Early the next morning.
Lin Zheyu practiced the Golden Goose Technique in Liang Song's courtyard all morning.
With Master Liang's guidance, his understanding of the Golden Goose Technique improved a little.
Perhaps because he was about to leave, when Lin Zheyu asked whether there were any stronger medicinal recipes, Liang Song simply gave him two.
One was for the Organ Refining stage, and the other could only be used by those in the Blood Energy Realm.
Lin Zheyu skipped the Organ Refining recipe and began studying the Blood-Nourishing Bone-Strengthening Soup.
The Blood-Nourishing Bone-Strengthening Soup nourished the body's blood and energy and strengthened one's Blood Energy. Its medicinal power was extremely potent; anyone below the Blood Energy Realm who used it would damage their constitution.
That night, Senior Brother Han Mo came by again.
The two sparred in Liang Song's courtyard for over an hour. Thanks to Senior Brother Han Mo's wholehearted effort, Lin Zheyu gained a fair amount of experience fighting opponents armed with cold weapons.
After spending the last few days together, he had come to understand Senior Brother Han Mo a little better.
He was an "honest man," with a manner that gave people the impression he was upright and incorruptible.
"All right, take a break. Don't practice too late."
Liang Song called a halt to Lin Zheyu, who had been about to attack again.
The kid trained with brutal intensity. He was already panting for breath, yet he kept launching one attack after another at Han Mo.
But it was precisely that grit and perseverance that made Liang Song admire him so much and teach him the Golden Goose Technique.
Lin Zheyu stopped and leaned against the wall, gasping heavily.
"You're really hard on yourself, kid!" Han Mo exclaimed.
Under the moonlight, dozens of bruises mottled Lin Zheyu's body, all left by Han Mo's blunt blade.
"It's a mess out there. The rebel army could attack at any moment. While things are still peaceful and calm, I need to focus on improving my strength."
"What's a little pain?" Lin Zheyu said with a grin.
After resting for a while, the two bid Liang Song farewell and left.
Under the moonlight, they walked together.
"Don't go out of the city on a whim these days. It's a mess out there, and bandits are running rampant," Han Mo said.
"Have the rebels made another move?"
"Yeah. Anyi City has fallen too, and another wave of refugees has arrived outside the city." Han Mo nodded, worry and sympathy flickering across his face.
Songyi City could only take in a limited number of refugees. It had long since reached its limit, so the refugees were being housed outside the city in extremely crude conditions.
As the weather grew colder, Han Mo saw many refugees frozen to death during his morning patrols.
"Mm, I know."
Lin Zheyu nodded. He rarely went beyond the city gates and had never even visited the Outer City.
His daily life was simple: home, the teahouse, Master Liang's place, and, once in a while, a trip to Ten Thousand Flowers Pavilion when Jia Yanyong and the others dragged him along. That was all.
Back at his courtyard, Lin Zheyu took off his clothes and continued training.
It had been several days since he last broken through his body's limits, and his vigor and spirits had been nurtured back to their peak.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Late at night, thudding sounds rang out from the courtyard.
Even with thick, worn-out clothes wrapped around the wooden post, the blows still made quite a racket, echoing across the yard.
Fortunately, there weren't many people around his small courtyard, and the nearest houses were far away. Otherwise, someone would have come over to complain about the noise.
More than an hour later.
Lin Zheyu lay on the ground, gasping for breath.
[Heaven Rewards Diligence] Name: Lin Zheyu Source Power: 6 Skills: Bull Fist (Proficient 4%) Golden Goose Technique (First Layer 39%) Turtle Breathing Technique (Second Layer 26%)
Early the next morning.
He got up early, but didn't go to Liang Song's home today.
Lin Zheyu took the Blood-Nourishing Bone-Strengthening Soup recipe to the medicine shops to buy the ingredients.
The ingredients were hard to find. He ran to several medicine shops before finally buying them all, and a single batch cost a little over ten taels of silver.
"That's so expensive. One batch costs as much as ten batches of ordinary medicinal soup."
Lin Zheyu muttered, feeling a pang of regret.
He suddenly realized that the hundred-odd taels of silver he had saved up weren't much at all. They would only buy a dozen or so batches of ingredients.
Back home, he took out the ingredients for three batches of Blood-Nourishing Bone-Strengthening Soup and put them all in the medicine pot to brew.
He needed to test the medicinal potency first. If one batch of this soup was no stronger than ordinary medicinal soup, it wouldn't be worth the price.
He chopped wood, lit the fire, and brewed the soup.
Lin Zheyu boiled it down five times in all, extracting every last bit of medicinal potency from the ingredients.
The courtyard filled with a rich medicinal fragrance.
"This stuff is a lot more bitter than the soup I had before!"
Lin Zheyu took a small sip, and his face immediately scrunched up. It was bitter.
Holding his breath, he gulped down the soup in one go.
A fierce wave of heat surged through him at once.
"This medicinal potency is intense!"
Lin Zheyu was startled. The moment the soup hit his stomach, he could feel the heat.
A few more minutes, and his nose would probably start gushing blood.
He immediately sat cross-legged on the ground, and sent out a thought: Use 3 units of Source Power to improve the Turtle Breathing Technique.
In an instant, mysterious energy surged forth, drawing the soup's medicinal potency through his entire body.
His mind entered a peculiar state, and he began a long period of cultivation, his understanding of the Turtle Breathing Technique growing deeper and deeper.
Lin Zheyu's body also underwent tremendous changes.
His strength and speed did not increase, but the muscles, tendons, and skin all over his body grew more compact, and his aura became even more restrained.
The greatest improvement was in his internal organs.
As the Turtle Breathing Technique advanced, the Breathing Method further strengthened Lin Zheyu's internal organs, carrying him more than halfway through the Organ Refining stage.
Whoosh.
Whoosh~~~ whoosh~~~
His breathing grew longer and more measured, and even his heartbeat slowed.
Under the subtle adjustments of the mysterious power, the density of his muscles increased further.
His strength barely improved, but judging by his appearance, he seemed slightly smaller than before.
Lin Zheyu's aura sank lower and lower, becoming smooth, plain, and unremarkable.
The sharpness he had gained from martial arts gradually disappeared, and he looked more like an ordinary, frail scholar with no strength to truss a chicken.
After a few breaths.
Whoosh...
He let out a long breath of stale air and opened his eyes.
[Heaven Rewards Diligence] Name: Lin Zheyu Source Power: 3 Skills: Bull Fist (Proficient 4%) Golden Goose Technique (First Layer 39%) Turtle Breathing Technique (Third Layer 0%)
"I've finally reached the third layer. Even if I raise my strength to the Blood Energy Realm now, Master Liang won't be able to see through it."
A smile crept across Lin Zheyu's face.
At last, he could improve his strength without holding back.
After carefully checking his condition, Lin Zheyu found that when he fully circulated the Turtle Breathing Technique, he looked like a frail scholar who had never practiced martial arts.
Even his skin had become much smoother. His fists had grown rough from training, but now they looked almost as they had before he began practicing martial arts.
"It can even do this?"
Lin Zheyu was amazed.
If he cultivated the Turtle Breathing Technique to the peak of the third layer, wouldn't his skin become even smoother and more delicate than a woman's?
After studying the improved Turtle Breathing Technique for a while, Lin Zheyu gradually felt heat rising in his body.
"The three batches of soup I just drank still have medicinal potency left in them—and quite a lot, by the feel of it."
Lin Zheyu thought, pleasantly surprised.
The steady waves of heat coming from within proved that plenty of the soup's medicinal potency remained, more than a Bone Forging Realm martial artist like him could handle.
No wonder a single batch cost ten taels of silver. The money had been well spent.
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