Chapter 2: Body Strengthening Pill
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Jiang Li could not help but feel excited. This golden finger did not have any other use other than to change the duration on the status bar.
A single press of the plus button would increase the duration by one minute. After holding it for five seconds, the duration would become infinite.
By pressing the minus button, the duration would be reduced by one minute. After five seconds, the status would disappear completely.
What did this mean?
This meant that if he ate a pill in the future, it was equivalent to eating this pill forever!
After receiving one enhancement, the power of the enhancement would never disappear!
The only shortcoming was that this golden finger was powerless against certain statuses that had no duration.
Take [Hunger] for example. How could hunger, as a status, have a duration such that it disappeared after a period of time?
When it was time to eat, he still had to eat. After he was done treating his injuries and putting on his clothes, Jiang Li finally opened the carriage door and walked out.
At this moment, the sky had already turned dark. Under the glow of dusk, smoke curled up from a bonfire not far away, and the tempting smell of roasted meat could be smelled in the breeze.
“I’m really lucky to be alive again. This smell is much better than my own body’s burnt smell.”
Jiang Li walked towards the place where the food was distributed. When he approached, there were quite a few young men and women who were similar in age to him. They were sitting together and laughing.
When they saw Jiang Li approach, their voices lowered as they turned to look at him, and their gazes were filled with ridicule and disdain.
He ignored the blatant pointing fingers and calmly walked through the crowd to the long table where the food was distributed.
Jiang Li arrived a little late. The meat soup in the pot had already reached the bottom. However, because many of the young ladies who came along did not eat much, there was still a surplus of roasted meat and steamed buns.
The person distributing the food was a burly man who looked like an iron tower. He was dressed in black and had an ugly mark on his face.
The man glanced at Jiang Li before he scraped off the last bit of soup from the iron pot, and then he casually grabbed a piece of roasted meat and a steamed bun before placing them on the tray before pushing them towards Jiang Li.
The soup, which was originally not much, was completely spilled by this push.
Speechless, Jiang Li took over the tray of food. Suddenly, he remembered that he had an appraisal skill that came along with him from the virtual game. He silently threw an appraisal at the man in black in front of him.
[Name: Unknown, Gender: Male, Class: Martial Artist, Danger Level: Extremely Dangerous!]
Jiang Li was shocked. He did not expect that a random appraisal skill would show someone to be extremely dangerous. Although the main reason was that he was too weak now, the [Extremely Dangerous] written in red made him subconsciously want to distance himself from the other party.
Obviously, he was unable to sit together with the other youths, so he could only carry the plate back to the side of the carriage and sit on the edge to eat.
[Consumed 1 barbecued meat and 1 steamed bun. Hunger status has been removed. Added Status: Satiety]
[Satiety: Restores 1 Stamina per minute. Duration: 30 minutes] (− +)
Jiang Li was overjoyed. He pressed the plus button.
[Satiety: Restores 1 Stamina per minute. Duration: ∞] (-)
It was another new status, and the effect was actually quite good.
As long as he did not remove this status, theoretically speaking, he would not have to worry about hunger anymore.
Furthermore, recovering 1 stamina point per minute was actually very impressive. It was basically equivalent to an ordinary person eating 48 meals a day.
If he only did some simple aerobic exercises, he could even become a perpetual motion machine.
Right at this moment, three youths stood up and walked over from the crowd towards Jiang Li. They held wooden sticks in their hands, and it was obvious that they harbored ill intentions.
Jiang Li was furious in his heart, but after glancing at his trash attributes, he could only helplessly smile bitterly.
Before they approached, he left first. He circled around in a semicircle and sat down near the white-clothed ‘immortals’ and black-clothed martial artists.
He did not dare to get too close to these people. The boys who wanted to attack him naturally did not dare to act rashly now.
After cursing him for being cowardly and shameless, the three of them swept the wooden sticks in their hands aside and returned to the crowd to sit down.
“Looks like I won’t live long enough to reach the Immortal Cultivation Sect. Improving my strength is imminent.”
“The bunch of brats over there who claim to be escorts have obviously discovered the joy of bullying their peers. If I don’t have enough strength to protect myself, those guys can do anything.”
“But how can I increase my strength? Let alone the son of a martial arts family, even a farmer’s son is stronger than me.”
Jiang Li opened his interface. Although he was only a dozen steps away from the ‘immortals’ and martial artists, they did not sense anything. Although he had already expected this, he still heaved a sigh of relief in his heart.
He examined the interface and looked at it from top to bottom. The only way to increase his strength was probably to develop the two martial arts he had, [Age Tiger Technique] and [Mountain Splitter].
After searching through his memories, he gained a certain understanding of the martial artists of this world.
Compared to the Immortal Cultivators who had never entered the mortal world, martial artists were much more down-to-earth. As long as they had the guidance of their master, and after a long period of training, almost everyone had hope of becoming a martial artist.
Similar to the wuxia novels he had read in his previous life, the martial artists in this world could be roughly divided into three levels: External, Internal, and Connate.
An external martial artist might still be within the scope of a normal person’s understanding, but once he broke through to become an internal expert, he would have the mysterious internal force in his body. It would not be difficult for him to wield a weapon and execute martial arts to fight a hundred people at once.
His father, Jiang Yuanshan, was such an internal expert in the martial arts world, commonly known as a first-rate expert.
Suddenly, Jiang Li suddenly turned his head to look at the black-clothed martial artists sitting not too far away.
He remembered that the original body’s father had said before he left that he must be respectful to everyone, because even those black-clothed men who looked like servants were all internal martial artists.
Before he truly embarked on the path of cultivation, if Jiang Li were to die by accident, no one would spare a glance at a mortal.
It was more reliable to improve himself first.
When he recalled all the details of the Age Tiger Technique, Jiang Li sat cross-legged on the ground and immersed himself in the cultivation method to practice it step by step.
Bite the air thirty-six times and hug the visualized Kunlun with both hands. Sound the heavenly drum on the left and right, and smell at the angle of twenty-four degrees. Shake the heavenly pillar slightly. The crimson dragon stirs the water and rinses thirty-six times. After the divine water fills the mouth, swallow it in three gulps. Dragon soars and the tiger runs on its own…
Upper and lower teeth knock against each other thirty-six times. Place your hands on the back of your head and press your palms against your ears. At the same time, slowly breathe in nine times.
After that, take a deep breath and do not let it out. Use the tip of your tongue to stir your mouth up and down, producing saliva. Then, rinse your mouth thirty-six times and swallow the residue three times, making gurgling sounds…
Gradually, Jiang Li entered a special state of mind.
Snores that sounded like a sleeping tiger sounded from his chest and nose. On the character interface, the Level 0 [Age Tiger Technique] also quietly became Level 1.
Things were developing properly, but it was obvious that Jiang Li had not considered a single problem. At this moment, his position was truly too close to the group leaders.
He sat quietly by the side and did not make a sound. The sun had just set and he was already openly snoring.
The three white-robed men were originally discussing something. When they heard the snoring, they looked at each other. It was clear that being disturbed by a mortal made them unhappy, even if this mortal might become their junior brother in the future.
A white robed figure flicked his sleeve, and a strand of strange wind swept up from the ground. Jiang Li who sat cross-legged on the ground was instantly blasted flying, and he woke up from his cultivation state before falling to the ground in an extremely sorry state.
Slam!
Before Jiang Li could react, something hard landed on his chest.
“Stay away from us. This is your compensation.” He did not even turn his head as he spoke, only waving his hand to get the mortal to leave quickly.
Jiang Li stood up and cupped his hands before quickly turning around and leaving.
Only after entering the original carriage did his expression immediately darken.
In all fairness, Jiang Li’s earlier actions of avoiding and cultivating could be considered to have taken advantage of the other party, while also offending them.
As a cultivator, he was already magnanimous enough not to slap this mortal to death for offending him.
Using such a relatively gentle method to wake Jiang Li up and even giving him a certain amount of compensation was already quite noble.
However, Jiang Li was still very angry. He had lived in a lawful society for more than twenty years.
To him, being swept off the ground and having money thrown at him as compensation was an undisguised humiliation.
Anyone who was treated like this, regardless of whether they were right or wrong, would always be angry.
The arrogance that did not even treat him as one of their kind hurt Jiang Li even more.
Coupled with his sudden transmigration, he felt that he had no one to rely on and could not protect himself. This made his desire for strength and cultivation especially high.
He took a deep breath to calm himself down. It was fortunate that his current cultivation level was too low, and he did not even have the chance to experience Qigong Deviation. Otherwise, if he were to suffer another internal injury, he would really be out of luck.
After secretly warning himself to be careful of Immortal Cultivators in the future, Jiang Li opened his palm and examined the thing that had smashed into his chest.
It was a black pill. It was the size of a bean and had a faint fragrance.
As it was from a cultivator, this was probably the legendary immortal pill.
If Jiang Li was sufficiently willful and unyielding, he should throw this medicinal pill to the ground and step on it twice.
But doing so would be tantamount to provoking the immortal. He was most likely going to die on the spot.
Furthermore, as someone who possessed a golden finger, the value of this first medicinal pill was definitely several hundred times higher than that of others.
Thus, after weighing the pros and cons, Jiang Li had no choice but to give up on the ‘Main Character’s Attitude’ and choose to accept reality.
Appraisal!
The omnipotent appraisal skill swept across, and a line of small words appeared above the pill.
[Name: Body Strengthening Pill]
[Type: Medicinal Pill]
[Grade: Low-Grade Yellow-Rank]
The effect of the Level 1 appraisal skill was a little useless. There was very little information that could be obtained. It seemed like he had to develop a habit like in the game, which was to appraise whatever he saw and level it up.
Jiang Li did not know what low-grade Yellow-rank was, but since it could be thrown out so casually, it probably was not that high in the eyes of cultivators.
But for a mortal like him, it should already be extremely precious.
The Body Strengthening Pill, as its name suggested, should be used to strengthen his body. It was just right for the current him.
Without any hesitation, he swallowed the Body Strengthening Pill.
Very quickly, a warm current flowed out from his stomach and slowly flowed through his limbs.
Another two notifications popped up in front of Jiang Li.
[Consumed Body Strengthening Pill. Added Status: Body Strengthening]
[Body Strengthening: Increases physical fitness, increases the cultivation speed of body cultivation methods of Medium-Grade Yellow-Rank and below. Duration: 2 hours] (− +)
Jiang Li did not even see the status effect clearly before he pressed the plus button for five seconds.
[Body Strengthening: Increases physical fitness, increases the cultivation speed of body cultivation methods of Medium-Grade Yellow-Rank and below. Duration: ∞] (−)
Looking at the effects of the medicinal pill, it was indeed similar to what Jiang Li had expected. It was just that this degree of increase and extent still required him to personally test it out.
It just so happened that those pampered young masters and young mistresses had set up tents beside the bonfire for the night, and no one would disturb the cold and hard carriage.
Amidst the warmth flowing through his entire body, Jiang Li once again immersed himself in the cultivation of the Age Tiger Technique.
Accompanied by the rumbling of the tiger’s snores, the warm medicinal power was continuously absorbed by his body, firmly improving his physique, strengthening his bones and muscles.
In the cultivation world, low-grade Yellow-rank Body Strengthening Pills were indeed the lowest grade of medicinal pills. They were basically only valuable to beginners.
However, Jiang Li was now a mortal with a weak physique. This sort of medicinal pill was extremely precious to him.
The ‘Age Tiger Technique’ that he cultivated was an external cultivation method, but when he practiced it to the limit, he would be able to cultivate internal force. It was one of the top martial arts techniques in the Pugilistic World.
However, in the cultivation world, it was simply trash that could not be considered to be of any quality.
Therefore, not only was the low-grade Yellow-rank Body Strengthening Pill not weak in Jiang Li’s opinion, its effects were even extraordinarily good.
He cultivated for six hours. When he woke up, it was already midnight.
He let out a long breath of turbid air, feeling comfortable all over. He had never felt so good before.
He stood up and stretched his body. Even though he had been sitting cross-legged for six hours, his legs were not numb at all. His blood flow was smooth and his body was light.
He could not wait to open the character panel.
[Name: Jiang Li]
[Age: 13]
[Race: Human]
[Main Class: Martial Artist, Level: Third-Rate]
[Sub-Class 1: None]
[Sub-Class 2: None]
[Health: 204/260]
[Stamina: 180/180]
[Strength: 0.6 → 0.7]
[Speed: 0.7 → 0.8]
[Constitution: 0.6 → 0.8]
[Mind: 1]
[Enlightenment: 1.1]
[Martial Art: Age Tiger Technique Level 2]
[Skill: Appraisal Level 1, Mountain Splitter Level 1]
[Positive Status: Slow Healing, Satiety, Body Strengthening]
[Negative Status: None]
Jiang Li’s eyes immediately lit up. His strength and speed had both increased by 0.1, his constitution had increased by 0.2, and his cultivation of the Age Tiger Technique had directly risen to Level 2.
He could not help but feel unhappy that his cultivation had improved so much in just one session.
The reputation of medicinal pills in the cultivation world was indeed well-deserved. Even with this result, Jiang Li felt that the grade and level of the Age Tiger Technique was too low and was unable to completely display the full effects of the Body Strengthening Pill.
Otherwise, six hours of body strengthening was equivalent to consuming three Body Strengthening Pills. With the weak body left behind by the original owner, the improvement would definitely not be limited to this.