Eternal Life: Talent Grows with Age-Chapter 77: Beyond True Qi

The Flood Stake has officially reached Minor Achievement.

Lu Chang’sheng gave his spear a quick shake, thrusting it straight into the ground. Then he walked over to a row of stone locks for training, tried them out, and finally confirmed his current strength.

"My limit is about lifting stone locks weighing over two hundred jin!"

The upper limit of pile skill isn’t too high. I wonder how Martial Artists in the True Qi Realm compare?

After training for a while, Lu Chang’sheng turned and walked to the corridor where Li Nangua was warming by the fire.

They sat for a bit. Lu Chang’sheng saw there was still plenty of daylight left, so he got up and headed to Jixia Academy.

Unlike the Academy Library, nearly every day someone would come to the Martial Artist Institute to practice martial arts.

The training rooms at the Martial Artist Institute were excellent, so whenever Lu Chang’sheng had time, he’d still come here, and pick up a free bowl of medicinal soup while he was at it.

But this time, something unexpected happened.

"Scholar Lu, about the medicinal soup—it looks like we can’t provide it for now!" Guan Fu said apologetically.

"Why’s that?" Lu Chang’sheng frowned.

Nine years in, with four still to go—by rights, he should still be getting that daily serving of medicinal soup.

"It’s an order from the Dean. Apparently, it’s related to the wars in the various prefectures!"

Lu Chang’sheng’s heart stirred. He wanted to ask more, but Guan Fu didn’t really know the details.

He spent years in the Martial Artist Institute, seldom ventured out, and only got news from rumors. The specifics were out of his reach.

"My medicinal soup is key to my pile skills reaching mastery in nine years—I can’t afford to cut corners here!"

"Good thing I’ve gathered some of the required herbs from the medical hall. Worst case, I can blend the soup myself!"

"Still, it’d be best to get to the bottom of this!"

Lu Chang’sheng was always careful to prepare for the worst. So, after he achieved Medical Mastery, he reverse-engineered the medicinal recipes for the Flood Stake and other pile skills, and had Wu Ji Yong procure a stock of herbs for him.

Then he recorded them in the Anshi Book.

Reviewing the old and learning the new—on idle days, reading the Anshi Book could always yield a little insight.

He hadn’t expected that it would really come in handy someday.

After another round of training, just as he was about to leave, he saw Zhou Yu approach with a few young nobles.

"Chang’sheng!"

"Scholar Lu!"

······

"Pleasure to see you all," Lu Chang’sheng said with a cupped-fist salute, then looked to Zhou Yu for an explanation.

Zhou Yu said, "At the end of the year, a few of us are heading off to Red Water County. We probably won’t be back for a while. Since we’re friends, why don’t you send me off at Juxiang Building?"

"Zhou, you’ve achieved mastery in the pile skill?" Lu Chang’sheng asked in surprise.

He remembered Zhou Yu saying that he’d only go seek a name for himself once his pile skills reached mastery.

"Not that fast. Still at minor achievement. This time, I just want to see if I can break through on the battlefield!"

"You’d best be careful, Zhou."

Lu Chang’sheng added.

In recent years, he’d often sparred, shortening his pile skill practice, but risking his life like that day outside Zhao Family Village—that wasn’t happening again.

A general who fights a hundred battles seldom survives. Even if you live through it, you’re covered in wounds; a moment’s bad luck and you’re dead before your time.

"All for the sake of mastering True Qi Martial Arts!"

A nearby noble sighed.

"You all have rank and status. Don’t your families have True Qi Martial Arts?"

Lu Chang’sheng looked at them, surprised.

Among these nobles, a couple came from very well-off families—several relatives with official status. In Black Mountain Prefecture, they were absolutely not weak.

By rights, there’s no way their households wouldn’t have True Qi Martial Arts.

"It’s not that we don’t. But all we have are ordinary True Qi Martial Arts. Unless there’s no other choice, it’s best not to train them."

"Scholar Lu, you might not know—True Qi Martial Arts aren’t what we value most. Our noble families pretty much all have some, but breaking through to the Innate Realm is nearly impossible with them. Only at Jixia Academy do we stand a chance!"

"That’s why, as nobles, we go to such lengths to get into the Martial Artist Institute, offering them so much just to study here."

"The nine-year assessment is the gateway. If we can’t pass it, our chance to reach Innate is gone—forever!"

"Innate?" Lu Chang’sheng looked at them, confused.

"It’s normal you haven’t heard of that realm, Chang’sheng. After True Qi Realm is Innate Realm. Too difficult to reach, really. Even we only heard a bit from our families before entering the academy."

"Please, Zhou, enlighten me!" Lu Chang’sheng said hurriedly. 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

Zhou Yu gave a bitter smile, longing in his eyes: "True Qi Realm is where true qi forms in the body, your power skyrockets—you can take on a hundred men in battle, some say a thousand. But Innate—they say your qi merges with heaven and earth, your strength is limitless, you move as fast as thunder, your eyes like flashes of lightning!"

"Among us nobles, we call Innate a one-in-ten-thousand warrior! In our nation’s military law, it’s said: ’Those who reach Innate serve as generals on their own, and never bow in the Golden Hall!’"

Lu Chang’sheng felt his heart tremble slightly.

This means—’Those who achieve Innate immediately gain official status at General Level, rank two, and may face the emperor without kneeling!’"

Truly an instant rise to the top!

No wonder these nobles are so passionate about martial practice.

Lu Chang’sheng had a sudden thought and asked, "Do any of you know how long someone in the Innate Realm lives?"

"That’s a mystery. But in our Great Yuan’s history, there was an Innate master who lived past a hundred! Of course, lifespans vary, there’ve been regular folks living almost that long, so no one is sure if it’s because of reaching Innate."

Even so, Lu Chang’sheng’s heart was pounding.

"Maybe Immortals exist—who can say—but even if not, Innate is a goal worth striving for!"

Suddenly, he cared much more about the nine-year assessment.

Last time, he didn’t even show up for it.

He wasn’t an official student at the Martial Artist Institute anyway, so neither the instructors nor the Dean bothered with him; in fact, they were happy to see it.

In those first three years, the professors at the academy were always hoping Lu Chang’sheng would come discuss the classics and literature with them.

Not taking the assessment proved he wasn’t focused on martial arts!

All the better!

Yet, the next day, seeing Lu Chang’sheng training long hours in the practice field, plenty of professors were fuming.

Later, when the Advanced Scholar Examination came up—every three years—Lu Chang’sheng hesitated on whether to go for it again.

With his knowledge now, he couldn’t be sure about coming in top three, but a spot in the top ten or so was easy for him.

But before the exam even started, some people wanted to use the examination slots to force him to pick a side.

Times had changed—after lessons learned from the past, both sides were extra careful with the candidate lists. Even if Lu Chang’sheng tried his old tricks, he couldn’t disrupt the rules anymore, so he just played it safe, wrote some mediocre essays, and failed naturally.

The matter stirred up some debate across various prefectures, and Lu Chang’sheng’s reputation took a hit.

Which was fine with him—he devoted himself all the more to practicing martial arts.

The group headed to Juxiang Building for a small gathering. While the mood was good, Lu Chang’sheng quietly asked about the Martial Artist Institute’s medicinal soup allotment in the alchemy room. To his surprise, Zhou Yu’s expression froze for a second, then, after thinking it over, he said, "Lu, maybe it’s time for you to make a change."

Lu Chang’sheng’s expression shifted slightly.