After a single battle, everyone in the caravan had come to regard Ning Chuan as a god. One after another, they came forward to kowtow and offer their thanks.
Corpses lay everywhere, and no one had the slightest urge to sleep. Some merchants brought out wine to share with everyone, and they ate around the campfire.
Several cups of wine warmed their bodies and drove away the fear in their hearts.
"Alas, if not for Lord Ning on this journey, we would likely have already left our bones in the wilderness! Why is this dogshit world so difficult? We common folk live worse than oxen and horses!"
"Once this old man returns, I shall set up a longevity tablet for my benefactor and make offerings to it every day!"
Some lamented the hardships of the world and thanked Ning Chuan for saving them. The atmosphere was lively and fervent.
Ning Chuan drank and chatted with them as well, gaining a much deeper understanding of this world.
This world was also the Great Ming Dynasty, but it differed in many ways from the Great Ming Dynasty of the other world. The government, aristocratic clans, martial world, and all manner of other forces were tangled together in a complex web.
Information in this world was limited. These merchants were merely petty traders from the lowest rung of society, and they did not know much.
If he wanted to learn more, he would have to wait until they reached Qingshan County.
Zhang Dashan led his men to gather all the nearby warhorses, drove wooden stakes into the ground, and tied every horse down.
Shopkeeper Li led many of the attendants in collecting the weapons and stripping the horse bandits of their armor, piling everything into a huge heap.
Ning Chuan was drinking when Shopkeeper Li and Zhang Dashan came over together.
"Lord Ning, we gathered a total of 420 warhorses, 506 weapons, and 506 sets of armor."
"If we transport them to Qingshan County, each warhorse can sell for around ten taels, each set of armor for around ten taels, and each weapon for an average of two taels. They are worth ten thousand taels of silver, but privately selling warhorses and armor carries risks. Please make the decision, my lord."
Ning Chuan waved his hand and said with a smile,
"There is no need to worry. These were seized by my Imperial Guard while exterminating bandits, so there is no risk of private trafficking! However, I have no time for business. I will leave the selling to Shopkeeper Li, with Deputy Captain Zhang assisting him. I will not let either of you suffer a loss."
After traveling alongside Shopkeeper Li and Zhang Dashan for some time, Ning Chuan felt that both men had decent character.
Ning Chuan recalled that celebrities in the other world all had managers.
Why not get one himself, someone specially tasked with handling all his spoils, while he focused on practicing martial arts, killing people, and robbing others?
There was no rush for that, though. They still needed further observation.
Shopkeeper Li and Zhang Dashan were overjoyed. Both bent deeply at the waist. "Thank you, Lord Ning, for your appreciation!"
Then they went off in high spirits to make arrangements.
Once the two left, Ning Chuan finally had some peace and quiet. He returned to the carriage, saw that Big Dog and Xiao Hua were already asleep, then left the caravan and found an open space several hundred meters away to sit down.
He was about to add a huge number of points and wildly enhance his physique. It might cause quite a commotion.
When he opened the system panel, Ning Chuan was stunned, then ecstatic.
His remaining Attribute Points had actually reached 576!
Suppressing his excitement, he could not wait to start adding points.
No matter how many attributes he had, only by converting them into strength could he feel at ease!
"Add 10 points first!"
"Add 20 points!"
"Add 50 points!"
An enormous warm current surged from nowhere, like a vast river, rushing back and forth through every limb and bone in Ning Chuan's body. It continuously scoured his skin, muscles, meridians, bones, internal organs...
As his physique strengthened, all his attributes—agility, spirit, and comprehension—received a massive boost.
His mental power surged, and the range of his perception expanded yard by yard. Four zhang, five zhang...
At last, it stopped at ten zhang.
Within ten zhang, he could sense flies rubbing their feet and ants fighting.
His comprehension soared. The final two levels of Meteor Chasing Moon flowed through his mind once.
At once, enlightenment struck him. With just a little practice, he would immediately be able to cultivate it to the ninth level of great completion.
The most obvious change was his strength. Ning Chuan felt inexhaustible power surging and roaring within his body.
He had the illusion that anything standing before him could be smashed to pieces with a single punch.
After adding the points, he opened the system again.
Host: Ning Chuan Realm: Body Tempering Realm, Level 75 Age: 16/773 Physique: 757 Techniques: Iron Shirt (Level Five, Jade Marrow Realm Peak), Thirteen Great Protectors' Horizontal Training, Meteor Chasing the Moon (Level Seven) Attribute Points: 0 Remaining Sign In Attempts: 3. Cannot Sign In here.
Satisfied—an immense sense of satisfaction welled up within him!
"Hahahaha..." Ning Chuan could no longer hold it in and threw back his head in wild laughter.
His voice was like thunder, carrying far into the distance.
The warhorses were startled, and everyone in the caravan looked over.
"Seventy-five levels of body tempering! I feel like I can blast apart everything!"
"I can live for 773 years! My lifespan is truly one of longevity like the Southern Mountain, an evergreen pine that never ages!"
Ning Chuan stood up and looked over his body. His height had surged once more, reaching over 1.8 meters.
All over his body, the muscles tempered by Thirteen Great Protectors' Horizontal Training bulged furiously again, stretching his clothes until they split in every direction.
Looking down, his pectoral muscles rose high, like two fortresses of steel.
When he raised his arms, his biceps looked like two angry knots. With the slightest movement, they carried terrifying power.
A muscle monster!
A humanoid tank!
A humanoid tyrannosaur!
That described Ning Chuan perfectly now, but he did not particularly like this appearance. He looked somewhat like a big dumb brute, the sort easily scorned by others.
It was also far too conspicuous. One glance would tell others that he specialized in horizontal training techniques, which was neither good for concealing his strength nor convenient for showing off.
He hurriedly sat down and circulated his blood and qi according to the Thirteen Great Protectors' Horizontal Training technique. At once, the blood and qi throughout his body transformed into billions of massive hammers, pounding and tempering his flesh from every direction.
A rumbling roar sounded continuously from within his body as the highly swollen muscles gradually compressed again.
Several hours later, Thirteen Great Protectors' Horizontal Training had reached its peak directly.
The technique worked from the outside inward. Threads of true qi emerged without end, yet the instant they appeared, they swiftly vanished into his body, just as they had when he cultivated Iron Shirt.
It seemed that if he wanted to cultivate true qi, he first had to fill the black holes within his body!
Ning Chuan stood up. The lines of his muscles were distinct and streamlined. Not only had his strength not diminished, it had increased considerably.
From the outside, Ning Chuan now looked like a handsome, elegant young man with an ape's back, a wasp's waist, and a tall, upright bearing.
"No wonder they say the concentrated is the essence!"
Ning Chuan sighed, then picked up pebbles from the ground and practiced Meteor Chasing Moon.
Sure enough, after several dozen repetitions, he had directly cultivated it to the ninth level of great completion.
Once Meteor Chasing Moon reached great completion, another flash of enlightenment flooded his heart, filling him with wild joy once more.
"So after nine nines return to one, that is the true Meteor Chasing Moon!"
With a flick of his hand, a pebble trailed a long tail of flame as it shot straight into the night sky. In an instant, it vanished beyond the horizon, while a thunderous explosion echoed through the air.
When Meteor Chasing Moon's nine nines returned to one, its power increased eighteenfold. Not only did it come with sound and light effects, it could seize the very soul.
This was precisely: "Swift as a shooting star flashing into being; whoever sees it loses life and soul!"
Meteor Chasing the Moon was terrifying indeed!
At that moment, Straw Bag Strategist was frantically fleeing back to Second Dragon Mountain.
Returning to Second Dragon Mountain was something he had no choice but to do. Only Second Dragon Mountain nearby had messenger pigeons.
If Ning Chuan knew that he had fled back to Second Dragon Mountain, he would surely regret not pursuing him.
Once Straw Bag Strategist entered Second Dragon Mountain, he began shouting and yelling, throwing the entire mountain into chaos, with chickens flying and dogs leaping.
"Quick, quick! Summon all the messengers for this old man!"
Before long, more than a dozen messengers from Second Dragon Mountain had gathered. They stood respectfully with their hands at their sides, awaiting Straw Bag Strategist's orders.
Straw Bag Strategist picked up a brush and swept his hand across the paper,
"Dispatch experts at once to Eagle Sorrow Gorge. This is urgent beyond measure!"
The messengers hurriedly took the letters, stuffed them into the bamboo tubes beneath the carrier pigeons' feet, and the pigeons soared into the sky, flying in all directions.
After personally watching the pigeons fly away, Straw Bag Strategist selected several lackeys to guard him and fled Second Dragon Mountain as though his ass were on fire!
"Ning Chuan, do not be smug just yet. Three Tiger Mountain and Second Dragon Mountain are merely the weakest horse bandit forces."
"Next will be your day of death!"
Before you continue