Chapter 31: Turning the External into the Internal

The medicinal power of the Blood Velvet Antler, once transformed into a warm current and released from the stomach, was immediately exhausted, completely unable to disperse to the various internal organs and four limbs.

During the first half-hour, because of the residual medicinal power and primordial energy within his meridians, Duan Rong did not feel it.

But at this moment, with the residual medicinal power fully absorbed, the insufficiency of the Blood Velvet Antler's medicinal power was immediately exposed.

Duan Rong immediately ceased his practice; he felt he could not continue, for although his Mental Power could barely support it, his body had already developed a sense of depletion.

If he continued to practice, he feared it would cause damage to his body.

A heavy sense of doubt flashed through Duan Rong's slightly listless eyes.

If he could only perform Stance Training for an hour and a half a day, when on earth would he ever complete the Internal Breath Second Stage?

One must know that the Internal Breath Second Stage has an essential difference from the First Layer.

The First Layer of Internal Breath is actually mainly the condensation of the residual innate true essence within the meridians, transforming it into Internal Breath; it is more about the gradual excavation of the body's potential, and the barrier lies in grasping the method—if the method is appropriate, it can be achieved relatively quickly.

But the Second Layer of Internal Breath is a further strengthening of the Internal Breath within the dantian and meridians. At this time, the body's potential has already been exhausted, and it relies entirely on breathing and the transformation of medicinal power entering the body to gradually turn the external into the internal and strengthen the Internal Breath; therefore, the speed is also much slower.

Duan Rong felt that there must be a solution to the problems he encountered while practicing the Second Layer.

As long as he found the way to solve it, he could likewise continue to complete the cultivation of the Internal Breath Second Stage at a monstrous speed.

"The key is how to find the solution?"

Duan Rong's right thumb rubbed back and forth over the first joint of his index finger...

This was a habitual action he had when thinking in his past life; although his soul had transmigrated to another world, this little habit that had seeped into his soul had followed him over.

Actually, the best method now was to ask Xiao Zongting.

After all, Xiao Zongting was the Chief Instructor of the Yuanshun Escort Agency, and teaching Apprentices was precisely his duty.

Moreover, although Xiao Zongting had lost all his martial arts now, he was once the Chief Leader of the Yuanshun Escort Agency; with his former cultivation realm, guiding Duan Rong would naturally be more than enough.

But as soon as Duan Rong thought of Xiao Zongting's face, which was as black as pot-bottom ash, he immediately dismissed this idea.

"Xiao Baijiao's body is not well; if I go to disturb him at this time, don't let that old man hold a grudge against me and give me a hard time later."

Duan Rong's survival experience from his past life was: it is better to judge a gentleman by the heart of a villain than to think too well of people.

Duan Rong sighed, but apart from Xiao Zongting, he really couldn't think of anyone else to ask.

Duan Rong's originally gloomy eyes suddenly flashed.

"I can look up information!" Duan Rong suddenly remembered his senior year in his past life, the year he wrote his graduation thesis.

The advisor guiding them was the vice-principal, who was in meetings every day and busy with projects, so he couldn't look after them at all and could only give occasional guidance.

Most of the problems were solved by them looking up information in the library themselves.

In this regard, Duan Rong had experience.

There was a bundle of books in the dormitory; he would look through them first, and if he couldn't find anything, he would go to the book stalls on Antique Street to look again.

Having thought of a method, Duan Rong immediately started working.

He returned to the dormitory and began to flip through the books one by one.

Half a stick of incense later, in this bundle of books, there was indeed one that mentioned the problem he had encountered.

It was a yellowed book titled *Ancient Rhyme Miscellaneous Notes*.

This was a book introducing the history of phonological changes in the Jiuzhou World.

The author of this book, whose real name was unknown, used the pseudonym Guan Yun and was a phonology enthusiast.

But at the end of this book, there was an autobiographical account.

Guan Yun recounted his life in relatively great detail.

Guan Yun was born into a wealthy family and practiced martial arts in his youth, but due to an incident, his dantian was destroyed by someone.

Because he could not practice martial arts, he became depressed and poured his feelings into the study of phonology to express his emotions, hence this book.

Perhaps because Guan Yun missed his short martial arts career very much, he described the part where he practiced martial arts in extreme detail.

The autobiography mentioned a prescription he used when practicing the Internal Breath Second Stage, and it listed in detail the several medicinal ingredients in the prescription and their respective dosages.

Duan Rong had never heard of most of the medicinal herb names; he only vaguely recognized two of the medicinal ingredients.

Bear Gall Powder and Blood Ginseng Slice!

But just from these two medicinal ingredients, one could imagine the preciousness of this prescription; although the dosage was not large, according to Duan Rong's understanding, these two medicines were much more expensive than Blood Velvet Antler.

"Should I grab two doses and try?"

Holding the yellowed book, a look of hesitation appeared in Duan Rong's eyes.

"It shouldn't be poison, right? This Guan Yun wouldn't be so bored as to deliberately leave a problematic prescription in his autobiography to intentionally harm people?"

"It shouldn't be; I'd better go to the Raw Medicine Shop and ask first!"

Having made up his mind, Duan Rong copied the prescription onto a piece of rice paper, folded it, put it into his inner garment pocket, left the dormitory, and headed to the Raw Medicine Shop on the street.

Duan Rong had already been to this Raw Medicine Shop twice, so he was considered a familiar face.

The thin, middle-aged clerk behind the counter took the list Duan Rong handed over, and a strange expression appeared on his face.

"What? Clerk, is there a problem with this prescription?" Duan Rong keenly noticed the change in the clerk's expression and immediately asked.

"That... that's not it..." The thin clerk looked at Duan Rong strangely and said, "In this prescription, every medicine is a precious medicinal herb; there is certainly no problem with the individual medicinal herbs. As for whether there is a problem with these medicines put together, you, customer, have to ask the person who wrote the prescription for you. Our humble shop is just a Raw Medicine Shop; we can only guarantee to hand over the medicinal herbs to you as genuine, but as for what you use them for, we have no right to ask."

Seeing the clerk's watertight reply, Duan Rong couldn't help but look at him with admiration.

The Raw Medicine Shops in this world were different from his past life; many Martial Artists would patronize them. It could be said that this was a high-profit industry serving a high-end customer group, so the quality of the clerks in this shop was naturally top-notch.

"Since every medicine is fine, then there shouldn't be much of a problem," Duan Rong thought to himself.

Duan Rong hesitated slightly, as if he had finally made up his mind, looked at the thin clerk, and asked, "How much silver for this dose of medicine?"

"Customer, please wait a moment."

The thin clerk took an Abacus, and while looking at the prescription, he clicked the beads of the Abacus.

A few breaths later, the clattering sound of the Abacus beads stopped.

The thin clerk raised his head and said in a gentle voice, "One dose of medicine is eighty-two taels and two mace of silver. I'll remove the fraction; one dose of medicine will cost you eighty-two taels of silver."

The muscles on Duan Rong's face twitched, as if someone had stepped on his tail, and he said with a ferocious expression, "Eighty-two taels?"

With a dark face, Duan Rong walked out of the Raw Medicine Shop holding the prescription; he gritted his teeth, only then managing to refrain from tearing the prescription in his hand to shreds.

His total assets were not even eight hundred taels, yet a single dose of the Medicinal Agent would cost eighty-two taels.

"This isn't spending money, this is clearly burning money!"

Unless he had a stable flow of income, he truly could not afford this prescription Medicinal Agent.

"Even a landlord's family wouldn't dare spend like this!"

Duan Rong's right thumb and index finger began to rub together subconsciously again...

"I still have to think of a way!"

(End of this chapter)