Points and Lines, Planes and Solids

"Ding--"

The oven timer emitted a crisp sound.

Lin Ye pulled open the oven door and slid out a metal tray lined with foil, on which sat five stalks of dried Black Spiral Grass.

He had returned home close to midnight last night, leaving no time to concoct the "Night of the Black Goat."

That was why he had gotten up at four in the morning to roast the Black Spiral Grass and prepare the potion ingredients.

The reason he only roasted five stalks was that he didn't have much money left.

"What are you roasting?"

Jiang Weilan walked over carrying a rice cooker.

"A type of plant."

Lin Ye spoke, casually grinding the five stalks of Black Spiral Grass into powder and storing them in separate glass bottles.

Jiang Weilan nodded, confused. I know it's a plant, obviously?

"Wash your hands and eat."

"Okay."

At the dining table, Jiang Weilan set down her spoon and looked at Lin Ye.

"How does martial arts training feel these past few days? Are you tired?"

Lin Ye picked up a piece of boiled cabbage and put it in his mouth. "It's fine, not too tiring."

"Don't push yourself too hard, look at how thin you've gotten."

Jiang Weilan felt a pang of heartache, then suddenly, her eyes filled with confusion.

"Son, did you grow taller?"

Lin Ye put down his chopsticks. "Did I?"

He stood up and walked to the kitchen scale, stepped onto it, and pulled down the measuring tape.

"183 centimeters. Maybe it's a secondary growth spurt from the martial arts training."

"My weight is 76 kilograms. I haven't lost weight; I've actually gained a few pounds."

Jiang Weilan's face lit up with joy. "Growth is good! Aim for 1.9 meters so you'll stand out in a crowd!"

Lin Ye smiled. 1.9 meters was a bit too tall, wasn't it? He didn't really like being the center of attention.

He sat back down at the table. "How is things with my sister?"

Hearing Lin Ye's question, Jiang Weilan's expression clouded with a hint of worry, though she didn't seem overly anxious.

"There shouldn't be any problems. You know Tieqin University; it was originally the talent base for the Tieqin Group."

"Even if she doesn't make it as an internal trainee, she can still land a good position."

Lin Ye nodded. Tieqin University was different from Coast University, which was a public university founded and led by the province.

But when Tieqin University was first established, it was fully funded by the Tieqin Group.

It was originally intended to cultivate talent for the internal needs of the Tieqin Group, and only later was it incorporated by the province, becoming a joint university.

It was said that there was quite a bit of trouble during the incorporation, with the province deploying over a thousand people to surround the group's headquarters.

The original headquarters wasn't even in the center of Tieqin City; it only moved there after that incident.

If his sister didn't work at the Tieqin Group, she could still have a bright future in the provincial capital.

It was just that to reach the same level of development as staying within the Tieqin Group, it would certainly take much longer.

After breakfast, Jiang Weilan went to work, and Lin Ye left the house as well.

On the street, breakfast shops puffed out steam, emitting the savory aroma of meat and noodles.

Lin Ye walked at a leisurely pace. After the shift in his state of mind last night, it felt as if a heavy burden had been lifted from his shoulders, leaving him feeling incredibly relaxed.

Half an hour later, he arrived at the market street and headed toward a storefront.

"Black Goat Shop! Hehehe!"

Six large characters were written on the shop's signboard.

"Boss!"

Lin Ye called out, and a middle-aged man wearing a leather apron walked out from the back room.

"Yo! It's you, handsome! You aren't looking for goat horns again, are you?"

Lin Ye glanced into the back room, where several black goats hung from iron hooks, their hides mostly peeled away.

"Do you have them?" he asked.

The boss clicked his tongue. "What kind of talk is that? Of course I have them! This is what I sell; how could I be out of stock for you?"

"Give me five pairs, and two jin of sheep blood," Lin Ye said.

The boss chuckled, picked up a boning knife, and casually sharpened it against an iron rod.

"Tastes good, right? My sheep blood is the real deal! Have a few bowls before you get busy, and I guarantee your steel spear won't go soft!"

"Did you add something extra?" Lin Ye teased with a smile.

The boss hurriedly waved his hands, "I wouldn't dare! Could I do something so unscrupulous? It's all natural!"

"Fine, pack it up for me. I'll cook some when I get back," Lin Ye said with a smile.

"You got it!"

After walking out of the market street, Lin Ye headed straight home.

On the way, he passed a precious metal shop and bought 120g of white tin powder, which basically emptied his wallet.

At his computer desk, Lin Ye looked at the materials laid out before him and took a deep breath before starting the concoction.

With the experience from last time, he was much more proficient this time.

Approaching noon, he sat at the computer desk with the materials for brewing "Night of the Black Goat" laid out in front of him.

Only the final step remained: pouring the burned "white tin and Black Spiral Grass" powder into the sheep blood, mixing it evenly, and then sealing it to let it sit.

However, this step required waiting until the sun went down; it couldn't be done just yet.

He leaned back slightly and summoned the Monument.

His gaze landed on "Potion Apprentice" under the abilities column.

This ability could increase the success rate of Tier 1 potion brewing by 30%. It was somewhat like a title in a game, but it could be upgraded.

"One potential point increases the count by one."

He whispered to himself. Using potential points this way was even more extravagant than adding points to intelligence.

"I wonder how many bottles I can succeed with this time? And how many times the count can increase?"

Closing his eyes to rest for a while, he stood up, walked to the living room, stretched his limbs, and began practicing his fist technique.

"Whoosh!"

He threw a punch and retracted it instantly; the speed of the retraction was significantly faster than the strike.

Lin Ye felt the changes in his body. After reaching the entry level of the fist technique, his muscles felt as if they had fused into one.

The sensation when throwing a punch was like pulling a rubber band, with a hidden force contained within the strike.

When retracting the punch, it felt as if he were being pulled by that same rubber band, with a force dragging the arm back.

The tension from his shoulders and back to his knuckles was particularly noticeable.

"Qi sensation like a rope... a noose... integrated force."

One of the advantages of the Ancient Fist Technique was training the body's integrated force, a point he hadn't deeply felt before reaching the entry level.

But after entering the path, especially after achieving the absolute standard of force generation, he truly realized the power of the Ancient Fist Technique.

This was a technique completely different from modern combat.

He had learned about the Ancient Fist Technique on the Chao Forum, where a poster once used forging to compare it with modern combat.

Modern combat belonged to the tempering of points and lines; it could be hammered into iron rods, swords, or even folded and forged into hundred-refined steel.

But the ceiling stopped there; it could never escape the concept of "ironware."

The Ancient Fist Technique was different; it belonged to the tempering of surfaces and bodies. It was no longer restricted by shape, but rather forged the iron as a whole.

Perhaps in the early stages, it was just an ordinary iron ball, with far less attack power than a sword.

But its ceiling was incredibly high—absurdly so—to the point where it could reach a terrifying level similar to "nuclear fusion."

Although the poster might have been exaggerating, the reality was indeed that the ceiling of the Ancient Fist Technique was higher than that of modern combat.

It was just that most people lacked the aptitude, and even more lacked the opportunity to learn it.

He had been searching for information about the Ancient Fist Technique online for days, but most of it was just rumors or hearsay.

It seemed as if an invisible hand was deliberately downplaying the influence of the Ancient Fist Technique.

And in fact, it was quite effective. If he weren't a student in the pharmacy department, and if he hadn't come into contact with the existence of "Secret Potion,"

Then he wouldn't have looked into the Ancient Fist Technique, and he likely wouldn't have had the chance to learn it.

Unless, one day in the future, he reached the pinnacle of modern combat and might have approached it with the mindset of just wanting to learn a little.

And then he would have started to regret why he hadn't looked into it sooner.

Looking through it all, the situation online made him feel a sense of disconnect.

Clearly, the martial arts gyms were entities that could be linked to violent institutions like the Police Department.

Yet online, they were like transparent nobodies.

This feeling was as if someone were suppressing the Ancient Fist Technique, and the Ancient Fist Technique was fighting back quite stubbornly, but in the end, the arm could not twist the thigh.

After a moment of silence, he sighed and stopped thinking about it.

He continued to throw punches, and with every strike, he could feel the qi sensation within his body pushing along his meridians toward his limbs.

Time flew by, the sky grew dark, and Lin Ye walked out of the bathroom, gently wiping his hair.

"Monument."

[Soul Whale Fist "Level 1" (3/100)]