Chapter 10: Thirty-six Meridians

After pondering for a moment, Zhang Ruochen asked again, "Was Lin Chenyu executed?"

"No! How could His Highness the Seventh Prince let him off so easily?" Yun'er said, "Lin Chenyu was castrated and became an eunuch. Then His Highness the Seventh Prince took him as a servant."

Zhang Ruochen said, "The number one genius of the Lin family has become a eunuch and an enemy's servant. It's a huge humiliation for the Lin family."

Yun'er frowned and said, "However, I really can't understand why the head of the Lin family still wants to marry his daughter to the Seventh Prince since the Lin family has suffered such a great humiliation."

Zhang Ruochen said, "It's quite understandable! With his talent, the Seventh Prince will surely inherit the throne and become the lord of the Yunwu County Kingdom in the future. If the Lin family wants to establish itself in the Yunwu County Kingdom, it definitely needs to repair its relationship with the Seventh Prince. Marriage is the best way."

"Secondly, since the number one genius of the Lin family has become the Seventh Prince's servant, the relationship between the Lin family and the Seventh Prince may not be as hostile as we thought. Perhaps the marriage between Lin Ningshan and the Seventh Prince was facilitated by Lin Chenyu, the number one genius of the Lin family."

Yun'er stared straight at Zhang Ruochen, almost unable to believe that His Highness the Ninth Prince could analyze things so thoroughly. He didn't seem like the timid young man he used to be at all. Instead, he gave people a sense of being sophisticated and wise.

"It seems that after activating the Martial Mark, His Highness the Ninth Prince has really changed completely." Yun'er thought to herself that if Empress Lin knew about such a big change in His Highness the Ninth Prince, she would surely be very pleased.

After returning to his room, Zhang Ruochen immediately entered the inner space of the Time-Space Crystal Stone.

"Now, it's time to open up the second meridian!"

Zhang Ruochen uncorked the small jade bottle and took a dose of the Marrow-Cleansing Liquid.

Under the effect of the medicine's potency, the blood in his whole body seemed to boil. With the help of the massive medicinal power, Zhang Ruochen immediately began to open up the second meridian according to the records in the "Nine Heavens Ming Emperor Scripture".

The more meridians opened up in the body, the faster the absorption speed of spiritual energy would be, and the faster the operation speed of the internal true qi would be.

The more meridians there were in the body, the stronger the martial body cultivated would naturally be. In the same realm, one could burst out more powerful combat strength.

With the help of his previous cultivation experience, Zhang Ruochen successfully opened up the second meridian, and the operation speed of the internal true qi doubled.

"The qi pool hasn't expanded. I haven't broken through to the middle stage of the Yellow Extremity Realm. It seems that I need to open up one more meridian."

Zhang Ruochen took a Blood Pill to restore his strength. After resting for about an hour to reach his best state, he immediately took another dose of the Marrow-Cleansing Liquid and began to open up the third meridian.

For other cultivators, after opening up a new meridian, they usually had to recuperate for one to three months to increase the toughness and activity of the meridian before continuing to open up the next one.

However, Zhang Ruochen couldn't wait for a month. He wanted to open up the third meridian right now and冲击 the middle stage of the Yellow Extremity Realm.

In this way, the difficulty increased more than doubled.

"I can do it! I surely can! I must break through to the middle stage of the Yellow Extremity Realm tonight."

Zhang Ruochen held a spiritual crystal in his hand. While absorbing the spiritual energy in the spiritual crystal, he mobilized all the true qi in his body and suddenly rushed towards the third meridian.

"Boom!"

A dull sound came from Zhang Ruochen's glabella.

The qi pool, which was originally only as big as a basketball, immediately expanded ten times and became as big as a water tank, like a pool three feet square.

This was the cultivation base of the middle stage of the Yellow Extremity Realm!

"Now, I've just entered the middle stage of the Yellow Extremity Realm. The amount of true qi in my body hasn't increased much. Of course, I now have room for improvement. If I fill the qi pool with true qi, the amount of true qi in my body will increase ten times." A sense of joy rose in Zhang Ruochen's heart. His martial cultivation had finally become much stronger.

Every time one broke through a realm, the capacity of the qi pool would increase accordingly, and naturally, it could hold more true qi.

If one couldn't break through the realm, even if one cultivated for ten years, the amount of true qi in one's body wouldn't increase at all. Because your qi pool was only that big and could only hold that much true qi.

After breaking through to the middle stage of the Yellow Extremity Realm, the impurities in the physical body were transported out through the pores, like a layer of black sticky mud, emitting a faint stench.

Zhang Ruochen immediately fetched a bucket of hot water, took a bath, and changed into new clothes. Then he immediately returned to the inner space of the Time-Space Crystal Stone.

He held a pen in his hand and smoothly drew a human-shaped pattern on the paper roll.

Then, relying on the memories in his mind, he drew six meridians on the human-shaped pattern. The operation routes of each meridian were different.

There was only one common point: all thirty-six meridians had to converge at the qi pool on the glabella.

When Zhang Ruochen first read the first layer of the "Nine Heavens Ming Emperor Scripture", what he saw was such a "meridian diagram" without any text explanations. He had to understand it completely by himself.

The more advanced the cultivation technique was, the more meridians would be opened up in the body, and the faster the transportation speed of true qi would be.

"A human-level low-grade cultivation technique can only open up seven meridians."

"The 'Nine Heavens Ming Emperor Scripture' records the operation routes of thirty-six meridians. Each additional cultivated meridian will make the martial body stronger. If all thirty-six meridians are opened up, how powerful will the martial body become?"

The word "extremity" in the Yellow Extremity Realm represented the meaning of the limit of meridians.

In his previous life, Zhang Ruochen had only cultivated thirty-three meridians, and he couldn't open up the remaining three meridians no matter what.

With the martial body in which he had opened up thirty-three meridians in his previous life, he was already invincible among his peers. Even Chi Yao, the number one powerhouse in the world today, was a notch inferior to him. She had only opened up thirty-one meridians.

"I've now opened up three meridians and reached the middle stage of the Yellow Extremity Realm. To break through to the late stage of the Yellow Extremity Realm, I need to open up at least three more meridians."

Zhang Ruochen rolled up the meridian diagram and placed it on the stone platform.

To break through to the late stage of the Yellow Extremity Realm, he had to first fill the qi pool with true qi.

If he cultivated in a regular way, even with the help of the spiritual energy of spiritual crystals, it would take him one and a half months to make the true qi fill his whole body and overflow the qi pool.

Zhang Ruochen couldn't wait that long, so he decided to take the "Qi-Gathering Pills".

One Qi-Gathering Pill was worth one thousand silver coins. For ordinary martial artists, it was an extremely rare treasure. Even for the young disciples of medium-sized families, it was very difficult to obtain one Qi-Gathering Pill.

Zhang Ruochen bought ten pills at one time, intending to use them to quickly improve his cultivation.

The Qi-Gathering Pill was only as big as a pearl, with a faint fragrance. With the naked eye, one could see wisps of spiritual energy flowing on the surface of the pill.

Zhang Ruochen swallowed the Qi-Gathering Pill into his mouth.

After a while.

"Boom!" The Qi-Gathering Pill exploded in his body and turned into a violent mass of pill qi, running around in Zhang Ruochen's body.

The three meridians absorbed the pill qi at the fastest speed. After running through a big cycle in the body, the pill qi was transformed into true qi and stored in the qi pool.

Although Zhang Ruochen had tried his best to absorb the pill qi, still seventy percent of the pill qi flowed out through his pores. He had only absorbed thirty percent of the pill qi of one Qi-Gathering Pill.

It took him a whole day to completely transform that thirty percent of the pill qi into his own true qi.

After refining this thirty percent of the pill qi, the amount of true qi in the qi pool increased by two times.

"I've only opened up three meridians, so the transformation speed of true qi is still too slow. Seventy percent of the pill qi has been wasted. If a martial artist at the minor pole position of the Yellow Extremity Realm took the Qi-Gathering Pill, he could completely transform the pill qi of the Qi-Gathering Pill into his own true qi without wasting a bit."

"Never mind! As long as I can improve my cultivation quickly, it's worth wasting as many silver coins as possible. With the medicinal power of the Qi-Gathering Pill, I can fill the qi pool with true qi by refining four more pills."

Fortunately, Zhang Ruochen had plenty of silver coins now and didn't have to worry about money. Otherwise, with the Qi-Gathering Pill worth one thousand silver coins each, he would surely feel heartbroken every time he took one.

He didn't continue to take the second Qi-Gathering Pill. He stopped cultivating and walked out of the inner space of the Time-Space Crystal Stone and returned to his room.

He had cultivated in the Time-Space Crystal Stone for more than a day, while only half a day had passed outside.

At this moment, it was noon.

Zhang Ruochen didn't disturb Yun'er and Empress Lin. He fetched a bucket of hot water and placed it in the room.

He didn't want to take a bath but to take a medicinal bath.

A martial artist not only needed to cultivate true qi but also temper his body.

Compared with his peers, Zhang Ruochen's body seemed a bit weak. If he wanted to make his body stronger in a few months, he not only needed to practice boxing but also take medicinal baths.

Zhang Ruochen had bought five doses of Body-Tempering Powder, each worth one thousand silver coins.

He took out one dose of the Body-Tempering Powder and put it into the wooden barrel.

Immediately, a "hissing" sound came from the wooden barrel, and white smoke rose from it.

Zhang Ruochen sat cross-legged in the wooden barrel, and his head was submerged in the medicinal water.

The medicinal water was boiling hot, just like boiling water, with bubbles popping up one after another.

A sharp pain came from the surface of his skin, and then the pain drilled into his flesh and blood. Finally, the pain entered his internal organs.

His whole body was burning with pain. If other martial artists were in this situation, they definitely couldn't bear this pain and would jump out of the wooden barrel.

However, Zhang Ruochen was like a rock, sitting firmly at the bottom of the wooden barrel without any change in his expression, silently enduring the pain from his physical body.

Only by enduring hardships can one become an outstanding person.