Chapter 21: It's All About Your Tenacity!

Immortal Cultivation World, Spirit Mist Lake, a small fishing boat.

Chen Yi pulled up his fishing net; a few fish were still thrashing their tails, casting glistening water droplets that shone bright under the sunset.

He picked out a nearly four-and-a-half-pound carp to take home later to nourish his mother and sister's health, and a forty-four-pound silver carp to sell at the market.

He cleaned the remaining two large silver carps straight away and put them in the boiling pot.

Now that his cultivation level had reached the First Layer of Mingjin, also known as Refining Skin, his progress had somewhat slowed down.

The reason was not that the fish or air of the Immortal Cultivation World were ineffective. Instead, it was that his Martial Arts school brothers would only need to train their Vitality and Blood Power in their arms after their Mingjin reached cowhide level.

The inner power of their Mingjin would accumulate more and more, usually managing to perform up to thirty Mingjin in a row. By then, the cowhide on their arms would start to change into stone skin, marking their advance into the Mid Stage of Mingjin.

However, Chen Yi was practicing Vajra Sutra, involving the training of skin and muscles all over the body. To achieve Completion of the Early Mingjin Stage and advance to the Mid Stage by turning into stone skin, he needed to have at least 150 streams of force power.

Therefore, although his daily intake now consisted of a lot of fish, meat, Small Wan Soup, big buns, and anything else nourishing, regardless of more than eight hours of training in the Spiritual Energy World, his progress was slow.

The amount of Vitality and Blood Power he could accumulate each day could congeal into approximately two streams of force power. At this pace, it would take him at least two and a half months to reach the Mid Stage of Mingjin.

Though he was already ranked quite well in the Martial Arts school with such progress, Chen Yi always felt his strength was too weak. Unless he was sure he could defeat an expert of Anjin instantly, he didn't feel safe.

Practicing the Vajra Fist using the Breathing Techniques of Iron Wire Fist, though possible, somehow felt not quite right.

"If only I could get the complete set of the Breathing Techniques of the Vajra Fist."

As each day passed, Chen Yi stuck to his routine. He would go to the Martial Arts school every morning to practice against Second Sister, then occasionally go to the market to sell fish he caught after school. The rest of the time he was practicing Martial Arts in the Spiritual Energy World.

At Spirit Mist Lake, his fishing efficiency increased significantly with his new fishing net and fish spear.

He would often sell a big fish or two on the island in exchange for rice in the Spiritual Energy World, sometimes even buying some odds and ends as well.

For instance, in the Ingenious Device Store, there was a palm-sized conch. The shopkeeper said it had some monster blood and could scare away ordinary fish when blown.

When Chen Yi asked why nobody had bought it if it was so useful, the shopkeeper looked a bit embarrassed. Everyone was here to catch fish, and no one wanted something that could scare fish away. Furthermore, it only worked on ordinary fish and wouldn't affect the real huge fish with monster blood.

Finally, after Chen Yi's several rounds of persuasion that the conch was useless, he got it for only a tenth of the original price - two silver coins.

Besides, in the Martial World, it was getting colder as autumn deepened. Fish in Lake Taize started to become less active.

Catching fish became increasingly challenging for the fishermen, and with uneasy currents stirring within the Fish and Dragon Gang and levies rising, life grew increasingly challenging for the villagers.

But Chen Yi still stuck to his routine of three meals a day, consisting of rice, noodles, bread, and fish soup, occasionally managing to buy chicken or rabbit from the market.

These days, every few days, he would catch a big fish to sell at the market. He would occasionally purchase some fish food, and he had become familiar with the owners of the rice and fish shops.

Everyone knew that the boy from the Chen Family was an expert at catching fish, helping their own family's situation improve steadily.

Even though Chen Yi thought he was drawing attention and might be targeted, he was prepared to show his Mingjin-level Martial Art skills to intimidate anyone with malicious intentions.

However, thanks to the Fish and Dragon Gang maintaining order in Lakeside Town, no one had the opportunity to rob Chen Yi.

Life was getting worse every day for the other villagers.

Especially for Widow Sun, life had been rough since her wheat bran was thrown into the water. After Old Wu, a bachelor, helped her with her harvested crops, he moved into her house.

Wu was forty years old but was unable to find a wife - due to having no money or practical skills.

For the first few days, using his pent-up energy from years of being single, Old Wu attended to Widow Sun and always managed to keep her smiling, like an old tree blooming with new flowers.

However, after a few days, not surprisingly, as he got older, his physical strength started to wane. After Old Wu stopped working and started only consuming food, his days were not productive.

Before long, they were going to have consumed all the bran at Widow Sun's house.

This put Widow Sun in a desperate situation, but now she had lost both her pillars of support, it was easy to invite Old Wu in, but hard to drive him away,

Only after twenty days, when Old Wu saw that Widow Sun could not bring out a grain of food, did he pat his buttocks and leave.

Widow Sun, with Wang Sanchui, cried her eyes out and sought help everywhere in the village, but no one was willing to lend her a bit of grain,

Even if she showed her shoe soles door to door, those men only had lust, but no spare grain for her to eat and drink.

In the end, Widow Sun had no choice but to take Wang Sanchui to the town and sold him to a big family as a servant, and she, entered the half-open door, barely surviving with her own profession.

.....

That day was the 30th day since Chen Yi had paid again to train at the martial arts school,

The amount of Vitality and Blood in his body could now unleash 60 strands of force, as an ordinary Mingjin martial artist, he could almost touch the threshold after Mingjin,

But the strength he showed now was still in the cowhide stage for both arms, without a trace of transition to the hard skin stage.

Therefore, that day after he finished training with Qi Ying, Qi Ying held Chen Yi's hand and examined it carefully over and over again:

"It's really strange, according to your recent training with me, you've been able to withstand 30 of my kicks without falling down, you should have entered the hard skin stage already?

Why is there no movement at all?"

"Perhaps I'm too dull to understand the key to breaking through the stage.

By the way, senior sister, today is the day when I have been learning boxing for a full month. The tuition is due, and from tomorrow I will practice at home and will not come to the martial arts school to learn boxing."

"Huh? Are you out of money? Can't even afford 2 taels of silver?

Why are you, a Mingjin martial artist, so useless? As long as you do some work for any power, a few taels of silver a month is also a reasonable income!"

Qi Ying said in surprise.

"I..." Chen Yi now had more than 20 taels of silver on him, but he wanted to save silver to buy a big ship,

And felt that practicing martial arts in this martial arts school did not help him much, he found the bowl of soup he drank every day from the second senior sister less useful than eating a big fish in the Spiritual Energy World, so it was natural not to want to waste money and time practicing at the martial arts school.

"What 'I'? You're not leaving, I have silver here, I'll help you pay the tuition today, and you have to come to the martial arts school to practice boxing with me tomorrow!" Qi Ying interrupted.

"No need...."

"Don't go grandmothering around, you're a big boy and should act like a man,

I'm paying for you, but it's not for free, you have to be my training partner!

Who made other people all trash, only you are a bit tougher!"

"I..."

"What 'I'? If you still feel bad about it, when I take on tasks later, you can come and help me, then I'll treat you to good food and drink, it's embarrassing for a martial artist not to be able to take out even this bit of silver!"

Chen Yi really wanted to say, actually, I can upgrade without helping you as a training partner, but he was forced to go to pay the tuition by Qi Ying, who also poured him a decoction to watch him drink it,

This kind of favor, he was really embarrassed to decline.

Well then, just come here every day to accompany senior sister for one 'two hours' of training, my comprehensive strength now should be still a bit worse than senior sister's, but probably not by much.

I can try to fight back in our training later on, gradually honing my fist technique,

Of course, it would be even better if I could learn senior sister's Iron Whip Leg technique, after a month of observation, I always feel that senior sister's whip leg technique and my Vajra Sutra are similar.

.....