The swelling of Lu Zhen's muscles abruptly halted, and the mysterious energy within his body dissipated as if it had never been there.

His veins slowly returned to their normal state, and the sense of being overly bloated vanished as his body returned to its usual form.

Lu Zhen's eyes widened in surprise as he carefully sensed the energy's disappearance. It appeared as though all the energy had travelled upward to his brain before vanishing, leaving no trace.

"Hmm, could my system be located near or inside my brain?" Lu Zhen pondered, scrutinising the energy's vanishing act after an extended period of examination.

He eventually shook his head.

"Let's find out," Lu Zhen mused as he summoned his system with a mere thought.

Upon opening the panel, he noticed a loading screen that immediately grabbed his attention.

[Cooking skill is evolving]

[1%.....4%....19%...]

Lu Zhen watched as a green progress bar gradually filled up, indicating the advancement of his cooking skill.

Interestingly, the more the mysterious energy dissipated after reaching his brain, the faster the progress bar advanced.

After two minutes of patient waiting, the progress bar swiftly reached 100%. Lu Zhen could feel that only a minuscule amount of energy remained within him.

However, this residual energy didn't concern him much, as he continued to adapt to it with his "Adaptability" skill, gradually strengthening his constitution.

Then, a notification appeared at the corner of his vision.

[Your physique has been strengthened.]

[Your constitution has levelled up from divine physique level 2 to level 3]

The moment the prompt appeared he felt a warm energy that was slowly strengthening his physique as he felt his body filled to power.

His muscles became more compact and his height increased a little.

Lu zhen looked at his panel again and three options appeared for him.

[Cooking skill]

[Advancement options]

[Ingredients Mastery: Know all ingredients inside out like you have spent days studying.

Blessing of Hand: Gives an inherent talent for making better food. Your hands are blessed.

Material Mastery: Selecting this option empowers you to perform material extraction and fusion.

Culinary Insight: You can think of a taste and you will be able to figure out the recipe. Insight as deep as the greatest chefs.]

Lu Zhen's eyes turned from crimson red to a golden hue as he looked at all the options.

"Well, the first and second options are out of my consideration," Lu Zhen never wanted to be a cook or something as it was pretty useless to him, and these options were pretty much making him a cook.

And why the heck would Lu Zhen want to be a cook? In a normal and peaceful world, it wouldn't be a bad choice, but in this harsh and unforgiving world where might is right, it made no sense.

That was a resounding "no" for Lu Zhen, and this was the reason he was reluctant to invest the mysterious energy just to waste it on his cooking skill, which might prove to be useless in the future.

"Wait…" Lu Zhen's eyes widened as he thought of the third option.

"This could be useful." Lu Zhen slowly closed his eyes and then reopened them.

The moment he did, his eyes turned from golden to crimson red once again.

He decisively imagined pressing the third option, "Material Mastery." The moment he did, the prompt disappeared, and a new one appeared in front of his eyes.

[Wait]

[Advancement completing]

Seeing this, he patiently waited, but he got bored and checked his condition after becoming a third-stage martial artist.

His qi storage was now high enough for him to maintain appraisal skill longer since he had reached the third stage as a martial artist.

In fact, his qi storage was higher than that of other third-stage martial artists because he could use his entire body to store qi, whereas others needed to store it in the qi pathways they had constructed.

Besides the change in Lu Zhen's qi storage, there wasn't much change in his body, as it continued to be strengthened by qi even when he was a martial trainee.

Thinking about this, Lu Zhen smiled bitterly.

"Now I need to condense and strengthen the qi in my body," Lu Zhen thought.

To become a second-stage martial artist, one had to condense and purify their qi, making it stronger until it could materialize outside one's body. Only then could one become a martial artist.

Even though Lu Zhen's qi storage had increased, it didn't mean it was entirely useless.

He could now enhance his combat strength because he had more qi, which, in turn, increased the power of his combat art.

Although his understanding remained the same, his combat art's power would increase exponentially due to having more qi.

[Updated]

[Congratulations! Cooking skill has advanced to alchemy skill.]

When Lu Zhen saw the blue prompt in front of him, a sly smirk appeared on his face.

"Yes!" Lu Zhen shouted out loud with joy.

"Wait, since I still haven't even reached the first rank, can I even use the skill?" Lu Zhen thought, and a frown appeared on his face.

"Let's see," Lu Zhen thought as he opened his panel.

[LEVEL UP]

—-----

[Name: Lu Zhen]

--------

[Race: Human]

[Bloodline: Human/Volgrith]

[Lifespan left: 140 years]

--------

[Attributes]

[Constitution: Divine physique (level 3)]

[Charm: Mortal (Level 4)]

[Wood Qi: (level 2)]

[Demonic Qi: Uninitiated (Level 0)]

???

--------

[Cultivation manuals]

[Cultivation technique: verdant art (stage 2)]

--------

[Skills]

[Gluttony: level 8]

[Appraisal eye: level 4]

[Saber mastery: level 5]

[Adaptability: level 4]

[Aura control: level 5]

[Meditation: level 2]

[Dual cultivation: level 1]

[Alchemy: level 1]

Lu Zhen used his appraisal eyes on the Alchemy skill.

[Alchemy: allows the host to extract the essence of materials and fuse them together.]

"Hmm," Lu Zhen thought with a frown. Although the Alchemy skill seemed like it could help him make pills, he knew that making a pill was not easy. If it were so easy, it wouldn't be restricted to only first-stage martial artists or higher to create pills.

"Let me experiment and practice the combat art left behind previous because of the disturbance," Lu Zhen thought as he looked tr the books which contained the combat arts.

He knew he was going to be busy for a long time.