, and other joints had become more pronounced.

The undulating curves were extremely clear.

The muscle lines appeared to be subtly undulating, like undercurrents surging beneath a calm lake surface.

It looks rather eerie.

But I felt no discomfort; on the contrary, my strength and power became even more readily available.

Lin Yuan simply stopped thinking about it. As long as he became stronger, he didn't care about his appearance.

Next, with continued practice or by incorporating more folk essence, this set of techniques will soon be ready for its third tempering.

Lin Yuan was filled with anticipation.

And now, I still have five essential elements of folk customs in my possession.

The main problem is that even after using all five points, it's still impossible to directly upgrade it to the third stage of body tempering.

Therefore, after careful consideration, I plan to keep it in case of unforeseen circumstances.

At the same time, as proficiency in the "Raging Waves Sword Technique" increased, the "Nine Ripples Style" was also quickly brought into play.

【The Nine Styles of Ripple (45.7%→80.2%)】

Since they are from the same source, improving proficiency in one skill will naturally lead to improvement in the other.

At this moment, it has directly increased to 80.2%, and it is not far from the second tempering of Ripple.

Lin Yuan was also thinking to himself that he would add more points after Lianyi completed her second body tempering.

Could it evolve into a new sword technique, just like Wei Lan?

However, there is one more problem that needs to be solved before that.

My current third body-tempering sword technique, "Raging Waves Sword Technique," is evolved from "Twelve Styles of Gentle Ripples."

Before his third body tempering, he still needed to complete the next chapter of the Cold River Sword Technique system, "Surging Waves," through the normal process.

The Cold River Sword Technique is a martial arts system.

The Body Tempering Realm is divided into four chapters, corresponding to four different levels of body tempering: Ripples, Waves, Surging Waves, and Tides.

I haven't yet obtained the subsequent "Surging Waves" and "Waves" chapters from Shen Jianhe.

Although you can automatically upgrade your sword skills by directly adding points.

However, with normal cultivation methods, after practicing them, one can reach a certain level of proficiency.

The world will experience compatibility issues due to the disordered cultivation methods.

There is a very high probability that, just like before, in order to patch the bug, it will automatically add a second tempering process to itself.

In this way, once Lianyi has also advanced in her cultivation, she can undergo the "Second Body Tempering" three times while cultivating the Surging Waves chapter.

At that time, their strength will be greatly enhanced.

However, at present, he was not at the Hanjiang Sword Pavilion, and given the delicate situation between the Lin family and the town, he could not reveal his strength, nor did he have any reason to go to Shen Jianhe's door to ask for it.

We need to find another way.