Chapter 132: The Emotion Within the Song

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Carrying a box of human nutritional supplements, Chen Jue returned to his room at the guesthouse. He first accompanied Zhou Gang to the garrison cafeteria for dinner.

The cafeteria food was quite good, with plenty of meat and fish, as well as vegetarian dishes suitable for monks. Chen Jue was surprised to notice, however, that the few Shaolin warrior monks seemed to have no qualms about eating meat.

After all, martial artists placed great importance on strengthening the body. Relying solely on vegetarian fare could easily lead to nutritional imbalances.

Although certain plants could also provide protein or fats, the common belief that “meat eaters are strong, while vegetarians are frail” had been deeply rooted for thousands of years.

Naturally, all Shaolin monks who had formally received the precepts and observed the monastic rules were required to remain vegetarian. These warrior monks, however, were probably exceptions within the temple.

It was much like the historical incident in which the Thirteen Staff-Wielding Monks rescued the Tang emperor. Afterward, Emperor Taizong of Tang, Li Shimin, personally appointed the monk Tanhzong as a great general and issued an edict permitting the monks of Shaolin Temple to train as warrior-monks, take life, and consume wine and meat. Records of this still existed in the temple inscriptions.

…

After dinner, Chen Jue returned to his room and looked over the schedule for the martial arts competition that Political Commissar Yao had sent him.

The event would last three days. The opening ceremony would be held in the indoor activity hall at the garrison tomorrow morning, followed by the numbered matches. The first day would consist of preliminary rounds, the second of semifinals, and the final day of the championship matches.

Of course, this was the competition schedule for ordinary martial artists like Chen Jue and experts from various martial arts schools. The competitions for soldiers like Zhou Gang had been arranged separately. They would spend the first three days observing and studying, after which there would be a roll call and review on the training grounds. None of it would be made public, and Chen Jue would have no chance to watch. He would have to leave the garrison after taking part in the first three days of activities; Political Commissar Yao had already made that clear before his arrival.

Of course, Chen Jue had now achieved sainthood through physical cultivation. All his attributes had broken through the human limit of “1,” and his martial arts had reached a level of consummate mastery. He had little interest in the matches ahead. He would simply go through the motions and collect the prize money.

After all, his savings were nearly depleted. He had to find some extra income to support his cultivation.

After opening the box of nutritional supplements, Chen Jue sat cross-legged on the bed, drew the curtains, and began circulating his blood and energy, cultivating the circulation of the Lesser and Greater Heavenly Cycles.

The last time he had spent an attribute point at his old home in Chen Village, he had nearly been drained dry. The memory still left him faintly shaken.

Now, however, he had taken advantage of the competition to purchase nutritional supplements from an internal supply channel, and he was eager to give it another try.

“I’ll spend an attribute point and see what happens!”

“It would be even better if I had Little Sister Yun’s Golden Dew to take with it,” Chen Jue thought.

He tore open a tube of the supplement, centered his mind, and directed 0.01 attribute points into the proficiency of [Lesser and Greater Heavenly Cycles].

Sure enough, as the proficiency jumped by ten points, the blood and energy slowly circulating within Chen Jue began to surge.

One cycle, two cycles, ten cycles, a hundred cycles…

Chen Jue felt his entire body grow feverishly hot. His skin flushed red like a boiled shrimp, while all his attributes began to rise along with it.

His stomach and intestines began churning violently. Before long, the dinner he had just eaten was completely absorbed and refined by the Daoist inner alchemy technique known as “refining essence into energy.”

Chen Jue hurriedly seized a tube of the supplement and squeezed it into his mouth, then quickly swallowed it with the functional drink Zhou Gang had given him.

“This stuff is like eating mud!”

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“It tastes like wax! No wonder hardly anyone buys it when it sits on the shelves,” Chen Jue complained inwardly.

Fortunately, the functional drink was sweet. Taken together, the two could just barely be swallowed.

Once the tube of nutritional supplement reached his stomach, Chen Jue felt his digestion accelerate. Heat spread through his abdomen as the high calories and various nutrients it contained were rapidly transported to every corner of his body.

At the same time, his mind grew increasingly clear. His thoughts began to expand, and for an instant he felt as though he had attained complete enlightenment.

This was the manifestation of “refining energy into spirit” in Daoist inner alchemy. Its most obvious reflection on the status panel was that his Intelligence attribute had increased the most during the recent allocation of points.

When the siphoning effect caused by the allocation finally ended, Chen Jue felt only an emptiness in his stomach. He had not been nearly drained as before, when adding ten points of proficiency to [Lesser and Greater Heavenly Cycles] had almost emptied him completely.

In truth, this was not solely due to the nutritional supplement taking effect. Chen Jue had also formed a Golden Core during this period, and his physical constitution was now much stronger than before. He was therefore better able to withstand the siphoning effect brought about by allocating attribute points.

“It really works!”

“There are still nine tubes left. I’ll max out this technique tonight and see what happens!”

His confidence soared. Feeling that he still had strength to spare, Chen Jue continued allocating points while consuming the nutritional supplements.

After repeating the process eight times, the proficiency of Lesser and Greater Heavenly Cycles had risen to (101/100). The astonishing heat radiating from Chen Jue’s body began roasting the entire room, making it feel as though the winter radiators had been turned on full blast.

Only then did Chen Jue stop cultivating. He instinctively glanced at the status panel:

Name: Chen Jue
Age: 27
Health Index: 208%
Strength: 3.55
Agility: 2.56
Constitution: 3.89
Intelligence: 1.79 (1.29)
Free Attribute Points: 0.48
Skills: Others omitted… [Lesser and Greater Heavenly Cycles Lv0 (101/100)]: Required conditions missing. Unable to upgrade.
Current Status: Others omitted… [Unknown Lock]

It was probably because, after forming his Golden Core, all his attributes had already risen to an astonishing level. This time, allocating points to the Daoist inner alchemy technique had not increased his attributes by much.

By contrast, the technique Lesser and Greater Heavenly Cycles had unexpectedly produced an entirely new annotation. Like [Unknown Lock], it was marked with question marks and displayed as impossible to analyze.

It was as though the status panel were deliberately playing a riddle with Chen Jue.

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This left Chen Jue rather frustrated.

“Damn it! Even with a proficiency of 101, it still won’t break through? Is this a bug?”

Chen Jue was deeply annoyed. He had swallowed nine of the ten nutritional supplements he had just bought, spending nine thousand yuan in total, yet he still had not managed to break through this technique. It felt as unpleasant as having eaten rat droppings, leaving him thoroughly disgusted.

Fortunately, this latest allocation of points had not drained his body. Although he had been unable to break through, it had allowed Chen Jue to further confirm that the techniques awaiting verification in the group truly had substance and could indeed be cultivated.

Thinking of this, Chen Jue felt somewhat better. He glanced at the time and discovered that it was already midnight. He hurriedly took a hot shower, then lay down to rest.

…

When Chen Jue awoke the next day, his mind felt lucid and sharp, and his thoughts seemed far more transparent than before. Clearly, the increase in Intelligence caused by the previous night’s cultivation had taken effect.

After leaving his room and eating breakfast at the garrison cafeteria, Chen Jue leisurely made his way to the indoor activity hall where the crowd had gathered.

The hall resembled a scaled-down basketball court. A ring of plastic seats rose in tiers around it, while ten competition areas had been marked out with red cord on the wooden floor in the center. The arrangement was simple and efficient, bearing the unmistakable style of the military.

Following the number on his placard, Chen Jue found his seat. By then, people had already begun entering the venue one after another.

The soldiers selected from across the country sat opposite him. Around Chen Jue were experts from various martial arts schools and ordinary practitioners. More than two hundred people had come in all, which explained why ten competition areas had been prepared.

When the appointed time arrived, the entire hall fell silent. A host holding a microphone walked to the center of the competition area and briefly introduced the rules.

The host had probably been sent by the Army’s Cultural and Art Troupe. His voice was resonant, his diction crisp, and he carried himself with the confidence of a seasoned master of ceremonies. Once the rules had been announced, the opening ceremony began.

Everyone was ordered to stand. The flag was raised, and music began to play.

A melody engraved in the bones and souls of the Chinese people rang through the hall. The flag hanging in the middle of the venue slowly rose in time with the music.

“Arise…”

Everyone taking part in the event, whether soldiers or outsiders, began singing loudly in unison.

Amid the crowd, Chen Jue also hummed along with the melody. Suddenly, through his communion between heaven and man, he sensed an indescribable spirit rushing toward him from the massed singing.

It was the power carried by the song, containing the will of countless Chinese ancestors. It was the unyielding grandeur of a broken nation whose mountains and rivers yet endured, the boundless emotion of that age more than a century ago when dragons battled in the wilderness and their blood stained the earth dark yellow.

The second guaranteed update is here. I’m going to prepare dinner first; more updates tonight.

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