Seeing Zhang Yuan's embarrassment, Jia Zheng, acting like an experienced person, continued to tease, "The opportunity has come, you have to seize it! Don't take your good fortune for granted. If you can get on the good side of President Wang, I don't think you'll ever need to work hard again!"
After teasing Zhang Yuan a few times, Jia Zheng was in a better mood. He asked Zhang Yuan if he wanted to go back to school and offered to take him. Zhang Yuan was preoccupied with refining the Meridian Opening Pill. Now that he had finally raised the money, he naturally went to Jiuzhuo Hall to buy Dendrobium officinale to refine the pill.
"No need. Do you remember that Jiuzhuotang Pharmacy from last time? I need to go there to buy some medicinal herbs."
Zhang Yuan said with a smile.
"Buying medicinal herbs again? Didn't you just buy some a few days ago?"
Jia Zheng was puzzled.
"Yes, let's buy something else today."
Zhang Yuandao.
Jia Zheng looked at Zhang Yuan for a while, seemingly lost in thought: You didn't spend all the money you earned on medicinal herbs, did you?
Zhang Yuan nodded awkwardly.
"almost."
Jia Zheng gasped, muttering to himself, "What a spendthrift!"
"Alright, I'll take you there."
*
*
Jiuzhuotang Pharmacy.
The shop was open, but it was deserted and there wasn't a single person inside.
"Is anyone there?"
Zhang Yuan called out softly twice, but no one answered.
He sat on the chair in the pharmacy for several minutes, but no one came out of the shop.
Jiuzhuotang Pharmacy is a two-room shop connected by a corridor. Zhang Yuan was bored, so he went to the back room to see if the shop owner was there.
The second room is a warehouse for storing medicinal herbs. There are many herbs piled up here, and there is a back door on the north wall of the warehouse.
At this moment, the back door is open, allowing sunlight and a gentle breeze to enter.
Out of curiosity, Zhang Yuan stuck his head out and peered through the back door.
I saw a wall with a short passageway in the middle, which turned at the end and led to another place.
At that moment, faint sounds of movement could be heard coming from the other side of the corridor wall.
Zhang Yuan walked a few steps along the corridor and saw that there was a hidden world behind the white wall of the corridor, a small courtyard!
The small courtyard was surrounded by bamboo and other plants. In the middle of the courtyard, Zeng Xianli, the owner of Jiuzhuotang Pharmacy, was practicing the Twelve Forms of Tai Chi with his back to Zhang Yuan.
"What superb skills!"
This skill set must have been practiced for a long time.
Zhang Yuan admired it in his heart.
After standing at the corner of the passageway for a while, Zeng Xianli, who was practicing martial arts in the courtyard, finally noticed the person who came in around the corner and stopped practicing.
"Excuse me, I'm sorry to have disturbed your practice!"
"I'm here to buy medicinal herbs."
Zhang Yuan explained his purpose and awkwardly touched his nose.
After all, the backyard is someone's private space.
Zeng Xianli didn't care. Why would he care when customers came to do business with him?
He politely replied, "I was practicing my martial arts. I'm sorry to have kept you waiting."
The two then returned together to the pharmacy in front.
Zeng Xianli weighed the 20-year-old wild dendrobium and the century-old kudzu root he had acquired and carefully packaged them.
Zhang Yuan counted out 2,000 of the 50,000 yuan in cash he had just earned that morning, and used the rest to pay the bill.
My heart is bleeding!
50,000 yuan is gone just like that!
50,000 yuan is a huge sum of money for a college student. With this amount of money, they can live comfortably for four years of college and have enough to date several girlfriends!
What a pity!
The money hadn't even been properly held before it was gone again.
Zhang Yuan himself felt that he was a big spender.
After buying the dendrobium, Zhang Yuan and Zeng Xian said goodbye and took a taxi back to school.
*
*
It was already afternoon when we returned to the small courtyard under the banyan tree.
Zhang Yuan stood on the third-floor balcony, eating bread he had bought at the school supermarket on his way there, and looked out at the student street not far away. Because the school had not officially started yet, the street was much quieter.
After hastily eating a few slices of toast, Zhang Yuan performed the Vajra Longevity Exercise to clear his body's Qi and blood, and then prepared to refine the Meridian Opening Pill.
He first reviewed the method for refining the Meridian Opening Pill from his alchemy notes.
Then, he arranged the 400-year-old ginseng and 20-year-old dendrobium, which he had obtained at great personal risk in the Daxing Mountains, in the basket and prepared them.
Under the control of his mind, the bronze alchemy furnace flew out of the Qiankun bag, growing larger and larger until it stood steadily in the center of the room floor, more than a meter tall.
Zhang Yuan channeled his internal energy into the alchemy furnace, and the red flames inside immediately blazed fiercely.
Following the method for refining the Meridian Opening Pill, Zhang Yuan first took about 20 grams each of wild kudzu root and dendrobium and put them into the furnace. Then he manipulated the fire control technique to adjust the temperature and size of the flame.
...
Time flew by and it was already evening.
Outside the window, the sunset on the horizon painted half the sky red.
According to the refining method, the first stage is almost finished. Then it needs to be left for a day to wait for the furnace fire to go out and the temperature inside the furnace to drop before starting the second round of refining.
After an afternoon of refining, Zhang Yuan's internal energy was greatly depleted, and his soul also felt a little tired.
The refining of the Meridian Opening Pill not only requires rare raw materials, but also places high demands on the alchemist.
Zhang Yuan can refine not all pills now.
At the early stage of Zhang Yuan's Meridian Opening Realm, the temperature and grade of the flames that his true qi could generate could only reach the level of primary earth fire, and the Meridian Opening Pill was the limit that primary earth fire could be refined.
To refine higher-level pills, in addition to obtaining medicinal materials, it is also necessary to improve one's cultivation level and the grade of the flame.
These basic principles of alchemy are all recorded in alchemy notes.
Zhang Yuan sat cross-legged and entered a meditative state. He rapidly absorbed the spiritual energy circulating between heaven and earth through acupoints such as Baihui on the top of his head and Guanyuan on his abdomen to replenish the true energy consumed in refining the Meridian Opening Pill.
...
After a day of rest, the second round of elimination matches for the 3rd Tongcheng City Wushu Competition finally began.
It's still at the Tongcheng City Gymnasium.
The day before the competition, the organizing committee had already arranged the specific match-ups for the second round and published them on the official website of the Tongcheng Wushu Association.
The eight finalists were divided into four groups for an elimination round, and the four winners advanced to the finals of this martial arts competition.
The semi-finals will officially begin at 9:00 AM.
Zhang Yuan's first opponent was a contestant who won third place in the previous Tongcheng City Martial Arts Competition. He was quite strong. According to the identity announced by the competition organizers, this person was named Wang Chi. He was a lay disciple of Shaolin Temple, but later returned to secular life. He opened a martial arts school in Tongcheng City, where he recruited many disciples and became quite famous.
On the other side, Li Hu also made it into the top 8, but he wasn't very lucky.
The opponent in the second round is Niu Er, who is recognized as the strongest contestant in this Tongcheng City Martial Arts Competition.
Li Hu's spirits had already died before the fight even began.
There's no hope of winning the prize money for the top four; we can only get an encouragement award.
Zhang Yuan fought Wang Chi with great ease.
Although Wang Chi was a lay disciple of Shaolin and the third-place winner of the previous Tongcheng City Martial Arts Competition, possessing a highly refined external martial arts style, he was simply unlucky to encounter Zhang Yuan.
Cultivators absorb the essence of heaven and earth daily through cultivation, nourishing their bodies and souls, making their physical qualities far superior to those of ordinary people.
Ordinary martial arts masters and combat masters, at best, have a combat strength equivalent to that of a Foundation Establishment cultivator.
Therefore, Zhang Yuan finished the battle in no time and secured a spot in the top 4.
While Zhang Yuan finished his battle, Niu Er and Zeng Xianli also finished their battles and advanced to the next level. This shows the difference in strength between cultivators and ordinary martial arts masters.
Among his peers at Tongcheng University, President Li Hu was virtually invincible, except for Zhang Yuan. However, he couldn't even last a single round against Niu Er, who knocked him out.
Niu Er was still the first to win.
After the last group of matches concluded, the final four were determined: Niu Er, Zhang Yuan, Zeng Xianli, and Chen Dongsheng.
Next, the computer system randomly selected candidates, and the results came out one minute later.
Niu Er to Chen Dongsheng.
Zeng Xianli addressed Zhang Yuan.
The two winners from each group will compete for first and second place tomorrow, while the two losers will compete for third and fourth place.
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