Ultimately, Gu Feng used Physician Chen as a cover to establish a plausible explanation for his transformation. From then on, in the eyes of others, he was a normal person. Throughout this process, only Physician Chen sensed that something was amiss. However, he would never speak of it voluntarily, and would even actively cover it up.
Because he had cured Gu Feng, even Elder Gu himself had come in person to express his gratitude, stating explicitly that should Physician Chen ever face difficulties in the future, he could seek help from the Gu Family. Therefore, even if Physician Chen suspected something, he would keep it to himself. Since the purpose of his visit had already been achieved, why invite unnecessary trouble?
From that point on, Gu Feng began living the life of a normal noble scion. He spent his days studying literature and practicing martial arts, with the only difference being that his journey had started a few years later than everyone else's.
The kingdom where the Gu Family resided was called Taicang, situated in the eastern part of the Desolate Sea region. Its neighboring countries were the Lingxi Kingdom, Lishui Kingdom, and Qingmu Kingdom. The territory of the Taicang Kingdom spanned tens of millions of square kilometers, with a population exceeding five hundred million. Under its administration were sixteen commanderies and over two hundred counties, beneath which countless villages and towns clustered.
In this realm, martial cultivation was divided into nine tiers, commonly referred to as the Nine Ranks. Each tier corresponded to a rank, with Rank 1 being the lowest and Rank 9 the highest. Scions of noble families generally began polishing their foundations at the age of six. By eight, they formally commenced the cultivation of martial arts techniques, combining external physical conditioning with techniques and medicinal baths to vastly enhance the skin's resistance to blows.
At this point, one entered the First Stage: Skin Tempering Realm, and could be called a Rank 1 martial artist. With the aid of corresponding martial arts techniques and stances, even an eight- or nine-year-old child in this stage could defeat several sturdy men who had never practiced martial arts. Once the Skin Tempering Realm was brought to perfection, the skin and membranes became as tough as an old ox's hide.
Second Stage: Flesh Tempering Realm: Upon reaching this realm, the muscular strength throughout the entire body surged, and the physical resistance to impacts was drastically improved. Facing ten opponents at once was effortless.
Third Stage: Tendon Tempering Realm: The tendons were trained like bowstrings, possessing immense explosive power with every stretch and contraction. A single punch could kill an ox, agility and flexibility surpassed that of an ape, and reaction times were vastly heightened.
Fourth Stage: Bone Tempering Realm: The limbs and skeletal structure were refined until they were like gold and jade, bringing an all-around elevation to the physical body. One could leap several zhang into the air, and taking on a hundred opponents alone was a breeze.
Fifth Stage: Organ Refining Realm: With organ refinement achieved, divinities resided within the palaces of the five viscera. All impurities and filth were purged from the internal organs, leaving them as spotless as jade, akin to shedding one's mortal coil and casting off old bones.
Sixth Stage: Blood-Changing Realm: The bone marrow was retrained, forcing out the old blood and regenerating new blood through successive transformations. Each transformation was more powerful than the last, until finally, the physical body emitted a faint fragrance and could draw upon the spiritual energy of heaven and earth.
Gu Feng was currently at the Blood-Changing Realm. Although he had started a few years later than others, upon awakening his memories, he discovered that his talent was exceptionally high. It had taken him a mere year to advance from the initial Skin Tempering Realm to the Blood-Changing Realm.
The first three stages of martial cultivation actually did not have very high requirements for innate aptitude. As long as one had resources or was willing to spend time, anyone could reach them, provided they had cultivation techniques. Unfortunately, these two simple prerequisites screened out ninety percent of ordinary people in this world. In this martial world, power represented both authority and wealth, and cultivation techniques were the best pathway to gaining power. Thus, even the lowest-grade techniques were extraordinarily valuable. Moreover, ordinary people rushed about merely to earn a few meager coins to support their families; how could they possibly have the energy to dedicate themselves to cultivation? Therefore, even though the threshold for the early stages of cultivation was extremely low, only a tiny fraction of ordinary people had the opportunity to practice.
As for scions of martial families with superior innate talent, they typically began polishing their foundations at six and formally started cultivating martial arts techniques around the age of eight. Because they had laid two years of groundwork beforehand, they could advance to the first stage very quickly. By nine, they roughly reached the Second Stage: Flesh Tempering Realm; at thirteen, they advanced to the Fourth Stage: Bone Tempering Realm; and around twenty, they entered the Sixth-Rank Blood-Changing Realm.
Of course, the progression speeds mentioned above were merely rough averages and could not fully represent reality. Actual circumstances were a thousand times more complex, far beyond what could be summed up in just a few sentences.
Gu Feng had only just advanced to Rank 1 at the age of twelve. To have cultivated to the Sixth-Rank Blood-Changing Realm in a mere year—his talent was nothing short of astonishing. One had to understand that even scions of martial families with superior innate talent, lacking no cultivation resources, would still take until around the age of twenty to reach this realm. Yet Gu Feng had achieved it in a single year, and that was without making much use of cultivation resources.
As for why he hadn't used cultivation resources to aid his practice, it wasn't out of disdain. Rather, he simply lacked a reasonable excuse to demand large quantities of cultivation resources from the family. Although Gu Feng's illness was cured, the stereotype he had left behind could not be changed overnight. In the eyes of others, Gu Feng had been a fool since birth, with an extremely slow cultivation speed. Even though his mind was healed now and his intelligence had returned to normal, he had already missed the golden age for learning martial arts. When Gu Feng discovered his exceptional aptitude, he chose to keep a low profile and told no one. For a fool with dismal aptitude to suddenly turn smart and advance at terrifying speeds would inevitably arouse suspicion.
Of course, another very important reason was that ever since he began cultivating, Gu Feng's progress had been so blindingly fast that he had never experienced the hardships of practice. Inevitably, a certain contempt for cultivation had crept into his heart. Cultivation? Wasn't that something you could do as long as you had hands—cough, cough, as long as you had a brain? What need was there for cultivation resources?
Ever since his wits returned, Gu Feng's cultivation speed had accelerated, learning cultural knowledge had become simple, and even his meals tasted better than usual. Until a year later, fourteen-year-old Gu Feng began to repent before the heavens for his past arrogance.
A year—a full year—and he was still stuck at the early stage of the Blood-Changing Realm. For an ordinary person, this might still be considered normal. But for Gu Feng, who had previously spanned the fifth and sixth stages in just a single year, this was highly abnormal.
Ultimately, Gu Feng even threw away all his personal jewelry and external items, donned an ordinary robe, and hid away alone in the family's secret chamber. A few days later, Gu Feng emerged by himself, deep in thought.
Gu Feng, who had been cultivating in seclusion in the secret chamber, found that none of these actions had brought about any change. This meant there was no old master hidden inside his ring who could absorb people's cultivation—he didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
As things stood, only two possibilities seemed most likely. One was that his cultivation speed had suddenly plummeted due to some unknown reason. The other possibility was that Gu Feng's blood constitution was out of the ordinary.
Gu Feng began to carefully recall the various details of his cultivation over the past year. He discovered that when he occasionally absorbed the body-tempering medicinal liquids provided by his parents, his absorption speed was not slower than before; in fact, it was even faster. It was simply because Gu Feng rarely used medicinal liquids to aid his cultivation and placed little value on these meager resources that he had failed to notice this detail.
It had been two years since Gu Feng's illness was "cured," and his parents still assumed he was only at the third stage. Naturally, the resources they provided were utterly insipid to someone already at the sixth stage. During his usual practice, resources the size of sesame seeds failed to attract Gu Feng's attention or importance, which was only natural. After all, what did it matter if he absorbed them a little faster or slower? If not for putting on a show for outsiders, he wouldn't have wanted them even if they were given to him.
Combined with the fact that although his cultivation speed had slowed, his physical strength still seemed to be increasing, Gu Feng felt as though he was on the verge of uncovering the truth!
In the end, Gu Feng decided to wait and see how things developed. Over the coming year, he intended to observe the changes in his own body while shifting his primary focus to the practice of martial techniques.
The martial techniques of this world were similar to the kung fu styles and moves from the novels of his past life. For martial artists in this world, martial techniques were immensely important. A good martial technique allowed a martial artist to take on multiple opponents at once, or even challenge foes of a higher realm.
Based on Gu Feng's understanding, martial techniques were divided into two grades: Mortal Grade and Yellow Grade. Each grade could be further subdivided into three minor tiers: Lower, Middle, and Upper. As for what martial techniques stronger than the Yellow Grade were called, Gu Feng was not entirely sure, because the strongest technique in the Gu Family was only of the Yellow Grade Upper tier.
During the previous year, Gu Feng had dedicated his main energy to advancing realms, paying very little attention to the practice of martial techniques. He had merely set aside a little time every day specifically to practice basic sword stances—such as thrusting, cleaving, pointing, lifting, raising, crashing, intercepting, slashing, wiping, shaving, swirling, hanging, bracing, and pressing, among others.
These moves could not even be considered the lowest Mortal Grade techniques; they were merely the foundational drills used by six-year-old children to polish their basics. The reason Gu Feng had persisted in practicing them for an entire year was that he deeply understood the importance of foundations. A ten-thousand-foot-tall pagoda rises from the flat earth, relying entirely on a solid foundation.
Martial cultivation was no different. Without a firm root, how could one travel far on the path of martial practice? Moreover, weren't advanced martial techniques formed precisely through the clever combination of these basic stances?
With Gu Feng's terrifying cultivation talent, although he had only practiced basic moves for a year, he had already reached an extremely profound realm. It was no exaggeration to say that not a single person in the Gu Family had progressed further than him in basic stances.
It wasn't that the people of this world failed to understand these shallow truths. In fact, far more people understood these principles than Gu Feng imagined. The problem was that those who understood this principle might not possess talent as good as Gu Feng's, and those with even greater talent than Gu Feng might not understand this principle.
If one's talent was not good enough, yet one remained stubbornly obsessed with basic stances—even if practicing them well made learning high-grade techniques faster and easier later on—one might still fail to catch up to those who had practiced high-grade techniques from the very beginning. Ultimately, they ran the risk of gaining less than they lost.
Therefore, it wasn't that they didn't understand, but that they couldn't afford to. Not everyone had the qualification to chase after the peak of martial arts. For ordinary martial artists, wasting a vast amount of time practicing basic stances was simply not worth it.