"Over the next few days, you don't need to come to class or train. Just focus on the transformation of your mortal body."
Old Liang smiled with satisfaction. How could he fail to sense the surging vitality ready to burst forth inside Qin Shi?
It was like a budding branch, waiting only for nourishing rain and warm sunlight
before it could grow strong and reach for the sky.
"Unlike the gradual progress of breaking through in New Martial Arts, the Old Martial Arts path breaks the limits of the physical body. Every breakthrough is like being reborn. Take your time and savor this wonderful feeling."
At Old Liang's words, Qin Shi's eyes lit up.
The transformation brought on by nurturing his dragon tendons had already been a pleasant surprise.
He'd thought that was the end of it, but there was more to come.
"Going in hoping for the bare minimum, then suddenly getting a golden flash... What a wonderful thing that is."
Qin Shi rubbed his hands together eagerly. All that suffering and hardship had been worth it.
He'd now broken through the ten-point Life Force threshold. He only needed another two or three points
to secure a Ninth Rank amateur exam result.
In other words, he still had plenty of room to improve before school started.
"But the transformation of your mortal body, this second rebirth, has its downsides too. You need to be careful, Qin Shi."
Old Liang suddenly changed tack.
"What? If it's just about preserving my yang essence and avoiding women, I think I'll be fine!"
Qin Shi raised his head and puffed out his chest, radiating righteousness.
Given the Old Martial Arts Faction's traditional ways, they'd probably require their disciples to remain virgins and maintain a pure yang body.
That wouldn't be a problem for him!
After all, Eastern Xia wasn't like his previous life. The internet wasn't especially advanced, and succubi showing skin weren't everywhere, tempting people away from the righteous path.
The Worker's Children on Old Factory Street were still at the innocent stage of sneaking peeks at pornographic tapes and feeling ashamed of taking matters into their own hands. Compared to the depraved temptations that had seemed like a scourge in his previous life, the local customs here were practically wholesome.
"That's not necessary. The Old Martial Arts Faction isn't a monastery. We don't fuss over that sort of thing."
Old Liang shook his head.
"It's just that during the rebirth stage, your appetite will grow. Two boxes of Nutritional Paste a day might not be enough for you anymore.
"After breaking your limits, your body needs energy, and the more you can give it, the better.
"Given your current condition, you'll need at least four boxes of Nutritional Paste to keep up..."
He'd have to spend money?
Qin Shi's heart skipped, then clenched as if stabbed.
His savings were shrinking by 352 yuan a day!
Who could take that?
"Old Factory Street's black market isn't much to speak of. Smuggled contraband and High-Energy Food siphoned off from the government usually come from Smoke City.
"Otherwise, I would've tried to get some for you.
"The better you eat during the rebirth stage, the faster your Life Force will increase."
Old Liang sighed. He hadn't saved much money over the years, either.
He'd figured that since he had no family to support, he could spend his entire salary.
Then, on a whim, he'd taken Qin Shi as his final disciple, and now he was struggling to make ends meet at every turn.
It was like he'd picked up a kid and been forced to earn formula money.
"It's just a few boxes of Nutritional Paste. Don't worry about it, Master Liang. I can afford it."
Qin Shi had no intention of shamelessly leeching off his master any longer. Old Liang had already helped him out plenty.
It was bad enough that he rarely showed his gratitude or brought his master gifts. He couldn't turn around and strip the man of everything he owned, too.
People would laugh if they heard about it!
After leaving No. 9 Vocational Middle School, Qin Shi didn't go to the Midnight Palace. He simply asked Xie Yucheng to help him take leave.
Then, with tears in his eyes, he spent over a thousand yuan on twelve boxes of Longxiang Ji Nutritional Paste.
Back at his shack, he sat on his bedroom bed and activated [Muscle Memory].
With one tap, he entered training mode: grasping Qi sensation and circulating his Lesser Heavenly Cycle!
In! Out!
The warm current circulated through his body, passing through his flesh and skin, between his limbs and bones.
As Qin Shi's abdominal breathing grew more and more forceful, the bedroom began to sound like a bellows, whooshing and groaning.
Outside the shack, Old Liang's youngest, Qin Lan, was cooking. Worry filled her face.
"Second Brother, what are you doing in there? It feels like you're about to blow the roof off."
After every forty minutes of circulating Qi sensation, all the energy in Qin Shi's body was completely spent. Every cell cried out with fierce hunger.
Like a starving ghost who hadn't eaten in days, he grabbed a box of Nutritional Paste and wolfed it down.
He didn't care how awful it tasted or how foul the texture was.
He just wanted to fill his bottomless stomach!
In less than two minutes, he'd polished off the box of high-calorie Nutritional Paste.
The extremely concentrated carbohydrates did little to make Qin Shi feel full.
"I'm still hungry..."
He opened another box and kept stuffing his face, as if the sticky mess that even dogs wouldn't eat were some rare delicacy.
Only after he'd downed six boxes in one sitting did the hunger gnawing at his mind finally fade.
"I'm so sleepy."
After eating his fill, Qin Shi felt drowsiness wash over him. He opened the door, told his youngest, Qin Lan, what was going on, then returned to his bedroom and collapsed into bed.
[Intermediate Achievement—Deep Sleep (5/30)]
Early the next morning, he slowly opened his eyes, ignoring the words drifting across his retina.
After washing up, he resumed training, then replenished the energy his body had used up with Nutritional Paste.
"So this is the rebirth stage? Just like a newborn baby: eat, sleep, eat, sleep. It's almost instinctive."
Qin Shi immersed himself in the transformation of his mortal body. His flesh seemed alive with energy, glowing faintly under Internal Vision.
The red and white of his limbs and torso grew more vivid, shining like high-powered spotlights, almost enough to blind a dog.
Only his brain, heart, lungs, and other organs seemed dimmer, clearly a step behind.
He summoned the Monument Panel. The data updated and refreshed—
[Anchor: Qin Shi] [Growth Stage: Embryo] [Progress: 0.011%] [Monuments: Deep Sleep (Intermediate), Muscle Memory (Intermediate), Overgrowth (Beginner)] [Skills: Combat Rewind, Internal Vision]
"No wonder the Old Martial Arts Faction yearns to break the limits of the physical body. It's only been a day, and my Life Force has already gone up by one point.
"And I did nothing but eat and sleep."
Qin Shi marveled at it. The rebirth after breaking his limits felt like an elevation of his very essence, utterly intoxicating.
He stared intently at his reflection as line after line of data appeared, quietly revealing the results.
Old Martial Arts Cultivation Method Level 2 (5/30)
Old Martial Arts Fighting Style Level 1 (18/20)
Physique 10.5 → 11.2
Spirit 10.1 → 10.9
"This kind of massive increase is more than worth all the pain of Burning Sinews."
Old Liang had underestimated how much Nutritional Paste Qin Shi would need during the rebirth stage. Perhaps thanks to [Overgrowth], he had a better capacity to absorb and digest food than other organisms.
He had to eat six boxes of Nutritional Paste a day just to keep up with his normal metabolism.
"This transformation will probably last about four days... So I'll have to spend another two thousand yuan."
Watching his wallet shrink, Qin Shi couldn't help feeling a growing sense of urgency.
Even with two jobs, it was hard to keep up with his steadily rising expenses.
Who ever said hard work made you rich...
Qin Shi gritted his teeth. Surely he didn't have to take on four jobs?
Even after breaking through the ten-point Life Force threshold, he couldn't keep pushing himself this hard!
"The money Eldest Sister left me isn't nearly enough."
He shoved thoughts of getting rich quick to the back of his mind and went on with the dull routine of wolfing down Nutritional Paste, then sleeping and resting.
Five days passed. Qin Lan—the youngest, who stayed home cleaning, doing laundry, and cooking—had begun to wonder if Second Brother had confessed to someone, been rejected, and then given up on life out of heartbreak.
The more she thought about it, the more convinced she became. Resolve gradually hardened in her eyes as she prepared to shoulder the burden of supporting the family alone.
Boom! A deep, thunderous crash rang out!
It sounded like a wooden mallet pounding a drum, making her eardrums buzz!
"An earthquake?"
Qin Lan's eyes widened. She hurriedly set down her pen and workbook and ran toward Qin Shi's bedroom.
The airflow buffeted the wooden door, making it bang noisily before it slammed to the floor with a crash.
"Second Brother..."
Qin Lan stood with her mouth agape, stunned. Qin Shi was bare-chested and surrounded by white mist—the billowing steam of his sweat evaporating.
The scene looked just like the special effects in an Old Era movie, with the hero mastering a divine art.
"My Life Force has reached its limit."
Qin Shi sat cross-legged with his eyes closed, breathing steadily. A long stream and a short stream of white vapor pulsed from his nostrils like tiny snakes.
A great improvement in his Old Martial Arts Cultivation Method had made him much more adept at grasping Qi sensation and completing the circulation. Each turn of the Lesser Heavenly Cycle released a rush of heat from within him.
At a glance, he looked like a human furnace!
Old Martial Arts Cultivation Method Level 2 (14/30)
Old Martial Arts Fighting Style Level 2 (9/30)
Physique 14.7 → 15.1
Spirit 14.5 → 14.9
"Life Force is the combination of physical and mental strength. I've already broken through fifteen points.
"The gains from breaking the limits of my physical body are so immense, it feels like a dream."
Qin Shi was both shocked and delighted. He'd never imagined that developing Life Force could be so easy.
In just a few days, he was already close to the passing threshold for Eighth Rank amateur!
"If I can get an Eighth Rank score, the bonus points will be enough to get me into First-Class Academies like Hengzhou University or the University of Science and Technology."
Suppressing his excitement, Qin Shi slowly reined in the surging currents of Qi sensation, boiling like water.
The abundant vitality within his mortal body gradually subsided, like boiling water cooling and settling back into his flesh.
He could clearly feel that his strength had increased tremendously and his senses had grown sharper.
His entire body seemed to have grown vastly stronger!
"I remember Old Liang said that the minimum requirement for Hundred Forms Cultivating Momentum is twenty points of Life Force."
Qin Shi spread his fingers, recalling the four mysterious visions of "Wind, Forest, Fire, Mountain" in his mind.
"I'm not far from it now."
Before you continue