A Golden Elixir Swallowed into My Belly, My Fate Is Mine, Not Heaven's!

The more Jiang Ning understood the extraordinary nature of beginner martial artists, the less confidence he had.

Once skin tempering reached great accomplishment, it was like donning bronze armor. Against martial artists below the ranks, the difference in defense alone was like that between an adult and a child.

Not to mention the gap in strength and vital blood; there was a qualitative difference between the two.

Thus, going from perfected vital blood to entering the ranks of Martial Dao was no simple path.

It required time to grind away at it, secret techniques, and resources.

Yet now, he neither knew any skin-tempering secret technique nor what external resources were needed.

Information regarding Martial Dao inheritances was not something he could access at present.

For any faction, such secret techniques concerning the very foundation of the human body would not be casually passed around, even if it was merely a ninth-rank Martial Dao skin-tempering method.

Thus, he did not have much confidence at the moment.

Of course, if one had money, obtaining such information and secret techniques would naturally not be difficult.

Nor was it some unpassed secret.

But Jiang Ning also knew that he could obtain a skin-tempering secret technique without doing that.

As long as he, like Xiao Peng, met Wang Jin's assessment requirements—reaching great accomplishment in any one form of the Five Animals Fist within six months of joining the martial hall—he could become Wang Jin's personal disciple.

Personal disciples were the martial hall's true disciples, and the only ones truly qualified to call Wang Jin Master.

At that time, he would naturally be able to access Wang Jin's inheritance and obtain a skin-tempering secret technique.

As he was now, he could at most be considered an outer disciple, or perhaps a registered disciple.

If he failed to meet the standard within six months and could not pass Wang Jin's test, he could only roll up his bedding and leave.

At this moment.

Seeing Jiang Ning accept the banknotes he had offered, Cheng Ran smiled and patted Jiang Ning on the shoulder.

"That's more like it, Junior Brother Jiang!!"

Then.

"Cough, cough—" His hearty laughter tugged at his internal organs, making him cough repeatedly again. Strands of blood slipped from his mouth.

"Senior Brother Cheng, are you all right?" Seeing this, Jiang Ning hurriedly supported his swaying body.

After several breaths, Cheng Ran suppressed the urge to cough and waved his hand. "Junior Brother Jiang, help me go rest for a while. I need to catch my breath!"

Elsewhere.

Xiao Peng watched Jiang Ning help Cheng Ran away and could not help shaking his head slightly.

What a pity!

That brat had saved him halfway through. Otherwise, after Cheng Ran took my charge, if he had struck the wall, injured his muscles and bones, and displaced his internal organs, he would not merely have been delayed for a day or two.

That way, Cheng Ran, the one who posed the greatest threat to me, would have become far less threatening.

What a pity, truly a pity!!

Xiao Peng slowly withdrew his gaze.

At this moment, amid the flattery of those around him, the corners of his mouth rose slightly as he failed to suppress the delight in his heart.

Jiang Ning's courtyard.

Cheng Ran slowly sat down on a small wooden stool.

"Pah—" He spat out the blood foam in his mouth. "That dog Xiao Peng really struck viciously."

Jiang Ning also sat beside him. "How are you feeling now, Senior Brother Cheng?"

"Much better!" Cheng Ran nodded. "Fortunately, my skin tempering has achieved some initial results. Right now, my internal organs are only somewhat shaken, and the injury is not too serious. Two or three days of recuperation should be enough. If I had some decent healing medicine, it would be even quicker!"

After saying that, Cheng Ran looked at Jiang Ning again. "Junior Brother Jiang, your strength has already exceeded two hundred jin, hasn't it?"

"Senior Brother's probing was truly impossible to guard against!" Jiang Ning smiled.

"Junior Brother Jiang, please don't take offense! I was simply so shocked and unable to believe it that I tested you a little." Cheng Ran revealed an apologetic expression.

"It's nothing! But I ask Senior Brother Cheng not to spread it around." Jiang Ning said.

Cheng Ran nodded. "Naturally! With that brat Xiao Peng's penchant for underhanded tricks, if he learns that Junior Brother Jiang reached this point in such a short time, he may well resort to some petty schemes in secret."

"Speaking of that brat Xiao Peng, I can't accept this!" Anger appeared on Cheng Ran's face.

"Senior Brother simply lacks actual combat experience! In terms of true strength, Senior Brother is superior to Xiao Peng."

Cheng Ran nodded in strong agreement. "I truly do lack actual combat experience! I must improve in that area from now on. Unless I reclaim today's disgrace, the anger in my heart will not settle!"

Then he looked at Jiang Ning again. "If Junior Brother Jiang has time in the future, how about we spar regularly and build up our combat experience?"

Jiang Ning considered it briefly, then nodded. "That works. I have never fought anyone before, so I happen to lack practical combat experience as well!"

"Exactly!" Cheng Ran nodded repeatedly. "Master Wang once said that Martial Dao is the art of killing enemies; one cannot reach the pinnacle through practice alone. The two of us cannot kill enemies, but sparring can still increase our combat experience. If we ever have the chance to join the Inspection Office, combat experience will become even more important."

Hearing this, Jiang Ning nodded in agreement. "Then once Senior Brother Cheng recovers from his injuries, we can spar!"

"It's a deal!" Cheng Ran extended his right palm.

Understanding his meaning, Jiang Ning extended his own right palm and slapped it against Cheng Ran's.

Afterward, Cheng Ran rested for several hours until his breathing had calmed.

Only then did Jiang Ning escort him out through the martial hall's gates.

"Junior Brother Jiang, don't worry! The matter you entrusted to me just now—I will certainly do my utmost to investigate it clearly within the next couple of days!" Cheng Ran said.

"Then I leave everything to Senior Brother Cheng!" Jiang Ning cupped his hands in farewell as well.

Then his gaze swept over the several stalls outside the martial hall's entrance, but he discovered nothing.

The next day.

Early morning.

Sitting cross-legged in the small courtyard, feeling the breeze blow toward him, Jiang Ning quietly waited for the rising sun in the distance.

[Skill]: Inner Elixir Life-Nourishing Technique (Not Initiated 91/100)

His Inner Elixir Life-Nourishing Technique was now only nine experience points away from initiation.

Jiang Ning was filled with anticipation for the Inner Elixir Life-Nourishing Technique's initiation.

The fact that it required a full hundred experience points merely to begin already showed that the Inner Elixir Life-Nourishing Technique was far from ordinary.

As far as he knew, Martial Dao techniques were divided into inferior, middle, and superior grades.

Above superior-grade techniques, there were techniques of even higher grades.

Based on the changes in experience points, Jiang Ning had two guesses. One was that the Inner Elixir Life-Nourishing Technique was a middle-grade technique that surpassed inferior-grade techniques.

His Five Animals Fist was an inferior-grade technique and required only ten experience points for initiation.

Thus, since middle-grade techniques stood a full grade above inferior-grade ones, it was perfectly normal for the experience points needed for initiation to soar drastically.

As for the second possibility, the Inner Elixir Life-Nourishing Technique was a mysterious technique ranked above even superior-grade techniques.

Only a qualitative gap could cause the experience points required for technique breakthroughs to undergo such a qualitative change.

This guess was not based solely on the fact that the Inner Elixir Life-Nourishing Technique required a hundred experience points to begin—ten times what the Five Animals Fist required.

The greater reason lay in the method and conception of the Inner Elixir Life-Nourishing Technique.

The Inner Elixir Life-Nourishing Technique was a method of strengthening the interior.

Strengthening the five viscera and six bowels internally was the path of internal refinement that only fifth-rank Martial Dao practitioners would embark upon.

Such an internal refinement method had to be exceedingly scarce, and its technique grade was most likely not low.

Moreover, the conception behind the Inner Elixir Life-Nourishing Technique left Jiang Ning utterly amazed. It did not resemble Martial Dao, but rather the Immortal Dao from the myths he had known in his previous life.

It absorbed and exhaled the essence of the great sun to strengthen the five viscera and six bowels. When the technique reached perfection, one would even draw the great sun's noonday fire into the body, turning the body into a furnace and internally refining a golden elixir.

A golden elixir swallowed into my belly, my fate is mine, not Heaven's.

With such a conception, it deserved to stand above superior Martial Dao techniques.

Of course, that was merely his speculation.

Besides these factors that filled Jiang Ning with anticipation, there was another important reason he was so expectant.

That was the fragmentary page he had obtained. It recorded only the initiation method for the Inner Elixir Life-Nourishing Technique and contained no subsequent method.

As for the method of perfection, it merely mentioned a thing or two.

In other words, under normal circumstances, relying on that fragmentary page, he could at most initiate the Inner Elixir Life-Nourishing Technique. It would be impossible for him to reach the perfected realm recorded in the technique.

It would be impossible to attain the perfected realm of a golden elixir swallowed into his belly, with his fate his own and not Heaven's.

What Jiang Ning anticipated was that, through the panel's wondrous power, even with only a fragmentary page, he could still painstakingly accumulate experience bit by bit and raise this Inner Elixir Life-Nourishing Technique to the perfected realm.

To achieve a golden elixir swallowed into his belly, with his fate his own and not Heaven's.

(End of Chapter)