Chapter 16: July (Part 1)

The Anning Martial Arts Hall is membership-based, charging fees according to rank, with different prices for different ranks.

There are monthly and yearly passes, and the fees are very expensive.

Very expensive.

Most people's total annual income cannot cover the cost of a yearly pass for a Third Stage Martial Artist.

Fortunately, there are no extra expenses beyond that.

Once you pay, you can enjoy everything except for the teaching services of higher ranks, including coaches, training equipment, sparring partners, and combat services, among others.

There is no such thing as a private coach.

It also provides buffet meals, restorative drinks, and bathing and massage services, which is very thoughtful.

What Chen Shu likes most is the massage service.

He specifically requests Miss Number Nine.

Miss Number Nine is not only pretty, but her hands are also strong and her technique is professional; except for her arms being a bit thick, everything about her is great.

"Oh!"

Chen Shu lies on the massage bed, playing with his Mobile Phone, occasionally letting out a cry of pain as Miss Number Nine presses on him; it is painful yet joyful.

It has been a long time since he scrolled through short videos.

Ning Qing can no longer be seen on the internet at all, and it is still very hard to find videos of cool young ladies.

Instead, reports about the Shengzu Cube are flying everywhere—

"Have you seen the Shangfang Sword used by the Saint Emperor in historical records during his conquests?

"It was unearthed today!

"Five thousand years later, its edge remains undiminished. It is forged entirely from Silver Crystal, and its manufacturing craftsmanship and Talisman Array are at least three thousand years ahead of the world at that time. To this day, it can still cut through mountains and rivers with a single strike; Intermediate Cultivators cannot pull it out!"

Accompanied by stirring music, the comment section is filled with nothing but praise.

Chen Shu watches with an expressionless face.

It was only half a meter away from me at its closest, and it was only a thought away from belonging to me.

Stop bragging, stop bragging; the more you brag, the more uncomfortable I feel.

Scrolling to the next one, the music changes abruptly to something extremely classical and magnificent. The video displays an exquisite dragon-embroidered garment: "The black-bottomed, gold-threaded, cloud-patterned dragon-embroidered casual wear unearthed from the Yuanzhou Fangti was almost like new when it was unearthed. The craftsmanship is extremely exquisite and breathtaking... finally, we know what the Xia Dynasty Emperor wore when he wasn't holding court."

"Hmm..."

Chen Shu groans again as he is pressed.

Miss Number Nine's gentle voice comes through: "Is it a bit too heavy?"

"No, just like this."

"You have a ligament strain."

"It is a bit."

"You should pay more attention to resting."

"Mm."

Miss Number Nine is truly thoughtful; she is almost one-tenth as good as my Qingqing.

Chen Shu scratches his head and continues scrolling through videos.

"The era of the appearance of exotic beasts may be confirmed..."

"The Yuanzhou Fangti has discovered Zhu Fruit that has been extinct for two thousand years; it seems they were picked only yesterday, and the seeds still possess vitality..."

"The Shengzu's Inspection Tour painting proves that our country already had foreign laborers during the Xia Dynasty, covering multiple races..."

"..."

Chen Shu clicks into the comment section below every video. Apart from the funny, silly netizens, everyone feels very happy about this, praising the Shengzu repeatedly.

That is how national pride comes about.

That is just how it is.

The items related to the humanities of the Xia Dynasty stored in this Square Body are more numerous. These spiritual riches are actually more precious than the material treasures stored in the previous Square Body. Previously, people actually did not know much about the Xia Dynasty and the Saint Emperor.

The Xia Dynasty was established over five thousand years ago. Although the Saint Emperor shook the world with his might, his descendants were incompetent and only held on for over six hundred years.

High-level Practitioners can all live for several hundred years.

Six hundred years... it is really short.

The fundamental reason is that the later Imperial Family members of the Xia Dynasty had too low a Cultivation Rank to suppress other Cultivators. This is a rare situation throughout the various dynasties—a founding Emperor who could overthrow the previous dynasty and establish a new one in the world of cultivation must at least be a peerless genius. With his descendants having excellent bloodlines and the aggregation of the nation's resources, logically, this should not have happened.

Perishing early and being beaten miserably by later generations directly led to many things from the Xia Dynasty not being passed down.

An hour is up.

Miss Number Nine turns and leaves, without the slightest bit of lingering attachment.

How heartless.

Chen Shu also crawls up from the bed, feeling even more pain all over his body, as if he is about to fall apart. He grits his teeth and walks out.

Arriving at the locker, he takes out two boxes of medicinal herbs and walks toward the martial arts hall's medicinal bath area.

Steam rises, curling and swirling.

Chen Shu finds an empty spot, fills a special bathtub with water, tears open the packaging of this box of "Ancient Root Green Spirit Muscle-Strengthening Powder," and pours the black powder inside.

The high-purity medicinal powder has excellent water solubility and dissolves upon contact with water. The water in the bathtub quickly turns a greenish-blue, becoming completely opaque. Chen Shu can feel the peculiar Spirit Power hidden within it.

Through soaking, the medicinal properties and Spirit Power penetrate the muscles, which can enhance muscle strength.

He takes off his bathrobe and lies directly inside.

"Gurgle, gurgle..."

The water immediately seems to boil, bubbling continuously.

Chen Shu feels as if countless ants are biting him all over his body, or as if he is being covered and stimulated by electric currents; it is painful and itchy, uncomfortable yet wonderful.

Chen Shu resisted the urge to open the other box of medicine.

Inside were five capsules.

These were for increasing bone density.

He swallowed them in one gulp.

He closed his eyes and began to enjoy it, while simultaneously using his Spirit Power control ability as a Cultivator to enhance the absorption of the two medicines.

A box of medicinal powder cost over eight thousand, and a box of capsules cost over three thousand; adding them up, over ten thousand was gone, but the effect only provided a certain auxiliary benefit to his breakthrough in his Martial Artist rank.

It was just that much of a money pit.

The money Chen Shu had worked so hard to earn by selling out his fellow countrymen was mostly contributed to these pharmaceutical companies.

The flow of time seemed to slow down.

It became increasingly painful and harder to endure.

……

Early July.

The weather showed no signs of cooling down.

Chen Shu had been sitting at his desk for a long time.

The computer screen in front of him was recorded with dense Runes, most of which were complex Second Tier and Third Tier Runes; these Runes were all connected in specific angles and ways, forming a precise and complicated Spell Rune diagram.

Chen Shu stared at the screen without blinking, occasionally closing his eyes to simulate and circulate them within his body, and occasionally picking up the plug-in card to compare and modify.

It was almost finished.

It had already been over a month.

Chen Shu closed his eyes once again.

At the same time, a layer of faint light emerged on the surface of his body, and in an instant, his skin seemed to become a bit more delicate.

"Almost there?"

"Should be."

Chen Shu picked up the plug-in card and performed another comparison; he felt it was about right.

Then, after a simple test and calculation, he learned that if the same amount of Spirit Power was used, the protective capability was basically no different, and it was much stronger than the version of the Protective Divine Light used as a reference—Chen Shu's current Cultivation Rank was Second Rank Peak, and due to his innate talent, he was roughly close to an ordinary Third Rank Cultivator, while the Spirit Power Quality stored in the plug-in card was roughly at the Third Rank Middle Stage; in the comparison, he had to use calculations to erase the gap between them.

Probably no problem, right?

Chen Shu felt so.

He saved the document.

He inserted the Crystal Disk and logged into "Wide and Narrow Alley".

Mao Xiansheng: What is the progress?

Mao Xiansheng: Almost done, right?

Mao Xiansheng: How much longer?

Mao Xiansheng: You're offline again; may I ask how many years you get sentenced for getting caught logging into the Deep Net in your Yiguo?

Chen Shu frowned; why did this person talk so much? Every single day there were messages from him.

Qingcai Baiyu Tang: Basically done.

Mao Xiansheng: Really done?

Mao Xiansheng: What level can it reach?

Qingcai Baiyu Tang: My conditions are limited; I only briefly tested the protective effects against Spirit Power attacks, high temperatures, and force fields. It is basically consistent with the plug-in card, but errors cannot be ruled out.

Qingcai Baiyu Tang: You take it back and test it yourself for the specifics.

Qingcai Baiyu Tang: Also.

Qingcai Baiyu Tang: I only modified the Runes for the automatic activation part; theoretically, it should be fine, but I haven't tested it either, so you test it yourself.

Qingcai Baiyu Tang: Find me if there are any problems.

Mao Xiansheng: Can do.

Mao Xiansheng: If the test is correct, it's better than I expected, so you really are an educator at a Yiguo university, right?

Qingcai Baiyu Tang: /transfer money

Mao Xiansheng: /wipe sweat

Mao Xiansheng: Send it to me.

1000 Black Gold Coins obtained.

That was roughly equivalent to over one million in Yiguo currency.

It was a very large sum of money.

But usually, Chen Shu rarely cashed it out; whatever he earned in Wide and Narrow Alley would be used in Wide and Narrow Alley, and he tried his best to avoid purchasing physical items.

To avoid adding unnecessary risks.

Qingcai Baiyu Tang: Providing after-sales service; find me if there are any problems.

Mao Xiansheng: Logging off.

Chen Shu also pulled out the Crystal Disk, stood up and took two steps back, then fell directly onto the bed, letting out a long breath.

"Hoo..."

A troublesome matter was finished; from now on, he could save a large amount of time every day, and he would no longer have to schedule his time so tightly or sleep poorly.

It just so happened that the work at the museum was also coming to an end; according to Chen Jiaoshou, Chen Shu could get a salary of over twenty thousand.

So little.

Archaeology really has no future.

There were still about ten days until the start of the semester at Yujing Academy; thinking that he would be free soon, Chen Shu felt inexplicably unaccustomed to it.