My experience of grinding in another world

Chapter 67 Difficulty

Nanyang Prefecture, Shanglin Ward.

On the west side of the spacious courtyard is an octagonal pavilion, surrounded by an artificially dug pond.

The pool is connected to the Luohe River, which is not far away, through an underground passage, and flows slowly.

The water quality is excellent, crystal clear, and occasionally fish can be seen darting around at the bottom.

Chen Mu was dressed in a gray long gown, and his hair was tied up with a gray cloth.

He sat on a bench at the edge of the pavilion, leaning against a pillar. His right leg was crossed over his left knee.

Then he held his right foot and gestured wildly.

After picking at his right foot, he picked at his left foot, and Chen Mu sighed, "It's not easy to cultivate such charisma."

Since developing his inner strength, he has maintained a balanced diet, regularly consumes nourishing medicinal meals, and occasionally drinks specially prepared dairy products. Furthermore, he has never stopped practicing his mental focus in conjunction with breathing exercises.

But a month later, his soybean-sized courage remained unchanged.

Jie Jia, standing by the stone table under the pavilion, looked disgusted: "Power can circulate throughout the whole body, why do you have to stick your eyes out to look at my toes?!"

Chen Mu was taken aback, then looked embarrassed and annoyed: "I forgot!"

Jie Jia: "..."

Chen Mu casually put on his shoes and socks, shifted his focus to his palm, and continued to observe.

"Can one really cultivate one's soul to perfection in a hundred years?" Chen Mu was deeply skeptical. "By the time it's achieved, one will be dead soon."

"Yes." Jie Jia said calmly, looking down. "Whether you live or die, you'll know once you've mastered it."

"Could the Armor Soul really prolong life?" Chen Mu became interested.

Jie Jia remained silent.

Chen Mu shrugged, unconcerned; thinking about those things now was too far off. Right now, he was more concerned with nourishing his spirit.

"Is it only in the early stages of the Soul Journey that accumulation is so slow? Is it a matter of accumulating strength before unleashing it?"

"It's always been this slow." Jie Jia rubbed the silver beads leisurely. "You're slow on top of slow."

"The Red Falcon Form Training Technique is really rudimentary," Chen Mu sighed in disappointment.

The Wandering Soul is the source of the Armored Soul. Poor Form Training results in a poor Wandering Soul, with lower effects and slower accumulation. Without secret elixirs to shorten the accumulation time, it is absolutely impossible to cultivate an Armored Soul within a hundred years.

“There’s one more thing.” Jie Jia glanced at Chen Mu: “The meaning of ‘a hundred years of nurturing the soul’ is that you must cultivate the Armor Soul before the age of one hundred. It doesn’t mean that as long as you cultivate for a hundred years, you can cultivate the Armor Soul.”

"This is not a description, it is a requirement, it is a condition."

Chen Mu was taken aback.

He always thought that this sentence was a summary of cultivation.

It takes ten years to master physical training, and a hundred years to master spiritual training.

According to the armor, a martial artist must complete the physical training and cultivate the armor spirit before the age of one hundred!

Even judging from Jie Jia's attitude, this is only considered a passing grade!
Seeing that his courage was making no progress whatsoever, Chen Mu looked on in disbelief. This was too outrageous!
"Do you know how long it takes for an ordinary martial artist to master the basics of martial arts?" Jie Jia asked calmly.

"Over the past thirty years, a total of 246 people have died at my hands, all of whom have achieved the highest level of physical cultivation."

"Twenty-six years, that's the average time to achieve mastery of the form."

"The shortest period is five years, for direct descendants of aristocratic families."

"The longest one lasted forty-seven years, a wandering swordsman."

"Unless you have the bones of a Taoist."

Chen Mu froze on the spot.

Twenty-six years? That long?!
This is only the initial stage of physical refinement. There's still a century of soul cultivation to go!

No, it should be called "nourishing the soul at a hundred years old." In reality, the longest one can nourish the soul is only seventy or eighty years!

"According to you, mastering the Armor Soul is practically impossible!" Chen Mu gave him a look that said, "Are you kidding me?! Is there really anyone who can master it?!"

Jie Jia paused in rubbing the silver beads, his bright yellow eyes darting around as he glanced at Chen Mu.

"Have."

"You've seen it before?" Chen Mu asked, disbelieving.

"Me." Jie Jia said calmly.

Chen Mu: “…”

Hey!
After all that buildup, this is what you show me!
This came from Versailles...it was so unexpected.

……

Chen Mu didn't want to pay any attention to this smug old man.

He pulled a fist-sized white porcelain bottle from his sleeve and handed it to Jie Jia: "Do you recognize this medicine?"

Jiejia looked at Chen Mu's hand but did not take it.

Chen Mu rolled his eyes and placed the porcelain bottle on the stone table.

Jiejia took out a white handkerchief, and through it, uncorked the cork and took a look.

"You haven't eaten, have you?" Jie Jia glanced at Chen Mu.

I'm not stupid! I wouldn't dare take medicine that I don't know anything about.

Although the exact composition hasn't been fully analyzed, it does indeed replenish qi and blood. (This can be judged by the attitude of the person in charge...)

Chen Mu stared at the white porcelain bottle suspiciously: "Is there a problem?"

"It's called the Dragon Transformation Pill. It nourishes the vital energy and strengthens the foundation, accelerating the accumulation of blood and qi. It can shorten the time required for physical transformation and increase the chances of the birth of a wandering soul," Jie Jia said calmly.

"This is good stuff! How come... "There's a trace of 'Illuminating Palace Red' in the medicine. It contains vitality and is the main ingredient for accelerating body shaping."

"Consuming Zhaodianhong will pollute your essence, energy, and spirit, making your body impure and disordered."

"If the spirit essence is not pure, there is no way to open the Heavenly Gate."

"Similar elixirs in the martial arts world include the Marrow Extraction Pill and the Yellow Sprout Pill. Zhu Yi Pavilion sells them, want some?"

Chen Mu immediately shook his head.

Knowing there are potential risks, he won't eat indiscriminately.

But what about opening the Heavenly Gate? What is opening the Heavenly Gate?

"It's not too late to find out when you're a hundred years old," Jie Jia said calmly.

Is this the cultivation realm after the Armor Soul stage? Chen Mu pondered.

"Are there any unpolluted medicines in the martial arts world that can accelerate the nourishment of the soul?" Chen Mu was unwilling to give up.

"Do you know who distributed things like the Dragon Transformation Pill and the Marrow Extraction Pill?" Jie Jia asked instead of answering.

"A prominent family?" Chen Mu frowned, tentatively guessing.

Jie Jia nodded calmly.

"Isn't this a scourge upon the martial world?!" Chen Mu was shocked.

Using such short-sighted but potentially disastrous pills not only forces martial artists to risk their lives, but also limits their potential!
"Just a little trick to maintain our own position," Jie Jia said indifferently.

Chen Mu once again felt the cruelty of this world.

Developing a secret medicine to nourish the soul is time-consuming and laborious.

However, as long as one is willing to spend money and risk one's life, one can obtain marrow-extracting pills and yellow bud pills from aristocratic families.

Without knowing the potential risks, who would bother to research a formula for nourishing the soul?
Even knowing the hidden dangers, who can resist the temptation of nourishing the soul?
Over time, bad money drove out good. All the harmless elixirs ended up in the hands of powerful families. The path to advancement for wandering martial artists was gradually cut off.

Chen Mu sighed, "That's ruthless."

Fortunately, I asked Jiejia.

Otherwise, if you blindly buy pills to speed up your cultivation, wouldn't you be stepping into the trap set by powerful families?
Without the secret medicine to accelerate its growth, how long would it take to nurture this armor? Chen Mu was in a bad mood.

……

After a while, Chen Mu adjusted his mindset. Looking at the armored figure still rubbing silver beads, he couldn't help but sigh, "As expected of the Armor Soul Master, so knowledgeable."

Remembering there was another unidentified stone, he immediately got up, went back to his room, and brought it out: "Do you recognize this stone?"

"Ebony?" The armored man didn't even lift his eyelids slightly as he picked it up and examined it closely. "It's a pity it's not the heartwood, no wonder..."

"A good thing?" Chen Mu was overjoyed, but then realized what he meant and was filled with surprise: "This thing is wood?"

Regardless of its rough appearance or weight, it looked exactly like a dull, gray stone. I never expected it to be wood. Amazing!
"A tree that only sprouts and grows in volcanic craters."

"Legend has it that adult ebony trees reach to the heavens and the earth, drinking lava below and bathing in lightning above. Hundreds of tribes live on a single tree."

"You believe that?" Chen Mu asked, glancing sideways.

Jiejia stared at the ebony and shrugged: "Legend, huh..."

Chen Mu curled his lip, thinking, "What can it be used for?"

"To forge weapons," said the armored man, setting down the ebony.

"Aren't you afraid of fire?" Chen Mu asked, puzzled.

“It grew up eating lava,” Jie Jia said calmly.

"Isn't it just a legend?" Chen Mu asked in surprise.

Jie Jia did not offer any further explanation.

Chen Mu looked on with suspicion; the old man wasn't explaining himself clearly. Drinking magma, bathing in lightning—did such a tree even exist?
"Do you want to forge weapons?"

Chen Mu snapped out of his daze: "Of course!"

He had long wanted to forge two new short swords.

The hidden sword is becoming increasingly powerful, and the two short swords from before can no longer withstand its full force.

The hidden sword was damaged when Lin Que's short sword was forcibly broken last time.

Now that we have ebony, a material that can move armored soldiers to tears, we should naturally forge two new swords.

"I still have a few swords in good condition that I can melt down for use as materials."

He took all the items from the White Tiger Hall warehouse, intending to sell them for money.

“That’s enough,” Jie Jia said, pointing to the ebony.

He then glanced at Chen Mu and said, "It's best not to take out anything that bears the White Tiger Hall's mark."

"What White Tiger Hall?" Chen Mu asked, looking completely bewildered.

Still don’t admit it?

Jie Jia pursed his lips and shook his head: "The Jinghong Gang has put down a reward: 10,000 taels for anyone who can provide clues about Lin Que's death; 20,000 taels for finding the murderer; and 50,000 taels for the head."

"I'm not a bounty hunter, why are you telling me this?" Chen Mu frowned, looking puzzled.

"Isn't it you who did it?" Jie Jia rolled his eyes and glanced at Chen Mu.

"Old man, we've known each other for so long, am I really that worthless in your eyes?" Chen Mu's eyes were filled with disappointment, then he emphasized sincerely, "I'm just a law-abiding scholar, how could I possibly be involved in such a major murder case?!"

"You have a very deep misunderstanding about me." Chen Mu was filled with dejection.

With a flick of his skin, the shameless man revealed himself, just as always.

(End of this chapter)