Chapter 32

After being promoted to a martial artist, Lin Yao felt that there was a vital energy seed in his body that was absorbing the surrounding spirit energy all the time. However, apart from that, there was no other change.

Yes, there was nothing else. After all, Lin Yao had just broken through, and there was only one vital energy seed. He did not dare use his one and only seed. He would only use the ability that a martial artist had when another seed was condensed.

This was the ability to unleash the power within the vital energy seed, to use spirit energy to strengthen oneself, or to use the energy in the vital energy seed to improve one’s combat skills.

Of course, after the energy was unleashed, the vital energy seed would not disappear but degenerate to become a mark. It could continue to absorb the spirit energy from the outside world.

However, even so, Lin Yao did not dare use his only vital energy seed. If excessive power was unleashed and the vital energy seed disappeared, Lin Yao would be downgraded. He would only be able to use the seed without any reservations when the second seed was condensed.

‘I shall continue to exercise. Now that I am in the martial artist realm, I will have to keep training until the body limit can withstand receiving spirit energy into the body. The cultivation of the martial artist realm is meant to absorb spirit energy to condense more seeds so that one can continue to exercise to strengthen oneself.

‘Like water droplets that converge into the sea, when the vital energy seeds transform into vital energy that resides in the lower abdomen, the body is strengthened to a certain extent to be able to withstand the pressure in the lower abdomen. If I master another killer move, I will be able to break through to become a warlord.’

The condensation of a vital energy seed signified that one had become a martial artist, and when the seed turned into vital energy in the lower abdomen, this marked one’s advancement to a warlord.

It was just that both of these required the body to be strong enough to support the advancement. This was why the country that Lin Yao was in named people who used this cultivation method martial artists instead of spiritualists.

‘I dare not use the only seed that I have. Even if I had two or three seeds, it would only mean that I had a few more powerful moves. If these two moves were not powerful and the opponent easily dodged the attack, there would be not much of a difference between a martial artist and an ordinary person with a Human Body Limit.’

This was also the reason the tall and mighty Zhou Yang, who had natural divine power, could beat a young martial artist who had just broken through with a pair of fists. As long as one could not defeat the opponent with a single move, one would be beaten instead.

Of course, this situation would change at the intermediate level of a martial artist. Due to their different techniques, intermediate martial artists might have a different number of seeds. However, regardless of how few seeds they had, they would at least condense dozens of vital energy seeds. Thus, martial artists could make use of vital energy seeds to unleash extraordinary combat power that could last for several minutes. Besides, martial artists at this level would be equipped with several powerful combat skills. Zhou Yang might not be able to resist a single move with his strong physique alone.

‘I have to speed up. I need to condense one more vital energy seed before noon the day after tomorrow so that I will have the combat power of a martial artist. Although I can only release a single blow—well, I still have some nutrition drinks left. Perhaps I can condense two seeds.’

There was not enough time. This was also the reason Lin Yao had chosen Clear Mirror Swordsmanship. It was because Clear Mirror Swordsmanship’s first move, the Clear Mirror Sword-Drawing Technique, emphasized killing with one blow.

Lin Yao had only obtained one vital energy seed after advancing to a martial artist. There was no other change. Just as Lin Yao was about to continue practicing, he suddenly thought of something. He sank into his Sea of Consciousness and checked to see if there were any changes to the Tree of Light.

‘I remember that there was a slight tremor in my mind when I broke through.’

After sinking completely into the Sea of Consciousness, Lin Yao scanned the surroundings with a crooked smile on his face.

The Tree of Light had not advanced. It needed to absorb energy to grow and hence it still looked the same. However, Lin Yao felt that apart from the light-based energy, he could also direct his own light-based vital energy into it, turning it into energy for the Tree of Light to grow.

‘This ability allows me to improve on my own without the need for external objects. However, I won’t use it.’

When the vital energy seed absorbed enough spirit energy and continued to absorb more, it would then split to form a second seed. If he directed them to the Tree of Light, it would affect Lin Yao’s cultivation.

‘It’s better to absorb the spar light. I wonder if it is expensive.’

The Tree of Light had not changed. What surprised Lin Yao was that ever since he’d broken through to a martial artist, his Sea of Consciousness had doubled in size and there was a cartoon-like tree opposite the Tree of Light.

He could not tell what type of tree it was. It seemed to be a hybrid. This was also the reason Lin Yao was thrilled.

‘I have one more tree species, so I can integrate it with another tree again.’

Yes, the biggest function of this cartoon-like tree was to consume 100 grams of energy to integrate itself with other tree species and plant a second tree in his Sea of Consciousness.

‘I get to have another tree thanks to my advancement. It seems that there is no need to give up on the Bodhi Tree and the Hibiscus Tree.’

Lin Yao was full of anticipation at the sight of the cartoon-like tree. However, he did not get carried away. Very soon, he returned to the real world to continue his cultivation.

As usual, he practiced military boxing. This military boxing was suitable for martial artists and warlords.

However, he would need to make use of heavy weights for the warlord training.

Lin Yao drank a nutrition drink before he absorbed sunlight from the midday sun, training hard in the yard.

Lin Yao could feel the difference right at the beginning of his training. The spirit energy that used to be ethereal became much clearer this time. He could clearly sense that he was inhaling special energy into his body, and all of this energy was absorbed by his vital energy seed.

In addition to the spirit energy inhaled through breathing, the spirit energy emitted by the nutrition drink was also absorbed by the vital energy seed.

Due to this active absorption of the same origin, Lin Yao was able to absorb spirit energy 10 times faster than before.

This was a good thing. It meant that Lin Yao’s improvement speed had increased. However, there was still a problem: There was not enough spirit energy.

The breathing method of military boxing could aid the inhalation and exhalation of spirit energy. However, the effect was too weak. It was not that military boxing was not powerful, but the surrounding spirit energy was too weak and there were also impurities.

‘Spirit energy is more compatible with the earth, mountains, stars, and rivers. The man-made high-rise buildings and the inhaling and exhaling of other people result in the impurities of spirit energy.’

In the past, Lin Yao had been unable to sense spirit energy, so it had not been obvious. However, right now, Lin Yao felt as if he was living in a place with poor air quality.

If he only absorbed this kind of spirit energy, he might need one month to condense another vital energy seed.

This was also why most people were stuck at the martial artist level.

‘If one could only condense one seed in a month, one would then have 12 seeds a year. One still needs to consume spirit energy to exercise. This will inevitably slow down the speed of cultivation. It is no wonder a large number of people are stuck in the martial artist realm and can never break through to the warlord realm.’

All martial artists who had vital energy seeds would face having insufficient spirit energy. Fortunately, this was still manageable in Lin Yao’s case. First of all, he had consumed nutrition drinks, which were made by mixing spirit grass with spirit beast meat. They contained high-quality nutrients, as well as spirit energy suitable for human body absorption.

It would not be as useful if an ordinary person consumed them. However, martial artists could completely absorb the spirit energy in nutrition drinks.

It was just that Lin Yao absorbed them quickly and consumed them quickly as well. In the past, a bottle of nutrition drink would have been enough for him to practice military boxing around nine to ten times, but now, after three rounds, the spirit energy of the nutrition drink was depleted.

‘Hey, I still have to have nine to ten rounds of military boxing practice per training session. If I want to maintain my high cultivation speed, I will need three bottles of nutrition drinks. I exercise three times a day, in the morning, in the afternoon, and in the evening. This also means that I need about 10 bottles of nutrition drinks a day.’

Lin Yao was shocked by this number. 10 bottles of nutrition drinks a day equaled 100,000 yuan, which would be 36.5 million yuan a year. Even in Ninghai City, very few wealthy families could afford such training.

If wealthy families had many descendants and all of them were cultivators, the money spent at the martial artist stage alone would cost hundreds of millions.

‘Not all families have tens of billions of assets that can be squandered at will. It is already considered good for ordinary wealthy families to have 100 million yuan of liquid funds. This money has to be used for their companies and thus cannot be spent at will. Now that I have state subsidies for my talents, I am not that different from wealthy children.’