Du Ren was now eight years old. It has been five years since he started his martial art training.

When he was three years old, he reached the first stage of the body tempering realm.

When he was four years old, he reached the second stage.

And when he was five years old, he reached the third stage.

Since that time he did not achieve any breakthrough in his body tempering.

He was progressing pretty fast for a commoner but compared to these young masters from a martial artist family, he was too slow.

He was an illegitimate son of the DU clan. There was a rule in the Du Clan saying that any child with the Du clan bloodline who could reach the fourth level of the body tempering realm before the age of twelve was authorized to go back to the clan to further his training.

To train in martial arts, one needed to have a strong will and a powerful determination.

Despite the pain of the training, Du Ren never gave up. For himself and for the people he loved, he needed to get stronger.

Just like that, time passed and he was still unable to breakthrough.

Du Ren passed most of his time training with the ' hidden wave technic'. It was a secret scripture of the Qin Family that he obtained thanks to the system from a boy called Qin Zen.

To breakthrough, the middle levels of the body tempering he needed to transform his body's blood essence into true essence.

But it was not easy.

******

Du Ren was sitting cross-legged in the middle of the woods. His chest lay bare against the cold winds. In front of him was a tree trunk or rather what was left of it. There were many chunks of wood lying everywhere on the ground and his fist was bloodied.

It was the result of today's training. He was practicing a set of first technics contained inside: ' hidden wave technics'.

He was now able to carry a bull if he wanted.

If he stimulated his blood essence to the maximum, he could even carry three bulls.

It was the reason why he could beat most of the strong men from autumn town despite only being his child body.

Du Ren remembered his fight against the blacksmith earlier.

The blacksmith was not an ordinary person, but the only martial artist of the town apart from Du Ren.

Like the boy, he was also at the third stage of the body tempering realm.

Du Ren had challenged him many times.

The first time it was an arm-wrestling challenge. He had lost miserably.

The second time, it was a proper fight, bare-handed, mano a mano. That time he also lost terribly. He also lost the body tempering elixir that he had betted.

But during the third challenge, he dominated the fight completely.

What happened?

He had reached a deeper understanding of the ' hidden wave technic'.

" blood essence coursing through the body

Flowing like waves and crashing on the shore...

But there is something wrong"

The ' hidden wave technic' like many other secret manuals was like a guide on how to circulate the essence in and out of the body.

Do Ren was now proficient enough to control his blood essence and move it through his body.

Blood essence was an energy that emanated from the simulation of the body potential. It could flow inside the body just like blood.

Even ordinary people had blood essence in their bodies, but it was in a dormant state.

An only martial artist could use their blood essence.

A fist enhanced with blood essence could become sharp like a blade. A kick enhanced with blood essence could crush metal.

But using blood essence randomly could prove to be fatal.

It was the reason why after years of experimentation, secret technics and martial skills were created.

The 'hidden wave technic' was just like that. A guide on how to guide and use the essence inside the body that belonged to the Qin family.

" I'm crying to direct my blood essence according to the instruction.

But something is wrong.

In other to transform the blood essence into true essence, it seems like I will need to have at least 12 channels in my body.

But I only have four channels. 

Does that mean that I will have to buy a channel's opening medicine?" Duren is tough to himself.

Essence Channels were the pathways used to circulare the essence through the body. In some ways, they were like arteries and veins in the bodies. But they only worked for blood essence.

Du Ren had vaguely heard about it when he visited the Li martial hall in white river city.

People were born with different numbers of channels. The more one had, the more one was talented.

But using some expensive medicine, one could artificially create a new channel in the body.

" I will need money to buy it.

I hope that among the skills that I earned from the kind townsfolks, one of them can help me gain some money"