Wun Fan ignored Hung Yu Fei and returned to his room. He locked the wooden door before taking off all his clothes except for a pair of white underpants. He was only 140 centimeters tall. He wasn’t very tall for an eleven-year-old kid. He was also a little scrawny for his size, with lean but not particularly large muscles.
He stared at the tub of cold water for a moment and an idea came to him. He still had one last weapon up his sleeve!
“Old Lei, I was thinking, I really respect you and I was wondering…” said Wun Fan in a fawning tone. His eyes were gleaming, like a child asking his father for a gift.
“Sigh,” said Old Lei as he emerged from the ring. He knew exactly what Wun Fan wanted before he even asked for it. They had not been together for very long, but it wasn’t hard to read his mind.
“Can I borrow your fire?” asked Wun Fan. He knew Old Lei was easily persuaded with flattery and sincere begging, so he put on a pathetic expression. After all, he wasn’t afraid of the cold, but bathing in cold water during winter was not a good feeling either.
“To think my fire would end up being used to warm up baths for people,” said Old Lei as he stared at Wun Fan. He was clearly upset with him. Wun Fan begged for forgiveness. Nevertheless, Old Lei was not someone who held grudges. Wun Fan was his disciple in the end. It was the right thing to do to treat him well.
He flicked his finger and a green flame appeared and dropped into the water. Just three seconds later, the water had started bubbling and giving off steam. Old Lei took out three pills and a pouch of powder from Shennong’s Ring with a practiced measure. He poured them into the tub. The clear water instantly turned into a dark red color.
“Er, Old Lei, this…” said Wun Fan with some hesitation. He had some objections to this, but Old Lei didn’t care for it. He waved his hand and an attractive force pulled Wun Fan to him. He grabbed Wun Fan like an eagle grabs a bird and threw him into the tub as he said, “Shut up and get in.”
Wun Fan dropped into the wooden tub headfirst. He felt his skin burn painfully, as if he had just come into contact with acid. Smoke rose from his skin as the pain spread everywhere. He accidentally swallowed a mouthful of the liquid. A pungent smell filled his nostrils and he felt like vomiting.
He finally got his head out of the water and took a few deep breaths. However, the medicinal liquid was like frenzied sharks and left him no time to rest. It rushed into Wun Fan’s body all at once, freely flowing through his blood vessels, strengthening his meridians.
Szzzzzzz.
Old Lei looked very relaxed as he stroked his beard and scratched his eyebrow. He seemed completely unfazed to watch Wun Fan screaming and yelping in the tub. He explained slowly, “This is the Meridian-Forging Powder and the Bone-Strengthening Pill. You will take a bath like this every night from now on. It’s a good thing to bring along this wooden tub.”
“Ugh…” Wun Fan was too busy stifling his cries to pay attention to Old Lei’s words. The old man shook his head and said, “Sigh. Kids these days never listen to their elders.”
Wun Fan’s grunts filled the room and could even be heard outside.
Knock knock. A series of hasty knocks came from the door. A girl’s voice could be heard, “Hey, kid, why’s there screaming coming from your room?”
“Hss…noth…ing…I’m…fine…” said Wun Fan with a lot of difficulty. He practically had to use the last of his strength just to say that much. It simply hurt too much. It wasn’t as bad as the night of his tribulation, but the pain was still too intense.
“Oh, then stop screaming. I want to sleep already,” said Hung Yu Fei. Her words seemed a little uncaring, but it didn’t seem like she doubted Wun Fan. If Wun Fan himself said he was fine, then he was fine.
“Siu Nam, he said he’s fine, so don’t worry about him. He won’t die. He probably just has some weird kink or something.”287Please respect copyright.PENANA2lwoULvr9k
Wun Fan could hardly breathe. He was sweating profusely and gasping desperately for air. He immediately tried to shut off his senses and calm himself down. He reminded himself to take short inhales and do long exhales to control his breathing.
A few seconds later, he barely managed to get the rhythm of his breathing back in control.
“Digest the energy properly. Bring the medicine’s power to your meridians and bones with your soul energy and the medicine will seep into those parts naturally,” said Old Lei as he paced around the room. He wasn’t touching the ground, but he walked like he was, circling Wun Fan like he was watching a circus show.
When he heard Old Lei’s words, Wun Fan endured the pain and conjured his soul energy, guiding the medicine’s power in his body. The medicine already hurt when it entered his meridians. When he brought it near his bones, it started digging into his bone marrow, causing unbearable pain.
Squeaaaak. He gripped the edges of the wooden tub tightly. His wet fingers slipped against the wood, making an awful squeaking noise. Wun Fan tried his best to stifle his scream so Hung Yu Fei wouldn’t hear him. He tried his best to withdraw from his body and shut out his senses.
He suffered in agony for a long time after that and finally managed to absorb most of the medicinal liquid. The color of the bath became much lighter. Wun Fan felt as if he had just gone through a big fight. He felt so weak. He noticed the water seemed like it had some sort of impurities in it. He scooped up the water with both hands and took a closer look. There was some sort of filth or dirt in the water. It was strange.
“Those are the impurities in your body. This is the effect of forging your meridians and strengthening your bones,” said Old Lei as he rubbed his chin. He observed the impurities in the water and was dissatisfied with the amount. He said, “Hmm, best to increase the dosage tomorrow.”
Wun Fan was stunned by his words and couldn’t help but ask meekly, “Old Lei, you mean…”
“Oh? You didn’t hear what I said earlier? You’re going to bathe in this once every night from now on,” Old Lei replied with a frown.
“Every night…?!” exclaimed Wun Fan. However, Old Lei put his objections to rest with one simple phrase, “Endure the pain and you get power. Avoid the pain and you get nothing.”
Fine. He’ll endure the pain.
Wun Fan asked Ho Siu Nam to pour out the water once he was done with the bath. She came into the room and saw the hot tub. A strong medicinal smell filled her nostrils, forcing her to put a hand over her nose. However, Wun Fan didn’t bother explaining the situation, so she walked out of the wooden house, watching the bright moon and taking in the fresh air.
287Please respect copyright.PENANAO5yzWztfMF
Moonlight pierces the cloud and lands in the pond, was the boy’s incarnation really a coincidence or something more?
Wun Fan stared at the tiny pond beside the house as it reflected the bright moon above. He couldn’t help but feel a well of emotions within him. More things had happened this year than in the past ten years. There were too many coincidences happening all at once. Even he didn’t dare to think about the possibility of these not being mere coincidences.
This life full of wonders felt so exciting to him. There were still too many mysteries in this world waiting to be uncovered.
Now wasn’t the time to be thinking too much. It was most important to grow stronger. He looked around him and saw a tree. He immediately climbed the tree, agile as a monkey, and arrived at the top of the tree in a few simple movements.
He found a slightly thicker branch and sat down on the most even spot he could find. He started reciting his mantra. His soul energy started circulating and absorbing aether again. The collected aether was all sent into the Spiritstartler Ring, where they were refined into pure aether and merged with his soul energy, increasing its volume.
There was a common saying: obstructed meridians give rise to afflictions.
In this world, the meridians were deeply related to martial arts. They could not be separated. Obstructed meridians would prevent you from having any ability to train. Without aether or soul energy inside your body to ward away diseases, you would fall sick easily.
That was why the four realms of a Martial Mortal— novice, intermediate, advanced and peak Martial Mortal— corresponded to the Three-Yin Hand Meridians, the Three-Yang Hand Meridians, the Three-Yin Foot Meridians and the Three-Yang Foot Meridians. You had to fill all these meridians with soul energy before you could advance to the next realm.
The Martial Vassal realm!
That was why the novice Martial Mortal realm was focused on the Three-Yin Hand Meridians, which were the Lung Meridian, the Heart Meridian and the Pericardium Meridian. It was easy to fill the Lung Meridian just by filling up the pressure points around it.
The limiting factor was a sufficient supply of soul energy.
The reason why some Martial Mortals were stuck in that realm for their entire lives wasn’t just because of their own talent. There were other external factors, such as the mantra they used, the speed at which they could filter the absorbed aether, the efficiency of converting aether into soul energy, guidance from a good mentor and many more. All of these factors could greatly affect the speed at which a martial artist improves.
Meanwhile, Wun Fan had exceptional talent. He had powerful innate mental energy that allowed him to observe his internal organs with ease and pick out the correct meridians and pressure points to focus on. He had the Spiritstartler Ring to purify the aether for him and had no limitations in that aspect. The efficiency of aether converted into soul energy was closely related to the strength of his mental energy. Given his powerful mental energy, this was no problem for Wun Fan at all. His mentor was one of the best as well. Setting aside Old Lei’s tremendous power and terrifying alchemical prowess aside, his knowledge alone made him an excellent teacher.
As for his mantra? Just two lines from the Sword Mantra of the Endless Crimson Dust was powerful enough for him to use for now. It was no ordinary mantra.
All of these factors added together gave Wun Fan an overwhelming advantage. It would be a disgrace to all of his blessings if he could not improve at several times the rate as his peers.
Wun Fan sat on the tree and meditated with his eyes closed. He split his attention into two. On one hand, he was funnelling aether through his meridians into the Spiritstartler Ring as he breathed; on the other, he was filling out the pressure points around his Lung Meridian with his soul energy. The multitasking was so perfect that even Old Lei was impressed, “Who would’ve thought that there was a benefit in being a fickle playboy? Turns out it makes you good at multitasking.”
Wun Fan had a wealth of soul energy to spare. He excavated the Lung Meridian in a single night. Wun Fan could feel his every breath become more powerful. Your ordinary novice Martial Mortal would have wasted an entire night just collecting and refining aether. They would not have had the time to turn the aether into soul energy, let alone use that soul energy to excavate their meridians.
“It’s morning already, kid,” said Old Lei.
Wun Fan opened his eyes and prepared to absorb the purple energy from the east. He felt full of power.
His training would begin today.287Please respect copyright.PENANAmZLHzAFuWQ