Flying Eagle Martial Arts School! Yellowed Jade Fragment! Big Haul

Qin Wang went to Yangji Breakfast Stall and ate a bowl of rice noodles and a bowl of noodles before following the long street onward.

At eleven in the morning.

With 12 taels of silver tucked away, he stood a hundred zhang from the Flying Eagle Martial Arts School in the north of the city.

After asking around all morning, he had learned that Yan Yun County had three major martial arts schools: the Flying Eagle Martial Arts School, which specialized in movement techniques. Its Flying Eagle Movement Technique let one vault over eaves and scale walls, as nimble as a flying eagle!

The Iron Cloth Martial Arts School taught the hard-training martial art Iron Cloth Shirt. Everyone at the school cultivated Iron Cloth Shirt; their vitality was robust, their bodies powerful, their muscles knotted and bulging!

The Lightning Sword Martial Arts School taught the Lightning Sword Technique. Its sword strikes flashed like lightning, slicing open an enemy's throat before they could react!

All three martial arts schools accepted disciples from the public.

The fee to take a master was 10 taels of silver, covering three months of instruction. If one had not learned it after those three months, another 10 taels had to be paid to continue.

Qin Wang felt that since he already had Ancestor's Long Fist, he had to learn a movement technique.

Whether or not you could beat someone, your Lightness Skill had to be good. You had to know how to run.

He had thought it through.

Even if he was no match for Chen Kun, the Chen Family head, once he had mastered Lightness Skill, he could still take his elder sister Qin Xuemei out of the Chen Family.

"Little brother, are you here to learn Lightness Skill?"

Seeing Qin Wang standing at the martial arts school entrance and studying the gold-lettered plaque bearing the four words "Flying Eagle Martial Arts School," a wiry old man of around fifty, short in stature and with leg wraps on both calves, came out and asked him warmly.

"Sir, yes, I want to learn Lightness Skill."

"I heard the entry fee is 10 taels of silver?"

Qin Wang immediately clasped his fists to the old man and asked.

"Yes, yes, yes. The fee to take a master is 10 taels. You brought the money, didn't you?"

"Please, come inside!"

The wiry old man was extremely enthusiastic.

"I brought it."

Qin Wang nodded.

"This old man is Du Fu, responsible for receiving new disciples. I'll take you to register. Once you pay the fee, collect your disciple's uniform and token, you can come to the martial arts school every day to cultivate the Flying Eagle Movement Technique."

The wiry old man introduced things to Qin Wang warmly.

Two enormous stone lions, each a zhang tall, stood at the entrance of the Flying Eagle Martial Arts School.

Beyond the gates was a broad passageway three zhang wide. After walking thirty zhang, one reached the training grounds inside. The grounds were immense, roughly a hundred zhang wide and over a hundred zhang long.

Quite a few young men and women wearing clothing marked with the Flying Eagle Martial Arts School insignia were running with sandbags tied to their legs.

Others were practicing on plum blossom posts, stone pedestals, dodging techniques, and more.

Du Fu took Qin Wang to a pot-bellied steward, where he paid 10 taels of silver and received a black wooden token numbered 348, along with a set of green clothes embroidered with a flying eagle.

Then he handed him over to a slightly plump young man of around twenty-four or twenty-five, instructing, "Nephew Zhang, this is the new disciple Qin Wang. Take him along and teach him the Flying Eagle Movement Technique."

"Don't worry, Martial Uncle Du!"

The slightly plump young man nodded to Du Fu, then said to Qin Wang, "Junior Brother Qin, my name is Zhang Hao. You can call me Senior Brother Zhang from now on. Come with me first."

"Alright."

Qin Wang nodded and followed behind Zhang Hao.

"To train a movement technique, you must first become as light as a swallow, with nimble footsteps. To achieve that, you need to run with sandbags tied to your legs, progressing gradually from light to heavy. Also, come here every morning—Senior Brother Lin teaches new disciples the basic methods of leaping and shifting."

"Come, try running with sandbags first."

Zhang Hao pointed at the young men and women who were running as he explained to Qin Wang.

"Alright!"

Qin Wang nodded, stepped forward, tied two sandbags to his legs, and began trying to run.

At five in the afternoon.

Qin Wang walked down the street. He found running with sandbags tied on to be extremely heavy, but once he removed them and ran again, he felt as light as a swallow, his speed greatly increased!

He had only given it a try that afternoon to familiarize himself with it. He planned to return early the next morning.

"Now, I'll go take a look at Zheng Kecheng's Linjiang Villa, Number 12."

Qin Wang found somewhere to eat, then rested for a while. After finishing his meal, he headed for Linjiang Villa.

Before long.

Qin Wang arrived at Linjiang Villa.

This was the wealthy district of Yan Yun County.

Some of the county's rich merchants and distinguished figures came here to purchase villas.

There were more than a hundred of these detached courtyards.

Each courtyard was spaced ten zhang apart, the ground paved with blue bricks and planted with ornamental trees.

The courtyards were surrounded by walls over a zhang high. Inside, they resembled traditional siheyuan residences, complete with rockeries, small pools, pavilions, and terraces—clearly worth a fortune.

"This Zheng Kecheng really knows how to live!"

"Damn it, a mere Chief Constable bought such a lavish courtyard here just to keep a woman! How much silver must he have skimmed over the years?"

Qin Wang passed ten zhang away from Courtyard No. 12, cursing inwardly.

At this time.

Quite a few carriages rolled in slowly. The wealthy merchants from the city were returning home for the night.

Qin Wang did not linger. He noticed that Courtyard No. 12 seemed unoccupied.

"I wonder whether the woman Zheng Kecheng keeps is inside?"

Qin Wang studied Courtyard No. 12 carefully. Its walls stood over a zhang high. To get in, one could either use a rope hook to catch the wall, or take another route: behind the courtyard stood a large maple tree, its branches stretching to the wall. He could climb the tree, drop onto the wall, then make his way down.

As for Zheng Kecheng's canary, if she discovered him, he could only kill her.

Qin Wang headed farther away and waited five li from there.

There was a moon on the winter night, but its light was faint.

Time passed.

In the blink of an eye, it was midnight. After observing that no one had entered Courtyard No. 12, Qin Wang changed into black clothes, covered his face, came to the rear wall of the twelfth courtyard, climbed the tree, and vaulted over the wall.

Dagger in hand, Qin Wang followed the base of the wall, listening carefully as he slowly approached.

"Looks like that woman isn't inside."

Qin Wang cautiously checked the rooms one by one. Finding that there seemed to be no one in the courtyard, he was immediately delighted. It would be much easier to act with no one around.

Moreover.

The windows of all these rooms were tightly shut.

"Bedroom! Wardrobe!"

Qin Wang pushed open a window and saw that it was a bedroom. There was a dressing mirror, a large bed opposite it, and a large brown wardrobe against the wall. The bedding on the bed had been folded neatly; there was clearly no one here.

But the scent of rouge and powder lingered in the air.

Qin Wang listened for a moment, then pushed the window open a little farther and leaped inside with his dagger in hand.

After landing, Qin Wang looked carefully around the room, then walked to the wardrobe and gently pulled it open.

Inside the wardrobe were neatly stacked women's clothes.

The wardrobe had four sections.

Qin Wang opened and checked them one by one. They were all filled with clothes, with none of the internal cultivation manual mentioned in the intelligence report. His brow furrowed as he muttered, "Impossible. The intelligence can't be wrong. Could Zheng Kecheng have taken it?"

"Hm?"

Unwilling to give up, Qin Wang continued searching. At the very bottom of the wardrobe, he spotted a small drawer with a tiny copper lock on it. He immediately took out his dagger and pried the lock open. With a snap, the little copper lock was torn from the wooden drawer.

Qin Wang pulled open the drawer, and his eyes instantly lit up. Inside lay a yellowed booklet, its pages curled at the edges.

There were also more than ten five-tael silver ingots, around ten banknotes, and a Yellowed Jade Fragment three cun long and one cun wide.