...…

Shin arrived at his room in a dejected mood. And instead of going to his, he lied on the floor instead and blankly stared at the ceiling.

After a few moments, he took a deep sigh before muttering to himself. "D*mn! Why can't I shake it off from my mind? It is just a single defeat. It is not like I haven't suffered a beating in the training camp before."

He paused for a moment before continuing. "Though, I really haven't lost since that incident."

He continued to absentmindedly stare at the ceiling for quite some time as he didn't feel like doing anything for now. It was because he couldn't shake off the uneasy feeling he felt when he saw that last move that Arthur did at their sparring match; it kept replaying in his mind no matter how hard he tried to forget about it.

After some time of doing nothing, Shin stood up with a kick up while saying to himself. "Tch! This is not going to work. I need to do something for now, or else I am going to eat off the dusts that Arthur is going to leave behind. If my talent is not enough, then I need to put more effort on my training at the very least."

Then he stood blankly in the air when he realized some problem. "But where should I start? Training with my usual routine will not help me much. Starting from today, Arthur is going to use that Bloodline Practice called 'Imperial Tactics'. And based on how those two old men talk about it earlier, I can tell that it is something really amazing. Now, I need to work extra hard, so that I can keep up with Arthur's progress."

As he fell on these thoughts, Shin tried to recall the sparring match earlier. Then he looked for the things that could keep up with Arthur's talents. And he was able to pick up some things that fitted his bill.

"The Reinforce Iron Bones really helps a lot in the battle earlier. It can boost my speed with the runes in my legs, and strengthens the powers of my attacks with a great margin with the runes in my arms. With the help of this 'Qi Reinforcement Skill' I can at least get near the gap on those two aspects. I guess I need to complete this skill now to get the maximum benefits that it gives."

"And given how amazing the benefits that I can give, the other two 'Qi Reinforcement Skills' may also be some sort of amazing skills. Maybe I should delay learning more skills and focus on mastering these three."

"The White Dawn Boundary also helped me a lot during that time. And even if it is quite hard to maintain, it still can help me improve with a lot of things in the battle. What's more, it can also complement my Mentalism; I can execute my Mentalism Techniques in an easier way whenever I am in that state. I really need to master this breathing technique and switch out my current one since it can't keep up with me now."

After that, Shin immediately tried his best to calm himself down and empty his mind, but he still couldn't do it just like earlier. "Sh*t! I just can do it! I am losing focus midway. This can't be done, it is going to be dangerous to engrave the runes in my bones if I can't concentrate."

He clicked his tongue and mumbled to himself. "Tsk! Looks like I need to delay the completion of the Reinforce Iron Bones, huh? Hmm… If I can't practice it, then I guess I can only focus on practicing the White Dawn Boundary to further strengthen my control over my battle trinity."

Shin suddenly paused as he thought about this. Then a sudden idea entered his mind. "Wait? Concentration? If I entered the White Dawn Boundary state while engraving the runes… Is that possible?"

Getting such an idea, Shin immediately put that in practice. He entered the extreme tranquil state without further ado. And when all of the useless thoughts were finally not present inside his head, he quickly started engraving the ruins on the bones based on the method written on the manual of the 'Reinforce Iron Bones'.

Since Shin was already done with the bones on both of his arms and legs, he was now starting to connect them little by little. The spine of a person was still one of the most sensitive parts of the human body so he left it for the future.

He first started at the bones of his upper body, starting around his right shoulders before proceeding to the right Clavicle that was bridging towards the left side one with Interclavicular Ligament in the middle of the two. Then he proceeded to engraving runes at his True Ribs, Costal Cartilage, and False Ribs, respectively.

After that, the other Ligaments, Sternums and other parts of his chest and upper back bones aside from the bones of his spine.

He was taking some breaks from time to time to recover his Internal Qi and willpower that were exhausted due to the painful process.

When he was done with the upper area, he quickly shifted at the bones on his Pelvis and lower back as soon as he was done recovering from another break.

Then the pain of engraving the runes on his body was really hard to endure. But when he felt the changes on his bones, he continued to persevere all the way he completed engraving the runes that were meant for his skull.

The entire process was really too hard to endure as it was too painful; and Shin being completely drenched with sweat was the proof of it. Even if with his monstrously strong willpower, it was still extremely hard to bear the torment that he was doing to himself.

He was only able to persevere at continuing when he felt the changes on his bones every time he managed to connect a rune series after another. And when those connected series were bridged to another, their effects became even more noticeable.

Shin was not sure how many hours had passed since he started engraving the runes. Or to be more precise, he forgot about everything as he was too immersed at dealing the current matter at hand.

And when he finally finished engraving the rune series meant for his spine, and connected all of the rune series in his entire skeletal system, something he didn't expect suddenly occurred.

Bang!

A silent explosion of energy suddenly exploded inside his body, catching Shin completely off-guard.

Then…

Bang!

Yet another explosion immediately followed the previous one. But this time, Shin felt a soul piercing pain on his entire being; and this time was coming from his bones.

A moment later, Shin started rolling on the ground over and over as he didn't know what to do. He wanted to scream to voice out his pain but he couldn't do it as no sound was coming from his mouth.

All he could do was to grit his teeth hardly to endure this torture that was ten times worse than the previous one that he had experience.

'D*mn! What happened!? Did something go wrong? Did I do it wrong?'

'Could there be some accidents that happened?'

'But I followed the instructions correctly and I am sure that I didn't make any kind of mistakes!'

Shin kept repeating these thoughts in his mind and he really couldn't understand what was happening. And together with it, he could only curse nonstop at his helplessness.

And while he was doing his best at enduring the pain in his body, he also felt that the runes that he had engraved on his bones started to spread further and covered all of his bones all the way until they completely enveloped his entire skeletal system, turning it into crystal-white color.

Even if Shin couldn't see it clearly from his omniscient view, he knew that the color of his bones turned into something crystalline. It was as if his bones became diamonds.

When this happened, the unbearable pain that Shin was suffering suddenly disappeared in an instant. Then his entire skeletal system suddenly shined with blinding light in brilliant white color.

At the same time, all of the 'Force of Nature' in the whole place suddenly started rushing towards Shin before being rapidly sucked by his crystalline bones.

Feeling this sudden change, Shin was now able to finally have a sigh of relief. Then he stayed lying in the ground waiting for his bones to get the nutrients that they needed for the 'Force of Nature' from the surroundings.

Shin still didn't know for how long this process lasted before his bones finally stopped absorbing the surrounding 'Force of Nature, all he knew that it was already extremely dark outside when he finished.

After adjusting his mind, Shin quickly checked the changes in his body, or on his bones to be exact. And the first thing that he discovered was that his bones were too powerful this time. Not only could he feel the extreme hardness from them, but he could also feel the very strong strength hiding in it.

"My bones became diamonds? D*mn! That was strange," muttered Shin as he looked at his internal body with the help of reverse 'Deep Mediation' skill. He didn't need to test out what his new set of bones could do since he could already feel how strong they were.

"But this is still not enough. Extremely not enough," added Shin immediately after his excitement was subdued.

From what he had felt, Shin could tell that Arthur was still ahead of him. Especially that he had experienced the powers of the Lightning Mark and Seven-colored Internal Qi from Arthur.

"No, from the conversation of the Old Geezer and Old Fatty earlier, I can tell that Arthur is still unable to completely control the powers of those two. He is only releasing them earlier to strengthen his attacks and hasten his speed," muttered Shin as he started to remember Arthur's last move once again.

And after a minute of silence, Shin started mumbling about the next step that he was planning to do. "Now that I am done with the 'Reinforce Iron Bones' should I go with the next 'Qi Reinforcement Skill' next?"

While he was in the middle of deep thinking, an unfamiliar voice suddenly interrupted his thoughts.

"I advise you to rather not do that. Having the 'Sacred Diamond Bones' is already enough, so you can just let your body adjust with the new bones for now before proceeding to another. If it is me, I will choose to practice a 'Mentalism Enhancement' that can complement this 'Qi Reinforcement Skill' instead."

Shin was surprised at the sudden interruption as he didn't expect that there was someone else present inside his room aside from himself.

He quickly jumped forwards and turned his body towards the source of the voice midair. And when his feet landed on the floor, he immediately asked. "Who are you?!" while taking his battle stance.

That was when he saw a silhouette of a man comfortably sitting on the sofa beside the glass door towards the veranda adjacent to his room.

This man was currently holding a book with his right hand while using the moonlight passing through the glass door as his source of light to read the book that he was holding.

Shin was now looking cautiously on the man. It was because he couldn't feel any presence from the man even if he was just sitting in there. If he was not currently looking at the man, then he wouldn't notice that there was someone sitting in there. And if this man was an assassin, then he was sure that would surely not stand a chance against this guy at all.

And when the man gave him a sidelong glance, Shin felt an intense chill from his entire being. All of the cells on his body were screaming about the extreme danger. The feeling that he was currently getting was extremely similar to the Old Monsters of this house, if it's not more.

'Who the hell is this guy?' thought Shin to himself as he gulped a mouthful of saliva.

...