"Three years is too long, why not seize every moment?"
Li Fei's words stunned Hao Yi, who then burst into loud laughter, a rare occurrence for the special-grade instructor:
"Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!"
After his laughter, he looked at Li Fei with appreciation:
"What a fine sentiment to seize every moment! It's rare to see such courage in someone. Well, go ahead and try it. I will fully support you!"
Li Fei bowed to Hao Yi:
"Thank you, teacher!"
Then he bid farewell to Hao Yi and headed straight for the resource building.
"Sister Zhao, do you have any Withered Fire Pills?"
Li Fei asked the resource manager politely.
Not everyone was allowed to shop at the resource building—only Rank A students had the privilege, and some items even required a special-grade instructor's signature to purchase.
Li Fei had been visiting regularly recently, and the resource building's managers were familiar with him, knowing he was Hao Yi's student.
With his handsome and upright appearance, Li Fei looked like a good kid. He was polite and had a way with words, so the managers here all had a good impression of him.
"Just a moment, let me find it for you."
Sister Zhao said with a smile to Li Fei.
Soon, she found it listed:
"Withered Fire Pill, is it? Yes, we have it—it's 58 yuan per bottle, and each bottle contains ten pills."
"Please get me a bottle, thank you."
Li Fei counted out a stack of cash and handed it over.
He soon received a bottle of Withered Fire Pills.
After putting away the elixirs, Li Fei ran home.
After dinner, he returned to his room, took out a Withered Fire Pill, and swallowed it.
A dozen seconds later, his skin began to feel hot, and he also felt a strong sense of hunger.
Li Fei knew this was a signal of "hunger" from the Implant inside his body, so he immediately swallowed a Nourishing Embryo Pill, then began practicing the Heavenly Gang Qi Pile.
Half an hour later, Li Fei stopped.
Normally, the Implant inside his body should have stabilized, and he could apply the Golden Kui Ointment, but he still felt hungry and had not sweated at all.
For a Steel Armor Implant, sweating was a form of "excretion"; no sweating indicated that the Steel Armor had not been "fed" enough.
"Indeed it's effective."
Li Fei took another Nourishing Embryo Pill and continued practicing Heavenly Gang Qi Pile.
This session lasted over forty minutes before he was drenched in sweat, and his hunger subsided entirely.
Wiping off the sweat, he took out the Golden Kui Ointment and began applying it, then sat quietly to perform the Breathing Skill, speeding up the skin's absorption of the ointment.
This time it took less than five minutes for the ointment on his body to be fully absorbed.
Thus, Li Fei applied the Golden Kui Ointment once again...
After the experiment, Li Fei discovered that after taking Withered Fire Pills, the Implant's absorption of Embryo Cultivation stage medications increased by more than double.
If he could continue this regimen daily, his Embryo Cultivation stage duration would be cut by more than half!
Li Fei looked at the Myriad Blood Pearl inside his body:
[Rank: 3rd Level 79%
Blood Soul: 10 beads +17%]
He had consumed over three Blood Souls on the day he absorbed the Steel Armor Implant. After two days of intense cultivation, his Blood Soul count had not recovered to 16 beads.
Practicing the Heavenly Gang Dominator Body twice daily reduced the Blood Souls by about one bead, and daily consumption of Embryo Cultivation stage medications along with the damage from the Implant amounted to about 0.3 of a Blood Soul.
Now, with the intake of Withered Fire Pills, the damage from both the Implant and the pills doubled, and the Withered Fire Pills themselves also caused some damage, amounting to about one Blood Soul in total.
Hence, if Li Fei were to maintain this level of training intensity, his daily loss would total two Blood Souls, already exceeding his daily recovery rate.
"Energy up by 16%, another two days and I can level up, no problem."
Li Fei mused to himself.
Despite the considerable daily loss of Blood Souls, the energy absorbed was substantial; as long as the Myriad Blood Pearl leveled up once more, the daily recovery rate of Blood Souls should exceed the rate of consumption.
"But the current problem is, there's not enough money."
Li Fei sighed.
Initially, Li Lei gave him 200 yuan, and later he earned 600 yuan from the graduation exam, but since entering the Martial Arts Hall, Li Fei had already spent over seven hundred.
He needed to accelerate his cultivation pace, which meant consuming elixirs at a rate several times that of others, so the remaining money wouldn't last long and didn't even suffice to buy the next batch of medication for the Embryo Cultivation Stage.
Asking Li Lei for money was impractical, for if the other party had that financial capability, he could have directly sent Li Fei to university.
"I need to figure out a way to make money."
Li Fei murmured.
According to the plot of transmigration novels he had read in his previous life, as a transmigrator, a few inventions could easily rake in a fortune.
However, with a growing understanding of this world, Li Fei practically abandoned such thoughts.
In the Da Lan Dynasty, even street vending would incur protection fees, and even if one truly found a novel way to earn riches, it would quickly be devoured clean by others. In the best-case scenario, one might end up as a wage earner making money for someone else.
And in the worst case, one might lose their life!
In this era, to survive outside, one either needed a strong backing or personal strength, otherwise, you would always remain a nobody.
Thus, for Li Fei to earn big money, he must first become a powerful Martial Artist.
Yet, to become a powerful Martial Artist, there had to be money first...
"I wonder if underground boxing would work?"
At that moment, that was the only idea Li Fei could think of.
Fighting more could absorb more energy, accelerate the upgrade of the Myriad Blood Pearl, and earn money, essentially hitting two birds with one stone.
However, he didn't yet have such connections and was unaware of the specifics, so he could only take things one step at a time.
...
July 22.
On this day, Li Fei did not go for cultivation at the Martial Arts Hall but accompanied Li Tianyu to Xing City Vocational School.
Today was the university entrance examination!
Since Xing City fell under Datong Prefecture, Wu'an University was conducting the recruitment here.
The two arrived early at the vocational school gate, waiting for Chen Lixin to arrive.
Both Chen Lixin and Li Tianyu were taking the entrance exam today, only Chen Lixin was taking the academic test while Tianyu the martial test.
A few minutes later, Chen Lixin arrived on a bicycle.
"How can you be late to the entrance exam?"
Li Tianyu looked at Chen Lixin speechlessly.
Chen Lixin adjusted his glasses, "It shows I'm confident."
His academic scores were always the best, securing a spot at Wu'an University's business program was almost guaranteed.
Before the Bright New Reforms, the Da Lan Dynasty selected officials through the imperial examination, but post-reforms, it changed to recruiting from twelve universities.
For someone like Chen Lixin who studied "academics", as long as they graduated smoothly from university, they could almost certainly become a court official.
As for those who got into the university's Zhi Ge Department, after graduation, they would either take important positions locally or directly join the military as officers.
It could be said, getting into one of the twelve universities was stepping into a new realm of life!
"How about you, are you confident?"
Chen Lixin asked Li Tianyu.
Li Tianyu lifted her chin, "Of course, no problem for me!"
"You both go for it, I'll be waiting outside for your good news."
Li Fei told them.
He wasn't taking the exam today and couldn't enter the vocational school gate without a pass.
"Okay, wait for our good news."
Li Tianyu patted Li Fei, then walked into the school gate with Chen Lixin.
Watching their retreating figures, Li Fei felt calm.
He had found his own path and had no need to envy others.
...