Wizard: I Have a Cultivation System-Chapter 69: Consuming the Knight’s Secret Medicine and What Is a Knight

Chapter 69: Chapter 69: Consuming the Knight’s Secret Medicine and What Is a Knight

At night, outside the Black Wood Forest Outpost.

By the cool light of the moon, Murphy carefully undid the Silver Button on his leather pouch.

The pale golden powder within the pouch glimmered under the moonlight.

He dipped his fingertip in, taking a small amount of the powder. Recalling how he had secretly watched the followers take their medicine, he placed the powder under his tongue.

Then, Murphy gently pressed the tip of his tongue into the hollow behind his upper front teeth. In Breathing and Guiding, this was known as ’building the magpie bridge’.

The principle behind it was quite simple. Pressing the tongue against the roof of the mouth stimulates the salivary glands. The digestive enzymes in the saliva could then begin breaking down the medicine’s components. At the same time, the posture allowed the blood vessels under the tongue to make better contact with the powder, accelerating the absorption of its active ingredients.

’Why use such a peculiar method to take the medicine?’

It was, of course, because the absorption rate of the oral mucosa is far higher than that of the stomach and intestines, allowing the medicine to take effect faster and more efficiently.

Although the Knights and their followers might not have understood the profound pharmacology behind it, long-term practice had led them to discover the most effective method of absorption through trial and error.

However, Rotton’s dying shriek of "Wizard!" led Murphy to a new speculation.

’Perhaps this method wasn’t created by Knights at all, but originated with those mysterious Wizards?’

Soon, the slightly bitter powder began to slowly dissolve in his saliva.

At first, there was only a slight stinging, but in the next moment, a burning sensation erupted from beneath his tongue. It spread through his entire body with astonishing speed, carried by his microcirculation.

Murphy immediately activated the Knight’s Breathing Technique—which he had modified with Breathing and Guiding—to direct this medicinal power and help his body absorb it.

But he was soon surprised to discover that the thing absorbing the heat-releasing medicinal power from his blood and bodily fluids wasn’t, as he had imagined, his cells.

It was the meridians!

To be precise, it was the Floating Meridians that hadn’t yet been expanded to their limit.

Guided by the breathing technique, the Floating Meridians that absorbed the medicinal power began to expand rapidly.

However, the expansion caused by the Knight’s Secret Medicine was far too violent. It was like trying to inflate a hundred balloons at once. Only a few of the Floating Meridians could withstand such a Rapid expansion; the more delicate ones were overwhelmed by the influx of medicinal power, feeling as if they were about to rupture.

He hurriedly altered the circulation method of his Breathing and Guiding, attempting to regulate the violent medicinal power.

Under his guidance, the medicinal power began to circulate through the meridians in an orderly fashion.

But Murphy soon realized that even with the subtlety of Breathing and Guiding, he could not completely tame such ferocious medicinal power.

Forcibly absorbing all of it would inevitably cause irreversible damage to his Floating Meridians.

Such damage might not be apparent in his youth, but it would disrupt the body’s internal balance.

It was just like those Martial Artists who practiced Hard Skills, who were often plagued with countless ailments in their later years.

In contrast, if he used Breathing and Guiding to gradually and gently nourish all his Floating Meridians until he reached the Realm of Perfection—where every meridian in his body was expanded to its limit—not only would it slow the decay of old age, but he could even live to be one hundred and twenty.

At that moment, a realization dawned on Murphy. ’So, the human bodies in this world have meridian systems too.’

’The Immortal Cultivation System hadn’t altered my body.’

’It makes sense. Even horses have meridians, which is why the knowledge from Horse Trainer works. How could humans not have them?’

The reason Knights and Knight’s Attendants could so rapidly improve their physical conditioning was precisely because they relied on the Knight’s Secret Medicine to quickly expand their Twelve Main Meridians and Eight Extraordinary Meridians.

But because the Floating Meridians were so fine and easily damaged by the medicinal impact, their improvement became exceptionally slow after they reached a single-arm strength of one hundred kilograms.

’Perhaps those Knights who had supposedly condensed a Life Seed were simply born with special constitutions that allowed them to better withstand the medicinal impact, resulting in less damage to their Floating Meridians and enabling them to reach such a realm.’

Murphy, of course, was unwilling to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs. As a future Cultivator, he pursued longevity and immortality; he absolutely could not sacrifice his future for a moment of power.

Just as he was preparing to abandon some of the medicinal power, something unexpected happened.

The Black Light Energy lying dormant within his spirit suddenly awoke. Like a starving predator, it pounced on the medicinal power he was about to discard.

Murphy could clearly sense the Black Light growing stronger as it devoured the medicinal power.

Although the growth was infinitesimal, he could feel the Black Light becoming denser, as if it had received some form of nourishment.

The entire process lasted for about an hour.

When the last trace of medicinal power was absorbed, Murphy slowly opened his eyes. He felt a surge of power throughout his body, and some of his Floating Meridians had clearly widened from the medicinal impact.

Simply put, the Secret Medicine boosted his Cultivation efficiency by 300%.

The original estimate to fully cultivate his Floating Meridians was sixty years. Combined with the previous 100% boost from the Black Light, he would now only need twelve years to reach Perfection.

Even allowing for some margin of error, this pace was drastically faster than before.

Of course, for the moment, Murphy couldn’t continue the Cultivation of his Floating Meridians. Like an overstuffed stomach, they needed time to digest and recover.

TAP! TAP!

Murphy carefully weighed the leather pouch in his hand. ’This much will last a month at most,’ he thought.

He shook his head, refastened the pouch, and gazed south in the direction of the Baron’s Castle.

’Perhaps it’s time to make a move.’

...

After returning silently to the stables, Murphy watched Allen sleeping soundly on a pile of hay.

A moment later, a dim Black Light suffused his body as his bones and skin began to undergo a bizarre transformation.

In the blink of an eye, his appearance had become identical to Allen’s. Even Allen’s rough, dark, and spot-covered skin—the skin of a man no longer young—was perfectly replicated.

This could no longer be explained by any martial art, such as the Bone Shrinking Skill. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

This was a Supernatural Power, one called Thousand-Faced Illusion "Initial Glimpse".

...

The next morning, Murphy found Allen, who was idling with nothing to do. "I went hunting alone in the woods to the north yesterday," he proposed. "I swear I saw plenty of rabbits, but I didn’t catch a single one. I can’t let it go. Why don’t we go together? There are definitely a lot of them over there."

Allen’s eyes lit up. "Let’s go, let’s go! When I went hunting by myself before, I didn’t even have anyone to talk to. It was so boring."

Carrying simple bows and hunting knives, the two chatted and laughed as they entered the dense forest north of the outpost.

The early summer forest was vibrant with life. Sunlight filtered through the dense canopy, casting dappled patterns of light and shadow on the leaf-strewn ground.

Just as they were tracking a rabbit, an unusual sound came from the bushes up ahead.

Allen was about to step forward to investigate when a massive tiger burst from the brush, its amber eyes fixed on the two men.

"Run!" Murphy yelled, grabbing Allen and turning to flee.

The tiger was in hot pursuit, its heavy panting growing ever closer.

As they burst through a thicket of bushes, Murphy suddenly stumbled as if he’d been tripped by a root, and he fell heavily to the ground.

"Murphy!" Allen cried out. He instinctively turned back to help, only to see the tiger was just a few meters away, its ferocious eyes locked on the fallen Murphy.

Allen’s face went deathly pale. In the end, his fear won out.

He gritted his teeth and turned, fleeing desperately toward the outpost. He didn’t dare look back for even a moment, terrified that the slightest hesitation would seal his fate as well.

From behind him came Murphy’s screams and the tiger’s low roar, each sound making him run a little faster.

When a panicked and disheveled Allen stumbled back to the outpost, he immediately drew the attention of the sentries.

"What happened?" the sentry captain asked, steadying the gasping Allen.

"A... a tiger..." Allen gasped, out of breath. "Murphy... He’s..."

As the other soldiers rushed over to see what was happening, Allen, with a sob in his voice, recounted the tiger encounter. "We were just chasing a rabbit when we ran right into it... the tiger... Murphy tripped... I wanted to help him, but..." At this, he clutched his head in anguish. "That beast... it was just too terrifying..."

The outpost commander’s expression was grave. Since the incident involved a groom for the followers, he immediately dispatched a small team to search the area.

However, when the soldiers arrived at the scene, they found nothing but a pool of blood on the ground and a few tufts of tiger fur. There was no trace of Murphy.

"He’s most likely dead," the captain sighed upon his return.

Allen stood frozen at the outpost gate, staring toward the dense forest. His face was a mask of self-reproach, grief, and a faint trace of relief.