The Impact of Strength

Chen Fan continued soaking in the bath.

It was not until the third batch, when he soaked through more than half of it, that his entire body began to burn. His body could no longer absorb the medicinal power in the bath barrel, and the idle-training efficiency could no longer increase.

"So there's a limit after all. I can't keep soaking forever."

Chen Fan reluctantly climbed out of the bath barrel.

This stuff greatly improved idle-training efficiency and could even help complete blood and qi nourishment faster. It was quite useful to Chen Fan.

Those two-plus hours of soaking had directly saved him two idle-training sessions.

"I wonder how long the cooldown is."

The only pity was that the monthly allotment of Blood-Nourishing Herbal Packs was far smaller than that of Stamina Pills.

He could receive one Stamina Pill every day, collected once per month.

But even with Chen Fan's privileges as a personal disciple, he could receive at most ten herbal packs per month!

Aside from the resources he received from the martial academy, he also carried a small porcelain bottle on him.

It contained the ten Deer Placenta Pills he had won from the martial competition.

Chen Fan had asked Li Linliu about them on the way. The Deer Placenta Pills really were made from deer placenta and contained a trace of innate qi. They could help condense true essence and speed up the tempering of true essence, though Chen Fan had no use for them yet.

Thanks to the Stamina Pill's effects, Chen Fan did not feel the least bit sleepy despite bathing for half the night. He practiced martial arts in his room for a while longer.

Only then did he go to sleep.

Over the following days, Chen Fan familiarized himself with the martial academy while also testing the intervals at which he could use the medicinal bath herbal packs.

Several days passed.

Chen Fan gradually figured out the ins and outs of the various resources.

That secret medicinal soup had effects similar to the soup at the branch academy. Although it could improve cultivation efficiency, he could not drink too much of it either. The free weekly ration was one bowl, and drinking more would be useless.

The Blood-Nourishing Herbal Packs, however, were completely different.

He could soak in them at most two and a half times in one go, after which they lost their effect. But as long as he waited a day, he could soak twice again!

Clearly, bathing did not allow toxins to build up as easily as medicinal soup did!

"By that calculation, I need roughly one and a half Blood-Nourishing Herbal Packs a day, but I can only receive ten a month. That's not quite enough..."

Chen Fan felt somewhat regretful. As the academy master's personal disciple, his benefits far exceeded those of ordinary core disciples, yet they were still not enough.

Li Linliu had promised to provide Chen Fan with cultivation resources free of charge, but that did not mean Chen Fan could use unlimited resources. Otherwise, if he hoarded and resold them for personal gain, not even the martial academy could afford the losses.

Clearly, Academy Master Dong Guzhi believed that ten Blood-Nourishing Herbal Packs per month were already enough for Chen Fan's cultivation needs!

After a few days, he had used up all ten of his herbal packs.

When he returned to the place where benefits were distributed and asked whether he could buy more with money,

the answer was yes.

But extra purchases cost money.

One Blood-Nourishing Herbal Pack cost five taels of silver—outrageously expensive!

And that was only because Chen Fan was the academy master's personal disciple, so they had not deliberately marked up the price!

Chen Fan still had nearly a hundred taels of silver, so he immediately bought fifteen packs, leaving the staff member responsible for distributing resources stunned.

The man advised him:

"Chen Fan, you're the academy master's personal disciple. You can receive ten packs every month... These herbal packs are good, but they only assist with blood and qi growth. They can't raise your strength out of nowhere. If your progress in strength-training martial arts can't keep up, these things will be completely useless!"

"To be honest, with your current cultivation, ten packs a month is already more than enough..."

For ordinary people, these medicinal bath herbal packs merely assisted blood and qi nourishment. Soaking once in a while was enough, and their effects were not even as good as the secret medicinal soup!

But no matter how the man tried to persuade him,

Chen Fan remained firm in his decision.

At the moment, neither eating nor cultivating cost him much of his own money. There was no point in keeping it, so he might as well invest in himself and raise his strength as quickly as possible!

If he had sufficient resources, Chen Fan could finish idly training White Cloud Pine-Crane Palm in less than half a month!

In addition, he had already completed quite a few of the scattered moves he had comprehended on his own over the past few days. In less than half a month, he would be able to finish practicing all those techniques as well...

When he returned carrying the herbal packs, Chen Fan saw several people already waiting outside his door.

Among them was the bruised and swollen Feng Yuancheng, along with several other disciples.

They were all fellow townsmen from Flying Spirit County!

The two at the front were the two Flying Spirit County disciples Chen Fan had met before.

Chen Fan had also attended gatherings of fellow townsmen from Flying Spirit County over the past few days and had learned their names.

One was named Lin Shiyu. He was already twenty-four years old and currently at the fourth level of martial arts. Among the core disciples from Flying Spirit County, he was considered one of the stronger ones.

He was also a member of the Lin Family, a prominent family in Flying Spirit County, and the cousin of Lin Mo, who had attended the same class as Chen Fan in Flying Spirit County.

As for Senior Brother Zhang, his name was Zhang Shanzhi. He was about the same age as Lin Shiyu, but his cultivation was only at the third level of martial arts.

Chen Fan froze. "What is this...?"

Lin Shiyu hurried forward. "Chen Fan, you're finally back!"

Chen Fan looked at them in surprise, especially Feng Yuancheng. "Senior Brother Feng, did you get into a fight?"

Feng Yuancheng looked terrible and could not bring himself to speak.

Lin Shiyu explained, "It's like this..."

Over the past few days, news had spread that Feng Yuancheng and Chen Fan had been accepted as disciples by the academy master. Some core disciples, driven by envy and jealousy, had taken the initiative to challenge Feng Yuancheng to a wagered arena match.

Feng Yuancheng had suffered a crushing defeat, losing all the resources he had just received for the month and taking a beating as well.

Chen Fan could not help frowning. "Senior Brother Feng, why were you so unwise? You were beaten this badly. Didn't Master already warn us not to fight disciples who are too strong?"

The White Cloud Martial Academy had such a custom, and it was allowed to continue in order to encourage competition among disciples!

But Chen Fan had not expected that only a few days after joining,

Feng Yuancheng would already get beaten so badly...

If he knew he was weaker, surely he was not foolish enough to accept a challenge at a time like this?

Feng Yuancheng's expression was extremely ugly, his face flushed red.

"They spoke too unpleasantly, and besides... I had already begun cultivating true art, while the person who challenged me was only at the first level of martial arts. His foundation was far inferior to mine, yet he was still stronger than me!"

At the first level of martial arts, one had only just begun converting true essence and had not even tempered the body. At this point, strength was heavily influenced by one's individual foundation, and they were not much stronger than internal-breath martial artists!

Feng Yuancheng had mastered two first-rate strength-training martial arts and possessed powerful blood and qi. An ordinary first-level martial artist definitely would not be his match!

Lin Shiyu's expression turned solemn. "That person had mastered a true essence martial skill, and his proficiency in it was not low!"

Chen Fan understood.

He had once fought Lin Qingyu, and she had displayed an exquisite set of moves. Even though her mastery had not been high, it still far surpassed strength-training martial arts. That too had been a true essence martial skill.

The resources and teaching conditions in Yan Capital City far surpassed those in Flying Spirit County!

True essence martial skills were not rare.

Feng Yuancheng had only just arrived in Yan Capital City and had only begun cultivating the White Cloud True Art. He had never practiced a true essence martial skill before!

The core disciples at White Cloud Headquarters were all geniuses as well. Even if not all of them had foundations superior to Feng Yuancheng's, they had trained for several more years, so it was hardly surprising that they were stronger.

At this stage, raw strength was no longer what determined victory or defeat in battle.

True arts and martial skills had become important factors as well.

Thanks to Storm Falcon for the reward. The author backend kept failing to receive the verification code, so I couldn't log in. I finally got in after restarting my phone. There will still be three updates today.