Chapter 8 A girl's heart

Despite being a simple commoner, Tang Ning was a little more well-informed than most people in the slums concerning the cultivation world. After all, her parents were once cultivators as well.

At least she knew that her mother was. That's why she had a basic cultivation technique in her house.

Not to mention the rich medicinal fragrance emanating from the pills themselves, even an idiot would know that these pills cost a fortune. When she heard the words Grade 5, Tang Ning trembled violently as if she had heard a forbidden word.

One should know that just the poor quality Grade 9 medicinal pills she had bought had cost her everything her mother had left behind for her.

Almost 100 Martial Silvers. That was equivalent to 1 Martial Gold coin in the modern world. One should know that the annual income of a family in the slums were nothing more than 15 Silvers.

However, even three years of their salary wouldn't be enough to buy such low grade medicinal pills. She had spent all the money that she had saved and scraped, adding to her mother's 54 Martial silvers for years to buy Ru Chan these pills to improve his constitution.

She always thought of herself as being too soft and sometimes naive, but she couldn't help her nature and impulsiveness.

That's why she had reluctantly parted with her money to help Ru Chan. The last thing she expected was for Ru Chan to come and give her something a thousand times better than what she initially gave him.

How could she not be shocked?

"Where-where did you get this?" She blurted out the first words that came out of her head. Her eyes were now fixed on Ru Chan as she awaited his answer while scrutinizing his facial expressions.

Despite her shock, she still had her rationality. Some things just didn't add up right.

Seeing her skepticism, Ru Chan let out a wry smile. Luckily, he had prepared for such a thing to happen where she doesn't exactly trust him and his good intentions.

He didn't blame her, as anyone else would have the same suspicions as she does.

"Remember the earthquake that happened earlier?"

Tang Ning nodded.

"Well, when the earthquake occurred, I was standing near the window and I was caught off guard. Because of that, I was thrown out the window and thought I was going to fall to my death".

Ru Chan held his breath for a few seconds and portrayed an expression of fear on his face to make his act look believable.

"Fortunately for me, at that time, I was saved by a mysterious expert that was flying outside the window".

"A-A mysterious expert? Flying!" Tang Ning had an incredulous expression on her face, which Ru Chan paid no heed to and continued with his made up story.

"Thankfully, this expert was benevolent and saved my life, if not, with my weak body at that time I would have broken my neck on impact".

"After saving me, he examined my body and said a few words concerning my body condition. Then he casually took out a bottle with three pills inside, stuffed them into my hands and told me they were Grade 5 medicinal pills that could temper the body".

"He then imparted a cultivation technique to me and left directly without saying another word".

"I wasn't certain whether I should believe his words or not, but after a saw you bringing in those medicinal pills, I decided to take the risk

"I swallowed the pill and my body began to heat up and before I knew it, the impurities in my body were directly expelled and now. My cultivation has improved as well as my cultivation talent".

Ru Chan finished his ridiculous explanation with a straight face. Despite not being the most logical explanation, it's the best he's got and no one would be able to verify whether it was true or not,, so it wouldn't matter.

Unless you could consider the system as a mysterious master.

"You..... What! Brother Chan, I can't believe you had such good luck!" Tang Ning exclaimed as she looked at Ru Chan. His face that didn't seem to be lying told her that he really did encounter a heavenly expert that could cure his body condition.

This was simply too incredulous. What are the odds that such circumstances actually arose in perfect timing. One in a billion? Or trillion? What heaven defying luck?

Tang Ning clearly believed the bullshit he had fed her. After all, there was no other way that he could have had such a heaven defying change in a matter of minutes without a heaven defying experience.

After processing her thoughts, she couldn't help but feel a little envious. If she had such a fateful encounter, her life might take a giant leap through the dragons gate in a single bound.

Ru Chan didn't know, but Grade 9 medicinal pills were already considered hard to come by in the area they were located in. Hell, it was hard to see Grade 8 medicinal pills even in the entire Fu kingdom. What kind of expert would that be to causally hand out grade 5 medicinal pills? A powerful one for sure.

As her thoughts continued revolving, only two seconds had passed in real time. Suddenly, she froze.

The medicinal pill in her hands was a grade 5 medicinal pills and Ru Chan had gifted it to her without batting an eye. How could she accept this?

Although she had taken care of Ru Chan, she wasn't really seeking anything in return. So, suddenly receiving such a pill was too much for her to process. She immediately had an urge to return the pill, but at the same time, she couldn't bear to part with it.

If she took this pill, there was a chance to increase her innate talent. The sect entrance tests were coming up in the city in three days time.

With her talent, she wasn't confident in being able to secure a spot for herself. She had already prepared herself to be eliminated and sent on her way. However, if she took this pill, there was a chance to change her fate.

If any of the powerhouses within the city knew that there was actually a Grade 5 medicinal pill in the hands of an irrelevant junior.

They would probably spare no efforts to tear down anything in their path to successfully snatch this pill.

How could she let such an opportunity slip from her fingers?

Seeing her hesitation, Ru Chan smiled inwardly. Earlier, he was the one hesitating and now, the roles had been reversed in a span of less than 1 hour.

"Sister Ning'er, this pill is a token of my gratitude. Plus, it doesn't have any use for me anymore, as my innate talent has already been improved due to the former pill I ate earlier. I haven't even digested half of the medicinal pills effects and my cultivation has already broken through to 4th Phase Dantian Establishment".

Ru Chan said with a smile, but his words were the straw that broke the camel's back.

4th Phase, Dantian establishment! Tang Ning couldn't be any more shocked.

This person who was even weaker than an average child about an hour ago was suddenly 4 times stronger than her! Too incredulous.

Without giving her any chance to be doubtful or skeptical, Ru Chan released a little of his cultivation for her to see. However, her face turned pale after his aura assaulted her.

"4th Phase! It really is 4th Phase!" She muttered in disbelief. She had been cultivating for years, but was still only at the 1st phase. This caused her to be a little indignant.

In the world of cultivation, the first step to enter the ranks of Cultivators was known as Establishing the Dantian, which was further subdivided into nine levels.

Breaking through each Phase would directly increase one's strength, speed, and fighting capabilities.

When one cultivated to the peak of the Dantian Establishment, they would be able to condense their body strength granted by the increase in the creation of their dantian to form Qi.

After the Dantian Establishment realm, the next step to take was to advance to Qi Apprentice realm.

These cultivators were different from cultivators in the Dantian establishment phase in the sense that upon reaching this stage, they would finally be able to build up Essence Qi within their dantian.

Transforming their body power from 9th Phase Dantian establishment realm into Essence Qi would allow one to step into the Qi apprentice realm.

A first level Qi apprentice, realm cultivator would absorb essence Qi and refine it to strengthen the body muscles and bones. Thanks to Qi, their combat power would increase drastically, and even a hundred 9th phase dantian establishment realm warriors would only suffer a brutal defeat in the hands of a Qi cultivator.

Following which was another arduous road to lead to the 9th Phase of Qi apprentice realm and stepping into the foundation establishment realm. After reaching the 9th Phase of foundation Establishment the essence Qi in their bodies would condense when one draws their full power to condense the heaven phenomenon and the Essence Qi could be developed to form the heavenly phenomenon of an ancient Mastodon above their heads.

Allowing one to possess strength equivalent to one ancient Mastodon. Alongside the power of the dantian that had accumulated to create an ancient mastodon at the 9th phase Foundation Establishment, a 1st seal Core formation realm cultivator could exert the strength of 2 ancient mastodons.

There were also many more realms of cultivation above it, but Ru Chan couldn't be bothered to think about it now, as reaching core formation meant condensing their martial core from the 1st Seal to the 9th seal.

After reaching core formation realm, cultivation was no longer regarded in phases but rather Seals. Three realms after that, cultivation was then regarded in layers.

With the trashy technique, she had coupled with her low talent, she never had any hopes of even reaching Ru Chan's current level without the assistance of a sect. Now, the opportunity was right in front of her.

What was stopping her from taking it? Pride? Definitely not.

"Then I won't refuse your precious gift, brother Chan!" Tang Ning said, her face slightly rosy.

"Great!' Ru Chan exclaimed. "Now, before you take that pill down, you need to be given a cultivation technique. If not, then your body might burst into pieces because you can't withstand the efficacy".

Ru Chan said casually, while Tang Ning broke out into a layer of cold sweat. She thanked the heavens that she wasn't impulsive enough to swallow it down on the spot.

"Ok!" The girl nodded and said seriously.

Ru Chan didn't stand on ceremony as he recited the flow of the cultivation technique to her. Despite her bad aptitude, she was surprisingly able to memorize the technique in less than 5 tries. However, this was all because her unawakened martial spirit had a good affinity with anything related to sword techniques.

Since she already knew the basics of cultivating on her own, she could carry out the next steps without instructions. Taking a deep breath, Tang Ning swallowed the medicinal pill, and it slowly dissolved in her body.

Just like Ru Chan earlier, she felt the brief moment of bliss and her face portrayed a satisfied expression, causing Ru Chan to lament slightly and chuckle.

Only he knew how dreadful what was to come, and sure enough.

"Ahhh!!" Tang Ning couldn't endure the pain and screamed aloud. Her tender skin gurned pale as beads of sweat appeared all over her body out of nowhere. However, due to the fact thay the quality of the pills they both took were in different extremes, the pain she felt wasn't to the extent of her skin cracking to reveal blood.

Nevertheless, it still hurt like hell.

Not being able to bear her like that, Ru Chan quickly stood in front of her, with their bodies being nothing more than a few inches away from each other.

He hadn't reached the Qi apprentice realm yet,, so he could not help her dissolve the pill by diffusing Essence Qi to put the raging pill under control. Even if he had, all his Qi would give been depleted while trying to restrain the pill in a matter of seconds.

Still, he managed to do what is necessary and pressed her acupuncture points to let them flow open and give her a little more room for the energy to flow easier.

Ru Chan touched her belly button that was slightly exposed as he opened up one of her acupuncture points without her permission. Although she was shaking from the pain, Ru Chan felt her tremble exquisitely when he opened her acupuncture points.

He didn't think much of it and just moved to open the next one. Because of that, he didn't see that Tang Ning's face was beet red.