After returning home, he eagerly opened the incomplete copy of "Swallow's Three Water Skims."
After flipping through it and practicing it once, two new lines appeared on the panel.
Swallow's Three Water Skims, Yellow Rank, Middle Grade movement technique, incomplete copy.
Compatibility with Lingxu Step: 86%. Can be fused for 200 life experience.
It seemed the lower the compatibility, the more life experience the fusion would cost.
Bai Yu grew interested and spent 200 life experience.
At once, he felt the knowledge in his mind constantly merging and reorganizing.
Fusion successful. Obtained new cultivation technique: "Flying Swallow Lingxu Step."
Although Flying Swallow Lingxu Step was still Yellow Rank, Middle Grade, it was more flexible, like a swallow skimming the water.
Bai Yu nodded in satisfaction and fell soundly asleep.
Over the next few days, Bai Yu used all the silver he had earned to buy medicinal ingredients like ginseng and polygonatum.
He prepared several batches of Essence Nourishing Powder, then began taking them as he trained.
With a large supply of Essence Nourishing Powder, Bai Yu gained an abundant supply of qi and blood.
His Iron Shirt Skill advanced by leaps and bounds. The skin membranes across his body were tempered until they were as hard as steel, yet they gave off a lustrous, jade-like sheen.
That day, Bai Yu was cultivating beneath a waterfall.
The powerful current crashed against his body, making sharp slapping sounds.
He grabbed a steel saber from beside him and slashed it across his chest.
Only a pale mark remained on the skin of his chest.
Iron Shirt Skill (Mastery)!
Bai Yu's Iron Shirt Skill had finally advanced another step, reaching the realm of mastery.
Skin like steel, impervious to blades and spears.
Ordinary saber strikes and axe chops could no longer do anything to him.
Not only that, every inch of his body had now been tempered without a single blind spot.
Skin like jade, body without blemish.
"Next, I need to use qi and blood to open my meridians and transform it into inner force."
"Then I'll be able to step into the Fourth Rank Vein Opening Realm."
In other words, he had encountered his first bottleneck in martial cultivation.
To open his meridians and condense inner force, he still needed a suitable opportunity for a breakthrough.
There was no rushing it for now.
Next, he turned his attention to the Zhu You Yin Fu Jing.
His last trip to the Black Market had left Bai Yu feeling that something was off. There had been far too many people struck by baleful influences.
If he mastered the Yin Talisman Scripture, he could draw talismans to earn money and have a bit more confidence when facing Killing Intent.
This time, Bai Yu learned a Soul-Calming Song from the Yin Talisman Scripture.
It was an ancient funeral tune passed down through the ages, clear and archaic, with miraculous soul-calming effects.
Bai Yu picked it up quickly as usual.
Striking while the iron was hot, he set his sights on the blood talismans recorded in the Yin Talisman Scripture.
Ordinary talismans were drawn with cinnabar, rooster blood, and similar materials, and were not particularly powerful.
They mainly relied on the principles of mutual generation and restraint to transform and dispel Baleful Intent.
Blood talismans, however, were drawn with a person's essence blood and could deal with things like yin ghosts and dried corpses.
Bai Yu set up a table and spread out specially made talisman paper.
Old Mo stood on a chair, helping Bai Yu hold down the talisman paper as he watched Bai Yu draw with unblinking eyes.
Bai Yu pricked his middle finger, forced out a drop of essence blood, and began drawing the talisman.
His mind was incomparably focused, his hand moving without pause as he drew mysterious runes.
Yet when he reached the halfway point, he felt an immense resistance. His entire body shuddered, and he could no longer continue drawing.
Drawing talismans required completing them in one go. Once interrupted midway, it counted as a failure.
Bai Yu took a deep breath, sorted through his thoughts, and began drawing again.
After failing several times in succession, he finally completed a Gathering Affliction Talisman.
This Gathering Affliction Talisman could gather Baleful Intent. If used on a person, it would immediately leave them entangled in Killing Intent.
Bai Yu solemnly put away the Gathering Affliction Talisman and sighed.
"These blood talismans are far too difficult. If I keep drawing them, even my qi and blood will be depleted."
Only he could afford such consumption, with his vast reserves of qi and blood.
If it were anyone else, they would not dare draw blood talismans like this. At most, they could draw one or two in a day.
Bai Yu could not help secretly suspecting that blood talismans were perhaps the root cause behind the decline of body cultivators.
Immortal cultivators used external materials like cinnabar, together with spiritual qi, to draw talismans.
Body cultivators, on the other hand, had to consume their own essence blood.
Over time, what ordinary body cultivator could endure that?
Naturally, their cultivation progress could not compare with that of qi cultivators.
Over the next few days, Bai Yu did not dare draw any more blood talismans.
Instead, he bought cinnabar, black dog blood, and other materials, then began drawing ordinary Evil-Suppressing Talismans, Transformation Talismans, and the like.
Only when the qi and blood rewards from funeral work were especially generous would he begin drawing blood talismans.
More than half a month passed, yet he only managed to draw three blood talismans.
One Gathering Affliction Talisman, one Kindling Fire Talisman, and one Corpse Control Talisman.
He had instead accumulated quite a few ordinary talismans.
That day was the fifteenth again, payday.
Bai Yu and the others had just received one hundred copper coins when Lord Wolf of the Black Wolf Gang came knocking again.
"Listen up, people of the mortuary. From now on, the monthly protection fee doubles."
Zhu Tong, Old Zhang, and the others changed expressions, but they still sighed and handed over one hundred copper coins.
Lord Wolf and his men looked at Bai Yu and another handyman, Little Wang, with ill intent.
Bai Yu's expression did not change as he handed over another hundred copper coins.
Little Wang, who had only received fifty copper coins to begin with, was suddenly required to hand over one hundred. He was at a complete loss.
Without drawing attention, Bai Yu patted him once and slipped a string of copper coins into his waistband.
Little Wang felt as though he had been granted a pardon and handed over his protection fee as well.
Lord Wolf was rather surprised. He had not expected both newcomers to be able to pay.
He had been waiting for Bai Yu to run out of money so that he could come to borrow usury loans from him.
Today, he had even planned to drag someone out to make an example of them. But seeing how obedient Bai Yu and Little Wang were, it was not easy for him to stir up trouble.
"Hmph. At least you know what's good for you."
He turned and left with his men, heading to Willow Street across the way.
Before long, screams and wails came from outside.
By the time Bai Yu rushed over, a crowd had already gathered.
Through a gap in the crowd, he saw a white-haired old man lying on the ground, blood flowing from the corner of his mouth.
An old woman beside him clutched a smashed stove and wept bitterly.
Second Master Zuo led several subordinates as they smashed things all around with vicious expressions.
It turned out to be Old Uncle Zhou and his wife, who sold wontons.
Old Uncle Zhou was a very kind man. Whenever regular customers ate at his stall, he would always add an extra wonton.
The neighboring residents all discussed it in low voices.
"Old Zhou has truly had rotten luck lately. He spent a lot of money treating his wife's illness, then the Black Wolf Gang doubled the protection fee. Even after emptying his savings, he still couldn't scrape together enough."
"What a sin. Old Zhou's stall has been smashed up. Things will only get harder for him now."
"I heard Second Master Zuo has his eye on their little courtyard and is trying to force them into selling their house."
"Shh, be careful. Don't let him hear you."
By then, Second Master Zuo had smashed nearly everything and shouted loudly.
"Take a good look, everyone! This is what happens when you don't pay protection money. We'll smash your stall to pieces!"
"Not only will we smash it, the protection fee still won't be waived!"
"No money? Easy. Borrow from me."
With a wave of his hand, one of his subordinates pulled an IOU from his robes and forcibly pressed Old Uncle Zhou's finger onto it.
Second Master Zuo took five copper coins from his robes and tossed them onto the ground.
"Take it. This is the five hundred copper coins you borrowed. Including this month's protection fee, you now owe me a total of five hundred and sixty copper coins."
He put away the IOU and led his men toward the next stall.
But Bai Yu was secretly enraged.
This time, Second Master Zuo had clearly come to kill someone and establish his authority.
If Bai Yu had been unable to produce the money earlier, he would have been the one suffering this fate.
Second Master Zuo and the Black Wolf Gang had already set foot on the road to death.
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