Scenic Lake Gardens.

　　Unit 2601.

　　Fang Ping took off his shirt and muttered, somewhat wickedly, “I’m so curious about the environment in which girls cultivate.”

　　Fang Ping would take off his shirt every time when he cultivated The Methods of Honing.

　　One reason for that was to observe more clearly the effects brought upon by the refining of his Vitality.

　　Another was the inevitable discharge of unwanted blood every session.

　　The process was not like urination; the blood was discharged from his skin.

　　On a serious note, the girls did not take off their clothes, would just bring more sets of clean clothing to change into.

　　“There must be some girls who don’t wear any because they don’t want to bother with changing clothes!”

　　Fang Ping reached this conclusion and was determined to investigate this matter in depth.

　　He would only think about it, though. Fang Ping grinned, and he tossed those thoughts aside.

　　…

　　A few minutes later.

　　Fang Ping cleared his mind, assumed the Horse-riding Stance and entered the pole-standing state.

　　“When pole-standing is practiced in tandem with The Methods of Honing, it will cause vibrations in the bones and jolt one’s Vitality, so that the speed of its nourishment of the bones and vessels is increased.

　　“This will expend more Vitality. Normally, one would choose to hone either one of his four limbs first.

　　“The average person does not possess enough Vitality to hone the entire human body in one go — this also applies to those whose Vitality has reached 150cal, the limit for aspiring martial artists.”

　　As he maintained his stance, Fang Ping remembered the introduction Wang Jinyang had written in his books.

　　Maintaining a stance and honing his body at the same time would quicken Vitality expenditure.

　　When one’s Vitality was not high, he could only hone one of his limbs in this manner.

　　When his Vitality had surpassed 140cal, he could only hone two limbs at most.

　　If one wanted to keep his Vitality level consistent enough to hone his entire body in one go, he would have to cultivate and take supplemental pills simultaneously — but the speed in which one digested the pills could not keep up with his expenditure of Vitality.

　　“I’m not the average person, though!”

　　Fang Ping’s pride in his prodigal abilities showed on his face.

　　Replenishment could not keep up with expenditure in other’s cases, but Fang Ping did not need to take pills due to his possession of Wealth.

　　He could replenish his Vitality and Mentality swiftly with his Wealth.

　　That was why he had decided to hone his entire body while others could hone only one limb.

　　“Bring it on! Let me see the effects of my first full-body honing!”

　　Fang Ping was aware of his excellent condition today; he would definitely get a lot out of this.

　　His stance, initially firm, changed slightly.

　　All his muscles and bones started to vibrate slightly.

　　The vibrations were small!

　　Fang Ping appeared to be merely maintaining his Horse-riding Stance from afar, but one could feel small vibrations if they touched him.

　　As he maintained his stance, he divided his attention onto cultivating The Methods of Honing.

　　A vessel in his left arm, while not visible initially, turned into a murky black-purplish color instantly and protruded on his skin.

　　…

　　His refined Vitality kept on splashing on the exterior of his bones.

　　The vessel in his left arm moved in constant, wave-like undulations.

　　A few minutes later, the same thing happened to his right arm. The vessel protruded and undulated.

　　Fang Ping was currently drenched with sweat, panting ceaselessly.

　　The honing of both arms had already caused a drastic increase in his Vitality loss. Acutely, he felt signs of his weakened state.

　　“Replenish Vitality and Mentality!”

　　He uttered in his mind. Fang Ping did not check the points of Vitality and Mentality he had lost.

　　When a wave of fresh Vitality materialized in his body from nowhere, Fang Ping kept on honing his other limbs.

　　…

　　Full-body honing required more time and effort than he had ever imagined.

　　He had to repeat his need to replenish his Vitality and Mentality several times.

　　Even before inspecting his stats, Fang Ping knew that the cost would not be low.

　　…

　　Less than an hour later.

　　As he completed honing the exterior of his skull, Fang Ping relaxed and slumped onto the floor.

　　“Huff…”

　　Heavy panting reverberated in the room.

　　Fang Ping looked sinister with his blood and sweat all over him.

　　He did not bother with cleaning the filth off his body. The repeated consumption of Vitality and Mentality between his cultivation sessions made him desperate to know the amount of Wealth he had spent and also the increase of his limits.

　　He concentrated and focused his gaze on the system interface. Quickly, his stats appeared in front of him:

　　Wealth: 3181000

　　Vitality: 122cal (133cal)

　　Mentality: 144cal (154cal)

　　The corners of Fang Ping’s eyes twitched. He did not care about the pain over the huge loss; he filled up his Vitality and Mentality to the limit instantly.

　　After a moment, his Vitality and Mentality reached its limit once again:

　　Wealth: 3160000

　　Vitality: 133cal

　　Mentality: 154cal

　　One session of full-body honing while in stance had raised the limit of his Vitality to 133cal from 130cal.

　　His Mentality had seen an increase, too: from 152Hz to 154Hz.

　　The consumption of his Wealth was astounding!

　　He had 3.22 million left from the previous night after he had finished his stance training.

　　This cultivation session, including the replenishment of both his vitals after, had used up sixty thousand of his Wealth!

　　“A rough full-body honing raised my Vitality by 3cal and used up sixty thousand of my Wealth!

　　“The closer I am to the limit of an aspiring martial artist, the harder cultivation will be and the expenditure will be more.”

　　“My 3 million worth of Wealth will probably only be enough to sustain 50 cultivation sessions…”

　　Fang Ping cringed. According to his calculations, the first session would be the most effective.

　　The following sessions would yield less effect.

　　Which was to say, he would need ten to fifteen cultivation sessions to reach 150cal, the limit of an aspiring martial artist.

　　The Wealth he would need to spend would probably add up to a million.

　　If he wanted to go beyond 150cal, he would need to expend more.

　　His Wealth of 3 million would probably be emptied after he reached Rank-1.

　　“This is even more wasteful than taking pills!”

　　Fang Ping felt bad. He understood, though; he was prioritizing speed and thus did not rely on the natural functions of his body to recover.

　　The human body can replenish Vitality and Mentality automatically with the consumption of food and sleep.

　　Fang Ping had saved the time he would have needed to recover and was cultivating non-stop. He naturally spent more than the average person.

　　Fang Ping was actually quite willing to trade his Wealth for time, but he was so pained at the sight of his Wealth dwindling constantly that he could not breathe.

　　…

　　No matter how painful it was, he still had to live his life.

　　The next few days were days interspersed with happiness and sorrow.

　　As he spent huge amounts of Wealth on cultivation, the results of cultivating The Methods of Honing while maintaining his stance was evident.

　　Also, the news of Governor Zhang breaking through into Rank-7 spread as the physical assessment loomed.

　　A document was passed down to all schools with the news.

　　A new reward scheme!

　　…

　　Senior Three Class (4).

　　Fang Ping had assumed that the new scheme would be the subject of discussion among his classmates — most people would salivate over rewards totaling a million yuan — but no one was talking about it when he arrived at school on a Friday.

　　The classroom was filled with discussion, anyway.

　　“This is so scary!”

　　“I was shocked by the video even if it was shot from afar!”

　　“Grandmaster-level powerhouses are scary as hell! Did you see? Grandmaster Ma exploded the top of the mountain with just a punch!”

　　“Zhang Hao, quit with the b*llshit. I saw the video. It was so blurry that I saw nothing but a few stones shooting out from an explosion. How do you know that it was Grandmaster Ma who had punched through the peak?”

　　“Duh. Of course, it’s punched through by Grandmaster Ma!”

　　“Penguin Group has announced today that it’ll be venturing into the Asian market. Google hasn’t even said anything! It must be because of Tem’s loss to him!”

　　“It isn’t set in stone. The results aren’t announced…”

　　“Are you Chinese or not? If it isn’t Grandmaster Ma who won, who’ll it be? That white man?”

　　“What, I didn’t even say that Grandmaster Ma lost! It’s just that Tem has been in Rank-8 for some years…”

　　“…”

　　A cacophony of discussion and quarrels filled the classroom.

　　Not only were the martial sciences students discussing with gusto, the social sciences students were hyped up too.

　　Yang Jian, who was chatting with Chen Fan, saw Fang Ping enter the room. He then asked him excitedly, face flushed, “Fang Ping, have you watched the video from last night?

　　“I’m so f*cking hyped up!

　　“It’s freaking OP!

　　“Two Grandmasters duking it out, moving the ground and shaking mountains, their punches powerful enough to level mountains and drain rivers! Grandmasters are indeed invincible!”

　　Fang Ping looked on as the would-be-bearded fellow rambled on, so excited that he stumbled upon his words. He said, pained, “No. I don’t have a computer in my house.

　　“Are you guys discussing… The battle between Grandmaster Ma and Tem?”

　　“You didn’t see it?”

　　Yang Jian exclaimed disbelievingly, with an expression that belied his thoughts on the matter — that Fang Ping was doing himself a disservice by not watching, “The Internet practically exploded yesterday!

　　“Although the location of the battle between the two Rank-8 Grandmasters was not announced, reporters were already there past seven.

　　“Grandmasters cannot unleash their entire power while indoors, so Grandmaster Ma and Tem chose to battle in a mountain somewhere in the depths of the city.

　　“Although the reporter was far away and so could not capture the two of them on camera, the sound of it was enough to show how scary the battle is…

　　“Some reporters waited until everything died down to examine the site of the battle. You don’t know how scary the site is!

　　“There were holes everywhere! That’s a mountain made of stone, but they had turned it into a beehive…”

　　Yang Jian sounded excited. He waved his fists everywhere while specks of saliva flew. Fang Ping dodged him swiftly.

　　After he had calmed down somewhat, Fang Ping asked, “Is the video on the Internet?”

　　“Yes, it is! You should go watch!”

　　Yang Jian continued, “It’s a pity that we don’t get to see who won, but I’m sure that the winner’s Grandmaster Ma!”

　　Zhang Hao yelled from beside him, “Surely he is!”

　　As they carried on, someone entered from outside the classroom. It was Wu Zhihao, who had been missing.

　　Wu Zhihao could be considered as calm, normally, but excitement flooded his face at this moment.

　　As he came in, Wu Zhihao announced loudly, “The ranking of all Grandmasters has changed!

　　“Grandmaster Ma has moved up 64 ranks into the 28th from the 92nd!

　　“He’s so powerful!

　　“He’s in the Top 30!”

　　“Why is he only the 28th?” Someone shouted immediately, “Grandmaster Ma has beaten Tem. He should enter the Top 20 at least!”

　　“Did he not win yesterday?” someone asked.

　　The supporters of Brother Ma were immediately offended. Another said angrily, “He must’ve won! Why else would he enter the Top 30?”

　　“…”

　　Fang Ping’s head hurt at the commotion made by the crowd.

　　Although he had met martial artists personally and was cultivating himself, the frantic idolization of Brother Ma and Brother Ma’s mountain-exploding-punch still seemed unrealistic to him.

　　Fang Ping was alight with expectations while listening to their arguments.

　　He must go to an internet cafe this afternoon and see for himself how strong those Grandmaster-level powerhouses were.

　　Although no one was captured in the video, according to what everyone had said, he could formulate some hypotheses if he saw the site of the battle personally.

　　Now, Fang Ping still lacked an understanding of the degree of damage a martial artist could inflict.

　　As for Governor Zhang’s breakthrough and the new reward scheme… They would have to be put aside for the time being.