Protect Our Chief - Chapter 8

Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

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In this kind of familiar waters, Crimson-scaled Eels were rare and hard to come by. Even if they were lucky enough to run into them, ordinary fishing nets would be torn apart. Being able to catch them at all required both luck and strength.

Of course, in the dire waters of the barren swamp, Crimson-scaled Eels wouldn’t be that rare. Only, there was no knowing how many dire beasts would be hidden in that type of uncharted and dangerous land. Even someone who had attained the Spirit Tower Realm would be in mortal danger if they blundered in there.

With the catch of the Crimson-scaled Eel by Wang Dinghai, the atmosphere reached its peak. After the fishermen quickly fixed the net, they continued to work with gusto.

On the other hand, Wang Dinghai personally led Wang Shouzhe and Gongsun Hui back to Dingpu Crossing on the boat. They met up with a few clan guards who had stayed behind and returned to the main residence.

It was getting late, so they went to bed after washing up.

That night, Wang Shouzhe fumbled around and entered the state of Arcane Martial cultivation. Due to the fusion of his memories, he only familiarized himself with it briefly before entering the proper cultivation path.

The cultivation technique that Wang Shouzhe practiced was the Qi Refining section of the “Wang Clan’s Mnemonic of Arcane Essence”. It was said that it was a cultivation technique passed down from the earliest ancestor.

The Arcane Essence that was cultivated from this technique had a calm and peaceful Qi. It didn’t have any outstanding advantages, but neither did it have any fatal flaws. However, the more one cultivated it to the later stages, the more profound one’s Arcane Energy would become, and one would then be able to discover its subtle profoundness.

Qi Refining Realm!

It was the process an Arcane Martial Artist cultivated Arcane Qi and using Arcane Qi to temper his body to continuously become stronger. Pure Arcane Qi flowed along the meridians and apertures to nourish and stimulate each and every one of them. At the same time, those apertures produced formless energy fluctuations with a wondrous rhythm, and those fluctuations spread throughout the entire body, causing the blood and Qi in the entire body to vibrate.

As more and more Arcane Qi circulated in the apertures within his body, the rhythm of his blood and Qi grew more and more intense. After the 12 apertures were linked together in a closed loop by his Arcane Energy, the consumption of his Arcane Energy also reached its limit, and the rhythm of his Qi and blood arrived at its peak.

Suddenly!

A cool sensation spread from his tailbone to his entire body. Wang Shouzhe felt his scalp go numb, and his soul felt as if it was about to float out. Furthermore, a dense aura rose from his head.

The entire process lasted for a full ten breaths of time. The violent fluctuations of the Qi and blood in his body receded like a tide, turning into an invisible energy that gathered towards his lower abdomen.

A mouthful of foul air sprayed out from his mouth, and a strand of new Arcane Qi surged out like spring water within his empty Sea of Qi, and it quickly filled his Sea of Qi.

At this very moment, Wang Shouzhe could already faintly feel that the new Arcane Qi in his Sea of Qi had grown slightly stronger than before. His somewhat exhausted energy seemed to have recovered a lot, and seemed to have become even stronger.

This completed a full cycle of cultivation of the “Mnemonic of Arcane Essence”. The cultivation of an Arcane Martial Artist was a very long and accumulative process. Any expert reached mastery bit by bit this way.

However, the consumption of Qi and blood during this process was enormous. A n Arcane Martial Artist must replenish their Qi and blood by consuming food, pills and other methods. Otherwise, cultivating like this would not only not benefit the body, but also cause the Qi and blood to become depleted, thus resulting in the collapse of the body.

The more profound the cultivation of an Arcane Martial Artist, the greater their need for food and nutrients would be. This was why Arcane Martial Artists all established various noble clans and used the influence of the clans to obtain wealth and abundant resources for themselves.

Fortunately, Wang Shouzhe had been well-nourished recently, and his Qi and blood were vigorous and hadn’t been refined yet.

According to his own condition, he immediately began the second cycle…

When dawn broke, Wang Shouzhe completed four full cycles of cultivation in about four hours. At this time, he felt extremely energetic, as if there was an endless amount of energy in his body. He could clearly feel that his cultivation level had improved.

However, the initially abundant Qi and blood in his body had already been greatly consumed. He could feel a wave of “hunger” emanating from his body. This feeling of hunger was different from the usual feeling of hunger, but it was very marvelous and clear.

At the same time, he also felt that his apertures and meridians were somewhat “sore” and uncomfortable. His experience told him that in this situation, no matter how vigorous his Qi and blood were, he could not continue cultivating. He needed to let his exhausted apertures and meridians recover naturally.

However, the improvement was pleasing. Judging the situation based on the memory and experiences of his prior self, Wang Shouzhe felt that if he improved like this every day, he would be able to break through in less than three months and reach the seventh level of the Qi Refining realm.

It was a pity that it was almost impossible to reach such an ideal state under normal circumstances. After consuming a large amount of Qi and blood, replenishing it with ordinary food was very slow. It required a large amount of spirit rice and spirit food.

However, even though Wang Shouzhe was the first in sequence among cultivators in the clan, he could only be allocated five catties of white jade spirit rice, five catties of spirit fish, and five catties of Spirit Horned Yak every month!

All these high-quality ingredients that were rich in energy could only supplement him for five meals at most. On average, he could only be replenished by them once every six to seven days. In addition, as the first in sequence in the clan’s focused training, he still had a portion of the “Small Essence Enhancing Pill” every month.

The Small Essence Enhancing Pill was a cultivation resource that was of a higher grade than spirit food. However, its price was as high as ten gold per pill, making it extremely expensive. Some clansmen who were ranked near the bottom of the cultivation sequence could only request one pill from the clan to supplement their breakthrough when they were about to break through each cultivation level.

If he ate spirit food every meal and had the Small Essence Enhancing Pill every day, Wang Shouzhe estimated that his cultivation speed would be able to take off…

“Patriarch, your breakfast is here.” Wang Gui the manservant knocked on the door.

“Come in.”

Wang Shouzhe got up from the bed. At the same time, after Wang Gui came in, he put the breakfast aside. First, he prepared some clean water to serve the patriarch to wash up and brush his teeth. Then, he opened the food containers and placed them one by one.

“Eh? A large pot of white jade spirit rice congee and steamed marinated spirit minnow?” Wang Shouzhe looked at the dazzling array of breakfast items with some confusion. Apart from the two precious spirit foods, there were also some pastries and other side dishes to go with the congee.

He knew that this breakfast was not the standard allocation. Eating spirit food every meal could indeed quickly replenish one’s Qi and blood and maximize one’s cultivation progress. However, in reality, there was a principle behind it, which was diminishing marginal utility.

In particular, eating it every meal would inevitably cause a large amount of nutritional waste, reducing the ratio of costs to benefits.

The Wang clan was too poor to afford such a luxurious cultivation method. Furthermore, the clan had its own rules. Even the patriarch could not leech off the other clansmen however he pleased.

“Patriarch, this is from Miss Xia He, who serves Madam Gongsun,” Wang Gui answered honestly. “She said that Madam Gongsun woke up early and personally cooked this breakfast. She also sent a message on Madam Gongsun’s behalf, saying that the patriarch is currently at the critical moment of breaking through to the late stage of the Qi Refining Realm, so don’t put on airs.”

Indeed!

Wang Shouzhe’s guess was confirmed by Wang Gui’s words. This was what Madam Gongsun hui had saved from her own rations for him. Wang Shouzhe’s refusal, in particular, was preemptively countered by the message of “don’t put on airs”.

All right then. He wouldn’t let her down.

Moreover, he believed that the clan would get better and better in the future. At least, after his hard work yesterday, the future profits of Wang Dinghai’s fishing fleet would more than double. This would greatly ease the situation of the clan’s resources being tight.

After eating a meal of spirit food, his slightly depleted Qi and blood immediately replenished a little. Following the digestion and transformation of the food, his Qi and blood would become more abundant.

After eating and drinking to his heart’s content, Wang Shouzhe thought about going to the other family businesses to inspect them. Regardless of whether he was willing or not, he was completely tied to the Wang Clan of Ping’an.

As the patriarch leading the clan, he naturally had to know every aspect of the clan like the back of his hand. Only then could he think of ways to revitalize this declining clan.

…