Yang Heng focused his gaze and saw that the Marrow Cleansing Pearl resembled a transparent crystal ball. Misty vapors drifted around it, and inside, sparkling liquid like heavenly nectar filled half the sphere, gleaming brilliantly with incomparable sacredness.
Over the past month, not only had the Marrow Cleansing Pearl accumulated energy at an astonishing rate, but Yang Heng himself had also undergone earth-shaking changes.
After testing himself, he found that he could now lift three hundred jin with one hand and walk fifty li without losing his breath. Delivering medicine outside took him more than half the time it once had.
He did not waste this extra time. He began practicing Military Boxing, training bitterly in the wilderness.
After a month, he had achieved some results.
His gaze had grown increasingly sharp, his punches carried the wind, and every move was clean and concise yet formidable. Handling seven or eight ordinary people would not be a problem.
To test his strength, Yang Heng had single-handedly wiped out a small gang trafficking people in Qingyang Town. Though he took a few blows from clubs, overall, he was quite satisfied with his own strength.
However, he had not become swollen with pride. Being king among ordinary people meant nothing; against a martial artist, he still would not withstand even one exchange.
He had asked several apprentices whose ancestors had once produced martial artists about the whereabouts of Martial Arts Manuals, but found nothing.
That day, after delivering medicine and returning to Qingyang Town, Yang Heng unexpectedly spotted Li Kui following behind two strong, sturdy men with hardened faces into a tavern, his face piled high with smiles.
Li Kui bore him no personal grudge, but he was the chief culprit behind the original owner's death. Since Yang Heng had obtained this body, he had to bear its karma as well and avenge it.
Yet recently, Li Kui had behaved himself. Whenever he encountered Yang Heng, he kept far away, and with so many eyes and ears at the pharmacy, Yang Heng had found no chance to strike.
If a good opportunity arose, Yang Heng would not show mercy. When it was time to act, he would act.
He believed Li Kui must hate him in his heart as well.
Li Kui had been a vigorous young man and a domineering figure among the pharmacy apprentices, yet Yang Heng had forced him to kneel and admit his mistake, costing him all his dignity. There was no way he could swallow that humiliation. Perhaps he was already plotting some sinister scheme in the shadows, trying to harm Yang Heng.
Yang Heng gave Li Kui a deep look, then headed toward the pharmacy.
Over the past month, Li Kui had watched Yang Heng change day by day at an astonishing pace, his body growing stronger and stronger until it had surpassed Li Kui's own.
Li Kui saw it all and grew anxious, yet he could think of no way to deal with Yang Heng, leaving him weighed down with worry.
Today, after delivering medicine outside and returning to town, he ran into two brothers he had played with since childhood. Three years ago, they had gone to Qinghe City and were fortunate enough to join a martial arts school as disciples, making Li Kui envy them to death.
He had tried to join as well, but unfortunately, his talent was insufficient. The martial arts school would not accept him, and he could not afford its exorbitant training fees.
Today, they had returned home to visit family. When Li Kui ran into them, he could not refuse their invitation and went to the tavern to reminisce.
Inside the tavern.
At a table in the middle of the main hall, Li Kui sat directly opposite the entrance while the other two sat facing each other.
At the wine table, Li Kui looked at his two former brothers, dressed in fine clothes and sturdy as tigers, and bitterness filled his heart.
When they were children, he had been the eldest among the three. Now, however, he could only lower himself and play the younger brother, his face piled high with smiles as he urged them to drink.
The immense gap left his heart unsettled for a time.
But there was nothing he could do. After all, he needed something from them.
"Brothers, after three years of studying at a martial arts school, you must have cultivated impressive skills. Could you let your brother here broaden his horizons?" Li Kui said ingratiatingly.
The two did not speak. They merely drank wine and ate meat. Only after the last piece of beef bone on the plate had been gnawed clean, leaving not even a shred of meat and bare as bone could be, did they finally speak.
One was called Zhang Meng, the other Liu Xin.
Zhang Meng lived up to his name. He was even sturdier than Li Kui, with arms thicker than an adult's thighs. Sitting motionless on his wooden stool, he carried the imposing force of Mount Tai bearing down overhead.
Zhang Meng said in a muffled voice, "You want to see our martial skills? What is so difficult about that?"
To return home without wealth was like walking at night in brocade robes.
He also wanted to show off before Li Kui and enjoy a few words of praise.
Especially since Li Kui had once been stronger than them, while now he was far inferior.
The flavor of it was indescribably wonderful.
As he spoke, Zhang Meng picked up the bare beef bone from the plate before him, placed it in his palm, and closed his five fingers around it.
A moment later, cracking sounds rang out.
Zhang Meng extended his hand before Li Kui and opened it. In the blink of an eye, the hard beef bone had become a pile of powder, lying quietly in his palm.
Li Kui was horrified, his heart pounding wildly.
To crush a palm-sized, incomparably hard beef bone into powder—just how much grip strength did that require?
If what Zhang Meng had squeezed just now had not been a beef bone but Li Kui's hand, then his hand would likely have already become a lump of minced flesh.
Li Kui's face was full of disbelief as he froze on the spot.
Seeing Li Kui's expression, Zhang Meng secretly reveled in it. It was like eating an ice pop on a scorching midsummer day—cool and refreshing, leaving his entire body utterly at ease.
Liu Xin refused to be outdone.
He took a Copper Coin from his clothes, pinched it between two fingers, and slowly pressed it toward the wooden table.
Without any visible exertion, the wooden table seemed to be made of paper, and the Copper Coin sank easily into it.
Had they not seen it with their own eyes, no one would have believed that a Copper Coin was embedded inside the table. They would have taken it for a pattern.
The pair's display deeply shocked Li Kui. He was so stunned that he could not speak, his eyes widened round.
"Brother Kui, what do you think? Do our martial skills still meet your standards?" Liu Xin teased with a smile.
Li Kui came back to his senses at those words and praised them repeatedly.
"Truly breathtaking, truly breathtaking."
The two exchanged a glance and burst into laughter.
Immediately afterward, Li Kui asked, "Brother Zhang, Brother Liu, may I boldly ask whether you two are already martial artists?"
"We are not martial artists yet, but..."
Liu Xin looked at Li Kui with a smiling face and said no more, yet his gaze kept drifting toward the empty wine cup.
Li Kui understood at once. He rose and poured wine for Liu Xin, his face piled high with smiles as he pressed, "But what?"
Liu Xin immediately felt much more comfortable. No longer speaking in half-phrases, he said, "But Brother Meng is not far from the Blood Strengthening Realm. In another year or half, he will be able to break through."
"Blood Strengthening Realm?"
Li Kui knew of the Blood Strengthening Realm. His ancestors had once been prosperous too, producing several martial artists, and his family still possessed a boxing manual.
He had practiced it, but unfortunately, his talent was insufficient, and he had failed to enter through its gate.
The first realm of martial artists was called the Body Tempering Realm, divided into four minor realms: Blood Strengthening, Force Refinement, Iron Bones, and Organ Refinement.
Once one's cultivation broke through to the Blood Strengthening Realm, one became what ordinary people called a martial artist.
"Congratulations, Brother Meng."
"After Brother Meng breaks through to the Blood Strengthening Realm, do not forget your little brother."
Upon learning that Zhang Meng's current realm was not far from the Blood Strengthening Realm, Li Kui immediately changed how he addressed him. He put on a fawning manner and kept filling Zhang Meng's cup.
Zhang Meng did not correct him and drank deeply.
As the three drank to their hearts' content, Li Kui suddenly let out a sigh.
Zhang Meng and Liu Xin exchanged a glance, knowing what would happen next.
Li Kui had enthusiastically invited them to drink, lowered himself, and attended to them so thoughtfully. He clearly had something to ask of them, otherwise he would not act this way.
Though they had achieved something in martial training, they were not martial artists yet. Li Kui had no need to flatter them so shamelessly.
For him to do this, he certainly had a request.
Yet the two did not take the bait. They continued drinking in great gulps as though they had not heard Li Kui's sigh at all.
Before you continue