Chapter 421: Chapter 185: Under the Abyss

Over the past fifteen days, Chen Cheng had entered the water every night. He would catch just two Treasure Fish before heading straight back, focusing all his remaining time on tempering his Three Tai Chi.

He caught a total of thirty Treasure Fish.

Of these, he gave the five that could be used for medicinal healing to Li Wenrou.

He gave another fifteen Tier One fish to Qing Chan, trading them for thirty pieces of Tier Two Exotic Beast Dried Meat.

He planned to take the remaining ten to the Valley of Oblivion and sell them all today.

However, as he now stood by the fishpond, his gaze fell upon the two Golden-Scaled Strange Fish swimming slowly side-by-side within, and he began to feel a little hesitant.

These two strange fish were named Zhen Yuan and Ding Lan.

They had to exist as a pair, simultaneously receive a blessing from nature, and complete their essential evolution at the exact same moment to become Zhen Yuan and Ding Lan. Even the slightest discrepancy would cause the transformation to fail, and they would die instantly.

For this very reason, the probability of them appearing in nature is extremely low.

Furthermore, since they possess no tangible benefits, they haven’t even been assigned a tier.

They were an extremely rare, unranked type of Treasure Fish.

However, they were said to be able to alter feng shui, guard a home, and ward off evil, so some people raised them in their residences.

The Dragon Mountain Upper Courtyard had previously raised a pair.

However, that pair was much smaller than the one before him now.

The two in Chen Cheng’s pond were not only larger, but a faint halo of light also seemed to flow across their golden scales.

As they swam, the golden halo and the moonlight cascading down from the sky of the Grotto Heaven complemented each other. At first glance, they truly possessed an ethereal charm.

When Chen Cheng had first decided to sell all ten remaining Treasure Fish, he hadn’t given it much thought.

But now that he was about to depart, a new thought occurred to him.

’Should I place a Feng Shui Vat right in the center of the Grotto Heaven and raise these two fish in it?’

’It’s a long shot... but still... what if it really can alter the Grotto Heaven’s feng shui?’

"...I’ll keep them."

Chen Cheng had finally made his decision.

’These two unranked Treasure Fish aren’t even listed in the resource manuals, so I have no idea how much money they would fetch. If I take them to the Valley of Oblivion and can’t get a good price, I might as well keep them as pets. At the very least, their flowing halos are pleasant to look at.’

Before departing, Chen Cheng made a point of eating a whole piece of Silver Feather Wind Wolf Dried Meat.

Before unlocking the Gastric Strength Trait, it took him about two days to digest and absorb a whole piece.

Now, he could completely absorb one piece a day.

As the saying goes: Gastric Strength enables powerful absorption; powerful absorption refines essence; refined essence generates Blood Qi; and sufficient Blood Qi nourishes the entire body.

After unlocking the Gastric Strength Trait, his efficiency in digesting and absorbing High Tier restorative resources had improved dramatically. Consequently, the nourishment his body received and the corresponding boost to his physical strength had also risen significantly.

Chen Cheng had performed a simple test.

His strength, defense, speed, endurance, recovery—and even his eyesight, hearing, and mental acuity—every ability related to his physique improved daily just from eating.

The improvements were minor, but they accumulated day by day. In theory, given an infinite amount of time, he could achieve physical sainthood just by eating.

This was the heaven-defying power of Gastric Strength.

The second layer of Inner Strength Tai Chi, meanwhile, focused on tempering the lungs.

The lungs govern Qi and control respiration, commanding all the body’s meridians. With Lung Strength comes ample Qi, and with ample Qi, blood flows like the wind.

If Gastric Strength was the gateway for absorbing the essence of all things, then Lung Strength was the furnace for refining the qi of heaven and earth.

As he made more progress in tempering his lungs, Chen Cheng could clearly feel...

...that with every breath, his alveoli would fully expand, like a myriad of creatures bursting into life. They would draw the ’Pure Spirit Qi’ from the world into his bloodstream, where it would merge with the essence refined by his stomach...

...to jointly generate Blood Qi and nourish his entire body!

As for this so-called Pure Spirit Qi, it was a term Chen Cheng had coined himself, based on the concept of Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi from his past life. It wasn’t true spiritual qi.

After training for some time, he had discovered that tempering his lungs in the Abyssal Grotto Heaven was slightly more effective than doing so in Guan Lan Pavilion.

He had carefully compared the two locations and concluded that ’the qi is different.’

Moreover, the lungs govern the skin and body hair.

With Lung Strength, his pores could open and close at will. He could seal them to lock his body’s essence-qi inside, preventing it from leaking, or open them to exchange breath with the outside world.

Underwater, opening his pores could even form a second layer of Inner Breath at the skin level, greatly extending the time he could hold his breath.

Iron Lung, Lung Strength, Blood Qi Inner Breath, and Skin Inner Breath.

Empowered by these four abilities, Chen Cheng could now stay underwater for two hours on a single breath.

Furthermore, as he continued to temper his lungs, this duration would only increase, allowing him to last even longer.

...

「Valley of Oblivion.」

Chen Cheng quickly sold all the Treasure Fish he had brought.

Two Tier Two fish and six Tier One fish sold for a total of fifteen thousand taels of silver.

He then took a stroll through the stall area and soon spotted the same stall from last time, the one specializing in medicinal aids for cultivation.

The stall owner was the same as before—an old man with his face wrapped in gray cloth.

Seeing Chen Cheng approach, the old man seemed to recognize his white robe and the white cloth wrapped around his face. He smiled and took the initiative to ask,

"Sir, were you satisfied with the elixirs from last time?"

"They were good."

Chen Cheng stepped closer, altered his voice, and asked,

"Do you have any Cloud Thunder Blood Coagulation Pills today?"

"I only have four."

The old man picked up a small vial, handed it over, and said,

"You’re a straightforward man, sir. You can have them all for the same price as last time—four thousand taels apiece."

"Agreed."

Chen Cheng took the vial, opened it, and sniffed carefully to verify its contents.

Confident there were no issues, he took out the Silver Notes and paid the sixteen thousand taels for the elixirs.

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