After enduring the pain for a while, Mo Fei slowly stood up and stretched.
As he moved, his joints stretched, even making a few cracking sounds. Yet it was also because of those sounds that he felt much lighter.
It was as though he had returned to his energetic self from ten years ago.
What was more, simply flexing revealed clear signs of training on the insides of his arms.
He also felt his stomach. The fat that had once piled up in several rolls had noticeably diminished, and he could even see the beginnings of abs.
This improvement was far more pronounced than the previous ones, which delighted Mo Fei even more.
The previous improvements had only increased his ability to earn money. Improvements to his cooking skills were ultimately less tangible than enhancements to his body.
It should not be forgotten that, as mentioned before, Mo Fei was no longer the young man he had been in the twenty-first century. He was a middle-aged man who had been through a great deal, and by many standards, his age could even put him on the verge of old age.
But now, he felt that the skill's physical enhancements had brought his condition up to that of some young people who did not exercise much.
His trained body also left him capable of handling many unexpected situations.
This change was the source of his excitement.
During the improvement, the pain had also prompted him to think about what caused it.
The earlier improvement to cooking had mostly involved finger dexterity, an enhanced sense of smell, and familiarity with the skill itself.
Farming had been similar. As a skill etched into the bones of the people of China, its improvement had mostly brought knowledge. Knowing what to do and when to do it was already the greatest help that beginner-level farming could provide.
Of course, those two skills had also greatly improved Mo Fei's stamina.
Otherwise, even the bread he normally made would have exhausted all his energy.
After all, at that bakery in the East End, it took several kitchen maids working together to finish making their bread.
Although Mo Fei did not make as much, he worked alone much of the time. This was something he had initially overlooked.
This time, he had improved brawling, which had then transformed into combat.
The improvement it brought was easy to understand.
Combat itself depended on physical fitness. Without sufficient physical fitness, any technique was just for show and had little meaning.
Thus, it was easy to understand why improving combat had improved his physical fitness.
And from what Mo Fei could sense, improving brawling alone seemed to require only 0.5 Belief Points. Since he had used 1 Belief Point for the improvement, the excess 0.5 had gone toward elevating the skill.
This transformation had also revealed another use for Belief Points to Mo Fei: elevating and transforming existing skills.
Often, certain skills might not be particularly useful. In such cases, if he could elevate an existing skill into something more effective and more advanced, it would meet his needs.
For example, a skill like brawling often involved dirty tricks, some of which could even injure the user. Hurting the enemy at nearly as much cost to oneself was the norm in brawling.
Combat was different. Proper combat emphasized using the most effective techniques to inflict the greatest damage.
That was the fundamental distinction between the two.
Thus, Mo Fei had found a way to put this to use.
However, this skill improvement had also brought a new problem.
Mo Fei had originally intended to keep improving combat to maximize his fighting ability.
But now, that idea seemed somewhat lacking. Although improving the skill would improve his physical fitness, what if the pain caused by rapidly improving his physical fitness in a short time was more than he could bear?
If his brain instantly made him pass out to protect him, would the evolution continue?
If the evolution did not continue, what would happen then?
All these unknowns left Mo Fei hesitant to make the choice outright.
He might as well leave further improvements to combat until he had become familiar with his current body.
That meant he would have to reconsider how to use his remaining 1 Belief Point.
Still, he already had something in mind. Since he could not improve combat again in the short term, the skill he would improve was-
[Medicine (uninitiated) → Medicine (novice)] [Belief Points: 1 → 0]
That was right. He intended to improve a knowledge-based skill, and a crucial one at that: medicine.
Once again, he had spent more Belief Points than necessary on the improvement, but the skill itself did not undergo any transformation.
One reason was that medicine encompassed a vast amount of knowledge. The disciplines alone were too numerous to count, and even the novice level could be divided into novice surgery, novice internal medicine, and many other categories.
Another reason was that Mo Fei had conducted a test during the improvement.
He had kept repeating silently, Give me some medical knowledge about restoring the body to health.
Sure enough, that expectation had yielded results.
A large portion of his newly acquired medical knowledge concerned how to restore the body to health.
Within it, traditional Chinese medicine actually occupied as much space as Western medicine.
In the twenty-first century, everyone knew that traditional Chinese medicine had greater advantages in managing many chronic illnesses, while Western medicine was more effective in surgery.
Of course, this was only novice-level medicine. Mo Fei's medical ability still extended only to knowing medical facts; how capable he would be in hands-on practice remained a matter of opinion.
If a comparison had to be made, his current level was roughly that of a medical student graduating with a bachelor's degree.
For Mo Fei, however, knowledge at this level was entirely sufficient for now.
He could use his medical knowledge to support his combat skill, minimizing injuries as much as possible, and could also help nurture the children's health.
Mo Fei had not forgotten that there was still a child with a congenital illness at the orphanage. If he could help ease some of his pain, this skill would not have gone to waste at all.
Improving skills felt great, but the swelling ache of so much knowledge filling his brain still forced him to close his eyes.
He felt his way to the bed, then slowly lay down.
The mental confusion brought on by such a large influx of knowledge still needed some time to settle.
Fortunately, it was already nighttime, and he had nothing else to do. He only needed a good night's rest.
Drowsiness came faster than he had expected.
That night, Mo Fei slept soundly. Although the medical terms that occasionally spilled from his mouth were enough to make anyone's head ache, at least he never woke up.