Chapter 27: Cultivating True Qi

Hearing Hu San's voice, Ruan Xing suddenly felt a flash of inspiration.

What was the reason she and Hu San were both stuck at External Strength Small Success? Wasn't it just because they had no money for a Medicinal Bath?

Internal Energy was likely the same; it required higher-grade medicine.

But there were no Medicine Prescriptions in the secret door where Lady Wang hid the manuals, Qiye often stayed at the headquarters and she had never seen medicinal herbs being boiled in the pots in the canteen, plus the various Pills and Medicine Liquid displayed on the cabinet of that old man she had seen in her memories.

Synthesizing these points, Ruan Xing boldly speculated that the Pills capable of cultivating Internal Energy were only in the hands of that old man. He likely had poor aptitude and could only rely on all sorts of crooked, evil research to seek the Dao, using the Pills that allowed for Internal Energy cultivation to keep various high-level members of the Red Head Gang working for him, which was the only way he could hide in the deep mountains and old forests to focus wholeheartedly on his research.

Since that was the case, things would be easy. When she arrived at the old man's side, she didn't die in a single day; she lived for seven or eight days. Every day she ate nothing but Pills and drew Talismans. She spent almost twelve hours a day in that small room of the old man's, which was filled with various Pills and talisman paper. There were plenty of opportunities.

Anyway, she now had over two thousand points and could perform the Simulation over two hundred times; she would just pile up the attempts.

Ruan Xing got off the carriage, let Hu San take the carriage back, and she returned to her room to work overtime on the Simulations.

On the fifth day, she found a gap where the old man let his guard down and suddenly grabbed a medicine bottle, refusing to let go.

After choosing option two, she easily obtained this medicine bottle. After all, the old man had stripped her naked; other than the patterns drawn on her skin and the medicine bottle in her hand, she had no other items.

Next was trial and error. Ruan Xing started the Simulation and used the Pill in the medicine bottle to assist in cultivating Internal Energy, yet very soon, she bled from her seven orifices and died.

"It seems it's not this bottle." Ruan Xing shook her head and hid the small medicine bottle under the bed board along with the previously poisoned teacups.

There were many medicine bottles on the cabinets and shelves, and some bottles even looked exactly the same; she really didn't know how that old man could tell them apart.

Ruan Xing could only rely on taking them—trial and error—mechanically searching by using an average of two Simulations each time.

You obtained one of the red medicine bottles. The old man angrily stepped forward to snatch it. In the struggle, you knocked the medicine bottle against the old man's head. The bottle shattered, and the bright, dark-red liquid inside splashed onto you and the old man. After the liquid touched the skin, it rapidly corroded and spread outward. The old man screamed and rolled on the ground, and you also felt the pain of your whole body continuously festering. You died.

【Simulation Ended】

"Select two... wait!"

Ruan Xing felt a jolt through her whole body. Her dull, unfocused eyes suddenly refocused, and she hurriedly confirmed it in her mind.

"What did I just see? Before, wasn't it always that after I took the medicine bottle, I was killed by the old man using a Talisman or he called that Pure White Youth to kill me? How did I suddenly unlock a new way to die?"

Ruan Xing stared at the text in her mind, reading it word by word, only then confirming she hadn't misread it.

The medicine bottle was already broken, and the effect of the Medicine Liquid was understood, so selecting two had no meaning. She decisively chose the memory. From the memory, she saw that when she obtained the medicine bottle containing the red liquid, the old man's expression was one of shame and anger mixed with a trace of panic. When he stepped forward to snatch the medicine bottle, his strength was not even as great as Ruan Xing's at External Strength Perfection. If it weren't for the fact that he had used Talismans to resolve things before, Ruan Xing would not have discovered that the old man's body was so frail.

The power of the Medicine Liquid in this bottle was indeed great. The liquid inside not only had strong corrosive power but could also spread outward. If one were careless and spilled it, at least half of the items in the cave would be destroyed.

And how did this old man feel weaker than that Pure White Youth? Was he really an Evil Cultivator? If he was very weak, why would that youth be so obedient to his words? Once the number of Simulations increased, perhaps she could find the answer.

After Ruan Xing reached External Strength Perfection, her skin's defensive power increased a lot. In the memory, the old man's resistance to the liquid was almost non-existent; as soon as it touched him, he screamed, fell to the ground, rolled, and couldn't get up. Meanwhile, Ruan Xing had half her body corroded, and even though the table board beneath her corroded and snapped, she didn't let out a sound.

If she used it well, she might be able to use this Medicine Liquid to send the old man to see the King of Hell directly, and she wouldn't have to go through the time-consuming and laborious effort of bringing them out one bottle at a time.

Thinking it, she did it. Ruan Xing silently recited: "Start Simulation."

【Simulating...】

At age six, you were favored by Qiye, passed a series of tests, and arrived in the cave with the Pure White Youth. The old man in the cave fed you various Pills and drew Talismans on your skin.

On the fifth day, you took advantage of a gap when the old man was lax to grab a medicine bottle and smashed it on the old man's head. The bottle shattered, and the liquid inside splashed all over the old man. The old man screamed, fell to the ground, and was quickly corroded into a mixture of flesh and foul water. You used your arm to block the splashing liquid, accidentally getting a few drops on you, which corroded your arm into pitted white bone. You avoided the sizzling, white-smoke-emitting liquid on the ground, quickly swept all the medicine bottles on the storage shelf with one hand, wrapped them in your clothes to carry on your back, and accidentally discovered several old books under the old man's pillow. Just as you picked them up, a white light arrived as expected, and you died.

【Simulation Ended】

Please select the reward for this Simulation: 1, Memory at age six.

2, A random item on your person at age six.

3, A random skill mastered at age six.

4, Cultivation realm achieved at age six.

Ruan Xing was a bit conflicted. Although she felt those few books should be very important things, the temptation of having finally packed up and taken away most of the medicine bottles was also quite large... It was just that they were wrapped on her back, and the books were in her hands; in all likelihood, what she would get would be the books...

Forget it, it was random anyway; leave it to fate. Ruan Xing closed her eyes and chose option two.

【Congratulations, you have obtained an unknown book from when you were six years old.】

Sure enough, she could only take the medicine bottles in the next Simulation.

Ruan Xing flipped through the books she brought out to look at them. The names were written on the covers: one was called Blood Refining Art, one was called Nether Ghost Record, and one was called Hundred Herbs Detailed Explanation.

Blood Refining Art was the martial art practiced by the Red Head Gang. It also included recipes for the Medicinal Bath to soak in and formulas for the Medicine Liquid to ingest. The cultivation method was very complete, containing content from External Strength to Innate, only it had been divided by the old man into Internal and External Energy and taught separately.

As for the Nether Ghost Record, there was good news and bad news.

The good news was that this was a cultivation method, and the bad news was that it was for a Ghost Cultivator; she couldn't use it.

Ruan Xing was very regretful, but there was no way around it. In the Simulator, it generally ended when she died; there was no experience after becoming a ghost. In reality, she didn't dare to try it either. What if she really died if she died? As a soul from another world, it was possible she couldn't become a ghost...

No wonder this old man didn't practice it either; he probably didn't dare to either.

However, this old man had developed quite a few things from the appendix of the Nether Ghost Record—Puppets, Talismans, and Dharma Artifacts, all of which he had dabbled in. That Pure White Youth was a product of a Puppet. First, select a suitable material; according to what was said in the book, the most suitable were those with a rough life and deep resentment, and those with soaring luck and a smooth life who died halfway. The three tests set by the old man were likely selecting the latter, only the Red Head Gang didn't understand the meaning within, and because they only saw that the first test was related to Gambling, they misinterpreted the old man's words, which evolved into the loophole-seeking method of finding smart children to learn Gambling.

No wonder the old man was dissatisfied with the people sent over before. And don't even think about it, how could someone with a smooth life appear in a poor family? The only person Ruan Xing knew who met the criteria was Young Master Liu, but the Red Head Gang probably wouldn't have anyone turn their attention to him, which let the old man miss out on a top-tier material.

After the material was selected, it needed to be fed with special Pills for seven days to expel impurities from the body, and Talismans had to be drawn all over the body to lock in the Spirit Qi and Yin energy within, so that the Puppet could be more powerful after it was made.

Of course, materials that didn't meet the criteria could also be used to make Puppets, but that would be too much of a waste of Pills and Talismans, and the resulting Puppet would be nothing more than an ordinary walking corpse, unable to compare with the former.

After the Puppet was made, use its soul bound with heavenly treasures to refine the essence of the Puppet, and drip the master's blood into the essence; the Puppet would then completely obey the master's words. By slowly nourishing the essence with Yin energy, the Puppet's strength could also grow increasingly powerful.

The third book seemed relatively normal compared to the first two. The Hundred Herbs Detailed Explanation recorded the efficacy and uses of some ordinary mortal-grade medicinal herbs, as well as some treasures that could store Spirit Qi in the mortal world. It was just that the old man used this thing wrongly too. Besides refining the essence of the Puppet, he also attempted to refine the medicinal herbs recorded in it into immortal pills and spirit medicine, but without Medicine Prescriptions, he practiced blindly, and most of them became poisons. That red liquid that took the old man's life came from this.

After Ruan Xing flipped through the three books, she began to think about the problems she was currently facing.

In the Blood Refining Art, one of the medicine ingredients for the Medicine Liquid formula for cultivating Internal Energy Mental Method was the Heart Blood of a virgin boy or girl. Although she wasn't some saint, she didn't want to harm innocent children for the sake of Alchemy, so she still had to use the ready-made Medicine Liquid from the old man's place.

Besides needing to bring out all the remaining medicine bottles, she also had to find the Puppet essence of that Pure White Youth.

The book stated that when the master of a Puppet dies, the Puppet will act according to instinct. It was probably because the old man's refining technique wasn't good that there wasn't much soul left in the Pure White Youth's essence. Usually, it was mostly for killing and bloodletting tasks, and coupled with the fact that the old man's last order when he died must have been to kill her, the Pure White Youth would suddenly appear in the cave to take her life.

From the time the old man died to the youth entering the cave was only a short few minutes; she had to find his essence and drip her own blood on it before he came in.

Ruan Xing calmed her heart and continued the Simulation, but three or four times passed, and she had searched the small room, yet she hadn't found a similar item. Ruan Xing could only helplessly conclude that the youth's Puppet essence was not placed in that room.

But she couldn't go out to look in other places, because as soon as she went out, she would be killed by the youth.

The youth's elusive figure was also explained in the Nether Ghost Record; it was a spell called Ghost Escape. After mastering it, one could dissolve oneself into the air, invisible to the naked eye and impossible to touch. Although the youth was a Puppet, he was still a ghost body. After practicing this method, coupled with that White True Qi, his sneak attacks could be described as invincible.

The old man's ability wasn't high, and the youth Puppet he refined only had these two powerful abilities, but the combination of the two left Ruan Xing helpless. She originally couldn't beat the masked man who used True Qi head-on and could only rely on sneak attacks, but it turned out this youth was better than her and also used sneak attacks.

It would be strange if she could win against that.

Unable to think of a solution, Ruan Xing decided to temporarily shelve the matter of the Pure White Youth and first test the effects of the Medicine Liquid she had taken out, hoping to find a Medicine Liquid capable of cultivating True Qi to increase her combat power.

After running the Simulation a few times, Ruan Xing finally identified a bottle of blue Medicine Liquid; it looked similar to the one she drank during her third trial. If she had known, she should have tested it during that trial step; she had wasted so much effort going in circles.

However, there was a benefit, which was that she had unexpectedly obtained those three books. Although she could not practice the Nether Ghost Record, it was obtained through great hardship after all, so she would keep it in case it came in handy one day.

Moreover, she could learn the Talismans within it, finally touching the edge of the path of Cultivation.

After using the Medicine Liquid in the Simulation over a dozen times, Ruan Xing seemed to hear a barrier go "pop—" as it gently shattered, so she opened her status panel.

Name: Ruan Xing

Age: Six years old

Skills: Gambling Entry, Dance Basics, Weaving Basics; Cultivation Method: Blood Refining Art; Realm: Transformation Strength

Points: 1163. The skills were still the same few; she had never chosen option three in her Simulations during this period, so nothing had increased.

As for the Cultivation Method, because she had obtained the complete Blood Refining Art, it was displayed on the panel.

As for the realm, having read the Blood Refining Art, Ruan Xing also knew the key points: after both Internal Strength and External Strength are cultivated to Consummation, one enters the Transformation Strength stage. At this time, True Qi no longer flows only within the Meridians but gradually merges with the body, also reaching the True Qi Body Protection stage that Ruan Xing had previously envisioned.

Once True Qi overflows throughout the entire body, the martial arts realm will advance to the Acquired Realm.

Strictly speaking, Transformation Strength is not a level of a realm, but a transitional stage that cannot be skipped. There is no bottleneck period in this stage; as long as one can reach Transformation Strength, it will take at most a few months and at least a few days to reach the Acquired Realm.

Furthermore, there is no set order between Internal Strength and External Strength; one can practice either first or both simultaneously. It is just that in the early stages, the overall strength of those practicing External Strength is greater than those practicing Internal Strength, while in the later stages, those with Internal Strength Consummation practice External Strength nearly ten times faster than those with External Strength Consummation practice Internal Strength.

Presumably, this is one of the reasons why the old man wanted to split the internal and external cultivation methods—to artificially lower the speed at which members of the Red Head Gang practice martial arts, so that it is easier to control them.

And as for the points... Ruan Xing felt a pang of heartache when she looked at them. She had thought over two thousand points would be enough for her to squander, but she had unknowingly used them for over a hundred Simulations.

Sigh, money doesn't last! Ruan Xing sighed, packed up the Medicine Liquid and the two pages of paper together, and prepared to find time to send them to Hu San. If she wants to make money, she needs manpower, and Hu San is her core team. Once she thinks of a way to deal with that old man and the Pure White Youth, she can take the Red Head Gang into her own hands. When that time comes, she will focus on Cultivation, and Hu San will manage the Red Head Gang to earn money for her—wouldn't that be wonderful? Therefore, she must improve Hu San's strength as soon as possible. An External Strength Small Success cannot suppress so many Guans. Even if she killed all those Guans and promoted others herself, wouldn't that take time? Wouldn't that delay making money? Besides, she doesn't know anyone else. What if she promotes an ingrate? It is better to hand everything over to Hu San after improving his strength and let him figure out how to suppress the people in the gang; she only needs to collect the money.

As for herself, she no longer needs the Medicinal Bath or Medicine Liquid once she reaches the Transformation Strength stage; she needs higher-level Pills. However, the Blood Refining Art states that the Pill for the Acquired Realm to the Innate stage is the Luoqi Pill, which is universal for all cultivation methods, so the book does not contain the formula for the Luoqi Pill.

Thinking about it, this Simulation is really quite useful. Not only can she practice to Internal Strength Consummation without pain, but the Medicine Liquid has zero consumption and can be reused. Once she thoroughly understands those strange medicines refined by the old man, she might even be able to find good things.

Short Theater: Little You's Dream 【Simulating...】

In May, you write day and night, producing a manuscript of 300,000 words.

In June, you write day and night, producing a manuscript of 300,000 words.

In July, you die suddenly due to writing day and night without stopping.

【Simulation Ended】

You chose option two.

【Congratulations, you have obtained a manuscript of 600,000 words.】

(End of chapter)