Chapter 16: Demand

Chapter 16: Chapter 16: Demand

Training was always tedious and dull, even verging on painful.

Xu Mo repeated the same movements day after day. The trembling and soreness of his muscles during the Posture Stance, the sharp stabs of pain in his flesh from the resistance to impact training, the extreme exhaustion after high-intensity strength training that felt as if his very marrow had been sucked dry... Sweat flowed like an endless stream, soaking his clothes and the ground beneath him.

If this were a time of peace, with the willpower of his former self—an ordinary office worker—Xu Mo probably wouldn’t have lasted even three days before finding excuses to quit. After all, a comfortable life erodes one’s resilience.

But this was the apocalypse.

Here, slacking off could mean death. Weakness was the original sin.

Every time he gritted his teeth and pushed through exhaustion, every time he endured the pain of striking his own body, it all took on a completely different meaning. It wasn’t about completing a tedious task; it was about forging armor for himself—armor that would let him survive, and survive *well*.

With every limit he broke, Xu Mo could clearly feel a subtle increase in his strength, an improvement in his coordination, and a greater sense of control over his own body. This tangible feedback, directly tied to his survival, became the strongest motivation driving him forward.

The pressure to survive had completely reshaped Xu Mo’s mindset. Endurance and perseverance were no longer virtues; they had become instincts.

Originally, Xu Mo had planned to leave town as soon as his body had mostly recovered and he had grasped the rules of his Golden Finger. He’d intended to head toward a potentially larger survivor settlement or a safer area.

However, as the days passed, the town remained shrouded in that unsettling, deathly silence. It was as if this place had truly become a forgotten, isolated island of safety.

After weighing his options repeatedly, Xu Mo temporarily dismissed the idea of leaving immediately. An unknown journey would inevitably come with immense risks. This place, at least, offered a relatively stable environment where he could focus on improving his strength without distractions. Since he was safe for now, he decided to pour all his energy into this rare "golden period of improvement."

Thus, Xu Mo’s life became extremely disciplined, one might even say monotonous.

Every forty-eight hours, Xu Mo would appear on schedule before the glass door with the "Enjoy Your Meal" sticker. He grew more adept at using his ability, and his objectives became clearer. He was no longer content with just getting food; he began to scavenge with specific targets in mind.

On one occasion, he was lucky enough to find a sturdy two-strap backpack in the storeroom of that little restaurant, which greatly increased the efficiency of his supply runs.

Another time, after confirming he had no urgent need for supplies, Xu Mo did something extremely "luxurious"—he spent a full sixty seconds quickly rinsing his sweat- and grime-covered body under a faucet in the back kitchen.

The moment the cold water washed away the sticky sweat and the impurities expelled from his body after training, Xu Mo almost moaned in pleasure. After all, the high-intensity training made him sweat buckets. If he didn’t clean himself promptly, even he couldn’t stand his own smell. It would also be easy for bacteria to grow, which wasn’t conducive to maintaining his peak condition.

An ample supply of resources allowed Xu Mo to push his physical limits without any worries. His appetite became astounding. Huge amounts of rice, meat, and purified water were consumed, converted into the energy that fueled his frenzied training and the raw materials to repair his body.

However, as his training deepened, especially with the increasing load from the resistance to impact and high-intensity strength training, a new and unavoidable problem began to surface.

At first, the muscle soreness and fatigue from training would mostly disappear after a full meal and a night’s sleep.

But recently, Xu Mo discovered a deeper, lingering soreness and a hidden ache in certain parts of his body—especially his joints, ligaments, and the areas that took the most strikes, like his forearms and shins. This wasn’t the throbbing pain of lactic acid buildup in the muscles; it was a warning signal, like a subtle tearing and damage deep within his sinews and bones.

When he woke up, the pain hadn’t completely vanished. It had only eased slightly, and it would be triggered again, even intensified, during the new day’s training.

Xu Mo’s heart sank. He understood this was not a normal recovery process. It was a sign that the training load had surpassed his body’s natural ability to heal. If he ignored it and forced himself to continue, this minor damage would accumulate and eventually form irreversible hidden injuries.

Hidden injuries were what every martial artist pushing their physical limits detested most. They might not be apparent in daily life, but they could erupt at a critical moment or become a fatal liability as one aged and their body declined. Worse, they would become a shackle preventing further progress, leaving one’s cultivation permanently stuck at a bottleneck, unable to reach higher levels.

The Thirteen Grand Protectors’ Cross Training was a skill that, by its very nature, tempered the flesh with external force, pursuing the ultimate in defense and power. The process inevitably involved repeated damage, repair, and strengthening of the body. Without corresponding medicines to aid in repairing damage and nourishing the sinews and bones, relying solely on food and sleep was too inefficient and fraught with immense risk. In ancient times, those who practiced External Hard Skills often had secret medicinal wines, herbal baths, or oral prescriptions to stimulate blood circulation, remove stasis, strengthen tendons and bones, and heal hidden injuries.

’I have to find some kind of medicine or method to help repair the damage to my body!’ Xu Mo realized this with clarity. This wasn’t just about alleviating the current pain; it was a necessary preparation to avoid leaving behind hidden injuries and to be able to cultivate the Thirteen Grand Protectors to a higher level.

His gaze once again turned to the countdown timer in his mind. Next time, his goal wouldn’t just be food and weapons. He needed to find a pharmacy, a traditional Chinese medicine hall, or any place where he might find such things.

On his path of cultivation, Xu Mo had encountered the first hurdle he could only overcome with external aid.

After finishing his workout, Xu Mo kneaded his still faintly aching and swollen forearms and shins, his brow furrowed. He began to search his memory for any information related to "repairing damage" and "strengthening sinews and bones." He wasn’t a medical student and his knowledge was poor. He could only try to extract useful fragments from old movies and TV shows, scattered bits of common knowledge, and the tall tales his second grand-uncle used to spin.

The first thing that came to mind, naturally, was a pharmacy.

Xu Mo tried hard to recall the typical appearance of a modern pharmacy: bright glass doors and windows, perhaps with a blue cross sticker or the logo of a pharmacy chain. Inside, there would be neat white or light-colored shelves with medicines sorted by category, prescription and non-prescription sections, and staff in white coats... The images grew clearer. The key point was that the storefront of a pharmacy was, in all likelihood, also a glass door!

This discovery lifted Xu Mo’s spirits. It meant he could very likely target and open a portal to a pharmacy by finding a suitable glass door and putting a sign on it, like "XX Pharmacy" or "Health & Wellness"!

So, would a pharmacy have what he needed?

’I don’t need common cold medicine or antibiotics, but rather drugs specifically for muscle strain, sore sinews, stimulating blood circulation, and dispelling stasis.’ Xu Mo vaguely remembered that pharmacies seemed to have a dedicated section for bruises and injuries.

What would be there? Honghua Oil, Dit Da Jow, Plasters... like the Musk Bone-Strengthening Ointment, or oral Chinese patent medicines for improving circulation...

The names of these items sounded like they were exactly what he needed.

However, a stronger idea, accompanied by the memory of his second grand-uncle’s spittle-flying boasts, suddenly leaped to mind—medicinal wine.

Especially the "Tiger Bone Wine" that his second grand-uncle had hyped up to mythical proportions. Although Xu Mo knew that the trade of tiger bones had long been banned in modern times and so-called Tiger Bone Wine was mostly made with substitute herbs, the concept of "medicinal wine" was deeply ingrained in his perception of a "must-have for martial artists." Besides Tiger Bone Wine, there were also things like Bone-Strengthening Wine, Tendon-Relaxing and Circulation-Activating Wine, Duke’s Wine, and so on...

In Xu Mo’s imagination, these dark brown liquids, steeped with all sorts of herbs he didn’t recognize, contained a mysterious power. They could penetrate sinew and bone, dispel stasis, and gently nourish damaged channels. They were the perfect supplement for practicing External Martial Arts.

’That’s it! Medicinal wine, or those Plasters and oils for improving circulation!’ Xu Mo confirmed his next objective.

’Food and weapons alone aren’t enough. I need these "cultivation resources" to support me in going further.’ Xu Mo’s next goal was to find a "door" that might correspond to a pharmacy or a store for tonics and find a way to obtain these medicines that could repair his body and aid his training.

The hidden ache in his body was no longer just a nuisance. Instead, it had transformed into a powerful driving force, pushing him to continue exploring the rules of his ability and to search for specific resources.