Zhang Ruochen thought for a while and then asked, “Has Lin Chenyu been executed?”
“Not yet! Do you think that the Seventh Prince would let it go just like that?” said Yun, “Lin Chenyu was sentenced to castration and became a eunuch. He was also made a slave by the Seventh Prince.”
Zhang Ruochen replied, “The top genius of the Lins is now a eunuch, and was even made a slave of his enemy. This is simply a great humiliation for the Lins.”
Yun frowned and said, “But I don’t get it. Since the Lins were humiliated so badly, why does their leader still want to marry their daughter to the Seventh Prince?”
Zhang Ruochen answered, “It’s easy to understand. With his talent, the Seventh Prince will succeed to the throne and become the lord of the Yunwu Commandery. The Lins have to repair the relations between their families. An arranged marriage is the best choice.”
“Secondly, since the Lins’ top genius has become a servant of the Seventh Prince, the relations between them may not be as bad as we thought. Perhaps this arranged marriage between Lin Ningshan and the Seventh Prince is a plot cooked up by Lin Chenyu.”
Staring at Zhang Ruochen, Yun could not believe that the Ninth Prince could analyze all of these situations in such a clear way. Instead of acting like that cowardly boy, he gave off a sense of tact and sagacity.
“It seems that the Sacred Mark has changed all that for him since its opening.” Yun thought. “If Concubine Lin learns of this, she would be delighted.”
After going back to his own room, Zhang Ruochen entered the internal space of the Time and Space Spinel right away.
“Now, it’s time for me to open up the second Meridian.”
Zhang Ruochen opened the jade bottle and drained all of the Marrow-washing Liquid.
Under the potency of the Marrow-washing Liquid, all of the blood inside of his body felt as if it was boiling. Using the great potency, Zhang Ruochen immediately started to open up the second Meridian following the instructions in the “Scripture of Emperor Ming’s Empyrean”.
The more Meridians that one opened, the faster the Spiritual Qi would be absorbed and the faster the running speed of Genuine Qi inside his body would be.
The more Meridians that were inside one’s body, the stronger one’s body would be for Martial Arts. In the same realm, he could break out a stronger fighting force.
With the help of his past practice experience, Zhang Ruochen soon opened up the second Meridian and the Genuine Qi also ran faster than before.
“The Qi Pool hasn’t expanded, and I didn’t make it to the Mid Stage of the Yellow Realm. I must open up another Meridian.”
Zhang Ruochen took a Blood Pill and regained his strength. After resting for about an hour, he got back in the groove, drank another bottle of Marrow-washing Liquid, and started to open up the third Meridian.
After opening up a new Meridian, other monks would have had to recuperate for one to three months, usually to increase the tenacity and activity of their Meridians, before they started to open up the next one.
However, Zhang Ruochen could not wait a month. He eagerly opened up his third Meridian immediately to challenge the Mid Stage of the Yellow Realm.
Doing it this way more than doubled the difficulty.
“I can make it. I have to make it. By tonight, I will be in the Mid Stage of the Yellow Realm.”
Holding a Spiritual Crystal, Zhang Ruochen absorbed the Spiritual Qi inside the Spiritual Crystal while removing all of Genuine Qi in his body, and pushed forward to the third Meridian furiously.
“Bang!”
A thud came from the glabella on Zhang Ruochen’s forehead.
His Qi Pool, which was once only as big as a basketball, immediately expanded tenfold and became as big as a vat of water. It looked just like a bathhouse pool, which was about one square meter in diameter.
Now, his Qi Pool would be regarded as a real Qi Pool.
“This is the cultivation of the Mid Stage of the Yellow Realm!”
“This is just the very beginning of the Mid Stage of the Yellow Realm. I don’t have much Genuine Qi left inside. Of course, I can progress now. If I fill my Qi Pool through practice, the Genuine Qi inside my body will be expanded by 10 as well.” Zhang Ruochen felt so excited for making his great martial cultivation progress.
The Qi Pool would also be expanded with a new higher realm, which of course, could hold more Genuine Qi.
If one could not break through to a new realm, his Genuine Qi would never increase, even with 10 years of practice. That was because the capacity of the Qi Pool was fixed for each realm and it could only hold a certain amount of Genuine Qi in reserve.
At the Mid Stage of the Yellow Realm, impurities from inside the body were carried out of the body through the pores. The impurities looked like a layer of black slime and gave off a slight odor of rotten fish.
Zhang Ruochen immediately fetched a pail of warm water. After bathing, he put on a clean suit and immediately went back into the internal space of the Time and Space Spinel.
While holding a brush pen in his hand, he smoothly drew a human figure on the scroll.
Later, he drew the 36 meridians of the human figure according to his memory alone. The traveling routes for all of these meridians were different from one another.
They had one thing in common though—the 36 Meridians all gathered together in the Qi Pool in his glabella.
The first time that Zhang Ruochen read through the first level of the “Scripture of Emperor Ming’s Empyrean, he saw this very same “Graph of Meridians” on it without any explanation. It just could be self-perceived.
The more superior level exercises one practiced, the more Meridians he would open and the faster the running speed of Genuine Qi inside his body.
“The exercise methods for the Inferior Class of the Human Stage can only open up seven of the Meridians.”
“According to the ‘Scripture of Emperor Ming’s Empyrean’, there are traveling routes for the 36 Meridians. Each one will increase the practicing Meridian and help strengthen the Body of Martial Arts. If all 36 Meridians are opened, could I even imagine how strong the Body of Martial Arts would be?”
The word “Realm” in “Yellow Realm” referred to the specific extremity of the Meridians.
Zhang Ruochen had opened up only 33 Meridians in his last lifetime. There were another three Meridians that he had been unable to open up no matter how hard he tried!
With just the 33 Meridians having been opened up in his last lifetime, he was able to defeat his contemporaries. Even Empress Chi Yao, who was ranked number one, opened up just 32 Meridians, one less than he had.
“I’ve opened up three Meridians now belonging to the Mid Stage of the Yellow Realm. In order to break through to the Advanced Stage of the Yellow Realm, I’ll have to open up at least three more Meridians.”
Zhang Ruochen rolled up “The Graph of Meridians” and put it on the stone table.
One had to first fill his Qi Pool with Genuine Qi if he wanted to reach the advanced stage of the Yellow Realm.
If he practiced in the usual way, he would need one and a half months to fill his body and his Qi Pool with Genuine Qi, even with the help of Spiritual Qi from the Spiritual Crystals.
Zhang Ruochen could not wait that long, so he decided to take his Energy Pill.
An Energy Pill was worth 1,000 silver coins. For ordinary warriors, it was a rare treasure. Even the younger children from medium-level families found it hard to get an Energy Pill.
Zhang Ruochen had bought 10 at a time, by which his cultivation could be improved quickly.
An Energy Pill was as small as a pearl and had a light scent. A plume of Spiritual Qi could be seen flowing on the surface of the Pill with the naked eye.
He put an Energy Pill in his mouth.
A moment later.
“Bang!” The Energy Pill exploded inside his body and turned into a cloud of Pill Spirit, moving up and down inside of him.
The three Meridians took in the Pill Spirit at a fast speed. Traveling inside his body for a large circle, gathering vital energy, the Pill Spirit then turned into Genuine Qi and then was stored in the Qi Pool.
Although Zhang Ruochen tried his best to absorb the Pill Spirit, there was still 70% that ran out of his pores, which meant that he took in only 30% of the Pill Spirit of the Energy Pill.
He had spent all day to transform that 30% into his Genuine Qi.
After refining all of that 30% Pill Spirit, the Genuine Qi in his Qi Pool doubled.
“I opened up only three Meridians, so the transformation speed of the Genuine Qi is still too slow, as 70% of it is lost. If a warrior is in the Dawn State the Yellow Realm, he can transform all of the Pill Spirit of the Energy Pill into Genuine Qi without any waste.”
“Forget it! As long as I can make rapid progress with my cultivation, spending more silver coins is worth it. Based on the potency of the Energy Pill, I can fill my Qi Pool with Genuine Qi with only four more pills.”
Luckily, Zhang Ruochen now had plenty of silver coins and did not need to worry about money. Otherwise, he would be unwilling to buy even one Energy Pill with 1,000 silver coins.
Instead of taking a second Energy Pill, he stopped his practice and went back to his room in the internal space of the Time and Space Spinel.
He had practiced inside the Time and Space Spinel for more than one day, but in the outside world, only half a day had passed.
It was just noon at the moment.
Zhang Ruochen did not disturb Yun or Concubine Lin. He fetched a bucket of warm water and took it back his room.
He was not going to take a normal bath, but a medicated bath.
For a warrior, practicing with only Genuine Qi was not enough. He also needed to practice his martial skills.
Zhang Ruochen’s physical health was weaker than his peers’. If he wanted to make himself strong within a few months, he needed not only fighting practice but medicated baths as well.
Zhang Ruochen bought five more portions of the Refining Powder, each of which cost 1,000 silver coins.
He poured one portion of the Refining Powder into the barrel.
“Chi!” A white smoke floated up from the barrel.
Zhang Ruochen sat cross-legged in the center of the barrel. His head was submerged under the liquid.
The liquid was as hot as boiling water and it bubbled up and released pockets of steam.
A sharp pain shot across the surface of his skin. Later on, that sharp pain permeated into his flesh and blood, and then into his marrow and into his five internal organs.
The burning pain ran through his body. If he were any other warrior, he could not possibly bear this pain and would have jumped out of the barrel.
Zhang Ruochen was as solid as a rock, sitting cross-legged on the bottom of the barrel without any changes to his facial expression. He endured this pain of his flesh silently.
Only by experiencing the most difficult hardships could one rise above the ordinary.