Chapter 88: The Beginning of the Investigation

As for Chen Meng, after learning what had happened to Jiang Lan, a trace of worry flickered in his eyes.

That woman was certainly no easy opponent. Otherwise, how could she have been so badly wounded last time and still chased him and Rat Baby all the way to Great Azure Mountain?

It was a pity he had not killed her then.

But now he had advanced into a divine-body lifeform as well, and Jiang Lan had only advanced slightly earlier than he had. If they truly came to blows, he did not believe for a moment that Jiang Lan could kill him.

Still, as he had just said, one person’s strength was limited. Who could guarantee that Jiang Lan would not call for help?

Jiang Lan was now heavily valued by the New Moon Church and had even become the direct disciple of a new guardian elder. Though it was probably just the new guardian elder’s way of winning hearts, Jiang Lan could still use that identity to do many things.

“I still need to hurry and improve myself, and then, during the college entrance examination, I’ll make a stunning entrance and become the top scorer in the province or the city. That way, it won’t just be money—I’ll definitely become famous by then, and the government could never sit back and watch a top scorer come to harm.”

He was making plans, and this was only one of them.

Actually, he felt that it would be best if he had an insider within the New Moon Church. That way, if the church ever made any move against him, he would know in advance.

But that was still far too distant for him. Right now, he was nothing more than a newcomer just beginning his path of divine-body cultivation.

...

Afterward, he first went to a shop near the neighborhood and bought a new backpack.

After all, this was not the Primordial Wilds. Firearms could not simply be taken out at will, so it was better to hide them in a backpack.

Once he finished those errands, Chen Meng acted as though nothing had happened and headed toward the Hong Clan Ancient Martial Arts Hall. Along the way, he saw many students on their way to school, yet those people already seemed to belong to a different world from his own.

Standing at the entrance of the martial hall, Chen Meng looked toward the school side and could still see the national flag in the school playground. But unless something came up, he certainly would not be going back to school again.

The old man was not there today either. Chen Meng used the key to open the door, and the inside was still just as it had been when he left. Apparently, no one had come since then.

After thinking it over, he also took out the extreme yoga booklet he had printed out. But before he had even flipped through a few pages, he heard footsteps outside the door.

He looked up and saw that Yan Ruoxi had arrived.

“Senior Sister.”

Chen Meng smiled slightly, then looked at the somewhat dazed Yan Ruoxi and said helplessly, “No need to look around. It’s right here. The old man doesn’t take care of anything, and the martial hall is basically dead now. Apart from me and a senior from Jiangzhou University, hardly anyone ever comes here.”

Only then did Yan Ruoxi understand what Chen Meng had meant. No wonder he had said they could do anything here without being disturbed.

“The old man is the hall master you mentioned?” Yan Ruoxi walked in. “He’s not here either?”

“He comes by sometimes to bask in the sun, but never mind him. That shameless old fellow only knows how to talk people into things, and his drinking manners are terrible too. Last time I went to him for help, he didn’t even bother to help me. He was truly ruthless.” Chen Meng complained for a while, then said, “Come, Senior Sister, take a look at the extreme yoga booklet I organized. This is my plan: for every movement in here, we train each one for ten minutes, then judge from our own feelings whether the movement is useful. We pick out the useful ones, and in the end combine all the useful movements into a coherent set of extreme yoga exercises. Then, by repeatedly practicing that set, we’ll see whether it can help us digest the medicine more quickly.”

“Pick out useful movements based on feeling?” Yan Ruoxi felt that sounded rather unreliable.

“Yes.” Chen Meng said solemnly. Of course he would not tell Yan Ruoxi that he actually had a system, one that could show him the medicine digestion progress at any time, and even to three decimal places. In other words, even a 0.001 percent increase in digestion progress could be detected by him.

“All right then, I’ll listen to you.” Looking at Chen Meng, and seeing how confident he was, Yan Ruoxi also felt like giving it a try.

Chen Meng nodded, but first checked his current stats.

Knowledge points: 483

Pages turned: University runes (0/1998), Primordial speech (10/698, 68 percent)

Analysis progress: Ghost-Step Lotus (8.069 percent)

Digestion progress: Pale Potion (19.909 percent)

It seemed that after so long, only his mastery of Ghost-Step Lotus and Primordial speech had improved a little.

Even the battle with Huang Xiaomao yesterday had not caused his medicine digestion progress to rise. Still, that made sense. When facing Huang Xiaomao, he had not brought him to the edge of life and death at all. How could that possibly improve digestion progress?

Yan Ruoxi was flipping through the extreme yoga booklet Chen Meng had organized. After a quick calculation, she said, “There are a total of one hundred and twenty-nine movements. Ten minutes per movement means we can only practice six in an hour. If we practice eight hours a day, it will still take almost three days to try them all.”

Three days?

Chen Meng made some calculations. If he squeezed himself to the limit, perhaps he could shorten it to two days, but there was no need. He had also read the learning notes in the yoga materials, and excessive practice would damage the body.

Eight hours a day was already a full load.

“If we can really come up with a set like this, it will definitely help us digest the medicine later too. It’s the kind of thing that pays off forever. Three days isn’t that long.” Chen Meng said, “Since that’s the case, let’s begin right away.”

However, Chen Meng glanced at the floor and then said after some thought, “Senior Sister, wait for me a moment.”

He hurried out, and about ten minutes later, came back carrying two yoga mats.

It was one thing for him to make do, to get a little dirty, but Yan Ruoxi was here too, and he felt girls should probably care more about such things.

“Thank you.”

Yan Ruoxi hesitated for a moment before expressing her gratitude.

Chen Meng smiled, and then the two of them began practicing the first movement. It was a twisted inverted pose, and it could be broken down into three smaller movements.

He followed the booklet and began to practice, but after holding the pose for only a minute, before he had even fully opened his body, he already felt an ache spreading through him.

He was startled. Could this already be working? But it did not seem as though his digestion progress had increased.

Yan Ruoxi also began practicing the movement, and her condition seemed much better than Chen Meng’s.

Five minutes later, Yan Ruoxi said thoughtfully, “Junior Brother, this doesn’t seem to bring us anywhere near our physical limit. I think we should increase the difficulty.”

When Chen Meng heard that, he turned to look at Yan Ruoxi. Seeing her alluring inverted posture, he was instantly stunned. Then, before he could keep his balance in the handstand, he toppled sideways.

He suddenly realized that letting Yan Ruoxi join his research was absolutely a mistake. Who could watch a great beauty practicing such an alluring pose right in front of him and remain completely unmoved?