Divine Statue, Give Me More Points!

After eating, Zhou Chen practiced again, and he finally understood what Lian Taoze meant by "using food to nourish training."

After practicing the Stake-Standing Exercise for a while, he felt a blazing heat in his stomach. Even after standing for two hours, he did not feel dizzy or weak in the legs, as though endless strength were surging out from his belly.

Zhou Chen was overjoyed. The improvement in efficiency was immediate.

The afternoon quickly passed.

Inside the training ground, Zhou Chen wiped the sweat from his forehead. He felt as though he had been thoroughly beaten, every part of him aching unbearably. His clothes were soaked through, carrying a particularly unpleasant stench of sweat, yet a hard-to-describe sense of exhilaration seeped out from the cracks of his bones.

Not caring about appearances, he dropped his butt onto the ground, panting heavily. After catching his breath for a good while, he finally roused himself and looked at the panel before him, a smile curling across his lips.

[Realm: First-Rank Skin Tempering Realm (Initiation) 8/1000]

"Senior Brother was right about using food to nourish training! Especially that final bowl of meat soup—it was simply miraculous. Such a small bowl contained more nourishment and restorative effects than ten bowls of beef!"

For Martial Warriors, food supplements and medicinal supplements were not about quantity, but quality. A small piece of precious medicine or spiritual meat could be as nutritious as an entire cow. No matter how much a Martial Warrior could eat, he could not swallow a whole cow, could he? Not to mention the matter of digestion and excretion.

"Ah, what a pity. I can buy extra meat soup, but Senior Brother said it costs several taels of silver per bowl. I can't afford it."

It was outrageously expensive!

For the first time, Zhou Chen realized how important dietary supplementation was to martial training—and how poor he was.

But fortunately, he had a cheat!

"Others have to painstakingly train and accumulate bit by bit. How could they compare to me using a cheat? Faster and steadier! Divine Statue, give me more points!"

With a thought from Zhou Chen, the stick of Mist Incense he had accumulated for so long before the Divine Statue rapidly burned down to nothing.

An unfathomably majestic voice sounded:

[Fate has its measure, calamity has its number. Steal scraps of divine essence, exchange them for a faint echo of the soul. For every foot of incense burned, martial fortune advances by two hundred!]

Whoosh!

The numbers rolled, finally reaching their limit.

[Realm: First-Rank Skin Tempering Realm (Initiation) 208/1000]

Zhou Chen felt a vast torrent of heat rushing through his body, flooding into his limbs and bones. His muscles grew, and his skeleton developed anew. In merely a few breaths, his originally thin and frail body had become several degrees stronger.

That was not all. His bones continued to crack crisply, the sound of his sinews and bones being stretched apart. An indescribable thrill burst forth.

Zhou Chen pushed himself up from the ground. Even as he felt his clothes tightening, he suddenly realized that he had grown taller as well.

"Ha ha ha! Amazing! This feels incredible!"

Zhou Chen assumed a stance and began practicing the Coiling Python Stance Technique. If practicing the Stake-Standing Exercise before had meant pain throughout his body—torture and suffering—then practicing now was pure enjoyment. Repeating the same movements felt as though he had performed them countless times before, incomparably smooth and satisfying! His strength had increased greatly as well.

"What a pity. The Mist Incense is all used up at once. I'll have to accumulate more properly from now on."

Zhou Chen was not overly worried. His physique had already undergone considerable changes. While his body had grown stronger, his appetite and digestion had also become who knew how many times faster than before. If he went back and ate more meat, he believed he would quickly save it up again.

"If I'm eating, I definitely need to eat Black Meat with heavy contamination and plenty of Miasma Poison. That kind of meat is cheap, and it can help me accumulate Mist Incense quickly."

Outside the city, meat was divided into three grades. Lightly contaminated meat was called white meat, ordinary meat was called Gray Meat, and severely contaminated meat was called Black Meat. Especially Black Meat—no matter how much blood vitality and essence it contained, its accumulated Miasma Poison was too great, so almost no one ate it.

Zhou Chen made up his mind. He would go back and buy Black Meat to eat!

As class was ending, Lian Taoze even wanted to drag him off to the pleasure house to listen to songs, saying he would show him some grand sights. Though they had only known each other for a single day, Lian Taoze already acted as though he were baring his heart. This senior brother was truly an easygoing man who made friends wherever he went.

Zhou Chen naturally declined politely. He was in a hurry to return to the market and buy meat.

After he left, a richly dressed youth emerged from inside the courtyard gate.

He was graceful and refined, holding a folding fan, with a faint curve at his lips that seemed like a smile but was not one.

"Why must Senior Brother put so much effort into someone with inferior bones?" The richly dressed youth looked in the direction Zhou Chen had gone, his tone dismissive. "Someone like him has neither background nor strength. It is fated that he will never break through. Once three months are up, he'll simply go back wherever he came from."

This man was Shen Ao, the eldest young master of the second-rate Shen Clan.

These wealthy youths would usually recruit some impoverished disciples with talent.

Those they approached and cultivated from weakness often became exceptionally loyal to them after growing up. It was like putting a collar around a dog when it was young—when danger came later, the dog would charge out without regard for its life to protect its master.

Shen Ao's father had raised several fiercely loyal household guards in just that way.

Shen Ao naturally intended to follow his father's example and raise some loyal slaves for himself in advance.

But unlike Lian Taoze, who greeted everyone with a cheerful attitude, Shen Ao believed even dogs had to be chosen by appearance. Someone like Zhou Chen was not even worthy in his eyes of guarding the gate.

Lian Taoze spread his hands without a care. "You know as well as I do that the Black Mist has been expanding badly lately, and Mist Monsters have been hurting people again and again. Who knows when that Black Mist might flood our Outer City? Wouldn't it be better to make more friends, treat them sincerely, and live happily? Why think so much about it?"

"Heh. Senior Brother is truly too free-spirited. I am ashamed of my inferiority."

After tossing out that mocking remark, Shen Ao left directly. Their families both ran trading firms, and their businesses had long been in conflict. Even within the academy, they were hardly on good terms.

Once outside, he soon began walking alongside a youth dressed in coarse hemp clothing.

This youth was exceptionally tall and brawny. His name was Zhang Shaojiu, and his family was desperately poor. He was a recently admitted genius with superior bones, and also someone Shen Ao had recruited as an investment.

Before Zhang Shaojiu, Shen Ao wore the manner of a gentle and refined senior brother, answering every question Zhang Shaojiu asked. In Shen Ao's view, someone like this was certain to become a personal disciple. Leaving a good impression now would make him a great source of aid in the future.

Though Zhang Shaojiu had been born broad and sturdy, before Shen Ao he looked frightened and apprehensive. Walking beside Shen Ao, he kept himself slightly bent at the waist, his eyes fixed on Shen Ao's clean shoes the entire time. He did not even dare raise his head to look at Shen Ao.

Seeing this, Lian Taoze smiled carelessly. Whether Zhou Chen would succeed or not was not something he needed to worry about.

Although he also felt that Zhou Chen would most likely fail, he still found this somewhat silent yet tough little junior brother very pleasing to the eye.