Chapter 9: Chapter 8: How Did You Mishear ’Wild Ginseng’ as ’Potato’?
In the end, He Xiaotian got his wish and was discharged from the hospital. He was probably the patient with the shortest stay in the history of Z County People’s Hospital.
The doctors were certainly astonished by this malnourished glutton, but they didn’t press him with too many questions.
In an age where everyone live-streamed, competitive eaters were no longer a rare sight.
Twenty pork knuckles and fifty steaks? A piece of cake!
Some professionals in the field would say, ’I’ve seen people who can eat way more than you.’
However, as the two of them were leaving, they got a fright.
A patient, completely strapped to a bed frame, was struggling frantically.
If it weren’t for the five or six people holding him down for dear life, he probably would have broken free long ago.
Just a fleeting glimpse as they passed by was enough to make He Xiaotian’s scalp tingle.
The man’s face was deathly pale, like a corpse in a funeral home, giving off a bloodcurdling aura.
His eyes were bloodshot, and a low growl rumbled in his throat.
"Meat... I want meat..."
His words were filled with an endless craving. No.
It was something deeper than craving.
If his limbs and torso hadn’t been tightly secured to the bed frame, he might have even started gnawing on himself.
He Xiaotian and his cousin didn’t pay it much mind. It was better not to know too much about some things.
Back home, they both breathed a sigh of relief.
He collapsed onto the living room sofa, completely exhausted, looking just like a salted fish hung on a rail to dry.
[Experience Points: 350
Function: Scan
Martial Arts: "Fire-refined Golden Body" -/300+ (Beginner)]
He Xiaotian felt the arm-thick current of Inner Strength within his Dantian and thought to himself, ’Totally worth it.’
He had suffered a lot, but this more than tenfold increase in energy was truly intoxicating.
Moreover, his muscles had changed significantly.
Before, he was, at best, a young man in suboptimal health.
He exercised occasionally, which only put him slightly ahead of the average shut-in.
But now, it felt like he had an inexhaustible supply of strength. He secretly compared himself to his cousin. ’If I throw a punch,’ he thought, ’the one sent reeling back definitely won’t be me.’
’My cousin might even be the one sent flying!’
And that wasn’t all. He seemed to have grown a bit taller, too.
’Practicing martial arts is truly a magical experience.’
In reality, He Xiaotian was just patting himself on the back. Others trained in martial arts through years of painstaking practice, only achieving success through the ceaseless accumulation of sweat day and night.
But him? All he had to do was focus, give a little tap, and WHOOSH, he’d advanced to the next stage.
From the moment he first encountered martial arts until now...
...all in all, not even twelve hours had passed.
In the span of a single day that an ordinary person might squander, his "Fire-refined Golden Body" had reached a proficient level, and he had an arm-thick current of Inner Strength inside him.
For an ordinary person, how could that be possible without fifty or sixty years of training?!
If his cousin found out, he’d probably drop to the floor and cough up blood until he died from shock.
’A normal player versus a god-tier player—how are you supposed to win?’
’By bashing your head against a wall? Fat chance!’
"Cousin, you’ve been practicing martial arts for three years. Haven’t you developed even a little bit of Inner Strength?" He Xiaotian asked lazily. He wanted to ask for some information about martial arts in the modern world.
Of course, he could search online, but the results would be nothing compared to what Liu Junming, a man obsessed with martial arts for three years, would know.
"You’re not suddenly thinking of practicing martial arts, are you? Xiaotian, I’m telling you, don’t daydream. Martial arts is a road of no return."
Hearing this, He Xiaotian rolled his eyes.
’You, a martial arts fanatic, actually know it’s a road of no return?’
’You’re something else, bro!’
"Sigh! I’ve practiced for three years, and look what I have to show for it. Besides a muscular build, nothing. At most, I can take on five people by myself. That thief back then, all that talk about Inner Strength... it was all bullshit.
"While you were at university these past two years, I’d occasionally take time off to search for the so-called experts people talked about online. Every single one of them was a fraud. That Martial Arts Master, Lei Lei, couldn’t even beat me.
"His profile said: ’A grandmaster of his generation, proficient in seventy-two schools of boxing, known as the Invincible Iron Fist.’ But he couldn’t even beat a cop who’d only practiced for three years. Isn’t that ridiculous?
"He should’ve just admitted defeat, but no, he had to argue with me, saying he didn’t use his Inner Strength because he was afraid of killing me with one punch.
"Bullshit!
"Right then and there, I grabbed a rock. One second I was telling him, ’If you can shatter this with your Inner Strength, I’ll kowtow, accept you as my master, and hand over a million yuan as an apprenticeship fee.’ The next second, he chickened out and changed his tune, saying his Inner Power couldn’t be shown to just anyone."
Liu Junming looked crestfallen as he spoke about practicing martial arts.
"Cousin, is there really no such thing as Inner Strength?" He Xiaotian swore to himself that if Inner Strength didn’t exist in this world, then what was this arm-thick current of air in his Dantian?
"Hmm..." Liu Junming pondered for a moment before continuing, "Actually, not all the people I visited were fakes. A few of them really had some skills. One old boxing master told me that his grandfather had cultivated Inner Strength.
"He said that with a single palm strike, his grandfather could leave a clear handprint on a stone slab. But after that one strike, he’d be completely spent. I heard his grandfather trained for over fifty years, spending all day meditating in seclusion. He’d train for an entire day at a time.
"If his family hadn’t been wealthy, the master probably would have died young before he was even born. Before I left, he showed me the handprint on that stone slab. With my years of experience as an investigator, I could tell that handprint was indeed made by human force.
"And then, my dream was shattered."
’Fifty years of painstaking training day and night, just to throw a single palm strike? What a joke!’
’A third-rate thief with a handgun could easily take down someone like that.’
’In modern warfare, firearms changed the world.’
So, at that moment, Liu Junming didn’t even know how he managed to walk out of the old master’s house.
Three years of obsession, shattered in a single day.
Through this conversation, He Xiaotian realized he had become a master.
Yes, that’s right.
An old man who was spent after a single palm strike could be called an expert.
So with the arm-thick Inner Strength in his Dantian, if he wasn’t a master, what was he?
’A grandmaster of his generation?!’
"Let’s not talk about this anymore. What’s for dinner?"
"Wild ginseng chicken stew." At the mention of food, He Xiaotian’s Spirit was instantly invigorated. He had a feeling that if he continued to upgrade his "Fire-refined Golden Body", a qualitative change would occur. However, the amount of essence required was immense. He couldn’t just order three to five hundred steaks at once, could he?
In that case, some precious medicinal supplements could satisfy his needs.
This was the solution he had come up with on the way back from the hospital.
"???"
When Liu Junming heard those four words, he froze as if hit by a paralyzing spell.
’Are you kidding me?!’
’Wild ginseng chicken stew?’
’Do you have any idea how much a single stalk of wild ginseng costs?’
’The minimum price is fifty thousand yuan!’
’Your cousin here is just a humble cop. My monthly salary isn’t even enough to buy a single ginseng rootlet!’
"Oh! Potato and chicken stew, right? Got it."
He Xiaotian: "..."
’Cousin, how on earth did you mishear "wild ginseng" as "potato"?’
"Even though my mom has been controlling my finances all these years, I’ve still managed to save up a little something."
After all, it was tens of thousands of yuan. Even if his cousin doted on him, He Xiaotian couldn’t just let the guy spend that kind of money.
Even blood brothers keep clear accounts, after all.
Let alone cousins.
"No, Xiaotian, let me explain. Your aunt cut off my line of credit recently. Right now, your cousin here can only get by on his salary." Liu Junming didn’t want his younger cousin to think he was a cheapskate. If the family were poor, that would be one thing; you save where you have to.
But his family and his cousin’s family co-owned a paper mill. An expense of a few tens of thousands of yuan was pocket change.
"So that’s why the takeout you’ve been bringing back lately has gotten so plain. Turns out you’re broke and down on your luck."
Liu Junming felt a sharp pain in his chest, as if a knife had just been plunged into his heart.
’You have the gall to talk about me?’
’You’re even broker than I am!’
"I’ll transfer you fifty thousand yuan in a bit. Go buy the wild ginseng and a chicken, and we’ll stew it up. Oh, by the way, cousin, what about all those secret martial arts manuals you bought before? Take them out and let your little cousin have a look."
Liu Junming’s eyes lit up. He zipped over to the sofa and, like a salesman, said, "Little cousin, wanna buy some books? Everything’s half price. They’re all antiques."
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