The Correct Way to Use Iron Sand Palm (Fog)

This blood rice paddy was a square field roughly fifty meters on each side. It looked large, but the yield wasn't actually that high—the total harvest of rice ears wasn't much.

After all, this wasn't some hybrid rice; a single stalk of blood rice might only have a few dozen grains.

Since their school uniforms were loose athletic jackets, the boys used four jackets to wrap the rice and stuffed all their pockets full, completely stripping the entire field clean.

Not a single grain wasted.

"Let's go, time to eat!"

Ji Ruo said cheerfully.

He'd realized that the [Absolute Sense of Direction] trait he'd obtained earlier was practically a divine skill!

Running into this blood rice paddy might not have been a coincidence at all—Ji Ruo's strong desire to eat had probably been subtly corrected by [Absolute Sense of Direction], steering their path forward.

After all, Ji Ruo had been leading the way the whole time, so everyone else's luck could basically be ruled out. And honestly, Ji Ruo's luck? In both his past and present lives, he'd barely even won a 'buy one get one free' promotion.

A moment later, they arrived at a small hilltop eight hundred meters away. The terrain was open, with sparse vegetation, but the summit had a depression, and one side of the slope even extended a rocky overhang for shelter.

In the center of the depression was a tiny spring—a perfect natural campsite.

Liang Shixian sighed in admiration: "I have to say, Ji Ruo, your navigation skills? I'm sold."

Ji Ruo grinned wide: "I'm a Gold Medal Tour Guide, you know. This is nothing."

Liang Shixian chuckled: "Give you an inch and you take a mile, huh?"

The group crouched by the spring, washing the blood rice and doing a simple husking by hand.

Since they lacked tools, they rubbed the grains directly with their hands. Luckily, blood rice grains were a bit larger than regular rice, so while it was troublesome, it was manageable.

What's more, this blood rice was highly beneficial for Martial Dao cultivation, so everyone was secretly delighted.

Night fell. They rubbed from dusk until late, starving until their eyes sparkled, but finally they'd processed enough for one meal. The boys' fingers were stained with a blood-red hue that wouldn't wash off easily.

Then they ran into a new problem.

"So... how do we cook this? Eat it raw?" Liu Neng asked awkwardly.

Liang Shixian was stumped too.

They had no pot!

And on top of a hill, it wasn't suitable for making a fire either.

Conventionally, when camping in the wild, you had to light a campfire to effectively ward off beast attacks.

But the Secret Realm was different—it was full of all kinds of Monster Beasts and Demonic Beasts. Many weren't actually afraid of fire. Lighting a fire at night might drive some away, but it could also attract danger.

Ji Ruo thought for a moment, then gathered the processed blood rice in front of him and plunged his hands in, barely submerging his palms.

"Don't worry, I've got a way."

"What way?"

"I can stir-fry rice." Ji Ruo said mysteriously.

"???"

No pot, no fire—what rice were you going to fry?

Then they watched as Ji Ruo shoved both hands deep into the prepared blood rice and started tossing it.

The group: "???"

When Liang Shixian and the others saw the red glow radiating from Ji Ruo's palms, they were completely dumbfounded.

Iron Sand Palm... used like this?!

"You young folks, always pampered. Can't even stir-fry rice in a survival situation—that won't do." Ji Ruo said as he rapidly flipped the blood rice with his palms.

At first glance, Ji Ruo was using Iron Sand Palm to forcefully stir-fry rice, but in reality, he was training his Iron Sand Palm.

Maybe because blood rice was of higher quality than ordinary rice, Ji Ruo was delighted to find that every toss gave him a bit of proficiency.

That was way faster than the previous ten tosses for one point!

So Liang Shixian and the others watched as, with each stir, the crimson on Ji Ruo's palms deepened, and the surrounding temperature slowly rose.

They were baffled. Not only were you using Iron Sand Palm to stir-fry rice, but it felt like you were controlling the heat too?

Were you seriously trying to cook this blood rice with Iron Sand Palm?

What they didn't know was that Ji Ruo wasn't controlling the heat—he was genuinely improving.

His Iron Sand Palm, originally at the Entering the Hall level, gained massive proficiency from the rapid stirring and had already broken through to Mastery.

And Ji Ruo also realized that the Iron Sand Palm he trained through the system seemed a bit different from the conventional version—his Iron Sand Palm apparently came with a built-in setting to cook raw rice into a finished meal.

In the group's bewildered gazes, a faint, sweetly metallic aroma slowly drifted into everyone's nostrils. The originally somewhat hard blood rice was gradually softening, the grains becoming plumper, crystal clear.

How was it actually getting cooked?

Iron Sand Palm... could be used like this?

"When the Martial Exam is over, I want to learn Iron Sand Palm too." Zhang Quan muttered quietly.

Liu Neng nodded in agreement: "Me too."

Liang Shixian held the blood rice that Ji Ruo had stir-fried, sinking into deep contemplation.

He always felt something was off—whether from textbooks, teachers' instructions, or online descriptions of the Iron Sand Palm technique, none of them seemed to include the function of stir-frying rice, did they?

"Ji Ruo, this—"

"Don't ask. If you ask, I'll say it's development." Ji Ruo said cheerfully.

He knew what Liang Shixian wanted to ask; this was the tacit understanding between fellow top students.

"Fine."

Liang Shixian sighed. Though full of doubt, prying into others' secrets was never good.

"Eat it while it's hot. It won't taste good once it cools down."

Ji Ruo said, not bothering with formalities, grabbing a handful of blood rice and stuffing it into his mouth.

The other three followed suit, disregarding appearances and ignoring the dust on the blood rice.

Partly because they were truly starving, and partly because, though they were just high school students, they were all Martial Artist Reserves with some resilience.

Those who practice martial arts aren't fussy people.

"Burp~ That's the stuff!"

The blood rice was divided and devoured by the group. Ji Ruo rubbed his belly, leaning against the mountain wall, feeling the warm current surging in his stomach slowly spread through his limbs and bones.

Though he hadn't eaten meat, his blood and qi were already full, even more vigorous than before. Ji Ruo's face was full of contentment.

After resting for a while, Ji Ruo got up to practice martial arts.

Basic Movement Technique, Basic Fist Technique, Basic Leg Technique—he practiced them one by one.

These basic martial arts taught in high school had no special effects, but they could stretch tendons, strengthen bones, and aid digestion.

As he practiced, the blood rice in his stomach was digested, the warm current turning into a hot stream, causing a faint mist to rise from Ji Ruo's head.

The 'Martial Apprentice Rank Experience Potion' lived up to its name. After just one meal, Ji Ruo felt his strength as a sixth-level Martial Apprentice slowly increasing.

The remaining blood rice would last another day or two.

But this mountain hollow wasn't very large, and Ji Ruo found it a bit cramped to practice freely.

Night deepened.

After loosening up their muscles, the group assigned watch shifts and prepared to rest.

But just then—

"Damn it! Who did this!"

A sudden, mournful cry from afar startled the group. Ji Ruo looked toward the direction of the sound—it seemed to come from the blood rice paddy.

They could still hear it from eight hundred meters away. How loud did he have to shout? Was his throat imported?

"My blood rice! Where's my huge patch of blood rice! Waaah..."

The owner of that mournful cry couldn't bear the blow and began wailing loudly.

Ji Ruo even suspected the guy had mastered some kind of sound-wave martial technique. To strike first from eight hundred meters away—truly formidable.

Ji Ruo cheerfully said to the others, "See? Was I wrong? We left the rice stalks for them. Now that they know, they're sure to cry with gratitude."

The others: "???"

Is that what gratitude looks like?!

Liang Shixian suppressed his strong urge to complain and signaled the group to hide beneath the protruding cliff wall, blending into the shadows.

The far-reaching, miserable cry startled large flocks of forest birds. No one liked a troublemaker who disturbed their sleep. Some hot-tempered Monster Beasts and Demonic Beasts were enraged, roaring as they gathered toward the source of the sound.

The screaming Goblin, seeing so many Monster Beasts and Demonic Beasts charging, somehow thought, crying and roaring: "It's you, isn't it? It must be you! You stole the blood rice our tribe worked so hard to cultivate!

Little ones, grab your weapons! Kill them!"

Then the cries became more chaotic. Since they were far away, Ji Ruo and the others couldn't tell what was happening, but it probably wasn't peaceful.

The loud-voiced Goblin wailed: "Damn it! Our tribe scrimped and saved, didn't even dare to take a bite of the prey we caught, and used it all to nurture the blood rice! And you stole it all!

You cut off our tribe's path to advancement! We suffer, and you won't have it easy either! Today, I'll die together with you!"

Ji Ruo's expression turned strange upon hearing this.

"That loudmouth isn't the Goblin Chieftain, is it? I suddenly have a feeling—if we go back there tomorrow, everyone can get into a first-tier university."

The three: "..."

Didn't the teacher say the Martial Exam was very dangerous?!

Ji Ruo looked at their expressions, a bit displeased: "What's with those looks? You heard how fierce the fighting is over there. There'll definitely be heavy casualties tonight. Those are all Martial Exam points! And they're ownerless! It'd be a waste to just leave them!"

The three: "..."

Sure, they're Demonic Beasts and Monster Beasts, but we took their hard-earned blood rice and then plan to use their corpses to pad our exam scores... Isn't that a bit... unethical?