Chapter 2: The Marvelous Uses of True Qi

November 3rd.

In the library, Su Chen was still cleaning and reading as he had nothing better to do, eventually drifting off into a dream while reading.

Ever since the Seed of Longevity sprouted and he gave birth to Longevity Qi, his cultivation speed had been anything but slow.

The Path of Qi, the fifth rank, is known as the Inner Qi Realm.

The library lacked profound cultivation techniques, but it was not short on books regarding martial arts knowledge. An ordinary person at the peak of the Inner Qi Realm could generally nurture ten strands of lethal Qi.

The better one’s innate talent and bone structure, the more Qi one could produce at this stage.

Those with excellent bone structure could produce three times that amount—thirty strands of lethal Qi.

Even among the martial arts prodigies favored by the heavens, those with extraordinary talent could reach over thirty, capping out at ninety strands of Qi.

Yet, he had only stepped into the Inner Qi Realm three days ago, and his Longevity Qi had already broken through the thirty-strand barrier, reaching over sixty.

"That's not right."

"Now, the seventieth strand of Longevity Qi has been born."

Su Chen felt the amount of Qi within his body, his expression somewhat strange.

It seemed he wasn't a cultivation scrub, but rather a martial arts prodigy, on the level of those with seventy strands of lethal Qi.

That wasn't right either.

At this very moment, the number of Longevity Qi strands in his body had reached seventy. Although the growth rate had slowed, it was still continuously budding, and the momentum was fierce.

Seventy was not his limit; perhaps ninety, or even breaking through the legendary limit of ninety, was possible.

"So that's how it is."

Su Chen suddenly understood.

Perhaps it was because he had obtained the Seed of Longevity and was no longer human.

With normal cultivation methods, he couldn't even enter a meditative state, let alone sense the free-roaming Qi of heaven and earth to nurture his own.

From the moment the Seed of Longevity appeared, he was no longer a human, but a different kind of life form of longevity...

Beyond the Three Realms, not within the Five Elements—perhaps.

"It's just that my Qi is so weak; it doesn't seem to have any destructive power."

"It seems I'm still a scrub."

"Although I'm not a cultivation scrub anymore, I've become a combat weakling; there's still no strength to speak of."

Su Chen threw a palm strike forward, hitting a bluestone. According to the records, someone at the peak of Inner Qi could make this thousand-jin boulder tremble incessantly with such a strike.

The powerful ones could even crack the thousand-jin boulder.

Su Chen watched the performance of his Qi with anticipation.

Bang!

It hit!

The anticipation in Su Chen's eyes vanished instantly.

His palm strike of Qi, let alone shaking the boulder, was like tofu hitting a stone; it dissipated rapidly into nothingness.

It had absolutely no destructive power.

"Sigh."

"A weakling indeed."

"As expected, I shouldn't have had any expectations."

Su Chen shook his head and went back to organizing the books.

After he left.

What he didn't see was that beneath that bluestone, a withered foxtail grass, nourished by his dissipated Qi, instantly swelled and grew rapidly, piercing through the massive bluestone—which required two people to wrap their arms around—and standing tall.

In an instant, it had become a giant foxtail grass a meter high.

A normal foxtail grass is only the length of a forearm, thirty centimeters. This one, however, having obtained the Longevity Qi, seemed to have undergone a change in its very life essence.

After finishing the cleaning of the ninth floor of the library.

Su Chen returned to the first floor, just about to find a book to fall asleep to, when he suddenly saw this giant foxtail grass.

In that instant, looking at the white Qi swirling in his palm, Su Chen vaguely realized something.

"My Longevity Qi can increase vitality and affect the essence of life?"

Su Chen rummaged through boxes and cabinets; he wanted to verify this and see the marvelous uses of the Longevity Qi.

"Found it."

In his palm appeared a withered medicinal herb wrapped in a silk handkerchief; it was a dried ginseng root.

Precious herbs like ginseng and lingzhi could not only heal wounds and nourish the body but also aid in martial arts cultivation.

This thirty-year-old ginseng was something Zhang Gui had specifically saved from his cultivation resources after hearing that Su Chen wanted to practice martial arts.

It was just what he needed right now.

This was a bold experiment.

A strand of Longevity Qi surged into the withered ginseng.

In an instant.

The originally dried ginseng swelled up, stained with a vibrant, life-filled white; it had regained its fresh vitality.

Moreover, it was still growing continuously.

Roots grew out rapidly, extending constantly.

The size of the ginseng was also expanding rapidly.

In a flash.

One strand of Longevity Qi was consumed.

The ginseng, originally the length and thickness of two fingers, had become a palm-sized, large ginseng with exceptionally dense roots.

"How many years was this again..."

Su Chen was very excited. He trotted up to the second floor, took a book titled "The Hundred Herbs Pharmacopoeia," and began to identify it by comparing it to the contents of the book.

He was shocked.

This was actually a hundred-year-old ginseng.

A thirty-year-old ginseng could assist in fifth-rank cultivation and was exceptionally precious. Even a martial arts eunuch like Zhang Gui, who was highly valued and had excellent talent, only received one per month.

The ginseng in this world was not like the ones from his previous life, artificially farmed and wholesale if you had enough money.

In this world of cultivation, every ginseng grew by consuming the Qi of heaven and earth.

"A hundred-year-old ginseng can not only save a person's life but also allow a fourth-rank Inner Qi practitioner to increase their cultivation by ten years..."

A thirty-year-old ginseng might still be purchasable with money, but a hundred-year-old ginseng was already a strategic reserve resource for major cultivation forces.

The last time a hundred-year-old ginseng appeared in the Imperial Capital, several peak third-rank nobles and marquises fought over it, and it finally fell into the hands of a Grand Eunuch of the Inner Palace.

A Grand Eunuch—not to mention his power—was a second-rank practitioner. If he stomped his foot, the Imperial City would have to give him face and tremble three times.

A hundred-year-old ginseng, and this was just from one strand of Longevity Qi.

Add a few more strands of Longevity Qi.

Su Chen even felt that he could create a thousand-year-old Ginseng King.

A thousand-year-old Ginseng King was said to be a supreme treasure. Legend had it that a peak first-rank practitioner who used a thousand-year-old Ginseng King to protect their internal organs had a chance to advance to the Grandmaster realm.

The old Emperor, having eaten so many miraculous pills and medicines to extend his life by three months, wasn't that just because of thousand-year-old precious herbs that he escaped death?

A thousand-year-old Ginseng King was definitely the treasure among precious herbs, the king of precious herbs.

"Let's try it."

Su Chen was eager to try.

A long time later.

The thirty strands of Qi in his body were exhausted.

The library was filled with a strange fragrance. Su Chen looked at the ginseng in front of him, which had surged to the size of a millstone and then shrunk back to the size of a fist, looking like a curled-up infant, and fell silent.

He flipped through the "Hundred Herbs Pharmacopoeia" and silently read the page about the thousand-year-old Ginseng King.

"A thousand-year-old Ginseng King, obtained through the creation of heaven and earth, nurtured over a thousand years. It is rumored that it contains a breath of Longevity Qi; consuming it can extend the life of someone at death's door by ten years."

"A peak first-rank practitioner can break through their limits, cleanse their internal organs, and take a step into the Grandmaster realm!"

"A divine medicine of the current age. In the three hundred years of the Great Liang, it has appeared three times. Every time it appears, it brings chaos to the world, a catastrophe for humanity, and countless practitioners plunder it..."

Su Chen was silent for a while.

A thousand-year-old Ginseng King nurtures a breath of Longevity Qi, while he, conversely, used thirty-some strands of Longevity Qi to feed a thirty-tael wild ginseng into a shocking thousand-year-old Ginseng King.

"What a pity."

"A divine medicine that allows a peak first-rank to step into the Grandmaster realm is useless to me."

"I cannot practice the methods of mortals."

"Otherwise, relying on this Longevity Qi of mine, I could somehow feed myself into a peak first-rank, or even a Grandmaster..."

Su Chen shook his head, took a pear-wood box that could isolate the strange fragrance, and placed the fist-sized thousand-year-old Ginseng King in a hidden compartment in the library.

As long as the Seed of Longevity continued to grow, his strength would continue to improve.

This was his method of protecting his path.

"However, my Longevity Qi is biased towards auxiliary healing. It doesn't seem to have much effect against powerful enemies."

Su Chen flipped through the books and found two methods.

One was to practice the Path of the Body, tempering his own body into a powerful weapon. With the Qi in his body continuously nourishing his vitality, he would inevitably be terrifyingly strong.

The other was to ripen aged poisonous herbs to refine terrifying secret medicines that could kill even the strongest experts.

"I'll do both."

"It's hard to find suitable techniques for external body tempering, but in this Imperial Palace, aren't there plenty of herb seeds?"

Su Chen touched his chin.

With this ability to ripen precious herbs, he probably wouldn't lack money.

If he were willing to sell that ripened thousand-year-old Ginseng King, he feared that even the peak first-rank martial artists of the Liang Kingdom whose lifespans were nearing their end, the Great Liang princes, or even the Emperor and the old monsters in the Heavenly Martial Tower would be willing to trade everything for it.

However, it was highly likely that the other party wouldn't trade, but would simply snatch it.

"The law of the jungle."

Su Chen went out and arrived in front of the Martial Affairs Bureau.

In front of the Martial Affairs Bureau, a pile of old eunuchs in green robes were carrying silk boxes, nodding and bowing in a long line.

Su Chen was a bit confused, but he bypassed the queue and cupped his hands toward the young eunuch at the door of the Martial Affairs Bureau, greeting him.

"Please, pass on a message."

"Just say Su Chen is looking for Zhang Gui."

As soon as these words were spoken.

Suddenly, a burst of uproarious laughter erupted.

"Where did this new little eunuch come from?"

"No manners at all."

"If you want to suck up to Manager Zhang Gui, you have to wait in line, okay? You didn't even bring a gift. Heh, Manager Zhang Gui is the favorite in front of Consort Zhang now. Is that someone a new little eunuch like you can just suck up to?"

"Daring to call Manager Zhang Gui by his name directly—such disrespect! He deserves a slap in the mouth!"

The crowd discussed it, with sarcastic laughter, reprimands, and malicious words.

In the Imperial Palace, eunuchs generally had five colors.

The only purple robes were the Emperor's close attendants, the Grand Eunuchs.

None below peak first-rank could hold the position.

Red robes were the five Grand Managers.

Blue robes were the numerous eunuch managers.

And the old eunuchs wore green robes.

Those in green robes without embellishments were ordinary eunuchs, while those with embellishments were eunuchs of the Martial Affairs Bureau—all practitioners with cultivation, the future managers-in-waiting.

The new little eunuchs wore black, the lowest level—black robes without embellishments.

The young eunuch guarding the door of the Martial Affairs Bureau saw that Su Chen was just a black-robed eunuch without embellishments. He was clearly a greenhorn who had just entered the palace and was easy to bully.

He sneered, held his head high, looked at Su Chen with his nostrils, and kicked out at Su Chen, who hadn't followed the rules of the queue, cursing.

"These people are all here to see Manager Zhang Gui."

"Get in line."

"Heh."

"A new little eunuch dares to suck up to Manager Zhang Gui? What kind of thing are you? Don't you go pee and look at yourself in the reflection to see what kind of..."

*Slap!*

A loud slap landed on the face of the young eunuch guarding the door of the Martial Affairs Bureau.

*Slap! Slap!*

One after another.

"Who?!"

"Who dares to hit me?! Damn it, do you know who I belong to? I am the godson that Manager Zhang Gui just recognized... Ah? Godfather?!!"

The little eunuch was stunned.

Zhang Gui's handsome face was filled with coldness.

"You aren't anymore."

"My brother, Su Chen, was almost kicked down in front of the Martial Affairs Bureau by you. How could I dare to recognize a godson like you?"