Carefully extract a small piece of ointnt and weigh it properly.
Zhang Rongfang sprinkled a bit of sugar on the surface to adjust the flavor and then prepared fresh water.
He stuffed the ointnt into his mouth in one gulp.
The cool and slightly pear-flavored sweetness flooded his entire mouth.
He only chewed a few tis before swallowing it.
"Hmm... the taste seems alright."
Zhang Rongfang savored it for a mont and then looked toward Chen Han, who was beside him.
"Could I trouble Brother Chen to guard outside the door?"
"Yes." Chen Han nodded, quickly walked out of the courtyard, closed the door, and kept watch around.
This is Agarwood Temple.
It used to be an abandoned temple with ghost rumors and hardly anyone ca here on a daily basis.
Only after it was renovated, it occasionally attracted a few curious tourists.
But those people only strolled around the front shrine, not rudely rushing to this backyard.
Chen Han wasn’t worried.
In the front courtyard, they had hired two ordinary Daoists to welco incense seekers and deal with trivial matters.
At this mont, inside the courtyard.
Zhang Rongfang closed his eyes, feeling the quick efficacy of the ointnt within his body, the dense dicinal aroma seed to turn into a ball of fire, swiftly igniting his entire digestive tract.
The sensation was like his stomach and intestines heating up, burning, but not painful.
He waited a mont before opening the attribute panel.
’The dicine has been taken, it should be able to start.’
In the attribute panel, the row belonging to Golden Toad Skill, the little plus sign at the back flickered slightly before quickly calming down.
Zhang Rongfang focused his attention and clicked on the plus sign three tis in succession.
Swipe, swipe, swipe.
With the continuous clicking on the plus sign three tis.
Each ti it cost him two points, a total of six attribute points disappeared.
Instantly, what was previously just warmth in his digestive tract, after adding points, swiftly heated up and turned into a sharp pain.
It was as if he drank boiling water all at once.
Zhang Rongfang’s skin quickly turned red.
Blurt!
He couldn’t help but feel a mouthful of counterflow blood rushing up his throat, directly spewing it out.
The blood mixed with saliva landed on the ground, actually bright red.
The intense pain hadn’t dissipated yet, a flood of bitter cultivation mories poured into his mind.
Those were years of daily and nightly dicine-taking cultivation.
Entirely without sleep, constantly taking dicine at intervals as part of Golden Toad Skill training mories.
Fortunately, Zhang Rongfang was already accustod to this kind of mory.
The acute pain lasted for more than ten minutes.
Zhang Rongfang couldn’t stop spitting out blood as if it was moneyless.
His digestive system was being accelerated by the attribute points, torn apart, reorganized, transford into a completely different structure from ordinary people.
Finally... more than ten minutes later.
The blood vomiting ceased.
The intense pain stopped as well.
In the attribute panel, the Golden Toad Skill gradually beca clearer.
The status in parentheses also changed from Hidden Moon Level Two Perfection to Hidden Moon Level Three Perfection.
But none of these were Zhang Rongfang’s main concern.
What he cared about most was his life value.
’Zhang Rongfang—Life 37-37.’
"...Another four points... This is killing ...!"
He wiped the bloodstains off the corner of his mouth and let out a long sigh.
From 41, it dropped to 37. The change is not just that, more so, his entire body underwent a special transformation.
"The heart...sothing feels off..."
Zhang Rongfang’s expression was solemn, carefully sensing his whole body.
The continuous drop in life value made him acutely aware that his heart started to feel like there’s a heavy stone pressing down, making it hard to breathe.
This was a sign of the heart being unable to sustain the body’s consumption.
"Trouble... Looks like I must quickly replenish the life value in the future."
He glanced at the pool of blood he had spat on the ground and slowly stood up.
But just when he straightened up, a slight dizziness surged to his mind.
"Now I’m really weak and frail." At this mont, Zhang Rongfang genuinely experienced the trouble of insufficient life points.
After all, he was different from other martial artists.
Not to ntion the stack of martial arts, they were all forcibly elevated by life points to reach this level.
Even when he reached Ninth Grade and continued to practice to Eleventh Grade, his burden was much greater than a typical martial artist.
Stabilizing his body, Zhang Rongfang bitterly smiled, knowing he must pause for a while, wait until his life value is replenished, before he can continue enhancing Golden Toad Skill.
Otherwise...
"Daoist, what happened to you!!?" Chen Han slled the blood and rushed in, seeing the bloodstains on the ground, his face dramatically changed, and he rushed over.
"It’s nothing, just an unintentional breath loss while practicing... So stagnant blood from the internal organs ca out, I’m much better now." Zhang Rongfang smiled, "It looks frightening, but it’ll be fine with a few days of rest."
Chen Han looked at the blood on the ground, approaching a basin-sized area, such a large amount... and stagnant blood... this didn’t look like stagnant blood at all.
But he carefully observed Zhang Rongfang’s complexion.
Surprisingly discovered, Daoist’s face was rosy, showing no signs of blood loss deficiency.
"Can Daoist allow to check your pulse?"
"Why not?"
Zhang Rongfang extended his hand for him to feel the pulse.
Chen Han carefully closed his eyes to sense.
"The heart pulse is slightly weak, but there’s no problem with the blood and qi. Indeed, it requires good rest and recuperation."
After confirming the symptoms, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.
After all, the way Zhang Rongfang presented himself was sowhat intimidating.
"Didn’t I say there was nothing wrong?" Zhang Rongfang smiled.
"Then, Daoist, please rest assured and stay in the temple. If there’s anything you’d like to eat, just let know, and I’ll arrange for soone to procure it." Chen Han said solemnly.
"I understand. Thank you for your trouble." Zhang Rongfang replied helplessly. This Chen Han was becoming more and more like a nagging old lady.
Once it was confird that there was really nothing wrong, Chen Han was relieved to leave and arrange for so heart-nourishing porridge.
Zhang Rongfang didn’t act tough either and truly rested well in the Agarwood Temple.
This ti, due to the heavy load on his heart, he didn’t dare to move at all, fearing he might end up like Han Shisan back then, with his heart bursting and dying.
In the blink of an eye, ti flew by.
Zhang Rongfang stayed in the temple for a full month.
He increased 7 attribute points, all directly added to his life value.
In one move, he restored his life value from 37 to 44.
Thus, he felt that his heart was much better.
But this experience made him deeply understand that life may seem inconspicuous, but it is the core, the engine, of all his martial arts.
Once life is insufficient, it will lead to all martial arts becoming a heavy burden, causing the heart to rupture if not careful.
In fact, there’s another option for boosting life.
That is to directly enhance the Cultivation of Literature, Supre Bright Void Skill.
But from the ssage left by the Celestial Maiden, Zhang Rongfang still chose not to enhance the Cultivation of Literature.
It seems the token of Great Dao Teaching has the function of monitoring the primary cultivation technique.
He had considered cultivating another Cultivation of Literature.
But Cultivation of Literature is different from martial arts.
This is a painstaking practice that refines the essence, qi, and spirit of the whole body. By the ti one reaches Golden Core Nascent Soul, it is the condensation of the full essence, qi, and spirit into a point, forming a whole network with it as the core.
He had already condensed the Nascent Soul of the Great Dao Teaching’s Cultivation of Literature. If he wanted to switch, he would have to dissipate his skill and retrain, reconstructing a new Nascent Soul network.
This is fundantally not worth the loss. It’s too wasteful.
So, it’s better to directly add to life instead. This way, it’s also more secure.
Although so attributes were wasted, the advantage lies in absolute safety.
Even other Cultivation of Literature techniques might also be monitored.
But the innate life attribute is different.
At this ti, the Golden Toad Skill’s Hidden Moon third layer is complete. It has already reached a speed of one attribute point every four days.
This made Zhang Rongfang feel more comfortable.
This way, as long as he stayed dutifully at Citong for a month, he could gain seven attribute points.
In half a year, he could have forty-two points.
By that ti, what martial arts couldn’t he improve?
Thinking this way, the previous excruciating pain and spitting of blood seed insignificant.
The only pity is that after Hidden Moon is complete, the second phase of Golden Toad Skill—Chasing the Sun, requires a main ingredient that is truly hard to find this ti.
*
*
*
In late March.
The New Year had just passed, and the inner ring of Citong was littered with the remnants of post-festival firecrackers everywhere.
Children with various eye and hair colors huddled together with bamboo poles, imitating military battles.
The girls had already changed into beautiful, thin short skirts and short sleeves. So of the more open-minded ones were only wearing tube tops and shorts, wandering the streets.
Sailors and boatn, many began to open their shirts, revealing the curved knives and money bags at their waists, frequently entering and exiting taverns, tea houses, music halls, and brothels.
At this ti, within the Citong Bay.
At the port, large ships were docked closely along the pier, waiting for laborers to load the cargo onto the ships.
More than ten laborers, shirtless, used coarse hemp ropes as sweat towels, dragging spacious carts, carrying crate after crate to the loading point.
The carts were loaded with all kinds of goods, including three-ter tall giant blue and white porcelain vases.
Elephant-sized gold-plated and delicate divine statues, gold and silver vessels the size of washbasins, and carts of neatly placed colorful brocades.
Not far from the port, at a coast unsuitable for unloading and loading cargo.
Zhang Rongfang wore a plain black robe with white borders, with black and white Tai Chi diagrams embroidered on the cuffs and robe edges.
He wore a silver-lined jade branch hairpin, tying up his black hair into a Daoist bun.
In this attire, although he had a stalwart build and strong muscles, along with a bit of retained beard, he exuded a certain aura of a Taoist cultivator.
Chen Han stood just behind him, accompanied by four officers of the Great Spirit teaching patrol.
After all, he was at least a third-grade official.
Throughout Citong, aside from the Prefect and the Magistrate, who could match his rank, all other officials in principle had to bow to him.
So, Zhang Rongfang not only had governnt-issued guards but also an official residence and office.
It’s just that now, as the White Ten Sect has behaved, and the Rebel Sect consists entirely of his own people,
Citong is peaceful and quiet, making his position as teaching patrol relatively idle.
Recently, a survey team from the Snow Rainbow Pavilion also arrived at Citong.
But this so-called survey team rely made a token gesture, capturing and beheading a group of condemned prisoners to bear the bla, and then slipping away quietly.
There was no accountability towards Zhang Rongfang, nor any specific investigation into the disappearance of the Commandery Princess.
Even the wanted orders for the culprit Taizhenzi were just for show, with random notices being posted, and then nothing....
This made Zhang Rongfang breathe a sigh of relief, but also vaguely guess that Taizhenzi might be.... not simple either...
But, since none of this involved him anymore, he could rest assured to continue recuperating and gathering strength.
At that mont, standing on the coast, Zhang Rongfang gazed into the distance at the busy scene on the dock.
He sighed softly.
"Living Xuanyang Astragalus.... Such a thing might have been more common a hundred years ago, but now, I’m afraid nobody’s even heard of it...."
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