Chapter 16: Choosing

If it were in the past, Chen Chao definitely would not start to temper his body when there was someone else at home. But, the present situation was different. Firstly, it was because time was indeed pressing. Currently, he had already reached the peak of Spirit Platform Realm. He just needed one step and he would be able to step foot into the higher Divine Trove Realm, becoming a Divine Trove martial artist. Secondly, it was indeed also because of the teenage girl in front of him. After spending many days together, he had lost his initial vigilance towards her.

Considered to be half a friend.

He poured those medicinal powders into a large pot one bottle after another. There was a difference in the order and also a minute difference in time. Although the youth in black shirt had long already memorized the contents of the book, he did not dare to commit any carelessness every time he brewed medicine. Martial artists boiled their bodies with spirit medicines to temper their bodies. To martial artists, apart from having special cultivation methods, boiling the body with spirit medicines was an indispensable reason why they could possess an unparalleled physique.

As the temperature in the large iron pot continued to rise, wafts of light fragrance overflowed. Chen Chao took out a bottle of special medicinal liquid and poured it into the pot. Then, he started stirring continuously. This pot of medicinal soup had to be boiled for a full 24 hours; which was also an entire day. Only then, could the maximum medicinal effect be produced.

However, cultivation sects had special medicinal cauldrons for brewing medicines. Even the medicinal cauldrons in the Great Liang Dynasty's army were much more effective than this youth's large iron pot. However, the young only had this set-up at the moment.

"If martial artists can use spirit medicines to boil their bodies and achieve the toughness of the body from there, what about other cultivators? Can't they learn that? This way, when they fight with martial artists, they wouldn't be so afraid of martial artists in close combat, right?"

Xie Nandu was worthy of being the descendant that White Deer's Xie Clan pour their efforts to groom. When she was watching Chen Chao boil the medicine, she gave birth to some ideas too.

"They won't."

Chen Chao did not even lift his head. He was currently observing the situation in the pot in seriousness and was in no mood to lift his head to look at Xie Nandu's curious face. He just muttered to himself, "Immortal cultivators cultivate far easier than martial artists, they won't choose this method."

He did not make his words clear. Using spirit medicines to boil the body was an unorthodox path in the first place. What it targeted was the martial artist lineage that insisted on cultivating despite their poor aptitudes. Immortal cultivators were endowed by heaven in the first place, why would they need to follow them?

Even if they had the intention, the vast majority of people likely could not withstand that bone-stabbing pain too.

The further to the back, the harder the cultivation for martial artists. Each time one tempered their body towards the back, they would have to suffer immense agony. It was no different from having their skin flayed and their tendons pulled out.

Martial artists were looked down upon by people and thought of as weeds in the field. A fire might burn all the crops in the field, but after a rainfall, the only thing that could still rear its head would be the weeds.

Brewing medicine was a dreary task; continuous stirring, all the way until 24 hours was up. Chen Chao had done these things more than once. Hence, he did not have any dissatisfaction. He just quietly watched the large iron pot, slowly stirring the medicinal soup in the iron pot. Xie Nandu watched for roughly an hour and found it boring in the end, so she walked out on her own. Moving that old chair over, she sat at the door and looked at the snow.

"You don't need to do this. Even if there's really some accident, what can you do?"

Chen Chao knew what that young girl was thinking without looking toward the door.

"Stop being self-sentimental, I'm scared that you'll die. Who'll protect me after?" Xie Nandu's petite face turned slightly red. It was just that the youth in black shirt inside the house was destined to not see it.

After? After what?

Chen Chao did not ask and it was naturally impossible for Xie Nandu to take the initiative to explain it as well.

This young girl just watched the seemingly endless snow in the yard and did not say anything.

The current her was quiet like a pear blossom.

......

......

"Done."

After a day and night of boiling, it had already been a full 24 hours. The medicinal soup in the large iron pot already turned into a pure black color. It was incomparably viscous and the aroma also completely dissipated. It did not look good.

Chen Chao scooped the medicinal soup out of the iron pot and poured it into a large wooden bucket. Only after that, did he take off that black shirt on his body, revealing an upper body that was full of scars.

Those were all scars left behind from his encounters with nearby demons over these few years.

Actually, Chen Chao's body did not look very strong. In fact, it even looked a little thin at a glance. But in reality, only when he took off his shirt and revealed his entire body, could one see the near-perfect lines on the body that was hidden under the black shirt. The exuberance of his blood vitality far surpassed the average martial artist of his realm.

He seemed like a human-form ferocious beast. Every inch of his body held tremendous energy.

If there was a professional present, they would know that this youth's Spirit Platform Realm was tempered almost to perfection with just a glance.

One had to know, this youth did not have any medicinal pills to assist him. Those spirit medicines that he bought were by no means the most exceptional existences too. Being able to temper it to this degree, the only possibility was that he endured immense agony and soaked in the medicinal soup for as long as possible. Only then, could he achieve the best results under the circumstances where the quality of the spirit medicines was inadequate.

When he entered the wooden bucket, Chen Chao was expressionless. But when his entire body from the neck down started to soak in the medicinal soup, countless fine sweat beads began to slowly seep out. There was no so-called gradual progress when tempering the body, it would be a heart-piercing pain right from the start.

Furthermore, each time he tempered his body, it would absolutely be more painful than before.

Even for someone like Chen Chao, his expression also could not help turning ugly after holding out for half an hour. There were currently large sweat droplets sliding down his forehead non-stop. Every inch of his entire face seemed to be exerting strength. As for the body that was soaking in the water, it was already completely straightened at this moment. Every muscle in his body was already tensed up at this time.

Time slowly trickled by.

Chen Chao's complexion already became deathly pale.

Roughly two hours later, his entire person already reached the verge of collapse.

"Just a little longer!"

Chen Chao gritted his teeth, continuously exhorting himself to persevere. If he wanted to survive in these troubled times, he could only do so by possessing powerful strength.

However, this 'little longer' that Chen Chao spoke of, was a full hour later.

After that, he opened his mouth and gasped heavily for air.

It was just that he did not stand up afterward, but started revolving the functional qi activity within his body and started flowing in a fixed direction.

When the qi activity in his body began to circulate throughout his entire body, that heart-piercing pain all over Chen Chao's body abated considerably. His brows also relaxed.

Chen Chao spat out a turbid breath.

There was the saying of functional activities of qi birthing and extinguishing among cultivators. The higher the realm, the faster the qi activity within the body would circulate. But at the same time, there would also be incidences where one's functional qi activity was depleted and yet to regenerate.

In the same realm, people actually competed in whose single breath of qi activity was longer and who used a shorter time to accumulate new qi when this breath of qi activity dissipated.

In other words, the gap length between qi activity and qi activity served as the basis for judging whether a cultivator was powerful or not.

Of course, apart from this, there were also many factors that affected victory and defeat when dueling.

For the next few hours, Chen Chao kept on circulating qi activity within his body. At the same time, he was also silently counting how many cycles of qi activity birth and death he could have before he was completely exhausted.

This was a time that belonged to youth.

It was also the time that gave youths the greatest peace of mind.

Nothing could give one greater peace of mind than making themselves become stronger.

Along with the passage of time, the medicinal soup in the wooden bucket gradually turned from black to clear. This also meant that almost all of the medicinal soup's medicinal strength was absorbed by Chen Chao.

Actually, this was also something unbelievably shocking.

But in Chen Chao's eyes, it was very normal. When he tempered his body countless in the past, the approximate result was all like this.

There were actually not many martial artists in the world who could absorb all of the medicinal soup's medicinal strength every single time they tempered their bodies. How many people could bear the extreme pain?

But, Chen Chao could almost perfectly absorb the medicinal strength in the medicinal soup every time. How tough would his body become?

It went without saying.

Just as the medicinal soup was about to become completely clear, the pores on Chen Chao's body suddenly opened up. Some black medicinal soup gushed out of his body, contaminating all the clear water in the wooden bucket once more.

Chen Chao frowned, the qi activity within his body started swarming towards his spirit platform in a frenzy at this time. It surged endlessly, akin to a great river flowing into a stream; majestic and vast!

He was stunned, somewhat in a trance.

Turns out that... he was breaking through.

From Spirit Platform to Divine Trove, he knew that his breakthrough was nigh at hand. But, the optimistic estimate was that he still needed three to five temperings before it was possible. But, he did not expect to already arrive in front of the door after just once.

Since he had already arrived at the door, Chen Chao no longer hesitated. He immediately controlled that stream of qi activity that appeared out of thin air in his body and assaulted the spirit platform.

Becoming a Divine Trove martial artist was today!

......

......

Xie Nandu who had been guarding Chen Chao's front door the entire time was also napping. She had long already moved the stove in front of her and she was also wearing thick cotton clothes that belonged to Chen Chao.

A moment later, she suddenly opened her eyes and sat up straight.

At some point in time, a smiling middle-aged man appeared in the corridor. The man was wearing a white cotton robe, his expression calm.

It was just that the next sentence he said immediately made Xie Nandu furrow her brows.

"The family has already received the letter that Miss sent to the Divine Capital."

Right when Xie Nandu arrived in Tianqing County, she spent several pieces of skygold currency to mail a letter to the Divine Capital's Xie Clan. In fact, long before that, the White Deer's Xie Clan and the Divine Capital's Xie Clan had an agreement. The White Deer's Xie Clan would send Xie Nandu to Tianqing County and the Divine Capital's Xie Clan would bring Xie Nandu northward to the Divine Capital.

But the series of events that happened after that was sufficient to prove two things. Firstly, the Divine Capital's Xie Clan was considering whether or not Xie Nandu was worthy of their heavy nurturing. The other was that the Divine Capital's Xie Clan also had people who did not want Xie Nandu to come to the Divine Capital. Under the first matter, the big shots of the Divine Capital's Xie Clan maintained tacit agreement for the second matter.

That was also one of their ways to test Xie Nandu.

As for when that letter reached the Divine Capital, and whether or not it could be read by those big shots, it was actually not important.

The result of the test was the most important.

Seeing that Xie Nandu did not speak, the middle-aged man smiled slightly and said, "I'm surnamed Xie, given name is Boan. I'm considered to be Miss' uncle of the same clan. The family was very satisfied with what Miss has done. Now, they specially sent me to fetch Miss. Miss, let's depart right away."

Xie Nandu frowned and just said, "Wait for a bit."

Xie Boan smiled and said, "Is Miss worried about that young martial artist in the house? It doesn't matter, in the first place, I came to kill him this time."

Hearing this, Xie Nandu was already very unhappy in her heart, but she still asked calmly, "Why?"

Xie Boan said indifferently, "What kind of identity does Miss have? How can you have any connection with such a person?"

"Is this the decision by the Divine Capital?" Xie Nandu looked at this seemingly lenient middle-aged man, her face full of coldness.

Xie Boan smiled slightly and said, "Of course. However, the Divine Capital gave Miss a choice. If you choose to let this youth off, Miss can just set off and return to White Deer. There's no need to head to the Divine Capital anymore."

The meaning of his words was that if she wanted to go to the Divine Capital, Chen Chao must be killed.

Xie Nandu asked, "What's with this logic?"

Chen Chao saved her life. Presumably, they would not be unaware of it.

The Divine Capital's Xie Clan refused to see reason?

Xie Nandu was a little disappointed.

Could it be that after so many years have passed, the Divine Capital's Xie Clan and White Deer's Xie Clan no longer had any similarities? Or was the White Deer's Xie Clan that had known for so many years wrong too? They had the same temperament and disposition as the Divine Capital's Xie Clan?

Xie Boan did not care about other things, he just asked, "How do you choose, Miss?"

Xie Nandu raised her eyebrow and was about to open her mouth.

But very soon, another voice sounded out in the corridor, "No need to choose."

The youth who had already donned a black shirt anew was currently standing in the corridor, looking over here calmly.