Eight Flavor Seed! Three-Dang Astragalus Decoction

This Red River Soup really worked well. It felt cool and pleasantly soothing. Aside from feeling like ants were crawling across my back, there was no discomfort at all.

Zhang Lingshan was secretly delighted.

He had thought the Red River Soup's medicinal effects would be harsh, painful enough to kill him like salt water. He had not expected it to feel so refreshing.

Soaking in it, he felt comfortable enough to fall asleep.

Time slowly passed.

At last, the wounds on his back had stopped bleeding, and it was already noon.

Only then did Pan Mingzhong arrive belatedly. Seeing Zhang Lingshan climb out of the bath barrel, he said in surprise, "Junior Brother Shan, you've already finished one round?"

"Yeah, it hurt like hell." Zhang Lingshan bared his teeth.

Pan Mingzhong looked full of admiration. "Impressive. Then Junior Brother Shan, please go first for the next round. I'll watch from the side."

"Alright."

Zhang Lingshan was more than happy with that.

The sooner he got it over with, the sooner he could go back and test the effects of the medicinal ingredients.

So, after lunch, he lay facedown on the ground and had Xiao Ming swing a stick down hard upon his buttocks and thighs.

Before long, his skin split and his flesh tore. He entered the Red River Soup once more to be nourished.

But this time, there was one extra source of amusement during the soak: watching Pan Mingzhong get beaten.

Unfortunately, Pan Mingzhong was not much of a beating-taker.

After just a few strikes, he howled wildly, blood flowing without stop, and hurriedly plunged into the Red River Soup to soak.

Xiao Ming shook his head again and again as he watched.

After seeing the two men's performances today, he quietly reached a decision.

Tomorrow, he would alter the ingredients of the Red River Soup.

He would increase the concentration of Zhang Lingshan's medicinal bath and lower the concentration of Pan Mingzhong's.

This was called giving more to the strong and less to the weak, lest it go to waste.

Zhang Lingshan had no idea Xiao Ming was secretly adding extra medicine for him. He only knew that after several days of tempering his flesh, his body had visibly grown sturdier.

The wounds on his back had already scabbed over, while his newly grown skin and muscles had become tougher and more powerful.

Most noticeably, he could take more beatings than before.

"Junior Brother Shan, grit your teeth and hold on a little longer. Try to take thirty strokes from me today."

Xiao Ming encouraged him.

Zhang Lingshan gritted his teeth without making a sound. He finally endured all thirty strokes, then collapsed from exhaustion, only for Xiao Ming to catch him.

Pan Mingzhong watched from the side with a complicated expression, both jealous and admiring.

He was jealous that the other man progressed faster than him, and admired that he could endure more than him.

Before long, once the other man broke through to the Flesh Refining Realm first, he would become Fifth Senior Brother, while Pan Mingzhong would be reduced to Sixth Junior Brother.

Thinking this, he swore that he too would hold on and strive onward!

Yet in the blink of an eye, after eleven strokes, he began to whimper again. "It hurts, it hurts! I can't hold on anymore."

"You!"

Xiao Ming looked as though he hated iron for failing to become steel.

Gentle as he was, he never got angry. Yet now, displeasure could not help but spill into his eyes.

The others had never received such treatment while refining their flesh. You kid were only fortunate enough to be tempered alongside Junior Brother Shan because you had ridden in his wake.

And since you were so useless, the concentration of your medicinal bath would have to be lowered another tier.

Naturally, what was lowered would continue to be added to Zhang Lingshan's medicinal bath.

Thus, ten days passed in a flash.

Under Xiao Ming's dutiful tempering, Zhang Lingshan's physical strength improved every day.

And along with it, his Energy Points also increased.

After ten days of testing, he finally found the medicinal ingredients best suited to him.

There were two in total.

One was called Eight Flavor Seed. It was the size of a mung bean and could be chewed and eaten. It was a useful thing to carry around, with one seed increasing Energy Points by one.

Its only flaw was its price. One seed cost five taels, or four taels after the twenty-percent discount with Feng Family Pharmacy's copper token.

The benefit was that it absorbed quickly. He could eat at least several dozen a day, meaning he could gain several dozen Energy Points in a single day.

But it burned through money far too quickly.

Even one thousand taels of silver would not be enough.

So, this was only suitable for carrying while traveling, a critical item kept in reserve for unforeseen needs.

The other was not a medicinal ingredient, but a medicinal soup called Three-Dang Astragalus Decoction.

The Three-Dang referred to Codonopsis, Codonopsis pilosula, and Codonopsis jujube.

They were combined with Astragalus and a variety of other medicinal ingredients in fixed proportions, then simmered into soup.

One dose of Three-Dang Astragalus Decoction cost thirty taels of silver. Drinking it over the course of a day provided fifteen Energy Points.

Compared with Snow Silver Flower, it was considerably more expensive, but its wound-healing effects were better and it absorbed faster. It was more suitable for taking while injured during Flesh Refining.

As for other medicinal ingredients and prescriptions, Zhang Lingshan was still slowly testing them.

He hoped to find something good to replace Eight Flavor Seed. After all, Eight Flavor Seed was too expensive for him to afford.

He checked the Panel.

Name: Zhang Lingshan

Martial Arts: Blood Claw Hand (Entry Level+), Gale Wind Leg (Entry Level+), Wind Stabilizing Posture (Entry Level+), Mountain Splitting Axe Technique (Entry Level), Red Thread Fist (Minor Accomplishment), Primal Chaos Righteous Yang Posture (Perfection)

Energy: 216

"Without even realizing it, I already have over two hundred Energy Points. In the past, even breaking into triple digits was difficult."

Zhang Lingshan sighed inwardly.

What struck him even more was that, despite having so much Energy, Red Thread Fist still could not break through to Greater Accomplishment.

It seemed much as he had expected: the Energy Points needed to break through to the next level were often ten times those needed for the previous level.

For example, Red Thread Fist required one hundred Energy Points to break through to Minor Accomplishment, so breaking through to Greater Accomplishment would require one thousand Energy Points.

How long would that take to accumulate?

Even if practicing Red Thread Fist every day reduced some of the required Energy Points through increased proficiency, it would still take four or five hundred points by his calculations.

And Mountain Splitting Axe Technique had required forty points just to reach Entry Level. Breaking through to Minor Accomplishment afterward should require four hundred points, while Greater Accomplishment would take four thousand—far more than Red Thread Fist required!

As expected of a Cultivation Method capable of refining flesh.

To refine his flesh now, he still had to be hammered every day. But Mountain Splitting Axe Technique could refine flesh from the inside out, showing just how high its grade was.

The martial arts master who had passed Mountain Splitting Axe Technique down to Uncle Tie had absolutely been a powerhouse among powerhouses, someone others could only look up to.

"Forget it. I won't wait any longer. I'll raise Wind Stabilizing Posture and Gale Wind Leg first. Compared to Wind Stabilizing Posture and Gale Wind Leg, Red Thread Fist and Blood Claw Hand are easier to practice. Perhaps before I accumulate enough Energy, I'll have already practiced Red Thread Fist to completion on my own."

After thinking it over, Zhang Lingshan decided to strike while the iron was hot.

While Xiao Ming helped temper his body, he would use Stat Points to break through in those two martial arts. This would surely transform him from the inside out, while he absorbed the Red River Soup from the outside in.

With inner and outer joining as one, would breaking through to the Flesh Refining Realm not be as certain as a nail driven into an iron plate?

Having made his decision, the next day Zhang Lingshan had Xiao Ming hammer his legs.

Then, after entering the Red River Soup, he immediately added points to Wind Stabilizing Posture.

Whoosh!

One hundred Energy Points vanished in an instant.

Wind Stabilizing Posture, Minor Accomplishment.

A sizzling sound spread from his calves to his upper body, then reached his mind.

Scenes of arduous training immediately appeared before Zhang Lingshan's eyes.

He saw himself swaying amid gale-force winds, his body like a willow branch dancing with the wind, while everything below his calves remained Immovable as a Mountain.

As the days passed, his calves grew thicker and thicker.

At last, the transformation arrived.

Bang!

At that moment, Zhang Lingshan snapped back from the visions and felt an explosive force swell from his calves, spreading through all four limbs and every bone in his body.

An indescribable pain made him cry out. His legs suddenly exerted force, and he involuntarily sprang up, leaping out of the Red River Soup.

"Junior Brother Shan?"

Xiao Ming was startled. Seeing Zhang Lingshan's still-bleeding legs, he shouted, "Quick, add medicine!"