Chapter 54: Hong Jinju Fruit

Who is this? The only son of the King of Zhennan, the Heavenly Xuan Kingdom's most powerful official! He's actually wailing and crying, calling Zhang Xuan 'Grandpa'? Am I hearing this right...?

Butler Chen felt as if lightning was striking all around him and was about to faint. He had only gone to retrieve a strength-testing pillar... What on earth happened? Can someone please tell me...?

"Ahem, alright, little brother Zhang," Master Lu Chen quickly interjected, seeing the awkward situation. "There will be other opportunities to spar in the future. Bai Xun is injured and needs to recover. The strength-testing pillar has arrived, so I think you should test your strength now!"

"Alright!" Zhang Xuan shook his head with a hint of regret, seeing that Bai Xun no longer wished to spar. He looked at the strength-testing pillar that had just been brought and inserted into its slot, then took a few steps forward and smiled faintly. "Actually, I just tested my strength yesterday, and it was only around four tripods. It doesn't really matter if I test it again today; there shouldn't be much difference..."

Turning Yao Han into a 'pig's head' happened just this morning. Before that, his tested strength was only eight tripods!

He had been incredibly busy all day, and without any cultivation techniques, he hadn't opened a single acupoint, so his strength shouldn't have increased. As for cultivating the 'Heaven's Path Golden Body', Zhang Xuan believed that even if his physical body improved, it couldn't possibly become stronger than true qi, could it?

As for why he claimed four tripods instead of his actual strength, it was simple: four tripods was the typical strength for a peak Dingli Realm practitioner, and he didn't want to reveal too much. At most, he would just hold back half his strength during the test.

"Since it's already here, let's test it!" Master Lu Chen said.

"Okay!" No longer declining, Zhang Xuan smiled faintly. Having decided to use only half his strength, he punched the pillar in front of him.

The punch whizzed through the air, its power like thunder. *Bang!* A light flashed, and characters slowly appeared.

"See, it's just four tripods..." Zhang Xuan smiled and waved his hand, turning to laugh as he saw the characters appear. But before he could finish speaking, he saw Bai Xun, Master Lu Chen, Huang Yu, and the others staring at him as if he were a monster.

Their eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. "What's wrong?" Zhang Xuan frowned, looking down at himself. Nothing seemed amiss.

"Look again... at the strength-testing pillar!" Huang Yu couldn't help but exclaim.

"What's wrong with the strength-testing pillar? Isn't it just four tripods? Why are you all so surprised...?" He turned his head to look, and upon seeing it, Zhang Xuan swayed, nearly falling to the ground. Behind the 'four' he had just observed, two characters, 'nineteen,' had mysteriously appeared. Together, they read... forty-nine!

"I just hit... forty-nine tripods with one punch?" Zhang Xuan himself was startled.

He had only measured eight tripods of strength this morning, and he had deliberately held back half his power just now. How could it possibly have reached forty-nine tripods?

If he hadn't held back half his strength, wouldn't that mean a single punch would be approaching a hundred tripods of immense force?

The peak of the Martial Artist Fifth Layer, Dingli Realm, possessed four tripods of strength. Even the peak of the Acupoint Opening Realm wouldn't exceed eighty tripods. A hundred tripods with one punch... wouldn't that mean he could already rival, or even surpass, the strength of a Martial Artist Sixth Layer, Acupoint Opening Realm?

This... "Is it... is this strength-testing pillar broken?" A thought popped into Zhang Xuan's mind, and he couldn't help but voice it.

"The pillar isn't broken. Didn't you have a breakthrough just now in the study?" Master Lu Chen explained, seeing his own suspicions confirmed. "Your cultivation broke through, and your strength greatly increased. The crucial point is that you haven't adapted to this power and weren't aware of it, which is why you... hit Bai Xun so badly!"

He had originally intended to say that he himself had been hit just as badly, but stopped at the critical moment. After all, he was a Master and needed to protect his reputation...

"A cultivation breakthrough? From four tripods to forty-nine tripods? Did he open forty-five acupoints at once?" Hearing the explanation, Bai Xun and Huang Yu nearly fainted on the spot, whereas before, they might have been merely confused.

You must be joking, right? The Martial Artist Sixth Layer, Acupoint Opening Realm, involves opening the body's acupoints to increase cultivation, with each opened acupoint adding one tripod of strength.

Legend has it that the human body contains a total of 108 acupoints, but only 72 can be opened. Moreover, there's a specific sequence for opening these acupoints; each person's physique is unique, requiring a different order to achieve optimal results. Without discovering the correct method, one might only be able to open thirty or forty acupoints in their entire lifetime, making further progress impossible.

Normally, acupoints are opened one by one, and strength increases gradually, one tripod at a time. But a sudden surge of 45 tripods... Brother, you're truly defying the heavens!

They had seen breakthroughs before, but never... a breakthrough quite like this! In fact, it wasn't just the others who were dizzy with shock and disbelief; even Zhang Xuan himself had no idea what was happening.

Just from cultivating the Heaven's Path Golden Body, there was such incredible progress? A sudden surge in strength by ninety tripods?

Under normal circumstances, after casually throwing Master Lu Chen aside and defeating Bai Xun, he should have realized that he had made significant progress and that his strength had increased, rather than being completely oblivious.

However, as someone who had transmigrated and only been cultivating for a day or two, it was already impressive for him to manage how much strength his cultivation could exert. Expecting him to have precise control and perfect mastery of his power was simply asking too much!

This was akin to an ordinary person suddenly possessing superhuman strength; they would certainly not be accustomed to it at first and might not even comprehend it.

Zhang Xuan was currently in this exact situation. He originally possessed only eight tripods of strength, but it had suddenly surged by 90 tripods—more than a tenfold increase. The crucial point was that this was a physical body improvement, which he couldn't perceive... It would have been strange if he had understood it beforehand!

It was already a blessing he hadn't instantly flattened Bai Xun into a meat patty.

"Little brother Zhang, you didn't actually... open forty-five acupoints just now, did you?" Master Lu Chen couldn't help but ask, seeing him in a daze.

Opening forty-five acupoints at once—this had never been heard of before... But if that wasn't the case, how could his strength have surged so dramatically?

"I... I'm still at the peak of the Dingli Realm. My cultivation hasn't progressed; it's just... my physical strength increased a bit!" Zhang Xuan explained.

"Physical body?" Master Lu Chen asked, surprised and full of disbelief. "I've heard that there are some rare natural treasures in the world that, if consumed, can make one's physical body comparable to steel, granting strength equivalent to a peak Acupoint Opening Realm practitioner. Could... cultivation also achieve this?"

"Uh... I think I ate an unknown fruit today," Zhang Xuan said. "At first, I just felt my whole body getting hot and didn't pay it much mind. It might have been then that my physical strength suddenly surged!"

As a modern person, he naturally understood the concept of 'a man is innocent, but his jade makes him guilty.' If he truly claimed to have reached this level merely by cultivating for a short while, countless individuals would undoubtedly become envious and demand his cultivation method! Some might even capture him for study.

Since Master Lu Chen mentioned that there were rare natural treasures that could greatly enhance one's physical body, he decided to go along with that explanation.

"What a fortune, this is a truly heaven-sent opportunity!" Master Lu Chen didn't doubt him.

It wasn't that he lacked doubt, but even if he did, he had to believe it!

Cultivating for an hour could make one's physical body surge by dozens of tripods of immense power? Wasn't that just a pipe dream?

It was as ridiculous as a man giving birth! Rather than believing that, it was far more plausible to believe he had eaten some rare natural treasure.

"I wonder what that fruit little brother ate looked like?" Master Lu Chen then asked.

"What it looked like?" Zhang Xuan scratched his head. He was just making it up; how could he possibly know? However, since he was cornered and silence would definitely arouse suspicion, he promptly replied, "It was a red fruit..."

Earlier, while reading in the Academy's library, he seemed to recall a similar record, though it was merely a legend from a travelogue, about someone eating a red fruit. At this moment, he could only try his luck, like a blind cat stumbling upon a dead mouse.

"Red? Is it vermilion? It really is that thing!" Master Lu Chen seemed to have realized something, his breathing quickening.

"Master knows?"

"It's the Hongjin Pearl Fruit!" Master Lu Chen said excitedly. "Legend says that if consumed, it can directly and greatly increase one's physical strength, making even peak Acupoint Opening Realm practitioners difficult to contend with!"

"Hongjin Pearl Fruit?" Zhang Xuan's face wore a strange expression. Could it be... that such a thing actually existed?