My Cultivation Techniques Upgrade Automatically

Chapter 25: Chapter 25: Absolutely Can’t Leave This Place

Having received the pill, Wu Chen didn’t give it much thought.

After swallowing the pill and seeing no change on his panel, he quietly settled into a corner to look through the Martial Arts manual he had just been issued.

To avoid arousing suspicion, he hadn’t deliberately arranged for Liu Linshan and the others to take different Martial Arts manuals.

But as luck would have it, Liu Linshan and his group had all taken different Martial Arts Manuals anyway.

Wu Chen was just about to trade with them to read all the manuals in turn, aiming to further solidify his Qi Power.

Just then, he saw one of the refugees walk up to the Guard distributing the Qi Blood Pills and, bowing obsequiously, say:

”Sir, everyone else received a Qi Blood Pill, but...”

”Oh, I almost forgot about you.”

The Guard nodded, glanced at the crowd of refugees, and announced, ”Who hasn’t received a Qi Blood Pill? Come over and stand together.”

Fifteen or sixteen people stood up from the crowd of refugees. They were the ones who hadn’t received a Qi Blood Pill. Confused but not daring to question the situation, they had remained silent.

Hearing the call now, having coveted the pill for some time, they eagerly rushed over and stood before the Guard, waiting for it to be distributed.

SHINK! SHINK! SHINK!

The sound of sharp blades tearing through flesh suddenly rang out across the training grounds. Accompanied by several flashes of steel, hot blood sprayed from the necks of the dozen or so refugees waiting for their pills.

They collapsed, twitched for a while, and then went still.

The two hundred-odd refugees on the training grounds were stunned, unable to comprehend the situation. Why had the normally taciturn Guards suddenly started killing?

Wu Chen was also stunned, not understanding why the Guards had suddenly struck.

He glanced at the bodies scattered across the ground and noticed that the young man who had tried to push him around during the last Qi and Blood test, seeing him as low-level, was among them.

The stench of blood filled the training grounds, hanging heavy in the air.

Before anyone could react, the Guard flicked the blood from his saber, sheathed it, and announced loudly:

”These men were deceitful and lazy, slacking off during their training and runs, yet they still wanted a Qi Blood Pill? Utterly delusional!”

”If any of you slack off, this will be your end!”

Looking at the ground stained red and the still-twitching corpses.

Everyone shrank back, only now recalling that over the last ten or twenty days, these men had discovered that the Guards didn’t seem to care if they slacked off. They had started walking when they were supposed to run and grew lazy in their martial arts practice.

They never thought that today, they would be cut down on the spot by the Guards, without even a chance to beg for mercy.

Among those killed was someone at the Eighth Layer of the Body Tempering Realm.

The Guards had cut him down all the same, without a trace of hesitation.

Awed by this sudden, brutal display, the crowd not only felt no resentment but developed an even deeper, reverent fear of the power behind the Zhuangzi.

The bodies on the training grounds were quickly cleared away, leaving only a dark red stain on the ground.

Liu Linshan and the others smelled the faint, lingering scent of blood in the air, a hint of relief in their eyes.

They had originally planned to do the same as those men, thinking it was fine to slack off a little since no one seemed to care anyway.

Fortunately, Wu Chen had put a stop to it; otherwise, they feared they would have suffered the same fate.

They couldn’t help but cast a grateful look at Wu Chen. He had, in a way, saved their lives.

Next was mealtime.

Two carts of fragrant food were pushed onto the training grounds. Wu Chen took his meal and went to a corner.

He didn’t stay idle during this roughly hour-long meal break.

In the corner, he swapped and read through the Martial Arts manuals from Liu Linshan’s group, one by one.

Five Martial Arts manuals translated to an increase of four hundred pounds of Qi Power.

This explosive increase in physical constitution and Qi Power didn’t require any conscious effort to control his strength; it was something that became ingrained in his very bones.

Therefore, after finishing the upgrades from the five Martial Arts manuals, Wu Chen didn’t experience the embarrassing scene of accidentally crushing his rice bowl.

’Including the last boost, I should have about eighteen hundred pounds of strength now, right?’

The panel didn’t display the number, so Wu Chen wasn’t sure what his exact Qi Power was.

Even now, he didn’t feel invincible just because his physique had improved.

If before he might have thought that being a hundred pounds stronger than an opponent of the same realm would give him a decisive advantage...

...but after staying at the Zhuangzi for so long, seeing more than two hundred people supplied daily with good food, medicinal soups, and pills...

...it was hard to imagine what kind of power was behind the Zhuangzi. How could the Martial Artists trained by such an entity possibly lack methods to compensate for a gap in Qi Power?

Faced with such immense wealth, Wu Chen started to doubt his own talent.

Soon, the rest period was over.

All the refugees quickly got to their feet and assembled, not daring to remain on the ground a moment longer, terrified a blade might fall on their own heads.

They spread out in the open area, standing in ramrod-straight lines with their bodies tensed.

The martial arts instructor walked slowly in from outside the training grounds, stepped onto the central high platform, and began demonstrating fist and foot techniques without a single wasted word.

He demonstrated the fist and foot techniques from the manuals for Wu Chen’s group of new refugees.

This time, no one dared to slack off. Regardless of whether their moves were accurate, everyone put in extraordinary effort.

For a moment, the training grounds were filled with the sound of fists whistling through the air, a truly bustling sight.

...

”Not bad, not bad. Full of spirit!”

More than ten days passed in the blink of an eye. In the final round of Qi and Blood testing, a seventh person among the refugees reached the Initial Realm of the Flesh Refining Realm.

Not only that, but the other refugees’ realms had all improved as well; even those at the third layer of the Body Tempering Realm had advanced to the fourth layer.

”You see? As long as you spend the money, you can raise anyone’s level, no matter how poor their aptitude!”

Qian Fugui was very satisfied. His figure made a rare appearance on the training grounds.

His face was wreathed in smiles as always. Looking at the tremendous changes in the crowd, he felt the sect’s pills had not gone to waste.

By now, the refugees had undergone an earth-shattering transformation compared to when they first arrived.

Their faces were ruddy, their Qi and Blood were abundant, and their bodies had grown a full size larger. Some had even become bloated.

Every day, they consumed one waste pill and medicinal broth. Under the stimulation of these external substances, their flesh and blood had been forcefully nurtured to the point that every pore seemed to emanate the fragrant aroma of Qi and Blood.

This was exactly what this medicine-growing Zhuangzi needed.

They used waste pills and herbal dregs to cultivate a batch of top-grade ”great medicine” to supply the sect’s disciples.

Qian Fugui knew his mission was already more than halfway complete.

All that was left was to have these people enter the mountains, let the sect’s disciples come for their trial—to harvest them—and his task would be considered completely finished.

Seeing Qian Fugui appear, the two hundred-odd refugees on the training grounds stood ramrod straight.

Although Qian Fugui looked completely harmless, everyone knew in their hearts that this was an absolutely ruthless character.

The crowd watched Qian Fugui fearfully, but he spoke in a gentle tone:

”There’s no need to be so tense, everyone. The training grounds may have been a bit harsh on you lately, but it was for your own good.”

His words made the refugees on site think of the dozen or so people who were killed for slacking off.

But that was the only time there had been any killings in the Zhuangzi; they hadn’t seen the Guards draw their blades on anyone since.

Perhaps it really was as Qian Fugui said—it was all to make them train, all for their own good.

Besides, the Zhuangzi provided food, drink, and pills. The refugees had become familiar with each other, and everyone was friendly.

They couldn’t find anything wrong with the place; in fact, they felt they couldn’t bear to leave it.

But everyone knew that Qian Fugui’s sudden appearance on the training grounds wasn’t just to make small talk.

And just as they expected, he continued:

”You have all been at the estate for over a month now. I trust your strength has mostly recovered.”

”So, shouldn’t we get down to business?”

At these words, the refugees’ spirits jolted. They knew their days of free meals were over.

It was time for them to earn their keep.

However, this actually made them breathe a sigh of relief. Otherwise, living like pigs being fattened for slaughter had truly left them on edge.