This time, fist met stone with a dull thud, and a fist-sized hole immediately appeared in the giant rock.

Pulling me to a spot about seventy centimeters in front of the stone, Carter looked at me and said in a deep voice, “To deal with the Skyfire Lion, your punches must be precise. Starting today, you must strike that fist hole with all your strength ten thousand times a day. If you don’t use your full strength, or don’t finish all ten thousand punches, you’re not allowed to eat!”

After speaking, he turned and whispered a few words to the approaching guard, then said to me, “Gavin Ford, I’ll have someone watch you. When I’m satisfied, I’ll teach you something else.”

Carter paid me no further attention and strode away.

I glanced at the guard with the brutish face, just about to speak, when suddenly I heard him shout at the top of his lungs, “Punch, one!”

Almost by instinct, I gathered all my strength into my fist and struck the stone with a punch...

“Ah…” A shrill, miserable scream suddenly echoed over Chila Cape.

It hurt so much!

My fist was a bloody mess, and I could faintly see the white bone beneath the flesh. By the time the ten thousand punches were finished, the moon was already over the sea. With tears streaming down my face, I walked into the room, ignored the self-important person looking at me with concern, and dove straight into the haystack.

Honestly, by the end, I really didn’t want to keep going, but that damned guard kept swinging that electrified spiked club behind me the whole time. If I stopped, I figured that club would come down on me right away. I forgot to mention, the twenty guards on the island were all disciples personally trained by Carter over the past ten years. Each of them had mastered the Boling Technique from the Southern Army’s soldier manual to the ninth level. If these people returned to the army, at the very least they could be squad leaders, commanding a hundred men would be no problem...

Suddenly, I started to wonder if Carter was just messing with me. After all, teaching me martial arts for no reason at all didn’t make any sense. Thinking about it, only someone as gullible as me would fall for this. Desperate people grasp at straws—how true that is.

Ignoring the self-important person’s nagging, I tore a strip of cloth from my clothes, tightly wrapped the wound on my hand, and lay motionless in the haystack like a corpse.

Ten thousand punches were enough to drain all my strength. My right arm was so sore I couldn’t lift it at all. Maybe I was just too exhausted, because I hadn’t been lying in the haystack long before I drifted into a sweet sleep.

……

In a daze, I found myself walking among towering mountains, surrounded by sheer cliffs and drifting clouds, the mountains as beautiful as embroidery, a clear stream flowing nearby, the sound of springs gurgling—a true paradise on earth. After walking for a long time, a crack in the rocks suddenly appeared before me. The crevice was pitch black, but faintly, ethereal celestial music drifted out, making my heart race with longing...

Without hesitation, I entered the crevice, yet it felt as if some strange force was guiding me, leading me forward. I walked through the deep, shadowy fissure, not knowing how much time had passed, when suddenly a bright light appeared ahead. A cave residence shrouded in swirling mist stood before me.

Jade Fragrance Cave Heaven, a blessed land of wind and moon.

The inscription above the cave entrance looked vaguely familiar. In the past, I lived in a quiet little town, with limited experience of the world. I worked at sunrise and rested at sunset, rarely paying attention to strange things.

But this Jade Fragrance Cave Heaven—I seemed to recall the elders in town mentioning it. Supposedly, it was one of the ancient immortals’ blessed lands on this continent. But why had I come here?

As I pondered, my body seemed to move on its own, skillfully feeling around the stone door of the cave. My fingers unconsciously tapped a cloud-shaped panel, and suddenly a sound like heavenly jade chimes rang in my ears. A faint fragrance wafted to my nose, a flash of rosy light passed before my eyes, golden light and auspicious flames filled my vision, and the cave door opened!

Stepping into the cave, the darkness vanished. The walls and floor were made of some kind of jade I couldn’t name, glowing softly with a thin mist, clearly very precious. The stone walls on either side shimmered with rainbow phosphorescence, casting a dazzling light down the corridor, making me feel as if I’d entered a realm of illusion.

Amazed, I continued down the corridor. After a hundred-zhang walk, the passage suddenly opened up before me...

Inside the cave was a valley about an acre in size, packed with blooming flowers, breathtakingly beautiful. Amidst the flowers and fruit trees stood a celestial pavilion shrouded in mist, its walls carved with clouds and moons, exquisitely ornate.

I was stunned by the beauty before me, momentarily forgetting where I was. My worldly clothes silently slipped from my body in the thin mist, but I felt nothing.

“Ford, come in, I’ve been waiting for you for so long!” A charming, seductive voice suddenly sounded in my ear.

“Who—who’s speaking?” The voice was so eerie, with no sign of anyone, that it startled me.

“Hehe, I’m in the building right in front of you, come in!”

The voice was so alluring that I felt no urge to resist. I stepped into the mist-filled pavilion, and a strange force suddenly lifted me into the air, gently floating me into a room.