Free Web NovelChapter 22: Chapter 22: Urgency
The medicinal soup’s effects were almost immediate. Xie Yuan not only felt a faint warmth spread through his body, but a surge of vigor also seemed to rise from his very bones.
’I wonder what’s in this medicinal soup for it to be so effective! No wonder the Iron Cloth Shirt Gate guards the formula so tightly. The one in charge of the pharmacy is another of Liu the Monk’s Direct Disciples.’
’And no wonder a single dose costs one tael of silver...’
’It seems there’s only one true sickness in this world.’
With a sigh, Xie Yuan leaped to his feet, walked straight into the small courtyard, and assumed his stance.
He performed all six sets of the Pile Skill from start to finish. The barely perceptible trace of Blood Qi in his chest seemed to have grown by a sliver. freewebnσvel.cѳm
Sensing this minuscule but real progress, Xie Yuan’s spirits lifted. He didn’t stop, but went through them again, and then again...
The silver moon cast down its pale light. In the cold wind of the winter night, the young man’s breath plumed in hot bursts.
Xie Yuan stopped his practice before his body began to feel fatigued.
In his heart, he wanted to keep practicing indefinitely. The strengthening of his Blood Qi, the increase in his progress—these tangible gains filled him with passion for martial arts.
But he knew his own body best. The memory of that bone-deep weakness was still fresh. Even though the medicinal soup was working wonders and he felt its effects hadn’t been fully utilized yet, Xie Yuan cautiously stopped before his body could send out any warning signs.
Better safe than sorry. Xie Yuan wanted to walk this path for a long time to come.
"Since I’ve inherited this body, I have to accept it for better or for worse. I’ll nurse it back to health slowly. The day will come when my efforts bear fruit."
Xie Yuan wiped the sweat from his body. Bolstered by the medicine, he felt like a man brimming with Qi and Blood. Warm and content, he drifted off to sleep.
「Three days later.」
Xie Yuan was practicing in the courtyard. When still, he was like an old tree taking root; when moving, he was like a green pine swaying in the wind.
He had become extremely proficient in the six sets of the Pile Skill—three still, three moving.
When he finished the last set and slowly relaxed his stance, he blinked.
[Iron Cloth Shirt - Level 1: (73/500)]
’I’ve already been holding back these past few days, yet my progress is this fast. If my body wasn’t holding me back, wouldn’t I be soaring?’
Xie Yuan mused.
The Blood Qi in his chest was now about half the thickness of his little finger.
Xie Yuan circulated it to seep into and permeate the skin all over his body, sensing its gradual reinforcement.
With the help of four doses of medicinal soup, he had taken a giant leap forward.
But as the medicinal effects slowly wore off, the vigorous, fiery feeling in his belly also faded, as if he had transformed from a spirited youth into a hollowed-out middle-aged man in an instant.
Feeling that sense of deficiency that one could only experience after practicing martial arts, especially when compared to the fire he felt when the medicine was in full effect, Xie Yuan gave a bitter laugh.
’How did I end up needing a drug just to last longer? The moment the effects wear off, am I right back where I started?’
’What happened to "practicing martial arts builds a strong and healthy body"?’
The reality was that the strong got stronger, and the weak were worn down.
This time, it was only thanks to the medicinal soup and his cautious training that he didn’t feel like he was depleting his body.
Training methods drain one’s essence; only nourishment methods can replenish one’s qi.
Just as the old saying goes, "Practicing the forms without cultivating the substance leaves you with nothing in old age."
Unfortunately, nourishment methods were hard to come by. How could a simple woodcutter from a mountain village ever find the secret techniques that only Major Sects possessed? ƒrēewebnoѵёl.cσm
’Forget it. I won’t overthink it. One step at a time.’
’But... why don’t I feel like my body has improved after drinking the medicinal soup?’
Xie Yuan frowned slightly. It would take sixty or seventy taels of silver to fully restore his body’s reserves. After spending four taels of silver, shouldn’t there at least be a splash?
He had thought he would get a little better, but once the medicine’s effects wore off...
It was like he had taken it, but also like he hadn’t.
He thought for a moment and decided to go ask at the martial arts school.
「Inside the Iron Cloth Shirt Gate.」
"So, Junior Brother Xie, you drank the tonic soup and then just trained as hard as you could?"
Cao Shan held his forehead and sighed softly.
Xie Yuan sensed his exasperation and asked with a frown,
"Is something wrong?"
"Of course!"
Cao Shan shook his head repeatedly.
"It’s simple, really. The medicinal soup’s effects are finite. If you train too hard, you’ll naturally use it all up. The reason you didn’t feel tired is that your training consumed the soup’s potency, not your own vital essence and blood."
"But for someone like you, Junior Brother Xie, whose body is depleted, it’s like a dry pond. A tonic can irrigate and moisten it, but before you’ve even become properly ’moistened,’ you go and train, boiling the pond dry again!"
"Junior Brother Xie, honestly, I’ve seen many junior brothers who train hard, but it’s rare to see someone as driven and... well, desperate as you. What’s the rush?"
Cao Shan muttered.
’So that’s how it is. To put it simply, it’s the conservation of energy...’
Xie Yuan fell silent. He hadn’t thought of it that way before. It was true; there had been a hidden worry in his heart, which was why he was always in such a rush to train.
But the threat from the Zhang Brothers was real. Although Xie Yuan had intimidated the local thugs enough that they no longer dared to harass him, whenever he ran into Zhang the Second in the village, the look in the man’s eyes told him that this wasn’t over.
Only now, it seemed he couldn’t afford to be hasty...
"Senior Brother Cao, what should I do then?"
"A river doesn’t freeze three feet deep in a single day. Building a good foundation is the same; you can only take it slow. This tonic soup alone probably won’t cut it. You’d best go to the pharmacy and see our second senior brother. Have him diagnose you properly and prescribe something specific. In the meantime, you’ll definitely have to slow down your training."
Xie Yuan grew even more silent. This didn’t sound like something that could be resolved in the short term.
He could wait, but would those bastards wait for him?
Seeing his expression, Cao Shan advised,
"Junior Brother Xie, training is a slow and steady grind, like water dripping through stone or sand building into a pagoda. Haste makes waste. Tao Jelin and the others weren’t as quick to start as you, but he’s making steady progress and has now reached the threshold. It just proves that cultivation values persistence, not speed."
"Junior Brother Xie, for someone like you with depleted Qi and Blood, the hardest step is developing that initial sense of qi. You must have felt that, right? So you should focus on nursing your body back to health first. With your comprehension, you could build a solid foundation for a later breakthrough, you never know."
Xie Yuan said sullenly,
"It wasn’t too bad. I’ve already reached the threshold. I just can’t get any faster."
"What? How is that possible... Are you serious?"
Cao Shan was stunned for a moment and asked subconsciously.
"It’s just reaching the threshold. There’s no need to lie about it."
Xie Yuan was in a foul mood. He shook his head and said,
"Senior Brother Cao is right. I need to think about this in the long term. I... I’m going to go back and think it over first."
Watching Xie Yuan’s retreating back, Cao Shan muttered to himself,
’"Just" reached the threshold? It took me over ten days to do that. How could he develop a sense of qi in about ten days when his Qi and Blood is so depleted? Hiss... Could it be that I’m weak too?’
As Xie Yuan walked back, he thought,
’Option one: I keep drinking medicine and training at the same time. I’ll make progress and have some ability to protect myself, but breaking through to become a Martial Artist will probably be difficult. And in the long run, it’s a surefire way to damage my foundation.’
’Option two: I do as Senior Brother Cao said and slowly nurse myself back to health. I can figure out a way to get the silver if I have enough time, but...’
’But... will the Zhang Brothers slowly wait for me?’
Xie Yuan was caught in a dilemma. He walked all the way from Panlong Town back to Little Stone Village without figuring anything out.
’Damn it! All I did was be a little handsome, and now it’s a crime!’
A vicious thought suddenly struck him:
’Fuck, they’re pushing me too far! If it really comes to it, I’ll just sneak out at night, cut down Zhang the Second, and disappear into the mountains. We’ll see if Zhang Da can find me then!’
After mentally dismembering Zhang Da and Zhang Er, Xie Yuan was just about to reach his home on the hillside when he suddenly stopped in his tracks.
A Daoist was standing at his door, looking around.
Upon seeing him, the Daoist raised a single palm in salute and asked,
"Young man, is this the home of Xie Lun?"
