I Cultivate in a Government Office

Chapter 161: Chapter 106: Director Zhang’s Reprimand (Part 2)

He paused, his voice dropping lower. "The recent procurements were quite costly. The liquid assets in the estate’s account are now under two hundred thousand. It won’t affect daily expenses or the manor’s upkeep, but any further large expenditures will require advance planning."

As he spoke, he handed over a Storage Bag.

Yang Wenqing had a rough idea of the Four Seas Trading Company’s finances. Hearing this, he nodded with a sense of resignation. He appeared very wealthy, but when faced with the bottomless pit that was cultivation, his current fortune still seemed insufficient.

Yang Wenqing’s tone was calm. "As long as there’s enough money for normal operations, it’s fine. Spend what needs to be spent from the accounts. I don’t mind spending it where it counts. Keep an eye on the remaining five sets. The most important thing is to have them ready on time."

"Yes, I understand."

Yang Yong breathed a sigh of relief and nodded in acknowledgment.

Yang Wenqing took the Storage Bag and inspected the five grouped sets of Spiritual Medicine. After confirming their medicinal potency and age were all comparable, he placed them back into his own Storage Bag and walked straight to the Quiet Chamber in the rear courtyard.

...

Inside the Quiet Chamber, the light of the ’Five Qi Returning Yuan Array’ flowed steadily, providing a fundamental stability for the violent impact to come.

Yang Wenqing sat cross-legged in the center of the Array, his expression grave. After composing his thoughts, he took out five jade boxes from his Storage Bag. These were the five sets of Spiritual Medicines, each aligned with one of the Five Elements and of similar potency and age. Probing them with his consciousness, he selected the set with the mildest potency and opened its jade box.

The edges of the Sharp Gold Grass leaves were like fine saw teeth, emitting a clear, sharp Metal Element Spiritual Qi. The Withered Heart Vine was dark in color, carrying a sour, astringent wood-element life force. The Chilled Marrow Ganoderma was a deep blue, and just being near it made one’s kidney region feel slightly cool. The Earth Flame Fruit was as crimson as a flame, giving off a faint heat. The Bedrock Fungus was a thick, earthy yellow, exuding a sense of heavy stability.

Yang Wenqing took a deep breath. He took out an energy crystal and held it in his left hand, while the five fingers of his right hand hovered over the five Spiritual Medicines. With a thought, the Gathering Spirit Array on his wrist instantly activated at maximum power, and at the same time, he forcefully crushed the crystal in his left hand!

CRACK!

The energy crystal shattered on cue. A pure, immense Spiritual Qi instantly erupted from it. The flow in his Qi Sea accelerated, absorbing all of it into his Qi Sea and Spiritual Veins.

Then, at almost the same instant, a Spiritual Light flared from the five fingers of his right hand. Using the unique medicine-drawing technique of the Fourth Refinement of the Nine Refining Secret Skill, he simultaneously extracted the medicinal essence from the five potent medicines!

BZZZMMMM—

Five torrential streams of medicinal power, each with a different elemental attribute, surged violently from his fingertips through his meridians. The piercing pain of metal, the sour bloating of wood, the icy chill of water, the searing heat of fire, and the crushing weight of earth—five distinct and intense sensations, accompanied by the immense Spiritual Qi, crashed into their corresponding five organs like five savage, rampaging dragons!

"Argh!"

Yang Wenqing’s body convulsed violently. An irrepressible groan of pain escaped his throat. A pain far exceeding what he’d felt during the Second Refinement using the Stone Marrow Liquid instantly overwhelmed him!

A few seconds later, a more detailed agony followed, tensing his every nerve. His lungs felt as if they were being stabbed by countless tiny golden needles, a sensation both numb and painful. His liver area felt sour and swollen, as if it were about to explode. His kidneys were chilled to the bone, on the verge of shattering from the cold. His heart burned like an inferno, pounding like a war drum. His spleen and stomach felt heavy and sluggish, as if crushed under a thousand-pound boulder.

Immediately after, his five senses began to distort. Colors swirled chaotically in his vision, a constant ringing filled his ears, and the harmonious Five Qi Cycle within his body was brutally torn apart by the five invading streams of potent medicinal power.

The nurturing Spiritual Light of the ’Five Qi Returning Yuan Array’ desperately tried to harmonize the energies, barely managing to protect the last spark of life at the very core of his organs.

’Pain! Unimaginable agony!’

It wasn’t just the feeling of his body being torn apart, but also the mental chaos brought on by the imbalance of the Five Elements. If not for his solid foundation in the Fourth Refinement, if not for the projection of his Golden Core World firmly locking onto the state of his five organs and guiding the rampaging power to prevent a complete loss of control, this single impact would have been enough to damage his organs and cause his Cultivation to regress.

His face instantly turned ashen. Veins bulged on his temples and neck, and cold sweat poured down like a waterfall, soaking his clothes in an instant. His body trembled violently and uncontrollably. He clenched his jaw so hard it chattered, and the metallic taste of blood filled his mouth.

But he did not stop, nor could he. He desperately clung to the last shred of clarity in his mind. Relying on the clear Introspection provided by his Golden Core World, he endured the pain that was enough to make one pass out and guided the five rampant streams of medicinal power and Spiritual Qi to repeatedly flush his corresponding organs according to the circulation path of the Fourth Refinement.

Each flush brought a new wave of extreme agony, but he could also clearly feel that his organs, under the nourishment of the potent medicine’s domineering power and the Spiritual Qi, were being forcibly squeezed to tap into their deeper potential, undergoing a predictable sublimation and refinement.

He didn’t know how long the process lasted. It might have only been a few dozen breaths, but it felt longer than a century.

When the Spiritual Qi from the energy crystal in his hand was completely depleted and the medicinal essence of the five potent medicines was fully absorbed, Yang Wenqing felt as if all his strength had been drained. He suddenly pitched forward, collapsing limply within the Array.

He gasped for breath, each inhale tugging at his still twitching and stinging organs. His vision started to go black. The mental exhaustion and the feeling of collapse after the agony were even worse than his physical discomfort.

He forced himself to stay conscious, struggling to sit up straight. He began circulating the most basic of the Qi Nourishing Formulas, coordinating with the gentle power of the ’Five Qi Returning Yuan Array’ to calm the circulation in his Spiritual Veins.

After nearly two hours of regulating his breath, the heart-rending, lung-splitting pain finally receded.

This attempt had a significant effect. In the projection of his Golden Core World, the Spiritual Light of his five organs had clearly become a degree more solid. The progress of his five-organ cultivation was now close to seventy percent complete.