The Iron Armor Dragon Elephant Skill—this was the new Cultivation Technique for the Iron Armor Skill at the Bone Forging Realm. It was a complete Dharma Gate, a full Inner Breath Technique with its own chant and Heart Method.

It was a direct successor to the Iron Armor Skill of the Skin Grinding Realm and the Muscle Strengthening Realm.

The difference was that when Chen Cheng devised this new Cultivation Technique, he had referenced the Dragon Elephant Bone Forging Technique and the Dragon’s Roar Iron Cloth Shirt. By incorporating some characteristics from both, the Iron Armor Dragon Elephant Skill now had a much higher potential.

Chen Cheng had a vague feeling that even if he only cultivated this Inner Breath Technique, his bones would strengthen to a monstrous degree.

Cultivation of the Iron Armor Dragon Elephant Skill still focused on mobilizing one’s Qi Blood Power to temper the bones while under heavy loads.

The heavier the load his bones could withstand during Cultivation and the more abundant the Qi Blood Power he could mobilize, the faster his Cultivation Progress would be.

Since Chen Cheng had cultivated to the absolute limit in both the Skin Grinding and Muscle Strengthening Realms, starting his Cultivation of the Iron Armor Dragon Elephant Skill was a natural progression.

Recalling the chant and Heart Method of the Iron Armor Dragon Elephant Skill, Chen Cheng slowly began to move, circulating his Qi Blood Power.

In an instant, the Momentum around him erupted. A torrential wave of Qi Blood Power, like a hundred rivers flowing into the sea, slowly converged to completely envelop all 206 of his bones.

It then slowly seeped inside, continuously nourishing and strengthening them.

Chen Cheng felt a tingling numbness, as if countless microscopic ants were crawling all over his bones.

As his Cultivation continued, waves of a cool, refreshing energy occasionally mixed with the tingling numbness, making him feel incredibly comfortable.

If one could see through him, they would discover that Chen Cheng’s bones were undergoing an incredibly slow transformation.

Under the subtle nourishment of his Qi Blood Power, the countless microscopic structures composing his skeleton began to slowly shift and rearrange themselves, following some profound and mysterious pattern.

This made the texture of his bones denser and more solid, while the joints became more seamlessly integrated.

If the process of a newborn’s 270 bones fusing and changing during growth to form the 206 bones of an adult was the first tempering...

...then the Cultivation of the Bone Forging Realm was a second tempering, rearranging these 206 bones both internally and externally.

Through countless rearrangements, the bones of the entire body would increasingly approach the state of Perfect Flawless Jade Bone, and could even transform into it completely.

This was what it truly meant to be reborn.

[Iron Armor Dragon Elephant Skill Cultivation Progress increased.]

...

As he cultivated, notifications from the panel appeared from time to time.

During the Cultivation process, because he was mobilizing a massive amount of Qi Blood Power, Chen Cheng’s entire body felt like a blazing hot furnace.

His clothes were repeatedly soaked with sweat, only to be steamed dry again.

After one hour, Chen Cheng stopped his Cultivation. He had actually consumed a full fifty percent of his Qi Blood Power, and he felt exhausted in both body and mind.

The need to mobilize a vast amount of Qi Blood Power during focused Cultivation was a clear difference between the Iron Armor Dragon Elephant Skill and the versions used in the Skin Grinding and Muscle Strengthening Realms.

He summoned the panel to check his status.

[Skills: Iron Armor Dragon Elephant Skill (Uninitiated 3/10)]

"Three progress points in one hour. Not bad."

Chen Cheng smiled faintly, but his brow immediately furrowed in thought.

Three years for Skin Grinding, five for Muscle Strengthening, ten for Bone Forging. The Cultivation of the Bone Forging Realm was clearly far more difficult and much slower than the previous two Realms.

This was determined by human anatomy. Skin, Major Tendons, and bones each represented a progressive increase in density and hardness, so the difficulty of Cultivation naturally rose with each stage.

Of course, the difficulty and speed of Cultivation were relative.

Whether it was Skin Grinding, Muscle Strengthening, or Bone Forging, the speed of Cultivation was directly related to the foundation one had built beforehand.

When Chen Cheng first started cultivating the Iron Armor Skill in the Skin Grinding Realm, his progress was very slow because he was malnourished, his physique was frail, and his Qi Blood Power was weak.

But as his situation improved and his nutrition caught up, his Qi Blood became abundant, and his Cultivation speed increased dramatically.

Furthermore, with the assistance of the panel guaranteeing his progress, Chen Cheng’s Cultivation in the Muscle Strengthening Realm had actually been slightly faster than in the Skin Grinding Realm.

As for his Bone Forging Cultivation, his progress was not slow because his foundation was incomparably solid, having reached the limit in both the Skin Grinding and Muscle Strengthening Realms.

The only drawback was that the amount of Qi Blood Power required to cultivate the Iron Armor Dragon Elephant Skill was simply massive.

Anyone else would have likely exhausted their Qi Blood Power in less than an hour, whereas Chen Cheng had only used about fifty percent.

It would take one or two hours to recover this depleted Qi Blood Power.

If this wasn’t replenished over the long term, it would inevitably lead to a Qi Blood deficit, causing his body to decline.

With his current abundance of Qi Blood, Chen Cheng could probably only cultivate the Iron Armor Dragon Elephant Skill for a little over three hours each day, and even then, he would have to do so in separate sessions.

Any more than that, and his body wouldn’t be able to handle it; it might even be counterproductive.

Cultivating for a little over three hours a day would net him about 10 progress points, which wasn’t slow at all.

As for replenishing his Qi Blood, he would naturally need various potent Medicinal Materials or Demon Beast Meat.

Thanks to Mr. Zheng, Chen Cheng had received a large supply of Medicinal Materials, which should last him for about a month.

After that, he’d probably have to start paying out of his own pocket to buy Demon Beast Meat.

His current net worth was over ten thousand taels of silver. If he used that to buy Demon Beast Meat, he could probably last another three or four months. After that, he’d have to figure something else out.

’It’s a good thing I’m not the type to get rich overnight and immediately lose my head, spending recklessly. Otherwise, I wouldn’t even be able to last these next few months!’