Chapter 37: Pain and Progress

  Seeking collection, seeking recommendation, seeking clicks, seeking patronage...

  ※

  It's impossible to get a tiger cub without entering the tiger's lair!

  Li Wenjun quickly came to his senses, jumped into the bathtub, and tried the soup with his body. This was his only way out. If he didn't do this, he wouldn't be able to make faster progress on the path of cultivation. Moreover, wasn't it for this moment that he risked his life to collect medicine, snatching the Wild Mountain Spirit from Kong Yao Shi and Dai Zeng Hong?

  When it comes to the crunch, how can one retreat?

  Li Wenjun quickly re-boiled a pot of water and poured it into the already cooled bathtub, then stripped off his clothes and jumped in.

  The water in the bathtub was warm and comforting, with a hint of medicinal fragrance. Jumping into it on such a cold day felt incredibly relaxing.

  Li Wenjun's hand was always grasping the edge of the bathtub, and as soon as he found anything unusual, he would leave the bathtub at the first time. As a result, after soaking in the bath for a while, nothing happened.

  Is it a failure of bath configuration or is there a problem with other links?

  Li Wenjun decided to try again, this time he couldn't just soak in it, he had to cultivate in the bath water, circulating the "Changchun Gong". He sat cross-legged in the bathtub, his five hearts facing upwards, and soon entered a meditative state.

  At first, Li Wenjun felt no different from usual, his surroundings were empty and there was not much spiritual energy. However, when he absorbed all the spiritual energy and was about to end his cultivation, a change occurred.

  The water in the bathtub was like a boiling pot, emitting many tiny bubbles smaller than millet grains. They burst open as soon as they appeared, and strands of spiritual energy rushed out of the bubbles.

  If these spiritual energies were amplified, it would be discovered that their colors are not pure, with white containing a hint of black. Experienced individuals encountering such spiritual energy wouldn't even have time to dodge, let alone absorb it. However, Li Wenjun didn't understand this and also lacked the ability to distinguish between good and bad spiritual energy.

  These spiritual energies were like kissing fish, attracted by Li Wenjun, and surged towards Li Wenjun who was cultivating.

  They didn't understand what gentleness was, and after they crashed into Li Wenjun's skin, their speed didn't slow down at all, without distinguishing between things or paths, and they forcibly drilled into Li Wenjun's body.

  A huge tearing sensation, a piercing pain, both struck Li Wenjun, making Li Wenjun hurt so much that he almost fainted. He didn't know if he should have gone through such a process? It wasn't mentioned in "Changchun Gong" either.

  Li Wenjun hated to stop cultivating immediately, but when he felt the spiritual energy coming with these painful pains, he secretly gritted his teeth and endured it. Not only did he not stop, but he accelerated the operation of "Changchun Gong".

  This was the opportunity he had been waiting for, and no matter what, he didn't want to miss it. As for whether this would lead to any adverse consequences, he could only comfort himself that there would be a good outcome.

  Li Wenjun decocted the Qi-gathering powder into a medicinal broth, and later adjusted the bathing broth. The entire process had major problems. This led to a very serious consequence - there were too many impurities in the bathing broth, the spiritual energy secreted out was not pure, with many miscellaneous airs. For cultivators, they were toxins, impurities, only harmful, no benefits.

  They rushed into Li Wenjun's body with the spiritual energy, and in Li Wenjun's meridians and acupoints, they were like sharp little knives, cutting and stabbing inside Li Wenjun's body. Li Wenjun was like being tortured, even more painful than real torture.

  What is called "lingchi" is when someone uses a knife to cut a person's body, piece by piece. Li Wenjun now has over a hundred knives cutting into his body.

  Which one is more painful, it's obvious.

  Li Wenjun couldn't hold it in anymore, opened his mouth and spat out a mouthful of blood. The blood fell into the bathtub, instantly dyeing the water red.

  After the pain subsided, Li Wenjun found that his meridians had accumulated a considerable amount of spiritual energy. Once it reached a certain level, he could break through to the first layer of the Qi Refining stage.

  Since it was effective, Li Wenjun did not stop practicing, but instead gritted his teeth and continued to persevere.

  After about the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, there were no more bubbles rising from the bathtub, and naturally, no more spiritual energy was secreted. Li Wenjun stopped his cultivation, opened his eyes, and felt that all over his body, he had a tearing pain, every one of his two hundred plus bones, six hundred plus muscles, not a single one was not in pain. His body, his limbs were all trembling uncontrollably.

  What made it even more unbearable for him was that the turbid Qi he couldn't absorb didn't dissipate immediately, but continued to wreak havoc inside his body, damaging his meridians and acupoints, stimulating his pain nerves to the greatest extent.

  At this, Li Wenjun was at a loss, and could only listen to the heavens. He panted heavily, using his hands and feet, crawled out of the bathtub, used a towel to simply wipe off the water droplets on his body, then crawled onto the bed, pulled over the quilt to cover himself. He shivered for half a day inside the quilt before falling asleep in a daze.

  After this sleep, it was already the second day. The rooster crowed for the first time, and Li Wenjun suddenly opened his eyes. He felt that his whole body didn't hurt at all, and he was extremely spirited.

  The miscellaneous evil Qi that was rampant in his body also disappeared. These miscellaneous evil Qi were all rootless trees and would not continue to grow stronger, after being consumed to a certain extent, they would naturally disperse.

  Li Wenjun felt unbelievable, he quickly got up and touched here and there, all over his body, but couldn't find any painful spot. His heart moved, he sat cross-legged again and started practicing "Changchun Gong". He was thrilled to discover that his cultivation had improved greatly, the heavenly spiritual energy he absorbed while meditating in the bathtub yesterday was still there, flowing through his meridians, thriving ceaselessly.

  Li Wenjun clenched his fists, crackling with energy. He swung out his fist, and both the speed and power had increased significantly compared to before. He jumped off the bed and began practicing in the empty space of the room.

  The result was unexpectedly good, his body's flexibility, speed, strength and so on have all been greatly improved. Everything shows that yesterday's practice was very successful. As for the pain experienced during yesterday's practice, compared to today's achievements, it is not worth mentioning.

  Li Wenjun was overjoyed and immediately decided to continue configuring the bath soup and continue his cultivation.

  Waiting until dawn, Li Wenjun first accompanied Sun Baicao and his son Sun Jianing to have a meal together, asked about their situation, and then returned to his own room to prepare for the bath.

  Sun Baicao and Sun Jianing, father and son, were indeed curious about what Li Wenjun was doing, but they had not yet found a good buyer for the herbs, which were still piled up in their hands. Their minds were all focused on this, where did they have the leisure to go and ask Li Wenjun for details?

  When Sun Baicao and his son went out to find buyers again, Li Wenjun started repeating the process of yesterday. However, after brewing the medicinal soup this time, he didn't rush to configure the bath soup immediately. Instead, he scooped a spoonful out, mixed it with a basin of water, and then put the little lamb into the copper basin to test the medicine.

  The lamb is still safe and sound, just like yesterday. The lamb won't practice cultivation or the "Changchun Gong", so it's impossible to stimulate the spiritual energy inside, even if it were to soak in a hot spring for three days and three nights, nothing would happen.

  The medicine soup was ready, and Li Wenjun took the little lamb out of the copper basin, tossed it a white radish, and the lamb bleated happily as it started to nibble.

  Li Wenjun boiled another large pot of water, poured it into the bathtub, and then added cold water and medicinal broth. Suddenly, the color of the water in the bathtub changed again, still that reddish-brown color.

  Li Wenjun jumped into the bathtub, sat cross-legged, and circulated the "Changchun Gong". The kung fu was not big, but that kind of pain that was even more painful than lingchi came to him like a tidal wave.

  Li Wenjun clenched his teeth, and his molars creaked in response. Although the pain was almost unbearable, throughout the entire cultivation process, from start to finish, he didn't even let out a single groan.

  ……

  For several days in a row, Li Wenjun spent his time like this. With the help of the Qi-gathering dispersal bath, his cultivation was very smooth. More than half of the main meridians in his body had accumulated some spiritual energy. As long as all the main meridians were filled with spiritual energy, he could form a cycle of circulation, and only then would he be considered to have successfully cultivated to the first layer of Qi Refining stage.

  These past few days, progress has been obvious, and the hardships haven't decreased either. Almost every day during his cultivation, he would be in so much pain that it felt like he was dying, as if he had made a round trip to the gates of hell.

  Every time he cultivates, his meridians and acupoints are severely damaged. If it were someone else, they would have become a useless person long ago. However, after he finishes cultivating, he just goes to sleep with his head covered, and when he wakes up from his dream, all his internal injuries will disappear.

  Li Wenjun also had a guess, estimating that it was the mysterious green light that had saved him several times before. Unexpectedly, not only could the green light quickly heal physical injuries, but even internal injuries that left Jianghu people helpless could be quickly cured, with an unexpectedly good effect and high efficiency.

  Li Wenjun has been daring to take a bath in the medicinal soup every day for the past few days, and there is a big reason why he can do so - it's because of the green light. If not for this, even if he knew that the medicinal soup could speed up his cultivation, he wouldn't have dared to endure such great pain to cultivate.

  That day, after Li Wenjun finished his cultivation, he still covered his head and fell asleep. When he woke up again, the sky outside was still dark, and the roosters hadn't crowed yet. Li Wenjun felt that his spirit was extremely excited, and no matter what, he couldn't fall asleep again.

  He thought about his cultivation over the past few days, just focusing on bitter practice, feeling good himself, but not knowing exactly how good. Why not take advantage of the current quiet night, when there's no one outside, to go out and test it?

  Li Wenjun got out of bed, put on his clothes, slung the storage bag over his shoulder, and walked into the yard. He didn't want to disturb Sun Bairen and his son, so he decided to go outside the town, tiptoeing towards the gate.

  Just as he was about to pull open the door, Li Wenjun withdrew his hand and took a few steps back. He looked up at the three-story high gatehouse, sank his energy into his dantian, slightly bent his knees, exerted force with his feet, and sprang upwards.

  With a whoosh, Li Wenjun soared into the air, not quite as he had expected. He flew a bit too high and ended up clearing the gatehouse altogether. Hastily dispersing the energy in his dantian, he sank downwards and landed steadily on the street outside.

  Li Wenjun turned his head to look at the tall gate, and a smile spread across his face. In the past, he had trouble flying over walls that were only one person high, but this time he was able to leap over three or four people high with ease, his progress obvious.