Entry! The common folk's lives were bitter; the hooligans' lives were thin

Wind and Rain Bridge, the only stone bridge east of Pingjiang County.

One Line Sky, Water Monkey, and Big Eyes Chen Jingming walked at the front with their arms slung over one another's shoulders.

Chu Chong kept a slight distance from the three, his face revealing little expression.

He had always been a man of few words and never close to others, but he had never made a mistake in anything Fang Xuan entrusted to him.

Behind the four of them, over a hundred hooligans with short axes at their waists followed along.

All the hooligans of East Hall had already fallen under Fang Xuan's control.

The procession of more than a hundred marched grandly onward. Wherever they passed, countless commoners treated them as calamity stars and plague gods, hastily avoiding them.

"Wow, we're really something today! From now on, East Hall will be ours to call the shots!"

Water Monkey greatly enjoyed the fearful looks cast his way by passersby. With his hands behind his head, he laughed.

"You might be feeling mighty, but I got it rough! That bastard Li Laosan drank with me like we were blood brothers on ordinary days, but when I told him to hand over his turf today, he truly fought me for his life!"

One Line Sky, whose back had been struck by a blade, grimaced in pain.

"Haha! That's because your head isn't sharp enough!"

The two chatted and laughed as they walked onward.

"Come to think of it, it's hard to believe. My parents, like Brother Xuan's, died in the river years ago. Back then, everyone looked down on me. Crucian carp others caught could sell for twelve coins, but the crucian carp I caught after untold hardship could only sell for seven. I even had to put on a smile and beg people to take them. They were plainly bullying me because I was an orphan with no one behind me."

"Who would have thought that Water Monkey would have a day like this? Of that bunch who bullied me back then, which one doesn't call me Monkey Brother when they see me now?"

As though recalling something, Water Monkey suddenly sighed with emotion.

One Line Sky said nothing at that, merely nodding lightly.

Their lot were all poor people driven to the end of the road by this world.

If there had been another way, who would willingly become a hooligan with his head tied to his belt?

"Brother Tian, I think Brother Xuan is right. Your child is about to be born, so stop struggling outside. If you go down, what will your wife and child do?"

Water Monkey laughed, then spread his hands indifferently. "See, I'm different. I'm just one cheap life. Even if I die and my corpse gets tossed into the river, no one will miss me. Besides, getting to bask in glory once in this life by following Brother Xuan makes it worthwhile!"

"Stop talking such ill-omened nonsense!"

One Line Sky glared at Water Monkey. Just as he raised a hand to smack him on the head, he tugged at the wound on his back and hissed sharply from the pain.

After a pause, One Line Sky turned to look at the rows upon rows of bamboo-raft houses packed densely together in the distance.

"Giving up isn't that easy."

One Line Sky let out a long breath. "When the child is born, he can't live on Northwest Wind, can he? As his father, even if not for myself, I have to fight a little longer for my child. When he grows up, he can't keep being a hooligan like me, risking his life to earn money, can he?"

As he spoke, One Line Sky withdrew his gaze and shook his head. "Monkey, you're still young. You don't understand."

"Women and children really are troublesome." Water Monkey muttered.

Big Eyes Chen Jingming, who had remained silent beside them, softly said,

"The common folk's lives are bitter; the hooligans' lives are thin."

"Our generation seems to be wrong no matter what we do."

At those words, all three fell silent.

"Enough, let's not talk about this."

One Line Sky shook his head and smiled. "I wonder where Brother Xuan has gone these past few days. He's like a divine dragon whose head can be seen but whose tail cannot. Otherwise, we'd surely be even more imposing today!"

The river surged onward, crashing waves against the shore.

It was as if someone had drawn a single stroke with a suspended brush, raising layer upon layer of waves.

A golden disk rose from the Ping River and hung above the mountains. Boundless light spread in every direction, driving away the endless night and piercing cold.

On the bank of a river bend along the Ping River.

A tall, valiant man, his muscles sharply defined like blocks of iron, emerged from the great waves and stepped onto the soft, wet shore.

Crystal droplets slid down his bronze skin. The freezing wind, sharp as steel blades, blew across him without stirring even the slightest ripple.

"Ten days at last. I've brought the Dragon Whale Technique's progress to completion and entered a new realm."

Fang Xuan's messy black hair spilled over his broad, towering body, and a faint smile touched his lips.

His temples now bulged high, brilliance flashed from his eyes, and the savage scars crisscrossing his body made his sense of oppression overwhelming.

He merely raised his hand slightly, and a series of cracking explosions instantly sounded from within his thick arm!

"Dragon Whale Technique!"

With a low shout from Fang Xuan, his blood and qi surged throughout his body, releasing a roar like the rolling river!

A faint crimson radiance appeared across the surface of his skin, like a red membrane plated over it!

He picked up a sharp stone and viciously stabbed it into his chest!

Pfft!

The sharp stone seemed to strike a wall of bronze and iron. Its tip shattered and was ground flat, while the red membrane over his chest gained only a single pale mark!

"Is this the first heavenly pass of an Entry Realm Martial Artist—the Skin Arhat?"

Fang Xuan exclaimed in astonishment. This sort of body might not yet be impervious to blades and spears, but it could not be far from it.

"No wonder Old Man Yu often said that no matter how formidable one's fist and foot techniques are, if one cannot enter the realm, one will spend a lifetime merely throwing one's weight around among ordinary people, with little hope of ever rising."

"Now that I see it, the difference between an Entry Realm Martial Artist and an ordinary martial practitioner is simply as vast as cloud and mud."

Crack!

Fang Xuan exerted slight force with his five fingers, and the stone in his hand immediately turned into a pile of fine gravel that streamed through the gaps between his fingers.

Black Talisman.

Fang Xuan silently called out in his heart.

In an instant, countless wisps of black mist spread through the Black Talisman deep within his mind like spilled ink, forming lines of clear small text.

Technique: Dragon Whale Technique (Entry Level)

Progress: 0/500

Method of growth: Hold Whale Blood in the mouth, battle the waves with the body, temper the skin and hammer the muscles; dragon sinews shall arise on their own!

Description: Walk upon the waves, with strength enough to move mountains!

Fang Xuan nodded slightly as he looked at the lines on the Black Talisman.

As the Dragon Whale Technique entered the Entry Level realm, the method for increasing its progress had changed as well.

This time, it was no longer a matter of throwing himself into the waves to temper his body, but of truly contending against the raging billows!

In terms of difficulty and danger, it had likely increased by more than tenfold!

"Waves are easy enough to find, but this Whale Blood..."

Fang Xuan glanced at the bamboo tubes piled in the grass beside him, all long emptied, and could not help sighing as he shook his head.

In just these few days, Master Fang's family heirloom had been completely drunk dry by him.

Where was he supposed to find more Whale Blood afterward?

And over these past few days, the remaining bits of silver on him had also been entirely used up buying fish and meat to nourish his body.

"Money, money, money. In any world, without money, one can't take a single step!"

"With this talisman, my cultivation speed far surpasses that of others who practice the Dragon Whale Technique, but the difficulty of cultivation and the resources it requires also far surpass those of other Dragon Whale Technique practitioners."

Fang Xuan rubbed his brow with a headache.

Under the normal cultivation method of the Dragon Whale Technique, one only needed to circulate one's blood and qi daily according to the technique, tempering the body and strengthening blood and qi over time.

Then, after long accumulation, one could burst forth from deep reserves and enter the Skin Arhat realm in one stroke.

Why would one need to be like him, drinking Whale Blood and battling great waves?

"Also, is there something strange about Old Man Hu's Whale Blood?"

Fang Xuan looked at the black Jiao Mark on the back of his hand and could not help frowning slightly.

There had been no mention of Jiao Marks in the records of the Dragon Whale Technique.

"Forget it. I'll take one step at a time!"

Drawing in a deep breath, Fang Xuan stopped dwelling on it and turned to look at Pingjiang County, shrouded in morning mist in the distance.

Guild Master Long Huaxing had given him one month. Now that he had not shown himself for ten days, the people of South Hall were probably frantic, weren't they?

"I need to hurry and push the Whale Sand Palm to the third realm, Perfect Mastery, then settle life and death with South Hall for real!"

Determination flashed in Fang Xuan's eyes as he turned and strode into the riverside forest.

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