"Human hand?" Ye Chen repeated the words softly.
A cold chill ran directly down his spine. The Azure Cloud Sect was supposed to be a pillar of the righteous path. Breeding corrupted monsters with demonic energy within a sacred hunting ground was an act of pure evil.
A sharp throb from his left shoulder violently snapped his attention back to his immediate reality. He was losing entirely too much blood.
He reached into his tattered servant robes with his good hand. His fingers brushed against a small paper packet. It contained the cheap coagulant powder issued strictly to stable workers for minor scrapes.
He tore the thick paper open with his teeth. He dumped the white dust directly onto the deep gouges in his torn flesh.
The powder burned exactly like hot coals against his exposed muscle. Ye Chen gritted his teeth so hard his jaw cracked. He forced himself to remain completely silent in the hostile woods.
The bleeding barely slowed at all. The cheap medicine was completely useless against a deep wound inflicted by demonic wind magic.
"I cannot survive another beast attack in this state," Ye Chen muttered. He leaned heavily against the damp bark of a nearby tree to steady his trembling legs.
He replayed the brutal fight with the corrupted wolf in his mind. He had struck the beast with the full, raw force of a Stage 3 cultivator. His knuckles had connected perfectly with its ribcage.
Yet the blow had felt exactly like striking a solid stone boulder.
"My technique is far too crude," he analyzed coldly. "Basic Fist Mastery only taught me where to strike the enemy. It did not teach me how to penetrate their defenses."
He needed the specific ability to deliver maximum force through hardened hides. He needed a method to cause catastrophic internal damage without relying on mere surface impact.
If he encountered another corrupted beast tonight, he would surely die. If the tracking sect disciples found him in this pathetic condition, they would gladly sever his head for the bounty.
Ye Chen closed his eyes slowly. He sank his conscious mind directly into his Dantian.
"System," he commanded internally. "Open the Shop."
The translucent blue interface materialized instantly in the dark and gloomy forest. Two distinct tabs floated clearly at the top of the digital screen.
One tab read Buy. The other tab read Upgrade.
"Open the Buy menu first," Ye Chen ordered.
The screen shifted smoothly to a new page. The catalog was completely empty. A single line of red text pulsed rapidly in the center of the void.
[Host does not meet the minimum cultivation requirements for any available items. Catalog currently locked.]
Ye Chen scoffed bitterly at the notification. "I am too weak to even purchase a basic combat skill. Open the Upgrade menu."
The screen flickered violently. A single option appeared in bright white text.
[Skill Available for Upgrade: Basic Fist Mastery.]
[Evolution Cost: 50 System Points.]
Ye Chen stared intently at the required number. Fifty points was his exact current balance. It was the entire reward he had earned from risking his life against the demonic wolf.
If he spent it now, his balance would return to absolute zero.
"I have no choice," Ye Chen told himself firmly. Hoarding digital points would not stop him from bleeding to death in the mud tonight.
"System, upgrade the Basic Fist Mastery."
The blue interface immediately flashed a violent and glaring red. The mechanical voice entirely lost its neutral and calm tone.
[Warning. Host is attempting to bypass natural bodily adaptation.]
[This forced evolutionary process will consume massive amounts of blood vitality and mental energy. Extreme physical trauma is absolutely guaranteed.]
[Do you truly wish to proceed?]
Ye Chen thought of Su Rou sitting comfortably on her throne of stolen resources. He thought of Elder Wang smiling cruelly as he ordered an execution.
"Pain is absolutely nothing," Ye Chen answered without hesitation. "Do it."
The system did not offer a pleasant confirmation chime. It responded with immediate and absolute physical agony.
Ye Chen collapsed heavily to his knees in the mud. He threw his head back in a completely silent scream.
This was not a magical download of ancient knowledge into his brain. This was a brutal and violent physical rewiring of his entire bodily structure.
He felt the dense muscle fibers in his right arm violently tear themselves apart. They snapped audibly in the quiet forest.
The fibers instantly stitched back together in much denser and heavier configurations.
His tendons stretched and tightened relentlessly. They felt exactly like thick steel cables being pulled forcefully over his delicate joints.
"Argh!" Ye Chen clawed desperately at the wet dirt until his fingernails cracked.
The pain was completely suffocating. Unseen hands seemed to be ripping his flesh open to carve new combat pathways directly into his raw bones.
[Martial comprehension deepening. Simulating years of relentless training.]
His heart hammered against his ribs at a completely terrifying speed. It raced desperately to pump enough blood to support the forced cellular regeneration.
Severe internal bleeding began almost instantly. Thick black blood poured freely from Ye Chen's nose. Dark crimson tears leaked steadily from both of his eyes.
He could literally feel his skeletal structure groaning under the immense internal pressure. The technique was actively breaking past his fragile mortal limits.
He embraced the torture fully. This was the true and ultimate price of power. Su Rou had given him pain merely to destroy him. The system gave him pain to rebuild him into a god.
[Evolution Complete.]
[Basic Fist Mastery has successfully evolved beyond its mortal limits.]
[New Skill Acquired: Chaos Bone Shattering Fist.]
[Current Proficiency Level: Initiated.]
The bright red screen vanished into the darkness. Ye Chen could not even read the final system notifications.
The sheer physical trauma overwhelmed his conscious mind completely. His eyes rolled fully to the back of his head.
He collapsed heavily into the cold mud directly beside the desiccated ash of the dead wolf.
The forest was completely silent when Ye Chen finally opened his eyes again.
He had absolutely no idea how much time had passed. The thick green canopy of the Myriad Beast Forest blocked out the sky entirely.
He pushed his face out of the wet mud slowly. Every single muscle in his entire body screamed in loud protest.
He was severely weakened. The extreme blood loss made his vision blur and swim wildly. His body felt sluggish and incredibly heavy.
"System," Ye Chen rasped. His throat was completely dry and felt like sandpaper. "Status."
The blue screen rippled into existence. His health indicator was dangerously low.
He slowly rolled over onto his back. He forced himself into a seated position against the damp river rocks.
He raised his uninjured right fist to examine his hand closely in the dim light. The physical change was absolutely undeniable.
His knuckles were heavily calloused and unusually thick. His skin held a faint but highly distinct metallic sheen.
He slowly closed his fingers tightly into a fist.
The perfect and lethal posture of a master martial artist was now permanently carved directly into his bones.
He inherently understood exactly how to stand for maximum leverage. He knew perfectly how to align his spine to generate devastating physical torque.
He understood the exact science of shifting his body weight smoothly from his heels directly to his shoulders.
The deep knowledge felt completely natural and permanent. It felt exactly as if he had practiced this specific punching motion every single day for a full decade.
"Gather," Ye Chen commanded his Qi softly.
He concentrated his heavy and chaotic energy purely at the very tip of his knuckles. He understood instinctively how to cause maximum internal destruction upon a living target.
The Chaos Bone Shattering Fist was not designed to break the surface skin. It was designed to send a concentrated shockwave of lethal force directly into the internal organs of an enemy.
He looked closely at his updated status screen. His eyes locked onto a specific new number.
[Strength: 42. Base 12 plus 20 allocated plus 10 skill bonus.]
"My strength increased by ten full points," Ye Chen whispered in genuine shock. "Just from upgrading a single technique?"
He carefully analyzed this new and highly critical information.
The extreme physical conditioning required to safely execute the Chaos Bone Shattering Fist had permanently altered his fundamental musculature.
"This means certain high tier skills actively increase related bodily attributes upon learning them," Ye Chen deduced aloud.
He realized the profound strategic advantage of this hidden system mechanic.
Upgrading a skill was a far better strategic option than pouring raw points into attributes directly. He received the advanced combat technique and the raw physical power simultaneously.
It was a highly efficient double reward for his suffering.
He looked closely at his zero point balance on the digital screen. The forced upgrade had drained his currency completely dry.
"I must be incredibly patient from now on," Ye Chen concluded firmly.
He would not waste future points on minor attribute bumps. He would aggressively save up his points for when he finally qualified for a powerful skill in the Buy option.
He lowered his fist slowly and took a deep breath of the humid forest air. He needed to find a safe place to rest and heal his mangled shoulder properly.
Ye Chen dragged himself into a shallow, moss-choked cave. He spent a feverish night nursing his torn shoulder in the damp dark, sustained only by the system's residual Qi. By dawn, the severe bleeding had finally stopped. He stumbled outside, desperate to test his newly forged weapon.
"There he is!" a voice shouted excitedly from the dense underbrush.