Chapter 25: If I can't defeat you within three moves, I, Zhao Qin, will take my own life on the spot.

Early in the morning, Chu Ning had returned to Xiazhen Town and resumed his usual life.

A few days later,

Liu Da brought back news that the Flying Tiger Gate was openly searching for the murderer of Zheng Yangjie, but it was all bluster and no substance, purely for show.

As for the constable's office, in the end, Chu Ning still went to offer incense for Zhang Tao and partook in his memorial feast.

Some of the constables who had been on good terms with Zhang Tao also improved their impression of Chu Ning as a result.

Because not only did Chu Ning commission Old Liao to offer ten taels of silver, he gave another ten during the feast.

The brotherly bond could be said to have been honored in full.

Zhang Tao had been defeated by Chu Ning because Zhang was outmatched; it wasn't something that could be blamed on Chu Ning, and as for Chu Ning's heavy hand, those who understood the inner workings of the constable's office knew that it involved the struggle between powerful figures above, and Chu Ning was likely compelled.

Another year passed in such a manner.

The Dark Energy within Chu Ning had reached twelve strands.

In this past year, he had cultivated five additional strands of Dark Energy.

As Chu Ning had surmised, the effects of the Longevity Fruit were still present and even more potent than before.

The energy of the Longevity Fruit was now mainly transforming into vital essence, which then nourished the marrow to strengthen the Dark Energy.

As for the growth of physical strength, it wasn't much, roughly a steady gain of about two jin per day.

Now, his strength had reached 2,800 jin.

Because of this, Chu Ning updated the formula for the release of energy by the Longevity Fruit.

The release of energy by the Longevity Fruit M = (Physical Strength + Energy from Food and Medicine + Martial Heart Method) * a certain weighted formula C.

As for the specifics of this weighted formula, he had not yet fully grasped it, but one thing was certain: the stronger the body, the more energy released by the Longevity Fruit, almost the same proportion as released during the early stages of martial arts training.

For instance, Chu Ning was like an average middle school student, and the Longevity Fruit helped him improve by five points in every exam. Meanwhile, top students improved rapidly, leaving Chu Ning far behind. But a few years later, Chu Ning caught up, because there is a limit to the scores on the exam papers.

Next, Chu Ning and these top students began to sprint towards the higher-level provincial Olympiad competitions.

The Olympiad questions were challenging, and the top students also struggled to achieve high scores, but Chu Ning still maintained an improvement of five points each time, starting to stand out.

Then came the national and even international Olympiads, where Chu Ning continued to progress steadily, unstoppable even by Jesus himself.

After reaching this conclusion, Chu Ning also made a predictive judgment.

If he didn't use any external help, if he didn't use any drugs, and relied purely on his own efforts, it would take him three years to break through to the rank of martial master. To advance from Ninth Grade martial master to Eighth Grade would take a little over three years, and the same held true from Eighth Grade to Seventh Grade.

Given nine years... or let's say ten years to be more certain, he would be able to break through to the rank of Sixth Grade Martial General.

Whether it would be the same after reaching the rank of Martial General would depend on new models and formulas established according to the situation at the time.

"The future is bright!"

Chu Ning walked over to the water tank, where his reflection in the water surface mirrored his face.

Such a handsome young man.

His eyebrows were like drawn swords, his eyes like shining stars; in terms of looks, apart from the readers who followed him from the start, who in the world could compare?

This year, as he began to cultivate Dark Energy, his body, originally broad and husky, slowly slimmed down, which was also a part of the martial training process.

In the initial phase, the consumption of potent nourishing substances filled his body, causing bones and muscles to grow rapidly, and his physique surged in size. Now that he was cultivating Dark Energy, transforming the vital essence within his body into marrow essence, his body was gradually returning to normal.

Concentrated essence is truly valuable.

Chu Ning now profoundly understood this phrase; although his physique had slimmed down, the strength of every aspect of his body had increased.

According to his teacher, Chu Ning was now not far from reaching the rank of Eighth Grade martial master.

The martial artists of the Great Liang dynasty were classified according to the nine-rank official system.

Ninth Grade was the lowest, First Grade was the highest.

Entering the rank of martial master was Ninth Grade, followed by Eighth Grade, and then Seventh Grade, of whom Director Huang and the county magistrate belonged.

Above Seventh Grade was Sixth Grade, which represented Martial Generals.

Sixth Grade Martial General, Fifth Grade Martial General, Fourth Grade Martial General.

Further up were Grandmasters...

From Third Grade to First Grade.

This was the entire cultivation system for martial artists, as well as the court system of Great Liang.

Not yet seventeen, even if it took another year to reach Eighth Grade, he would still be regarded as a martial arts prodigy throughout the entire Great Liang.

Liu Junshan thought so because, in his eyes, Chu Ning didn't have as many martial arts resources as those scions of powerful families, and it was truly remarkable for him to have trained to this level.

However, Chu Ning felt somewhat embarrassed upon hearing this, for his own resources likely surpassed any noble.

If the energy of the Longevity Fruit could be given to a genuine martial arts prodigy, they might have soared directly.

Not to mention anyone else, just take Zhao Qin and Tang Ruowei; if those two had the Longevity Fruit, they might even be on the verge of a breakthrough towards becoming Martial Generals by now.

In one year's time, the cohort that included Tang Ruowei was about to embrace their graduation season. Chu Ning had found out from a teacher that both Zhao Qin and Tang Ruowei had broken through to the Sixth Layer of the Bull Demon Strength, especially Zhao Qin, who had already achieved perfection in the Sixth Layer.

If the ranks below martial master were to be divided into realms,

Tang Ruowei would be considered half a step into martial master, and Zhao Qin half a step into great perfection of martial master.

As for the other students, they lagged behind, and it would probably take them several more years to break through to martial master.

Apart from his own increase in strength, Chu Ning had not been idle this year; he commissioned the town shops to make numerous improvements to the chili powder, eventually developing the Five Poisons Chili Powder.

Combining the powdery essence of certain toxic moths with the secret recipe of chili powder, and finally topped with a dried poisonous substance extracted from various creatures.