Book 15: Chapter 77

Compared to his “shifu”, Zizi had been experiencing atypical days – if consuming unknown pills counted. The first time he smelt one, he was terrified. His shifu assured him that it had been tested on humans and guaranteed it was safe, but none of that assurance meant anything when his shifu wore a thick mask and used iron gloves when he delivered the pill. Moreover, the entire set of items was extracted from underground.

It was said that unknown pill was the reason his shifu was feared. Despite questioning the safety of the pills, though, Zizi’s desire to become as strong as his shifu was stronger than his fear. For the sake of obtaining the strength to protect his mother, he consumed the pill without hesitation. Only moments after consuming the pill, he saw the late Empress Dowager’s cordial smile and friendly gesture. Luckily, his shifu saved him. He was touched when he saw his shifu’s large silhouette and heard, “I knew this untested dosage was too strong. Thank heavens he didn’t croak on me.” Besides feeling touched, he also learnt how scary hostility felt.

From then on, besides training, taking on life-and-death matches his shifu occasionally took him to, his scariest challenge was figuring out how to consume unknown pills. At first, he pinched his nose so that he wouldn’t pass out once he held one. Unfortunately, that wasn’t enough to stop the taste that permeated inside his entire body once it came into contact with saliva. He had met Monkey King, Guan Yu, Buddha, and more legendary individuals after consuming the pills. The common denominator in all the encounters was that he wouldn’t have met them if he was alive. Even if he split the pills into smaller parts to consume, the effect didn’t weaken. Hence, he decided he needed to just bite the pill and consume the pills in one shot. As a result, Zizi consumed an astounding number of unknown pills within a month. Compared to the version first concocted in the underground palace, the ones Zizi confirmed were a new and improved version.

The life and death pill that was given to Tang Ye costed far more ingredients than before, so there weren’t enough ingredients for a second one yet – not that there was likely to be another Tang Ye willing to consume it. Ming Feizhen, therefore, turned his attention to upgrading the ordinary unknown pills. They were effective, but the stench was even worse than the ones handed out in the underground palace, yet Zizi managed to consume them for a month straight, leading to Ming Feizhen mistakenly wondering if Zizi liked them.

Zizi discovered that he recovered from fatigue and pain exponentially faster subsequent to consuming unknown pills; even his internal energy upgraded noticeably faster. The mental demons he had to battle with while practicing Pure Yang One Qi also reduced considerably.

Unknown pill didn’t have the ability to get rid of mental demons; however, its smell and taste was so effective at making one alert that it was hard to not be aware of illusions. Plus, it was easier to progress when focus was sustained for longer. Zizi thought that the smell scared his demons off.

After a month, Zizi was able to consume the pill without throwing up and only needed fifteen minutes to overcome the nausea. If Huang Yuzao knew about it, he’d have let His Majesty know how much perseverance he had and how adaptable he was, and nobody would’ve argued otherwise.

Being the great mentor he was, Ming Feizhen took out two unknown pills from the same porcelain bottle to reward the young Prince. “Consume this one in the morning and this one at night. Of course, you can consume them in the reverse order if you prefer. They’re the same thing.”

“…”

Zizi left Liu Shan Men in high spirits again today to seek out an opponent. He had lost to the same opponent every day in devastating fashion, but he’d return the next day after spending the previous night analysing and seeking ways to counter. Yesterday, he was given a bunch of bruises on his face, but he was back for another round.

“Hey! I’m here! … If you don’t come out, I’m going in!”

A boy with skin as white as a sheet stepped out faster than his appearance suggested was possible, but his breathing rhythm was noticeably abnormal. If it wasn’t for the devilish vibe from him, the boy only three years older than Zizi would’ve been the walking definition of a pretty boy. In a raspy voice, he disparaged, “You want another beating, dummy?”

“You think I’m scared of you? If you’re afraid, you can surrender now before I get started.”

“Me, scared of you?! You’re calling me a coward when you’re the one who ran off with his face rearranged? Come closer if you dare!”

“Would I be here if I didn’t dare to? I already dismantled those shabby techniques of yours.”

“All right, tough guy, I’ll make sure you leave as a corpse today.”

“Bring it on!”

Zizi lunged forward and started off with Mindless Twenty-five Techniques, the set of techniques he didn’t have anyone to practice on before. Although he couldn’t beat the boy, their fights helped him polish the techniques, so he never lost motivation to further evolve them.

The boy was able to come up with a new technique every time he ran out of defensive techniques. While he did fight violently, he spared Zizi’s life whenever he was able to deliver the final blow. He was superior enough to overcome the surprise element of Pure Yang One Qi.

Whenever they fought, it went for two to four hours. They had to deal with real injuries and fought for real, but both of them felt more joy from the fighting than anything else. Of course, Zizi also enjoyed the learning process of polishing his Pure Yang One Qi and Mindless Twenty-five Techniques. Whenever Zizi couldn’t activate Pure Yang One Qi and almost entered qi deviation, the boy would stop and wait whilst chiding Zizi about things that inspired new ideas that helped Zizi mitigate the issues.

Due to the nature of Pure Yang One Qi not being suited for protracted battles, Zizi should’ve been shut out before four hours passed. Thanks to his prolonged consumption of unknown pills, however, that time limit was no longer an issue. Fatigue and pain also didn’t feel as debilitating as in the past. Rather than hurting due to injuries, injuries spurred on his fighting spirit, forcing his opponent to retaliate more vigorously, which resulted in Zizi getting hurt worser and worser.

The first time the boy beat the blood out of Zizi’s mouth, he was shocked. On the other hand, Zizi refused to quit. Instead, he goaded his opponent into fighting more ruthlessly. When the boy tried to kick him, Zizi was able to jump out of the way and recalibrate his breathing despite him still bleeding. Since Zizi wouldn’t go down no matter what, the boy kept upping the ante. The boy was surprised when Zizi would return the next day without any damage and even have new techniques to counter the techniques he previously had no answer to.

After having six techniques from yesterday dismantled, the boy simpered. “Asking for adults’ advice, you’re shameless!”

“When did I ever ask for help from adults? I haven’t even told Shifu about these fights. You’d already be dead if he found out.”

“Who gives a toss about your shifu. How could you dismantle my Soulstealing Six Sword Techniques if an adult didn’t help you?”

Zizi smiled. “That’s an arrogant name for something that’s useless. It took me only one night to come up with counters. You should rename it to something more befitting.” 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝓮𝓌𝑒𝒷𝘯ℴ𝑣𝓮𝓁.𝒸ℴ𝘮

“Befitting what?”

“How useless it is, hahaha.”

“All right, you asked for it!”

The next time the youth attacked using his fingers as a replacement for a sword, there were signs of a gale starting up each time he swung his arm alongside heat energy. Zizi didn’t comprehend how difficult it was to pull it off. Nonetheless, it wasn’t half as scary as unknown pills, so he wasn’t intimidated.

Like yesterday, Zizi lost again today and was covered in new wounds.

With some beads of sweat on his forehead, the smiling boy asked, “Accept defeat yet? I won again.”

Zizi aerated his cheeks. “No. Far from it. You used new techniques again.”

“Not my fault I can. How come you refuse to accept defeat? Hahaha. How’s your progress with the knife throwing techniques I taught you?”

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