Flower Picking Thief

After dinner, Huang Shaojie took a stroll in the rear courtyard, then remembered that he had yet to claim the True Essence Pill rewarded by the system.

Returning to the side room of his small courtyard, Huang Shaojie claimed the True Essence Pill.

A green pill the size of a Chinese checkers marble appeared in his palm, giving off a faint, lingering fragrance.

"System, do I take this True Essence Pill directly? What does it do?"

Huang Shaojie asked the system in his mind.

Although most martial arts and cultivation novels had people swallow pills directly before circulating their inner energy to refine them, it was better to ask the system first, lest something went wrong.

It can be swallowed directly, or chewed and swallowed before being refined through circulating your inner energy.

The True Essence Pill increases the True Essence Qi within the body. It comes in four grades: lower, middle, upper, and supreme. The higher the pill's grade, the purer the True Essence Qi produced after taking it.

This is a middle-grade True Essence Pill. It can increase the purity of the true qi within your body by more than threefold.

That sounded pretty good.

Huang Shaojie immediately tossed the middle-grade True Essence Pill into his mouth and swallowed it in one gulp.

Then he sat cross-legged on the bed and circulated the Wind God Leg's inner cultivation method to refine the True Essence Pill.

After one minor cycle, Huang Shaojie felt a ball of flame rise within his Dantian, like a pill furnace refining the true qi in his body.

The sensation was agonizing, a searing heat as though his entire body had caught fire.

Huang Shaojie clenched his teeth and remained utterly unmoved, continuing to circulate his inner cultivation method to refine the true qi within him.

Gradually, streams of white vapor rose from the top of his head. They were gaseous impurities expelled from his body after his true qi had been refined.

After one major cycle, white vapor no longer rose from Huang Shaojie's head. The effects of the True Essence Pill had been fully activated, and all the true qi in his body had been refined once over, transforming into True Essence Qi.

True Essence Qi was a powerful form of energy far purer than true qi.

Though Huang Shaojie had only taken a middle-grade True Essence Pill, the True Essence Qi he refined contained at least three times the energy of his previous true qi.

Huang Shaojie circulated the True Essence Qi within his body and struck at the mysterious gate barring the Xiantian Realm.

The True Essence Qi was incomparably powerful!

After more than a dozen strikes, the mysterious gate of the Xiantian Realm burst open with a boom, and the True Essence Qi surged through like floodwaters bursting a dam.

Huang Shaojie felt an indescribable ease spread through his limbs and bones, as though some shackles of restraint had been cast off. His cultivation immediately soared.

Congratulations, host. You have broken through to the Innate First Layer!

"Finally, I've entered the Xiantian Realm!"

Huang Shaojie let out a long breath, withdrew his cultivation, and sprang down from the bed.

He left the side room and came outside his little courtyard, intending to test the current power of his Wind God Leg.

"Catching Wind and Shadows!"

With a sharp shout, Huang Shaojie leaped into the air. His body turned into a phantom, darting and shifting through the air, now east, now west, swift beyond compare!

The first move of the Wind God Leg, Catching Wind and Shadows, was an unrivaled lightness skill movement technique.

It also laid a solid foundation for the five moves that followed.

With Huang Shaojie's current Catching Wind and Shadows movement technique, even masters who had reached the Innate Seventh Layer would find it difficult to touch even the corner of his robes.

After darting through the air with Catching Wind and Shadows for dozens of seconds, Huang Shaojie drifted gracefully back to the ground.

Next, he unleashed the second move of the Wind God Leg: Strong Grass in the Wind!

He leaped up and kicked three times through the air, his legs striking like racing thunder!

Each kick was incomparably fierce, its momentum vast and mighty!

Each carried the force of ten thousand catties!

Even savage beasts such as lions, tigers, bears, and leopards would be killed with a single kick.

Afterward, Huang Shaojie unleashed the third move of the Wind God Leg: Violent Storm!

Leg shadows filled the sky as he kicked like a raging tempest. Fierce winds sprang up all around, sending sand and stones flying through the courtyard and making the branches and leaves shake violently.

In the span of an instant, Huang Shaojie had kicked more than a hundred times. Though the force of each kick was inferior to the second move, Strong Grass in the Wind, the sheer number made up for it!

Just think of it—more than a hundred kicks in an instant, each carrying several thousand catties of force. Who could withstand that?

When facing the combined assault of dozens of people, Violent Storm would be even more effective.

The six moves of the Wind God Leg grew more powerful with each successive move.

The first three moves could only be considered appetizers; the final three were the Wind God Leg's true killing techniques.

Huang Shaojie only knew the first three moves of the Wind God Leg, yet that was already enough to defeat martial artists below the Innate Fifth Layer.

If he mastered the final three moves, he would be invincible below the Grandmaster realm.

However, with his current cultivation, even if he mastered the final three moves of the Wind God Leg, he would be unable to unleash their true power.

After practicing the three moves of the Wind God Leg, Huang Shaojie was extremely satisfied.

He then took a hot bath and went to bed.

Late at night.

There were no stars or moon, and darkness blanketed everything.

The entire Suzhou City lay silent, sunk in slumber.

Only the occasional clang of a night watchman's gong broke the stillness. Several squads of soldiers enforcing the curfew patrolled listlessly with sabers and spears in hand, yawning as they went.

At that moment, a shadow raced silently across the rooftops beneath the pitch-black night, arriving outside a manor.

The black-clad, masked man vaulted into the residence, avoided several servants patrolling the night, and came to a pavilion.

Four guards holding sabers stood watch around the pavilion.

Yet none of those night guards noticed that the masked man had already infiltrated the pavilion's side.

With a flick of his hand, the masked man sent several silver needles flying. The four guards collapsed to the ground without even letting out a grunt.

The masked man leaped up to the window outside the pavilion and hung upside down from the beam.

He took a bamboo tube from his robes, wet his index finger with saliva and poked through the window paper. Then he inserted the bamboo tube and blew a stream of green smoke inside.

After releasing the green smoke, the masked man waited roughly a quarter of an hour. He then drew a small knife, gently pried open the window, and leaped into the room.

Inside the room, a beautiful young woman slept beneath a gauze canopy.

The masked man went to the bedside, yanked away the silk quilt covering the young woman, and pounced on her.

The following morning.

An official sedan chair arrived before the Imperial Guard yamen.

The sedan chair stopped, and a middle-aged man wearing a tall official hat and a crimson official robe stepped out.

This man in crimson official robes was none other than Liu Changqing, the Prefect of Suzhou.

"Please announce that the Prefect of Suzhou seeks an audience with the Imperial Guard Commander."

A guard stepped forward and cupped his hands in salute to the officers standing watch at the Imperial Guard's main gate.

"Please wait, sir. I shall report to the Commander at once."

Seeing that it was the prefect seeking an audience, the officers did not dare delay. One of them ran inside to deliver the report.

He returned shortly afterward, cupped his hands in salute, and said, "The Commander invites the Prefect to speak in the main hall."

The officer then led Prefect Liu to the main hall.

At the head of the hall sat a lean, dark-skinned man in his fifties, dressed in a splendid Dou Niu Robe. He was Niu Ren, the Commander of a Thousand and highest-ranking commander stationed at the Suzhou Imperial Guard yamen.

Imperial Guard attire was strictly distinguished according to rank.

The Commander of the Imperial Guard wore an imperial-bestowed python robe and carried a gold command plaque.

Pacification Commissioners and those above them were bestowed Flying Fish Robes and carried silver command plaques.

Commanders of a Thousand and Deputy Commanders of a Thousand were bestowed Dou Niu Robes and carried bronze command plaques.

Commanders of a Hundred and Probationary Commanders of a Hundred wore red brocade uniforms and carried aluminum command plaques.

Banner Chiefs and Company Commanders wore blue brocade uniforms and carried iron command plaques.

Officers, Imperial Riders, and Strongmen wore green brocade uniforms and carried wooden command plaques.

Furthermore, only those of Commander of a Thousand rank or above could wear a Jade Belt. Only those of Company Commander rank or above qualified to carry an Embroidered Spring Blade. Officers like Huang Shaojie could only receive ordinary sabers.

"This subordinate pays respects to Commander Niu!"

Upon entering the hall, Prefect Liu stepped forward and bowed with cupped hands to Niu Ren, who sat at the head of the hall.

A prefect held Principal Fifth Rank, while an Imperial Guard Commander of a Thousand was technically also Principal Fifth Rank.

However, there was a saying in officialdom: when the Imperial Guard met an official, they ranked three grades higher.

The Imperial Guard were the emperor's household servants. Niu Ren, as an Imperial Guard Commander of a Thousand, held a status equivalent to an imperial envoy sent by the emperor to Suzhou to monitor all officials.

Not to mention a Principal Fifth Rank prefect—even the Suzhou Provincial Governor would have to respectfully address an Imperial Guard Commander of a Thousand as "sir."

"Prefect Liu, there is no need for such formality. Please, sit." Commander Niu lifted a hand slightly. "Someone, serve tea to Prefect Liu."

After Prefect Liu had taken his seat and been served tea, Commander Niu looked at him and asked, "What brings Prefect Liu to the Imperial Guard today? Do you have some matter to discuss?"

Prefect Liu cupped his hands and said, "To be frank, this subordinate has come to visit the Commander because I wish to ask the Imperial Guard to help me apprehend a Flower Picking Thief."

"A Flower Picking Thief?" Niu Ren set down his teacup and pondered briefly. "Could it be that Flower Urging Gentleman who has committed multiple crimes in Suzhou recently?"

Over the past two months, a Flower Picking Thief had appeared in Suzhou City. Several daughters of wealthy families had already fallen victim, while countless gold, silver, and jewels had been stolen.

Every time this Flower Picking Thief picked a flower, he took away the bellyband and intimate garments of the woman he had violated, then left a poem on the wall:

When flowers can be plucked, pluck them without delay; Do not wait until no flowers remain, only to snap bare branches in vain. A beauty sleeps alone within an empty room; One breath of incense, then one soul-enchanting ecstasy.

—Flower Destroyer Gentleman