I bear witness to immortality in the human world.

Chapter 28 Medicinal Tea
"The techniques and skills reside in the mind and must be integrated and mastered."

After receiving guidance from Hong Jiu, Wu Ming gained a great deal of understanding of the Falling Leaf Spear Technique. Even in his dreams, he kept recalling the scene of Hong Jiu performing the spear technique.

How delicate the falling leaves are!

How swift was the bayonet?

Logically speaking, the force generated by the thrusting of a spear should be enough to easily sweep away fallen leaves, but Hong Jiu's spear can pierce and even penetrate the swaying leaves. This power is even more astonishing than a spear piercing through a bluestone paving stone.

It contains both fierce strength and absolute softness, achieving a perfect balance of strength and gentleness. This level of skill is undoubtedly a state of unity, far surpassing the level of freehand fighting and penetrating techniques.

Given Wu Ming's understanding of the art, it would be unrealistic to expect him to directly comprehend the interplay of strength and softness and achieve a unity of them. Therefore, he focused on comprehending the specific moves that Hong Jiu had demonstrated, including the variations and angles of each move, as well as the connections between them.

Over the next few days, he went through the manual on the Falling Leaf Spear Technique again, memorizing all the moves and imprinting every detail in his mind. He then compared the fixed diagrams with the dynamic moves performed by Hong Jiu.

With a solid foundation in the shaking spear technique, it is not difficult to break down and master each of these moves. The challenge lies in how to connect the moves together and how to apply them flexibly in actual combat to achieve a true level of mastery.

The former requires practice, while the latter, in addition to practice, also requires a certain degree of understanding.

Wu Ming was calm and composed, and not overly ambitious. He always started from the basics. After memorizing everything, he began to practice the most basic moves. After about seven or eight days, he had mastered all sixteen moves of the Falling Leaf Spear Technique.

"Merely mastering the moves doesn't constitute true mastery..."

Inside the martial arts academy.

Wu Ming stood in a corner, holding a long spear, his eyes deep in thought as he slowly comprehended the spear technique.

Unlike the number of times blood coagulation occurs, there is no clear dividing line between the two skill levels. The difference between these two skill levels is more like a smooth curve, with the entire improvement process being a steady ascent.

For example, a Sanshou practitioner who has just learned to generate power will find it difficult to defeat a master Sanshou practitioner even if three of them work together. However, if a Sanshou practitioner has mastered the basic moves and has a certain level of practical combat skills, then even if two of them work together, a master Sanshou practitioner will not have an easy time dealing with them.

While Wu Ming was carefully studying the spear technique...

suddenly,

came a familiar voice.

"Wu Ming".

Chen Gui walked over from a distance, smiled, patted Wu Ming on the shoulder, and said, "Come on, come on, I'll show you some good stuff!"

In the past seven or eight days, Wu Ming hadn't run into Chen Gui many times. He heard that Chen Gui had some family matters to attend to. When he saw Chen Gui now, he didn't ask what he had been busy with these past few days. He just asked with a bit of curiosity, "What good stuff?"

"You'll find out when you come."

Chen Gui half-dragged, half-brought Wu Ming out of the martial arts academy and brought him to a relatively spacious and quiet courtyard behind the Seven Martial Alliance. There were some houses there, and a pavilion was built in front of each house.

Chen Gui led Wu Ming to the pavilion.

Inside the pavilion was a stone platform with a teacup on it. Chen Gui chuckled as he picked up the teacup and poured two cups of water. The water was a light red color, as if it were stained with blood, but it had a faint, refreshing fragrance.

"This is blood grass tea, a specialty of my family. Why don't you try it?" Chen Gui looked at Wu Ming with a smile, and then picked up the teacup and took a sip.

This was the inner courtyard of the Seven Martial Alliance. Wu Ming didn't suspect anything. He picked up his teacup and took a small sip. Then his gaze froze for a moment. He felt a warm current flow down his throat and quickly spread, making his whole body feel warm.

In a faint sense, Wu Ming felt that the blood and qi in his body had been stimulated and become slightly more active.

nice one!
Wu Ming had a general understanding of the effects of the blood herb tea. His eyes lit up slightly, and he drank the tea in the cup in one gulp. Soon, the warm current filled his limbs and bones, and his blood and qi became active, as if he had been practicing hard for half a day.

"How about it?!"

Chen Gui winked at Wu Ming.

Wu Ming nodded and said, "It seems to have the effect of nourishing qi and blood."

"Ha ha ha ha."

Chen Gui laughed heartily and said, "This is a new medicinal tea that my family has cultivated. It will be sold in the city in the next few days. The price is not expensive. One tael of medicinal tea only costs ten taels of silver. You only need to take 'half a qian' of it to make tea every day, and it will have the effect of nourishing qi and blood. Compared with those strong tonic prescriptions, the effect is not as good, but the medicinal properties are much milder."

At this point, Chen Gui looked at Wu Ming and said, "Brother Wu, as long as you come to help me, the conditions I offered you before will remain the same, and I will also give you one tael of 'Blood Grass Tea' every month. What do you think?"

Hearing Chen Gui's words, Wu Ming was somewhat surprised.

According to Chen Gui, this blood grass tea is worth ten taels of silver per ounce. However, this is the price that the Chen family sells it to. The actual cost is definitely much lower, but there is no doubt that its value is obvious to the naked eye.

He only tasted one cup and was able to experience the effect of this blood herb tea in invigorating his blood and qi. With the aid of this blood herb tea, his daily cultivation and refinement of blood and qi would probably be equivalent to a day and a half of the previous accumulation, which can be said to be quite remarkable.

Wu Ming was indeed tempted.

Compared to his rapid progress in skill, his progress in nourishing his blood and qi is not exactly steady, but it is very slow. It would take at least a year to accumulate enough blood and qi to support the second coagulation.

If this blood herb tea were available, it would undoubtedly greatly improve his efficiency in accumulating blood energy.

Seeing that Wu Ming was clearly interested, Chen Gui added another offer, saying, "If Brother Wu thinks this offer is acceptable, we can go to the main hall of the Seven Martial Alliance to sign the contract. The Seven Martial Alliance's cut can be paid from my side."

The Seven Martial Alliance is the biggest customer of the Chen family's medicinal herb business. The Chen family naturally hires people through legitimate channels within the Seven Martial Alliance. However, while the martial artists from the outer hall of the Seven Martial Alliance can get jobs through the Seven Martial Alliance and receive its protection, they have to pay 20% of the silver as the Seven Martial Alliance's commission. Chen Gui pays him 10 taels of silver a month, and the Seven Martial Alliance takes 2 taels as commission.

Now that Chen Gui says the commission can be paid from his side, it's equivalent to an additional two taels of silver in salary.

"Brother Chen is so kind, it would be impolite of me to refuse again."

After a moment's thought, Wu Ming finally made his decision and agreed.

He was already quite familiar with Chen Gui and knew something about the Chen family's pharmacy business. It was a legitimate business within the Seven Martial Alliance. In fact, the price Chen Gui offered was extremely high for a martial artist who had just achieved one blood clotting skill, and it was even close to the price that some martial artists who had achieved two blood clotting skills would accept.

In other words, he had previously received a meeting and guidance from Hong Jiu, and the news spread quickly within the Seven Martial Alliance Martial Academy, which immediately increased his value. In addition, Chen Jiaxin's new 'medicinal tea' business was probably really short of manpower. All these factors combined led Chen Gui to offer him such a treatment.

(End of this chapter)