Chapter 106: A Rank-1 Martial Artist!

　　Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

　　September 4th, Thursday.

　　New Students Dormitory Area One.

　　Fang Ping did not train today. He prepared himself mentally and waited for Lu Fengrou to arrive.

　　Three medicinal pills were on the coffee table—a Rank-1 Vitality Pill, a Rank-1 Bone-honing Pill, and a Rank-1 Viscera-shielding Pill.

　　He had gotten these medicinal pills a long time ago but had not used them.

　　Aside from the pills in front of him, Fang Ping still had 18 Normal Vitality Pills and 7 Rank-1 Blood and Qi-replenishing Pills on hand: an ample quantity for a new student.

　　However, according to what other people said, Fang Ping’s breakthrough would not be too dangerous as he was thrice-honed, so he might only need the Rank-1 Vitality Pill.

　　However, money was an external object; only his life was his own.

　　Fang Ping was not willing to subject himself to unnecessary danger for the sake of saving some medicinal pills.

　　…

　　Lu Fengrou did not arrive very early. She only arrived at 9 o’clock.

　　When she came in, Lu Fengrou looked around. When she saw the pills on the coffee table, she smiled wryly and said, “You’ve prepared more than enough.”

　　The new students’ martial arts licenses would be issued today, and Fang Ping did not attend training, so it was clear he could not have gotten them.

　　That being the case, these medicinal pills were prepared by Fang Ping himself.

　　Lu Fengrou was very clear on Fang Ping’s familial background. It was no easy task for him to be able to collect the 3 medicinal pills in front of her eyes before coming to the martial arts university.

　　Many society elites who worked hard for several years could not collect them.

　　Lu Fengrou did not blather on and said in a low voice, “What is the boundary for aspiring martial artists to break through Rank-1?”

　　“The meridians’ expansion!”

　　“You’ve cultivated “the Methods of Honing” before, so you should be clear on the effects of “the Methods of Honing”. It opens up the major blood vessels in your body, letting your Vitality flow smoothly. Your Vitality nourishes your bones and body.

　　“An aspiring martial artist who has cultivated “the Methods of Honing” only cultivated the major vessels. There are 14 major vessels passing through the entire human body.

　　“Of course, this is the general consensus. The human body is a most complicated structure. It might still be hard to identify exactly how many vessels are in the human body even now.

　　“An aspiring martial artist breaks through Rank-1 to allow more minor blood vessels to be opened up, which allows Vitality to penetrate deeper to hone the bones and body.

　　“You’re probably preparing to hone your lower limbs, right?”

　　“Uh-huh.”

　　Fang Ping nodded. This was what he had prepared to do a long time ago.

　　“Since you’re preparing to hone your lower limbs first, you’ll need to expand the blood vessels in your lower limbs in preparation for future honing.”

　　After Lu Fengrou said this, she asked, “Up till now, the expansion of the lower limbs’ blood vessels requires a total of expanding 62 minor vessels. Are you clear on this?”

　　Fang Ping swiftly answered, “I know. The human body has 206 bones and a corresponding 206 minor vessels. Each minor vessel corresponds to one bone, which is preparation for a deeper level of honing the bones.

　　“The lower limbs have a total of 62 bones…”

　　These were all in the “Basic Cultivation Methods”. They had been tested on this in general studies too. Fang Ping still had some understanding of this.

　　“Are you clear on the distribution of these 62 minor vessels then?”

　　“Clear…”

　　Lu Fengrou cut to the chase and opened a human body blueprint, saying, “Point out where each of the 62 minor vessels are and tell me the order you should expand them. If you know all of this, you can choose to break through.

　　“Remember, you must be familiar with these! If you’re not familiar and randomly expand them, don’t blame me if you cripple yourself!”

　　Fang Ping took her words seriously and swiftly nodded his head. He would not treat his own life like it was a joke. That was obvious from the way he prepared three pills.

　　He pointed out where the blood vessels and minor vessels were on the blueprint one by one according to the order he should start expanding.

　　Lu Fengrou remained silent and waited for him to finish before saying, “You qualify. Use the Viscera-shielding Pill first, then the Bone-honing Pill. Only use the Vitality Pill when you feel like your Vitality is insufficient when you’re opening up your minor vessels. Use the Vitality Pill’s Vitality boost to have an outburst and continue to expand the half-sealed minor vessels.

　　“These 62 minor vessels aren’t completely sealed, just half-sealed, so clearing them is not too difficult.

　　“With your Vitality, the possibility of you opening all of them up is quite high, even if you don’t use the Vitality Pill.

　　“Other than that…”

　　Lu Fengrou paused for a second, then suddenly blurted, “You sure are afraid of dying!”

　　Fang Ping was embarrassed. She just had to say it!

　　Was he not just preparing all that was necessary?

　　Possessing medicinal pills but not using them, choosing to risk it—that was foolish. If there was a success rate of 100 out of 100, there was no need to test out a method with a 99% success rate.

　　Fang Ping did not dare to retort and started using the medicine to prepare for the breakthrough.

　　Lu Fengrou stood at the side watching, and did not say anything else.

　　She actually felt that her presence was unnecessary, as Fang Ping had the strength of being thrice-honed, on top of preparing three medicinal pills!

　　If his breakthrough failed, other aspiring martial artists might as well kill themselves!

　　Who would be as wasteful as Fang Ping!

　　A Rank-1 Vitality Pill had a market price of 300 thousand!

　　A Rank-1 Bone-honing Pill had a market price of 500 thousand!

　　A Rank-1 Viscera-shielding Pill had a market price of 600 thousand!

　　These three added up was 1.4 million. Adding his daily cultivation, the aspiring Rank-1 Fang Ping used up much more resources than other Rank-1 martial artists.

　　For the breaking through to the Rank-1 realm, very few people would use a Viscera-shielding Pill, unless their families were incredibly rich.

　　…

　　The expansion of 62 minor vessels was simpler than he imagined.

　　Although the number of minor vessels was high, they were not fully sealed off.

　　Fang Ping was thrice-honed and had a Vitality that reached 209cal. He had already cleared a portion of the minor vessels.

　　Once he used the Viscera-shielding Pill and Bone-honing Pill, he had already cleared through more than 10 minor vessels in the blink of an eye without needing to use the Vitality Pill.

　　Fang Ping even felt he should take some time to observe the depletion of his Vitality.

　　Upon his observation, he noticed it depleted less than he had expected:

　　Vitality: 198cal (215cal)

　　A portion of his minor vessels had been cleared up, and Fang Ping’s Vitality limit increased by 6cal. Moreover, only 11cal of his Vitality had been exhausted.

　　Feeling a great wave of relief, Fang Ping started to focus on clearing through his minor vessels.

　　…

　　Half an hour later.

　　Fang Ping had already cleared more than half of his minor vessels.

　　At this moment, his Vitality changed yet again.

　　Vitality: 175cal (225cal)

　　…

　　Off to the side, Lu Fengrou sneezed. This was a boringly predictable breakthrough process.

　　At the pace Fang Ping was going, he would be able to clear through them all without using the Vitality Pill.

　　…

　　Another half an hour later.

　　Currently, only two out of Fang Ping’s 62 minor vessels had not been cleared through.

　　He had spent more Vitality than he had expected.

　　Vitality: 132cal (234cal)

　　Fang Ping considered for a moment, then shot out a hand to shove the Rank-1 Vitality Pill at his side into his mouth.

　　The corner of Lu Fengrou’s mouth twitched. Previously, she had found it unbearable to watch her students being reckless and unafraid of death.

　　Now, it was the opposite?

　　She did not know how to feel meeting a student who was so afraid to die!

　　She could easily tell that Fang Ping’s Vitality was still very high—at least around 130cal.

　　Under these circumstances, even if he had half of his vessels left to expand rather than just a few, some people would still push on.

　　Normal aspiring martial artists only had a Vitality of 150cal, so they would need to rely on the assistance of medicinal pills.

　　Fang Ping was much stronger than that, yet he still wanted to use the pills!

　　Lu Fengrou did not want to comment anymore. If Fang Ping’s breakthrough failed, she would change her account names to “I Am Blind”!

　　…

　　Another seven or eight minutes passed.

　　Fang Ping’s eyes opened suddenly. He released a long breath and said with a joyous expression on his face, “Instructor, I’ve broken through!”

　　“Uh-huh.”

　　Lu Fengrou’s response was very plain. Was it unexpected?

　　Was it surprising?

　　It was completely predictable, alright!

　　Lu Fengrou waved aside Fang Ping’s joy and said calmly, “You should take the opportunity now that you’ve just cleared your minor vessels and cultivate “the Methods of Honing” first. Use a Normal Vitality Pill to replenish your Vitality. Let’s see how high your peak Vitality is now?”

　　A regular martial artist who just broke through Rank-1 had a Vitality of around 180cal.

　　Fang Ping was different. He was a newly broken-through martial artist who had been thrice-honed and had a Vitality of 209cal before he had broken through.

　　Xie Lei, the other thrice-honed in MCMAU, did not reach this step. Once she broke through 200cal, she quickly entered Rank-1.

　　Regarding accumulation, Xie Lei was not as good as Fang Ping.

　　…

　　Lu Fengrou was not surprised, but Fang Ping was stunned!

　　He had started cultivating in April up till now, which was about 5 months.

　　To other people, 5 months were very short, but to Fang Ping, 5 months was a very, very long time!

　　He had envied and revered martial artists since he first learned about them, and now, he had become an official martial artist—he could not contain his ecstasy!

　　Even if he did not recover his Vitality, he knew how high it was.

　　Currently, Fang Ping’s stats menu had changed drastically:

　　Wealth: 6635000

　　Vitality: 145cal (239cal)

　　Mentality: 189Hz (219Hz)

　　Because the effects of the Rank-1 Vitality Pill he had used were still active, his Vitality was still slowly recovering.

　　Fang Ping had not touched his Wealth points this time. The 5000 Wealth points spent had been because he wanted to maintain his peak condition previously.

　　The expansion of 62 minor vessels had increased his Vitality limit by 30cal and his Mentality limit by 10Hz!

　　Fang Ping still remembered the time he asked Tan Zhenping how high his Vitality was.

　　Tan Zhenping had told him that he could have a Vitality of 250cal at his peak.

　　Moreover, Fang Ping had not yet started a deep-level honing. He had not honed a single bone out of his 62 lower limb bones, so there was still a large room for improvement in his body’s limit.

　　At the moment, Fang Ping’s Vitality had already reached 239cal!

　　How much could he have by the time he finished honing his lower limbs?

　　If each honed bone could only increase his limit by even 1cal, his Vitality would still be able to reach 300cal, which was much higher than normal martial artists!

　　Thrice-honing did not just increase the speed of cultivation, it also increased the limit. His stamina and power of outbursts would also become stronger!

　　Lu Fengrou asked him to replenish his Vitality. As Fang Ping could not use his Wealth points to replenish it in front of her, he could only gulp down a Normal Vitality Pill.

　　Fang Ping swallowed the Vitality Pill reluctantly.

　　One Normal Vitality Pill sold for 100 thousand outside!

　　If he had used his Wealth points, it would have taken close to 100 thousand Wealth points to replenish his Vitality too, but the 100 thousand Wealth points would have helped him recover to his peak.

　　A Normal Vitality Pill was not only slow, it was also very hard for a single Normal Vitality Pill to fully replenish his Vitality.

　　Fang Ping snuck a glance at Lu Fengrou and secretly used his Wealth points to replenish his Vitality while relying on the pill.

　　His Wealth points still ended with the digits of 35000. He would reconsider after they were used up.

　　…

　　‘Huh?’

　　As Fang Ping used both the pill and Wealth points to recover, Lu Fengrou noticed something.

　　‘His Vitality is recovering unusually quickly!’

　　Lu Fengrou was a little shocked. ‘Its efficiency is shocking. Is he absorbance of medicinal pills’ effects that strong?’

　　‘Or are all the thrice-honed like this?’

　　Despite her position, she had not met many thrice-honed martial artists—in fact, she met very few.

　　Moreover, they were not her close acquaintances, so she could not observe while they cultivated.

　　Fang Ping was her student, which was why she could unscrupulously watch Fang Ping cultivating.

　　However, Lu Fengrou did not expect Fang Ping to achieve this effect from just one Normal Vitality Pill. Before her eyes, Fang Ping’s Vitality became thicker and thicker!

　　‘It’s close to 200cal already…’

　　‘So fast!’

　　Lu Fengrou thought for a moment and suddenly said, “Eat another Vitality Pill!”

　　The corner of Fang Ping’s mouth twitched. He blinked. “Instructor… Why don’t we just wait for it to replenish naturally… Also, the pill’s effect is still not fully digested yet…”

　　Lu Fengrou snapped impatiently. “I have Normal Vitality Pills. When you finish them, I’ll give you more!”

　　She had given Fang Ping 10 pills, yet Fang Ping was being so stingy with them. This both amused and frustrated her.

　　On top of that, Fang Ping’s absorbance rate and efficiency towards the power of medicinal pills did indeed shock her. She very much wanted to see if this kid could fully absorb the effects of two medicinal pills in one go.

　　Unable to refuse, Fang Ping took yet another Vitality Pill. He only had 16 Normal Vitality Pills and 7 Rank-1 Vitality Pills left now.

　　Of course, Fang Ping’s absorbance rate of medicinal pills was not out of the ordinary.

　　Worried that Lu Fengrou would want him to eat more pills, Fang Ping had no choice but to continue using his Wealth points to recover his Vitality.

　　This went on for another half an hour.

　　Fang Ping’s Vitality recovered to its peak.

　　Wealth: 6580000

　　Vitality: 239cal

　　Mentality: 200Hz (219Hz)

　　Lu Fengrou’s gaze, as she stared at Fang Ping, was full of curiosity.

　　In about an hour, Fang Ping had absorbed and digested two Normal Vitality Pills!

　　Others, even those of her level, had a digestion rate that was only a little faster than Fang Ping’s.

　　A kid who had just entered Rank-1 had a medicinal pill absorbance rate that was comparable to a Rank-4 martial artist!

　　‘His Vitality is somewhere between 230 to 250.’

　　Lu Fengrou made an estimate and dropped the subject of pill absorbance rate. She was satisfied. “Not bad. An average martial artist can be happy having 180cal after breaking through.

　　“A twice-honed martial artist has around 200cal.

　　“You start off with more than 230cal of Vitality, a big advantage!

　　“If your Vitality, outburst strength and stamina are strong, your honing speed will also be faster…

　　“It seems thrice-honing brings a lot of benefits. If it’s possible, the school should endeavor to groom more thrice-honed in the future…”

　　Lu Fengrou stopped halfway and shook her head. Thrice-honing depleted too many resources and took up too much time. It was not suitable for everyone

　　This method could not be popularized. If it could, the school would have done it a long time ago.

　　Even twice-honing was not something everybody could manage.

　　Furthermore, if they did not let the students break through and made them stay in the aspiring martial artist stage, the students would feel very pressured.

　　Martial artists and aspiring martial artists were viewed very differently—even if they were twice-honed or thrice-honed!

　　“You’ve just broken through today, so familiarize yourself with your sudden increase of Vitality.

　　“Tomorrow…

　　“No, this Saturday, come look for me with Zhao Xuemei. You two don’t have to go to my house, just go to the new students’ training gym. I’ll teach you guys something!

　　“You two are already martial artists. I’ve seen you in action, and your basic leg technique is alright, but you lack the moves to increase the speed of your outburst. You’re too poised. Your lethality is lacking.

　　“I’ll teach you two some life-protecting moves, then your assignments will be to hone your bones, vessels and body as well as study some cultural studies and basic martial sciences theory.”

　　With those words, Lu Fengrou did not linger and left immediately.

　　After she left, Fang Ping eagerly picked up his phone. He had just broken through and become a martial artist; he had to share the good news!