Preparations (1)

This had come extremely suddenly.

A whole slew of throwing darts abruptly flew at him.

Fortunately, Wei He had been prepared. He twisted aside to evade several darts, and for those he truly could not avoid, he blocked them with the iron plates on his body. He absolutely did not let his arms or legs touch them.

Seeing that this final hidden move had failed, the fat man's heart turned to ashes. He staggered a few steps before collapsing to the ground once more.

This time, he truly did not move.

Wei He swiftly drew out the poisoned spike again and viciously flung it at him.

With a puff, the poisoned spike sank deeply into the fat man's abdomen, yet he did not stir at all. There was no movement whatsoever.

Only then did Wei He let out a breath. He picked up another stone and hurled it hard, smashing it into the fat man's forehead. Blood slowly seeped out as the man's skull caved in from the blow.

Only then did Wei He slowly approach and begin dealing with the corpse.

He found quite a few good things on the fat man as well.

A pair of metal gloves, five poisoned throwing darts, one remaining pouch of poison powder, a leather money pouch, and one bag each of dried rations and water.

After searching through everything, Wei He slashed open the wounds before swiftly leaving.

He had wanted to drag the corpse away, but there was no time. The corpses from before might already have been discovered.

He could vaguely hear faint sounds coming from the mountain. He did not know whether they were animals or people, but there were certainly quite a few.

Whatever they were, he could not stay here long. He knew that Shaoyang Gate people generally liked to travel in groups.

Wei He swiftly retreated, carrying his things down the mountain.

He found the clothes he had prepared earlier and hidden in a clump of weeds. After changing into them, he switched to another sack and stuffed all his spoils inside.

He had originally prepared this sack for carrying prey, but now it served another purpose.

Wei He sprinkled odor-removing powder over himself, wet a towel with water from the waterskin, wiped the blood from his face and body clean, and tidied his somewhat messy hair.

Only then did he drag the sack swiftly toward Feiye City's gates.

This trip had brought him no small harvest, but it had also caused no small trouble.

He had killed an entire nest of bandits, along with one Shaoyang Gate disciple. That made seven lives in total.

Wei He sighed inwardly. Without even realizing it, he had come to regard human lives as so much grass.

Once upon a time, he had been an inexperienced youth whose hands would tremble after killing someone.

Now...

He made his way back home and threw the sack onto the courtyard floor.

It was already noon. Second Sister had gone to Huishan Fist Academy to help out and visit Old Zheng while she was there.

Ever since the bun shop was gone, Wei Ying often went to visit Old Zheng whenever she had nothing to do.

Since Zheng Fugui's daughter was not by his side, he had become increasingly close to the Wei siblings.

With Second Sister away, Wei He did not delay. He swiftly took out the python, nailed it to a tree trunk, and began skinning it with his knife.

The python was not venomous. Once skinned, its meat could be stewed into soup or roasted—either way, it was delicious.

He skinned it, removed the innards, washed it several times with the clean water in the vat, then set it to stew.

He rubbed salt over part of it and hung it in the courtyard to dry beneath the blazing sun, turning it into jerky to prevent spoilage.

After bustling about for a while, the snake-meat stew was soon ready.

Wei He did not take it off the heat. Instead, he kept it warm over the charcoal he had bought. He scooped up a spoonful, blew it cool, and gently tasted it.

A faint fishy taste mixed with the flavors of salt, ginger, and scallion flooded his mouth.

"It's still a little fishy, but it's truly fresh."

He swiftly picked out a large amount of meat and set it aside to cool, then went into the inner room to prepare some chilies and spices as dipping sauce.

The python was enormous, and its flesh was thick.

Dipping the meat into the sauce, Wei He stuffed chunk after chunk into his stomach. Fresh, fragrant, numbing, and spicy—it was utterly satisfying.

If the charcoal he had bought had not nearly burned out, he would have wanted to cook another pot.

After finishing the snake meat, Wei He estimated that he had eaten three pounds of pure snake flesh in this meal.

For a python over two meters long, that was only a tiny portion of its body.

The rest would be enough to feed him for a long time yet.

Feeling comfortable all over, he reclined halfway in a wicker chair beneath the shade of the courtyard tree. A cup of cassia seed tea sat beside him, and he leisurely took a sip.

"This snake meat really tastes wonderful. What a pity it isn't exotic beast meat. Its nourishing effect isn't like Flower Branch Deer Meat, where you feel it the moment you finish eating.

Still, it should be much better than ordinary poultry. Such a long snake, eaten slowly, should last me half a month."

Having tasted the sweetness of hunting, Wei He was immediately brimming with drive. He planned to wait a while, test the waters again, and go hunting once more.

Of course, before going next time, he would definitely first find out what reaction Shaoyang Gate had to losing one of its people.

After resting for a while.

Wei He took out the small booklet he had acquired earlier from the sack and examined it carefully.

The booklet recorded a martial art called Five Ridges Palm.

Five Ridges Palm trained both palms. According to its description, once cultivated to a profound level, one's palms would become like gold and iron, able to leave palmprints on metal with a casual strike.

Five Ridges Palm could, in truth, be renamed Five-Finger Mountain Palm.

Wei He flipped through its detailed contents and discovered that this martial art was rather incomplete. What was missing was the medicinal formula needed for cleansing and tempering during breakthroughs.

"That makes sense. Who would be foolish enough to carry a complete manual on them? This portion mainly contains movements and techniques. He probably carried it to review and practice the moves. If it were me, I'd definitely keep things like medicinal formulas separately too."

Wei He understood.

Without the medicinal formula, this martial art held little reference value.

For this kind of External Martial Arts, if it lacked a formula specifically designed for it, prolonged training would eventually lead to injury or disability.

He put down the booklet and prepared to inspect the rest of the spoils.

Suddenly, his heart skipped a beat.

This martial art... doesn't require a Fundamental Diagram. It only needs the cleansing formula to catalyze breakthroughs. Could my Boundary-Breaking Pearl replace the formula needed at breakthroughs and let me break through directly?

The instant he thought of that possibility, his heart began pounding.

If this possibility worked, then Five Ridges Palm could be said to be the martial arts manual best suited to him!

This was because its requirements for blood and vitality were not as high as Huishan Fist's, though its bottlenecks were harder to overcome.

For the moment, he suppressed his speculation and continued examining the other items.

Besides a pile of powder pouches, there was a pair of metal gloves and a money pouch. The latter was the real prize.

Only the joints of the metal gloves were protected by metal plates, while the rest was leather, but that was enough.

With a little repair, they could give him quite an advantage in ordinary fights.

Unless he encountered someone with hand spikes like his.

Tossing the gloves aside, Wei He looked at the money pouch again. Inside was a stack of gold notes printed with a lotus-like design.

The four large characters on the gold notes read: Qian Shen Tong Tian.

Wei He pulled one out to inspect it, pinching it between his fingers.

This was his first time receiving gold notes. At other places he was attached to, he had always asked for grain and meat instead.

"This isn't paper... it's some kind of leather?" Wei He was surprised to discover that the gold note was actually made from the hide of some animal, and it carried a faint fragrance of its own.

"This thing might possess some kind of function in itself. It may not merely be a substitute for gold."

Wei He guessed inwardly.

Taking out all the gold notes, he counted them and was startled to discover that there were a full thousand taels.

Based on the exchange rate for Inner City gold and white rice that Cheng Shaojiu had told him about before, a thousand taels was absolutely no small sum.

He noticed that the bottom of every gold note bore the words, "Issued by Damao Money House."

He simply did not know where this Damao Money House was.

Having tasted the sweetness of it, Wei He immediately understood why there were so many mountain bandits and highwaymen in this era.

One robbery could bring in so much money and so many good things. If one could earn that well every day, it was simply unimaginable.

But he also knew that even if he went to Shaoyang Mountain every day, it was impossible for him to encounter a Shaoyang Gate fat man carrying a fortune every time.

Putting away the money and the various pouches, Wei He rested in contentment.

From that day onward, he continued hunting, but changed locations. He no longer went to Shaoyang Mountain, instead heading to other areas around Feiye City.

For over a month in a row.

He lived each day in a cycle of hunting, returning in the afternoon to practice martial arts, and Skin Grinding.

At the same time, whenever he had spare time, he began practicing the contents of the Five Ridges Palm manual.

Nourished by abundant meat, the growth of Wei He's Boundary-Breaking Pearl accelerated again. It soon reached three-tenths full.

His blood and vitality also gradually condensed into the physical form of the first Nine-Cloud Flower.

However, compared to the Boundary-Breaking Pearl, the speed of Skin Grinding and flower condensation was clearly much slower.

From Old Zheng's expression during his examinations, Wei He could also tell that his rate of blood and vitality growth was less than satisfactory.

At first, Old Zheng had regarded Wei He as a genius because of how quickly he had broken through. But then...

As time passed, Wei He's aptitude gradually showed its true colors.

His rate of blood and vitality growth was completely unlike what a genius should have possessed.

To be precise, his rate of growth was less than a third of Xiao Ran's back then.

This caused Old Zheng's heartful hopes to gradually turn into disappointment.

Fortunately, just as he was feeling dejected, Xiao Ran unexpectedly had a new turn of fortune.

"Master Zheng!! Xiao Ran, Xiao Ran...!!"

That day, Wei He was in the Inner Court, carefully listening as Old Zheng explained Huishan Fist combat techniques for Stone Hide, when Jiang Su suddenly rushed in with a single stride. Panting heavily, she cried, "Xiao Ran, he's recovered!!"

"Xiao Ran? Recovered??" Master Zheng was first stunned, then asked again in disbelief.

"Did you just say Xiao Ran has recovered? What has he recovered from? Explain it clearly!"

Jiang Su glanced at Wei He and Zhao Hong beside her, then swiftly focused her gaze on Master Zheng again.

She said solemnly, word by word, "Master Zheng, Xiao Ran has regained Stone Hide blood and vitality! He's in the Outer Court right now. I tested him myself just now—there's absolutely no problem. He has definitely returned to the second level of blood and vitality! There can be no mistake!"

Master Zheng stood frozen in place. After listening carefully, he clutched his beard, momentarily unable to speak.

The disappointment he had gradually felt because of Wei He's performance seemed to have sparked anew at this moment.

He repeatedly tugged at his beard and paced back and forth a few steps before coming to a stop.

"Go! Take me to see!"

"Yes!" Jiang Su immediately led the way, taking Master Zheng toward the Outer Court.

Senior Disciple Brother Zhao Hong and Wei He remained where they were.

The two exchanged a glance, then swiftly followed after them.

Though neither of them liked Xiao Ran much, they had to admit that his talent was truly formidable.

Wei He followed them to the Outer Court and happened to see Xiao Ran surrounded by a group of fellow disciples.

Master Zheng, Old Zheng, stood directly opposite him.

Master Zheng had a hand on Xiao Ran's shoulder, his eyes closed as though sensing something.

Soon, Master Zheng slowly opened his eyes.

"He actually... he has actually recovered completely!" His hand trembled as he repeatedly patted Xiao Ran's shoulder.

"You're very good!"