Bright Force Overnight

Night had deepened.

After Lu Fan shut his door tight, he lit a lamp and pulled the yellowed copy of the [Evergreen Formula] from beneath his mattress.

He had obtained this beginner's cultivation method from the martial arts school decades ago, when he had wanted to become a martial artist.

It contained only the essentials of Qi Ingress and the first three layers of the Evergreen Formula.

After all, if one could not even achieve Qi Ingress, there was no point in obtaining the later portions of the technique.

Lu Fan sat cross-legged, placed the bowl of meat before him, and opened the first page of the Evergreen Formula.

The words on the yellowed page were ones he had read over and over countless times fifty years ago, yet reading them now felt entirely different.

He closed his eyes and circulated his blood and qi according to the incantation.

A faint thread of airflow emerged from his dantian like an earthworm, slowly crawling along his meridians.

Lu Fan's whole body trembled—fifty years ago, he had sat before this page of instructions for three full years without catching even the slightest sense of qi.

Yet now, after just one breath, that current of qi had appeared on its own.

It was as though this withered old body had been waiting for him for fifty years.

Wherever the current passed, his meridians were like riverbeds parched for half a lifetime, slowly being soaked anew inch by inch.

Lu Fan gritted his teeth and continued circulating it.

An indescribable warmth spread from his dantian to the tips of his limbs, then from his limbs back through his entire body, cycling endlessly.

An hour later, the first layer of the Evergreen Formula, Qi Ingress, was complete.

Lu Fan did not stop.

He could feel his body, like a sponge compressed for decades, greedily absorbing water.

The current grew from an earthworm into a stream, then from a stream into a small river. It flowed through his meridians faster and faster, blasting open the blocked passages within him.

Crack. Crack.

The sound of bones shifting rang from deep within his body, crisp snaps as they were forced open anew by blood and qi.

His spine, bent for more than a decade, was loosening vertebra by vertebra.

By the time the sky had just begun to pale at dawn, the second layer of the Evergreen Formula, Qi Circulation, was complete.

Lu Fan opened his eyes. His aged eyes, cloudy for more than a decade, were now incomparably clear.

He lowered his gaze to his hands. The wrinkles on those withered hands had diminished greatly, while the veins stood out with startling clarity.

He could even feel the surging blood coursing through his body, and his senses were far sharper than before.

However, before he could carefully experience the changes in his body, an intense hunger welled up from deep within his stomach.

His entire body felt hollowed out. His stomach cramped, and his meridians ached.

The other side of a hundredfold effect was a hundredfold expenditure.

His blood and qi had been utterly depleted during that cultivation.

Without another word, he grabbed the bowl of meat that had long since gone cold from the table and wolfed it down.

The instant the meat entered his stomach, the hunger receded. The warmth that had soaked through his meridians during cultivation suddenly swelled, like a ladle of boiling oil poured over dry firewood.

For an ordinary martial artist, this bowl of meat would merely replenish a little blood and qi and save several days of arduous cultivation.

But for Lu Fan, any item that replenished blood and qi would receive a hundredfold boost after he consumed it. The benefits that brought were utterly terrifying.

The blood and qi essence contained within the meat exploded all at once, forming a torrent within his body under the hundredfold amplification.

Every trace of flesh-and-blood essence was squeezed dry, turning into the purest blood and qi as it surged toward every part of his body.

An intense burning sensation rose from every corner of his body. Lu Fan did not hesitate and immediately began circulating the Evergreen Formula.

As the Evergreen Formula circulated, that blood and qi continuously merged into his body. A layer of pale gray sweat beaded on his skin—impurities that had accumulated within him for years were being forcibly squeezed out by that flood of blood and qi.

The blood and qi consumed during his earlier cultivation was replenished by this external force, becoming even more abundant than before.

The blood and qi transformed from the meat was like a pot of boiling oil, while the Evergreen Formula was the firewood that ignited it, setting it ablaze within his body.

The current was no longer confined to his meridians. It seeped out of them and penetrated his internal organs.

When the first rooster crow sounded outside the window, Lu Fan opened his eyes.

Three layers of the Evergreen Formula!

In just one night, he had mastered the first three layers of the Evergreen Formula.

Surging power flowed through his body. Unable to resist, he raised his hand and slapped the solid wooden table before him, one he had used for over thirty years.

The table shattered on impact, splitting into seven or eight pieces that scattered across the floor.

His force ran through him—he had entered Bright Force!

Lu Fan withdrew his palm, and a faint smile appeared on his aged face.

One night. In just one night, he had gone from an ordinary man to a beginner in Bright Force.

Qin Yaxin, who had delivered his invitation yesterday, had needed a full year of cultivation with the aid of large amounts of meat just to enter Bright Force, and that was already considered decent talent.

Yet he had accomplished it in a single night.

If word of this got out, every martial artist in Chi City would likely go mad.

Of course, Lu Fan had no intention of telling anyone about it.

After all, an old man with one foot in the grave suddenly becoming capable of martial cultivation would inevitably arouse suspicion.

Then not only might he fall into danger himself, but he might even drag Zhang Yao, who had protected him, into danger as well.

Still, cultivation could not stop. In these increasingly chaotic times, only strength could bring a sense of security.

And to cultivate, he needed the later portions of the Evergreen Formula.

Which meant he had to come up with a reasonable excuse that would not arouse anyone's suspicions.

And besides...

Grrr.

A piercing growl of his stomach rang through the little room.

He was hungry again.

Cultivation consumed far too much blood and qi. The blood and qi from that earlier bowl of meat had already been completely used up.

"Luckily, I never spent the nest egg I saved over all these years."

Lu Fan touched the filthy bag at the foot of his bed, a bright smile appearing at the corner of his mouth.

With this silver to buy more meat, his martial cultivation should be able to rise quite a bit further.

But before that, he still had to obtain the latter half of the Evergreen Formula.

The problem was that he was an old man who had spent thirty years in the back kitchen. If he suddenly asked Zhang Yao for a martial artist's cultivation method—

Even if Zhang Yao gave it to him out of old friendship, what would he think? It would inevitably arouse suspicion.

Whether he wanted to avoid Zhang Yao's suspicions or avoid trouble, he needed a reasonable excuse.