Chapter 26: Dan Fang's Nine Supreme Ranks of the Mysterious Realm

  Sweat, it seems like I sent it wrong!!!!

  …………………

  "Zhang, what's going on?!" Seeing Zhang Yong raise his foot to kick, Xiao Bao let out a soft sigh and finally recognized the young man. He was Sun Hua, a notorious good-for-nothing from Qingyang Village. His family wasn't poor, his father had opened a small warehouse in Qingyang Village, making them a middle-class family. Unfortunately, he died a few months ago, leaving only Sun Hua behind. However, Sun Hua was lazy and didn't understand business, so he got cheated and lost the warehouse, as well as all the valuable things at home. In the end, they were left with only one small room, relying on pawning their belongings to survive. Going back and forth like this, there weren't many valuable things left in the house, but rather some worthless items. Living from hand to mouth, it's likely that soon he'll become a beggar.

  It seems that he was extremely hungry, so he brought some of the few things at home on his body, thinking of selling some money to spend on this busy day, but unexpectedly he didn't understand the rules and was dealt with by Zhang Yong, the patroller.

  "Hey, it's Little Leopard again! Come to buy books?" As soon as he saw Little Leopard walking over, Zhang Yong immediately smiled and put down the foot he had raised, but then kicked Sun Hua's butt and said, "Still not leaving? If you don't go now, I'll beat you to death!"

  Sun Hua was so angry that he knew he wasn't Zhang Yong's opponent, and his tears and nose all flowed out. He used his sleeve to wipe his face, and suddenly became a big flower face, which immediately caused the surrounding crowd to burst into laughter again.

  "Never mind, Zhang. It's also pitiful!" Little Leopard sighed softly and walked in front of Sun Hua, "Brother Sun, you're here to sell books, right?"

  Sun Hua sobbed a few times, looked at the little leopard, saw that he was young and didn't understand where he came from, so he just nodded.

  "I've bought all your books, here's the money, is it enough?"

  The little leopard took out a piece of silver and handed it over to Sun Hua's hand.

  "That's enough, that's enough!" Sun Hua sobbed and said.

  He was originally starving, pointing to a few tattered books to sell for a few copper coins to buy some baked buns to eat. The little leopard gave him a handful of silver coins, enough for him to eat several meals, and hastily handed over the package of black books in his hand, fearing that something would happen again, took the silver coins and hurriedly left.

  "Little leopard, your heart is kind, but he's just a good-for-nothing son of a declining family. Giving him money today won't do any good, eventually he'll have to sell his broken-down house and come out onto the streets to beg for food!" Zhang Yong said with a scowl as he watched Little Leopard buy that package of books, then turned around and walked in another direction, continuing on his patrol of the streets.

  "Hehe!" Little Leopard smiled and didn't say a word, hugging a pile of books, came to the book stall, "Brother Wang, how's it going? Any new books?"

  The middle-aged stall owner immediately put on a very thick smile, "I've collected quite a few good books this time!" He said, proudly patting the pile of old books in front of him.

  The little leopard smiled, picked out a few suitable ones from the book stall, paid for them, and then turned around in the market to buy some food and drink before returning to Wu's ironwork shop.

  He is now considered a master craftsman and at such a young age, his future prospects are boundless. As a result, he also has an independent room now.

  The room is not large, by modern standards, it's about twenty square meters, but it's enough for him to live alone.

  The furnishings in the room are very simple, a bed, a table and a chair, apart from this there is only a small cabinet, now this cabinet is full of books, all of which are Xiaobao's masterpieces over the past six months.

  His masterpieces are numerous, and through these books, his understanding of this world can be said to be extremely profound.

  " 'The Records of the Strange and Unusual' is probably not as good as 'Journey to the West', but when I'm in the mood, I'll revise 'Journey to the West' and 'The Investiture of the Gods' and send them out. Who knows, I might even make a pretty penny or two!" Little Leopard flipped through a book, glanced at it for a moment, then tossed it aside. He was no longer like he used to be, wrapping up the entire old book stall in one go; now he only picked out books that interested him and browsed through them. After finishing the books he had bought from the old book stall, he piled them up by his bed and opened the tattered package that Sun Hua had sold to him. Buying Sun Hua's books was also an impulsive decision, done out of pity; although it's said that pitied people must have something hateful about them, Little Leopard thought that doing a good deed like this wouldn't hurt.

  "Wow, 'The Great Music of Yin and Yang'!? I didn't know there were books like this in the world! I'll just put it away for now and look at it again in a few years!" Xiaobao's eyebrows furrowed as he saw the cover of the first book, and he stuffed it into the tiny space in the cabinet. "'The Jade Emperor's Daughter'? No wonder the Sun family went bankrupt! How can they have books like this?" Xiaobao's eyebrows were already scrunched up into a "well" shape. Although he had previously enjoyed Japan's special products, he was still too young now, only 8 or 9 years old. Reading books like this would make him abnormal, so he flipped open the third book again, "'Tang Head Medicine'?

  I'm just a blacksmith, what's this for?

  The little leopard was so disinterested that he threw the book aside.

  "What's this?!"

  This book "Tang Tou Yao Jue" he just casually flipped through a few pages, and on it was recorded the most basic Tang Tou song, such as Si Jun Zi Tang's "Si Jun Zi Tang Zhong He Yi, Shen Shu Fu Ling Gan Cao Bi, Yi Yu Xia Chen Ming Liu Jun, Qu Zhi Bu Qi Yang Xu Gao, Chu Qu Ban Xia Ming Yi Gong, Huo Jia Xiang Sha Wei Han Shi", and then there was Qin Jiao Fu Lou Tang, "Qin Jiao Fu Lou Gui Jia Chai, Di Gu Dang Gui Zi Kun He, Ban Xia Ren Shen Jian Bian Cao, Fei Lao Zheng Shu Fu Zhi Xie" this kind of thing. Although Little Leopard didn't understand it, he also knew that these were the basic things for doctors to learn, and in his village days, that old blind man used these things to teach villagers to recognize characters. So after glancing at it a few times, he threw the book aside.

  The book was thrown away, but in mid-air, the pages were turned over by the airflow, and a yellowed paper page filled with words slowly floated out of the book.

  The little leopard was somewhat curious, stretched out his hand and scooped it up, then put the paper in front of his eyes and was stunned.

  This piece of paper is actually filled with tiny characters, densely packed together.

  "Mystic God Pill, Tempering Bone Pill, Easy Tendon Pill, Calming Pulse Pill, Blood Changing Pill, Marrow Washing Pill!"

  His face stiffened, like a zombie, with a tiny drop of saliva at the corner of his mouth. After watching, he suddenly swallowed a big mouthful of saliva and only then realized that unknowingly, the drool at the corner of his mouth had dripped onto the ground in a large puddle. Fortunately, no one saw it, otherwise, it would have been laughable.

  "Is this really the legendary good person gets good reward? No, no......!" Little Leopard clutched the piece of paper tightly in his hand, wanting to put it in his pocket, but also wanting to lift up the quilt and hide it underneath. For a moment, he was at a loss for what to do. "This isn't just good person gets good reward, this is literally the legendary protagonist mode! Otherwise, how could I have gotten such a treasure so easily?"

  The first mysterious pill was not mentioned, but the other five pill formulas made Little Leopard sweat profusely. These pill formulas were simply too high-level.

  He is no longer a rustic wildcat hiding in a small mountain village, he is now an ironworker at the Wu family's iron shop. Although his martial arts skills are not impressive, he has gained a much deeper understanding of the martial world than he had more than half a year ago. More than half a year ago, all he knew was that true warriors were those who cultivated both internal and external strength, divided into three stages: skin, bone, and tendon transformation, also known as the Three Realms. Wang Tianlei barely qualified as a beginner in the skin transformation stage, nothing more.

  He arrived at Wu's house and understood more than before. He now knew that the Martial Realm was divided into three major stages, which were also known as the Three Realms. These three realms were further divided into nine grades. Practitioners in the Skin Tempering Realm were considered to be of the lower three grades, those in the Bone Tempering Realm were of the middle three grades, and those in the Tendon Tempering Realm were of the upper three grades. His brother-in-law, Wang Tianlei, was at most a first-grade practitioner of the lower three grades, having just stepped into the threshold of martial arts.

  Among the nine grades of strength, there are only a handful in the world who can be counted on one's fingers. Only those super-large sects and thousand-year-old aristocratic families will produce one or two, which is not something he can imagine now. For example, in the case of the Wu family, the strongest elder has just reached the seventh grade, entering the top three grades, this is already a family's deterrent force.

  The reason why there are so few martial artists among the top three is that, firstly, the path is arduous and only those with great perseverance, wisdom, and good fortune can persist. Secondly, it is difficult to obtain spiritual medicine.

  In this world, the internal and external cultivation of martial arts emphasizes mutual assistance between the inside and outside, with the inside nourishing the outside and the outside supporting the inside. However, regardless of the secret method used, the speed at which they mutually assist each other is always very slow. For example, using inner energy to warm and nourish the meridians, increasing their elasticity, strength, and capacity, requires a large amount of time - often tens or even hundreds of years. Human life is short, where would one find so much time to devote to such things? Therefore, if you want to accelerate your cultivation speed, you must have spiritual medicine to assist and enhance your physical constitution. This is why medicinal baths and potions emerged. However, the effect of medicinal baths and potions is not very good, fundamentally unable to bring out the full efficacy of spiritual medicine. In a potion bath, even if 30-40% of the medicinal power can be brought out, it's already quite good. Yet, this 30-40% is still extremely helpful in improving one's physical constitution. This is why all major sects and aristocratic families spare no effort to search everywhere for spiritual medicine for their disciples to use.

  In the legend of Wulin, a long time ago, what was prevalent in the martial arts world was not this kind of bath potion, but Ling Dan. The types and amounts of medicinal materials consumed by Ling Dan were much less than those of potions, only about one-tenth to one-twelfth, but its efficacy was several times better than that of potions. With a small amount of medicinal power, at least 70-80% of the effect could be achieved, and if refined well, even 100% of the medicinal effect could be achieved. However, now these Ling Dan are basically legendary, not because there are no medicinal materials, but because the original alchemy formula and refining techniques have been lost. Although the text of potions and Ling Dan is vastly different, medicine is a thing that, even if it differs by a tiny bit, is still different. With one less herb or one more herb, not only will it not take effect, but it can also be fatal. What's more, the techniques and steps for refining Dan have already been lost.

  Of course, it's not completely lost. There is still a kind of spiritual elixir in this world, which is the Tempering Bone Elixir. This is also the only spiritual elixir that has not been lost. However, the formula and refining techniques for Tempering Bone Elixir are all held by the number one sect in the world, the legendary martial sacred land Xuantian Zhengzong. Ordinary martial artists can't get it at all. In Xuantian Zhengzong, the formula and refining techniques are also passed down through a single line of inheritance. Except for use within the sect, very few have been leaked to the outside world. Therefore, every Tempering Bone Elixir that flows out is sold at an astronomical price. As for the spiritual elixir that is one level higher than Tempering Bone Elixir, it has completely disappeared.

  Not to mention the three other Dan formulas after Yijin Dan.

  Regulate pulse, exchange blood, wash marrow!!

  "Could this be the legendary Tongxuan Secret Realm above the Ninth Rank?!"