Having cultivated Iron Tiger Fist to the level of proficiency, Zhou Wuji realized that although this martial art seemed simple on the surface, it was actually easy to learn but hard to master.
Fortunately, his swordsmanship had reached the consummate realm, so analyzing the Five Tigers Fist from such an elevated vantage point made it extraordinarily simple.
Thus, low-grade destiny patterns were sufficient to push the Iron Tiger Fist to the proficient level.
The effectiveness of the primordial profound spirit was also closely tied to his own condition.
The body-refining effect of Iron Tiger Fist was tremendous!
It granted him a massive increase in physical toughness—something clearly visible from his bodily stats, which had leaped by thirty points at once, equivalent to an all-around ten percent enhancement of his physique.
With such immense gains, Zhou Wuji immediately invested another eight strands of primordial profound spirit of over one liang each, raising both the Black Tiger and Flying Tiger to the proficient level.
However, the Heart Tiger and White Tiger could only be elevated to the practiced realm.
Evidently, Heart Tiger refined the spirit, while White Tiger refined qi. Involving the refinement of spirit and qi, they constituted the true essence of the Five Tigers Fist.
Relying on just over one liang of primordial profound spirit was not enough to elevate these two fist styles to proficiency.
If the Five Tigers Fist were labeled as a whole, however, it would now display that it had reached the proficient realm.
Zhou Wuji performed a routine of the Five Tigers Fist in his room. The skin, flesh, sinews, and bones throughout his entire body exerted force simultaneously, projecting his punch's force an inch into midair, with his arms commanding a full fifteen hundred jin of strength.
After briefly testing the fist technique's might, Zhou Wuji found that while his strength was already formidable, he was still at the level of hidden force.
This was mainly thanks to the toughness of his body, which far surpassed that of an ordinary Rank 8 hidden force martial artist. It gave him a profound, powerful foundation to exert his strength to the fullest.
Yet hidden force was still hidden force; it was still a far cry from Rank 7 Transforming Jin.
The primordial profound spirit could grant him mastery of the Five Tigers Fist, but it could not make his physique advance in tandem with the fist technique.
The initial path of martial arts was entirely about tempering the body and refining force. Every step forward in the Five Tigers Fist was intrinsically linked to the physical form.
This differed greatly from the Xiaoxiang Sword.
The Xiaoxiang Sword also required the body's cooperation, but the swordsmanship aligned with the true qi of the Northern Dipper Celestial Pivot Scripture; as long as his true qi cultivation was sufficient, he could bring forth the profound essence of the sword art.
In the martial path, Rank 9 overt force drew power from the skin and flesh. Rank 8 hidden force drew power from the sinews and bones.
At Rank 7 Transforming Jin, the skin, flesh, sinews, bones, and internal organs integrated into a single whole, exerting force in unison.
Hence, a Rank 7 martial artist possessed two thousand jin of strength across both arms, could leap three to four zhang in a single bound, exhaled breath like thunder, and possessed an extraordinarily formidable physique.
Zhou Wuji felt that his failure to achieve Transforming Jin came down to two reasons: first, his fist technique had not reached a high enough level; second, his physical toughness was still insufficient.
Judging from the several Rank 7 experts he had fought, even the weakest among the rebel soldiers likely possessed bodily stats exceeding three hundred, while the strongest, Zhang Xinhu, must have reached five hundred.
"I still need to kill more demons!"
Zhou Wuji muttered to himself. Having stayed cooped up in his room for over a month, he was on the verge of going stir-crazy.
Now that he had nothing to do, it was the perfect time to head into the mountains, hunt a few demons, and harvest Primordial Profound Essence.
Once he raised his physical stats to four hundred and then elevated both Heart Tiger Fist and White Tiger Fist, he should be able to reach Transforming Jin.
A Rank 7 expert at the Transforming Jin level, combined with his true qi, swordsmanship, and various spells—would it be an exaggeration to call himself the strongest Rank 7?!
When he reached that stage, what would a mere Wu Di count for? Zhou Wuji could blow him apart with a single punch.
The mere thought of that delightful prospect filled Zhou Wuji with excitement.
Though Zhang Xinhu had been dealt with, Wu Di was still alive and kicking, leaving an itch in Zhou Wuji's mind that gave him no peace.
The matter with the gold-ring poison bees had undoubtedly been a trap laid by Wu Di. For that alone, Wu Di deserved to die!
Zhou Wuji eagerly went to find Wuzheng, claiming he wanted to head into the mountains to gather some herbs for alchemy.
Wuzheng, however, flatly refused. Zhou Wuji had yet to recover from his severe injuries; how could he enter the mountains? It was far too dangerous.
Taking Zhou Wuji's hand, he said earnestly, "Junior Brother, I know you are extraordinarily gifted and that your sword skills are superb. But your body hasn't healed yet. There is no need to take such risks.
"Since you can move around now, I will teach you alchemy.
"We shall start from the very basics: identifying herbs and studying medicinal theory..."
Zhou Wuji could only nod in agreement.
Wuzheng had brought many medicinal ingredients with him this time, including common herbs like astragalus, Solomon's seal, and atractylodes, as well as spiritual items rich in spiritual qi, such as purple blood ginseng and nine-leaf vermilion fruit.
"Generally speaking, alchemy ingredients must undergo nine rounds of steaming and nine rounds of sun-drying to purge impurities, preserving only the essence of the herb..."
Wuzheng was just about to light the furnace to refine an inedia pill, making it the perfect opportunity to guide Zhou Wuji step-by-step through extracting herbal essences and balancing medicinal proportions.
The knowledge involved was immense. Wuzheng gave Zhou Wuji two sets of books: *Dan Jing Yao Li* and the *Compendium of Materia Medica*. Together, the two sets amounted to well over a million words, accompanied by various illustrations.
Even with Zhou Wuji's powerful divine sense, it took a month of arduous study to commit both sets of books to memory.
Wuzheng was full of admiration for Zhou Wuji's memory; that he could remember so many words was practically terrifying.
Wuzheng himself always had to keep both sets of books by his side, flipping through them whenever he encountered rare or unusual ingredients.
"Junior Brother, with such an extraordinary memory, you are ideally suited to study medicine and the elixir scriptures," Wuzheng said. "The branch abbey possesses the *Green Pouch Scripture*, thirty volumes in total, each containing over a hundred thousand words detailing prescriptions and case histories from famed physicians throughout the generations. Back then, reading it left me dizzy and bewildered; I couldn't memorize it at all.
"If you can memorize the *Green Pouch Scripture*, you will be able to treat seven or eight out of ten ailments under heaven..."
Alchemy and medicine were intimately linked. The higher one's medical skill, the better one understood what the human body needed and what it did not, and thus one knew how to make choices when refining elixirs.
Wuzheng's medical skills were lacking, so he could only refine pills strictly according to recipes, unable to tailor pills to his own needs.
He had always deeply regretted this.
Seeing the talent Zhou Wuji displayed, he felt that Zhou Wuji could delve deeper into this field.
Swordsmanship was a technique for killing, whereas medicine and alchemy were arts for saving lives.
Princes, nobles, great scholars, and mighty experts possessed tremendous power to protect themselves, harboring no fear of violence.
Yet when facing death, they were utterly helpless, capable only of pinning their hopes on external aid.
Masters of medicine and alchemy were treated as honored guests wherever they went. Even the emperor himself would not slight them.
Even if one had no wish to heal the world and save lives, mastering medicine and alchemy allowed one to formulate pills specifically for one's own deficiencies, breaking through the limits of natural talent to attain supreme heights.
Legends from antiquity even told of individuals who ascended to immortality through external elixirs.
Zhou Wuji was deeply intrigued. He possessed numerous strands of primordial profound spirit, which he could readily use to learn alchemy and medicine.
Just as Wuzheng had said, if one truly possessed superb medical and alchemical skills, one would be received as an honored guest anywhere.
A person proficient in martial arts and swordsmanship was merely a killing blade—valuable, but used for dirty work.
His current cultivation was weak, so he still had to rely on martial force to establish authority and make a name for himself. Once he attained higher levels, elixirs would be far more useful than blades and swords.
Realizing this, Zhou Wuji dedicated himself even more earnestly to alchemy.
Following Wuzheng, he refined a furnace of inedia pills, taking only two days from start to finish.
With Wuzheng's selfless instruction, Zhou Wuji also mastered the various foundational skills of alchemy.
Once the refining concluded, Zhou Wuji opened the Northern Emperor's Book of Heavenly Punishment and invested over one liang of primordial profound spirit, raising his inedia pill crafting to the proficient level.
The recipe for an inedia pill was relatively simple; the true difficulty lay in controlling the furnace's heat during refinement, extracting the essence of the ingredients, and combining it with the spiritual qi of heaven and earth.
Through cultivating in the small world granted by the primordial profound spirit, Zhou Wuji's skill in refining inedia pills was now on par with Wuzheng's.
Although he had only learned how to refine inedia pills, the knowledge regarding ingredient preparation and furnace control was universal.
In that respect, he could already be considered an alchemist.
Two days later, Zhou Wuji asked Wuzheng to light the furnace again, eager to learn more.
Wuzheng had time on his hands and was glad to teach him. More than anything, Zhou Wuji was genuinely brilliant; he remembered things the moment they were explained and grasped them after a single demonstration.
Wuzheng also wanted to see whether Zhou Wuji could achieve something in alchemy.
Wuzheng fired up the furnace once more to refine Golden Splendor Pills, a type of tonic primarily meant to strengthen the body, replenish essence, and fortify the kidneys.
These were generally sold to high officials and noblemen. After all, such people indulged heavily in wine and women, taking a tremendous toll on their bodies. The Golden Splendor Pill suited them best.
During this refinement, Zhou Wuji assisted at his side. Whether sorting or processing the herbs, he worked swiftly and flawlessly, leaving Wuzheng unable to find even the slightest fault.
When it came time to ignite the furnace, it was essentially a matter of using high heat to temper the medicinal properties of the herbs.
Zhou Wuji volunteered to help manage the heat. Wuzheng had initially been uneasy and watched closely from the side, only to discover that Zhou Wuji was remarkably adept.
Wuzheng said nothing aloud, but inwardly he was astounded as if beholding a celestial being. It had only been a few days since he started learning, yet his junior brother had already learned how to master the flame—if this wasn't a genius, what was?!
He had initially figured that even if this batch of pills failed, it would not matter, as giving his junior brother some hands-on experience was worthwhile in itself.
Yet when the pills were finally formed and drawn from the furnace, dozens of them were completely intact, imbued with inner spiritual qi, and of exceptional quality.
Wuzheng felt both delighted and a touch envious. A genius like his junior brother was bound to achieve great things no matter what he undertook.
By comparison, he fell far, far short...
Chapter 63