Planet Pulverizer: A Mortal's Ascent

Chapter 9: Attitude

At Changfeng Martial Hall, Li Pin was practicing a set of fist arts at a very fast speed.

His qi and blood were like a furnace within him, causing his body to seethe. If someone were to use an infrared thermometer on Li Pin right now, they'd see that his body temperature had hit at least forty-five degrees Celsius.

A while later, Li Pin finished his fist art practice and let out a long exhale, causing his chest to undulate. By now, Li Pin was sweating buckets. His clothes were drenched.

However, Li Pin paid this no heed and calmly sensed his qi and blood changes. Li Pin quickly crunched the numbers.

"0.02."

Li Pin had gone through a large number of videos about Core Force and Aura Force, and he had used his clairvoyance skill to constantly make micro-adjustments and improvements.

With these adjustments in place, a practice session of the Xuan Pin Gate would net him an increase of 0.02 to his qi and blood. He'd get a 0.12 increment in a day from six sessions of practice.

Three days had already passed since Li Pin obtained his level-two martial artist certification. His qi and blood had risen to 23 points.

Li Pin's qi and blood had increased quite substantially in the last month. However, the rise in qi and blood level generally tended to be faster in the earlier phases of martial arts practice as compared to the later phases. It'd be much harder to increase the qi and blood level later on.

A Force Cultivator's qi and blood would usually be about 20 to 30 while Core Force and Aura Force masters, or even some Divine Force Martial Saints, would have their qi and blood be within the range of 30 to 40.

Unless a person was born with immense strength or had consumed heavenly and earthly treasures to supplement their body, even a Martial Saint would find it hard to elevate their qi and blood to a level higher than 40.

"The first chapter of the Innate Qi-Nurturing Technique focuses on qi nurturing. It increases one's primordial qi and has the effect of increasing one's vitality and strengthening the body.

"The second chapter is about building the foundation. It will lean more toward molding the foundation, strengthening the cultivator from the basics. With my clairvoyance skill as a support, I might be able to tap into my physical body's potential at a much deeper degree and reach an effect akin to those who are born with immense strength."

There was still the third chapter after that. That chapter focused on the Golden Core.

However, this wasn't the same as the Golden Core realm of immortal cultivation. What this focused on was making the primordial chaos around a cultivator more vigorous, turning the human body into something akin to one big core. This would make a martial artist more resilient to illnesses and it would increase their lifespan. In Li Pin's previous life, he wasn't able to take that step toward primordial qi. He hadn't been able to locate the primordial qi within himself.

Now, relying on his excellent aptitude, Li Pin had been able to locate his primordial qi from the first day of cultivating the Innate Qi-Nurturing Technique. His next steps would be to progressively strengthen and nourish his primordial qi.

This was also the core of the qi-nurturing chapter.

Shan Hu suddenly appeared.

"Li Pin, a package has arrived for you. I've brought it here," she said. "You've bought quite a lot of things recently."

Li Pin took the box from Shan Hu's hand. "Thanks."

Shan Hu peered at the sender's address.

"You bought medicinal herbs? Hey, don't tell me you've been improving so fast because you've been taking some sort of miraculous drug?"

"I'm just giving it a try to see what medicinal herbs are beneficial to cultivation," replied Li Pin.

Li Pin knew a bit about medicinal herbs in his previous life. However, back then, all his knowledge about herbs came from books. Now that he had 50 thousand to his name, he planned on experimenting like Shennong.[1] He wanted to try various plants and make use of his talent to choose the medicinal herbs that suited his needs before he went ahead and made a substantial purchase.

Shan Hu said, "Artificial propagation is prominent these days, so you can never be sure of the quality of the herbs that you buy online. You can't even be sure if they're the real deal or not.

"If you really want to get good quality herbs, you can look for Yingying. Her family has a shop selling Traditional medicine. They have been around for a hundred years and the quality of their products is assured. My master would always go to them whenever he needs medicinal herbs."

She added, a little regretfully, "It's a pity that her grandfather is stubborn and refuses to expand the business to open more chains. If they did, their family would rack in several millions, or even tens of millions. If they were lucky and built up their brand reputation, she'd be rich."

Li Pin felt that there were hidden meanings behind her words, but he still found the information a little useful. "What's the shop name? I'll go check it out next time."

"Why not make it today? I'll give Yingying a call and bring you there right away. If you want to patronize a business, you might as well patronize Yingying's."

Shan Hu picked up her phone to make the call.

However, as soon as she picked up her phone, Fang Lingjue suddenly came over.

He was clearly here for Li Pin.

"I heard from Xu Huan that you got the level-two certificate?" said Fang Lingjue.

"I got it," Li Pin responded with a smile. He then asked, "Are you planning on changing my contract, Hall Master?"

"That's right." Fang Lingjue nodded. "But it's not the same one we discussed before. Come with me."

As he spoke, he led Li Pin to the office. However, before he went inside, he instructed Shan Hu, "Have Little Su bring my Mist Tea of Mount Lu over."

Shan Hu nodded. "Alright."

Tea culture came from the Great Shang and had the effect of inducing concentration as well as calming one's qi. Both martial artists and Astral Cultivators developed a love for tea culture. The prices of high-quality tea leaves were comparable to expensive delicacies.

"You signed up for the Jiang Province Martial Competition?"

After they went into the office, Fang Lingjue went straight to the point.

"That's right. I plan to build up some combat experience," Li Pin replied.

"I don't think it's that simple," said Fang Lingjue.

He looked at Li Pin and asked seriously, "Be honest with me, what level had you reached in your cultivation back then? Is it from turning Overt to Covert Force? Or... did you manage to reach the Transformative Force?"

"My situation is a little unique," Li Pin answered.

Even in a world rife with extraordinary powers, transmigration was still something that was hard to explain.

Fang Lingjue stared at Li Pin.

However, when Fang Lingjue saw how Li Pin's expression remained composed and how he didn't open his mouth, Fang Lingjue could only sigh and say, "I get it."

"I'll move out of the condominium tomorrow," Li Pin said.

"You rascal!" Fang Lingjue chided with a laugh. "Do you think of me as such a petty person? So what if you've attained Transformative Force? Do you think that I, a Core Force martial artist, would be scared to have my place taken over by you? Moreover, I'd be more than happy to have an expert in my martial hall. Why would I be chasing an expert away? Of course, that is unless you find it uncomfortable staying here and wish to leave yourself."

"I quite like the atmosphere in Changfeng Martial Hall, " Li Pin said.

Although Li Pin had to take a few students who were from rich families, they were not profligates and were rather well-behaved. They treated him very politely.

It could be said that Li Pin found the work very easy.

Not to mention that Shan Hu, Xu Huan, Zhang Le, and the others treated him very kindly as well.

Moreover, when he was poor and in a difficult situation, Fang Lingjue provided him with his first job. Li Pin didn't want to ruin their relationship over this matter.

"I don't care if you had reached Covert Force or Transformative Force before. It's clear that you have astonishing aptitude. Moreover, you've chosen to participate in the Jiang Province Martial Competition.... This clearly shows that you're focused on treading the martial arts path.... it'd be wasting your time to have you continue to teach students," said Fang Lingjue.

He looked at Li Pin. "Shan Hu mentioned to you that I have plans to expand the business, correct?"

Li Pin nodded. "The 16th provincial martial competitions will take place six months from now, that would be the 1st of May next year. It's been five years since I attained Core Force. I joined the competition in Hai Province last year. If it wasn't for my bad luck to have faced a seed participant, I'd have gotten into the top ten.

"Now that I've trained for three years, I'll be participating in the Jiang Province Martial Competition this time around. Even though I can't say that I'll get into the top ten with absolute certainty, my chances are still very high."

Fang Lingjue's heart welled up with strong ambition. "If it weren't for my age, I would've wanted to challenge myself and participate in the national competition in the future."

"You can join the adult category, Hall Master Fang."

"The adult category...." Fang Lingjue mumbled, lost in his own emotions for a few seconds. "We'll talk about it when the national competition rolls around."

"My family's business is quite established. All the assets, which are split amongst us siblings, including Little Bai's father, total 500 to 600 million. Therefore, I don't feel like I'm lacking in money. So, when others send me their family juniors to train with me, I can't help but feel reluctant to accept them. But... these rascals are way too fucking willing to spend their money."

He looked at Li Pin. "In order to avoid being forced to teach their children and waste my martial arts training time, I quoted a rate of ten thousand per lesson. Can you believe that some of them paid for one hundred classes in one go?"

"In less than two months, I sold almost two thousand classes."

"..."

Li Pin was a little surprised.

Do Core Force masters... earn so much?

Two thousand classes?

20 million!?

"The two thousand lessons don't necessarily have to be one-on-one classes. Moreover, if I expand the business... the income the Changfeng Martial Hall would rack in would be on par with the profits ten or more companies owned by my family make," Fang Lingjue said.

"In the past, I used to scoff at how those Core Force masters would publicize their classes on the Internet to recruit students. I considered it a humiliation for us Core Force masters. However, now...."

Li Pin nodded. He could understand how Fang Lingjue felt.

Who would've thought that martial artists could earn so much?

This would've been impossible back on the Blue Planet.

"You mean that you want me to take charge of the martial hall?"

Fang Lingjue said solemnly, "Just on the fact that you're participating in the Jiang Province Martial Competition and even dare to sign a contract that took into account the chance of you getting into the top ten in the competition, I dare say that you have an extremely high chance of attaining Transformative Force in six months! Therefore, I have two proposals for you....

"The first one is that I'd like you to become a shareholder of the Changfeng Martial Hall. After we open for recruitment, the overall equity won't be any lower than 60 million. You don't need to invest anything. I'll give you 5% shares just for you joining. In the future, when you attain Core Force, the amount of shares you own will further increase."

As Fang Lingjue spoke, he was trying to catch any shifts in Li Pin's expression.

However, Li Pin's face didn't show any emotions, which Fang Lingjue found a little odd. However, he nonetheless continued.

"The second proposal is what Shan Hu suggested—for you to take charge of the martial hall."

He paused and continued, "Depending on how I perform in the Jiang Province Martial Competition, we'll open another three to five branches. You can choose to take charge of one of them. You don't have to teach any students. You'll only need to run the branch. Your annual salary will be 1 million. What do you think?"

1. A divine farmer in Chinese history who personally tasted hundreds of plants to test their medical value. He encountered 72 poisons for which he used tea as an antidote and he died taking a poisonous plant and didn't had enough time to take his antidote. ☜