535: Chapter 535 The strong are destined to be lonely; only self-discipline leads to the top (12)

"Click."

Fang Cheng took a few steps into the kitchen and reached out to turn off the gas knob.

As the flame went out, the boiling sound in the deep stainless steel soup bucket did not stop immediately.

He was not afraid of the heat at all and directly lifted the pot lid.

Whoosh—

The long-accumulated scalding steam instantly burst open, turning into a thick white fog that rushed toward his face.

Fang Cheng didn't even blink his eyelids and took a deep, intoxicated breath.

The mist quickly dissipated, revealing the churning, turbid soup inside the bucket.

The deep soup bucket with a capacity of nearly 10L was jammed with seven or eight thick beef marrow bones.

There were also a few large chunks of dark red beef shank meat rising and falling in the milky-white soup liquid, exuding a mouth-watering, carnal meaty aroma.

Fang Cheng didn't bother to fetch a bowl and chopsticks; that would simply be too slow.

He directly reached out his hand, his five fingers probing like iron hooks into the boiling soup water, and grabbed a hind leg beef bone as thick as a child's arm.

With a "splash", he lifted it up.

The temperature of the freshly cooked soup juice was close to one hundred degrees, and it was just poured over his hand like that.

If it were an ordinary person, they would probably have a layer of skin scalded off on the spot.

But Fang Cheng felt no pain at all, and that thoroughly tempered palm did not even show a trace of redness.

He opened his mouth and bit down fiercely.

"Crack!"

The teeth-aching sound of bone cracking echoed in the narrow kitchen.

That hard beef leg bone, in front of Fang Cheng's teeth which were capable of biting through metal and stone, was as fragile as a crispy egg roll.

His sharp canine teeth instantly pierced through the bone wall, and a huge biting force erupted immediately.

Without even the process of stripping the meat, Fang Cheng directly chewed the meat and bones together into pieces.

"Crunch, crunch…"

As he chewed with his mouth, the hard bone fragments shattered between his teeth, making a sound similar to rocks being crushed.

Like a starving Vicious Beast, his Adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed those pasty mixtures mixed with bone marrow, fascia, and broken bones in large gulps into his belly.

This pot of soup had only been simmered for an hour and a half; for ingredients like beef bones, the cooking time was clearly far from enough.

The bone marrow inside the bones still maintained a semi-solid gelatinous state and had not completely melted into the soup.

But Fang Cheng was already too impatient with hunger, and anyway, this was not a problem for him at all.

He raised his head and took a slight breath towards the broken bone fragments.

"Slurp—"

A scalding, oily, semi-liquid bone marrow with a strong fishy aroma instantly slid down his throat.

"Gurgle…"

At the same time, a muffled echo came from deep within his abdominal cavity.

As if a high-power engine had been injected with fuel, it started up aggressively amidst a roar.

The powerful stomach wall muscles began to writhe violently, secreting extremely corrosive digestive juices to rapidly decompose these high-density foods.

From a nutritional perspective, bone marrow is not only fat, but also the core tissue for hematopoiesis and immunity.

It is rich in phospholipids, phosphoproteins, and various scarce trace elements.

Among them, collagen is the key raw material for promoting bone growth and repairing subtle bodily damages.

And in Fang Cheng's understanding, all of this boiled down to four words—Life Energy.

Whether it is high-intensity physical training or post-injury cell self-healing, it essentially consumes life energy.

This energy cannot be generated out of thin air, and the simplest way to obtain it is through high-calorie diet intake.

Of course, there are also various special Cultivation Techniques in this world that can directly plunder Origin energy from heaven and earth to replenish oneself more efficiently.

Just like the martial arts Qigong that Fang Cheng cultivated.

"Crack!"

Another beef bone was bitten off, and juices splashed everywhere.

Fang Cheng chewed hard, his cheeks bulging with hard lines.

His eating speed was frighteningly fast, his eyes focused and fanatical, wishing he could directly cram the whole bucket of beef marrow bone soup into his stomach.

There was no other way; recently, the body's consumption had been truly too huge.

Every day he had to carry out high-intensity training plans, constantly squeezing his physical limits, and his rest time was pathetically little.

Coupled with that night's fierce battle with Ghost Sickle, although it was thoroughly satisfying and his skill experience skyrocketed, the body's deficit could not be ignored.

Especially in order to forcefully resist that "Infinite Explosion Domain", Fang Cheng urged the True Sun Fire with all his might to form a Domain-like aura to fight against it.

That burst in just one second directly evaporated nearly a quarter of the True Qi reserves within his Dantian and Qi Sea.

Afterwards, Fang Cheng timely absorbed the radiation energy of the ancient remains to replenish the depleted True Qi.

However, to save those precious "ancient batteries", he did not choose to fill up the True Qi all at once, but left a small gap.

Fang Cheng slightly slowed down his chewing speed, felt the warmth coming from his stomach, and silently calculated in his heart.

The stock stored in the underwater Immortal Cave of Yongan Island was actually not much.

According to the current consumption rate, if he didn't find a way to increase revenue, that little family fortune would sooner or later be exhausted by sitting idle.

And the next time he went to the trench to collect ancient remains, he would have to wait until the end of the year when ocean currents drastically changed and the earth veins gushed.

During this period, if he encountered a few more formidable enemies like Ghost Sickle, or even more powerful and difficult opponents, and was forced to play his trump card, overdrawing his True Qi.

Then, the subsequent supply and combat power recovery issues would become very tricky.

Therefore, he must plan ahead, save where he can, and try to use limited resources on the cutting edge.

Fang Cheng swallowed the last piece of beef, grabbed a tissue, and wiped the grease off both hands.

Besides, with his current extraordinary Physique as high as 80 points, his body was like a super conversion furnace.

Even without deliberately cultivating Qigong, relying solely on instinctive breathing and eating, the conversion efficiency of life energy was hundreds of times that of ordinary people.

That little vacancy in the Dantian, as long as he ate, drank, shat, and pissed step-by-step, coupled with the assistance of the Breathing Technique, could automatically fill up in half a month at most.

This bio-energy charging method was a bit slow, but its advantage was that it was renewable and low-cost.

"Glug—"

Fang Cheng picked up the stainless steel bucket, raised his neck, and drank down the remaining soup base along with the meat dregs at the bottom in one gulp.

As much as 10 liters, the amount of food enough for a family of seven to eat, was thus solved and cleaned up by him in just over ten minutes.

At this moment, it felt like there was a stove burning in his stomach.

That was the powerful digestive System operating at full power, rapidly converting food into pure thermal currents and transporting them to all limbs and bones.

This sense of fullness from being satiated was truly intoxicating.

Fang Cheng casually threw the empty bucket into the sink, making a crisp "clatter" sound.

Then he picked up a napkin, wiped clean the corners of his mouth, turned around and walked out of the kitchen, pacing to the center of the living room.

At this time, the sky outside the floor-to-ceiling windows presented a cold cyan-gray color.

Looking into the distance, a touch of fish-belly white bloomed across the distant coastline.

There was a vaguely early-rising fishing boat on the sea surface, slowly leaving the port.

The sky was beginning to brighten up.

Fang Cheng, barefoot, casually twisted his neck a few times in the living room, making crisp "crack, crack" sounds.

Then he stretched his arms, did two chest expansion movements, and the back muscle groups undulated accordingly, like a pulled hard bow.

Having eaten and drunk his fill, his body state had already been adjusted to the Peak.

Next was today's main event.

Fang Cheng raised his head, locking his gaze on the brightly polished Pull-up bar under the ceiling beam.

He walked to the Pull-up bar, took a deep breath, and the airflow echoed within his chest cavity.

Then his knees bent slightly, and his thigh muscles tightened.

Afterwards, his whole body suddenly jumped up like a nimble spirit ape.

"Clap."

His hands steadily clasped the crossbar, and his knuckle joints locked tightly like iron pliers.

Fang Cheng's eyes congealed, the casualness in the depths of his eyes instantly disappeared, replaced by rock-solid persistence.

"Continue training!"

As his mind moved slightly, the special "Training Mode" instantly turned on.

Fang Cheng did not rush to pull his body up, but instead tightened his waist and abdominal core abruptly, controlling the rhythm, and began to Pull-up slowly.

One second, two seconds, three seconds.

"Creak—"

A terrifying sound that only he could hear exploded inside his body.

That was not the friction of bones, but the wailing of high-density muscle fibers twisting and squeezing each other under the action of tons of "internal pressure".

This was like a pair of invisible hands holding rough sandpaper, grinding fiercely on every one of his nerves and muscle bundles.

But Fang Cheng was expressionless, merely silently bearing this pressure that seemed to crush his body into pieces, completing the movement at a uniform speed.

His chin passed the bar, he paused slightly, and then lowered himself down in the same slow three seconds.

That large bucket of beef marrow soup he drank earlier finally played its role at this moment.

His stomach seemed to have turned into a blast furnace, continuously pumping out scalding thermal currents.

Then it rushed through his blood vessels into all limbs and bones, to combat the crazily consumed physical strength.

One, two, three…

Ten, twenty, thirty…

Sweat began to slide down Fang Cheng's temples, and before it dropped to the floor, it was evaporated by the astonishing high temperature of his body surface, turning into wisps of white steam lingering around his shoulders.

Although he had an 80-point Physique as a base, the Pull-up under this "charged state" was essentially a form of torture targeting the flesh.

That feeling was like countless blunt knives cutting back and forth across his body.

The internal pressure as high as six tons formed a Lingchi-like tearing sensation, which continuously deepened with the stretching of each movement.

No matter how accustomed he was to it, it was still clearly hair-raising.

But at the same time, Fang Cheng enjoyed it.

Because this pain was extremely real; it meant that weakness was being stripped away and steel was being forged.

In this day and age, chaos had already arisen, and undercurrents surged beneath the seemingly peaceful metropolis.

Whether it was the previous Noah Organization, or that behemoth "Utopia" hidden in the darkness, they were like the Sword of Damocles hanging over his head.

Only by possessing absolutely powerful violence could one have the sole confidence to resist the storm.

The dim living room had undoubtedly been transformed into a cold and hard combat gym.

Under that suspended Pull-up bar, a muscular and robust figure with muscles bare and lines as perfect as a sculpture was rising and falling tirelessly.

Every time he pulled up, his back muscle groups unfolded fiercely like bat wings, full of an explosive power aesthetic.

At this time, the city outside the floor-to-ceiling windows had not yet fully awakened.

The opposite apartment building was still shrouded in night, with only a few lights flickering slightly.

Heaven and earth were vast and desolate.

On the coastal elevated highway in the distance, a few moving car lights occasionally flashed by, appearing exceptionally lonely in the desolate mist before dawn.

But the path of the true strong is often quietly forged in this unknown silence and repetition.

New Year's Day extra update, there will be another chapter update later.