Chapter 137: A Middle Finger Worth Tens of Millions!
This time, Zhang Ze stared at his stats for a very long time.
Wealth Value: 29,900 points
Cell Strength: 978S
Cell Spirit: 199
……
After keeping the three key data points firmly in mind, Zhang Ze plunged deeply into his cultivation.
Previously, he had only heard Zhuang Ting mention that cultivating within this starry realm space could yield twice the result with half the effort.
Only when Zhang Ze immersed himself in cultivation did he truly feel the enhancement in his training speed.
Even so, Zhang Ze's breakthrough this time was destined to take a considerable amount of time.
For one thing, his cell strength had not yet reached the limit of 999S, which meant he needed time to improve it!
On the other hand, although all 12 of his meridians had now been completely connected end-to-end, the bonds between the meridians were still not deep enough.
This would undoubtedly have a profound impact on the bone-tempering stage after entering the middle ranks.
……
On the first day, Zhang Ze spent the entire time striving to push his cell strength to its limit.
It wasn't until the second day that he finally accomplished this.
With another Energy-Restoring Pill swallowed, Zhang Ze stepped into the middle ranks with high spirits.
It is worth mentioning that right around this time, Zhang Yue in the next room had already completed her breakthrough to the third rank.
Naturally, since her initial cell strength was already at 499S, stepping into the third-rank realm now was just a matter of course.
By the fourth day, Zhang Ze had actually finished his cultivation.
The system wealth value was consumed down to 24,300 points, but Zhang Ze's cell strength had also increased to 1,024S, meaning he had truly crossed into the ranks of the middle-tier martial artists.
Intending to finish his seclusion and show off a bit, Zhang Ze's gaze instead froze on the changes in the system interface.
Wealth Value: 24,300 points
Cell Strength: 1,024S
Cell Spirit: 199
Skills: Shielding (11%), Detection
Meridians: 12 (90%)
Bone-Tempering: 0 (10,000 wealth points per bone)
Lottery: 66 per draw, 648 for ten draws
Naturally, Zhang Ze's attention wasn't on the lottery; after all, that thing was nothing but a scam.
What concerned him the most was the text inside the parentheses under the bone-tempering entry.
What on earth was 10,000 wealth points per bone?
Could it be that the system could actually assist with bone-tempering?
Zhang Ze began to mutter to himself inwardly.
However, when he glanced at his remaining wealth value of a little over 20,000 points, a pang of heartache struck him.
Good grief!
Wasn't this damn thing way too expensive?
How many bones were there in the human body again?
Even though Zhang Ze had never spent many years in school across his two lives, he still knew this basic common sense.
208 bones!
That was the total number of bones in a normal adult's entire body!
What did 10,000 wealth points per bone mean?
You had to know that a single wealth point was worth 1,000 RMB!
That meant if Zhang Ze wanted to temper his bones through the system, a single bone would cost 10 million RMB!
If he relied on the system to temper all 208 bones in his entire body, it would cost 2.08 billion RMB!
Holy crap!!!
Zhang Ze had never seen that much money in either of his lives!
How could he not be shocked?
He couldn't help but offer a few warm regards to the creator of the system: You are truly a dog!
If I had that much money, would I still be bothering with bone-tempering?
I could buy eight or ten residential compounds and just be a landlord collecting rent every day, wouldn't that be wonderful?
……
After cursing up a storm for a good while.
Zhang Ze ultimately bit the bullet and decided to give it a try!
He had 20,000 wealth points after all, what harm was there in splurging a little?
Cursing was necessary, but trying it out was also a must~
"System, temper one bone!"
As Zhang Ze chanted silently in his heart, he felt an inexplicable surge of energy burst forth within his body.
This energy flowed through his meridians, and along the way, even the toughness of several small meridians improved significantly.
Eventually, all the energy gathered at the first phalanx of the middle finger on Zhang Ze's right hand!
At first, Zhang Ze hadn't expected it, but as the energy continuously converged, the middle finger of his right hand actually began to emit a faint glow.
It seemed that in the future, whenever Zhang Ze flipped someone the middle finger, he would actually be showing them great respect!
Random thoughts kept flashing through his mind, but anyway, system-assisted bone-tempering didn't require him to do any hard work himself!
After about five minutes, Zhang Ze felt that the middle finger of his right hand had grown much stronger!
Just as he was wondering whether he should learn a set of finger-technique martial arts, he noticed an abnormal change in his stats!
Wealth Value: 14,300 points
Cell Strength: 1,225S
The tempering of just a single small phalanx on his right middle finger had directly boosted Zhang Ze's cell strength by 200S!
This couldn't help but surprise Zhang Ze. If he had enough wealth points, wouldn't that mean he could reach the sixth rank in a single day?
After all, middle-three-rank martial artists basically spent all their time tempering their bones, didn't they?
……
In reality, this was just wishful thinking on his part.
Putting aside whether his current cell strength could support him in continuing to temper bones, if he couldn't quickly get used to the newly tempered bones, it would all be in vain!
……
Just as he was about to end his cultivation, Zhang Ze glanced at the system panel.
Skills: Shielding (11%), Detection
Meridians: 12 (90%)
Bone-Tempering: 1 bone (99%)
The sudden appearance of 99% completion made Zhang Ze feel slightly discordant.
Due to his limited understanding of middle-rank cultivation, Zhang Ze did not yet understand what this 99% meant!
……
Zhang Ze was quite happy with his cultivation this time, after all, his cultivation base had truly stepped into the fourth rank.
Only, Zhang Yue and the others hadn't expected his breakthrough this time to last for five days!
It wasn't until the spirit crystal turned from white to black for the fifth time that Zhang Ze walked out of the training room.
And with Zhang Ze's appearance at this moment, his entire aura had undergone a massive transformation.
Even Woody, upon sensing Zhang Ze's current cell strength, couldn't help but smile and nod.
Then she asked Zhang Ze, "You didn't just break through the 1,000S cell strength barrier this time, did you?"
Zhang Ze felt a deep sense of gratitude toward his teacher, so naturally, he wouldn't conceal anything from her.
Nodding, he said, "I also managed to temper a bone along the way~"
"Oh?"
"Which bone did you temper first?"
Woody asked with curiosity.
Zhang Ze had actually just done it reflexively; he hadn't intentionally meant to flip anyone the middle finger!
This was definitely the absolute truth!
Noticing Woody's face turn cold, Zhang Ze quickly became aware of his own "audacity" and explained, "Teacher, listen to me, I tempered the first phalanx of the middle finger on my right hand!"
It was only upon hearing this explanation from Zhang Ze that Woody noticed the change in Zhang Ze's middle finger.
Although it was just bone-tempering, the feeling Zhang Ze gave Woody seemed even more formidable than her own.
On the other hand, Zhang Yue, who was standing beside her, chuckled and said, "You tempered a small finger bone, doesn't that mean you'll have to worry every day about someone chopping it off?"
Hearing the little girl's words, Zhang Ze rolled his eyes.
Soon, Zhang Ze asked his teacher, "Teacher, can you find me a finger-technique martial art?"
"Now that I have this middle finger, I can definitely poke an enemy to death when they least expect it..."
"What am I to you? Running errands for you every day?"
Woody said with annoyed exasperation. In truth, she always felt that Zhang Ze's bone-tempering was stronger than her own had been.
She figured it must be because Zhang Ze had just finished tempering and didn't know how to keep his aura restrained yet.
……
Despite scolding him, Woody still added, "As for finger-technique martial arts, the old man does seem to have one. I'll get it for you once you all return from this trip."
"Return?"
"Are we going out?"
Zhang Ze seized upon the crucial point in her words and asked.