Secluded Cultivation, a Great Leap in Strength!

Not long after Qin Ming and his companion left, a figure rode up and stopped beside Li Kui.

"Whoa!"

Viper Elder leaped off his horse. Seeing that Li Kui was already dead, he immediately turned the corpse over and searched it, only to find nothing.

"Could someone have already looted him? Or did he throw it away along the way?"

Viper Elder's expression darkened. Whichever it was, he had come away empty-handed.

"Damn it!"

Viper Elder's beard bristled and his eyes bulged with anger. "Devour him!"

The giant snake darted out of the darkness and swallowed Li Kui's corpse whole.

"What's this?"

Viper Elder came upon Bloodhand's mangled remains and frowned slightly. "I wonder which unlucky bastard died here."

The giant snake took the opportunity to swallow the pieces of flesh on the ground as well. The flesh and blood of a martial artist at Skin-Refining Realm Perfection held a deadly attraction for it. Unfortunately, Viper Elder could not tell the deceased's strength from the mangled flesh; otherwise, he could easily have guessed his identity.

Having swallowed two martial artists at Perfected Skin-Refining Realm in succession, the giant snake belched and slowly coiled up to digest them.

"Where did that fellow Bloodhand go? Don't tell me he kept the spirit medicine and martial art all to himself?"

Viper Elder searched the area and, finding nothing, cursed his bad luck under his breath. He became all the more certain that Bloodhand had run off with the treasures.

"Damn you, Bloodhand. You'd better hope I don't catch you!"

Viper Elder left in a huff with the giant snake.

The next day, someone discovered the corpses in the woods.

When word got out, all of Qingshan Town was shaken.

The Weiyuan Escort Agency had been wiped out!

The Li Lineage's people had been wiped out!

Only Chen Yue had made it back, with one hand severed!

The bandits of Clearwind Stronghold had intercepted and attacked them on the road, and the Li Lineage's cargo was lost!

The Li Lineage flew into a rage at the news, but there was nothing they could do. Everyone from the Weiyuan Escort Agency was dead, so who could they settle accounts with?

"Chen Yue, are you sure everyone died?"

Lu Liu went to question Chen Yue. Not far behind him, Embroiderer stood pale-faced, her small hands clutching the hem of her clothes tightly. Her eyes held hope, along with a trace of apprehension.

"Last night, there were bandits in every direction, countless experts among them, including two martial artists at Perfected Skin-Refining Realm. In no time, more than half the Li Lineage's guards and the agency's escorts were killed or wounded. I barely managed to escape. Do you think anyone else could still be alive?"

Chen Yue spoke coldly, without a kind word.

Although he had returned alive, he had lost a hand. Though it had been reattached for the time being, that was only on the surface. His strength had been severely affected, and his prospects looked grim.

At his words, all color drained from Embroiderer's face.

"If you ask me, the disciples of your Eight Trigrams Martial Arts Academy are entirely to blame, especially that pig butcher Qin Ming!" Chen Yue roared, pointing at the academy's people, his face flushed red.

"When I was in the tree, I noticed something wrong with the fog around us and warned everyone. But what did he do? Not only did he reject my suggestion in front of everyone, he even said I was making a mountain out of a molehill. Your academy's Li Shengnan took that brat at his word, so the whole Weiyuan Escort Agency dismissed it. Otherwise, Clearwind Stronghold could never have caught us in a sneak attack!

"It was because Qin Ming and the Weiyuan Escort Agency made mistakes that the Li Lineage's guards and my two Junior Brothers died!"

Chen Yue lied through his teeth, turning the tables and shifting all the blame onto Qin Ming and the Weiyuan Escort Agency. The dead could not speak in their own defense anyway, while he had become the hero who had fought his way out.

"You heard all that, didn't you, Pei Heng? Your two disciples got my two fine disciples killed!"

Huo Zheng spoke coldly. "How are we going to settle this?"

"What do you mean, settle this? I lost two disciples too!"

Pei Heng's face and neck turned red with anger. "You're just going to take this brat's word for it? Well, I say he sold everyone out and ran off on his own. Don't you know what Clearwind Stronghold is capable of? How could someone at the late Skin-Refining Realm have escaped?"

"Bullshit!"

Like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, Chen Yue jumped up at once. "I fought my way out with our Tiger Martial Arts Academy's Tiger Fist!"

"Enough! Our Li Lineage will get to the bottom of this, and find out who leaked our escort route!"

The person in charge of the Li Lineage stepped forward.

The escort route had been kept secret throughout, known to only a very few people. This time, Clearwind Stronghold's bandits had laid an ambush on a road they had no choice but to take. Clearly, they had received word in advance, and the Li Lineage was determined to find the person who had leaked it.

"Qin Ming, I never thought you'd just die like that. How boring!"

In the crowd, a trace of disappointment crossed Huo Lan's eyes.

Not long ago, she had finally broken through to the late Skin-Refining Realm. She had planned to teach Qin Ming a lesson in public at the Twin Martial Arts Academies Tournament, only to learn that he had already died at the bandits' hands.

"Second Senior Sister, Junior Brother..."

Lu Liu's face turned pale. He could not accept it.

In just one day, they had been parted by heaven and earth!

"No, they might still be alive. Their bodies weren't found at the scene."

Lu Liu muttered to himself.

"Their bodies must have been eaten by the giant snake. That Viper Elder keeps a giant snake that eats nothing but human flesh."

Chen Yue sneered. "Stop dreaming. Do you think they could have escaped from two people at Perfected Skin-Refining Realm?"

Not far away, Embroiderer swayed on her feet, but managed to keep herself from falling.

"Embroiderer, are you all right? Don't listen to his nonsense. Junior Brother and Second Senior Sister will definitely come back safe and sound."

Lu Liu comforted her softly, but his words lacked conviction, because even he knew how slim the chances were.

"Yes. If they're alive, we need to see them; if they're dead, we need to see their bodies. Since there are no bodies, there's still hope that Brother Qin and Sister Li are alive. Let's go back and wait for them."

Embroiderer pulled her padded coat tighter around herself.

Brother Qin must have found another treasure and hidden away to cultivate, just like the last time he went up the mountain. It must be so.

Embroiderer repeated the words silently to herself.

The torrent plunged three thousand feet straight down, as if the Milky Way had fallen from the ninth heaven.

Directly beneath the waterfall, Qin Ming stood bare-chested on a smooth rock, rooted to the spot like a wooden stake. He gritted his teeth and remained motionless as the great torrent battered him.

"Junior Brother's skill seems to have improved a great deal again. He's a real freak."

Not far away, Li Shengnan watched Qin Ming beneath the waterfall and thought to herself.

Several days passed in a flash.

In the blink of an eye, it was the seventh day of the first month.

The figure beneath the waterfall finally moved.

"Whew!"

Qin Ming slowly breathed out a mouthful of turbid air. For an instant, the water droplets around him seemed to hang suspended in midair.

The next moment, a thunderous boom rang out, and the space within half a zhang of him became nearly a vacuum. A moment later, the water crashed down.

At last, he had broken through!

The late Skin-Refining Realm!

But it was not over.

Qin Ming crouched down, then slowly rose to his feet.

Crack, crack, crack!

For every inch he rose, explosive cracks rang out from his bones, popping and snapping nonstop like firecrackers.

At the same time, his body began to swell rapidly like a balloon. His muscles knotted, his height increased, and his physical strength surged. In just a few breaths, he had grown taller than Li Shengnan, and the bulging muscles on his body were as hard as stone.

"This... this is a sign of minor mastery in Savage Bull Strength! How is that possible?!"

Li Shengnan shot to her feet, dumbstruck.

In a few days, he had broken through both the entry and minor mastery stages of Savage Bull Strength. Even with the uniquely favorable conditions beneath the waterfall, it should not have been this heaven-defying!

What kind of monster was he?!

Whoosh—

Qin Ming's eyes snapped open, and a piercing gleam seemed to burst from them.

Savage Bull Strength raced through the sinews and meridians in his body like a savage bull charging recklessly, carrying waves of terrifying, whistling brute force.

"Ha!"

Qin Ming threw a straight punch, producing a piercing sonic boom.

Looking at the panel again, he saw that it had undergone earth-shaking changes:

[Life-Bound Martial Art: Pig-Slaying Saber Technique (350/1000), major mastery]

[Ninth-Rank Martial Art: Eight Trigrams Stake Skill (30/1000), major mastery]

[Ninth-Rank Martial Art: Fire Sand Palm (20/500), minor mastery]

[Ninth-Rank Martial Art: Eight Trigrams Palm (30/200), entry]

[Ninth-Rank Martial Art: Savage Bull Strength (1/500), minor mastery]

[Realm: late Skin-Refining Realm (strength: 380 jin), additional strength bonus (120 jin)]

[Pig-Slaying Saber Technique bonus: while holding a pig-slaying saber, attack speed increased by 30%, force redirection by 35%, Fire Poison damage by 20%, and base strength by 20%]

An extra 120 jin of strength? A 20% increase in base strength?

Qin Ming was startled.

The standard strength for the late Skin-Refining Realm was 380 jin, while perfection was 450 jin. The early Flesh-Refining Realm, Pei Heng's realm, was 530 jin. Qin Ming's total strength actually exceeded that of Perfected Skin-Refining Realm and fell only 30 jin short of the early Flesh-Refining Realm!

Most importantly, holding a pig-slaying saber increased his strength by another 20%. His base strength was the 380 jin of the late Skin-Refining Realm, and 20% of that was 76 jin. In other words, with a pig-slaying saber in hand, Qin Ming's strength was 46 jin greater than that of the early Flesh-Refining Realm!

His force redirection had also increased by 15%. Qin Ming guessed that, aside from the 10% gained from reaching major mastery in the Eight Trigrams Stake Skill, the other 5% should have come from reaching the entry stage in Eight Trigrams Palm.

In the battle several days ago, Qin Ming had slain dozens of bandits in succession, more than ten of whom were martial artists. Fire Sand Palm, Eight Trigrams Palm, and the Pig-Slaying Saber Technique had all advanced by one minor stage.

Over the following days, Qin Ming had relied on the Blood Ginseng to force the Eight Trigrams Stake Skill up to major mastery.

The energy contained within this Blood Ginseng was extraordinarily rich, and its spiritual power was several times more potent than that of the Lingzhi Qin Ming had obtained earlier. If it were put up for auction in Qingyang County, it would surely fetch the high price of a thousand taels of silver!

Qin Ming finally understood why the Li Lineage had sent the entire Weiyuan Escort Agency out on this job. Unfortunately, something had gone wrong in the end.

Li Shengnan knew nothing about the Blood Ginseng.

Her eyes had been injured by lime powder, so she had been unable to see that Qin Ming was the one who took the Blood Ginseng and the martial art.

Qin Ming did not plan to tell Li Shengnan either. This was no small matter, and a mishap could implicate her.

For the past few days, Qin Ming had practiced his stake stance beneath the waterfall, using its force to temper his body while also cultivating Savage Bull Strength.

The waterfall plunged from the sky with a force no less than that of crashing waves. On top of that, the rock beneath his feet was wet and slippery. At first, the powerful current had slammed Qin Ming straight to the bottom of the pool, but after repeated attempts, he had finally managed to stand firm on the rock.

After that, while cultivating, Qin Ming chewed the Blood Ginseng one small bite at a time. Its spiritual power split in two: one part was absorbed by his body, while the other became stake skill points.

The most important things in cultivating body-hardening martial arts were eating to replenish Qi and blood, and continually tempering the body to fuse Qi and blood into the skin. With the combined help of the Blood Ginseng and the waterfall, Qin Ming had been able to take Savage Bull Strength from the entry stage to minor mastery in just a few days.

"That should do it."

Qin Ming slowly walked out of the waterfall, moving as easily over the slippery rocks as if he were on level ground. His nearly two-meter frame was covered in knotted muscles, his arms were thicker than his thighs had been before, and his hair had grown considerably longer, hanging wet over his shoulders.

If the Qin Ming of before had been a sapling, he was now a sturdy, fully grown tree.

"Junior Brother, you..."

Li Shengnan's eyes widened. The extent of Qin Ming's transformation had caught her completely off guard. At first glance, he even looked more heavily built than her father!

Qin Ming looked at the trousers that had split around his lower body and gave a wry smile. "Senior Sister, I finally understand why everyone in your Li Lineage is so brawny."

At that, a rare smile appeared on Li Shengnan's face.

"Don't worry. Once you reach the Perfection Realm and return to simplicity, you'll be able to return to your original appearance."

Qin Ming nodded inwardly.

His bulky appearance drew far too much attention. He still preferred to play the pig to eat the tiger and catch people off guard.

"Let's go. It's the seventh day of the first month. It's time we went back."

Qin Ming spoke slowly, looking in the direction of Qingshan Town.

Before his death, Li Kui had warned him to leave Qingshan Town before the seventh day of the first month and never set foot there again. Now that his strength had undergone an earth-shaking transformation, he wanted to see just what would happen in Qingshan Town!