Wang Family Pharmacy.
"What can I get for you?"
As soon as Lin Yan stepped inside, the shop assistant hurried over to greet him.
"How much is Qi-Nurturing Soup?"
From Zheng Guang, Lin Yan had learned the names of many medicinal soups used by martial artists. Qi-Nurturing Soup was the most suitable for beginners.
"One hundred copper coins per dose. Each packet can be brewed twice. You've come to the right place, sir. Our pharmacy's Qi-Nurturing Soup is famous for being the best."
"I'll take one dose."
"One dose?"
The shop assistant's expression turned a little odd. Everyone who bought Qi-Nurturing Soup was practicing martial arts.
It was true that many people had drained their family fortunes practicing martial arts, but this customer was so young that he looked like he'd only just started. Surely he couldn't be so hard up that he had to buy one dose at a time.
If he couldn't even afford more than one dose of Qi-Nurturing Soup, what was the point of practicing martial arts?
Lin Yan paid no heed to the shop assistant's changing expression. He still had plenty of the three taels of silver Zhang Dahai had given him. He wasn't buying just one dose because he was short on money.
He paid in copper coins, took the packet of medicine, then turned and headed to another pharmacy on the street, where he bought a packet as well.
After buying one packet of Qi-Nurturing Soup from each of three different pharmacies, he finally headed home.
Master Zheng had spoken with great sincerity, but it never hurt to be cautious. What if Master Zheng had some deal with Wang Family Pharmacy behind the scenes, sending people there to buy medicine in exchange for a cut?
He had to find out whether the Qi-Nurturing Soup from Wang Family Pharmacy really worked better.
Other people might not be able to tell, but he had the Martial Dao Tree. He could judge by how much its leaf grew.
When he got home,
his aunt was preparing dinner inside. Seeing him carrying a packet of medicine, she looked puzzled. "Yan, did you buy that medicine?"
"Aunt, when I went out today, I ran into Uncle Zhang, one of Dad's friends from when he was alive. He recognized me too and took me to a teahouse for a while. These pastries are from the teahouse. I couldn't finish them, so I had them packed up to bring home. Uncle Zhang also gave me some money."
Lin Yan repeated the story he had already prepared. His father had worked for a medicinal herb merchant in the city, going from village to village to buy herbs. He really had known quite a few people.
"Uncle Zhang said Dad helped him when he was alive, so the money was his way of repaying that old debt."
"What's Uncle Zhang's name?"
"Zhang Xiaohe."
"Xiaohe? That's a rather strange name."
Liu made a mental note of it. She knew that her eldest brother had made some friends while working as a traveling merchant. It was thanks to those connections that he had been able to go to the villages and buy high-quality herbs.
After settling his aunt's concerns, Lin Yan began brewing and drinking the medicine, then practicing Rock Stance.
Three days passed in a row.
Lin Yan looked at the leaf drawings on the paper. The one in the middle had clearly grown more than the others.
"I was being too suspicious. Master Zheng was right. Wang Family Pharmacy has the best-quality medicine."
He had drawn the leaf as it appeared in his mind not only to find out which pharmacy's Qi-Nurturing Soup worked best, but also for another reason.
Based on the bud's current shape, he could predict what it would look like when fully grown, and use that to judge how long it would take him to succeed at Foundation Cultivation.
After working it out, Lin Yan had his answer.
At its current rate of growth, the tender leaf meant he would meet the requirements for skin training in three months.
Of course, that was assuming he drank Qi-Nurturing Soup every day. Otherwise, it would take five times longer—nearly a year.
That was far less time than the three years Master Zheng had said Foundation Cultivation usually took.
Master Zheng had said that ordinary people needed a year and a half, sometimes longer, just to get started with stance training. I only need three months to reach that point.
The credit went to the Martial Dao Tree.
Beginners without a teacher would probably need a while just to learn the basics of Stance Technique, and their form might not even be correct.
Of course, there was another possibility: he was naturally talented at martial arts, a true martial arts prodigy.
The days passed peacefully, like a slow-flowing stream.
Three months went by in the blink of an eye.
The tender leaf in his mind was almost fully formed. Its lush greenery was enough to make anyone's heart sing.
Lin Yan was very satisfied. This was the reward for more than two months of hard training.
He made a point of bathing and changing into clean clothes. Then he stood in the courtyard, sensing that today would be the day he succeeded at Foundation Cultivation.
Since this was his first breakthrough in martial arts, it deserved a little ceremony.
He assumed the stance and began to regulate his breathing. The warm current in his dantian stirred in response.
Once, twice, three times...
On the fifth repetition, the warm current in his dantian suddenly surged, driving itself to circulate faster.
Lin Yan's eyes lit up. His body seemed to have become a massive furnace, his qi and blood boiling throughout.
Heat. Exhilaration.
He had never experienced anything like this before.
He tamped down his surging emotions and kept practicing, slowly sinking into a state where he forgot both himself and the world around him.
The ever-expanding warm current eventually reached its limit. As he breathed, it began to contract inward and condense.
Until, at last—
"Boom!"
A faint ring sounded inside Lin Yan's body, one that only he could hear.
At his dantian, the intensely active core of heat suddenly shrank, then stabilized.
A solid, explosive force burst forth from the depths of his dantian, surging into every limb and bone.
Lin Yan raised his right arm and threw a punch, and the sound of it cutting through the air rang out.
The force quickly faded, but Lin Yan could clearly feel the changes in his body.
He walked over to the stone lock nearby. He had bought the hundred-pound weight half a month ago.
"Up!"
With a sharp shout, Lin Yan sucked in a breath and lifted the stone lock to chest level with one hand, silently counting the seconds.
Ten seconds, a hundred seconds, and he still had strength to spare.
It wasn't until a hundred and fifty seconds had passed that his arm began to ache and go numb, and he set the stone lock down.
"I've reached Master Zheng's hundred seconds with the hundred-pound stone lock. My qi and blood have reached Foundation Cultivation. That tender leaf should be fully formed now."
Thinking of the leaf, Lin Yan hurriedly looked inward, into his mind.
On the strange tree's green branch, the last curled tip of the leaf quietly unfurled.
It was round and full, lushly green, with veins clear as a painting, and it radiated a soft, vibrant glow of life.
Lin Yan focused his thoughts, and the green leaf quivered.
A heavy, murky heat surged down from the crown of his head, slamming into the depths of his waist and spine.
Lin Yan felt his lower back suddenly tighten. The Shenshu points on either side of his kidneys burned as if seared by fire, and his waist and abdomen felt as though they had been cast into a solid iron block, weighing heavily upon his pelvis.
Almost at the same time, his tailbone gave a soft crack.
A tingling force, like a living snake, slithered up his spine, vertebra by vertebra.
Crack, crack, crack...
His spine gave more than a dozen crisp little pops in quick succession. It didn't hurt. It felt more like a rusty chain being shaken loose, link by link, and straightened out.
His entire spine suddenly came alive. Each vertebra grew thicker and denser, fitting together perfectly.
His tendons drew taut, storing hidden springlike power.
Without thinking, Lin Yan slightly lowered his waist and tucked in his chest.
Twang!
The large tendon in his back snapped taut with a muffled sound like a fully drawn bowstring.
The muscles on either side of his back rolled naturally like waves. Their definition sharpened, brimming with primal power.
"The green leaf has fully formed, and it actually gave me a physique."
[Physique (Unique): Stone Waist Savage Spine: Stone Waist Sets the Root, Savage Spine Channels Strength] [Additional Effect: Tempers the body and provides extra growth in qi and blood]
The details of his physique, Stone Waist Savage Spine, naturally appeared in Lin Yan's mind.
Lin Yan looked down at the stone lock by his feet and wrapped his right hand around it. This time, lifting it was much easier than before.
"Is this the power of a physique? It lets me grow stronger—no, it boosts my explosive power for a short time."
After spending the time it took to drink a cup of tea testing it out, Lin Yan figured out what made his Stone Waist Savage Spine so powerful.
When he activated his physique, both his speed and strength increased considerably. But without anything to measure them with, he couldn't say by exactly how much.
Lin Yan looked inward into his mind. The green leaf seemed to have fulfilled its purpose. It slowly drifted down to the tree's roots, where the Martial Dao Tree soon absorbed it. The tree's trunk grew a little taller.
As the Martial Dao Tree grew, a piece of information flowed into his mind, and understanding dawned in Lin Yan's eyes.
The Martial Dao Tree's height was tied to his realm.
Every time he advanced to a new realm, the Martial Dao Tree would grow.
As Lin Yan pondered the mysteries of the Martial Dao Tree, Zhang Dahai knocked on the courtyard gate. "Brother Lin!"
Lin Yan carried the stone lock inside, then went to open the door.
"Brother Lin, good news! That martial artist has returned. You've been drinking medicinal soup for so long, so your body should be ready. It's time to go meet him."
"That's wonderful. Brother Zhang, wait a moment while I grab something from inside."
Lin Yan hurried inside and changed into loose clothes. The two of them left the Lin Family home and headed down the street. Then Lin Yan suddenly stopped. "Brother Zhang, would it be improper to visit empty-handed? Should I buy some pastries?"
Looking at the shop beside them, Zhang Dahai smiled. "Brother Lin, you're so thoughtful. That lord will surely be even more pleased."
But Lin Yan stayed where he was, looking awkward. Zhang Dahai's eye twitched. He had a familiar feeling about this.
"Brother Zhang, could you lend me some money to buy pastries?"
Zhang Dahai looked exactly as if he'd expected this. He couldn't help asking, "You didn't bring any money? Then why did you just go back inside?"
"I went back to change clothes, Brother Zhang. Don't worry..."
"All right, I've only got sixty copper coins. Take them."
Zhang Dahai didn't want to hear any more. Just one more time. If Lin Yan signed and pressed his thumbprint this time, both that house in the Lin Family's possession and the one he was living in now would belong to them.
"Thank you, Brother Zhang. I'll pay you back many times over."
Zhang Dahai forced a smile and waved his hand, not wanting to say another word.