Muscle Tendon Change Great Perfection!?
Fang Shuwen perked up at once, a thrill of wild joy rising in his heart.
Without the slightest hesitation, he chose to claim it.
The next moment, the cultivation art's mnemonic verses flowed through his mind, one after another.
A current of incomparably refined, pure internal power also arose from his dantian and coursed through his limbs and bones in an instant.
He followed the verses that had appeared in his mind, circulating the True Qi within his body.
At first, all was well. Gradually, a burning sensation spread through his meridians, bringing pain with it.
A thought stirred in Fang Shuwen's mind:
"[Muscle Tendon Change] can cleanse the hair and marrow. My foundation is damaged, but with this divine art, perhaps I can restore it!
"This pain... should be coming from that."
He immediately gritted his teeth and paid it no further heed.
He had weathered years of wind, rain, frost, and snow. A little pain was hardly worth mentioning.
He had no idea how long the intense pain lasted before it suddenly receded like a tide.
His True Qi circulated through a celestial circuit, guided by the cultivation art. Pop, pop, pop—acupoints throughout his body were pierced open one after another.
Only after he had opened the Ren and Du Meridians and progressed from the Lesser Celestial Circuit to the Greater Celestial Circuit did he bring all that internal power under his control!
He slowly pressed both hands downward, drawing all his internal power into the Qi sea in his dantian.
Only then did he open his eyes. He instinctively held out his hands to look, and it seemed they were different from before.
"Just as I thought, [Muscle Tendon Change] can make up for my damaged foundation. Now it's no less than shedding my old body and being reborn!"
He sprang to his feet and threw a punch in the same motion.
With a thunderous bang, a window ten feet away was smashed to pieces by the wind of his punch.
"This..."
Just then, voices drifted in from outside the door.
"I hear our eldest miss is first-rate in both looks and figure. She's the number one beauty in Julu City!"
"You dare lust after the eldest miss? I hear she's a true disciple of the Pearl Pavilion on Nine-Congealing Mountain, and her martial arts are exceptional. I'd advise you to stop dreaming."
"I'm not dreaming... just talking, that's all. The eldest miss is still on Nine-Congealing Mountain anyway, as if I could actually see her. Hey! Old Fang, it's time for you and Old Song to take over."
The two men speaking pushed open the door and walked in, ready to take off their outer garments and set their sabers aside.
Seeing that Fang Shuwen was alone, one of them asked:
"Where's Old Song?"
Only then did Fang Shuwen remember.
"Song Li went to take a piss."
"A lazy donkey has plenty of shit and piss when it's time to turn the millstone... All right, the two of us are going to rest. Go look for that lad. Maybe he fell into the latrine."
With that, the two men climbed into their beds. It was nearly the hour of the ox, so naturally they needed a good rest.
Fang Shuwen said nothing more. He put on his guard's clothes, hung his saber at his waist, and went out.
He faintly heard the two men talking in the room:
"Where's the window?"
"Who stole our window?"
Fang Shuwen turned a deaf ear and strode away with a hand on his saber hilt, acting as though it had nothing to do with him.
As he walked out, though, he wondered about Song Li. Song Li had said he was going to take a piss, but so much time had passed and he still had not returned.
What kind of piss was he taking? How could it take so long?
Could he have gone to find his little sweetheart, the maid, to whisper sweet nothings to each other?
Although Fang Shuwen had now completed his three-month guard assignment and could ask Zhou Feixiong for his silver and leave the Zhou Family,
it was the middle of the nighttime guard change, and no one went to their employer at night to resign.
He would have to wait until tomorrow morning at the very least.
He headed toward the latrine first. Halfway there, he saw a figure standing against the base of a wall.
Fang Shuwen frowned slightly and twitched his ears. [Muscle Tendon Change] at Great Perfection had sharpened his hearing and eyesight.
Yet he could hear no breathing from the figure.
"Could it be a dead man?"
On his guard, he came up behind the man and tapped him lightly on the shoulder.
"Song Li?"
The figure immediately fell to the ground with a thud.
In the hazy light of the night, Fang Shuwen saw that it was indeed Song Li.
But now there was a wound on his throat, thin as a red thread.
His throat had been cut with an exceptionally sharp weapon!
He had been dead for quite some time.
Fang Shuwen narrowed his eyes slightly. Suddenly, he pivoted on his foot and darted away from where he had been standing.
There was a sharp thunk.
A spindle dart struck the wall where he had just been.
"Hmm?"
A voice came from the darkness:
"For a household guard, you've got some impressive moves."
"Household guard" referred to a martial artist hired to protect a residence.
It was underworld slang.
Fang Shuwen narrowed his eyes slightly.
"Since you knew there were guards in this house, wasn't that a rather ruthless move?"
The man opposite laughed at that.
"You think I'm a thief?
"To tell you the truth, I'm not after money tonight... I'm after lives!!"
With that, he stepped forward and struck.
Previously, Fang Shuwen would have had to deal with this man carefully. Now, however, a single glance was enough for him to see that the man's move was slow and riddled with openings.
He immediately advanced instead of retreating, stepping in with a right punch.
In an instant, two cracks rang out. The other man's attack had a defensive element; swift and vicious as it was, he had still been cautious.
Yet he had never expected both his arms to be broken in a single clash.
His defense fell apart. Fang Shuwen spread his fingers and clamped them over the man's face. He applied a little pressure and was about to question him when, with a crack, he crushed the entire front of the man's face and half his head in that one grip.
"Uh..."
He had only just gained [Muscle Tendon Change] at Great Perfection, after all, and had little sense of his own martial ability.
How could he have known the man would break apart at a touch?
"Why was he like he was made of paper?"
Frowning, he tossed the corpse aside. Without a second thought, he drew breath and opened his mouth to raise the alarm.
Judging by what the man had just said, the intruders were clearly no ordinary people. If they were after lives rather than money, weren't they here to wipe out the entire household?
From the looks of things, his earlier worries had not been like the man of Qi fearing the sky would fall.
Before he could shout "Assassins!", he caught glimpses of fire out of the corner of his eye.
He looked up to see a rain of fire descending from the sky.
Thunk, thunk, thunk! Thunk, thunk, thunk!
They were arrows blazing with fierce flames. When they landed, the evening wind instantly carried the fire to window frames and haystacks.
Cries of battle rose from all sides immediately afterward. From the clamor alone, it was clear the attackers were coming in force.
There was no need for Fang Shuwen to warn anyone. The commotion had roused the entire Zhou residence.
The place where Fang Shuwen stood was secluded; otherwise, Song Li's corpse would not have gone undiscovered for so long.
The man who had just shown himself had also arrived later and happened to run into Fang Shuwen, only to die without knowing what had happened.
Fang Shuwen hesitated for only two breaths before setting off toward the main courtyard.
If he had seen such a scene before, he might have turned and run.
But now he had [Muscle Tendon Change] at Great Perfection to protect him. How could he retreat so easily?
Besides, he had yet to be paid this month's wages.