Chapter 149 - Achieving the Right Result
Upon arriving at the mansion prepared by the government office, Lu Yuan walked around after entering, feeling quite satisfied.
As the Chief of the military with the rank of commandant, he held power and status only second to the Prefect and the vice-prefect in the office.
Being the third highest in the office, his living conditions were naturally favorable.
The residence covered thousands of square meters, including work areas for handling government affairs, private living quarters for the owner, guest rooms to entertain visitors, and a garden and pond for relaxation. It was not much different from his Mansion in Wugang County.
However, the two could not be compared as one was in Fu City and the other was in a county town.
The only slight deficiency was that there were no servants in the mansion. Although the government office had sent people to clean up, the empty and vast residence made Lu Yuan, who was already accustomed to being served, feel a bit uncomfortable.
“I’ll transfer my personal guard here tomorrow and also hire some maids and servants in the city to make the place lively. Otherwise, I would not look like a respectable official without anyone to serve.”
After returning to his bedroom, Lu Yuan thought about this, and then began to practice his martial arts.
The only martial art he was currently practicing was Replenishing Qi Heart Sutra. Therefore, the time he could allocate to this practice had increased significantly.
Lu Yuan spent two hours in the morning, afternoon, and evening for cultivating this technique. The remaining free time was used to read Taoist Classics and miscellaneous books, enriching his cultural knowledge.
The six hours of daily practice, combined with Rejuvenation Pills and precious jade inner strength tempering, allowed his strength to grow rapidly.
Ordinarily, it would take two to three times longer to break through a bizarre meridian than a regular meridian.
But now, with Lu Yuan’s triple cultivation time and assistance of jade plates and Rejuvenation Pills, his breakthrough speed was increased to the point where he could break through a bizarre meridian every six months.
This was only because the supply of Rejuvenation Pills couldn’t keep up with the low efficiency of the disciples’ medicine purchases.
If there were enough Rejuvenation Pills, he could even progress at the speed of breaking through a bizarre meridian every three months.
However, even at one bizarre meridian every six months, Lu Yuan was already quite satisfied.
Now he had reached the final layer of Replenishing Qi Heart Sutra. With only two meridians left unbroken, even if it took six months each, he would complete this top-tier Mental Technique by the end of this year.
“But once I reach that point, without more profound arts, my cultivation will stagnate.”
After finishing two hours of practice tonight, Lu Yuan couldn’t help but furrow his brows as he thought about his impending dilemma of arts techniques.
It’s not that he couldn’t continue to cultivate after reaching the peak, but he would face two issues.
First, he would need to explore other unpracticed meridians, such as the remaining four bizarre meridians not recorded in Replenishing Qi Heart Sutra.
But in cultivating these meridians, Lu Yuan lacked stable circulation routes, and practicing rashly could lead to physical damage and even entering the devil’s realm.
Not exploring other meridians and only cultivating within existing meridians could only increase his Inner Strength but not his realm.
The problem, however, is that each meridian has a limit to how much Inner Strength it can handle.
Once his real Inner Strength reached the ultimate limit of the meridians, it would inevitably begin to compress his body, eventually breaking the meridians and causing his body to explode.
“Given my current rate of Inner Strength growth, when I finish breaking through the eighth layer of meridians, it won’t take half a year for me to accumulate enough Inner Strength to reach the limit. Then there will be no more growth or progress.”
After calculating the time, Lu Yuan estimated that around the end of next June, he would reach the limit that his current martial arts could improve upon.
Upon reaching the limit, he would either have to stop cultivating or find a more advanced martial art.
“That’s the dilemma.”
Lu Yuan was somewhat troubled: “My disciples are just third-rate, and none of my grand-disciples are any good. It’s unrealistic to think of going after the Iron Sword Sect with them.
No, even if I defeated the Iron Sword Sect, it wouldn’t help solve my current predicament.”
At this moment, he suddenly realized that what troubled him was the lack of more advanced martial arts techniques.
With this constraint, even if he managed to recover the Iron Sword Technique, it would only improve his combat skills.
It would still have little effect on solving his problem of increasing Inner Strength.
“Do I really have to start researching and creating martial arts?”
Now, Lu Yuan had no choice but to face this plan which he once gave up and thought was far away.
He pondered with a frown, still feeling overwhelmed and directionless.
In the end, he could only shake his head and put the matter aside.
“Forget it, I still have a year and a half until that point anyway. I’ll think about it when that day comes.”
He closed his eyes and went to sleep.
No matter if it was creating martial arts or plundering them, sufficient strength was required.
Right now, he hadn’t reached the peak yet, and there was no use in worrying any further. It was better to sleep.
After a night’s sleep, Lu Yuan got up early the next day and headed to the barracks in the city.
Shaoyang Prefecture’s barracks were already well-established, as the previous local soldiers were stationed in the city.
Upon entering, Lu Yuan found the barracks quite large.
There were drill grounds, barracks, canteens, conference halls, armories, and other facilities well in place.
Though the environment could not compare to the luxury of the Wugang
County’s barracks, it was not bad, and the soldiers, who had experienced hard
times, were not dissatisfied..