After practicing the Wind-Breaking Blade Technique twice more, Lu Yuan's progress neared perfection.
"Once the Wind-Breaking Blade Technique reaches perfection, I'll be able to unleash blade aura. It'll surely make quite a commotion, so I'd better save this last attempt for when I get home this afternoon!"
Lu Yuan thought to himself, then followed the crowd toward the dining hall.
Sure enough, the dining hall had all kinds of meat: beef, pork, chicken, duck, fish, eggs, duck eggs, and just about anything else one could want.
As for rice, flour, and steamed buns, there was more than enough for everyone.
As long as he didn't waste food or take any away, he could serve himself as much as he wanted with his identity token.
At Song Academy, he could also get a free serving of meat at noon, but it was no more than half a jin of pork and a few eggs.
Here, not only were all kinds of meat unlimited, but he could eat his fill at all three meals every day.
However, after eating his fill, Lu Yuan realized that even beef seemed to do far less for him now than it had before.
Even if he ate another meal that evening, he would probably still have trouble fully recovering.
Lu Yuan got up and headed to the front hall.
"Shopkeeper, may I claim a dose of Essence-Replenishing Soup this time?"
Lu Yuan asked the shopkeeper directly.
"Both Essence-Replenishing Soup and Qi-Replenishing Soup cost three taels, so of course you can!"
The shopkeeper smiled and nodded.
He immediately registered Lu Yuan, then handed him a packet of herbs for Essence-Replenishing Soup.
"Thank you!"
Lu Yuan took the herbs and left Guangchun Hall.
When he got home, he first asked Madam Yang to start boiling the Essence-Replenishing Soup, then went straight to the courtyard.
"Vwoom, vwoom, vwoom..."
Lu Yuan launched into the Wind-Breaking Blade Technique again. His moves flowed together seamlessly, each slash faster than the last.
By the end, the blade's path was all but impossible to see, and sharp whistles of wind rang out without pause.
He could even just make out what looked like white qi flickering at the tip of the blade.
"Shhk!"
Lu Yuan brought his blade down on a stone. It cleaved the stone cleanly in two, leaving a cut as smooth as a mirror.
"Blade aura. I did it!"
Lu Yuan stood with his blade in hand, unable to suppress a smile.
He had taken up martial arts less than a month ago, yet he had already reached the Hidden Energy Realm and mastered the Wind-Breaking Blade Technique, successfully unleashing blade aura.
Even Master Song, who had practiced the Wind-Breaking Blade Technique for more than a decade, had yet to master it, much less unleash blade aura. But Lu Yuan had managed it in barely more than ten days.
Even the top geniuses with exceptional constitutions, born into powerful aristocratic families, probably couldn't do much better than that.
Blade aura was the mark of a blade technique trained to its utmost. It was also a special realm countless blade practitioners dreamed of reaching.
Before reaching it, one could only know of its power and that it could wound martial artists of the Ninth Rank. Only after reaching it could one understand just how much stronger it was—and that it could not be stopped.
Lu Yuan carefully savored the fearsome power of that last strike. He felt that even against an ordinary Transformation Realm expert, he could easily kill them with a single slash.
Unleashing blade aura consumed a great deal of blood qi. With his current reserves, he could manage it at most three times, but in a fight to the death, three strikes would be more than enough.
Besides, with the Five Animals Fist already mastered, his blood qi limit could continue to rise rapidly.
"Even across all of Qinghe County, I can basically hold my own now!"
Lu Yuan smiled faintly, feeling more at ease than ever.
If he could master the Flick Finger Technique as well, then even against an old hand like Master Song, a formidable Transformation Realm expert, he might be able to defeat him despite the gap in realms.
Of course, even though his strength had risen sharply once again, he still intended to play it safe and keep a low profile.
He knew that it was still too early to let loose.
With his current strength, he might already count as a formidable expert in Qinghe County, but across all of Anyang Prefecture, he would probably still fall short against those true geniuses from aristocratic families.
In short, he wasn't strong enough yet. He still had to keep training!
[Wind-Breaking Blade Technique perfected (Unbroken: 1%)]
Lu Yuan glanced again at the Ancient Scroll in his mind. Like the Five Animals Fist, the Wind-Breaking Blade Technique had reached perfection, and its proficiency had changed to an unbroken state.
No matter how much more he practiced it from here on, it probably wouldn't change.
Clearly, whether it was the Five Animals Fist or the Wind-Breaking Blade Technique, breaking through their limits required other conditions or some kind of opportunity.
Lu Yuan still hadn't figured out what those conditions or opportunities might be.
He didn't dwell on it. Since he no longer needed to practice the Wind-Breaking Blade Technique, he could put his time and blood qi toward the Flick Finger Technique instead.
"Pfft... pfft... pfft..."
Sitting in the courtyard, Lu Yuan grabbed a handful of small stones and began practicing the Flick Finger Technique.
As one pebble after another bored into the dirt, the technique's proficiency rose rapidly.
[Flick Finger Technique minor mastery (781/1000)]
[Flick Finger Technique minor mastery (897/1000)]
After raising the Flick Finger Technique to great mastery, Lu Yuan downed the Essence-Replenishing Soup he had prepared.
At once, he could feel his physical strength quickly returning.
After resting for just two and a half hours, his strength had almost completely recovered.
That was the effect of the medicinal soup. It worked better than ordinary meat, and it restored his strength faster, too.
The only pity was that one dose of Essence-Replenishing Soup could only be taken over the course of three days, which worked out to one tael of silver per day.
He still had ten taels of silver on him, but that would only buy three doses of Essence-Replenishing Soup—enough to last just ten days.
He would need to earn thirty taels of silver a month just to afford one dose of Essence-Replenishing Soup a day. If he added Qi-Replenishing Soup, the cost would double, and with all that meat on top, the expense would become a bottomless pit.
Unfortunately, his current income was nowhere near enough to sustain training at full throttle.
Without the Zhou Family's support, he would probably still have to settle for training once a day at the lowest possible level of consumption.
"Training in martial arts really is like throwing money into a furnace!"
Thinking of this, Lu Yuan couldn't help sighing inwardly. Then he began practicing the Five Animals Fist again.
After finishing this session, he could clearly feel that the blood qi in his body had increased by at least a tenth.
At this rate, he estimated that he would need no more than a month to undergo the third round of Blood Qi Tempering and break through to the Transformation Realm.
What was more, after this session, he no longer felt as tired as he had before. He couldn't recover his strength quickly, but he could still function normally.
Clearly, the medicinal power left behind by the Essence-Replenishing Soup was still at work.
"Bang!"
Just then, the courtyard gate was suddenly shoved open, and several men strode in.
Every one of them had a black tiger-head mark on the back of his hand.
"Has it come out?"
Lu Yuan's expression didn't change. He remained perfectly calm.
Less than a month had passed, but he was no longer the ordinary martial artist who had needed to rely on lime powder to kill two Black Tiger Gang thugs. He could now unleash blade aura—a true Hidden Energy Realm expert!
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