CHAPTER 48 – YOUR TASTES ARE REALLY HEAVY

Fortunately, in order to strengthen himself, Xiao Chen would tolerate anything. After going through the five hours by cultivating, the Body Tempering Liquid finished boiling successfully.

“Tian Lao, do I directly take it right now?” Xiao Chen asked after the electric earthenware pot gave out the alarm sound. This high-grade electric earthenware pot was as good as its price; not only could you select the temperature, but you could also time it and not be worried about overcooking.

“You can take it. However, once you do, you have to temper your body in order to completely absorb the medicine’s efficacy.” Tian Lao replied.

“Temper? Am I not already cultivating everyday?” Xiao Chen questioned as he unplugged the electric earthenware pot from its power source, then poured the boiled medicine into a bowl.

“Tempering and cultivating true virtue are very different. Cultivating true virtue is control of one’s breathing, absorbing the Spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth and changing the essence of the Sun and Moon into one’s body’s YuanQi. But Tempering is the exercise of one’s body, that of which is called a Martialist’s Physique Cultivation.” Tian Lao said in response.

“Oh? In other words, I am required to move around, then I’ll be able to bring out the complete medicinal efficacy?” Xiao Chen inquired.

“Correct!” Tian Lao said: “The way you previously exercised will be how you temper yourself. I don’t need to speak about this to you, right?”

“I understand!” Xiao Chen held the bowl with medicine in both hands, then drank all of the medicinal liquid within the bowl down to the last drop. Afterwards, he began to temper his body according to how he formerly did when he tried cultivating Inner Strength!

When he formerly tried cultivating Inner Strength through Physique Cultivation, he had to know how to do a certain Body Technique. Xiao Chen had already practiced in it for several years and even though he didn’t make any progress, he had practiced it daily without breaks to temper his body. Presently he knew everything by heart, so after finishing the medicine, Xiao Chen immediately began moving in the room.

Exercising his body would inevitably bring about some noise. Before, Xiao Chen would go to the basement in order to not affect other people, but inside the villa it was different. Sounds of ‘ping ping bang bang’ suddenly attracted the attention of the young lady watching television downstairs.

When Cheng Mengying was finally annoyed by Xiao Chen’s noises, she directly pushed open the door to Xiao Chen’s room. Upon seeing Xiao Chen exercising, she couldn’t help but be momentarily distracted!

She originally wanted to scold Xiao Chen to calm down a little and not affect her watching tv, but upon seeing Xiao Chen exercising, Cheng Mengying couldn’t help but feel an aching in her heart! At this moment, Cheng Mengying finally understood why Xiao Chen had the strength to defeat Ma Gangmen!

It turned out that whenever Xiao Chen had free time, it would be used for exercising! This Body Technique was something Cheng Mengying was extremely familiar with because she also trained it. Seeing how incomparably familiar Xiao Chen was showing while practicing this Body Technique, Cheng Mengying realized how much efforts Xiao Chen put in whenever he had time to himself!

Being unable to practice Inner Strength was not his fault, but he still continuously strived, never giving up! Cheng Mengying wondered that if she had known this before, in the case that she knew this appearance of Xiao Chen’s, then would she like him?

Thinking up to here, Cheng Mengying couldn’t help but shake her head. There was no ‘if’; she and Xiao Chen already were impossible, thinking these matters had no significance.

“You…..have you been training daily before?” Cheng Mengying could not help but query.

“No……” Xiao Chen smiled, then said: “Just now when I drank medicine, my whole body felt the urge to start sweating. As a result, I began moving around.”

“Oh……” Although Cheng Mengying didn’t believe Xiao Chen’s words, she didn’t expose him. She had a general idea about Xiao Chen wanting to be low-profile. Perhaps if she spoke, Xiao Chen would care about losing face. After training for these many years and still not cultivating any Inner Strength, it would be a loss of face!

Hence, the young lady didn’t say anything. She closed the door and went back to sitting on the living room sofa!

After being in contact with Xiao Chen for a few days, it caused Cheng Mengying to change her views on him greatly. Seeing this side of Xiao Chen and comparing it to the rumors of Xiao Chen, it seemed that they were two completely different people! Cheng Mengying really couldn’t imagine it. Would ‘Young Master Xiao’ walk to and from school, just in order to save money? Would ‘Young Master Xiao’ actually haggle over the price with the convenience store boss just in order to save a few cents? Would ‘Young Master Xiao’ unexpectedly request to go to the morning market to sell breakfast？！

Shaking her head, Cheng Mengying didn’t know which to believe as the genuine Xiao Chen. However, Cheng Mengying believed in the principle of ‘seeing is believing’. Rumors, in the end, were rumors and what she saw was genuine.

After continuously exercising for an hour, Xiao Chen could feel a warm current coursing through his whole body’s meridians. The medicinal efficacy had already spread throughout his body, making Xiao Chen feel a type of indescribable warmth. He felt his body become lighter and relaxed by a lot and his meridians felt thicker and more solid!

What made Xiao Chen feel the most surprised was that on his body, there was unexpectedly a layer of thick black oily sweat and gave off a rank smell. Could it be that this was the legendary Bone Marrow Cleansing?

In the past, Xiao Chen had only heard of a similar situation in legends. In his knowledge, there was no one in his family who had used this method for Bone Marrow Cleansing. Perhaps it wasn’t that they didn’t know; maybe a Martialist wasn’t required to temper their body?

These things were unknown to Xiao Chen. After all, he wasn’t a Martialist. His knowledge on a Martialist was only a superficial understanding on their initiation Body Technique. He hadn’t even reached First Layer Inner Strength, so he was basically unable to understand the world of Martialists!

“Tian Lao, is this the discarded waste matter within my body?” Xiao Chen could not help but ask.

“Yes, indeed it is. Now you can take a shower!” Tian Lao replied: “This process is a three-day treatment. There were 5 treatments that were completed altogether on this first tempering! What you should currently be thinking about is making enough money to buy the four remaining auxiliary medicinal ingredients.”

Thinking of the money required to buy the medicinal ingredients, Xiao Chen became a bit low spirited. Depending on the meager income earned by selling breakfast, not even speaking of scraping together 50,000 RMB for one auxiliary medicinal ingredient, even the discounted 10,000 RMB friendship price was extremely difficult.

But Xiao Chen didn’t want to bother Cheng Zhongming. Although he would probably come, Xiao Chen didn’t want to prematurely reveal his goal and strength! In addition, the amount of people attentively watching Cheng Zhongming should be a lot. At least the Cheng Family wasn’t a block of iron. If Cheng Zhongming was the master, he wouldn’t be driven away by Xiao Family! Therefore, Xiao Chen had no choice but the guard against it!

After Xiao Chen took a hot shower, he lied down on the bed to take a rest. Without completing the tempering of his body, Xiao Chen could not continue cultivating, Third Layer Qi-Training was still unattainable and this made Xiao Chen feel a bit anxious.

The present circumstances were already urgent at a certain degree. If Xiao Chen didn’t have enough strength to protect himself, it was very likely that he would die under the next wave of the enemy’s attack.

Waking up dazed at the 3 o’clock in the wee morning hours, Xiao Chen rolled over and climbed out of the bed. He simply washed his face and rinsed his mouth, then got out of his room. After walking into the kitchen, he filled up the electric kettle with water and plugged it in. Setting it to ‘Keep Warm’, he then put instant noodles into a lunch box and added some flavoring. Because Xiao Chen remembered that the young lady didn’t like the dry vegetable package, he put it to the side.

After finishing all of these tasks, Xiao Chen started walking into the dim lights of the early morning. He walked out of the villa, then quickly began running in the direction of the morning market.

At this moment, there was no public transportation and Xiao Chen didn’t want to spend money on a taxi, so he kept running the rest of the way! Luckily, Xiao Chen was now Second Layer Qi-Training. Regardless of physical strength or endurance, both were much better than compared to before!

One has to know, a Second Layer Inner Strength Martialist isn’t a joke. This was equivalent to having twice the explosive force as an ordinary person. The Xiao Chen at this very moment could easily run up and back down Song Dragon Mountain.

By the time Xiao Chen had finished running to the morning market street, it was already 4 o’clock. The sky was gradually brightening up and on the morning market street, there were all sorts of business hawkers. Stalls were beginning to be set up, one selling fruits and vegetables, one selling chicken, duck, fish, and eggs, as well as one selling small pieces of fragmented goods. There was no lack of swindlers who would hang up a sheep’s head but sell dog meat. For example, there was something that was able to receive the information of several hundreds of television stations. In addition, there was a miraculous cleaning agent, mosquito repellant, dog frightener and so on.

Very quickly arriving at the selling breakfast area, Xiao Chen noticed Tang Tang’s chubby figure riding a tricycle¹. On the vehicle was a deep fryer, gas stove, and a bulky noodle-making table and she was beginning to arrange it on an open area.

Xiao Chen hurriedly ran over to lend a hand, snatching the gas stove out of Tang Tang’s hands.

“Xiao Chen? This early?” Upon seeing Xiao Chen show up, Tang Tang was immediately surprised! One has to know, when she and Xiao Chen had agreed on 4 o’clock yesterday, the meaning was to let Xiao Chen get out of bed at 4 o’clock. She didn’t expect that Xiao Chen would arrive here before 4 o’clock! Remembering that Xiao Chen lived in the villa area and that the distance wasn’t close to this place, he would have to get out of bed by at least 3 o’clock: “How did you get here?”

“Ran!” Xiao Chen arranged the gas stove and helped Tang Tang take and set up the noodle-making table. He was not able to do the rest, but this kind of manual labor was something easy for him.

“Ran?” Tang Tang was shocked. Originally, she already thought that Xiao Chen’s ability to adapt was really formidable. However, she didn’t think that he would run first thing in the morning to sell breakfast! At that time, she didn’t have this kind of perseverance right?

“I don’t have a car and in any case, I can’t call for a taxi either because the money earned isn’t enough to be spent.” Xiao Chen said as-a-matter-of-factly as he spread everything out: “Don’t look at me like that. When I go home at night every day, it is generally by running back. It’s a habit, so that I can economize a bit.”

“Young Master Xiao, I currently slightly admire you. You are a true man!” Tang Tang said with a sigh.

“Pft……true man? Sounds like the name of a healthcare product. If not for you being my buddy, the words you said would make other people misunderstand!” Xiao Chen teased. In front of Tang Tang, Xiao Chen was very open and didn’t feel any pressure.

“Haha, yes, we are buddies!” Tang Tang nodded. Then, she pointed at the oil barrel on the vehicle: “Help me pour the oil in!”

“Okay.” Xiao Chen used one arm to use the oil barrel and began pouring in the oil, which made a ‘gududu’ sound, into the deep fryer. The oil barrel was made of iron and adding on the weight of the soybean oil inside, it was at least 100 jin. Xiao Chen, who only used one arm to carry it effortlessly, made Tang Tang a bit surprised: “If I had not seen it myself, I wouldn’t have known that your arm strength was so large!”

“If I said I train by ‘shooting the airplane’², would you believe me?” Xiao Chen said with a smile.

“To Cheng Mengying’s picture?” Tang Tang was truly a tomboy because she was able to find the connection between these words.

“Cough cough……how could it be?” Xiao Chen coughed twice: “It might as well be your picture!”

“Your tastes are really heavy ah……” Tang Tang curled her lips as she naturally didn’t believe him, but wasn’t angry.