Qi and Blood Capsule 3

"Nothing. I just rested well last night." Chen Mo smiled vaguely and said no more.

By the afternoon Martial Arts Class, the effects of the Qi and Blood Capsule became even more apparent.

Martial Arts Class was held at the school's outdoor training ground. The afternoon sun was somewhat glaring, and the rubberized ground had been baked scorching hot. During the warm-up, the PE teacher had everyone run five laps around the training ground. In the past, Chen Mo would be out of breath and have heavy calves after just three laps. But today, after finishing all five, he was only lightly sweating. His breathing remained steady, his heartbeat was not overly fast, and his muscles were brimming with vitality, without the slightest hint of fatigue.

Next came Standing Meditation. The Black Tiger Stance was the foundational technique taught in Third Year of Senior High Martial Arts Class. It required students to focus their minds, calm their breath, and circulate their qi and blood through their bodies in order to strengthen their foundations and temper their qi and blood. In the past, after standing for around twenty minutes, Chen Mo would feel his qi and blood grow sluggish and his mind become weary. His legs would go numb, cold sweat would seep from his back, and he would have no choice but to adjust his posture slightly for relief. But today, bolstered by the Qi and Blood Capsule, he still maintained a standard stance after twenty-five minutes. His body stood tall and straight as a pine, his breathing was even and deep, and his qi and blood flowed smoothly through him without the slightest sense of obstruction. He could clearly feel that, under the "Qi and Blood Fullness" effect brought by the capsule, he was more efficient at guiding the circulation of his qi and blood and making subtle adjustments to his stance. His understanding of the Black Tiger Stance also seemed to have deepened another level.

[Black Tiger Stance Proficiency +1]

[Body Tempering Fist Proficiency +1]

[Qi and Blood Value +0.02]

The system notifications sounded in his mind right on schedule. Chen Mo keenly noticed that his proficiency was increasing slightly faster than usual today. In the past, the Black Tiger Stance gained 1 point of proficiency every thirty minutes on average, but today it had increased in less than twenty-five minutes. When sparring with the Body Tempering Fist, he used to gain 1 point of proficiency after completing three sets of moves, but today the notification had triggered after only two. Though the difference was tiny, Chen Mo knew full well that, accumulated over time, that tiny gap would become an insurmountable chasm. What was more, with sufficient qi and blood replenishment, he could double the number of times he trained each day. In other words, his efficiency in gaining proficiency had increased by more than double.

"Chen Mo, you're in great form today!" His sparring partner was Wang Hao, a slightly chubby classmate whose martial arts level was usually about on par with his. Having just finished a set of Body Tempering Fist sparring, Wang Hao wiped the sweat from his forehead and said in surprise, "That hook you threw earlier was way heavier than yesterday. My arm went numb when I blocked it, and your footwork was much steadier than usual too. Have you been secretly training extra?"

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"Not bad. I rested well last night, so I'm in good shape." Chen Mo answered vaguely, avoiding the core issue. He did not want anyone to know he had bought Qi and Blood Capsules—not because he did not trust Wang Hao, but because in this world where martial arts reigned supreme and resources were scarce, every advantage was worth cherishing. Revealing his trump card too early was not necessarily a good thing.

But inwardly, he had gained a more direct and profound understanding of the Qi and Blood Capsule's effects. It brought not just "recovery," but "optimization," allowing him to more thoroughly tap into the potential of every training session and turn every bit of effort into tangible progress.

However, good feelings were always fleeting.

On the afternoon of the second day, roughly forty-eight hours after taking the first Qi and Blood Capsule, the warmth filling his body and the lasting "endurance" began to fade noticeably. Like the ebbing tide, they slowly withdrew from every limb and bone, leaving behind a faint sense of emptiness. By evening self-study, Chen Mo could clearly feel that his physical condition had basically fallen back to its pre-capsule level. In fact, because he had grown accustomed to that optimized state of "Qi and Blood Fullness" over the past two days, the contrast felt especially stark. During evening self-study, he could clearly feel that his concentration was worse than it had been the previous two days. When solving math problems, his thoughts occasionally stalled. The smooth sensation of qi and blood circulation during Standing Meditation had vanished as well, and after twenty minutes, the familiar fatigue arrived right on time.

"One capsule can only sustain two days of high-efficiency cultivation..." Chen Mo sat in the corner of the classroom, quietly calculating in his notebook during a break in evening self-study, his brows unconsciously furrowing.

A full hundred thousand yuan! That was no small sum. Yet even if he spent all of it on Qi and Blood Capsules, he could only buy a mere two hundred capsules. At a rate of one capsule every two days, even using them as efficiently as possible, they would last no more than four hundred days. On the surface, that seemed enough to cover his entire Third Year of Senior High, perhaps even lasting until after the Gaokao...

But the calculation could not be that simple! Sitting at his desk with a pen in hand, Chen Mo carefully listed the important factors in his notebook one by one:

First, as his martial arts cultivation gradually improved, even more high-intensity training would naturally become unavoidable. At present, his Qi and Blood Value had not yet exceeded eighty points—meaning that he was still at the Martial Arts Apprentice stage, and at a relatively below-average level at that. Once he eventually broke through eighty points, ninety points, or even dared to challenge the peak limit of one hundred points of qi and blood, the intensity of training he would need to endure would definitely be several times greater than it was now! At the same time, the corresponding consumption of qi and blood would inevitably rise geometrically! By then, these so-called life-saving pills might not even be enough to sustain a single day of high-efficiency cultivation. Perhaps they would be exhausted in just half a day! Although the medicine's instructions clearly warned against overdosing, that concern was practically superfluous. For those striving to advance along the martial arts path, the need to replenish qi and blood was a very real one! Especially during crucial breakthroughs, he might truly have to take a gamble and risk trying it!

Second, the hundred thousand yuan was the Gaokao Fund his parents had given him. He could not spend it all on Qi and Blood Capsules. During this final year of high school, to support high-intensity training, he needed sufficient nutrition. His daily food expenses would need to at least double, and he could not cut off high-protein foods like milk, eggs, and beef. The supplementary materials needed for Martial Arts Class, stance-correction videos, practical analyses of the Body Tempering Fist, and so on all cost money as well. If he were accidentally injured during training, the treatment costs would also be considerable. Then there were the registration fees, transportation costs, accommodation expenses, and other costs before and after the Gaokao—all of which had to come from this money. By that calculation, he would probably only have fifty or sixty thousand yuan that he could truly use to buy Qi and Blood Capsules.

Most importantly—he could not slow down.