Body Strengthening Soup! The Amazing Effects of the Ancient Profound Pearl! Elder Ji of the Medicine Hall!

After breakfast, Su Mo and Xie Baolin went to the martial arts school's medicine hall.

It stood behind the school on the left. The moment they entered, a rich herbal aroma wafted over them. The medicine hall was overseen by an old man in a purple robe known as Elder Ji.

It was said that Elder Ji had joined the school at the invitation of the old master, Yu Guande. He managed the medicine hall and prepared medicinal meals for the school's disciples to aid their martial arts training.

The Body Strengthening Soup the school provided for free was Elder Ji's creation.

"Elder Ji, we're here for some Body Strengthening Soup."

After they explained why they had come, Elder Ji didn't even lift his eyelids from where he was resting in a chair. He simply pointed in the direction of the soup and told them to help themselves.

Soon, they arrived at the back of the medicine hall, where an apprentice tending the medicine pots brought them two bowls of Body Strengthening Soup.

The soup strengthened the muscles and bones and nourished the qi and blood. It could help those who drank it make faster progress in their cultivation.

Xie Baolin picked up his bowl and gulped it down. As soon as he'd finished, he felt refreshed and brimming with inexhaustible strength. He wanted nothing more than to rush to the training ground and work up a sweat.

After saying goodbye to Su Mo, Xie Baolin headed straight for the training ground in the school's front courtyard.

"Huh?"

Seeing this, Su Mo also downed the large bowl of soup. But unlike Xie Baolin, he felt the long-dormant Ancient Profound Pearl within him suddenly give off a faint glow. It extracted the soup's medicinal essence, while the Ancient Profound Pearl expelled the remaining toxic dregs.

"So the Ancient Profound Pearl can refine medicinal soups and herbs, expelling harmful toxins and extracting the pure medicinal essence for my use."

Su Mo was first astonished, then delighted. After all, every medicine had some toxicity. No matter how good the soup, it always contained some medicinal toxins. As one consumed more soups and pills, these toxins accumulated in the body. Though they weren't fatal, the more they built up, the more they hindered future martial cultivation—unless they were refined and expelled.

That was why some people reached a certain level of cultivation and could advance no further.

The medicinal essence the Ancient Profound Pearl had extracted from the soup began to circulate through Su Mo's body, nourishing his qi and blood. Even his cultivation seemed to stir ever so slightly, which amazed him.

He had a feeling that as long as he kept drinking Body Strengthening Soup, he would reach the late stage of the Body Tempering Realm far sooner than expected. He wouldn't even need half a year.

"Thank you for the Body Strengthening Soup, Elder Ji."

Su Mo respectfully said goodbye to Elder Ji, then moved swiftly to the training ground in the front courtyard to practice.

"That boy's quite polite."

In the medicine hall, Elder Ji slightly raised his eyelids and glanced at Su Mo's departing figure from where he was napping in a wicker chair. So many people came and went every day, but very few bothered to greet an old man like him. They all came straight for the Body Strengthening Soup, drank it, and left.

The school's front courtyard. Training ground.

By the time Su Mo arrived, more than a hundred disciples were already practicing martial arts. Guande Martial Arts School had no age restrictions. Anyone who could afford the tuition and enrollment fees could join and learn martial arts.

As a result, the school had recruited more than a hundred disciples in a short time, as well as a number of apprentices.

More than half the disciples on the training ground were practicing the Azure Origin Body Tempering Art. Some were practicing its forms, others were studying its techniques and incantations, while a few were working on other martial arts techniques.

Xie Baolin had told him that after teaching the Azure Origin Body Tempering Art, the school would also teach them some offensive martial arts to strengthen their abilities.

Xie Baolin had already taken off his shirt and was practicing the Azure Origin Body Tempering Art bare-chested. Su Mo also spotted Yue Haofeng, the senior brother and roommate who had brought them breakfast.

What surprised him was that although Yue Haofeng had joined only a little before them, he had already reached the early stage of the Body Tempering Realm. It seemed that not only was Yue Haofeng from a wealthy family, but his natural talent, physique, and comprehension were all quite good.

Otherwise, he couldn't have mastered the Azure Origin Body Tempering Art so quickly.

Still, like Su Mo, Yue Haofeng had one fatal obstacle in his cultivation: he had started practicing too late. Once he mastered the Azure Origin Body Tempering Art and became a Martial Artist, his cultivation speed would plummet.

Yue Haofeng wasn't the only one with this problem. Many people on the training ground faced it, making it difficult to escape the near-locked ceiling of their martial path, even with the Azure Origin Body Tempering Art.

And that wasn't even counting the fact that the Azure Origin Body Tempering Art could only take one to the peak of the late stage of the Body Tempering Realm.

If you didn't practice the Azure Origin Body Tempering Art, your age made it nearly impossible to become a Martial Artist. But if you did practice it, you had to accept the reality of slow progress and perhaps never advancing beyond the peak of the late stage of the Body Tempering Realm.

The disciples of great sects and Lineages were different. Once they entered the Body Tempering Realm as Martial Artists, their superior talent and physiques meant their cultivation speed didn't drop at all. Instead, they could break through rapidly.

That was why prodigies and young talents were born only within powerful sects and factions.

"Temper the body with azure origins, refine every inch..."

Su Mo focused and quickly entered a state of cultivation. The Azure Origin Body Tempering Art tempered him from within, while the martial forms trained him externally, achieving the effect of tempering both inside and out.

For the next stretch of time, Su Mo stayed at Guande Martial Arts School and trained. Every day, he went to the medicine hall and drank a large bowl of Body Strengthening Soup. His cultivation gradually improved and began to stir.

Su Mo guessed he would reach the late stage of the Body Tempering Realm within three months at most.

But reaching the late stage brought another problem: he would have taken the Azure Origin Body Tempering Art as far as it could go, with no follow-up Cultivation Technique to continue his training.

"Haha! Su Mo, I've reached the early stage of the Body Tempering Realm! I'm a Martial Artist now!"

One day, Xie Baolin excitedly told Su Mo that he had become a Martial Artist. Su Mo was happy for him. Learning martial arts was no easy feat, and if Su Mo trained hard, Xie Baolin was every bit as dedicated.

He followed right behind Su Mo in his daily training.

"Baolin, then let me congratulate you, junior brother. Since you've reached the Body Tempering Realm, I'll take you and Su Mo to the biggest restaurant in Qingshan Town for a celebratory meal."

Yue Haofeng, their roommate, was also delighted to hear the news. He invited them to Tianxiang Tower, the biggest restaurant in Qingshan Town, to celebrate.

Xie Baolin was deeply moved. He was just a cowherd from a remote village; how could he have ever visited the biggest restaurant in Qingshan Town? He'd only heard of Tianxiang Tower during his time at Guande Martial Arts School.

Xie Baolin quickly declined Yue Haofeng's kind offer. Su Mo shook his head too, not wanting Yue Haofeng to spend so much. A meal at Tianxiang Tower was simply too expensive.

"It's fine. I'm older than you, and I joined the school before you did. Being assigned to the same dormitory in the rear courtyard is fate. Besides, my family may not be as wealthy as the big households in town, but treating you to a meal is well within my means."

Yue Haofeng was twenty years old. Though he came from a good family and had money, he was straightforward and cheerful, and he looked after the two junior brothers who had joined later. He knew their families weren't well off.

So Yue Haofeng often invited Su Mo and Xie Baolin out to eat at his expense, but they turned him down every time.

Su Mo and Xie Baolin still tried to refuse Yue Haofeng's kind offer, but he was adamant. "Junior brothers, I'm treating you this time, no matter what. If you still refuse, you're showing me no respect."

In the end, they saw how stern Yue Haofeng looked. If they refused again, he would surely be angry.

All this time, Yue Haofeng had been bringing breakfast from the school to their dormitory for them.

Yue Haofeng really was a good man: generous and cheerful. The three of them often talked about life and their dreams in the school dormitory.

At dusk, Su Mo, Xie Baolin, and Yue Haofeng left Guande Martial Arts School and headed straight to Tianxiang Tower, the biggest restaurant in Qingshan Town.