Chapter 9

Slap, slap!

Two sounds echoed, like the crack of a whip. Meng Fan’s figure finally came to a stop after delivering two punches into the void.

Using the last of his remaining primordial energy to deliver these punches, the sound of the air splitting was quite impressive, but Meng Fan was not satisfied. The power was far from what he had expected.

However, Meng Fan no longer had the strength to continue practicing. He plopped down on the ground, panting heavily.

The bright sunlight had already shone upon Meng Fan’s small face, clearly indicating that he had spent the entire night practicing in this open area, exhausting all his strength.

"Hehe, I completely lost track of time!"

With a dry laugh, a hint of excitement appeared on Meng Fan’s small face. Even Lei Tao and the others didn’t have the chance to practice at night. Although they took large amounts of spiritual medicines, it only ensured that they could practice again the next day.

Taking out the bead, Meng Fan looked at it seriously and muttered softly.

"Bead, it all depends on you now!"

As he spoke, Meng Fan clenched his palm, and primordial energy entered the black bead. This time, Meng Fan knew it wasn’t his blood that was needed; rather, it was the integration of primordial energy into the black bead that triggered the strange energy.

In an instant, the black bead flashed, and the same strange, warm energy from last night once again flowed into Meng Fan’s body, circulating through him like a stream.

Motionless, Meng Fan quietly felt the flow of the warm energy within his body. After about half an hour, he opened his eyes again, this time with an excited smile on his face.

This smile had appeared more times in the past few days than in the previous ten years of Meng Fan’s life.

Suppressing his excitement, Meng Fan naturally understood what this meant. In the Body Tempering stage, the most exhausting part was the body itself. The focus was on strengthening the tendons, bones, and membranes. In the past, after a day of practice, Meng Fan would be so exhausted that he couldn’t even get up, and he would be in pain all night.

This required the effects of spiritual medicines. In wealthy families, the younger generations were given large amounts of spiritual medicines daily to nourish their bodies, allowing them to remain vigorous and progress quickly.

However, this black bead was even more powerful than the heavenly and earthly spiritual medicines used to restore strength. It could fully restore all of Meng Fan’s energy and heal his injuries in just half an hour, allowing him to continue practicing.

Moreover, while repairing his body, this warm energy also stimulated the expansion of Meng Fan’s meridians. The Body Tempering stage was all about expanding the meridians to absorb primordial energy from the world and store it in the body. With this black bead, Meng Fan could practice without end.

Unless he didn’t want to, he would have much more time to practice than others. Regardless of day or night, as long as Meng Fan was exhausted, the warm energy from the black bead would restore all his strength in half an hour.

This effect was something Meng Fan had only heard of in the legendary Restorative Pills, which were said to be extremely precious outside of Wuzhen. The Restorative Pills only restored strength, but the energy from the black bead also stimulated Meng Fan’s body, slowly but surely helping to expand his meridians, which was a great aid in advancing his cultivation.

For someone like Meng Fan, who was just beginning to cultivate primordial energy, the benefits of the black bead were endless.

With a grin, just as Meng Fan was about to stand up, his body suddenly stiffened. He circulated the primordial energy within his body, carefully probing every part of it.

To his surprise, Meng Fan discovered that his body had changed. His somewhat thin and bony frame seemed to have grown taller, and under his blue robe, the outline of muscles was becoming more defined.

"It’s an advancement, no doubt, to the third stage of Body Tempering!"

With a shout, a huge smile of joy spread across Meng Fan’s face. After three years of hard practice, he had only reached the second stage of Body Tempering. He never thought that after one night of practice, he would break through to the third stage.

Meng Fan knew this was due to the black bead nourishing his meridians. This thing was truly a treasure, but his body was trembling, and his face showed a look of uncertainty.

An ordinary person has no sin, but possessing a treasure can bring disaster. If the effects of this bead were to be known, Meng Fan didn’t know what kind of commotion it would cause. The entire Qinglong Mountain range would likely turn its attention to him.

Thinking of this, Meng Fan couldn’t help but feel a bit anxious. Although he was mentally mature, he was still just a fifteen-year-old boy at heart.

After a moment of contemplation, Meng Fan placed the cracked bead firmly against his chest and made a silent vow. He would not tell anyone the secret of this bead, not even Xinlan. It wasn’t a lack of trust, but a desire to keep his own secret close to his heart.

With a deep breath, Meng Fan’s eyes flashed, and he knew what he needed to do over the next ten days.

Reflecting on this, Meng Fan understood that although the black bead could nourish his meridians, the most important thing was his own hard practice. Without a large amount of hard work, the bead’s ability to restore strength would be useless.

So, Meng Fan had already made a plan. Over the next ten days, he would practice day and night, putting in twice the effort to make up for the gap between him and the others.

With a low growl, a determined look appeared in Meng Fan’s eyes. A dragon in the depths of the sea only seeks to soar in the sky one day!

How many times had Meng Fan wished to shine in the Wuzhen clan competition, to elevate his mother’s status in Wuzhen and no longer be looked down upon. How many times had he wished to confront the Meng family, who had once humiliated him and his mother, from a distance of tens of thousands of meters away!