Yan Zhen's Worry

Lin Changsheng circulated the Sun-Moon Breathing Method, absorbing the medicinal power of the Qi-Blood Paste.

He discovered that fully absorbing one bottle of Qi-Blood Paste took half an hour and could increase his cultivation experience by 50 points.

After absorbing five portions of Qi-Blood Paste,

Lin Changsheng found that his cultivation experience had increased by roughly 250 points.

At the same time, he felt a fierce and vast surge of internal energy arise from nowhere within his meridians, making him much stronger in an instant!

Lin Changsheng took out another two Blood-and-Qi Pills and swallowed them. The medicinal power of a Blood-and-Qi Pill was far stronger than that of Qi-Blood Paste. One Blood-and-Qi Pill added 300 points—six times the experience provided by Qi-Blood Paste—but cost ten times as much.

However, Blood-and-Qi Pills were easier and faster to absorb than Qi-Blood Paste.

[Great Dao Made Simple: Level 1]

[Lin Changsheng: 16/55]

[Cultivation: Second-Rate Realm (1301/2500)]

[Technique: Sun-Moon Breathing Method (Proficient 2278/5000)]

[Martial Arts: Arrow Technique (Grand Perfection), Iron Sand Palm (Grand Perfection), Flying Eaves Lightness Skill (Grand Perfection), Azure Snake Sword Technique (Great Accomplishment Stage 6223/12500)]

[Spend a certain amount of silver to simplify techniques, martial skills, and more.]

[Status: Yin Energy Invasion (Weakened)]

"Blood-and-Qi Pills really are effective. One pill can add 300 experience points. In other words, if I buy another four Blood-and-Qi Pills, I should be able to break through to the First-Class Realm?"

Lin Changsheng looked at his panel, his eyes lighting up.

"Ah!!"

"Crack!"

Lin Changsheng had been cultivating in his room until, without realizing it, noon had arrived. Suddenly, a cry of alarm came from the kitchen.

"What happened?"

Lin Changsheng stopped cultivating, opened the door, and headed toward the kitchen. He saw that Yu Wenjing's pretty face was smeared with black soot. She held a pair of fire tongs, her lovely face full of chagrin. "I... I was making a fire to cook, and I accidentally... poked a hole through the pot."

"Ah, the pot broke?"

Lin Changsheng was somewhat dumbfounded. He stepped forward and saw a fist-sized hole in the pot on the stove. The water inside had flowed into the firebox, and where water and fire clashed, steam filled the kitchen. He immediately said, "It's fine. I'll buy another pot this afternoon. This one has been used for a long time anyway."

Lin Changsheng guessed that the cold water in the pot had met too fierce a fire, causing thermal expansion and contraction, and then the fire tongs had struck the bottom too hard, breaking it at once.

"Changsheng... I... I'm so clumsy. I can't help you with anything..."

Yu Wenjing lowered her delicate head, her expression full of self-reproach.

"Don't blame yourself. Who goes from knowing nothing to mastering something overnight? Take it slowly."

Lin Changsheng comforted her.

"Thank you, Changsheng."

Hearing Lin Changsheng's comforting words, Yu Wenjing felt warmth rise from the depths of her heart.

Before, whenever she made even the slightest mistake, what she received was never concern or comfort, but harsh reproach and exacting demands.

"What are you thanking me for? Rest for a while. I'll cook."

Lin Changsheng rolled up his sleeves and got to work.

There were two pots on the stove. One was broken, but the other remained.

Yu Wenjing did not sit idle either. She went behind the stove to tend the fire.

Before long, waves of fragrance drifted from the kitchen.

"I may need to go out this afternoon."

Lin Changsheng said to Yu Wenjing as they ate.

"Mm."

Yu Wenjing nodded and did not ask what Lin Changsheng was going out to do, just as Lin Changsheng had never pressed her about her origins.

That afternoon.

"Why does that figure... look so much like Changsheng?"

After Yan Zhen finished dealing with matters at her noodle shop, she headed to West City to buy some daily necessities.

As she passed the high wall at the border between West City and East City, she spotted the wanted notice and was immediately startled.

"No, how could Changsheng possibly have killed Ma Zhankui?"

Yan Zhen thought of Lin Changsheng's slender frame. Though he had become somewhat sturdier lately, there was no way he could have killed so many people from the Green Snake Gang.

"I haven't seen Changsheng for some time. I'll buy a few things and go see him."

Yan Zhen thought to herself.

Hundred Herbs Hall.

"Young master, hello. What would you like to buy?"

When Lin Changsheng entered Hundred Herbs Hall, the pharmacist who had received him yesterday came forward.

"I'd like to buy another five Blood-and-Qi Pills."

Lin Changsheng took out fifty taels of silver and said.

"Certainly."

The pharmacist's face lit up with delight. He took out five Blood-and-Qi Pills and handed them to Lin Changsheng, then asked, "Young master, is there anything else you need?"

"I'd like to ask whether you recruit alchemy apprentices here?"

Lin Changsheng looked at the pharmacist and asked.

"Young master, you want to learn alchemy?"

The pharmacist glanced at Lin Changsheng, somewhat surprised.

In his view, anyone who could afford Blood-and-Qi Pills should not be short of money. Why would he come do this? Alchemy was not something one learned in a day!

"That's right. I'm very interested in alchemy and would like to give it a try."

Lin Changsheng nodded.

"Hundred Herbs Hall does recruit medicine boys, but you must pay ten taels of silver. If you show no talent after three months, you cannot remain at Hundred Herbs Hall."

The pharmacist said.

"Paying ten taels of silver to become a medicine boy—isn't that exactly the same racket as Iron Hand Martial School?"

Lin Changsheng froze upon hearing the pharmacist's words, but he still nodded and said, "All right. I'll come tomorrow."

Great Yu Grand Canal.

A thousand li away.

Inside an estate.

A handsome, tall young man dressed in white stood with his hands clasped behind his back, gazing at the distant Grand Canal.

"Reporting to you, Young Master: since that ship met with disaster, many forces have mobilized, yet none have found the Eldest Princess's whereabouts. Unless something unexpected happened, the chance of her survival is slim."

At that moment, a man in black stepped forward, dropped to one knee, and reported.

"Mm, I understand."

"Continue searching. We must see her in life or see her corpse in death."

A trace of satisfaction appeared in the white-robed young man's eyes.

"Yes, Young Master."

The man in black turned and left.

[Cultivation: Second-Rate Realm (2499/2500)]

Lin Changsheng sat on the couch, looking at the panel before him with a thoughtful expression in his eyes.

He had absorbed five Blood-and-Qi Pills.

But once he reached 2499, his experience no longer increased.

"Have I reached the threshold?"

"I wonder whether the Sun-Moon Breathing Method can advance me into a First-Rate Master once it reaches the Perfect Stage?"

Expectation appeared in Lin Changsheng's eyes.

At present, he had two choices before him.

Either he could raise the Sun-Moon Breathing Method to the Grand Perfection stage, or he could find another technique, cultivate it to the Grand Perfection stage, and fuse it with the Sun-Moon Breathing Method to create a new technique.

That way, he should be able to continue gaining experience points.

"With my current strength, paired with my perfected Arrow Technique, even a First-Rate Master would be worth a clash!"

Lin Changsheng muttered to himself. At that moment, he felt internal energy surge within his dantian like a mighty rolling river. His strength had increased by far more than several times compared with before!

At present,

he needed to bathe in the light of the sun and moon. At the same time, he needed to enter Hundred Herbs Hall and obtain an alchemy method. Once he acquired an alchemy method and simplified it with the Great Dao of Simplicity Panel, his alchemy skills would surely soar straight into the blue sky.

"I'll first cultivate the Sun-Moon Breathing Method to the Grand Perfection stage."

With that thought, Lin Changsheng walked outside into the courtyard to cultivate—or rather, to bask in the sun.

Just then, he saw a slender figure approaching from more than ten zhang beyond the courtyard.

"Sister Zhen, why are you here?"

Lin Changsheng looked at Yan Zhen as she approached, somewhat surprised.

"What, your sister can't come? Am I not welcome?"

Yan Zhen smiled radiantly and teased him.

"How could you not be welcome? Sister Zhen is welcome anytime."

Lin Changsheng ushered Sister Zhen into the house.

"Changsheng, have you heard? Ma Zhankui, the Green Snake Gang leader who came to cause trouble at my noodle shop, along with more than thirty gang members, was shot dead by arrows fired by a mysterious masked man. The county yamen is now offering one hundred taels of silver for clues about the killer."

"I heard that on the night it happened, one Green Snake Gang member who slipped through the net saw the masked man's back. That silhouette was drawn and posted all over the streets and alleys of Pasture City."

Yan Zhen looked at Lin Changsheng as she spoke.

"I know."

Lin Changsheng said calmly.

"That hero could be considered my great benefactor. I truly hope they don't catch him..."

A flicker of worry passed through Yan Zhen's beautiful eyes.