N-A-A Chapter 16 Requirements
Chapter 16 Requirements
The time spent practicing martial arts is always tedious and boring, and can even be described as painful.
Xu Mo repeated the same movements day after day: the trembling and soreness of his muscles when standing in the stance, the stinging pain from his skin during the resistance training, and the extreme exhaustion after high-intensity strength training, as if even his bone marrow had been drained... Sweat, like an inexhaustible stream, soaked through his clothes and the ground beneath him.
In peacetime, with the willpower of an ordinary office worker like Xu Mo, he probably wouldn't have been able to last even three days and would have found various reasons to give up. After all, a comfortable life can wear down a person's resilience.
But this is the end times.
Here, laziness can mean death, and weakness is equivalent to original sin.
Every time you grit your teeth and persevere when you're exhausted, every time you pat your body and endure the pain, it's given a completely different meaning—it's not about completing a tedious task, but about forging a suit of armor for yourself that allows you to survive and live better.
Each time he pushed his limits, Xu Mo could clearly feel a subtle increase in strength, improved body coordination, and enhanced control over himself. This tangible feedback, crucial to his survival, became the strongest motivation for him to persevere.
Xu Mo's mindset was completely reshaped under the pressure of survival; patience and perseverance transformed from qualities into instincts.
Originally, Xu Mo planned to leave the town after his body had basically recovered and he had mastered the rules of the cheat system, heading towards a place where there might be a larger survivor base or a safer area.
However, as time went by, the town remained eerily silent. It seemed to have truly become a forgotten, safe island.
After careful consideration, Xu Mo temporarily abandoned the idea of leaving immediately. The unknown journey would inevitably be accompanied by great risks, while this place at least provided a relatively stable environment where he could focus on improving his strength without distractions. Since it was safe for the time being, he would devote all his energy to this rare "golden period of improvement."
As a result, Xu Mo's life became extremely regular, even monotonous.
Every forty-eight hours, Xu Mo would appear precisely in front of the glass door marked "Welcome to Try." His use of his abilities became increasingly skillful, and his goals became clearer. He was no longer content with simply obtaining food; he began to plunder more purposefully.
On one occasion, he was lucky enough to find a sturdy backpack in the storage room of that small restaurant, which greatly improved his efficiency in carrying supplies at one time.
On another occasion, after confirming that he did not have any urgently needed supplies, Xu Mo did something extremely "luxurious"—he spent a full sixty seconds quickly rinsing his sweaty and dirty body under the kitchen tap.
The moment the cool water washed away the sticky sweat and impurities expelled from his body after training, Xu Mo almost groaned in comfort. After all, the high-intensity training had made him sweat profusely, and if he didn't clean himself in time, the smell would be unbearable even for himself, and it would also easily breed bacteria, which would not be conducive to maintaining his condition.
With ample supplies, Xu Mo could push his physical limits without any worries. His appetite became astonishing; large amounts of rice, meat, and purified water were consumed and converted into energy to support his intense training and raw materials to repair his body.
However, as the training progressed, especially with the increasing workload of resistance training and high-intensity strength training, a new and undeniable problem began to emerge.
Initially, the muscle soreness and fatigue from training can be largely recovered after a good meal and a good night's sleep.
Recently, however, Xu Mo discovered that certain parts of his body, especially his joints, ligaments, and the forearms and shinbones that bear the most slaps, began to experience a deeper, persistent soreness and dull pain. This pain was not the swelling pain caused by the accumulation of lactic acid in the muscles, but rather a warning sign of subtle tearing and damage that seemed to penetrate deep into the bones and muscles.
Upon waking, the pain did not completely disappear, but was only slightly relieved. It would be triggered again or even intensified during the next day's training.
Xu Mo's heart sank. He understood that this wasn't a normal fatigue recovery process. It was a sign that the training load had exceeded the body's natural recovery capacity. If left unchecked and forced to continue, these minor injuries would accumulate, eventually forming irreversible hidden wounds.
Hidden injuries are the most detested thing for every martial artist who pursues the limits of their body. They may not be noticeable in ordinary times, but they can erupt at crucial moments, or become a fatal hidden danger as age increases and physical functions decline. They can also become a shackle to further improvement, causing your level to be forever stuck at a certain bottleneck, preventing you from reaching a higher level.
The "Thirteen Bodyguards Horizontal Training" martial art inherently involves using external force to temper the physical body, pursuing ultimate defense and strength. This process inevitably involves repeated damage, repair, and strengthening of the body. Without corresponding medicinal aids to repair damage and nourish tendons and bones, relying solely on food and sleep is too inefficient and carries significant risks. In ancient times, those who practiced external hard martial arts often possessed secret recipes for medicinal wines, baths, or internal remedies to promote blood circulation, remove blood stasis, strengthen tendons and bones, and repair hidden injuries.
"We must find a drug or method to help repair the damage to the body!" Xu Mo clearly realized this. This was not only to alleviate the current pain, but also to prevent any hidden dangers and to prepare for cultivating the "Thirteen Protectors" to a higher level.
His gaze returned to the countdown in his mind. Next time, his target wouldn't just be food and weapons; he needed to find a pharmacy, a traditional Chinese medicine clinic, or anywhere else he might be able to find such things.
On his path of cultivation, Xu Mo encountered his first hurdle that required the assistance of external aids to overcome.
After finishing his workout, Xu Mo rubbed his still slightly aching and swollen forearms and shins, his brow furrowed slightly. He began searching his memory for information related to "damage repair" and "strengthening bones and muscles." Not being a medical student, his knowledge in this area was limited, so he could only painstakingly extract useful fragments from past films, snippets of social observation, and his second uncle's vague and exaggerated boasts from years ago.
The first thing that comes to mind is naturally the pharmacy.
Xu Mo tried hard to recall the typical appearance of a modern pharmacy: bright glass doors and windows, perhaps adorned with a blue cross or the logo of a chain pharmacy. Inside, neat white or light-colored shelves held medicines categorized into prescription and over-the-counter sections, and staff in white coats… These images became clearer. Crucially, the pharmacy's facade was most likely also made of glass!
This discovery gave Xu Mo a jolt of excitement, as it meant that he could potentially open a pharmacy by finding a suitable glass door and attaching signs such as "XX Pharmacy" or "Kangjian"!
So, does the pharmacy have what he needs?
What he needed wasn't ordinary cold medicine or antibiotics, but rather medication specifically for muscle strain, aches and pains, and to improve blood circulation. Xu Mo vaguely remembered that pharmacies seemed to have a dedicated section for sprains and bruises.
What might be there? Safflower oil, liniment for bruises and sprains, plasters such as musk-infused bone-strengthening plaster, oral Chinese patent medicines for promoting blood circulation and removing blood stasis, etc...
The names of these things sound like they're for the right ailment.
However, an even stronger idea suddenly popped into my head, accompanied by my second uncle's boastful words from back then—medicated wine.
Especially the "tiger bone wine" that his second uncle had touted as miraculous back then. Although Xu Mo knew that the trade in tiger bones had long been banned in modern times, and that so-called tiger bone wine was basically made with other medicinal herbs, the concept of "medicinal wine" was deeply ingrained in his understanding that it was "essential for martial arts practitioners." Besides tiger bone wine, there were also things like bone-strengthening wine, muscle-relaxing wine, and "Duke's Wine," and so on...
In Xu Mo's imagination, these dark brown liquids, soaked with various medicinal herbs he did not recognize, contained mysterious power that could penetrate the bones and muscles, dispel stagnation, and nourish damaged meridians, making them an excellent aid for cultivating external martial arts.
"Yes! Medicated wine, or those plasters and medicated oils that promote blood circulation and remove blood stasis!" Xu Mo decided on his next target.
Food and weapons alone are not enough; he needs these "cultivation resources" to support him in going further. Next time, Xu Mo's goal is to find a "door" that might correspond to a pharmacy or a health supplement shop, and find a way to obtain these medicines that can repair his body and aid in his cultivation.
At this moment, Xu Mo felt that the dull pain in his body was no longer just a problem, but had transformed into a powerful driving force that propelled him to continue exploring the rules and searching for specific resources.