Medicinal Power

"The experience for the Mo Pi Fa and saber techniques had been separated."

Chen Mu looked at the altered system interface, a thoughtful expression appearing on his face. Previously, the experience for the Whirlwind Saber Technique and the Fierce Wind Saber Technique had been shared, but the Mo Pi Fa was different.

But on second thought, it was not surprising. The Mo Pi Fa and saber techniques were indeed as unrelated as a pole carried eight thousand miles apart. Perhaps only things of the same type could share experience, while the Mo Pi Fa belonged to an entirely different category from saber techniques.

And besides—

The increase in experience for the Mo Pi Fa also surprised Chen Mu. Even counting it all up, he had spent no more than an hour cultivating this time, yet he had gained a full 11 points of experience.

And raising the Mo Pi Fa to Initial Accomplishment required only 100 experience points!

That meant that if he did it once in the morning and once at dusk, he would need only five days to raise the Gold Jade Mo Pi Fa to Initial Accomplishment!

"The Mo Pi Fa truly differs from saber techniques. The entire cultivation process relies purely on medicinal powder to temper the body inside and out. Perhaps the accumulated experience comes from the Medicinal Power of those decoctions..."

A realization suddenly came to Chen Mu.

Under normal circumstances, even someone with exceptional innate qualities and perfect adaptability could not completely absorb all the Medicinal Power while practicing the Mo Pi Fa, much less perfectly make use of every trace of it.

But if the system could disregard such limitations and directly convert all the Medicinal Power he endured during this process into something called "experience" and accumulate it, then it made perfect sense.

Every medicine carried three parts poison.

Ordinary people would already be doing well if they could absorb one-tenth of the Medicinal Power from the two portions of medicinal powder, inside and out. Someone like him, with above-average innate qualities, might only be able to absorb two or three parts out of ten.

And those two or three parts of Medicinal Power would further be affected by the body's adaptability, producing effects of varying strength depending on that adaptability. With ordinary adaptability, perhaps only one or two parts out of ten of the Medicinal Power could be used for "Skin Tempering"; the rest would be metabolized by the body and serve no purpose.

Thus, the process of Skin Tempering was exceedingly long for ordinary people. The saying that Skin Tempering took three years was no exaggeration.

But if the System Panel could directly intercept the Medicinal Power and turn it into experience, then it would undoubtedly achieve one hundred percent absorption of Medicinal Power along with one hundred percent adaptability.

Perhaps across the entire Great Xuan Dynasty, among its hundreds of millions of people, no such absurd physique existed. Yet through the System Panel, he could achieve such an effect.

"Very good."

Chen Mu smiled.

He had previously worried that things like the Mo Pi Fa were utterly different from saber techniques, and whether the System Panel would work on them at all. If it did not, then he could only rely on the System Panel to master various profound saber techniques and raise his strength, while the Mo Pi Fa and even the later Lian Rou Technique would have to be taken step by step, slowly. Now, however, things were much better.

And by all rights, this did not count as cheating. After all, every bit of progress in his realm came from genuine "Medicinal Power," not something obtained out of thin air. What was more, that "Medicinal Power" had all been bought with silver he had earned himself.

Just like his saber techniques, it was all hard-won.

Chen Mu was naturally quite at ease.

Four short days hurried past.

During those four days, aside from a few local gentry coming to visit and Butcher Zhang coming by to "catch up," everything remained calm and uneventful. Chen Mu still went to the City Guard every day as usual, though as a head runner, he no longer needed to collect and hang up a badge. Even if he did not go to the City Guard, it would not matter much; it was merely a nominal post.

Chen Mu refused none of the congratulatory housewarming gifts sent by the various gentry, accepting every one of them without exception. Now that he knew his experience in practicing the Inner Training Method was related to "Medicinal Power," and Medicinal Power was directly tied to financial resources, he naturally welcomed all silver that came his way.

As for whether accepting silver would have any consequences, he did not care much.

He was no longer a lowly yamen runner.

He was one of the five active Head Runners of the City Guard, a direct subordinate favored by Min Baoyi. Even if he accepted the gentry's silver, should troublesome matters come looking for him later, he could calmly decide whether to handle them or not based on their severity.

Then there was Butcher Zhang, his uncle by marriage, who had not visited in many years. Compared with how Chen Mu remembered him from long ago, he was far too courteous now. He even lowered his voice somewhat when speaking, appearing particularly cautious. This only made Chen Mu sigh inwardly at the warmth and coldness of human relationships. When his father had died of illness, Butcher Zhang had merely come by for a symbolic glance.

Yet now, he was trying every possible way to curry favor with this relative of his.

"We can discuss You Ying's matter another time."

When Butcher Zhang brought up old matters again at the end and mentioned Zhang Youying once more, Chen Mu merely gave a flat reply.

He truly had no mind for such things right now. More of his energy was focused on cultivation. If his physical strength could support it and he were not limited to enduring "Skin Tempering" only twice, morning and dusk, he would even have planned to do it several more times a day.

He also spent nearly all his remaining time practicing saber techniques, intending to raise the Fierce Wind Saber Technique to Perfection as soon as possible, master a second Saber Force, and further increase his strength.

Hearing Chen Mu's lack of interest, Butcher Zhang tactfully changed the subject. After speaking for a while longer, he rose with Chen Hong and bade Chen Mu farewell. Chen Mu, together with Chen Yue, saw them all the way to the door.

After leaving Chen Mu's home—

On the way back, Butcher Zhang still carefully instructed Chen Hong to properly tend to this aunt-nephew relationship. Chen Mu had now soared to great heights, and one day a single word from him might lift their family up considerably. They absolutely could not offend him.

Chen Mu did not watch Butcher Zhang and Chen Hong disappear into the distance. Once he had seen them out, he returned to the rear courtyard and began boiling water and brewing medicine.

It was still the exact same Skin Tempering process.

After five days of Skin Tempering, he could still feel some slight changes. First, his skin seemed to have become tougher. When touching those rough stones, the pain from friction was noticeably lessened.

Second, it felt as though a faint flame had appeared within his body, making him somewhat stronger whenever he exerted force. According to the Mo Pi Fa, this was the condensed qi and blood produced through the Body Tempering Method.

"Huff..."

He crawled out of the sand pit.

Chen Mu sat beside it with his limbs somewhat weak and sore, briefly catching his breath.

Compared to his first cultivation session, when he could barely walk after completing Skin Tempering, he was much better off now. Though his whole body was still somewhat weak and limp, he could at least move with difficulty and no longer needed Chen Yue to help support him.

"Only five days of cultivation have already produced results. If I reach Initial Accomplishment..."

Chen Mu murmured.

Then he summoned the system interface.

Gold Jade Mo Pi Fa (Unattained)

Experience: 108

On the system interface, the experience beneath the Mo Pi Fa entry had already accumulated to 108 points, enough to raise it directly to "Initial Accomplishment."