Adam Brooks was naturally clever, and the combined total of the three pages of golden scripture amounted to just over a thousand words of incantations, which were not difficult to memorize. After reciting them seven or eight times, he could already recite them fluently backwards. Anyway, when there was nothing to do at the main stronghold of Tianma Mountain, people were lazy and idle, and no one came to check whether he was diligently guarding the back mountain. Once Adam Brooks could recite the incantations from the three pages of golden scripture fluently, he began to consider trying to cultivate according to the incantation on one of the pages.

The three pages of golden scripture contained the following incantations: one called the Supreme Dragon Transformation Formula; one called the Sun-Swallowing Divine Ape Transformation; and one called the Fire Crow Formation.

Adam Brooks silently recited the incantations from the three pages of golden scripture seven or eight times, over and over, pondering for a long time before finally deciding to pick the most imposing-sounding one—the Supreme Dragon Transformation Formula—to cultivate.

This Supreme Dragon Transformation Formula was quite mysterious. After cultivating according to its method for two or three hours, Adam Brooks began to feel a subtle response in his body with each breath. His chest and abdomen felt warm, and his whole body felt as if he had just enjoyed a refreshing hot bath—an indescribable comfort.

It was not until dinner time that Adam Brooks stopped cultivating. This Big Boss Brooks was secretly delighted, thinking to himself, “The incantations on these three pages of golden scripture are all different. Since this one has such a marvelous effect, I shouldn’t be greedy and try to master them all at once. I’ll set the other two aside for now and focus on developing some skill with this Supreme Dragon Transformation Formula first.” With this thought, Adam Brooks beamed with a smile and went off to the kitchen of the Tianma Mountain stronghold to find some food and wine to fill his belly.

Ever since discovering the incantations on the three pages of golden scripture, Adam Brooks had been cultivating day and night.

Although he was young, having spent so long in a bandit’s den, he had picked up a bellyful of tricks. Yet in front of others, he remained calm and collected, as if nothing had happened. None of the bandits at the Tianma Mountain stronghold had any idea that their seventh chief had experienced such a stroke of fortune.

In the blink of an eye, summer passed and autumn arrived. In just over a month, the weather gradually cooled, and there were more merchants and travelers than before. Business at Tianma Mountain slowly improved, and every three to five days there would be a lucrative deal.

Adam Brooks led several raids down the mountain in succession, gradually becoming more skilled and earning some merit. He won the appreciation of the main chief, who even assigned him two elderly women to serve him. Although the two women together were nearly a hundred and twenty years old and couldn’t handle even slightly heavy work—barely managing to wash clothes clean—Adam Brooks didn’t mind at all. All his attention was focused on cultivating the Supreme Dragon Transformation Formula.

Although Adam Brooks had no renowned master to guide him and was fumbling along on his own, making slow progress, the incantation on that page of golden scripture was truly effective. After cultivating for over a month, not only was his spirit more vigorous than before, but his body was also gradually growing stronger. He had not yet achieved any real accomplishments with this incantation, as the time spent cultivating it was still short, but the Iron Bone Skill method taught by the Big Chief was progressing rapidly.

The Iron Bone Sect’s method was an external hard skill, said to have thirteen levels in total. Starting from muscles and flesh, then the five internal organs, and finally cultivating the bone marrow, it was a formidable external martial art.

The first few levels of the Iron Bone Skill focused on muscles and flesh, turning all the body’s muscles and fat into sinew. The higher the skill, the leaner the person became. Upon reaching the sixth or seventh level, one could cultivate true energy from the outside in, said to possess the strength of five horses, impervious to blades and spears. If one’s head and limbs were tied to five wild horses and one shouted loudly, the five horses would be pulled back together.

Upon reaching the eighth or ninth level, when true energy opened all the body’s acupoints, cultivation would shift to the five internal organs and six viscera. The organs are the source of a person’s vital energy, and the strength of the muscles comes from the supply of the five organs. Only by making the organs as tough as copper and iron could one, with each breath, suddenly generate great strength, driving all the muscles to unleash even greater power. At this stage, the Iron Bone Skill was said to grant the strength of nine bulls and two tigers, able to tear tigers and leopards apart, with a force of over ten thousand catties. On the battlefield, such a person would be an unrivaled warrior, sweeping all before them.

As for the Iron Bone Skill’s methods after the tenth level, one had to cultivate the bones. The stronger the organs and muscles, the greater the strength, and the heavier the burden on the bones. Unless the bones were also trained to be as hard as metal and stone, there would be a limit to one’s strength, and using too much force would cause the body to collapse. Ordinary people who use too much force may dislocate their arms or break bones, but those who practice the Iron Bone Skill have strength dozens of times greater than normal people. If they use too much force, the backlash is even more severe—one misstep and all their bones could shatter, leaving them crippled. After the tenth level, when the bone marrow is refined, one enters the legendary innate realm, joining the ranks of the top martial artists in the world, with strength surpassing that of ten elephants. In hundreds of years, the Iron Bone Sect has produced only one such person—the founding ancestor, Iron Bone Patriarch.

The main chief of Tianma Mountain, Black Whirlwind, only cultivated the Iron Bone Skill to the fifth level before being considered a master. Even so, this Big Chief had already roamed the greenwood unhindered, rarely meeting an equal, killing and pillaging with abandon, showing just how formidable the Iron Bone Skill was.

Adam Brooks had originally only cultivated the Iron Bone Skill to the second level, barely increasing his strength to be a bit greater than an ordinary strong man. But after learning the Supreme Dragon Transformation Formula from the golden scripture, his progress with the Iron Bone Skill accelerated rapidly. In just over a month, Adam Brooks felt that his mastery of the second level was nearing perfection, with signs of breaking through to the third level.