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 add 50 cultivation experience points.

After absorbing five portions of Qi-Blood Paste,

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

At the same time, he felt a powerful, boundless force of inner energy emerge from nowhere within his meridians. In an instant, he had grown much stronger!

Lin Changsheng took out another two Blood-and-Qi Pills and swallowed them. The medicinal power of the Blood-and-Qi Pills was far greater than that of the Qi-Blood Paste. One Blood-and-Qi Pill added 300 points, six times the experience provided by the Qi-Blood Paste, though it 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: Archery (Great Perfection), Iron Sand Palm (Great Perfection), Flying Eaves Lightness Skill (Great Perfection), Azure Snake Sword Technique (Major Accomplishment 6223/12500)]

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

[Status: Yin Energy Invading the Body (Weakened)]

"Blood-and-Qi Pills really are effective. One pill can add 300 experience points. In other words, if I buy four more Blood-and-Qi Pills, I should be able to break through to the First-Rate Master 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 arrived. Suddenly, a cry of alarm came from the kitchen.

"What happened?"

Lin Changsheng ended his cultivation, opened the door, and headed toward the kitchen. There, he saw Yu Wenjing's pretty face covered in black soot. She held a pair of fire tongs, her lovely face full of frustration. "I... I was lighting the fire to cook, and I accidentally... poked a hole through the pot."

"What? The pot broke?"

Lin Changsheng was a little dumbfounded. Stepping forward to look, he found a fist-sized hole in the pot on the stove. Water from the pot had flowed into the firebox, and water and flame clashed, filling the kitchen with steaming vapor. 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 flames that were too fierce. With the expansion and contraction from heat and cold, the fire tongs had struck the bottom of the pot too hard, and it had broken at once.

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

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

"Don't blame yourself. Who goes from knowing nothing to mastery in one step? Take it slowly."

Lin Changsheng comforted her.

"Thank you, Changsheng."

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

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

"What are you being polite 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 had 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 spoke to Yu Wenjing while eating.

"Mm."

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

That afternoon.

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

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

Just as she passed the high wall at the border between West City and East City, she saw the wanted notice and was immediately shocked.

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

Yan Zhen thought of how thin and weak Lin Changsheng had been. Although he had become somewhat sturdier recently, there was no way he could have killed so many members of the Green Snake Gang.

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

Yan Zhen thought to herself.

Hundred Herbs Hall.

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

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 brightened. 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, are you recruiting apprentice alchemists 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 could master overnight!

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

Lin Changsheng nodded.

"Our Hundred Herbs Hall does recruit medicine boys, but you must pay ten taels of silver. If you show no talent after three months, you can no longer remain at Hundred Herbs Hall."

The pharmacist explained.

"I have to pay ten taels of silver to become a medicine boy? Isn't this exactly the same racket as Iron Hand Martial School?"

Hearing the pharmacist's words, Lin Changsheng was stunned for a moment. Still, he nodded and said, "All right. I'll come tomorrow."

The Grand Canal of Great Yu.

A thousand miles away.

Inside an estate.

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

"Reporting to Young Master, since that ship met with disaster, many forces have been dispatched, yet none have found the Eldest Princess. Unless something unforeseen happened, the possibility that she survived is slim."

At that moment, a man in black stepped forward, knelt on one knee, and reported.

"Mm, I understand."

"Continue searching. Dead or alive, I want to see her."

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 stopped increasing.

"Have I reached the threshold here?"

"I wonder whether the Sun-Moon Breathing Method can advance me to the First-Rate Master realm once it reaches perfection?"

Expectation filled Lin Changsheng's eyes.

At present, he had two choices before him.

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

That way, his experience points should be able to increase again.

"With my current strength, combined with perfected archery, even a First-Rate Master is someone I can cross blades with!"

Lin Changsheng muttered to himself. At this moment, he could feel the inner energy within his dantian surging like a mighty river. Compared to before, his strength had increased by far more than severalfold!

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 the art of alchemy. Once he acquired it and simplified it through the Great Dao Made Simple panel, his alchemy skills would surely soar straight into the blue clouds.

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

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

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

"Sister Zhen, why are you here?"

Lin Changsheng looked at the approaching Yan Zhen, somewhat surprised.

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

Yan Zhen smiled sweetly and teased him.

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

Lin Changsheng welcomed 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 a mysterious masked man using a bow. The county office is now offering a reward of one hundred taels for clues about the culprit."

"I heard that on that very night, a Green Snake Gang member who escaped the net saw the masked man's back. That silhouette was drawn and posted throughout the streets and alleys of Pasture City."

Yan Zhen looked at Lin Changsheng as she spoke.

"I know."

Lin Changsheng replied calmly.

"That hero is also my great benefactor. I truly hope they don't catch him..."

A trace of worry flashed through Yan Zhen's beautiful eyes.