White Ape Leg Technique

"Tomorrow, once I enter Beast Hunter Hall, I'll ask around about the follow-up cultivation method for Raging Bull Fist and see whether I can find the whole thing."

As Lin Sheng planned his next steps, he suddenly seemed to recall something. Slapping his forehead, he returned to his room and lit the oil lamp.

In the dark room, the flame slowly rose, casting a dim glow.

Lin Sheng felt beneath his bed and pulled out a black cloth bundle.

He carried the bundle beneath the lamplight and opened it, revealing a jumble of miscellaneous items.

Inside were several small money pouches and a yellowed booklet stained with dark red blood.

Lin Sheng opened the pouches first and counted their contents, a smile appearing on his face.

"I never expected these thugs to be so well-off!"

He held a handful of broken silver and a stack of heavy copper coins.

There were more than a hundred and fifty copper coins in the pouches, along with around fifteen taels of silver. Altogether, they amounted to more than seventeen taels of silver.

To him now, that was an enormous sum.

Of course, more than ten taels of it had come from a single pouch—Liu Ergou's.

After putting away the silver, Lin Sheng knew it would be enough to cover his cultivation expenses for quite some time. Still, he could not be too flamboyant for now, lest anyone notice something amiss.

His gaze then fell upon the final booklet.

The yellowed booklet was covered in blood. He had found it while searching Liu Ergou's corpse, and the blood naturally belonged to Liu Ergou as well.

Soaked by a great deal of blood and already quite old to begin with, the booklet was badly damaged. Lin Sheng could barely make out only one of the large characters on it: ape. There was also a simple ape-shaped illustration sketched on the cover in black ink.

Seeing this, something stirred within him.

"This... could it be...?"

Without hesitation, he immediately opened the booklet.

The contents inside were stained with blood as well, though they were indeed in better condition than the cover. With careful examination, he could barely make out what was written.

"It really is a martial arts manual?!"

After giving the contents a rough look, Lin Sheng's eyes widened, his face full of delight.

The cultivation moves and breathing methods recorded within were unquestionably a genuine martial arts manual.

"Just when the willows seemed dark and the flowers spent, another village appeared..."

Muttering to himself, Lin Sheng immediately took a dry rag from the side and wiped the blood off the book.

The booklet had not been well preserved to begin with, and after being soaked in blood, if he did not deal with it at once, the pages would stick together into a clump once the blood dried completely. It would not be so easy to handle then.

His hands moved swiftly, yet with great care. Within a few minutes, he had wiped away the blood, then tore apart and separated every page.

Only after finishing did he let out a breath.

"Unfortunately, some of the contents have still been irreparably lost."

Shaking his head regretfully, he had done his utmost to save it, but some writing had nevertheless been completely ruined beyond recognition.

Fortunately, it was only a very small portion.

He began studying from the first page. The cover gave no indication of the martial art's name, but from what was written inside, he figured it out.

"White Ape Leg Technique. It's actually a leg technique manual. Its rank should be about on par with Raging Bull Fist—perhaps slightly stronger, but only by a limited margin."

Thanks to his experience cultivating Raging Bull Fist, he was no longer the ignorant novice who knew next to nothing about the Martial Way. After quickly reading through the booklet, he had gained a basic understanding of this martial art.

Martial arts such as Raging Bull Fist were the most common, run-of-the-mill sort of martial arts manuals, classified as third-rate martial arts.

Even if a third-rate martial art was cultivated to great completion, it could only barely allow one to enter the Muscle Forging realm. The realms beyond were utterly beyond reach.

When he first saw this martial arts manual, hope had risen within him. But now it seemed he had simply thought too much.

This White Ape Leg Technique, like Raging Bull Fist, was also a third-rate martial art.

"A man's heart is never satisfied, like a snake trying to swallow an elephant. Having a complete manual sufficient for me to cultivate to the Muscle Forging realm should already be enough for me to be content!"

Lin Sheng scattered the faint disappointment in his heart. He was not someone who reached for heights beyond his grasp.

The road had to be walked one step at a time. So it was in life, and so it was in martial arts cultivation.

Even a third-rate martial art like this would absolutely be a rare treasure outside.

Take Crock Street—among so many people there, how many could cultivate martial arts?

Since coming into contact with martial arts, he had also asked around for quite a bit of information regarding martial arts manuals.

A complete third-rate martial art could sell for more than a hundred taels of silver on the black market.

Several hundred taels of silver! If it had been the original owner of this body, even after working himself to the bone in the Slaughterhouse for a lifetime, he might not have earned that much.

This showed just how valuable martial arts manuals were. Obtaining this manual meant he had already made a tremendous profit.

Not in a hurry to cultivate it, Lin Sheng lifted his head and looked at the sky outside.

Dawn was nearly here. Though after integrating the Iron Yak, his endurance far surpassed that of an ordinary person,

a night of rushing about and ambush killings had kept his mind tense the entire time.

Since there was still some time, he hid away the White Ape Leg Technique, then lay down to sleep in his clothes.

*

*

When the eastern sky turned the color of a fish's belly and the great sun began to rise,

Lin Sheng had already made his preparations and entered the inner city.

Beast Hunter Hall differed from the Slaughterhouse; its headquarters were located in the inner city.

Shops stood in neat rows throughout the inner city. Whether it was the clothing of the pedestrians or the condition of the district itself, everything was far better than Crock Street.

Moreover, there were not many stalls set up in the streets. Most were proper shops lining the roads.

The bluestone pavement was somewhat slick in the early morning. Lin Sheng stepped onto it and soon arrived before a sizable courtyard.

Above the courtyard hung an imposing redwood plaque bearing the three characters Town Mountain Tower. Beneath it hung a smaller plaque, inscribed with the three characters Beast Hunter Hall.

This was where Beast Hunter Hall was located.

Though Lin Sheng lived on Crock Street, he had visited the inner city twice before, so he naturally knew where Beast Hunter Hall was. After all, on both previous trips into the city, he had followed Wang Dehai here to haul and deliver goods.

He stepped forward, reported his name to the two guards, and was allowed inside.

"You're here."

It seemed the guards had already received word, for they let him in directly. Before long, Tian Hu strode out from a side hall with the commanding gait of a general. Seeing Lin Sheng, a smile appeared on his face.

"From today onward, you are officially one of Beast Hunter Hall. I'll tell you about its pay and benefits. They're absolutely not something that Slaughterhouse you used to work at can compare with."

"Thank you, Instructor Tian."

Lin Sheng cupped his hands.

"Enough. Since you've joined Beast Hunter Hall, you're one of us now."

Tian Hu waved his hand.

"You've only just entered Beast Hunter Hall, so you count as an ordinary disciple. Your monthly pay is three taels of silver. Besides that, you can receive twenty jin of rock sheep meat every month..."

Tian Hu immediately went over the pay and benefits with Lin Sheng.