Chapter 48: Trial by Fire

  Shijiamenkou

  Shi Jian, Han Feng and Yang Hai looked together at the stone rock in front of the earth dragon.

  Yang Hai took a glance and slightly furrowed his brow, thinking that this kid had lost a lot of weight, and probably hadn't had an easy time these past few days.

  Shi Jian and Han Feng exchanged a glance at Shi Yan, their eyes suddenly lit up, and their faces showed a look of surprise.

  Yang Hai did not practice martial arts and naturally did not know that a person's thin body does not necessarily mean they have a weak physique.

  Sometimes, a lean body contains explosive power that is several times higher than that of a strong man!

  Shi Jian and Han Feng were both connoisseurs, and although they had only taken a distant glance, they could both see that Shi Yan's physique was much stronger than before, even more robust than those of the third generation of the Shi family who had been practicing for over ten years.

  The two of them exchanged a glance, and found that each other's eyes were also filled with surprise.

  They don't understand what happened in this short period of more than half a year, and it actually changed Shi Yan's skeleton.

  After a few minutes, Shi Yan and Han Zhong's group finally arrived at the entrance of the Shi family.

  "Grandfather, Uncle Han, Father." Shi Yan walked over with steady footsteps and greeted them at the door.

  Han Zhong walked over and greeted Shi Jian and Han Feng, then nodded towards Yang Hai before standing silently beside Shi Yan.

  Shi Jian and Han Feng, both with piercing eyes, kept their gaze fixed on Shi Yan's body.

  After a long time, Shi Jian's eyelids twitched, and he took a deep breath. He said to Shi Yan, "Follow me." With that, Shi Jian turned around and walked towards the inner courtyard of the Shi family compound, his footsteps much lighter than before.

  Anyone who knows Shi Jian well can see that he is very excited at this moment.

  "Alright, kiddo! Show me what you've got!" Han Zhong winked at Shi Yan, hinting that good times were ahead.

  Shi Yan's expression remained calm, and he nodded slightly towards Yang Hai standing beside him: "Dad, were you all waiting for me on purpose?"

  Yang Hai's face was stern, but the corners of his mouth were overflowing with a strange smile. "No one is waiting for you specifically, I just want to see what's going on with your body, whether you've really broken through to the Innate Realm."

  "Korean Zhong, come with me, I have something to ask you." Han Feng glanced at Korean Zhong and turned around to walk in another direction.

  Han Zhong's face was bitter, and he reluctantly followed his brother's footsteps in a different direction from He Shi Jian.

  "Go, don't keep your grandfather waiting." Yang Hai muttered a sentence, tugged at the corner of Shi Yan's clothes and said in a low voice: "What's going on with you?"

  "Grandpa will definitely ask this question later, let's talk about it together then." Shi Yan smiled and didn't show much respect to Yang Hai as his father.

  Yang Hai was taken aback, staring at him in a daze, and said strangely: "You little brat, you seem to be different from before. Before, you would never beat around the bush, I asked you what, you would answer what. Now... it seems like you're not afraid of me? Little brat, have your wings grown strong, don't put me in your eyes anymore, huh?"

  "You're my old man, why should I be afraid of you?" Shi Yan was taken aback and retorted: "Should I be afraid of you?"

  "This doesn't sound like you, you never used to speak to me in this tone before." Yang Hai furrowed his brow and stared at Shi Yan for a good while before shaking his head and muttering to himself: "This little brat has become a martial artist, he's really changed, even his guts have grown bigger."

  "Let's go, don't keep Grandpa waiting." Shi Yan said with a smile.

  After he and Han Zhong parted ways, he quickly disappeared from the entrance of Shi Jia's mansion and walked towards the inner courtyard in different directions.

  The stone warriors surrounding the entrance of the Shi family's mansion all had inexplicable and astonished whispers on their faces.

  "Is the master waiting for Young Master Iwao? Or did I get it wrong?"

  "I don't know, I'm also curious. The master of the house never appeared with Master Iwao before, and he didn't seem to care about Master Iwao's messy affairs either. What's going on this time?"

  "Who knows? Is it that Young Master Yan has gotten into big trouble again? But that's not right, is it? When Young Master Yan gets into trouble, doesn't Uncle usually take care of it? In the business alliance, although Young Master Yan causes a lot of trouble, there shouldn't be anything that requires the master to step in, should there?"

  "Perhaps this time Young Master Ye has gotten himself into big trouble, who knows?"

  ……

  "Stop wagging your tongues, from now on you'd better show some respect to Young Master Yan. He's not the bookworm he used to be, if you continue to be ignorant of the situation, don't blame me for not warning you." Karl couldn't help but say after arranging the earth dragon, seeing those people still discussing and gossiping.

  "Karl, what's going on? You came back with Iwao-sama, do you know anything about the situation?" a warrior who was friendly with Karl asked from within the crowd.

  "You'll find out soon enough." Karl smiled proudly, "Young Master Ye will surprise you all."

  "What's going on?"

  "What's going on?"

  Their curiosity was piqued, and the gossip fire burned fiercely around Karl, who was constantly being asked questions.

  "Not for now, but you'll find out soon enough." Karl ignored them and pushed his way through the crowd, joining up with the warriors along the way.

  ……

  Behind Shi's house.

  In the center of the vast trial grounds, a rhombus-shaped crystal orb shone brightly in the sunlight, radiating dazzling rays of light, as if it were a miniature sun.

  Shi Jian stood beside the trial jade crystal, waiting until Shi Yan and Yang Hai were about to arrive. He stretched out his hand and slapped the trial jade crystal with a burst of light, which suddenly flew into the crystal from his palm.

  The originally dazzling Testing Jade Crystal suddenly dimmed all its light, revealing the true color of the Testing Jade Crystal.

  "Infuse the essence into the Crystal of Refining." Shi Jian's eyes gleamed with a fierce light as he commanded in a low, stern tone.

  Shi Yan walked up calmly and stood beside the Trial Jade Crystal, extending his left hand to press against it. The essence in his body surged out violently and rushed into the Trial Jade Crystal.

  The silver-white trial jade crystal, layer upon layer of intricate patterns emerged, a hazy orange-yellow light gradually flashed out from the trial jade crystal, the light grew brighter and the orange-yellow color became more pronounced.

  "It's alright." Shi Jian's mouth twitched slightly, his eyes fixed intently on Shi Yan, saying: "I heard that... our Stone Family's Martial Soul has also awakened within you?"

  "Uh-huh."

  "Let me see."

  "Good."

  Shi Yan stretched out a hand and rolled up some of his sleeves on his arm.

  As his mind stirred, his arm slowly petrified, gradually revealing a dark brown color.

  "Dark brown!"

  Shi Jian and Yang Hai exclaimed in unison, their faces filled with incredulity as they stared at Shi Yan's arm that had transformed into a dark brown color.

  "Is it a problem with the light?" Yang Hai blinked hard, rubbed his eyes again, and then looked up at the dazzling sunlight, muttering: "Could I be seeing things?"

  He said to Shi Yan, "Come over here! Let's go to the shaded area behind the stone, it's backlit and there won't be any color difference."

  Shi Yan didn't struggle either, letting him grab onto him as he calmly followed him to the back of a boulder.

  "What a dark brown!"

  Shi Jian let out a loud roar, his breathing slightly heavier, his eyes gleaming with intensity as he stared at Shi Yan. "You little brat, what's going on? Why is the martial soul on your body dark brown? Could it be... could this really be the second stage?"

  "That's right, this is indeed the second stage, I only have the cultivation of Innate Realm, but my Martial Soul is in the second stage!"

  "Give me a reasonable explanation! Our Shi family, from our ancestors to our generation, has never had such a phenomenon! Before reaching the human rank, our martial souls have never entered the second stage, you are the first! What on earth happened? What exactly happened to you?" Shi Jian was about to go crazy.

  "Cough cough, it's like this......" Shi Yan repeated what he had once said to Han Zhong.

  When he finished speaking, he found Shi Jian motionless, still staring at him with a weird expression.

  "Grandpa, what's with this expression? I've already explained it before."

  "You're saying that three strange crimson fruits awakened your martial soul? Made your martial soul so peculiar? And also gave you a vital energy, allowing you to rapidly enter the First Heaven of the Innate Three Heavens?" Shi Jian's face became increasingly odd, and he lightly shouted: "Just because of those three fruits?"

  "Uh-huh, that's right."

  "Where did those fruits appear? I'll send someone over right now to see if they can find more of that fruit."

  "There were only three left, and after that, I searched for a long time but never saw that kind of fruit again."

  "You little scoundrel, are you trying to fool me?" Shi Jian's face was full of suspicion, clearly not very believing.

  I was just kidding you.

  The stone cave was dimly lit, but his face was serious and solemn. "I really don't know what's going on," he said affirmatively. "All I know is that after eating the fruit, I became like this. As for everything else, I'm not clear either, nor do I know why my martial soul is different from others."

  He gritted his teeth and stuck to this statement.

  Shi Jian asked several times, using various methods to probe him, but he kept shaking his head, indicating that he really didn't know anything else.

  After several consecutive times, Shi Jian also gave up continuing to ask, thought for a while, and said: "The martial soul on your body has turned into dark brown, hmm... that is, the characteristics of the martial soul have changed with it? I mean, the martial soul on your body won't just change color, but still only have the strength of the first stage, right?"

  "If I'm not mistaken, we should be in the second phase by now."

  "I'll try." Shi Jian's nature was urgent, he stretched out his hand and pressed it on the chest of Shi Yan, saying: "Young one, quickly cover your body with Stone Shield! Don't worry, I will gradually increase the power, it won't hurt you."

  "Okay."

  Shi Yan naturally knew that Shi Jian would never harm him, so he didn't have any worries and directly turned his body into stone, calmly watching the one hand of Shi Jian.

  A dark glow gradually appeared on Shi Jian's hand, and the power contained within it fluctuated more and more violently, as if it was about to burst forth from his chest.

  Suddenly, Shi Jian's hand was like a sponge, absorbing all the black light.

  Shi Jian's old face was full of excitement, nodding repeatedly, and said with great joy: "Not bad! Indeed it is the second stage! You little stinker, I don't know how you did it, but from today on, you are not allowed to slack off for me! Whether you like it or not, I will force you to become a warrior!"

  ……;