From a country cook to a master chef

June.

A time that should be hot.

It is winter now, with heavy snow falling and the snow piled up, leaving everything in a deathly stillness.

After pushing the young leader of the Black Bamboo Gang out of the city and burying him in a pit, Lin Jue hurriedly returned to the tavern.

If Qin Kuai disappears for a day or two, the Black Bamboo Gang won't care. But if it goes on for too long, they will eventually send people to search for him. Qin Chi has been in the martial arts world for many years, so he must have some guesses.

Although it was unlikely that he would be the one to be caught, Lin Jue, adhering to the principle of being prepared, already had a meticulous plan and arrangements in mind.

If it were simply a matter of avenging Xiang Ping, killing Qin Kuai would suffice. However, since Qin Kuai is the young leader of the Black Bamboo Gang, if he were to be harmed now, and if Qinghe Tavern were to maintain peace in the future, he would have to find a way to eliminate the Black Bamboo Gang, this cancerous growth, from its root.

"Qin Chi is a martial artist at the peak of the Divine Power Realm, and he also has two Vajra Protectors under his command, all of whom are martial artists who have just entered the Divine Power Realm. Apart from these three, the rest of the Black Bamboo Gang members are not to be feared."

Snowflakes fall into my palm and slowly melt.

At night, Lin Jue stood under the plum tree in the courtyard, lost in thought.

"To deal with the Black Bamboo Gang, we mainly need to rely on some external forces. To catch the thief, we must first catch the king. As long as we take care of the gang's top leaders, the rest are just a rabble. We don't need to take action. At that time, they will definitely fight each other internally for the position of gang leader. They are not a threat."

"With my current strength, I wonder if I can control three Divine Power Realm warriors using the Spirit Control Seal?"

Looking at the snowflakes falling in his palm, Lin Jue fell into deep thought.

Although he can use the Spirit Gourd Water in conjunction with the Spirit Seal to control external objects, it is a huge burden on his soul every time.

Based on past experience, the controlled object cannot be more than a hundred feet away from him. Secondly, if the target is a martial artist above the level of martial master, or a qi refiner, there is a risk that the control of the spirit seal will fail.

Forcibly wielding the Spirit Seal, just like when dealing with the snake people in Wolf Smoke Valley, can cause either extreme fatigue or, in severe cases, leave damage to the soul, becoming a shackle on future advancement to higher realms.

"It's a pity that it's hard to find poisonous insects and beasts in Yucheng, otherwise I could have subdued them to be my helpers."

Lin Jue muttered to himself without showing any emotion. Suddenly, he did some calculations with his fingers, and his face lit up with joy.

It was the end of the month, which was exactly the time he and the hunter Liu Laohei had agreed to go hunting in the mountains.

Yucheng is surrounded by mountains on all sides. In the surrounding mountains, how could one not find poisonous insects and poisonous creatures?

As long as one can collect a large number of poisonous insects and creatures to protect oneself, and with a little trickery, dealing with the mere Black Bamboo Gang will be a piece of cake.

Who would have thought that Lin Jue had such methods?

At worst, he still had the mutated black snake in the spirit beast pouch at his waist. However, controlling this creature required using the few remaining strands of energy within his body, so Lin Jue would not use this trump card unless absolutely necessary.

Judging from the manual that Xiang Yuan left for Xiang Ping, internal energy is the mark of a martial arts master.

Once a person generates internal energy, they can be considered a martial artist.

As for how to distinguish the strength of martial arts masters, it is actually by looking at the amount of internal energy in their bodies.

Three strands of energy, each as thick as an index finger, constitute one segment. The human body can generate a maximum of three hundred strands of energy. Thirty segments represent a low-level martial artist, sixty segments represent a mid-level martial artist, and the highest level is one hundred segments.

Lin Jue currently only has two strands of internal energy, not even qualifying as a low-level martial artist.

"Tomorrow we'll go up the mountain to collect poisonous insects and creatures. Tonight, let's see if we can condense a new kind of internal energy."

After carefully putting away the handbook left by Xiang Yuan, Lin Jue quickly ran towards the kitchen.

Yuan Rou was making pickled vegetables when she saw Lin Jue approaching. She smiled knowingly and said, "Brother Lin, there's meat in the pot. I've already heated it up for you. My hands aren't clean, so please get a bowl for yourself."

"Um."

Seeing the girl constantly busy, and realizing she didn't even have a few sets of clothes to change into, Lin Jue took out a silver note from his pocket, placed it on the table, and softly instructed:

"If you have time, go to the tailor shop next door and have a few well-fitting cloaks made!"

"Ah, Brother Lin, Yuan Rou doesn't need it. Let's keep this money for emergencies. The tavern has just opened, and there will be many expenses."

Upon seeing this, Yuan Rou hurriedly waved her hands, causing bits of pickled vegetable sauce to splatter onto her face.

Lin Jue shook his head, a smile playing on his lips. "As the tavern's signboard, you'd better dress up nicely. That's settled then!"

After saying that, Lin Jue lifted the pot lid, grabbed the bear paw from the pot with his bare hands, squatted on the threshold, and devoured it.

After finishing the meat, Lin Jue lit a stick of incense and couldn't wait to go to the courtyard and stand in a golden rooster-on-one stance.

It's not advisable to engage in strenuous exercise after a meal; before he can formally begin practicing, he needs to let his stomach digest first.

After burning an incense stick, Lin Jue felt a burning sensation in the soles of his feet and began practicing the Songhe Changquan Eight Routes Seventy-Two Gates Stance Technique. He was completely focused and practiced it again and again. When he felt tired and weary, he would take a deep breath of the incense specially prepared for martial arts practitioners to refresh their minds.

However, the incense Lin Jue used was not as good as the calming incense that martial arts schools specially made for their disciples; it was a common, mass-produced product.

Unfortunately, the Mind-Concentrating Incense is priceless and unavailable; it's only found in martial arts schools, and even if you have money, you can't buy it.

A strong body of qi and blood is what makes a martial artist stronger than an ordinary person. Martial artists can use techniques to consume their qi and blood to condense their internal energy. The more internal energy they have, the stronger their physical fitness will be, and the higher their realm will be.

Unlike ordinary people, Lin Jue possesses a Spirit-Controlling Gourd and can consume Spirit-Controlling Gourd Water to generate internal energy with the help of the Spirit-Controlling Seal, but the efficiency is extremely low.

Only a gourd of spirit water can help him condense a wisp of energy.

To transform ordinary water into spirit-serving gourd water, a seven-day interval is required each time, and after the gourd is filled with water, it must be exposed to sunlight and moonlight for six hours each.

If Lin Jue wants to quickly condense his internal energy, he still has to rely on his own hard work or use Xiang Yuan's Qi and Blood Dispersing Formula.

As the saying goes, perseverance pays off. After practicing the Pine Crane Long Fist for an hour, a third wisp of energy was generated within his body.

Only then could he finally be considered a first-level martial arts master.

"To prepare the Qi and Blood Powder, we need ginseng, rehmannia root, angelica root, and other medicinal herbs. After the hunt tomorrow, I need to go to the medicine shop. There are still six days before I can prepare the Spirit Gourd Water. I need to prepare the Qi and Blood Powder as soon as possible to improve my strength."

Lin Jue let out a long sigh of relief. As his body absorbed the energy from the bear paw, he could clearly feel his blood and qi surging and becoming abundant. Unfortunately, after practicing the Pine Crane Long Fist for another hour, he did not generate a fourth strand of energy.

Just like the body's Qi and blood, once Qi is generated and consumed, the body can automatically regenerate it, but this requires the body to have abundant Qi and blood.

Once the body is depleted, the consumed qi and blood cannot be replenished in time. With insufficient qi and blood, the energy consumed in the body cannot be replenished.

With abundant blood and qi, the body's internal energy will naturally recover faster.

Lin Jue recalled his last trip to Wolf Smoke Valley, where he was terrified because of the disappearance of his internal energy. Now, thinking back on it, he felt more than just amused; he was filled with emotion.

If one practices martial arts without a master to guide them, it is very likely that they will go down a path of no return.

Geniuses who can create their own martial arts style without a teacher are, after all, a minority.

Lin Jue assumed a static stance, took a deep breath of the incense to refresh his mind, and immediately focused his consciousness into his sea of ​​consciousness, merging three strands of energy into the Spirit Control Seal.

As an ancient treasure left behind by ancient cultivators, the Spirit Summoning Seal requires the martial artist's internal energy to activate. He accidentally unlocked the Spirit Summoning Technique: Beast Taming Method and the Spirit Summoning Technique: External Alchemy Method using two strands of internal energy.

Now, Lin Jue wants to see if he can obtain other techniques from the Spirit Control Seal after gaining an extra wisp of energy.

As the three strands of energy completely merged into the Spirit Seal, Lin Jue waited for a long time, but the energy seemed to sink into the sea, and the Spirit Seal in his sea of ​​consciousness remained completely still.

On the back of the Spirit Seal, the black and white fish are lifelike. Among the seven stars, only the two stars on the belly of the white fish are still glowing.

Since the Spirit Seal was unreliable, Lin Jue regained his composure, got up and went to his bedroom. He took out the tiger-headed sword that Lu the blacksmith had forged for him, returned to the courtyard, and began to cultivate the Blood Blade according to the Zhao Family Blood Blade Manual.

After obtaining the Zhao Family Blood Saber manual, Lin Jue realized that the Zhao Family Blood Saber originated from the Miao Family Saber Technique of the Wenren Mansion.

The Zhao Family Blood Saber is incredibly powerful. The training process is similar to practicing the Pine Crane Long Fist. One must first master the thirteen basic saber techniques and then integrate them to truly master the Zhao Family Blood Saber.

"Draw your sword, parry to the side, strike the enemy with the tip of your sword, step forward and perform a diagonal slash and a straight thrust."

"A sweeping strike, parry with the back of the blade, sweep downwards in the momentum, step forward and sweep the blade again, then chop forward with the blade."

In the courtyard of the tavern, Lin Jue repeatedly practiced the two techniques of drawing and slashing the sword from the Blood Blade Technique. Before he knew it, he had been practicing until dawn.

Yuan Rou stayed by her side, also without sleeping all night.

Seeing that he had stopped cultivating, she immediately ran to the kitchen and brought him the bone broth that had been prepared.

"Brother Lin, you've been practicing all night. Have some soup and rest for a bit."

"good!"