Tring!

Lin Xiao jumped back to avoid the attack. His eyes landed on the zither that Sui Wenyan held. There was faint marking of his sword at the edge, signaling that the strength he exerted was actually enough to destroy the defense of the zither.

"Let's stop here for now."

"Hmm?"

Sui Wenyan smiled and pointed to her zither. "You can penetrate the Qi defense with your attack alone. It means that against Foundation Establishment, your disadvantage had decreased."

Hearing that, Lin Xiao's eyes shone. The defense around the zither was similar to the defense of Qi layer that Foundation Establishment had. Since he had managed to break the defense of the zither, wouldn't it mean that he would be able to do the same when he was facing other Foundation Establishment Cultivators?

Lin Xiao was eager to try it.

Looking at the two others who were staying at the side, Sui Wenyan smiled helplessly. "if you want the same strength, you can just try to practice more or you can increase your strength by making sure that you have enough mental fortitude to try the medicinal bath."

"Uh, no."

"There's no need."

The two of them shook their head vehemently. While they did want to get stronger, experiencing the pain that Lin Xiao experienced was clearly not in their agenda. They didn't want to be forced to endure that kind of treatment at all.

They should be able to get stronger by training normally and used herbs to increase their strength.

"There are some tonics that can increase strength. Why don't you make it?" Sui Wenyan asked.

"There's no material here." Wenren Yu's face flushed. There were indeed some medicines that focused on increasing one's strength. He had seen them and intended to use them in the future when he could finally make one after gathering enough herbs. Unfortunately, some herbs didn't grow in this region.

He had to visit other places if he wanted to gather all the necessary herbs.

Sui Wenyan arched her eyebrows then nodded. She could faintly guess the reason, but she didn't want to interfere with how Wenren Yu cultivate. Everyone have their own method to grow stronger and if one method worked for someone, it didn't mean that it would also work for others.

There were some methods that was exclusive for certain cultivator that other wouldn't be able to imitate no matter what.

"The examination in Long Yin Forest will be held soon. We should prepare ourselves."

"Okay."

"I'll learn to control my strength for the time being."

Lin Xiao looked at the ground below him helplessly. Sudden increase in strength felt like it was truly too much. He wouldn't be able to do his work properly because of this. How troublesome.

While Lin Xiao walked around, Sui Wenyan looked at Wenren Yu. "I thought that the medicine bath couldn't increase one's strength that much?"

There were already several people who used the same method as Lin Xiao to grant them enormous strength. However, based on her memory, they were not that strong to make them unable to control their strength after they had finished. At the very least, the increase was only around half of what they used to be.

Because it was not that much, there was never any problem for them to adapt to their newfound strength. At most, they would feel that the power they used was too much and made the items nearly unable to hold on but didn't destroy them immediately.

Wenren Yu shook his head. "I also don't know. Master did say that how much one could absorb will depend on their constitution. I checked His Highness's pulse but I didn't notice anything wrong even though there's some faint differences."

(A/N: Master here refers to his Master in Taiyi Sect. Because of that, he changed his addressing way to Lin Xiao to His Highness.)

"Differences?"

"I feel that his innate constitution is better?" Wenren Yu asked hesitantly.

On the other hand, Sui Wenyan was stunned. She had heard the rumor from her Master back in Taiyi Sect that those who were chosen by the Heaven would be given a reward. The reward would be better constitution but the price that came with it was pain much more painful than anything.

However, the constitution would only help them a little bit and will instead make them advance slower because of the needs of more resources to help them advance. It was all written in the records, which was why Sui Wenyan could find out about it.

"That's…"

"Senior Sui?"

"Call me Wenyan." Sui Wenyan furrowed her brows. "How many times you change the herbs also depends on the constitution, right?"

"Oh, yes. The more I need to add the herbs before it turned into milky white color and no longer murky, the higher the body's constitution was. The better it is, the more power they could get after finishing the medicine bath."

Wenren Yu then began to think about how many times he added the herbs. Because of his nervousness, he didn't count before, but he was also a cultivator that had excellent memory. In the next moment, his expression turned strange.

"Senior… I mean Wenyan, normally people only have around 5 to 8, right?" 

If he was not wrong, his seniors back then only needed 5 to 8 increase of medicine. It was already quite a good result back then because their Master was also very happy with their result.

Sui Wenyan nodded. "Yes."

"Then… how strong would it be if one need 12 times?" Wenren Yu asked in low tone.

The number 12 made Sui Wenyan's mind blanked for a moment. She looked at Wenren Yu and her gaze hardened. "Never ever told this to anyone, understand?"

"Yes? Yes!"

"Do you understand?"

"Yes!"

"Good."

Seeing the grave expression on Sui Wenyan's face, Wenren Yu understood that there was something wrong. But as for what it was, he had no idea in the slightest bit. He also had no guts to ask Sui Wenyan when her face was that dark.