After fully digesting the 150,000 worth of medicinal herbs purchased, his physical fitness broke through to a new level.
Gu Yuan immediately called the shopkeeper and asked him to deliver another batch of the previously purchased herbs, his private stash decreasing by another 150,000.
This made him frown slightly. It seemed he needed to become a Walker as soon as possible to take on missions, otherwise, the inheritance left by his parents wouldn't last.
Time flew by like a white steed passing a crack.
Gu Yuan also received notification from the Martial Pavilion. As expected, he had become a Bronze Walker.
Packing his belongings, he left home and headed to the Martial Pavilion to collect his identification.
Arriving at the place where Wang Hu had brought Gu Yuan into the Martial Pavilion last time, he took out the token Wang Hu had given him. Before his own identification was ready, he was still using Wang Hu's.
Gu Yuan was now 1.85 meters tall, with a sturdy build and bright, piercing eyes that exuded a beast-like aura. This was unavoidable, as Gu Yuan was in the Ming Jin stage, his body constantly active, causing his aura to leak out. If Gu Yuan were to break through to An Jin, he wouldn't be like this; all his strength would be hidden, and he would appear like an ordinary person, not revealing the slightest aura.
He entered in the same manner as before. After reaching the first basement level, Gu Yuan headed straight for the Martial Pavilion at the back. After verifying his identity again, Gu Yuan went to a counter.
This was the counter for the Martial Pavilion to authenticate Walker identities.
Gu Yuan handed his training camp student card to the staff member.
The staff member took it, swiped it on a machine, and with a beep, the verification was successful. Then, they took out a device similar to the one at the entrance and a blue light shot out, scanning Gu Yuan's face.
With a beep, Gu Yuan received his Bronze Walker identification from the staff member.
The Walker's identification was a bronze token inscribed with the two characters, Gu Yuan.
The overall design was roughly the same as Wang Hu's.
Gu Yuan smiled and thanked the staff member. Then, holding the Bronze Walker identification token, he left the counter and headed for the mission hall.
Martial arts required money, so he had to take on missions. Otherwise, lacking medicinal herbs would slow down his cultivation progress.
Gu Yuan arrived at the mission hall and looked at the large screen in the most prominent position, searching for suitable missions.
His current strength should be somewhere between Ming Jin and An Jin. Combined with the explosive power of his physique, trained by the special formula for Bajiquan, it was around two thousand catties. This made him a relatively powerful figure among Ming Jin practitioners.
Coupled with the formidable attack power of Bajiquan, he would be hard-pressed to find an opponent in the Ming Jin stage.
As he continued searching, he finally found a suitable mission.
Ming Jin Mission: Eliminate the spy Walker Li Cun.
Strength of Li Cun: Practices the Military Killing Fist in the Ming Jin stage.
Reward: 500,000 Daming coins.
For specific mission intel, please accept the mission to view.
Gu Yuan nodded. This mission was very suitable for him, being in the Ming Jin stage and with a good reward.
He took out his token, noted the mission number, and then went to the mission counter. He presented his token to the staff member and stated the mission he had chosen.
Upon hearing Gu Yuan's request, the staff member placed the detailed information of the mission in front of Gu Yuan and asked if this was the mission.
Gu Yuan scanned it and confirmed it was indeed the mission for Li Cun.
Nodding, he indicated that he was accepting this mission.
The staff member nodded, took Gu Yuan's token, swiped it on the machine, then selected the mission Gu Yuan had chosen. With a beep, they handed him the detailed mission intel along with his token.
Gu Yuan put away the detailed intel and the token, thanked the staff member, and left the Martial Pavilion.
Returning home, Gu Yuan opened the intel and, after reading it completely, a thoughtful expression flashed in his eyes.
This Li Cun was a martial artist corrupted by the Lighthouse Nation, specializing in stealing Daming intelligence.
Then, he would transfer it to the Lighthouse Lake through special means.
The intel indicated that Li Cun had recently been frequently seen near a bar.
Coincidentally, this bar was not far from Gu Yuan's residential complex and was part of the old city area.
Closing the intel, Gu Yuan decided to stake out the bar that evening, hoping to catch Li Cun and kill him with one punch. This way, he could collect 500,000 tomorrow and buy more herbs for further improvement.
Gu Yuan estimated that his body could only benefit from the body-tempering formula of Bajiquan once or twice more before it lost its effect. After that, he would need to focus on strengthening his tendons and bones.
In this world, it wasn't muscles that were trained, but tendons and bones. Muscles were merely auxiliary.
"Externally train tendons and bones, internally cultivate vital energy!"
The strength of muscles was not important at all!
Some old martial arts masters in their eighties and nineties were as thin as skin and bones, yet when they moved, they were still incredibly formidable!
This was due to their hardened bones and tough tendons!
Why was Bajiquan's explosive power so immense? It was because it trained all the tendons in the body to be extremely strong, allowing them to unleash incredibly powerful force in an instant.
Furthermore, all the bones in the body had to be trained to be as hard as iron, so that they could be driven by the tendons to unleash tremendous power. For example, the "Top Heart Elbow" in Bajiquan—the hardness of the elbow is the key to this move's power. If your elbow isn't hard, how can you unleash greater power?
There was also the representative move of Bajiquan, "Fierce Tiger Hard Climbs Mountain."
When practicing this move, hands and feet were used in unison, like a fierce tiger pouncing. This required extremely strong tendon drive.
Arriving at his self-created training room.
Gu Yuan recalled the part about tendon training in Bajiquan in his mind.
Bang!
Bang bang!!
As Gu Yuan's arms fell, the air around him was directly torn, creating explosive sounds.
It was as if thunder was booming in the air.
Gu Yuan, practicing his fist, was like a horn bow drawn taut.
Again and again, he unleashed explosive, thunderous forces, causing the sound of his punches to roar around him incessantly.
His feet continuously moved around on a mat about one meter square, his complex footwork subtly containing some form of method.
He repeatedly practiced the fist techniques for several times, which took two to three hours.
Gu Yuan slowly retracted his fists and stood in the "San Ti Shi" stance. His pores were closed, not a drop of sweat flowed, yet he radiated heat like a furnace.
He slowly exhaled a puff of white air.
A hint of helplessness flickered in his eyes. There was nothing he could do. Without the aid of medicinal potency, the progress of this kind of practice was too slow, completely different from when he was taking medicine.
He took out his phone and called the shopkeeper, stating the medicinal herbs he needed for tendon training.
Another hundred thousand-plus yuan spent. One had to admit that practicing martial arts was not something ordinary people could afford.