60: Chapter 60 The Astonishing Wealth of Dushan Village

The other was a Secret Manual wrapped in iron plating; it felt heavy in the hand and was named "Iron Body Art"!

"This Cultivation Technique is said to be a Body Refining method passed down from the military, and it is also a Rank 3 Cultivation Technique. It does not Cultivate Internal Energy but focuses solely on external skills. Through special breathing and striking methods, one can train their skin, flesh, tendons, and bones to be as hard as iron and stone. However, the cultivation process is extremely painful; only those with great perseverance can succeed."

Liu Chengfeng continued to introduce it.

Gao Feng picked up this "Iron Body Art" and immediately thought of one person—Big Fool!

This Cultivation Technique was practically tailor-made for Big Fool!

"Good! Excellent!"

Looking at these two Secret Manuals, the joy in Gao Feng's heart even surpassed that of obtaining all those gold and silver treasures!

He immediately decided to establish a "Library Pavilion" on the highest level of the inner city's beacon tower!

All confiscated books and Cultivation Techniques would be stored here.

At the same time, he announced a new system that would drive everyone crazy—the Merit Exchange System!

Whether participating in construction to accumulate work points or going out on expeditions to earn military merits.

The earned merits could not only be exchanged for money, land, and women.

But could also be used to exchange for those... martial arts Secret Manuals in the Library Pavilion that could help one undergo a rebirth!

Of course, Cultivation Techniques were also divided by Rank.

Rank 1 Cultivation Techniques like "Savage Bull Strength" only required one hundred merits to exchange.

While Rank 2 Cultivation Techniques like "Iron Shirt Technique" required five hundred merits, and only officers at the Rank of squad leader or above were eligible.

As for Rank 3 top-tier Cultivation Techniques like "Following Wind Willow Catkin Movement Technique" and "Iron Body Art," they were listed by Gao Feng as "Treasures of the Stockade." Without immense contributions and passing his personal test, they would absolutely not be taught to outsiders!

Once this system was announced, the entire Panshi Stockade went completely crazy!

In everyone's eyes, a flame called "ambition" began to burn!

While busy with construction and digesting the fruits of victory, Gao Feng did not forget the Foundation of the army—training, as well as thinking about the future.

He stood alone on the beacon tower, overlooking the bustling valley below, his thoughts racing.

The population had surged to three thousand, and the military strength had reached one thousand five hundred; this was both strength and a huge burden.

Food had become the first sword hanging over their heads.

Although there was a lot of confiscated grain, the consumption of three thousand mouths was terrifying; they had to achieve self-sufficiency in food as soon as possible.

He immediately ordered that the scale of the original farming team be expanded further.

All cultivable land in the valley was to be planned out, in preparation for the first major wheat sowing in the autumn and winter.

With the spirit spring space as a super cheat, he was confident that they would welcome their first harvest by next spring and resolve the food crisis.

Besides food, the unification of thought was equally important.

A group maintained only by interests and force would not go far; it must have shared concepts and beliefs.

Therefore, under the suggestion of Luo Qin and Liu Chengfeng, a special institution was quietly established in Panshi Stockade—the Panshi Night School.

Every night, when the soldiers and craftsmen who had labored all day rested.

Gao Feng would personally, or have Liu Chengfeng and Luo Qin, gather those promising young people and newly promoted grassroots officers together.

In the night school, no martial arts were taught, only three things.

First, literacy.

Gao Feng personally compiled simplified literacy textbooks, teaching them to read and write in the most accessible way.

He knew deeply that knowledge was the first step to changing one's destiny.

Second, discipline education.

Liu Chengfeng would personally explain the "Panshi Stockade Military Law" formulated by Gao Feng, using vivid examples to tell them what absolute obedience was and what it meant to follow orders and prohibit non-compliance.

Third, and most importantly, ideological indoctrination.

Gao Feng would personally teach them; he wouldn't preach big principles, but just tell them stories.

Telling them about the displaced refugees outside the mountains who were forced to trade children to eat.

Telling them about the corruption and incompetence of the imperial court, and the boundless greed of the aristocratic clans.

Then telling them about the goal of Panshi Stockade—here, everyone has food to eat, clothes to wear, land to farm, establishing a home without oppression and without hunger.

This simple yet heart-striking ideal planted a seed of hope in the hearts of these people from the bottom of society.

Letting them understand for the first time that they fought not just to be full, but for a beautiful future worth striving for.

Of course, besides spiritual food, material changes were the most intuitive.

In the past, the food in the stockade, although enough to be full, was mostly coarse grains and vegetable porridge.

Now, with the great abundance of supplies, the food in Panshi Stockade also welcomed a "revolution."

Gao Feng ordered a reform of the food standards.

Ordinary laborers participating in construction were guaranteed two dry meals and one thin meal daily, and could receive meat once every ten days.

As for those soldiers participating in training, the food standards were higher, with meat supply being twice that of ordinary laborers.

As for the three core elite forces—the Tiger Guard Battalion, the Divine Mechanism Battalion, and the Ranger Cavalry—they enjoyed the luxurious treatment of having meat at every meal!

This visible and tangible differential treatment greatly stimulated everyone's desire to improve.

Many ordinary soldiers, in order to eat that meat, performed with all their might during training, hoping to be selected into the elite troops.

The entire stockade formed a healthy competitive atmosphere of chasing after one another and striving for improvement.

...

While focusing on the development of the entire stockade, Gao Feng did not forget his "harem."

Busy for a day, returning to that largest courtyard belonging to him, looking at the faces of Su Yue and The Four Luo Sisters—some gentle, some quiet, some playful—was his most relaxing moment of the day.

Su Yue remained the most considerate confidante; she would silently prepare hot water and clean clothes for him, and use her gentle little hands to massage his sore shoulders.

Luo Qin would report the progress of the day's government affairs to him, clear in logic, concise, and would offer her own insights; she was his most capable virtuous assistant.

Luo Qi's personality, after Dual Cultivation, had lost a bit of her fierceness and gained a bit of feminine tenderness.

But she was still obsessed with martial arts, pestering Gao Feng every day to ask about the subtleties of the "Tiger Venerable Art" and the "Bloody Battle Saber Technique." The two often sparred in the courtyard, and the clashing of weapons had its own unique charm.

And the two little girls, Luo Shu and Luo Hua, were even more clingy.

Luo Shu would sit quietly to the side, grinding ink for Gao Feng, or holding a book, reading stories from it to Gao Feng with her soft, sweet voice.

Luo Hua would be like a happy little bird, chattering away to share the day's interesting news with Gao Feng, or pulling his hand, wanting him to accompany her to the back mountain to see those two big tigers.

The happiness of having multiple wives, it was nothing more than this.

Gao Feng enjoyed this rare warmth, but the string of desire for strength in his heart had never relaxed.

He still persisted every night in entering the spirit spring space to Cultivate diligently.

He carefully combed through the martial arts he was currently learning.

The Foundation of his Internal Skill was that "Tiger Venerable Art" obtained from the Black Wind Stockade.

This Cultivation Technique excelled in vigorous Qi and blood, changing tendons and refining bones, and had already helped him stand firmly at the Rank 3 Peak.

But through repeated study and deduction, he had already touched the upper limit of this Cultivation Technique.

"The 'Tiger Venerable Art' can at most support me to Cultivate to Rank 4. To go further, I must find a higher-level Cultivation Technique, at least Rank 5 or even Rank 6; this is the most important priority."

For external Body Refining, there was the newly obtained "Iron Body Art."

This Cultivation Technique complemented the "Tiger Venerable Art" perfectly; one focused on internal Qi and blood, the other on external tendons and bones.

These days, in the spirit spring space, he utilized the ten-fold time dilation to begin attempting to Cultivate this painful Cultivation Technique.

Following the records of the Cultivation Technique, he mixed spirit spring water with some blood-activating herbs and applied it all over his body.

Then, he would use special wooden sticks, or even small iron hammers, to continuously strike his body according to the special frequency and route recorded in the Cultivation Technique.

From arms, chest, back, to legs...

Every strike brought waves of soreness and stinging pain that penetrated deep into his marrow.

If not for the spirit spring water constantly repairing the damaged skin and flesh tissues, an ordinary person would have long since given up halfway.

Even so, every time he finished cultivating, Gao Feng felt as if he had been beaten up by hundreds of people, his whole body bruised and purple, and even moving made him wince in pain.

But he could clearly feel that deep within his skin and even muscles, in this process of "breaking then establishing," they were becoming increasingly dense and increasingly tough.

"This Cultivation Technique has great potential," Gao Feng secretly thought, "Although painful, it is the most effective way to enhance my ability to resist head-on, so I must persist."

The arts of killing were the "Bloody Battle Saber Technique" and the "Hegemon Spear Technique."

The "Bloody Battle Saber Technique" had long been mastered by him; every move and style was filled with the killing aura of iron and blood, and combined with his combat skills from his previous life, its power was doubled.

The "Hegemon Spear Technique" was even more mastered to perfection, its power peerless, incomparably domineering, and unmatched.

And his recent focus of cultivation was that "Following Wind Willow Catkin Movement Technique."

This lightness skill was completely different from everything he had learned before.

It did not emphasize strength, nor did it pursue speed, but emphasized the word "borrow."

Borrowing the power of the wind, borrowing the momentum of the earth, and even borrowing the power of the strong wind brought about by the enemy's attacks.

The method of cultivation was also extremely peculiar.

The first step was to walk on water, achieving the feat of stepping on water without creating ripples.

Gao Feng jumped directly into the spirit spring lake; at first, every time he landed, he would splash huge waves, and the consumption of Internal Energy was also terrifying.

But supported by the nearly infinite "stamina potion" of the spirit spring space, he tirelessly attempted it over and over again.

After failing countless times, he slowly found that wonderful feeling.

Spreading Internal Energy like silk threads evenly across the soles of his feet, at the moment of touching the water surface, forming a thin "Qi membrane" to disperse the body's weight.

After nearly a "month" of diligent cultivation in the space, he could finally barely take seven or eight steps on the lake surface without sinking.

And when in the outside world, during the day.

Gao Feng no longer cooped himself up in the stockade, but under the pretext of "investigating the surrounding environment of the stockade and looking for potential threats," he entered the primitive and dense mountain forest of "Ghost Sees Sorrow" alone.

This was both an investigation and a natural training ground for him to Cultivate the "Following Wind Willow Catkin Movement Technique."

In the forest, ancient trees towered into the sky, vines intertwined, and the terrain was complex and changeable.

Gao Feng's figure, like an agile ape, moved rapidly between the treetops and vines.

He would sometimes lightly tap his toes on the swaying branches, using the force to leap high.

Sometimes his body, as if without bones, would slide along the rough tree trunks.

Sometimes he would be like a real fallen leaf, drawing an incredible arc in the air, landing silently on another tree.

At first, his movements still appeared somewhat raw and stiff, often falling from the trees in a sorry state because his Internal Energy did not circulate smoothly.

But as time passed, his movements became more and more fluid, more and more natural.

His understanding of this movement technique also became deeper and deeper.

Cultivating in the mountain forest had another benefit.

That was, he could incidentally search for various valuable resources.

His five senses were already far superior to ordinary people, and even more acute after cultivation.

Where there were rare medicinal herbs, where there were edible mushrooms, where there were hidden mineral veins... none could escape his eyes.

This day, he was passing through a damp, shaded hillside when he suddenly smelled a faint, peculiar fragrance.

He followed the fragrance and, in a crevice of a rock covered with thick moss, discovered a plant that was entirely blood-red and shaped like ginseng.

"This is... Blood Lingzhi?"

Gao Feng's heart stirred; he recognized this Rank 2 rare medicinal herb that had been recorded in Uncle Sun's medical books.

It was said that this item had extremely strong effects of invigorating Qi and activating blood, and was a good ingredient for refining various healing Medicinal Pills.

He carefully dug out this Blood Lingzhi along with the soil at its roots, then with a thought, sent it directly into the spirit spring space and planted it in that fertile black soil.

He believed that in this precious land rich in Spiritual Qi, this Blood Lingzhi would soon be able to propagate into a large patch.

Just like this, Gao Feng would investigate the environment, Cultivate his movement technique, and collect medicinal herbs in the mountain forest during the day.

At night, he would enter the space to diligently Cultivate his Internal Skill and Body Refining Cultivation Technique.

His strength was growing at a steady and solid pace, slowly but firmly.

But that threshold of Rank 4 still stood like an insurmountable mountain before him.

He knew that this could not be solved just by diligent cultivation.

Before obtaining a higher-level Cultivation Technique, he could only continuously accumulate, constantly polish his Foundation, and wait for that opportunity for a Breakthrough.

...

Time passed quickly, and after recuperating for more than a month, Du Wei's injuries finally healed.

During this month or so, although he lay on his sickbed, he saw everything that happened in Panshi Stockade.

He saw the bustling construction scene.

He saw the smiles from the heart overflowing on the faces of the surrendered soldiers who were once his compatriots.

He saw how those new recruits, under strict training, transformed from a mob into battle-hardened elite troops who followed orders and prohibited non-compliance.

He even saw how Gao Feng used astonishing means to create the divine object "cement" out of thin air.

He heard Liu Chengfeng tell of the various magical aspects of Gao Feng.

This young Stockade Master seemed to know everything and be capable of anything.

The pride and unwillingness in his heart had long since been worn away by these unbelievable events.

Replacing them was a deep, heartfelt awe and submission.

He finally understood that the defeat of Dushan Stronghold was not accidental.

Bear Overlord's death was also not a fluke.

What they lost to was not strategy, not force, but an existence... that completely transcended their cognition and understanding.