Longevity Martial Arts: Starting from Inner Core Skill

Li Yongfeng, having once been an escorter, had extensive connections. On the same day, he brought back all the seeds Wang Sheng needed.

After receiving the seeds, Wang Sheng set about categorizing them.

With his Level 9 Herb Recognition, he could clearly identify all of the seeds.

"This is Angelica… this is Astragalus… Codonopsis, Poria… White Peony…"

It took him over ten minutes to categorize dozens of types of medicinal herb seeds, pack them separately, and label them with their corresponding names.

After organizing everything, he took out his own written prescription from memory to decide which medicinal plants to cultivate according to the formula.

He finally chose the "Ten-Complete Great Replenishing Pill."

The Ten-Complete Great Replenishing Pill, a famous tonic in Traditional Chinese Medicine, consisted of ten ingredients including Codonopsis, Atractyiodes, Poria, Roasted Licorice, Angelica, and such, offering a simple yet potent effect of warming and replenishing Qi-Blood.

It was precisely because of its fame that Wang Sheng went out of his way to learn how to make it, as it used the fewest types of medicinal herbs known to him for replenishing Qi-Blood.

Even considering ten types was already enough to give him a metaphorical liver pain.

But regardless of the liver pain, he had to endure it—after all, this was a life devoid of any room for regret!

He needed to readjust his daily schedule once again.

He reduced his practice time of the Eight Pieces of Brocade, cutting it down to once a day.

The time spent on Inner Core Skill cultivation remained unchanged.

Practicing the Inner Core Skill actually consumed spiritual power, but previously, the presence of Tiger Bone Ointment had not only strengthened his Qi-Blood but also rapidly restored his spiritual power, thus making the progress bar increase quickly.

Once he was out of Tiger Bone Ointment, the progress bar for his Inner Core Skill became as slow as that of the Eight Pieces of Brocade.

The Chrysanthemum Planting breakthrough he had achieved three times allowed him to supplement the spiritual power consumed by Inner Core Skill practice and speed up progress.

Now that he could replenish his spiritual power with chrysanthemum tea, the Inner Core Skill practice could continue without needing to cut down on time.

If it weren't for the numerous medicinal plants he needed to grow, Wang Sheng might have even considered increasing the time devoted to cultivating his Inner Core Skill—which was, after all, the Foundation Method.

In the end, Wang Sheng's backyard ended up with ten more types of medicinal plants.

Over the next month, the thing Wang Sheng did most every day was toiling with the soil in his backyard, advancing the progress of his Medicinal Plant Cultivation in an otherwise peaceful month.

Outside, the situation had become even more chaotic over the month, according to the information Li Yongfeng had gathered.

Due to the warfare, many caravans dared not venture out, and the price of food had already risen twice. Although it hadn't reached an exaggerated level, some perceptive people had begun to hoard food.

Even Qingshan Village had set up checkpoints at its entrances and exits based on the information Li Yongfeng provided, as if a storm was approaching.

The changes outside were as significant as the ones happening to Wang Sheng's progress bars.

What had reached Level 9 a month ago—like "Herb Recognition: 9 (25%)" and "Ginseng Cultivation: 9 (12%)"—had now become "Herb Recognition: Breakthrough+1 (78%)" and "Ginseng Cultivation: Breakthrough+1 (95%)."

Both had already undergone one breakthrough.

Ginseng Cultivation, like Chrysanthemum Planting, allowed Wang Sheng to rapidly grow a mature ginseng. Although different from chrysanthemums, which could be cultivated en masse within a few days, the growth cycle of ginseng was measured in years. A Wild Ginseng took about 20-30 years to mature, and for him to grow one took at least half a month—still an astonishing feat.

Not to mention that the speed would increase as the progress bar grew longer.

And the effect was astounding after the breakthrough of his greatly anticipated "Herb Recognition."

His mind was teeming with knowledge about the compounding of medicines, the most significant benefit being that his chances of successfully creating the "Ten-Complete Great Replenishing Pill" were now much greater.

Another major gain was the progress of the ten medicinal components of the "Ten-Complete Great Replenishing Pill."

"Codonopsis Planting: 9 (95%)," "Astragalus Planting: 9 (97%)," "Poria Planting: 9 (96%)..."

The progress levels for all ten medicinal plants had reached Level 9, and they were just a few percentage points away from their first breakthrough.

While he would still need to spend time getting them to the third breakthrough in order to replicate the effect he achieved with chrysanthemum, achieving a first-time breakthrough for all was immensely satisfying.

"It should be today. I'll set aside the Inner Core Skill for now and get all the cultivation levels up to the point of Breakthrough."

He wanted to see if a "Ten-Complete Great Replenishing Pill" made from ordinary medicinal materials would have any effect.

So, spending an afternoon in the backyard, Wang Sheng dug up the soil and brought all their progress up to 99.99%.

"With this one last scoop of earth, they should all breakthrough at once, right?"

Wang Sheng said as he dug down with the final spade.

As he had predicted, with that last scoop, all the medicinal plant cultivation levels underwent a breakthrough.

But there were also unexpected outcomes.

At the instant the cultivation levels of all medicinal plants broke through, a series of related progress bars such as "Chrysanthemum Planting," "Ginseng Cultivation," "Codonopsis Planting," and others, all disappeared.

In their place was "Medicinal Plant Cultivation: Breakthrough+1 (88%)."

Wang Sheng blinked at the progress bar before his eyes.

Had all the Medicinal Plant Cultivation progress bars merged?

He suddenly remembered something, quickly began planting chrysanthemums, and soon a chrysanthemum flower matured.

Wang Sheng brewed tea with this chrysanthemum.

The final result was as he thought—the chrysanthemums he had grown now lacked the effect they had before and were just ordinary chrysanthemums.

"…"

He had a rough idea of what had happened.

A certain number of medicinal plant cultivation levels had reached a breakthrough, so they merged into the "Medicinal Plant Cultivation" skill directly.

The level of "Medicinal Plant Cultivation" correlated with the collective cultivation levels of each medicinal plant before merging; being at 88% progress was closely related to Chrysanthemum Planting.

The advantage was that "Medicinal Plant Cultivation" now applied to all medicinal plants, without the need to boost each one's level individually, reducing the "grind."

The downside was clear as well: the Chrysanthemum Planting that had achieved three breakthroughs was now back to being ordinary.

"Overall, it's a good thing!"

Although he lost a Chrysanthemum Planting skill that had broken through three times, looking at the long term, having the "Medicinal Plant Cultivation" skill would save him a lot of time.

"Well, just continue grinding away!"

Before, he had to raise ten skills to the point of a third breakthrough, but now he needed to grind just one. What was there not to be satisfied about?

A month had gone by, and although Wang Sheng's strength hadn't improved much, he still found himself caught in the endless cycle of grinding.

However, just as he was preparing to continue with his grinding, he felt a mysterious pain and a sensation of swelling in his body.

He immediately realized something—this was a sign of Qi Rushing to the Disease.

His Qi-Blood Power had found a "disease focus!"