The Changfeng Dojo being able to rent nearly 3,000 square meters in the downtown district for an office building shows that they are quite wealthy.
They also rented rooms in the Yunsheng Apartments across from the office building.
Li Pin moved in that very day.
A single room of fifty-six square meters.
Taibai doesn't include public spaces.
Even counting the twenty square meters set aside as a quiet room for Martial Artists, this apartment is still spacious for a single person.
After a busy afternoon of moving, Li Pin invited Fang Yubai and Shanhu, who he had gotten to know, for a meal, and formally took his post at Changfeng Dojo.
...
Night.
Li Pin returned to the apartment and calmed his mind.
Having a completely private space for himself marked a new beginning.
He came to the quiet room, with its thick rubber floor, and recollected the Fist Techniques he had practiced.
The martial arts he had practiced when he had no Famous Teacher to guide him, gathered the expertise of several lineages...
Or you might say, it was piecemeal, but he did create his own cultivation and combat method.
The combat method was the Eight Fierce Beast's True Fire Power.
And the cultivation method was Xuanpin Gate.
At its highest point, it could cultivate Qi into Elixir.
Of course, his attempt to do so had failed, and whether Xuanpin Gate could reach this step had yet to be proven.
"Bright Energy, Hidden Energy, Transformed Energy, Elixir Energy, Astral Energy, these are all about the usage of strength. Although I haven't cultivated Qi into Elixir, I can use Xuanpin Gate to blend Yin and Yang, and visualize the Eight Fierce Beasts igniting my Heart Fire. This allows me to use Elixir Energy."
Li Pin was very clear about this.
But it has no meaning for him now.
Without cultivating Qi into Elixir, and without blending his strength into one, using the Eight Fierce Beasts True Fire Power through the explosion of Qi and Blood was like overexerting himself.
In his prime, he could only use this technique once or twice before he would be depleted of Qi and Blood, injuring his muscles and bones.
Once in the past, he had dueled with a Transformation Qi Martial Artist. After his victory, the resentful loser had him surrounded and attacked. He had to use three Elixir Energies to escape. Although he managed to survive, it severely damaged his foundations and laid the groundwork for his failure in cultivating Qi into Elixir.
The dangers of Elixir Energy are shared by Astral Energy.
When Astral Energy is invoked, it requires the resonance of the five internal organs. If your organs are not strong enough, you might be internally injured or even killed on the spot before you get the chance to use it.
"Physical strength is the foundation. When combined with strength, force and technique would truly reflect the strength of a Martial Artist."
Li Pin calmed his mind, adjusted his breathing, activated Xuanpin Gate, and complemented it with the Tiger Leopard Thunder Sound Technique, causing his body to tremble constantly, as though inciting every cell to come to life.
He was proficient in this process and did not find it difficult.
After a full half an hour, Li Pin completed one cycle of practice. Though he hadn't done any violent exercise, his entire body was soaked with sweat.
After a moment, he adjusted his breathing, then concentrated his spirit and slowly allowed himself to immerse in the perception of his own body.
Soul Fusion seemed to have created some sort of natural ability which allowed him to perceive his own body with astonishing precision.
In just a few minutes, he managed to quantify the improvement in his physical strength this practice had brought.
"If I use the Martial Arts Association's index of physical strength and Qi and Blood as a unit of measurement..."
Li Pin made a conversion, "After this round of training, my Qi and Blood has risen from the previous 16.113 to 16.127, an increase of 0.014, or to be more accurate, 0.01466..."
If he wanted to, he could accurately control to the decimal point after ten, thirty, or even a hundred places.
Such precision...
Even though he wasn't experiencing it for the first time, it still stirred his emotions.
Science couldn't explain this phenomenon at all.
But since a thing as unscientific as traveling through time has happened, is there still a need to worry about science?
"Given my current nutritional intake, I can do six rounds of training a day, and the final increase in my Qi and Blood will be 0.08796... If I round it off to three decimal places, it's 0.088, which means, in a month, it will increase by 2.64 points."
After five months, his Qi and Blood strength will reach 29.328.
This corresponds to the peak of Transformed Energy, the threshold for cultivating Qi into Elixir.
However...
"This is theoretical. In the past half a month, I've been constantly improving, and the Qi and Blood increase from Xuanpin Gate has already gone from 0.035 to 0.088 per day. Although the rate of improvement has slowed down, reaching 0.1 isn't too difficult. If I supplement my training with some martial arts medicinal materials and increase the number of training sessions, I could reach 0.15 per day. In about two months, I'd be able to try cultivating Elixir."
No Famous Teacher to guide? No top-tier heritage?
The feedback from his own body was his best teacher.
After that, Li Pin did not start his second round of practice.
He took a bath, changed his clothes, opened the computer he had moved from the dormitory, and logged onto Taibai's most popular martial arts website.
As soon as he got on the website, a window popped up.
Taibai was planning to launch a crackdown on the Beast Monsters in Death Valley and was recruiting Martial Artists to explore further.
Although the Gaia Star is over two billion square kilometers in area, two-thirds of it is rough mountainous wilderness occupied by Beast Monsters.
The source of all this...
Star Gods.
A high-dimensional existence whose greatness can't be described in tens of thousands of words.
Their light fills the entire solar system.
Ninety-three years ago, some "qualified" individuals saw this great, boundless existence through observation, and fear, confusion, insanity, and despair quickly spread.
Order collapsed.
Innumerable wars broke out.
Three years later, wars also ended due to their influence.
The war weapons that humans took pride in suddenly started to malfunction with increasing frequency.
The gunpowder stopped working, cannons exploded, battleships got stranded, instruments failed.
Because...
"Atoms" gave birth to consciousness under the influence of Starlight and felt close to the Star Gods.
When weapons and instruments carrying hostility attack a Star Refiner who is bathed in the light of the stars through contemplating the Star Gods, atoms resist, malfunction frequently, and oftentimes, it is the user themselves who is destroyed first.
The war was forced to come to an end.
Since then, the Star God Era had arrived.
And it wasn't just humans who were bathed in the starlight.
Wild beasts, plants, birds, and animals—all life on Gaia was equally drenched in the rain and dew.
The world of human living kept shrinking and shrinking.
The world was unstable for twenty years.
Not until seventy years ago did the first batch of Star Refiners step onto the world stage, leading armies of various countries to fight against Beast Monsters and Demonic Beasts, forming the pattern of today.
The Tianyuan Federation is the product of the unity of the various countries during those thirty years of turmoil.
Along with the Dashang, the Empire, the Star Alliance, Sunshine, and the Thirty-Six Nations of the Eastern Sea, it is known as one of the Six Poles of the world.
...
Li Pin glanced at the conditions offered by the recruits for martial artists.
Depending on their strength, the daily salary could be as little as tens of thousands, up to millions.
There were also substantial bonuses for special discoveries, with the highest reaching hundreds of millions.
But he glanced at it and then looked away.
"Demonic Beasts and Star Refiners come from the same source, they resonate when they get close, so martial artists have to scout, but… this is life-risking work."
Li Pin closed the pop-up window, turned to the page, and searched for videos of a few Elixir Energy Masters and Astral Energy Grandmasters in action.
In fact, there was no need to search.
Every video of an Elixir Energy Master and Astral Energy Grandmaster was immensely popular, with views easily starting in the millions.
He searched by view count and the quality of the videos he found varied little apart from a few absurd ones.
Some of these videos even shared some insights and experiences about Elixir Energy, which he had been unable to find on Lanstar.
Although they were mainly to attract traffic and not systematic, they were better than on Lanstar, where he couldn't find a single living Astral Energy Grandmaster.
"It really is a golden age of martial arts."
Li Pin exclaimed sincerely.
He scrolled for a moment, and soon found a video titled "Detailed Explanation on Holding Elixir".
The publisher had a string of certifications.
Deputy Senior Professional Certification from the Jiangzhou Martial Arts Association, Vice Chairman of the Yongguang City Martial Association, Master of the Iron Sword Martial Arts School, Direct Disciple of the God Monkey's Thirteen Swords, Master Luo, a senior martial artist.
"State-level martial arts association professional certification?"
State-level professional certification has always been questionable in its standards.
For the deputy senior position, one merely needs the ability to display Elixir Energy.
As he clicked in, he found that the other person was indeed a genuine Elixir Energy Master.
But after only a minute, the video abruptly ended.
"Pay-per-view video?"
Li Pin paused.
The price for half an hour of video wasn't high, only ten yuan.
He registered an account, for the ID...
After thinking, he typed in "Hundred Thousand Star Years".
Then he proceeded to pay for viewing.
The content of the video pleased Li Pin.
Although the things Master Luo was talking about were relatively basic, they were of considerable help in perfecting his Holding Elixir Realm of the Xuanpin Gate.
He could try to make up for the deficiencies little by little.
"I was narrow-minded, with my current state, I don't necessarily need to fight an Elixir Energy Master to gain insight into how to use Qi and Blood to Hold Elixir."
After watching for a while, Li Pin continued to browse some other videos on Elixir Energy application.
These videos all ended with recruitment for disciples at martial arts schools, claiming that only hands-on teaching could speed up the path of martial arts.
But once you signed up and paid, if you could see the master of the school once a month, you'd consider him honest.
...
In the following days, Li Pin's life became noticeably more organized.
He went to the Changfeng Dojo to practice martial arts in the morning.
From time to time, Shanhu would come to spar with him.
In the afternoon, he would take time to teach martial arts to some reluctant rich kids.
Although Taibai has a relatively stable society and has not experienced a war for sixty years, the crisis still looms, especially for the older generation, who have experienced turbulent times. They do not have a sense of security and must specialize in martial arts in situations where their talents are not enough.
If they can't do it themselves, they urge their descendants to do so.
Although the rich kids look upset every time they practice martial arts, they don't dare not come.
Teaching them also serves as a review for Li Pin.
After teaching his disciples, he would cultivate and watch videos at night.
Having only himself to rely on and having hardly met a few Elixir Energy Masters on Lanstar, Li Pin was enlightened all the time just by watching videos.
By watching other people's use of Elixir Energy, he combined it with his own Eight Fierce Beasts True Fire Power to refine it, becoming ever more comfortable with the circulation of Elixir Energy.
...
On a certain morning, a month later.
At the Changfeng Dojo.
Before the coaches had arrived at work.
"Bang!"
Accompanied by a booming sound.
Li Pin, whose body had not yet fully recovered, made his first punch in this world that met the requirements of an Elixir Energy burst.