After Han left, Su Chen began to ripen the medicinal herbs.
The Path of the Body.
Fifth Grade Skin and Flesh Realm, Fourth Grade Bone Marrow Realm, Third Grade Marrow Cleansing Realm, Second Grade Internal Organ Realm, and the First-grade Leakless Realm. At Circulation Perfection, the body becomes completely Leakless, and one is known as a Junior Grandmaster.
The Eighteen Golden Body Technique was a very high-grade method. It could likely be cultivated all the way to the level of a Peak First Grade Junior Grandmaster.
But beginning its cultivation was also very difficult.
The threshold was extremely high.
It required a hundred-year-old Treasure Medicine that increased Qi and blood, the Blood-Nourishing Plant, just to start the cultivation.
The older the Qi Blood Treasure Medicine, the better its effects, and the higher the quality of the Golden Body's Qi and blood it would produce.
Horizontal External Cultivation, much like Internal Cultivation Methods, depended not only on cultivation talent but also on Martial Dao resources.
Consider two Martial Arts Prodigies of the same level.
A Martial Arts Prodigy on the Path of Qi could soar to the heavens with just one good Heart Method.
But a Martial Arts Prodigy on the Path of Martial Arts couldn't take off with only a good Horizontal External Cultivation technique. However, with the addition of massive resources, they could definitely ascend far faster than their Path of Qi counterpart.
'Treasure Medicine?'
'That's one thing I don't lack. I can have as much as I want.'
'Start the Eighteen Golden Body Technique with a mere hundred-year-old Treasure Medicine?'
'Who do you take me for?'
'As if I can't afford it.'
'I'll use it.'
'Use one for consumption, and one for soaking.'
And so, Su Chen began the ripening process.
It was an insane plan. He prepared to use two Thousand-Year Vital Essence Medicines—one to ingest, and one for an external bath—just to begin the Eighteen Golden Body Technique.
Even the creator of the Eighteen Golden Body Technique probably wasn't as crazy as Su Chen, extravagantly squandering a Thousand-Year Treasure Medicine just to cross the threshold of a cultivation technique.
After all, a single Thousand-Year Treasure Medicine could indirectly create a Second Grade master.
The Qi Blood Treasure Medicines Su Chen chose were the Blood-Nourishing Plant and the Qi Condensing Fruit.
These were arguably the two best Qi Blood Treasure Medicines for starting the Eighteen Golden Body Technique.
Soon, forty strands of Longevity True Qi were completely consumed.
In their place before him were a Blood-Nourishing Plant that looked like a bonsai tree emitting a red glow, and a White Jade Fruit with golden patterns that shimmered in the sun.
Now, only twenty-eight strands of Longevity True Qi remained swirling in Su Chen's Dantian.
And they showed no signs of regenerating.
"?"
Su Chen was a little surprised.
He looked at the two Thousand-Year Treasure Medicines before him, then at the Dogtail Grass, and then in the direction where the Thousand-year-old Ginseng King was stored. Understanding dawned on him.
As long as the Longevity True Qi he had infused into the Treasure Medicines hadn't dissipated, the Longevity True Qi inside his body couldn't regenerate.
He mentally tallied up his invested Qi: the forty strands he just used, one strand in the Dogtail Grass, and thirty-one in the Ginseng King.
His total Longevity True Qi, it turned out, had already reached one hundred strands—a number that surpassed the limit for a Martial Arts Prodigy.
'So there's this restriction, too.'
As Su Chen came to this realization, the idea of making money by selling hundred-year-old Treasure Medicines died in his heart.
If any Treasure Medicine he ripened ended up in someone else's hands, he would have no control over whether they used it, meaning he would permanently lose the Longevity True Qi invested in it.
'A hundred strands of Longevity True Qi isn't quite enough,' Su Chen mused. He popped the Qi Condensing Fruit into his mouth, his cheeks puffing out like a hamster's. He then cut the small, tree-like Blood-Nourishing Plant into pieces and placed them in a wooden basin. After disrobing, he sat cross-legged in the water to begin cultivating the Eighteen Golden Body Technique.
A strange, fragrant aroma began to permeate the entire Library Pavilion.
Luckily, the place was extremely remote.
Otherwise, a Chief Steward of the Imperial Palace would have long since been drawn by the scent to investigate.
A night passed.
Su Chen opened his eyes.
The water in the wooden tub, once as red as blood, was now as clear as mountain spring water. The Qi Condensing Fruit in his mouth had long since dissolved like water and flowed into his internal organs.
BOOM!
The wooden basin shattered into pieces.
At that moment, surging Qi and blood coursed through Su Chen's body, making him radiate heat like a furnace. The heavy, powerful THUMP of his heartbeat echoed violently.
The naked Su Chen took a heavy, unsteady step forward, intending to get dressed. But with each step, he left deep footprints in the bluestone tiles beneath his feet.
RIP.
His clothes tore apart the moment he tried to put them on.
His body was a furnace, his heart a great bell, and every single step held the force of a thousand pounds.
This was a state only a top-level Martial Arts Prodigy could achieve at the peak of the Fifth Realm, Blood and Flesh Realm Perfection.
And yet, Su Chen had only just entered the Blood and Flesh Realm. He hadn't even begun to temper his flesh and blood to perfection, but he had already reached a state comparable to a top-level Martial Arts Prodigy at Blood and Flesh Realm Perfection.
'Let's test it out.'
Su Chen walked up to a massive bluestone and threw a punch.
The Fifth Realm of the Path of the Body was much stronger than the Path of Qi. With this punch, he expected he could probably leave a fist print on the bluestone.
Just as he was thinking this,
BOOM!
The bluestone, so large it would take two people to encircle it, exploded into countless flying fragments.
"Uh..."
Su Chen stared, dumbfounded, and slapped a hand to his forehead.
He was strong.
He knew that now!
He could probably beat a weaker Fourth Grade cultivator until they screamed for mercy.
But...
'how long is it going to take to clean up this mess?'
...
The night deepened.
Great Liang was located in the Northern Lands.
It snowed often.
And tonight, it was snowing again.
Now that he had reached such a tyrannical Fifth Grade Blood and Flesh Realm, Su Chen finally had some power to protect himself. If he had to rely on his Fifth Grade Internal Qi Realm, which only increased Vitality, his enemies would probably be howling with pleasure after just a few hits.
That night, Su Chen slept soundly.
Early the next morning, the True Qi in Su Chen's body had recovered to sixty-eight strands.
If not for the fact that the Thousand-year-old Ginseng King's medicinal properties were too immense, and that releasing it to the world would absolutely stir up a bloody storm across all of Great Liang, Su Chen would have already used it himself or sold it to someone else to get his thirty-one strands of Longevity True Qi back.
The medicinal potency of the two Thousand-Year Vital Essence Medicines was substantial.
Basically, Su Chen's body was saturated with medicinal power.
Even without actively cultivating the Eighteen Golden Body Technique to temper his body, his flesh and blood were being automatically refined by the medicinal power. With time, he would eventually advance to the peak of the Blood and Flesh Realm, and the power would even seep into his bones and muscles, refining them until he reached the peak of the Fourth Grade Bone Marrow Realm, or perhaps even higher.
After all, since the founding of Great Liang, no one had ever heard of someone using a Thousand-Year Treasure Medicine just to begin a Horizontal External Cultivation technique.
And two of them at once, no less.
Thousand-Year Treasure Medicines were always used for saving lives, or for helping a Peak Third Grade master break through to Second Grade.
Time passed quickly.
Ever since he had attracted the trouble with the Black-robed Envoy the last time he left the Library Pavilion to find Zhang Gui, Su Chen hadn't gone out again. In any case, he had Han to serve him from below and Zhang Gui to look after him from above. He was living a very comfortable life in the Imperial Palace, doing nothing but eating.
On the last day of the twelfth month, Han no longer came by as often.
When Zhang Gui found success, his whole household rose with him.
As Zhang Gui's godson, Xu Xiaohan, relying on the merit he gained from serving Su Chen, had also officially become a Fifth Grade cultivator and the deputy of a Blue-robed Steward. He was now busy from dawn till dusk.
His daily meal deliveries were now handled by a newly arrived Little Black-robed Eunuch.
Only when Su Chen or Zhang Gui needed something would he hurry over to the Library Pavilion.
On this day, the Little Black-robed Eunuch stood respectfully by Su Chen's side, waiting until he had finished his meal before clearing the dishes and leaving.
It hadn't snowed for some time.
Su Chen was in his medicinal garden, loosening the soil and clearing away the remaining snow, waiting for the two main ingredients for the Heart-devouring Powder to sprout.
The other herbs were easy to deal with; low-year herbs could be collected.
But these two were far too rare. He had only been able to find seeds, and they would only have a chance of survival if Su Chen planted them himself.
A Second Grade poison, the Heart-devouring Powder.
This was the most powerful tool Su Chen could prepare.
'Looks like they'll take root and sprout in another two days, and I can harvest them in a week. The remains of that Peak Third Grade master are nourishing this poison grass quite well,' Su Chen mused to himself.
Just then, an inopportune voice rang out in the courtyard.
"What audacity! A mere Black-robed Eunuch, how dare you have another Eunuch serve your meals? You've even destroyed a corner of the Grand Ancestor's Library Pavilion to plant herbs! Such lawlessness! Do you know this is a capital offense?"