Chapter 16: The people who should be here are not here. I'm tired!

【Name: Lin Chen】

【Profession: Martial Artist】

【Qi and Blood: 4000/5000】

【Fate: 【Water Flows and the Canal is Formed】: First Stage of the Martial Way, perseverance, gradual progress, unstoppable force, no bottleneck.】

Looking at the Qi and blood increase rate on his panel.

Lin Chen now just wanted to say one thing: people like Lu Yongfeng and Yan Dexing are nothing more than people selling their heads with labels.

After developing Essence Qi, his Qi and blood instantly increased by one thousand points, and his strength also reached eight hundred pounds.

Now he should be able to beat Lu Yongfeng with one punch, right?

But what he didn't understand was why the Qi and blood upper limit had become 5000. A 5000 Qi and blood upper limit also meant one thousand pounds of strength.

What did this one thousand pounds represent?

"What are you thinking about?"

Yu Yongnian saw Lin Chen in a state of deep thought and asked with a smile.

"Dis... disciple feels that after developing Essence Qi, the whole person is different. My body is full of inexhaustible strength."

"With Essence Qi in the body, Qi and blood are born naturally, circulating back and forth. Only when you reach this step can you be considered to have truly embarked on the path of the Martial Way."

Yu Yongnian smiled slightly and then said: "It seems you don't know much about the Martial Way. Today, I will explain it to you properly."

"You should already know the two and a half stages of Body Forging for a martial artist. You are currently at the half stage. What you need to do next is to use the Essence Qi in your body to impact the acupoints. Once the impact is successful, you will step into the Open-Acupuncture Stage."

"After opening the acupoints is Organ Cultivation, and only after that can you be considered a ranked martial artist. From ninth rank to first rank, those who haven't entered the ninth rank are collectively called unranked martial artists."

Listening to the instructor's narration, Lin Chen finally had a basic understanding of the Martial Way.

Open-Acupuncture and Organ Cultivation are the two major barriers of the Martial Way.

Only after crossing these two major barriers can one be considered a ranked martial artist.

Ninth rank is the lowest, and first rank is the highest.

The nine-rank system for martial artists is also the nine-rank official system of the Liang Dynasty.

After working hard for a year, in the eyes of those true martial artists, he could only be considered a martial apprentice?

"Don't think that there are many ranked martial artists. There are only two ninth-rank martial artists in the entire Poyang County: the County Magistrate and the Director of the Martial Administration Office."

Yu Yongnian could guess what Lin Chen was thinking. He had walked this path himself back then.

After developing Essence Qi, one is high-spirited, and thereafter one should gallop on the path of the Martial Way, but later one discovers that this is just the starting point of the Martial Way.

So few?

Lin Chen clicked his tongue. He didn't expect that there were only two ranked martial artists in the entire Poyang County.

"I said there are only two ninth-rank ones, not that there are no other ninth-rank ones in Poyang County. There are still about ten ninth-rank powerhouses on the surface in Poyang County, but except for the County Magistrate and the Martial Administration Office official, the others are already over fifty years old, and their Qi and blood have begun to decline. Their current strength can no longer reach the ninth rank."

"Can a martial artist's strength regress?"

"Don't tell me you think that a martial artist in his eighties can still be compared to a young and strong martial artist?"

Yu Yongnian smiled: "Unranked martial artists begin to go downhill after the age of forty, and it is very difficult to improve their subsequent stages. Even entering the ninth rank only extends it by ten years, unless one can break through to the next rank. With your current strength, you can kill a hundred-year-old seventh-rank martial artist with one punch."

Lin Chen's mouth twitched. Killing a hundred-year-old seventh-rank martial artist with one punch wasn't anything glorious either.

However, according to this situation, a saying from his previous life was quite appropriate here.

A martial artist taking revenge, ten years is not too late.

If ten years is not enough, then twenty years, waiting until the other party's Qi and blood decline.

"This is the cruelty of the Martial Way. Better to bully the old than to bully the young and strong."

Yu Yongnian pondered for a moment. Thinking that Lin Chen came from a village, and the situation of martial halls in the county city was much more complicated than the martial halls in the town, he asked: "Any big family is unwilling to offend a young and strong martial artist, but if they have already offended one and it cannot be resolved, what do you think these families will do?"

"Try every possible means to prevent this young martial artist from growing up."

Lin Chen's answer was very tactful. He understood what his instructor meant. Those big families wouldn't easily offend a young martial artist, but once they did, they would strangle them.

Unless the family felt that their own younger generation of martial artists had a promising future, they wouldn't care about this; otherwise, they would have to guard against being sought out for revenge when they got old.

Yu Yongnian nodded slightly and didn't say much more in this regard. As long as Lin Chen stayed in the martial hall, he wouldn't have any conflict with the big families in the city, and he was just giving a hint.

"Precisely because Qi and blood decline after the age of forty for unranked martial artists, there is such a saying in the martial arts circle: five years to open acupoints, ten years to cultivate organs, and any slower makes it difficult to enter the ranks."

"Once you arrive at the martial hall, if you can't break through to open acupoints and step into organ cultivation within five years, it will be very difficult to enter the ranks thereafter."

"If you find that the path of the Martial Way is difficult to achieve quickly, you can seek a job in the government office, earning silver while practicing martial arts, leaving yourself a way out, so as not to fail to enter the ranks and end up destitute after your Qi and blood decline."

Martial artists are glorious, but they are also cruel.

Glory is piled up by silver and hard work. Once past forty, Qi and blood begin to decline, and the ways to make money will decrease. If one doesn't have enough silver, one can only do some jobs that lower one's status.

There was once a martial artist who had reached the perfection of organ cultivation. Because he was devoted to practicing martial arts and had no money, he borrowed money from a bank and owed a huge debt of a thousand taels. After forty, his Qi and blood began to decline, his ways of making money decreased, his income became worse year by year, and he was pressed for debt by the bank. Coupled with the sabotage of enemies he had offended in the past, he was forced to go to a brothel to be a pimp.

It is true that one must have a determined heart on the path of the Martial Way, but one cannot burn the bridges and leave no room, especially when one has family and descendants; one must leave a way out for oneself.

"In terms of your family background, no matter what happens in the future, it can already be considered as bringing glory to your ancestors. You should strive on the path of the Martial Way, but you must also act according to your ability."

Yu Yongnian's words were not an exaggeration. Lin Chen developed Essence Qi within a year. According to the rules of the martial hall for recruiting disciples in the past, the first place in the martial hall could get an Open-Acupuncture Pill. Even if the subsequent progress was slow, as long as one could open ten acupoints, one would have the opportunity to seek a job in the government office.

A government official in the village is a big shot, and it can indeed be considered bringing glory to the ancestors.

As for ranked martial artists, that is not what martial artists with ordinary family backgrounds pursue.

Every ranked martial artist has the support of a family's huge resources.

"Come to the Wu Tang again in two days. I will take you to the county martial hall. Today you can go home and share this joy with your elders."

"Then this disciple will take his leave."

Lin Chen nodded. His parents would surely be extremely happy when he told them about developing Essence Qi.

After Lin Chen left, Yu Yongnian whispered: "Developing Essence Qi within a year, it is time to hold one's head high. If there is stagnant Qi in the heart, the thoughts will not be clear. I will help you dissolve this stagnant Qi."

Just as Lin Chen left the Wu Tang, he stepped onto the road back to the village.

In the backyard.

Lu Yongfeng roared, his entire body surface turning red, like a roaring tiger.

This action gave Zhao Jingchuan and the other four a big fright.

"I broke through, I developed Essence Qi!"

Lu Yongfeng's expression was ferocious, but then, seeing the confused eyes of Zhao Jingchuan and the other four, his whole person deflated again.

The person who should be here is not here, and the excitement and joy in his heart instantly dropped by more than half.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 17 =====