Neighbors and Another Upgrade

Wutong Village.

"Stop here."

Chen Sheng lightly patted the motorcycle taxi driver on the shoulder.

The motorcycle stopped before the intersection.

Over the past two days, a construction crew seemed to have been laying underground pipes, leaving the road rather pitted and uneven.

Thus, Chen Sheng decided to walk the last two hundred meters himself.

It would also save him from listening to the motorcycle taxi driver complain.

After paying, he headed downhill.

At the end of the road.

This was Chen Sheng's home.

Though it was the end of the road, there was actually a muddy path beside it.

Following the path for fifty meters would take one past a cemetery.

That was right.

Wutong Village's vegetable market was built not far from the cemetery.

The same went for Wutong Village's primary school.

At first, Chen Sheng had found it quite bizarre.

But over time, he got used to it.

At the entrance to the muddy path, right next door to Chen Sheng's home, stood an old Wooden House.

The house had originally been occupied by the cemetery caretaker.

But since returning, Chen Sheng had never seen anyone going in or out of it. It seemed to have been abandoned.

The gravestones in that cemetery had also become filthy from lack of care.

Yet today, when Chen Sheng arrived downstairs, he found the door to the Wooden House open.

The sound of someone rummaging through things came from inside.

A thief?!

That was Chen Sheng's first reaction.

This thief is really hard up, coming all the way here to steal things.

That was his second thought.

Just as Chen Sheng hesitated over whether to go up and investigate,

A figure carrying a wooden box walked directly out of the Wooden House.

The man wore a white shirt and gold-rimmed glasses, carrying himself with a scholarly air.

He did not seem like a thief.

When Chen Sheng saw him, he noticed Chen Sheng as well.

Their gazes met in the air.

"Hello."

After a brief silence, the bespectacled man revealed a gentle smile and nodded at Chen Sheng.

"Do you live here?"

He pointed at Chen Sheng's house.

"This is my home."

Chen Sheng nodded, secretly relaxing his tense body.

The other man did not look like a thief.

There was perhaps another reason for his presence here.

Upon hearing Chen Sheng's answer, the bespectacled man's eyes lit up. He hurriedly put down the wooden box and walked toward Chen Sheng.

"Hello, hello. My name is Xu Ziwen."

"I'm a new teacher at Wutong Primary School. I moved here today."

"We'll be neighbors from now on. Please take care of me."

Xu Ziwen seemed to want to shake Chen Sheng's hand.

But as soon as he held it out, he noticed the dust on it and immediately looked a little awkward.

"Hello, I'm Chen Sheng."

Chen Sheng did not mind. He smiled and shook his hand.

"Still, why are you living in a place like this? I remember this used to be—"

He wanted to say it was the cemetery caretaker's room, but worried he might frighten the other man, so he hesitated.

At that,

Xu Ziwen rubbed his nose.

"Actually, that cemetery caretaker used to be my grandfather."

"I lived in Wutong Village when I was little too, but moved away later."

"Since my workplace is close anyway, I simply cleaned this place up and moved in."

But Xu Ziwen seemed to have seen through Chen Sheng's thoughts.

"Of course, that's only part of the reason."

"The main thing is that living here means I don't have to pay rent or squeeze into a room with someone else."

"And those lonely graves have gone untended for years. They seem rather pitiful, so this gives me something to do in my spare time."

As he spoke, Xu Ziwen scratched his head somewhat sheepishly.

He was quite an interesting person.

That was Chen Sheng's first impression of him.

Afterward,

Chen Sheng asked Xu Ziwen whether he needed help.

After being politely turned down, he did not say much more and simply bid the other man farewell.

Once home,

Chen Sheng immediately took out a pot and placed a bag of medicinal herbs inside.

Tonight, he intended to upgrade the Three-Body Stance and improve the effectiveness of his training.

Before that, he needed to test the effects of the Vitality Soup first, lest his blood and vitality run dry later.

"I wonder what realm that Wu Ran guy is in. He looked pretty damn impressive."

While waiting for the water in the pot to boil, Chen Sheng suddenly remembered something.

Starting tomorrow, he would be training martial arts at the gym, but he still did not know much about martial arts realms.

He had only seen a rough overview on the news before.

Thinking of this,

Chen Sheng immediately picked up his phone and began searching.

Even now, the Martial Arts Association's latest realm classifications remained a hot topic online.

Chen Sheng only had to type in the words Martial Arts Association for the result he wanted to pop up automatically.

"Those who have yet to enter a realm are classified by rank."

"Those who pass the beginner test are Rank Ten. After that, they may advance by defeating opponents of the same rank, all the way up to the highest Rank One."

"Beyond that, they are classified by realms. From lowest to highest: Hidden Origin Realm, Insightful Clarity Realm, Yaoguang Realm, Kaiyang Realm, and Saint Realm."

So this was how martial arts realms were classified.

Unfortunately, the information online only covered the most basic details.

What distinguished one realm from another?

How could someone at Rank One enter a realm?

None of that was available online.

Chen Sheng did not dare message Li Chenghu on WeChat over such a trivial matter.

Fortunately, he was not one to obsess over things.

He would learn all of this sooner or later. There was no need to rush.

He put his phone back into his pocket just as the water in the pot came to a boil.

Chen Sheng turned the induction cooker down to low heat and set a timer for two and a half hours.

"This should keep it from boiling dry."

For the next stretch of time, he decided to take a nap first.

After setting an alarm on his phone, Chen Sheng lay down directly on the bed.

Before long, he fell into a deep sleep.--Ring, ring, ring~ As his phone rang, Chen Sheng opened his eyes.

He quickly jumped out of bed and hurried to the kitchen to check on the medicine.

About a third of the water remained in the pot. It would need roughly another half hour before it boiled down to a single bowl.

Chen Sheng checked the time.

It was almost time for dinner as well.

So he began preparing ingredients right there in the kitchen.

Half an hour later.

Just as the Vitality Soup finished brewing, Chen Sheng had finished preparing his ingredients.

He poured out the medicinal soup and set it aside, intending to drink it after it cooled a little.

Another half hour passed.

After making dinner, Chen Sheng picked up the Vitality Soup, pinched his nose, and poured it straight down his throat.

Gulp, gulp.

An entire bowl of medicinal soup went down his stomach.

As long as I drink fast enough, the bitterness of Chinese medicine can't catch up to me! So he said.

But when Chen Sheng put down the bowl, the bitterness still had him smacking his lips.

"Better eat quickly and suppress it."

In any case, the medicine would need time to take effect after entering his stomach.

Chen Sheng used that time to finish his dinner.

After eating.

Chen Sheng was about to clean up when his body suddenly froze.

"Huu—"

His face flushed red as he exhaled a long breath.

The warm air instantly turned into white mist in the air.

Feeling his body grow hotter and hotter, Chen Sheng jogged to the bathroom.

"Holy shit!"

Chen Sheng could not help crying out.

In the mirror, he looked like a cooked shrimp, red from head to toe.

The Vitality Soup he had just drunk had transformed into a hot current that continuously flowed through his body, giving Chen Sheng an urgent desire to vent it.

Unable to endure it any longer, he hurried to the balcony and summoned the panel.

Three-Body Stance lv1: 3/500

Skill Points: 0.55

He focused and pressed the plus sign behind the skill.

Upgrade!

The next second, the words representing the Three-Body Stance rapidly changed.

Three-Body Stance lv2: 3/5000