[Name: Shen Yuan]

Age: 16

Level: 9/10 (Late Stage of body Tempering ) XP: 10,230 /20,000

[Techniques Comprehended: Expand>]

[Strength (STR): 41+3=44

Agility (AGI): 40+3=43

Dexterity (DEX): 42+6=48

Physique (PHY): 39+4=43

By the time Shen Yuan stepped out of the bath, the water had been turned murky. It was so clean before, and now it looked like a barrel of oil and dirt.

Drops of tainted water slid down his damp hair, sticking to his upper torso. Shen looked down at his hands and frowned.

"The more I train a certain attribute to exhaustion, the more it tempers it." Seeing the immense rise in the DEX stat compared to the rest, Shen Yuan instantly made a guess.

He looked down at the leftover paste in the bowl. "This should last me for six more uses.

"Ugh. I need another bath." Shen Yuan looked down at himself. The Dragon Bone paste may have boosted many things beyond just his attributes. But the smell was really unbearable. It was worse than the smell of a dead fish that has been lying out in the open for many days.

He pulled the plug of the tub and let all the dirty water flow into the drain. Then he refilled the water from a backup tank in the corner.

"A cold bath after a hot one..." Shen Yuan let his body submerge and thought, "Hope I don’t get sick."

Just when he was about to close his eyes, the door to the bathroom opened and a head peeked inside.

"Are you still not done?" Candy asked while she unceremoniously walked into the room. Her nose was scrunched up as she caught the lingering smell in the room. "What were you doing in here for it to smell so nasty?"

"There were more impurities that I had imagined." Shen Yuan apologized, seeing the angry look on her face. "I am sorry about this. I will clean up."

Candy snorted coldly before walking towards him. "And how are you going to make this dumpster-like smell go away?"

Shen Yuan was startled by her sudden boldness. "Well, shouldn’t you wait outside first? Let me finish the bath."

"Why?" Candy smirked wildly as she leaned on the bathtub with her arms crossed. "Are you worried about something? Or do you feel that you will be embarrassed if I see... something?"

Her eyes slowly trailed down from his eyes on purpose. She thought Shen Yuan would shy away and hide himself, but she had been heavily mistaken.

Shen Yuan saw through her intentions, and instead of stepping forward to hide himself, he leaned back with his arms spread wide open around the edge of the bathtub.

His long wet hair stuck to his chest while exposing a little of his torso and everything below.

Without the impurities, Candy was bound to see everything.

The courtesan was surprised when she noticed his actions. Not wanting to lose to him, she ended up jerking her head down and stiffened up.

Her eyes widened ever so slightly. Then with another jerk she looked away, but the blush on her face had not faded away. ’What was he thinking showing me something like that?’

Candy did not know why she was feeling so embarrassed over something she had seen many times.

"Ahem, hurry up and get out. It’s about time for my shift, and I cannot leave you here." Without giving him a chance to speak, she practically ran out of the room.

Shen Yuan looked at her back with an amused look on his face.

After thirty minutes, Shen Yuan walked out of the inner room only to see Candy sitting on her dressing table, getting ready for a brand new day.

"I have taken the liberty of using some of your herbs to clean up the bathroom, and the smell is gone too. Just let it breathe for now."

The leftover paste was already packed and stored in the system’s inventory, while Shen Yuan had a bag of his clothes tied to his waist, which not only looked weird but was horrible with the outfit.

Candy stared at him from the reflection of the mirror before rolling her eyes and dryly chasing him off to leave. "You should leave now. The guards won’t stop you on the way out. Since you have already paid me for everything, no need to pay down below. Just pass them the token on your way out."

’What an unreasonable woman.’ Shen Yuan chuckled inwardly at her unjustified anger. He turned his eyes to the red jade lying on the bed.

Shen Yuan picked the jade up casually and turned to leave. "Well, see you another time."

Candy watched as he left with her hand half raised.

Clang!

Once the door closed up, she lowered the eyeliner in her hands and covered her face, which was already heating up. "Ohhhh... candy, you idiot. Why would you act so coldly to him? He won’t think I am weird, will he?

...

Unaware of the internal struggles of the harlot of the Fallen Blossom Pavilion, Shen Yuan was causally changing his clothes in the shadow of some abandoned alley.

Before leaving the area, Shen Yuan recalled how she said that there was a shortage of medicinal herbs in the market and decided to stock up for the future. ’Who knows when I might need them in the future only to find they have been sold out.’

Shen Yuan spent all of the Girds he had left on him to buy the herbs.

It was useless to save his money for techniques.

The Yellow grade techniques would only award him little exp, and the Profound grade could only be purchased with spirit stones.

So he decided that it was time for him to temper his body on his own and master the techniques he has already learned.

But sadly for him Shen Yuan was still stuck in the same stage of the Silent Reaper’s Step.

It was like he had the thing in his grasp, but it would always slip away from him at the right moment.

Thinking about his future, Shen Yuan did not even realize when he had arrived in his lane.

But when he did... his steps came to a halt.

’Something is wrong...’ Shen Yuan looked around, but he could not spot a single soul in the street. It was like everyone had decided to lock themselves in their houses at the same time, which was very odd since it was still the middle of the day.

So without wasting any more time, he rushed back to his home and reached out to open the door.

Shen Yuan suddenly hesitated for a second. His eyes sharpened and his body tensed.

Then he took a deep breath and relaxed again.

Creak....

He slowly stepped inside the room only to see someone sitting inside the room, playing with the book he had on pills and herbs.

"It is amazing how you could sense my presence even before you entered the room. After all, I was making a special effort to hide it." The square-faced boy settled the book down and placed a hand on him while looking at him with his jade-green eyes. "Looks like some habits die hard, don’t they?"