CHAPTER 100: CHAPTER 92 INNER QI_2

Chen Ku searched around inside the room. He found many small stone locks he had purchased during his Strength Training phase, each weighing over one hundred pounds. These could be used to add weight to the larger stone locks. The small locks were made of Pine Steel Rock, a material unique to this world, which had a high mass density; each one, despite weighing over one hundred pounds, was only about the size of a watermelon.

He casually bent down to pick one up, his eyes shining like lightning. He channeled a strand of Inner Qi mixed with the Four Symbols Power of the Flower Fox Mink, concentrating it all on his fingertips, and swung the hundred-pound stone lock. With that movement, he could clearly feel that his strand of Inner Qi, fused with the Four Symbols Power, had created a new type of strength—"Qi Power."

Swinging it felt like swinging a light plastic bag.

Then, he drew upon his Golden-eyed White Jade Sculpture. He jumped onto the roof and looked at the fetid ditch several miles away. It was empty and deserted. Holding the stone lock, he gathered all his "Qi Power" and threw it in that direction.

WHOOSH!

As the stone lock left his hand, it shot through the air as if released from a great bow, its speed and force creating a series of sonic booms.

It flew five miles away!

BOOM! It smashed a hole four to five meters wide where it landed, sending dust flying everywhere, as if a cannonball had struck the spot.

Chen Ku was delighted. A hundred-pound stone, and I could throw it so far with just my arm strength! It feels like my Pure Force Power has transformed into "Qi Power" and enhanced every aspect of my abilities, just like a carp leaping through the Dragon Gate. Especially when combined with my Hundred Li Eye, the precision has improved. With this kind of ability, it wouldn’t be an overstatement to call myself a human catapult. If the projectile were even harder, I feel like I could even besiege cities! Throwing a hundred-pound projectile from four or five miles away could smash an ordinary county town’s stone wall to rubble. I’m practically a human cannon!

And this is just after I joyously entered the Inner Qi Realm and transformed my Force Power into Qi Power! I feel like I’ve gained the strength of two or three more elephants, bringing me to about six or seven elephants’ worth of force. Just a wisp of Qi Power from Qi Sensation can enhance my strength by half. If...

He was just pondering this when he felt the wisp of Inner Qi, as fine as a silk thread within him, suddenly dissipate.

Hmm? So this is Qi Sensation? I can only refine a wisp of Inner Qi as fine as a silk thread, and it’s gone after a single use... No wonder there are still the Sufficient Qi, Robust Qi, and Full Qi stages ahead!

Chen Ku understood just from the names that Sufficient Qi wouldn’t be like his current state, where his Qi Power was depleted after only a brief exertion.

Replenishing Qi Power is like replenishing physical stamina; it also requires a massive infusion of Vital Energy to be converted into Blood Essence. I read about ’Full Qi’ in the Internal Qi Chapter. When one reaches the Great Perfection of the Inner Qi Realm, Qi fills the entire body, every limb and bone. At that point, Qi Power becomes indistinguishable from physical strength. That is the true peak of the Inner Qi Realm.

He sighed. He had only just crossed the threshold of a Martial Practitioner’s cultivation; there was still a long road ahead.

The supply of Treasure Herbs must continue. They are precisely the ’food’ most needed in the Inner Qi Realm. Now that I have achieved Qi Sensation, the rate at which I can acquire Treasure Herbs will likely determine the speed of my Inner Qi accumulation.

Chen Ku calculated in his mind: One Ordinary Treasure Herb is worth one hundred taels and can save an ordinary Martial Practitioner two to three months of effort. Master Yang said that for an ordinary person cultivating Qi, progressing from Qi Sensation to Full Qi without Treasure Herbs—relying purely on the subtle energies from the five grains—takes at least ten years. By that calculation, to accumulate enough Inner Qi quickly, I’d need at least fifty or sixty Ordinary Treasure Herbs like Tiger’s Head Ginseng or Ox Horn Shoot. This would be entirely funded by silver, unless I can get my hands on ’Quality Treasure Herbs’ with higher medicinal value... like the Nine-Leaf Sheep-fat Tuber and Hundred-Year Purple Yellow Essence I handled at Medicine King Hall. Those are Quality Treasure Herbs; a single one provides as much Vital Energy as a dozen or twenty Ordinary Treasure Herbs. Or perhaps finished Pills, like these.

Chen Ku took out two Qi Revival Pills from a box in the courtyard, which he had found on Huang Gun.

Among the Inner Qi Realm Pills available at Medicine King Hall, the Qi Revival Pill is considered middle-grade, with one Pill priced the same as a Treasure Herb. All Disciples and regular masters at Medicine King Hall could use their monthly wages to purchase one such Qi Revival Pill, valued at about one hundred taels of silver, for their cultivation. Medicine King Hall does not distribute cultivation Pills to Disciples; it only provides salaries.

Chen Ku was now a Disciple, no longer an Apprentice who received no salary. He now also received a monthly wage of one hundred taels. This was because Medicine King Hall was, after all, a business, and its Disciples and masters were merely employees. A salary was considered sufficient. Only by becoming a Shopkeeper, a senior master, or one of certain indispensable masters with special talents would one qualify for profit-sharing and participation in the distribution of important resources. However, the bulk of the profits still went to the Owners behind the scenes.

It’s just like the workers on the fishing boats in my previous life. On a fishing trip, the boat captain pays a fixed wage, and the workers put in a fixed amount of effort. Whether the catch is worth ten million or a hundred thousand is no concern of the workers; the profit belongs solely to the boat owner. It doesn’t mean that if you become one of the captain’s fishermen, the captain will provide fish for all the workers’ meals on the boat. Even if you were a minor supervisor, you couldn’t expect to eat expensive fish like star snapper or tuna every day. The captain wouldn’t supply that; such treatment is for his own kin, not for workers. You’re given a wage, so why not buy it yourself? Who eats such costly food for every meal anyway?

At this moment, looking at the two Pills in his hand, Chen Ku had already identified them based on the Qi Revival Pills sold in the hall; they were genuine. Previously, not having reached the Inner Qi Realm, he couldn’t consume them. But now...