Just as Ning Chuan was carrying his younger cousin and cousin sister toward Qingshi Town,
Three Tiger Mountain's Hall of Brotherhood was brightly lit with candles, and dozens of spirit tablets sat atop the Eight Immortals table.
The First Boss wore a face of grief. Leading dozens of minor leaders clad in mourning hemp and white, he knelt before the memorial tablets and kowtowed.
"My two worthy brothers! When we swore brotherhood, we said we did not seek to be born in the same year, month, and day, but only to die in the same year, month, and day. Who would have thought you two would be in such a hurry, taking one step ahead of your elder brother? What am I supposed to do now?!"
"My two worthy brothers, my brothers all, rest in peace! Your great vengeance—your elder brother will avenge it for you!"
"Ning Chuan, that little bastard's head—I will surely bring it back to offer sacrifice to the spirits of all you brothers in heaven!"
That night, Ning Chuan had slaughtered in all directions on Three Tiger Mountain. Though he had covered his face with a cloth,
a brief investigation afterward uncovered the two corpses in the Heavenly Prison, quickly identifying Ning Chuan as the culprit.
The First Boss wept until tears and snot ran together. The bandits in the hall had bloodshot eyes, and none who heard him could keep from shedding sorrowful tears.
After kowtowing three more times, he rose to his feet, swept his gaze across the minor leaders in the hall, and said,
"Brothers, that fiend Ning Chuan killed two bosses of Three Tiger Mountain and slaughtered dozens of our brothers. This hatred cannot exist beneath the same sky! Muster the men at once and follow me to hack Ning Chuan to death!"
"Hack Ning Chuan to death! Hack Ning Chuan to death!" the leaders roared in unison.
"First Boss, wait," a middle-aged scholar with three wisps of long beard said as he stepped forward.
"Military Advisor, what insight do you have?" the First Boss hurriedly asked.
Stroking his beard, the middle-aged scholar said, "Ning Chuan had never shown himself before. Even when the Third Boss captured him and threw him into the Heavenly Prison, he never resisted. This shows that he had hidden himself very deeply."
Everyone nodded in agreement.
The middle-aged scholar continued,
"This man could come and go freely through Three Tiger Mountain and easily kill two bosses. Who knows how much strength he still has hidden?
"Besides, he is so young, yet his strength is so formidable. Perhaps he is some genius sent out by a major faction to gain experience!"
At those words, everyone's expressions grew grave.
The middle-aged scholar went on, "If we rush out to hunt him down now, not only will we lose many brothers, we may very well offend a major power!"
"Please enlighten me, Military Advisor!" The First Boss bowed deeply.
Highly satisfied, the middle-aged scholar leaned close and whispered something into the First Boss's ear.
The First Boss's eyes grew brighter and brighter. He gave the middle-aged scholar a thumbs-up. "Hahahaha... As expected of my Military Advisor. Brilliant!"
Ning Chuan carried Big Dog and Xiao Hua as he raced all the way to the gates of Qingshi Town. By then, it was already dusk.
This time, with his younger brother and sister with him, it was inconvenient for him to fly into a rage. He could only pay the burly city guard five copper coins.
When Ning Chuan entered the town, several burlap-clad men's eyes flickered. They glanced at the wanted poster nearby, exchanged looks, and one of them hurried away.
Ning Chuan had no idea that he was wanted and had already been marked.
He found an inn, rented a room, and first coaxed Big Dog and Xiao Hua to sleep.
Ning Chuan checked the system,
Host: Ning Chuan Realm: Body Tempering, Level 12 Age: 16/140 Physique: 124 Cultivation Method: Iron Shirt (Third-Level Silver Tendon Realm) Attribute Points: 0 Remaining Sign In attempts: 1. Sign In available.
Only then did Ning Chuan notice that, at some unknown time, his lifespan had actually become 140 years.
In his previous world, that would already have made him a long-lived elder, and he felt rather pleased with himself.
"One point of physique gives one point of lifespan!"
"If I raise my physique to one hundred million, one billion, or ten billion, wouldn't that mean living forever through the ages!"
Ning Chuan's heart burned as he looked forward endlessly to his beautiful future life.
"Let's Sign In first! Patriarchs of the Three Pure Ones, Buddha Tathagata, bless me—please let it be an internal cultivation method or a movement technique!"
"Ding. Sign In successful. You have obtained the cultivation method Meteor Chasing the Moon. Would you like to learn it?"
Ning Chuan silently chose to learn it, and a flood of information poured into his mind.
A superior hidden-weapon cultivation method. A speck of cold light suddenly appeared, swift as a meteor chasing the moon. To see it was to lose one's life and have one's soul severed—thus it was called Meteor Chasing the Moon!
The hidden-weapon art had nine levels. Each time it rose by one level, its power doubled, and the number of hidden weapons it could launch at once increased by one as well.
After receiving the information, Ning Chuan handled hidden weapons as naturally as if he had practiced for years. His techniques were incomparably skilled; all that remained was to raise the cultivation method's realm.
"Good, good, good! What a tyrannical hidden-weapon cultivation method!
"Hidden weapons are good too, and they can be used without inner force!"
"The description of this cultivation method alone is enough to make one yearn for it beyond measure!"
Ning Chuan was overjoyed.
"Now, I have the Third-Level Iron Shirt for defense and brute strength 124 times that of an ordinary person for offense. With this hidden-weapon art, my short-range weakness has been solved. I'll never have to worry about being kited again."
Next, Ning Chuan dismantled the tables, chairs, and stools in the room, sliced them into thumb-sized chunks with his knife, opened a window, and began practicing inside.
Several hours later, Ning Chuan's room was completely bare. Even Big Dog and Xiao Hua had moved to sleeping on the floor—the bed had already been chopped into small pieces and used as hidden weapons.
Sure enough, adding physique meant gaining the world. With the boost of 124 times the comprehension brought by 124 physique, he had trained Meteor Chasing the Moon to the third level.
Ning Chuan flicked his finger, sending a small piece of wood shooting into the night sky.
The instant the wood left his hand, it flashed several zhang away.
With another blink, it vanished completely into the darkness.
"What a powerful hidden weapon. If it were used against me, even I wouldn't be able to dodge it!"
Ning Chuan marveled again and again. His strength had risen greatly once more, and wild ambitions began to stir in his heart.
I wonder about Lord Leng, and Xiao Lian... Hehe... pin them down... forcefully...
Ah, I'm thinking too far ahead. A real man should keep his feet on the ground, not shut himself away and indulge in fantasies... Ning Chuan hurriedly pulled his thoughts back.
For some reason, as his physique increased, he always felt that the fire in his body was especially strong, and he had begun having more thoughts as well.
Just then, he frowned. "Huh, what's that sound outside?" Ning Chuan looked down below.
The inn had actually been surrounded!
Inside the buildings around it and on the streets below, countless people lay in ambush—at least several hundred.
There were burlap-clad men from the Town Defense Camp, each holding a simple saber and radiating killing intent.
There were also men in standard uniforms, looking much like constables from films in his previous life. Could they be patrol officers from the county inspection bureau?
There were even some with sabers on their backs and swords in their arms. Could they be wandering martial heroes?
Huh, there were even armored soldiers carrying powerful bows and heavy crossbows. He had never heard that Qingshi Town had a garrison.
"To deploy such a grand formation, could there be some notorious bandit staying in this inn?"
"Could it be...?"
Ning Chuan's heart skipped a beat. Could they have discovered that I killed ten men from the Joint Defense Camp outside the town? Could the notorious bandit they want to capture be me?
The more Ning Chuan thought about it, the more possible it seemed.
No matter what dynasty it was, killing more than ten people was no small matter.
He hurriedly woke Big Dog and Xiao Hua. The two little ones rubbed their eyes. "Big Brother, what is it?"
"Big Brother is going to fight bad guys in a moment. You two behave yourselves and don't make trouble!"
"Yay, yay!" Hearing that their big brother was going to fight bad guys, the two little ones grew excited.
Ning Chuan tore apart the bedsheets, placed the two little ones side by side on his back, and tied them on securely.
Thus, a curious little head poked out from each of Ning Chuan's shoulders. It looked somewhat comical, yet somewhat adorable.
Just then, a general in silver armor shouted toward the inn,
"Listen up, people inside!
"The City Guard, the inspection bureau, the Joint Defense Camp, and martial heroes have joined forces to capture a vicious bandit!
"Everyone inside, come out one by one and obediently submit to inspection! Those who defy this order will be killed on the spot!"
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