Chapter 57: Opportunity

Meng Yifan smiled, deciding to give his old man a surprise. He looked at the Game Panel; the technique column on it had changed significantly.

Technique 1: Savage Bull Strength Level 2, Yellow-grade Lower-tier Technique, Proficiency (3/900).

Technique 2: Hunyuan Strength Level 1, Yellow-grade Upper-tier Technique, Proficiency (1/800).

"A Level 1 Hunyuan Strength technique already hits an Experience Value cap of 800 points. I remember when Savage Bull Strength was Level 1, the Experience Value was only 300 points. Hunyuan Strength actually has 500 more points; the difficulty of cultivation has indeed increased by a large margin. But this is normal, after all, cultivating a Yellow-grade Upper-tier technique makes one's True Qi four times thicker than a Yellow-grade Lower-tier technique."

Meng Yifan added all 340 points of Experience Value to the Hunyuan Strength technique, and the proficiency soared instantly, becoming (341/800).

Meng Yifan felt a special energy appear out of thin air within his Yin Qiao Vessel and Yang Wei Vessel, circulating rapidly through his meridians.

This energy was extremely miraculous; any impurities blocking its path were silently dissolved by it.

For example, when Meng Yifan circulated True Qi to open channels in his meridians, it was like using a chisel and a Hammer on a hard stone wall, chipping away bit by bit. He had to endure intense pain and great hardship just to advance a tiny bit.

Yet this special energy was like a scorching flame, and the impurities in the meridians were like ice cubes; as soon as the flame approached, the ice cubes melted.

The speed of the two could not be mentioned in the same breath. In almost the time of two or three breaths, the Yin Qiao Vessel and Yang Wei Vessel had both been traversed by that special energy, which then transformed into Meng Yifan's own True Qi, causing his total True Qi to rise by a large margin.

The channel Meng Yifan had originally opened was only as wide as a thin thread. Now, after that special energy had made a circuit, that channel had changed from the width of a thin thread to about the width of a chopstick.

Meng Yifan was overjoyed. He mobilized his True Qi to circulate through the Yang Qiao Vessel, Yin Qiao Vessel, and Yang Wei Vessel, and indeed felt it was unobstructed as he completed a Great Heavenly Cycle.

The soreness all over his body caused by opening the meridian channels had now completely vanished. He only felt refreshed and full of spirit; it was comparable to eating ice in the dog days of summer or soaking in a hot spring in the dead of winter—how could one word like "refreshing" even begin to describe the feeling?

Meng Yifan sensed carefully and was pleasantly surprised to find that his current True Qi was double what it had been before.

This way, he could use the Ghost Head Blade to perform Ghost Crying Wolf Howling four times, or if he used True Qi in conjunction with the Lingbo Microsteps Lightness Skill, he could perform it eight times.

Meng Yifan's original True Qi had been too scarce; using Ghost Crying Wolf Howling and Lingbo Microsteps was only enough for one burst, after which his True Qi would be almost exhausted, leaving him to rely on his physical constitution to fight. This was also the reason why he had such a difficult time fighting Lv Fuqiang after killing Lv Fugui.

If he encountered that situation again, Meng Yifan would be able to handle it with ease.

Meng Yifan checked the Game Panel and found that his current realm was still a Second Grade Lower Tier Martial Artist. It seemed the Game Panel's judgment standard was determined by the technique with the highest cultivation level, which was exactly the result Meng Yifan wanted.

"Yifan, you succeeded?" Meng Dayong was dumbfounded. Originally, he could not sense any True Qi fluctuations in Meng Yifan's Yin Qiao Vessel and Yang Wei Vessel, but now he could sense them clearly. Everything seemed to have been completed in just two breaths' time.

Wasn't it said that switching cultivation techniques required reopening meridians and was a very difficult task? How did Meng Yifan finish it in two breaths? This was simply too incredible.

Meng Dayong looked at Meng Yifan as if he were looking at a monster.

Meng Yifan smiled and said, "I succeeded by luck."

"Succeeded by luck? Your old man here would like to succeed by luck too." Meng Dayong was filled with envy. He could also see that Meng Yifan's strength had once again made a sudden leap, which he estimated had to do with the white-bearded old immortal he met in his dreams.

Meng Yifan was never willing to say much, so Meng Dayong stopped asking. He figured the old immortal probably forbade him from speaking about it, which was understandable; immortals inevitably had some strange rules.

Regardless, being able to meet an old immortal was Meng Yifan's good fortune, and Meng Dayong, as his father, was very happy in his heart.

The sky had reached the second half of the night. Meng Yifan and Meng Dayong did not continue to cultivate but lay on the bed to rest.

Cultivating the Martial Dao requires a balance of work and rest; if one cultivates constantly, one's spirit simply cannot hold up.

The second half of the night passed without incident. The next day, dawn broke, and Meng Yifan and Meng Dayong both woke up. In the morning, everyone ate Monster Cured Meat again.

After eating, Meng Yifan gathered the young men together and said, "Today my father will teach you the Savage Bull Strength cultivation technique. Each of you must study it with heart."

"Outside the city, Demon Beasts run rampant, and inside the city, it is not safe either. Last night, a Martial Artist came to kill us. Living in such a cruel world, if we don't want to be slaughtered at will, and don't want to become food for Demon Beasts, we must make ourselves strong."

"I am giving you the opportunity to be strong. My father will teach you the Savage Bull Strength technique, and I will give each of you one Condensing Qi Pill to assist your cultivation."

"In three days, each of you must become a First Grade Martial Artist. If after three days you still cannot condense True Qi, you won't need to cultivate anymore; just honestly do manual labor."

Meng Yifan's words made the fifteen young men extremely excited. Living in such a dangerous world, everyone longed to become strong and master their own destiny.

However, cultivating the Martial Dao requires a large amount of money. As hunters from Qinghe Village, they could barely maintain their families' lives by hunting in the mountains; where would they have the money to buy Martial Dao techniques?

Now Meng Dayong would teach them techniques and even give them Condensing Qi Pills. This was truly wonderful. One had to know that a single Condensing Qi Pill was worth fifty taels of silver; as mountain hunters, they never dared to dream that they would have a day where they could take a Condensing Qi Pill.

The lives of mountain hunters were cheap; even if they were sold, they might not be worth fifty taels of silver. That Meng Yifan was willing to let each of them take a Condensing Qi Pill moved them all deeply.

"Brother Meng, Uncle Meng, don't you worry. I will definitely cultivate with heart. You are too good to me; I have nothing to repay you with. From now on, this life is sold to you. In the future, I will follow your lead; whatever you tell me to do, I will do," a young man named Meng Yitong said loudly.

"That's right, Brother Meng, Uncle Meng, from now on we will all listen to you," the other youths also said one after another.

Meng Yifan glanced at Meng Yitong. This person was twenty-one years old and was the grandson of Meng Yifan's great-uncle's cousin; counting it up, Meng Yifan still had to call him "cousin."

When he was young, he had attended a private school for three years, but later his family could no longer afford it, so he returned to the village to be a hunter with the others.

Although Meng Yitong had only attended private school for three years, he could read and calculate, and in Qinghe Village, he was already considered an intellectual.

He was agile and clever, and being the first to shout that he would sell his life for the Meng family father and son made Meng Yifan look at him with higher regard.

To know gratitude and repay it is the greatest virtue; such a person is worth cultivating well.

As for these young men all calling him "Brother Meng," Meng Yifan was also somewhat helpless. These young men all believed that the strong were to be respected, and since they were all relying on the Meng family father and son for their meals, calling him "brother" was only right. Meng Yifan had said so a few times, but they wouldn't listen, so he let it be.