The seemingly crude and blunt stone spear smashed the giant crocodile cleanly in two, blood spraying more than ten zhang away. Only after several breaths did the giant crocodile finally collapse, blood gushing out like a small river.

Henry Brooks was surrounded by a faint, almost imperceptible murderous aura, but this aura seemed extremely unstable, flickering in and out of existence.

After absorbing the blood essence of the giant crocodile, he moved several li away from the pool, carved out a cave in a small mountain, and sealed himself inside. With the stone spear in hand, he had no fear of ferocious beasts attacking him in this ancient forest.

Leaning against the slightly damp rock wall, the narrow cave was filled with a heavy stench of blood. His hair and beast-hide robe had long since become matted and clumped together.

It had already been ten days since he began to reforge his bone patterns. He had been searching for that feeling of slaughter, but could not grasp it at all. Only when fighting fierce beasts did that aura faintly appear.

Yet, no matter what, he could truly feel the benefits. This was a power he could control himself, not something that required blood essence to activate as before!

“Hm?”

At this moment, he reached to his waist and scratched, feeling as if ants were crawling beneath his skin, bringing a tingling sensation.

These days, aside from fighting, he was constantly fleeing from great dangers. Fortunately, he was still within several hundred li of the Ethan Brooks clan’s territory, and there were no powerful alien beasts present.

He would not seek death by venturing into especially dangerous places.

But in the next instant, Henry Brooks tore off a patch of old, dried, blood-stained skin from his waist. The new flesh beneath had a fine, textured pattern.

“Wrinkling of the skin membrane!”

Suddenly, he realized—the rough feeling on his body was like the scales and armor of a fierce beast. This was a phenomenon that only appeared when one reached the limit of the Body Tempering Realm’s skin-tempering stage.

It had only been a few days, and he had already achieved wrinkling of the skin membrane!

Not only that, but at first, because he had abandoned his previous Body Tempering cultivation, his original strength of seven thousand jin had dropped to less than a thousand jin, forcing him to flee through the ancient forest for three days, constantly hunting lesser beasts that had not entered the Body Tempering stage to replenish his energy.

Now, his blood essence had surged to five thousand jin. By proper calculation, he had only just reached the first step of Body Tempering—skin tempering. At this rate, when he reached the second step, his strength would surpass what he would have had at the fourth step of his previous cultivation!

Of course, the slaughter he had experienced in these few days far exceeded all his previous years combined. The bloodstains on his body and the pain he endured were dozens or even hundreds of times greater than before.

After retraining with the improved skin-tempering method from the stone spear, he had absorbed the blood essence of dozens of fierce beasts to reach his current state. No wonder the stone spear had said that bone patterns truly became part of oneself only when fused with the body—that was the real path of cultivation.

That faint, elusive aura of slaughter ravaged his body like a blade. To maintain his strength, he had to constantly absorb blood essence to replenish himself.

He repeated this process at every moment. Even if he didn’t want to temper his body, it would be impossible not to!

With the stone spear in hand, he survived the perilous nights, sitting cross-legged in the cave, calmly circulating the improved Body Tempering technique. Beneath his blood-stained beast-hide robe, a layer of old skin peeled away, replaced by a faintly wrinkled new layer, like the bark of an old tree. However, when he awoke, this layer of wrinkles had receded into his flesh.

At sunrise, Henry Brooks stepped out of the cave. He had a feeling that the more he killed, the more the bone patterns within him resonated, and the more his physical body would be tempered.

After the wrinkling of the skin membrane, the next stage was the radiance of flesh and blood, which was crucial for consolidating the body. Flesh and blood were the source of blood essence; the more vigorous the flesh, the more vital the warrior.

To reach the level of flesh and blood radiance as soon as possible, the slaughter bone patterns within his body would be indispensable. Previously, he had worried whether he could reach the peak of Body Tempering within two years, but now he felt a surge of confidence!

……

Roar!

Deep in the ancient forest, swathes of ancient trees toppled as a great beast roared in fury, shaking the forest to its core. All around, fierce beasts fled madly in every direction.

Red-tailed fire rhinos, iron-scaled mountain leopards, golden-hoofed unicorns—all were fierce beasts of the Body Tempering Realm. Among dozens of such beasts, Henry Brooks was also running wildly. At this moment, he and the surrounding beasts had entered a strangely peaceful state.

Several li away, a mutant purple lightning silver-striped marten, only a foot long, was driving the beasts in a single direction with ferocious force.

He was swept along with the beast tide, heading deeper into the ancient forest.

A foul stench filled the mountains and forests, accompanied by gurgling sounds. This was a marshland, where the stench of decay bubbled up from the water, and many white bones were scattered about.

Buzz!

Hiding beneath an ancient tree outside the marsh, Henry Brooks looked toward the swamp. This place was truly sinister—a purple marten was actually driving the beasts into the marsh.

Splat!

At that moment, he saw at the edge of the swamp a withered old tree, only about a zhang tall, suddenly stab at a red-tailed fire rhino. The withered branch pierced through the fire rhino’s armor without the slightest pause.