Chapter 42: Inspiration

The gloomy morning light gradually drove away the night. After a few hours, the Crimson Territory welcomed its dawn.

As soon as daylight broke, noisy clamor arose from the dilapidated buildings scattered everywhere. Survivors with tired and numb faces emerged one after another. The vast Crimson Territory seemed to suddenly come alive, brimming with human presence.

When the noise came from downstairs, in a room filled with the pungent smell of blood, Chen Chong, who had been sitting cross-legged on the bed board in a strange posture, slowly opened his eyes. A sharp gleam overflowed from his eyes.

In his consciousness, the [Materialization Power Reserve] had already become 1166 units!

“Less than 2 units per hour. After setting aside 1000 units as backup, I still need nearly two hundred hours of meditation training to accumulate enough Materialization Power to translate the remaining two techniques. Time is still too tight…”

The thick and unpleasant smell of blood seemed to have no effect on him. Chen Chong silently estimated in his heart, let out a long breath, stood up, and stretched the joints of his entire body.

Although the growth of Materialization Power was slow, being able to increase it through his own training was already an unexpected joy for Chen Chong. He could not ask for too much.

After the two lackeys carried the corpse out last night, he had not slept all night, spending the entire night training the [Ultimate Infinite Qigong]. Now, not only did he not feel any fatigue, but he was instead full of energy, as if he possessed inexhaustible strength. His entire bearing had undergone a slight change, and the few strands of True Qi within his body, originally as thin as strands of hair, had become much more solid and robust.

“As expected, after condensing the first strand of Ultimate True Qi, the cultivation speed isn’t as fast as before, is it?”

Chen Chong gently squeezed his fist, and his knuckles made fine cracking sounds. He walked to the window, looked down at the dirty and chaotic streets, where streams of people were emerging, and pondered:

“Also… I feel like I’m a little hungry now?”

During the entire night of training yesterday, he did not make rapid progress like when he first condensed that first strand of Ultimate True Qi. The cultivation speed had clearly begun to slow down. Not only that, but at this very moment, a faint sense of hunger came from his stomach. Every cell seemed to be reminding him that his body urgently needed nutritional replenishment.

Senzu Beans had the miraculous effect of preventing hunger for ten days. Yet, it had been less than two days since Chen Chong consumed the Senzu Bean. After a moment of confusion, Chen Chong immediately thought of the reason:

The training philosophy of the early stage of [Ultimate Infinite Qigong] was Refining Essence into Qi. Training had to be paired with sufficient bodily nutritional intake. If one only trained desperately without focusing on replenishing vital energy and blood, the cultivation progress would only get slower, and the results would be halved with double the effort. The fundamental reason the Senzu Bean maintained the body without hunger for ten days was a certain type of essence contained within the bean itself. However, this had been completely exhausted during his process of condensing Ultimate True Qi and his sleepless night of training, which was why he felt a faint hunger at this moment.

And it was foreseeable that without a large amount of nutritional intake and nourishment for his vital energy and blood, his cultivation progress would likely get slower and slower.

“Thirty percent training, seventy percent eating. It seems cultivation and physical fitness share some common principles.”

Looking out the window, Chen Chong frowned:

“But in this place, can my training needs be met?”

Chen Chong’s current body was already somewhat malnourished due to his time as a prisoner. Adding the training of [Ultimate Infinite Qigong] on top of that, he clearly needed a large nutritional intake to meet the demands of training. What worried Chen Chong was how he could ensure his training needs were met with resources so scarce in this world.

Actually, within the [Ultimate Infinite Qigong], there were recorded several ancient medicinal recipes specifically for nourishing the body and cooperating with training. However, the world Chen Chong was in had been reduced to a wasteland. Even food and water were scarce resources. These medicinal recipes were undoubtedly just pieces of waste paper.

“Take it one step at a time!”

Chen Chong took a deep breath. Unable to think of a better method for the moment, he then pushed the door open and walked out of his room.

He decided to walk around the Crimson Territory, claim his own share of supplies, and at the same time, learn about the so-called “work.”

As soon as he pushed the door open, in the corridor, several haggard-looking laborers had just reached the stairway. Seeing Chen Chong push the door open and come out, they froze, then suddenly shuddered violently:

“It’s that guy coming out!”

“That means… the headless one from yesterday was Skinny Ghost!?”

“Skinny Ghost was taken out!”

“Hurry, go!”

These laborers immediately looked as if they had seen a ghost, rushing downstairs in a panic, afraid of being caught by Chen Chong.

“Skinny Ghost… so that was the name of that lunatic from yesterday?”

Standing in place, Chen Chong touched his chin and gave a wry smile:

“It seems Tie Shan helped me out a bit.”

The man called Skinny Ghost had been killed by him. Now, the room he was in and this half of the corridor were inhabited only by him. This undoubtedly made things much more convenient for his training plan. And it was foreseeable that with this kind of intimidation, these laborers would not dare to come to his half of the building without a good reason, saving him a lot of trouble.

As he was thinking this, Chen Chong walked downstairs and saw the two lackeys from last night standing at the building entrance, seemingly waiting for something.

“Are you waiting for me? I wonder where Captain Yin Hu is?”

Seeing Chen Chong come downstairs, the expressions of the two men tightened. One of them involuntarily answered immediately: “The Captain went to patrol and supervise the various factories. What do you need?”

Chen Chong shrugged his shoulders: “You should know the General promised me captain-level supplies. Who should I go to for that?”

The two lackeys were stunned for a moment, a flash of envy passing through their eyes. The shorter one answered: “You need to go to the storage area to claim that. We can take you there.”

Chen Chong raised an eyebrow: “Oh? That’s even better then.”

Although he knew these two lackeys were most likely sent to watch him, Chen Chong didn’t mind. He followed behind the two men, heading towards the warehouse he had visited yesterday.

Bits of black ash drifted in the air. At this hour, survivors in the streets and alleys were hurrying in different directions, seemingly rushing to their work shifts. Along the way, one could occasionally see survivors in tattered clothes, emaciated and bony, lying on the sides of the dark, filthy roads, their fate unknown.

Chen Chong silently withdrew his gaze and asked the two leading the way in front: “What are your names? How many factories does the General’s Territory actually have, needing so many laborers?”

“Wei De.”

“Lu Kai.”

The two lackeys, one tall and one short, reported their names respectively. The taller one, Wei De, said without turning his head:

“Many? Are you kidding? Do you know how many factories the entire Territory has? Metallurgy, forging, planting, chemical, armaments, and also the Power Station, even the external Hunting Squads. All these require large numbers of people to maintain, otherwise…”

Power Station?

Wei De was still talking, but upon hearing the term Power Station, Chen Chong was suddenly stunned, as if receiving some kind of inspiration, a flash of inspiration bursting in his mind!