Body Strengthening Soup, Fist Force Shatters Poplar Wood

Qingshui Town had a medicinal mountain, and quite a few herb merchants came and went through the town, so naturally there were several pharmacies as well.

Unlike the blacksmith shop on the edge of Scholar Street, the pharmacies were located in the bustling heart of the main road. Su Mu left his shop and headed toward the denser crowds.

Before long, flags bearing large medicinal characters fluttered in the wind before his eyes.

Su Mu casually walked into one called Tongfu Pharmacy.

A pharmacy apprentice of thirteen or fourteen glanced at Su Mu's coarse cloth clothes and asked listlessly, "Young master, what are you looking to buy?"

"Do you have any medicine for strengthening the body?"

"Strengthening the body?"

The apprentice hesitated for a moment before asking, "Young master, are you planning to practice martial arts?"

Su Mu nodded, and the apprentice perked up a little. "Young master, have a seat here. I'll go fetch my master."

Soon, an old man emerged from the back of the pharmacy. He sized Su Mu up for a few moments, then quoted a price in a flat tone.

"Our shop has a recipe passed down from our ancestors. It's quite effective for martial artists—it invigorates the blood and qi, soothes muscle soreness, and can also treat common bruises and sprains. It's a fine aid for martial training."

"Martial arts schools, gangs, and Jianghu Knights often come to buy it. One batch of the recipe can be used three times, once daily. One tael of silver per batch, no bargaining."

Hearing about invigorating blood and qi and soothing muscle soreness, Su Mu's eyes lit up—this was exactly what he needed. But at the price of one tael per batch, he couldn't help but wince.

One tael of silver could support a family of three for months, but here it only bought one batch of medicine. Three uses per batch, one batch every three days, meant ten batches a month—ten taels of silver.

Running the numbers in his head, Su Mu suddenly realized that the twenty-six taels Sun Li had sponsored weren't much at all.

But buying medicine wasn't his main goal for coming today. If possible, he'd rather buy the recipe itself, since martial training couldn't be rushed, and that would be more cost-effective.

So Su Mu got straight to the point. "Old Physician, is this recipe for sale?"

The Old Physician frowned and shook his head outright. A recipe was a treasure in any pharmacy, especially one for martial artists—it was the foundation of their profits, not something to sell lightly.

"The recipe is not for sale."

After leaving Tongfu Pharmacy, Su Mu visited several other shops, but the answer was always the same: the recipe wasn't for sale, and the price per batch was consistently one tael of silver.

"The price is probably set by agreement among the town's pharmacies."

"I'll buy a few batches to test the effect... Maybe I can bring some back for Physician Xiao to look at."

Biting the bullet, Su Mu picked one pharmacy and spent three taels of silver on three batches of Body Strengthening Soup. But his hopes were dashed—martial artists' medicines came as pre-processed powders from the pharmacy.

Even if he could identify the herbs from the powder, the proportions were nearly impossible to reconstruct. A slight difference in ratio could make the medicinal effect wildly different.

Giving up on buying a recipe directly from a pharmacy, Su Mu turned to another idea.

If the pharmacies wouldn't sell the recipe, he could try the Black Market later.

"The Black Market is a mixed bag... No rush on that. At least I need to strengthen the force in my body first, until I truly become a Qi Refining Martial Artist."

With that decided, Su Mu quickly spent twenty copper coins at the market on a clay pot for decocting medicine.

Back in the village, Su Mu began brewing the medicine.

He put the ready-made Body Strengthening Soup powder into the clay pot, added three large bowls of water, and boiled it down to one bowl.

The firewood crackled and hissed as the medicinal soup came to a boil, steam rising and filling the kitchen with the fragrance of herbs. As it continued to simmer, the herbal scent gradually turned into a bitter, acrid smell.

Su Mu frowned slightly, his thoughts drifting back to his childhood in his past life. As a kid, he'd never been afraid of needles or injuries, but he dreaded taking medicine—especially Chinese medicine. Back then, his parents would coax him with a piece of candy wrapped in paper.

Now he'd transmigrated, and he probably couldn't go back. In his past life, he must have ended up as roasted meat in that fire. He was a unfilial son, but at least there was still his little sister at home...

Sigh.

The young man let out a soft sigh, a look of determination on his youthful face. He'd been given a second chance at life, so he had to make something of himself.

When the Body Strengthening Soup was ready, Su Mu took a deep breath and downed a mouthful. His expression twisted instantly—it was the same familiar taste. Bitterness exploded on his tongue, like he'd eaten a mouthful of coptis root.

Better to get the pain over with.

Gulp, gulp. Su Mu tilted his head back and chugged the whole bowl. After finishing, he strode out of the house into the yard and began practicing the Five Animal Frolics and Tiger Subduing Fist.

"Let's see how it works!"

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.

His punches cut through the air with a whistling sound. At first, Su Mu was partly trying to distract himself from the bitter taste of the medicine, but soon his eyes lit up.

"Huh? It seems to work!"

As he entered his training state, the effect of the Body Strengthening Soup kicked in. The bitter liquid he'd swallowed turned into a warm current inside his body, making him feel pleasantly warm all over. The swelling and soreness in his arms eased slightly with a faint tingling numbness.

Training in this state was twice as effective. By the end of the morning, Su Mu was surprised to find that his newly learned Tiger Subduing Fist had increased by 1% proficiency.

"No wonder it's a martial artist's training medicine... Just too expensive."

Su Mu couldn't help but sigh. He'd need to forge a real Ten Refinements Weapon as soon as possible. His current pay of three hundred coppers a month as an apprentice blacksmith couldn't sustain such terrifying expenses.

Time flew by, and three days passed in the blink of an eye.

With the help of the Body Strengthening Soup, the swelling in Su Mu's arms had mostly recovered, and the wisp of force inside his body had more than doubled compared to the beginning.

Under the cover of night, Su Mu quietly left the small courtyard. He went to the back mountain outside the village and stopped in front of an arm-thick poplar tree.

The next second—

Su Mu's muscles tensed, his body leaning forward as his right palm smoothly formed into a fist and struck out fiercely.

Tiger Subduing Fist, First Form: Fierce Tiger Pounce.

Thud.

After a considerable noise came a crisp crack—the arm-thick poplar wood snapped clean in two, broken apart by Su Mu's single punch.

If that punch had landed directly on an ordinary person's flesh and blood, it would surely have shattered bones and torn sinews.

Seeing this, even Su Mu himself was somewhat stunned. He lowered his head to look at his right fist—after shattering the poplar with his bare flesh, there wasn't a single mark left, and he hadn't even felt any pain.

"Refining Strength into Force—Force not only amplifies a Martial Artist's lethality but also protects his body!"

Now that the Force within Su Mu had grown, it allowed him to unleash a full-powered punch, one strong enough to snap poplar wood.

"Tomorrow I should head back to the shop."

Su Mu rose early, practiced the Five Animal Frolics and Tiger Subduing Fist for a while, then made his way toward the town.

After three days away, Su Mu exchanged a few pleasantries with the blacksmiths in the forge room and was about to light the furnace to continue forging the unfinished long blade.

Suddenly, a commotion broke out outside the shop, followed by an angry roar.

"Where's your boss? Tell him to get the hell out here! Today, your Li Family Blacksmith Shop had better give our Black Tiger Gang an explanation!"