Chapter 37: Grinding Ambition and Shaping Form
From that day on, Xiao Ziyang settled down in Longkou Town with a peaceful mind. He seemed to have forgotten the haunted house by his side and the family feud, never going back to that nearby mansion again, not even willing to take another glance.
The hatred in his heart had not faded with time, but rather fermented like old wine in his chest, and it was precisely this deep-seated hatred that made him even more calm and cautious.
He stopped pursuing the truth because he knew that approaching the truth when one is not strong enough means approaching danger and death.
In the following days, Xiao Ziyang began a period of bitter training that he would later be unwilling to recall.
The first nine chapters of "Zi Yu Xiang Yan" contain dozens of movements, all of which were created solely for physical exercise and have no function in terms of attack or combat.
These movements, combined with some special breathing techniques, have a magical function. They can tap into the practitioner's potential at an incredibly rapid speed, and in this process, they will also produce suffering that ordinary people cannot bear! The longer the practitioner endures this inhuman suffering, the more obvious the effect will be.
Xiao Ziyang spent no more time cultivating the second and third chapters of "Zi Yu Sheng Yan" than he did on the first chapter, but the hardship was far beyond that of the first chapter, and the effect obtained was also far beyond that of the first chapter.
When practicing Chapter 2, in addition to the need for medicinal diet support as in Chapter 1, it is also necessary to take special medicinal soups before and after practice to better stimulate the body's potential and repair the damage caused by rapid exertion of potential.
In addition to taking medicine and decoction, the third stage also requires washing with medicinal herbs. Because taking decoctions alone is not enough to repair the damage to the body under great pressure.
When practicing the second chapter, Xiao Ziyang found that his body had undergone some changes he couldn't understand. His weight was constantly increasing due to high-intensity practice and a large intake of meat every day, but his figure didn't become more burly as a result. Every muscle on his body was slowly becoming as solid as steel!
During the third chapter of his cultivation, this change became even more pronounced. His weight was constantly increasing, but his figure was gradually becoming thinner! At the same time, his dark and coarse skin also became white and tender with each day's medicinal bath.
When he finished cultivating the third chapter of "Zi Yu Sheng Yan", his appearance changed drastically once again!
Xiao Ziyang half a year ago was like an iron tower, now he is like a straight steel spear! Erect and slightly thin.
When the rough and dark skin on his face finally retreated, revealing his true appearance, a pair of eyebrows appeared above his pale and delicate complexion, showing their thick original color. A pair of large eyes that were slightly sunken into the eye sockets were deep and piercingly bright.
His straight and high nose, slightly hawked, made his already sharp facial features, like a knife-cut and axe-chopped face, appear somewhat cold and stern. A slightly wide mouth with thin lips made him look steady and majestic.
Even if his face was as white and tender as a baby's, it couldn't dilute the strong and unyielding expression on his face, like the biting wind and snow of the northern country!
At this time, Xiao Ziyang's slightly thin body contained a huge power that far exceeded people's imagination. The strength between his two arms was now as much as 4,000 jin! The small tree with a trunk as thick as a bowl in the courtyard could be uprooted with just a slight effort! Such strength had already surpassed the extreme that external family kung fu could achieve.
At the same time, his weight was also completely inconsistent with his appearance, and his slightly thin body weighed as much as 500 pounds! And this steel-like physique of his was astonishingly powerful.
A tree as big as one person could hug was no match for his full-force collision, and such a huge impact would have left an ordinary person with broken bones, but he emerged unscathed.
A tree trunk as thick as a thigh couldn't withstand his sweep of the leg, and such a large impact wouldn't cause any damage to his leg bones.
He once used a horse-slaying sword to slash at his own chest, which was not even scratched, and even with 500 jin of force, only left a white mark. If he stabbed himself, the blade would only penetrate an inch into his skin before being clamped shut by his steel-like muscles.
Unlike ordinary horizontal exercises, Xiao Ziyang's body has become stronger in essence, rather than relying on a single breath to support it like general horizontal exercises do, and needing to prepare before accepting an attack. Practitioners of horizontal exercises are actually most afraid of sneak attacks. Xiao Ziyang's physique will not change even when he is asleep.
Xiao Ziyang's drastic change in appearance made him feel proud while looking at himself in the mirror, but it also brought him a crisis. Now rumors about him are spreading all over Longkou Town!
At first, in order not to attract attention from others, he specially bought a horse-drawn carriage. Every few days, he would drive the carriage to Zhongshan City to purchase medicinal materials and meat food. The people in the town did not notice anything unusual.
But when his appearance underwent a change that ordinary people could not understand, it attracted people's attention, and these actions of his could no longer deceive the suspicious.
Soon everyone knew that he would buy back more than a dozen medicinal materials and dozens of pounds of meat from Zhongshan City every few days.
Some people speculated that Xiao Ziyang had contracted an incurable disease and came to this place because the disease might be contagious, and in order not to harm his fellow villagers, he chose Longkou Town.
Some people guessed that Xiao Ziyang was probably a monster, if he were human, how could he eat more than ten kilograms of meat every day!
Rumors caused panic in Longkou Town!
Xiao Ziyang, who had long been aware of the situation, left Longkou Town in a horse-drawn carriage on the same night he finished practicing the third chapter of "Zi Yu Sheng Yan".
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Chunan County is notorious in Chu Prefecture, and even the whole Western Liang, for its poor mountains and bad waters. The entire Chunan County has no flat land except for the Shangyuan Basin where the county seat of Shangyuan City is located.
The Shangyuan Basin is not large in area, only about 300 miles around, but it is very famous because it produces a high-quality rice called "Shangyuan Pearl".
Shangyuan Pearl Rice has the reputation of being the best fragrant rice in Western Liang, its grains are round in shape, distinctly different from other types of long-grained rice. After rinsing, this type of rice is as crystal clear and translucent as glass.
This rice has a particularly special fragrance and sweetness whether it's made into porridge or cooked as plain rice, and its smooth and slightly chewy texture makes it extremely popular among the wealthy and powerful in Western Liang.
Shangyuan pearls have always been an indispensable tribute on the table of the Western Liang imperial family, so they are also known as "tribute pearls".
For some reason, once the "Shangyuan Pearl" leaves its original cultivation area in Shangyuan, and is planted elsewhere, it immediately changes in shape and flavor, losing its original fragrance. This makes this tribute product even more valuable, increasing its price by a hundredfold.
In Chunan County, there is a saying: "One hundred taels of silver in southern Chu, ninety-nine taels are spent on the Upper Yuan Festival!"
Southern Chu is notorious for its poverty and barrenness in Western Liang, but this absolutely does not include the three counties of Shangyuan.
