Time flew by.
The energy contained within the Dragon-Tiger Strength Pill continuously tempered his muscles, causing them to transform, increasing their toughness and strength.
At the same time, the pill released a steady stream of medicinal power.
In the blink of an eye, it was already late at night, with the moon setting and frost covering the ground.
Jiang Ning slowly opened his eyes.
"It's done!"
His face lit up with joy.
He could now feel that the Dragon-Tiger Strength Pill had completely dissipated within his body, and all its medicinal power had been fully absorbed.
He could sense that all the muscles in his body had been roughly tempered.
The toughness of his muscles had improved, and his strength had significantly increased.
He stood up and clenched his fist, instantly mobilizing the strength in his body.
Jiang Ning carefully assessed his current strength and murmured, "Around 2,500 jin of force."
Feeling the strength he now possessed, his eyes brightened even more.
"So strong!"
"With 2,500 jin of force, in a sense, my strength is now on par with those at the small achievement level of the eighth-grade Divine Strength Realm!"
Thinking this, Jiang Ning couldn't help but feel a surge of satisfaction.
If his strength was comparable to ordinary eighth-grade Divine Strength Realm experts at the small achievement level, his actual combat power would only be stronger.
After all, his Canglang Saber Technique had reached a great achievement level, allowing him to unleash five layers of energy.
The Canglang Saber Technique was a mid-tier martial art, and ordinary people found it difficult to even get started.
Once mastered, it allowed one to control energy.
Now that the saber technique had reached the great achievement level, with five layers of energy overlay, a single strike could unleash the power of five strikes.
Additionally, he had mastered saber intent and wielded a spirit weapon saber.
He could also release the potential hidden within his body.
So, how strong he truly was, Jiang Ning wasn't entirely sure.
But he knew that his current strength would allow him to dominate the eighth-grade Divine Strength Realm.
Unless he faced a seventh-grade martial artist, he would be hard to defeat.
At this moment, he thought of Tian Buyi, whom he had barely managed to kill a few days ago.
That day, even though Tian Buyi was clearly injured, Jiang Ning's full-force attacks hadn't caused much damage.
The most significant damage was when Tian Buyi's internal injuries, which he had suppressed, were triggered and erupted.
Moreover, Tian Buyi couldn't breathe underwater like Jiang Ning.
With his internal injuries flaring up and his oxygen running out, Tian Buyi had no chance of surviving.
He couldn't have made it to the surface to breathe, especially with Jiang Ning watching him closely.
"If I were to face him again today, I could probably kill him with a single strike!"
Jiang Ning's face showed a confident smile.
Then, he went to the courtyard.
Holding the spirit weapon, Longyuan.
Hum
As the long saber was drawn, the blade vibrated, producing a sound like a dragon's roar.
At this moment, the spirit within the saber seemed to sense his progress and celebrated with him.
"No wonder it feels so lively. My strength has improved, and feeding it with blood accelerates the growth of its spirit!" Jiang Ning muttered to himself after receiving the information from the spirit within the saber through their mental connection.
In the next moment, he placed his index and middle fingers on the blade and lightly dragged them across.
Even though he had now crossed into the eighth-grade Divine Strength Realm and his skin had reached the toughness of bronze, the blade of the spirit weapon still easily cut through his fingers.
Crimson blood seeped from his fingertips.
Then, he pressed the wounds on his fingers against the blade.
The blood immediately flowed into the blade, absorbed by the spirit weapon.
This method accelerated the growth of the spirit within the weapon. The stronger the spirit, the more powerful the weapon.
After a few breaths, Jiang Ning removed his fingers from the blade and pressed them lightly.
The wounds quickly began to heal.
The last time he had fed the spirit weapon with his blood, the wound on his finger had completely healed within a day, leaving no trace.
So Jiang Ning knew that as his strength continued to improve, all aspects of his body would also improve.
Including the speed of wound healing.
Normally, even the shallowest knife wound would take more than a day to heal completely.
But now, he could achieve this in a day.
This meant his healing speed was several times faster than that of an ordinary person.
A moment later, the wounds on his fingers were only faint red marks, with the blood already clotted and scabbed over.
At this point, Jiang Ning stopped paying attention to these minor injuries.
He held the saber in his right hand, energy flowing through it.
In an instant, five layers of energy overlay.
Then, he slashed out.
Boom
The air vibrated slightly.
In front of his saber, the air seemed to take on the form of water.
The flow of wind around the blade was visible.
This strike unleashed his full strength, a full 2,500 jin of force.
A single strike, slashing through the air, could easily unleash over 20,000 jin of explosive force.
With the overlay of five layers of energy, this strike unleashed a terrifying force of approximately 100,000 jin.
From what Jiang Ning knew, in his previous life, an ordinary car colliding at 120 km/h would only produce a brief explosive force of around ten tons.
This meant that the explosive force of his current strike was several times greater than that of a high-speed car collision.
And the damage caused by such a collision was obvious.
It could easily send a pedestrian flying over ten meters, almost certainly fatal.
Not to mention the explosive force he now possessed.
"This strike could probably split a car in half!"
Feeling the explosive force of this strike, Jiang Ning murmured to himself.
Then, with a swish, he sheathed the saber.
He then assessed the condition of his right arm.
He opened and closed his palm, then clenched his fist.
"Not bad!" He nodded in satisfaction.
Even after unleashing five layers of overlay energy, his arm only felt slightly unusual.
There was no significant pain like before.
This showed that after achieving great achievement in skin tempering and reaching skin as tough as bronze, his right arm could now barely bear the burst out of five layers of energy.
This also indicated that his physical defense had improved significantly.
After all, when he had fought Tian Buyi, he had only dared to unleash four layers of overlay energy, not five.
And even then, he had only managed to strike five times.
Five strikes had been his limit at the time.
Any more, and it would have severely affected his muscles, tendons, and arm.
If it were just superficial injuries, they would heal in a few days.
But if it were more serious, his right arm might have difficulty exerting force in the future.
So Jiang Ning hadn't dared to continue back then.
Moreover, since he was in a safe position, there was no need for him to go all out against Tian Buyi.
Today, however, was completely different.
The burst out of five layers of energy only caused a slightly unusual sensation in his right arm.
This showed that even with five layers of energy overlay, he could sustain it far longer than before.
He could easily strike twenty or thirty times without issue.
Thinking this, Jiang Ning felt even more satisfied.
He was pleased with the rewards of his hard work over this period.
These changes made him feel the significant progress in his strength.
Compared to himself a few days ago, the difference in strength was like night and day.
[Source Energy]: 96.7
Looking at the most significant change on his panel, Jiang Ning felt another surge of joy.
The Dragon-Tiger Strength Pill had not only given him nearly 600 jin of force but also over 40 points of source energy.
Now, his source energy was about to break 100.
Although breaking 100 source energy points wouldn't bring an immediate change.
After all, on his panel, the only skill with enough experience for the next breakthrough was the Firewood Chopping Saber Technique.
[Skill]: Firewood Chopping Saber Technique (Fourth Breakthrough 5000/5000) (Traits: Versatility, Swift as the Wind, Mastery of the Saber, Unity of Man and Saber)
This saber technique had already reached the fourth breakthrough.
The fourth breakthrough had cost him 100 source energy points.
Without a doubt, the fifth breakthrough would require more than 100 points.
Based on his calculations, it would probably take 200 source energy points to achieve the fifth breakthrough in the Firewood Chopping Saber Technique.
For him now, this wasn't worth it.
For the same 100 source energy points, the Five Animals Fist breakthrough would bring far greater improvements than the Firewood Chopping Saber Technique.
Not to mention the traits gained from each breakthrough.
The trait [Essence Stored in Organs] was stronger than [Unity of Man and Saber].
But even so, accumulating source energy points was still a good thing.
At least on his panel, aside from the Firewood Chopping Saber Technique, two other skills were easy to gain experience in.
These were the Swimming skills and the Canglang Saber Technique.
If he accumulated enough source energy points, he could spend a few days maxing out the experience for these two skills.
Both Swimming and the Canglang Saber Technique were worth investing source energy points into for breakthroughs.
The breakthrough in Swimming had given him underwater breathing.
Just this trait alone made the 10 source energy points spent more than worth it.
The second breakthrough in Swimming would only cost 20 source energy points, making it worth trying.
As for the Canglang Saber Technique, that went without saying.
It was a mid-tier martial art, and a breakthrough would bring even stronger traits.
Dawn.
"Finally, I feel alive again!"
Jiang Ning patted his stomach and let out a small burp.
The entire previous day had been spent digesting the Dragon-Tiger Strength Pill.
Even with the support of the medicinal power, he had felt ravenous.
Now, after eating and drinking to his fill, he finally felt truly alive.
"Now that I'm full, it's time to continue training!"
Jiang Ning was filled with motivation.
His previous efforts had brought clear rewards.
This positive feedback made him even more motivated.
Especially now that his strength had reached the eighth-grade Divine Strength Realm, he could confidently do what he had wanted to do before.
That was to search for treasure in Luoshui Lake, based on the information he had obtained from the Wanhua Pavilion.
From what he had seen, he realized that he had been too naive before.
There had indeed been many shipwrecks in Luoshui Lake.
But this world was different from his previous one.
The individual power in this world was too strong.
Especially those above the fifth grade.
Each of them had achieved internal strength like steel.
In the eyes of such experts, Luoshui Lake held few secrets.
With their level of internal organ tempering, they could easily hold their breath for over ten hours, or even longer.
Moreover, their bodies were incredibly resilient, and the water pressure at the bottom of the lake had little effect on them.
So if a ship carrying gold, silver, and jewels sank to the bottom, its value would be high enough to warrant hiring such experts to retrieve it.
Thus, Jiang Ning knew that his previous assumptions had been too simplistic.
Normally, ships carrying valuable cargo would have already been salvaged, leaving nothing for him to find.
But it wasn't entirely without value.
Because Luoshui Lake was vast, almost like an ocean to ordinary people.
In such a large body of water, there were bound to be overlooked areas.
Especially in certain areas of the lake, known as forbidden zones, even top-tier experts like grandmasters dared not venture to the bottom.
Jiang Ning's real target was the shipwrecks that had been missed by others.
Large ships often carried gold, silver, and other valuables.
But these scattered valuables weren't valuable enough to warrant hiring true martial experts to retrieve them.
And for fifth-grade martial experts who had achieved internal strength like steel, even ten thousand taels of silver were beneath their notice.
They wouldn't bother with what Jiang Ning wanted to do.
But for Jiang Ning, it was different.
Even a thousand taels of silver were significant to him.
He currently had less than two thousand taels of silver.
This amount wasn't even enough for a single expenditure.
Without money, his martial progress would slow significantly, and his source of energy growth would stagnate.
He couldn't tolerate either outcome.
Especially when it came to source energy growth.
With enough wealth, he could purchase higher-value medicinal herbs.
Like the fifty-year-old Blood Lotus, he had consumed before.
A single one had given him 20 source energy points.
And the Ox Demon Strength Fruit also provided a significant amount of source energy.
So wealth was undeniably crucial to him.
Source energy points were even more important.
Moreover, diving into Luoshui Lake would allow him to search for natural treasures while also increasing his Swimming skills experience.
This was a triple benefit for him.
Having made up his mind, Jiang Ning left a note in his room and headed toward Luoshui Lake with his saber.
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