Lin Shu took the technique and could barely contain his impatience. As he left the lodging, he bid farewell to Yanqi, Aoyan, and Kai before disappearing into the streets.
"Now I should go to the Vermilion Titans. I still want my payment."
He moved through familiar alleys and activated his usual precautions. The mask on his face subtly reshaped itself, its color dulling before shifting entirely. His skin darkened to a deeper brown, his hair following suit, while his clothes were replaced with a simple, unremarkable robe. By the time he stepped onto the main road, Lin Shu no longer resembled the arena fighter known as Li.
He headed toward the store that concealed the organization's base.
Inside, Yin stood behind the counter as usual. He glanced at Lin Shu once, then pointed toward the stairs without a word. Lin Shu nodded and ascended.
He stopped in front of a door and knocked lightly.
"Get in."
Lin Shu entered and was greeted by Section Leader De Feng.
"Ah, it's you, Nie," De Feng said with a nod. "We've reviewed your mission. Not only did you eliminate the targets, you also killed an elder. Our contractor is extremely pleased. You've shown them exactly what it means to shelter their enemies."
He smiled faintly. "Well done. Your payment will be delivered now. Four Blue Sky Aether Shards."
Lin Shu accepted the shards and stored them in his ring, his expression calm while his thoughts stirred.
"I finally have a way to obtain a somewhat consistent supply of Aether Shards. If this continues, I can use them for cultivation instead of hoarding them for techniques. My speed is high-tier, my strength is peak-tier, my ranged attacks are peak-tier, my defense is at the very top of peak-tier, and my camouflage is mid-tier. My healing is also at the upper end of mid-tier."
"I'm only lacking investigation and tracking techniques, but those can wait. Reaching the peak stage comes first."
He looked up and asked, "Where can I find available missions, and how many can I take?"
De Feng gestured toward a stack of documents. "You can take as many as you want. Some missions last weeks, even months, depending on the target's strength or protection. One thing to remember—missions aren't exclusive. There's no first-come, first-served. It's first kill, first reward."
Lin Shu found that interesting. It meant speed mattered more than planning. If he wanted rewards, he'd have to move faster than everyone else.
Unfortunately, he already had arena matches scheduled in the coming days. Taking on a long mission now would be reckless.
So he left.
Behind the counter, Yin spared him a brief glance before returning his attention to the customers.
Lin Shu headed straight to a training facility and rented a secluded room.
Once inside, he finally took out the Infernal Marrow Crucible manual and placed it in front of him.
"I should begin cultivating immediately."
The technique began with a dangerous premise: transforming the marrow itself into a furnace. Once activated, the marrow would continuously draw Qi without pause—whether the practitioner wished it or not. This passive absorption was mild at first, but when the furnace was deliberately engaged, the suction rate surged violently.
At full operation, the furnace could pull in Qi at a speed rivaling a rank-three talent.
The refined Qi would be funneled into the dantian, expanding its capacity while accelerating refinement. The result was faster advancement at the cost of constant internal heat.
Lin Shu acquired the required materials beforehand. They cost him a large sum of gold, but gold was insignificant to someone of his strength.
He sat cross-legged and took a slow breath.
"Let's begin."
He circulated his Qi inward, not toward his dantian, but toward his skeletal system. Bone by bone, he guided the flow deeper, forcing the energy into his marrow. The sensation was immediate—pressure, followed by a rising warmth that spread through his arms, spine, and legs.
Instead of resisting it, Lin Shu compressed the heat.
He visualized his bones not as solid structures, but as hollow conduits lined with ivory walls. He condensed Qi within the marrow and forced it to rotate, slowly at first, grinding against itself. The friction caused the temperature to rise further, but his reinforced bones held firm.
Cracks did not form. Instead, the marrow thickened.
As the rotation stabilized, the heat stopped spreading outward and began cycling inward. The marrow became a refining chamber, constantly drawing Qi from the surroundings and breaking it down before sending the purified essence into the dantian.
Lin Shu's body trembled.
"This is the constant state."
The heat did not spike—it persisted. A slow, relentless burn.
He immediately acted.
Using his control over his bones, he created microscopic release points, directing excess heat along his skeletal frame and venting it through his limbs in controlled pulses. The temperature stabilized just below the threshold of damage.
Sweat soaked his clothes.
But he smiled.
"It works."
The furnace was active.
The Infernal Marrow Crucible had taken root.
Lin Shu let the passive effect of the technique continue without interference.
"This passive state only raises my cultivation speed slightly—faster than a rank-one talent, but still below rank two. The real difference comes when I actively draw in Qi."
He inhaled slowly and began absorbing Qi in large quantities.
The refinement speed itself did not change. Instead, the volume did. The Infernal Marrow Crucible devoured Qi in waves, pulling far more than his dantian could normally handle. The furnace refined everything at the same rate as before, but the sheer amount being processed caused heat to bloom rapidly within his body.
Lin Shu immediately activated Ivory Dominion.
His bones hardened further, density increasing as the heat was forced inward rather than allowed to spread. He could feel it clearly now—his skeleton acting like a sealed chamber, containing both the rising temperature and the excess energy produced by the furnace.
When he stopped cultivating, the refined Qi flowed smoothly into his dantian and was absorbed, expanding his capacity by the exact amount processed.
But the byproduct remained.
Inside his bones, something heavy lingered. It wasn't refined Qi, nor was it raw heat alone. It was excess energy—compressed, unstable, and trapped alongside the heat that created it.
"I can feel it… it's still there."
To test his theory, Lin Shu extended his hand.
A bone spike burst from his palm.
He focused, trying to guide the accumulated heat and excess energy into the spike so it could be released in a controlled manner. For a moment, it worked. The energy flowed outward, surging toward the projection—
Then it slipped beyond his control.
The spike detonated.
Not with fire, but with a violent discharge of condensed energy and heat that had been bottled inside his bones. The release wasn't directional—it was explosive. The ground beneath him cracked as stone tiles shattered outward, pulverized by the force.
Lin Shu was thrown back and slammed into the floor.
"AHHHHH!"
Pain tore through his arm as heat and force ripped through his hand. Blood splashed onto the ground as skin split open, exposing muscle beneath. His arm shook uncontrollably, nerves screaming as the aftershock reverberated through his bones.
"Damn it—DAMN IT!"
He stared at his hand in disbelief. The damage was severe. Flesh had been torn away, and deep wounds reached almost to the bone.
"If I hadn't reinforced my arm… if the ivory gauntlet wasn't active… my entire hand would've been gone."
Understanding hit him all at once.
"So this is why it kills people."
"The heat alone isn't what finishes you. First, it embrittles the bones. Then the excess energy builds up inside with nowhere to go. And when it finally releases…"
He clenched his teeth as pain continued to throb through his arm.
"It explodes outward and destroys you and if it's seeping slowly through your brittle bones it melts you from the inside."
The Infernal Marrow Crucible wasn't just dangerous—it was volatile. He could endure the heat for a time, especially with his reinforced skeleton, but releasing the stored energy was another matter entirely.
"The amount produced by the furnace is too much. I can't just vent it all at once."
He took a shaky breath, forcing himself to calm down despite the pain.
"If I want to survive this technique, I need absolute control. Gradual release. Continuous regulation. If even a fraction slips…"
He looked down at his ruined hand.
"…this is the result."
Despite the pain, his eyes sharpened.
"But it's still usable."
He pushed himself up, cradling his injured arm. The bleeding was slowing, his enhanced healing already knitting the deepest layers back together. The room was a wreck, but his mind was clear.
The technique was a double-edged sword of unimaginable sharpness. It could carve a path to power or gut him from within. There was no middle ground.
Lin Shu's mind was no longer on the pain. It was entirely focused on survival and application.
He looked at the shattered ground beneath him, at the broken tiles and fractured stone, and his breathing slowly steadied.
"That release destroyed my gauntlet and tore through reinforced flesh. That level of output… it's comparable to a peak-tier art."
The realization made his thoughts race.
"Wait."
"What if this isn't just a flaw?"
He straightened despite the pain, eyes sharpening as the idea took shape.
"What if I don't treat this excess energy as a problem to get rid of, but as something to be used?"
His heartbeat quickened.
"This isn't a double-edged sword if I can control it. If I can guide it… shape it… then this becomes a technique."
Lin Shu didn't hesitate.
He resumed cultivation through the Infernal Marrow Crucible, but this time he stopped well before reaching the dangerous threshold he had crossed earlier. The furnace within his bones ignited again, drawing in Qi and refining it relentlessly. Heat accumulated, and excess energy pooled inside his skeleton, dense and restless.
He shifted his focus to his other arm, the one that hadn't been torn apart.
Ivory Dominion activated.
Bone and ivory layered over his forearm as the gauntlet formed, thicker than before, reinforced deliberately. He guided the stored energy toward his knuckles, not all of it—just a portion—and held it there, straining to maintain control.
Then he punched the ground.
The impact detonated with a dull, crushing force. Stone cracked outward in a wide radius as the compressed energy discharged violently into the floor. The ground caved in again, though the destruction was clearly weaker than before.
Lin Shu froze, then slowly smiled.
"I only used a quarter of what I released earlier… and it's still this strong."
His breathing grew heavier, excitement creeping in despite the pain.
"If I can learn to regulate the release and keep my armor intact while doing it, then this becomes a reliable peak-tier offensive technique."
He clenched his fist, feeling the heat recede slightly.
"And it's sustainable."
Lin Shu immediately began training.
Hours passed.
The training room was reduced to ruins. Cracks spidered across the walls, tiles were pulverized, and scorch marks stained the floor. Lin Shu himself lay amid the destruction, blood and sweat covering his body. Skin was torn in multiple places along his arms and chest, muscles exposed where flesh had been ripped away.
Yet he was smiling.
"This furnace never truly stops," he thought. "As long as I can cultivate during combat, I can keep generating this excess energy."
He pushed himself up slightly, ignoring the pain as his natural healing began to work.
"I'll call it Infernal Force."
"The Infernal Marrow Crucible produces it, and I release it through controlled discharge. As long as I have Qi to feed the crucible, I have access to peak-tier power."
His smile widened.
"With this, the technique isn't just a cultivation art anymore. It's both an offensive technique and a growth method."
"I didn't just strike gold… I struck aether."
"For once, working under Yanqi truly paid off."
Elsewhere, Chi Yanqi sat in silence, cultivating within his room.
A knock sounded at the door.
"Come in, Aoyan."
She entered quietly and sat down near him, drawing her knees up and resting her chin against them. Yanqi continued cultivating, waiting for her to speak, but she remained silent, lost in thought.
Finally, he opened his eyes.
"What's the matter?"
Aoyan looked up at him, concern clear on her face.
"You shouldn't have given Li that technique," she said. "What if he dies because of it? You remember that program Father ran years ago. That technique was its core. Everyone who used it ended up mutilated from the inside."
Yanqi was briefly surprised that she still remembered that.
He exhaled slowly.
"It wasn't my decision. He chose it."
"If the worst happens, I lose a strong fighter. That's unfortunate, but not catastrophic. I can replace him, and our team won't suffer long-term."
He paused, then added more quietly.
"Even if I've grown fond of him, if he ose something dangerous that's his problem"
Aoyan's expression hardened.
"We can't just let something like that happen to him," she said. "He's helped me a lot in our matches, Master."
Yanqi studied her carefully.
"Why do you care? You know he's helping you because i am paying to do so"
The question caught her off guard. She hesitated, then answered honestly.
"I've known him for almost three years. We've fought together in many matches, and he's always helped when it mattered. I think… it's fair to say he's my friend also you're paying him to fight for you but he has always helped me no matter what and he did the same to kai so if he didn't at least see us as friends i don't think he'll do all of that."
Yanqi didn't say anything as he thought.
"I'm glad she can call someone a friend again," he thought. "But something about Li still doesn't sit right with me it feels that he always helps her a little too much but since he does the same to kai i can't tell if he's trying to gain my favor or not but i still don't trust the boy to consider him her friend."
He kept his thoughts to himself.
"I just hope I'm wrong," he thought. "I don't want her to be betrayed again and i don't want to ruin her expectations of an actual friendship."
Yanqi reached out and placed a hand on her head.
"Don't worry," he said. " you know me I was only half serious earlier otherwise why would i invest all this in Li who I've also grown fond of over the years. So don't worry yourself If Li chose that technique, then he must have confidence in surviving it."
He smiled faintly.
"And I'm glad you're friends with Kai and Li and you care about your friends well being."
Aoyan blushed slightly as she said.
"It's not that I care that much," she muttered. "It just wouldn't be good to see a teammate die a stupid death it's not a good look for our team."
Yanqi laughed softly and ruffled her hair.
Somewhere else, Kai lay on his back, staring up at the ceiling.
The technique Yanqi had given him rested unopened beside him.
His mind kept returning to earlier that day, to the moment Yanqi had brought out the Infernal Marrow Crucible. When he'd heard the name, his body had gone rigid. When Lin Shu began reading it, Kai had moved closer without thinking.
By the time he'd grasped what the technique truly was, his heart had nearly stopped.
"I didn't expect Yanqi to have that," he thought.
His fingers traced the burned scars on his face as his expression darkened.
"but he was the one who helped shut that program down… after it went out of control so i guess he kept it."
His jaw tightened.
"A little too late."
Kai turned his head toward the window, gazing at the quiet night sky. Slowly, the tension drained from his face as he lost himself in the view, the stars reflecting faintly in his eyes.