Name: Lin Chen Profession: Martial Artist Qi and Blood: 4000/5000 Destiny: [When the Water Flows, the Channel is Formed]: Martial Arts First Realm, Perseverance, Proceeding Step by Step, Break Through Like Bamboo, No Bottleneck Troubles.
Looking at the growth of the qi and blood on his System Panel.
Lin Chen only wanted to say one thing: people like Lu Yongfeng and Yan Dexing were nothing but fools who stuck out their necks to be slaughtered.
After refining Essence Energy, his qi and blood had instantly increased by a thousand points, and his strength had reached eight hundred jin.
With one punch, he should be able to knock Lu Yongfeng flat now.
But what he couldn't understand was why his upper limit for qi and blood had become 5,000. An upper limit of 5,000 qi and blood meant a strength of a thousand jin.
What did this thousand jin represent?
"What are you thinking about?"
Seeing Lin Chen deep in thought, Yu Yongnian asked with a smile.
"D-Disciple feels that after refining Essence Energy, my whole body feels different. I have endless strength."
"Once the body possesses Essence Energy, qi and blood will naturally form and circulate endlessly. Only after reaching this step can one be considered to have truly set foot on the path of martial arts."
Yu Yongnian smiled faintly before saying, "It seems you don't know much about martial arts. Today, I'll explain it to you properly."
"You should already know about the two and a half realms of body tempering for Martial Artists. You are currently in the half realm. What you need to do next is use the Essence Energy in your body to attack your acupoints. Once you succeed, you will enter the Aperture Opening Realm."
"After opening the acupoints comes Organ Tempering. Only after that will you count as a Ranked Martial Artist. From the Ninth Rank to the First Rank, anyone who has not entered the Ninth Rank is uniformly called an unranked Martial Artist."
Listening to his instructor's explanation, Lin Chen now had a basic understanding of martial arts.
Aperture Opening and Organ Tempering were the two great barriers of martial arts.
Only after crossing those two barriers could one be considered a Ranked Martial Artist.
The Ninth Rank was the lowest, and the First Rank was the highest.
The Martial Artist ranking system was also the Liang Dynasty's system of nine official ranks.
After working hard for a year, in the eyes of true Martial Artists, he could only be considered a martial apprentice?
"Don't assume that Ranked Martial Artists are common. In the whole of Poyang County, there are only two Ninth-Rank Martial Artists: the County Magistrate and the director of the Martial Arts Administration."
Yu Yongnian could guess what Lin Chen was thinking. He had walked this same path back then.
After refining Essence Energy, one would be full of confidence, thinking one could gallop across the martial path on horseback. Only later would one discover that this was merely the starting point of martial arts.
That few?
Lin Chen clicked his tongue. He hadn't expected the entire Poyang County to have only two Ranked Martial Artists.
"When I said there are only two Ninth-Rank Martial Artists, I didn't mean that Poyang County has no other Ninth-Rank Martial Artists. There are still more than a dozen Ninth-Rank experts publicly known in Poyang County. However, apart from the County Magistrate and the lord of the Martial Affairs Department, all the others are over fifty, and their qi and blood have begun to decline. Their current strength can no longer reach the Ninth Rank."
"A Martial Artist's strength can regress?"
"Could it be that you think a Martial Artist in his eighties can still stand on equal footing with a young, strong Martial Artist?"
Yu Yongnian smiled. "An unranked Martial Artist begins to decline after turning forty, and it becomes very difficult to advance to the subsequent realms. Entering the Ninth Rank only extends that period by ten years. Unless one can break through to the next rank, with your current strength, you could kill a hundred-year-old Seventh Rank Martial Artist with one punch."
The corner of Lin Chen's mouth twitched. Killing a hundred-year-old Seventh Rank Martial Artist with one punch was nothing to be proud of.
Still, given this situation, an old saying from his previous life fit perfectly here.
A Martial Artist's revenge could wait ten years.
If ten years weren't enough, then twenty. He could simply outlast his opponent until their qi and blood declined.
"This is the cruelty of martial arts: bully the old, never the young."
Yu Yongnian pondered for a moment. Thinking that Lin Chen came from a village, and that the county-city Martial Hall was far more complicated than the town's Martial Hall, he asked, "No major lineage would be willing to offend a young, strong Martial Artist. But if they have already offended one and there is no way to resolve it, what do you think those lineages would do?"
"Use every possible means to prevent that young Martial Artist from growing."
Lin Chen's answer was very tactful. He understood what his instructor meant. Those major lineages would not lightly offend a young Martial Artist, but once they did, they would strangle him in his cradle.
Only if a lineage believed its own younger generation of Martial Artists had a promising future would it not care about such matters. Otherwise, it had to guard against someone coming to its door for revenge after it had grown old.
Yu Yongnian gave a slight nod and said no more about it. As long as Lin Chen stayed in the Martial Hall, he would not clash with the various lineages in the city. He had merely offered him a word of advice.
"Because an unranked Martial Artist's qi and blood decline after the age of forty, there is a saying in martial circles: five years to open the acupoints, ten years to temper the organs; any slower, and entering the ranks becomes difficult."
"After entering the Martial Hall, if you cannot break through Aperture Opening and enter Organ Tempering within five years, it will be very difficult to become a Ranked Martial Artist afterward."
"If you discover that the martial path cannot be mastered quickly, you can seek a position at the government office. Earn silver while practicing martial arts, and leave yourself a way out, lest you fail to become a Ranked Martial Artist and end up destitute after your qi and blood decline."
Being a Martial Artist was glorious, but it was also cruel.
That glory was built up with silver and hard work. Once one passed forty and one's qi and blood began to decline, one's ways of making money would diminish. If one did not have enough silver, one could only do work that lowered one's status.
There had once been an Organ Tempering Great Completion Martial Artist who devoted himself entirely to martial arts. Whenever he lacked money, he borrowed from a Money House, eventually building up a debt of a thousand taels. After passing forty, his qi and blood began to decline, and his means of earning money diminished. His income worsened year by year. Hounded by the Money House for repayment, and sabotaged by enemies he had offended in the past, he was forced to work as a male servant in a brothel.
It was certainly right to have a resolute heart on the martial path, but one could not burn one's boats and leave no room to retreat, especially after having a family and descendants. One had to leave oneself a way out.
"With your family background, no matter what happens in the future, you have already brought glory to the family. You should fight when you must on the martial path, but you must also act within your abilities."
Yu Yongnian was not exaggerating. Lin Chen had refined Essence Energy within a year. According to the Martial Hall's usual rules for accepting disciples, the first-place student in the Martial Hall could obtain an Aperture Opening Pill. Even if his subsequent progress was slow, as long as he could open ten acupoints, he would have a chance to secure a minor position at the government office.
A government clerk was already a great figure in a village. It truly counted as bringing glory to the family.
As for becoming a Ranked Martial Artist, that was not something an ordinary family's Martial Artist could aspire to.
Every Ranked Martial Artist had the support of a powerful lineage's vast resources.
"Come to the Martial Hall again in two days. I'll take you to the county-city Martial Hall. Today, you can return home and share this joy with your elders."
"Then this disciple will take his leave first."
Lin Chen nodded. Once he returned and told his parents that he had refined Essence Energy, they would certainly be overjoyed.
After Lin Chen left, Yu Yongnian murmured, "Refining Essence Energy within a year is worth holding one's head high. With resentment clogging your heart, your thoughts cannot flow freely. I'll help you dispel this stifled anger."
Just as Lin Chen left the Martial Hall and set off on the road back to the village,
in the rear courtyard,
Lu Yongfeng let out a roar. His entire body flushed red, like a fierce tiger roaring.
The movement gave Zhao Jingchuan and the other three a tremendous fright.
"I broke through! I refined Essence Energy!"
Lu Yongfeng's expression was ferocious, but when he saw the bewildered looks in Zhao Jingchuan and the others' eyes, he deflated all at once.
The person who should have been there was not there, and the excitement and joy in his heart instantly dropped by more than half.
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