Chu Hao was amazed. In just one day, his strength had increased by 61 catties. What did that mean? At this rate, it would take only a little over a month for him to reach the minimum requirement of the Lesser Mahayana realm.
Thousand Catties of Strength.
On Earth, possessing a thousand catties of strength was definitely the standard for ancient fierce generals; however, here, a thousand catties of strength was just the threshold to become a Martial Artist.
Yesterday's hardships hadn't been endured in vain.
Chu Hao soon wore a proud smile. Yesterday, he had soaked in the Strong Muscle Powder solution for half an hour. Moreover, he followed up with overloading training, not wasting the medicinal power at all.
For an ordinary person who could only withstand the medicinal solution for five minutes, they would only gain an increase of 10 catties. Hence, an increase of 61 catties wasn't just normal but expected.
Chu Hao went to eat breakfast, but today he couldn't use the Strong Muscle Powder anymore; his body couldn't withstand the fierce medicinal power's continuous impact, and even with the Strong Body Pill, he needed to rest for a couple of days.
But not taking Strong Muscle Powder didn't mean Chu Hao would relax. He still engaged in high-intensity training, pushing himself to the limit and squeezing out his potential.
The golden period for cultivation is just these ten or so years. After the age of 30, the body's functions begin to decline, and most people would do well just to maintain their strength, let alone increase it.
— Chu Tianyun was such an exception; his strength continued to improve, although the rate slowed down after he turned 30.
In the morning, he did body refinement; in the afternoon, he continued to practice the ninth form of Mad Wind Fist. By the end of the day, Chu Hao still hadn't mastered the ninth form, and it might take another day — according to the Fist Manual, even a genius would need half a month to grasp the form, and whether they could bring out the essence of the martial technique was irrelevant to time. Some people could never achieve it in their lifetimes.
Chu Hao calmly spent his second day in Another World, and by evening, extremely tired, he fell into a deep sleep again.
However, his adaptability was surprisingly strong. Although it was only his second day in this world, he had already integrated himself well, waking up twice in the night due to dogs barking and cats meowing.
Here was not like Earth, where shutting the door ensured peace.
The city was relatively safe, with the City Lord's Mansion maintaining public order, powerful enough to suppress any individual. But outside the city was different; there was no law. Bandits and robbers roamed, and if one slept too soundly at night, one might die without even knowing.
Chu Hao was now inside the relatively safer city, but he couldn't possibly stay here forever. He was a person who loved adventures and would never settle for a mundane life.
When he woke up on the third day, the first thing he did was run to the training ground to test his strength.
159 catties.
It was only an increase of 1 catty, nothing compared to the effects of the Strong Muscle Powder.
Yet even so, Chu Hao had no intention of slacking off. How did it matter if it was just an increase of 1 catty? Even the leg of a mosquito is meat.
Just like yesterday, after having breakfast, he started his high-intensity training, and tomorrow he could use the Strong Muscle Powder again.
As his strength improved, his appetite also grew daily, causing Uncle Yu both joy and worry — it was good he could eat, but he wondered about the restaurant's business. If they couldn't make money, where would they get the money to buy meat for the young master?
In the afternoon, Chu Hao continued to practice the Mad Wind Fist.
He finally fully mastered the movements of the ninth form, performing it flawlessly in one breath.
After carefully experiencing it, he gained some understanding.
The first eight forms of Mad Wind Fist had only one word: "force." Like a mad wind sweeping fallen leaves, directly forceful, sweeping away the opponent. But the ninth form was different; this form combined force with softness, seemingly gentle, but it could layer the power, greatly enhancing its strength.
The first eight forms of Mad Wind Fist had no names, only the ninth form was an exception, named Triple Wave, highlighting its importance.
It could become an advanced martial technique because of this ninth form.
The highest realm of the ninth form could unleash triple-strength power, almost instantaneously bursting forth, creating terrifying destructive power. And to achieve triple strength, one needed to comprehend this softness.
The deeper the understanding of softness, the more power one could unleash; otherwise, if only able to unleash a single strength, the Mad Wind Fist could only be considered an intermediate martial technique.
Chu Hao kept practicing the ninth form, gradually integrating a trace of softness into the force, but he was still far from unleashing the double or triple wave.
He was not in a hurry; this was not something that could be accomplished quickly.
On the fourth day, he once again used the Strong Muscle Powder, and his strength immediately saw a major increase.
231 catties.
This time, he had increased nearly 70 catties of strength, showing significant progress.
It was a pity that he couldn't use the Strong Muscle Powder every day, he thought somewhat greedily.
Besides Strong Muscle Powder, there was another way to quickly increase strength — from the food source. Ferocious beast meat not only provided abundant energy but was also an excellent supplement, having miraculous effects on body refinement.
However, ferocious beast meat could only be eaten in the academy, a rarity that money couldn't buy.
——There are many hunters in the city, and if they catch ferocious beasts, they can either use the meat themselves or sell it, but if they sell it, they can only sell it to the City Lord's Mansion. The City Lord's Mansion then spends the meat on the Thousand Winds Academy.
No one dares to sell ferocious beast meat privately, as getting caught means immediate execution, and nobility are no exception.
This is also why all of the nobility's descendants go to the academy, although aside from the Chu Family, the other nobles have big businesses and many bruisers, they cannot send all of them out to hunt ferocious beasts.
Moreover, noble families are large, how could they possibly take care of every descendant? Only a few key descendants are nurtured, and they are the ones who might get to eat ferocious beast meat every day.
Now in the Chu Family, only Chu Hao and Uncle Yu remained, how could they procure ferocious beast meat?
"I'll have to go hunting myself," Chu Hao murmured, but with his thin arms and legs, hunting ferocious beasts? He would only be fodder for the beasts. "I must at least reach the Lesser Mahayana realm."
"Moreover, ferocious beasts have thick skin and meat, and their defensive power is even greater than that of martial artists at the same realm, fighting bare-handed is too dangerous."
"In a few days, I'll start cultivating the Sneaky Shadow Sword, and I'll need to prepare a sword, the material must be top-notch, or else the sword won't even pierce the skin of a ferocious beast."
"All said and done, I still need money."
Chu Hao asked Uncle Yu about the situation of the inn, and received both good news and bad news.
The good news was that the inn's renovations would likely only take about twenty days, the bad news was, although the promotion had already begun, up until now, not a single person had come to reserve a seat.
This worried Uncle Yu so much that he grew many more white hairs.
Practicing martial arts requires a lot of money, and buying or making a good sword also was extremely costly, so Chu Hao had to give it a try no matter what. Otherwise, even if the inn's earnings returned to a thousand taels of silver a month, it would be like throwing a cup of water on a burning cart.
As days went by, Chu Hao's strength improved daily, and his understanding of the Triple Wave continuously deepened.
On the seventh day,
Whoosh!
Chu Hao threw a punch at the wooden stake, Thump, thump, the wooden stake actually emitted two muffled sounds. But those two sounds occurred almost simultaneously, and someone with slightly poor hearing would definitely think it was just one hit.
Double strength.
"Finally added one more layer of strength, but sadly, it's just one," Chu Hao said discontentedly.
If others knew of his progress, they would be amazed to the point their eyeballs might pop out. Generally, people took over a month just to grasp the complex moves of the ninth form of the Mad Wind Fist, yet he learned it in three days.
To perceive the softness and form power accumulation took even longer, but he had managed to form the double wave in just four days.
"However, the double wave doesn't actually double the power. It's more like two strikes at the same spot, the first layer of strength tears open the opponent's defense, and then the second layer can cause greater damage."
"It's like playing a game, my strength is 10, the opponent's defense is 5, so one strike can only deal 5 points of damage, and two ordinary attacks would only deal 10 points of damage. But under the Double Wave, although the first hit also only does 5 points of damage, the second hit deals 10 points."
"If I can strike with Triple Wave, the combined damage would be 25 points. Compared to the 15 points of damage from ordinary attacks, the power is nearly doubled."
"The stronger the opponent's defense, the greater the lethality of Triple Wave."
After achieving a minor accomplishment with Mad Wind Fist, Chu Hao temporarily stopped researching the Triple Wave and began learning the Sneaky Shadow Sword.
But this time, things did not go smoothly.
He learned the sword moves quickly. With his extraordinary derivation ability, mastering the basic sword styles was a piece of cake, and in just one day, he had fully grasped six sword moves, which was much quicker than learning the Mad Wind Fist. However, he couldn't grasp its essence no matter what he did.
Whatever he tried felt awkward, like asking a burly man to do embroidery, which was unbearably uncomfortable.
Why was this the case?
After much thought and coming up with no answer, Chu Hao concluded he was not suited for the sword and switched back to cultivating Mad Wind Fist, planning to master Triple Wave as quickly as possible.
Another six days passed, and he finally managed the Triple Wave.
All in all, it took just half a month's time.
Another day, and it would be time to start school.
Thinking about "going to school", Chu Hao couldn't help but smile, amused to think he'd get a chance to attend school again. However, Thousand Winds Academy was nothing like the schools on Earth, where they don't teach languages, physics, or calculus, just martial arts, teaching people how to fight.
The academy housed many martial arts geniuses, some even younger than Chu Hao were already at the Middle Mahayana realm.
"I will not lose to anyone." Chu Hao was filled with fighting spirit, he had the conditions to become strong, it was just a late start. But it wasn't too late because being too young to undergo intense training wasn't suitable.
His current strength was close to 500 catties, and combined with Triple Wave, he could be a match for a First Tier Lesser Mahayana realm martial artist.