Chapter 79: The Hero of June!

Hearing Anran say this, An Qiye finally let out a small sigh of relief. He naturally understood that his younger sister was proud and aloof; for her to fall for Chen Feng was simply impossible. Though he often imagined things, in all these days, apart from Young Master Ye, he had never seen Anran show the slightest softness to any man, not even to her own brother.

Breathing out, An Qiye stood up and said, "All right, sister, I won’t disturb you any longer. Let me remind you one last time: you know well what fate awaits those who betray Young Master Ye!"

"That’s not something you need to remind me of," Anran replied with a cold sneer. Only after An Qiye had walked far off did Anran mutter to herself, so quietly only she could hear, "Betray Young Master Ye? My foolish brother, there’s no such thing as betrayal or loyalty in this world. The Ye family may be a towering tree, but there are true mountains and peaks in this world. The one who wins me may not necessarily be the so-called Young Master Ye!"

Time slipped by as swiftly as a white horse galloping past a chink in the wall.

In the blink of an eye, it was already the end of May. Over these ten days, Chen Feng had not returned to class but had instead used the Grand Extraction System to select several masters of calligraphy, extracting their skill. With this, he was now able to produce elegant handwriting of his own.

During these days, the court had also begun to process Luo Yongjiang’s case. Luo’s own background was already questionable, so uncovering evidence against him was laughably easy. After keeping an eye on the proceedings for a while, Chen Feng no longer paid much attention—Xiao Yu and Lu Rui together were more than enough to bring Luo Yongjiang thoroughly to his knees.

Xiao Yu, meanwhile, had purchased a slew of machines and begun mass-producing Urine Beef Balls, launching a vigorous publicity campaign to promote their large-scale manufacture and sale. Leveraging her connections, Xiao Yu had already secured overwhelming advertisements on television, and the product was now available in major supermarkets.

During these ten-odd days, Chen Feng’s parents were also discharged from the hospital. Chen Feng brought them to live in their new home, though their health was not fully recovered and they still required a period of rest and recuperation.

Exhaling deeply, Chen Feng practiced Wing Chun slowly. He had not been attending school during this period, except for occasionally going to evening self-study sessions to accompany Fang Yue, walking her home afterwards before returning himself. His life was, in its way, quite orderly.

After seeing Fang Yue home, Chen Feng stood in his own room, eyes narrowed slightly, silently practicing his Wing Chun forms. When he completed the sequence, all he felt was a gentle, warm current flowing through his meridians—a sensation that appeared quickly and vanished just as fast, disappearing before he could even attempt to grasp it.

Chen Feng understood that he had reached his physical limit; his body had been honed to its utmost. No matter how much further he trained, his physical strength could improve no more. Now, the cultivation would turn inward, transitioning to the practice of internal energy.

By now, Chen Feng’s weight had reached two hundred and forty pounds, yet he showed no signs of obesity—there were no exaggerated muscles either. Only Chen Feng himself knew that his body’s density had reached a truly terrifying level, almost to the very limit. From here on, no matter how much he ate, he would not gain weight, nor would his strength increase any further.

“It’s certain now—cultivating internal energy must require some kind of secret manual,” Chen Feng mused. “But here’s the issue: where am I supposed to find such a manual?”

Among the people he knew, only Anran could use internal energy, with Xiao Yu as a distant second. The problem was, Anran’s internal cultivation method was not one Chen Feng could learn, and as for Xiao Yu, even the system could not probe her secrets. This fact left Chen Feng somewhat helpless.

“This really is exasperating!” Chen Feng muttered. He needed to obtain a method for cultivating internal energy.

“System, begin screening; search as widely as possible for people who know internal energy!” After a moment’s thought, Chen Feng activated the system’s screening function.

“Hmm, there are actually quite a few people who know internal energy!” Chen Feng was mildly surprised when he saw that the system displayed three or four dozen candidates. However, after a closer look, he shook his head.

The internal cultivation methods practiced by these people were mostly elementary—at best, the simplest forms of qigong, consisting of basic breathing exercises that might, after years of effort, produce internal energy, but often would not. Internal cultivation was not restricted to those who had reached the peak of external training; it could be practiced alongside the strengthening of the body.

Chen Feng browsed through the options—each was rudimentary to the point of being easily found online. He frowned. With the Grand Extraction System at his disposal, he wanted to choose carefully; there was no point in selecting such shallow methods.

“Nothing,” Chen Feng concluded after searching. None of the methods suited him; they were all so basic you might not even know if you’d succeeded in cultivating internal energy. He frowned inwardly, musing, “Maybe if I searched every district in Jiangzhou, I’d find someone with a proper internal cultivation method!”

“Wait!” Chen Feng suddenly slapped his forehead as a grin spread across his face. “I almost forgot—I could just extract from someone in Anran’s family!”

With that realization, Chen Feng immediately issued a command to the system: “System, extract Anran’s data, including her family members’ profiles!”

Instantly, Anran’s profile appeared on the system’s interface, followed by the rapid appearance of three more avatars: her father, mother, and elder brother.

Chen Feng, now familiar with the system, knew that while screening was limited by a certain range, once he locked onto a specific individual, he could extract their abilities even if they were not physically present. Furthermore, he could then select close relatives—within three generations—for extraction. The system would not allow extraction beyond that.

“An Zheng!” Chen Feng muttered. “Anran’s father—looks quite young. I wonder what kind of internal cultivation he knows.”

At that, Chen Feng was startled to find that An Zheng had no internal cultivation method at all.

“That can’t be! If the daughter possesses such formidable skills, how can the father have no internal cultivation at all?” It seemed unbelievable. A thought occurred to Chen Feng—did Anran have some extraordinary encounter that allowed her to cultivate internal energy?

“Sixteen years of pure internal energy—meaning she’s practiced for at least sixteen years!” Chen Feng was dumbfounded. “Anran is about my age—we’re both only sixteen. Did she start cultivating in her mother’s womb?”

“System, why does Anran have sixteen years’ worth of pure internal energy?” Chen Feng asked directly.

The system’s mechanical voice echoed in his mind: “This is the system’s calculation method. It is based on the average internal energy generated from a normal person’s daily diet and cultivation. It does not rule out the possibility that some individuals have consumed potent tonics, thereby acquiring greater and stronger internal energy.”

“Come on, how much does a normal person eat in a day? This calculation method is way off!” Chen Feng couldn’t help but complain.

The system ignored him. Chen Feng shook his head helplessly, thinking, “It seems the An family doesn’t have any internal cultivation methods after all.”

He glanced at Anran’s older brother, An Qiye, and clicked on his extractable information.

“Oh?” Chen Feng was surprised to find that among An Qiye’s options, there was a method called ‘Qi-Nurturing Art’.

Qi-Nurturing Art—A basic internal cultivation method, capable of cultivating internal energy and nourishing the body.

“A basic internal cultivation method?” Chen Feng mused, glancing at An Qiye’s abilities. “This An Qiye is useless—he has the method but hasn’t managed to cultivate any internal energy at all. What an oddball.”

“System, extract An Qiye’s internal cultivation method!” Chen Feng ordered.

With a soft chime, Chen Feng noticed his achievement points decrease by twenty, but countless pieces of information flooded into his mind—details about the human meridians, the operation of the internal cultivation method, sinking the breath to the dantian, and various techniques—all fused seamlessly into his memory.

“So that’s how it is!” Suddenly, Chen Feng felt as if a veil had been lifted from his mind.

He immediately sat down cross-legged, silently meditating, picturing a gentle, warm current within his body. The first step of internal cultivation was meditation—visualizing this warm current. This was the hardest part; many people might never succeed in an entire lifetime.

However, within just a few minutes, Chen Feng sensed a warm current inside him, far more easily than most.

In truth, this first step in meditation, aside from requiring insight, depended greatly on one’s own vigor. The stronger the blood and energy, the easier it was to sense the internal flow. Thus, most martial artists practiced body conditioning and internal cultivation simultaneously.

He did not know how much time passed before Chen Feng slowly opened his eyes. The gentle current had dissipated. Although he had not condensed it into internal energy by sinking it to his dantian, he still felt clear-headed and refreshed.

“Is it already past midnight?” Chen Feng mused.

“Host, it is now June first—a new hero has been born. Would you like to choose one to extract?” Just as Chen Feng was murmuring to himself, the mechanical voice of the system suddenly sounded in his mind.

(Any guesses as to who the new hero is?)