During those two and a half years, the Lin clan kept their promise, leaving Amon alone to cultivate in peace. Madam Lin continued her weekly visit. Aside from getting her drugs, it's also to chat with her adopted son. She was furious with him at first. Thinking of him for overestimating himself. Amon expressed his apology and said that this was needed for him to become strong. She replied by saying what a six-year-old kid knew about being strong.
She didn't come to visit him for the first four weeks. When she finally came, she saw how intense Amon's practice was, she understood then that Amon was serious with his conviction of becoming strong. Her anger subsided and she continued her weekly visits since.
Amon always spared an hour for a chat with this adopted mother of his, accompanied by some snacks under the courtyard gazebo. He tried to create the illusion of affection. Seeing how she had fiercely defended him during the hearing, Amon decided she could prove useful for many more years ahead.
Along the promised time, Amon underwent an intense training schedule. He did not take even one day of break. He repeated his routine of cultivating at the night, martial art practice in the morning, engraving and poison study in the afternoon. However, he added another two hours of cultivation after lunch while reducing his alchemy study, to boost his cultivation speed further.
His martial art practice had undergone a huge improvement. His Bone Shattering Shadow Fist had reached Master level. Not only his fist could cause full damage from five meters away, but he could already execute three rapid punches within a second.
After he reached Expert mastery, some pages in the book that described the step to reaching Master level had become easier to understand. He learned that to perform the rapid punches, he had to manipulate the aether differently. In previous Beginning and Skilled mastery, he only needed to accumulate the aether to strengthen his fist. In Expert mastery, he needed to cause the aether to explode and launched a powerful force ahead.
At the Master level, he needed more precise control of the accumulated aether. He had to separate the aether into a few portions and cause them to explode in sequences and in predetermined directions. On his first punch, he had a part of the aether explode forward and gave his fist a fast retract, before having another portion push it back out again. Like having a booster jet strapped on your fist that systematically pushed your fist back and forth, allowing a rapid superhuman punching speed.
At the Grandmaster level, the control of aether was even more precise as one would need to separate the accumulated aether to allow ten rapid punches. Amon could still not reach such mastery.
However, he modified the Master level of his Bone Shattering Shadow Fist so that he could perform them with his two arms at the same time. Allowing him three punches on each hand, totaling six punches within a second. The concentration required for this double execution was complex, it was as if he had to think about two different things at the same time. Fortunately, this kind of thinking process was a piece of cake for him. In the fast-paced battlefield in his past life, it had been an everyday occurrence for him to analyze multiple things at the same time.
The walls of his courtyard were full of fist marks from all his training.
His defensive art, Hardened Bronze Body, reached Expert mastery. He could now maintain the skin hardening condition for as long as thirty seconds. He could also now move around while the art took effect, eliminating the weakness of being a sitting duck when the art was active.
His Silent Swift Stab had also reached Expert mastery. His explosive speed could now let him lunge forward six meters away. Before it only covered a four meters distance. His stab's power could also penetrate a solid concrete now.
He read about the page in the martial art book that described the Master level and found it to be extremely complicated. The Master level of Silent Swift Stab instructed him to spread the aether to his entire body, similar to the defensive art of the Hardened Bronze Body. But instead of utilizing the aether to harden the skin, it instead was used to bend the light.
He was not unfamiliar with this concept as in his past life, scientists had been trying to use the same concept to create an invisible suit. That's how although he had not yet reached the Master level, he understood the effect he would gain when he did. At Master level, the Silent Swift Stab would become the ultimate ambush skill, as no one would see him coming.
He was rather looking forward to mastering this art. However, it was not so easy. He would need a long time practicing it.
His last martial art, Hundred Shooting Stars, was also the one he had trained the hardest. Hence, despite its difficulty being on par with Hardened Bronze Body and Silent Swift Stab, he had managed to achieve the Master level of this art.
At Expert mastery, he could control his thrown dagger to have a curved trajectory. Instead of removing air friction, his aether would instead produce increased friction on one side, making the dagger swerve in the opposite direction. The control was difficult as he needed to balance how much friction was needed. But after mastering the control, he could hit a target that was hidden behind a pillar.
At the Master level, his control improved, allowing him to throw multiple daggers at the same time. Its power also increased, giving the dagger the ability to reach forty meters mark.
His engraving study had also undergone a qualitative improvement. He could now successfully engrave a stone nine times out of ten. He had also practiced different words of power from the third book. Once he got the hang of it, he returned to study the Poison Infusion Method. He realized that one picture on the page was a word of power. It was the word of power to infuse the poison.
He could use any poison as the base and applied it to an object as he engraved the word of power onto it. Successfully performing the operation would allow the object to carry the property of that poison. He practiced many times on this poison infusion word of power before deciding to apply it to one of the seventeen throwing knives he possessed.
The throwing knives themselves were already engraved weapons. Amon recognized the word of power engraved on it granting the knife additional sharpness. Normally, an engraved weapon could not be engraved further, but as stated by the page in the 101 Primal Poison tome, the Poison Infusion method was special as it could serve as additional engraving without canceling the previous effect. However, failing while engraving this poison infusion would render both his current attempt and the original engraving to become defective.
He used the Black Slaughter Poison as the base. After conditioning his mind, he went to work. With full focus, he managed to work with pinpoint accuracy, allowing the Poison Infusion Method to be successful. The engraving on the throwing knife glowed an eery green color before subsiding and leaving no trace. The throwing knife looked the same as the other sixteen but he could sense deadly energy within. He had no doubt anyone below the Martial realm who got scratched by this knife would immediately fall dead. Even a beginning Mystic stage cultivator would die if not get treated immediately.
This knife would be his hidden trump card. Considering he still had another four more doses of the Black Slaughter Poison, he proceeded to use them to engrave more of his throwing knives.
Unfortunately, despite his stable concentration. One out of those four tries still failed. He had to throw away the defective throwing knife. But the other three were successful. He now had four poison-throwing knives and twelve common ones. Due to the additional poison effect, his four poison throwing knives could be considered high-tiered engraved weapons.
As for his cultivation. He had managed to reach the peak Mortal stage after one and a half years passed. He still had one year until the promised time, but he realized then that he indeed had overestimated his cultivation speed.
Each increase required a much longer time to reach a higher level. Despite him using his sleep time to cultivate and with the aid of the Black Aetherium Stone, he knew now that it was still impossible to break through to the Strength stage in another year's time. But he had given his promise, there was no point in lamenting a done deal. He could only do the best he could.
When two and a half years had gone by, as expected, he was still in the peak Mortal stage. Yet, he showed no doubt. He prepared all his weapons and wore the self-adjusting chainmail under his shirt. He was ready when Madam Lin came to pick him up. With a self-assured posture, he followed her to the clan mission center.