Emerald

"I..."

Long Shi frantically touched his chest.

The blade had passed through him from front to back, yet strangely, his Inner Qi could still circulate normally, quickly gathering to staunch the flow of blood.

Huang Deyou had disappeared somewhere.

Jiang Ding sheathed his sword and asked calmly, "Who sent you to find me?"

Long Shi forced himself to say, "No one, I was just greedy. I beg your forgiveness..."

Clang!

The sword was drawn and sheathed again.

His left arm was severed and flew off, blood gushing out. His Internal Force could no longer stop it.

"Ahhhhh!"

Long Shi screamed in agony, startling a flock of birds.

Jiang Ding watched him calmly until the screams weakened, then said, "Continue."

Long Shi's body trembled.

The young man before him, with his flowing green robes and handsome face, was no less ruthless than any other martial artist.

He knew what "continue" meant.

It meant continuing to live, or continuing to die; the choice was his.

"It was the Zheng Family."

Long Shi suppressed the intense pain in his left arm and whispered, "I received orders from Chen Chen, a guest elder of the Zheng Family, to come here and test the waters."

"My ability to establish myself on Rotten Board Street was entirely due to the Zheng Family's support. I wouldn't dare refuse their orders."

"The Zheng Family? Relatives of the Marquis's estate."

Jiang Ding muttered to himself.

"Do such prominent families resort to robbery?"

"It's probably a private job."

Long Shi lowered his voice. "Chen Chen is essentially the Zheng Family's errand boy for dirty work. He has connections with many underworld forces, so I don't dare to confirm with them every time if it's the main family's command."

Jiang Ding pondered for a while.

If the Zheng Family had truly stooped to this level, he would have to flee.

He couldn't fight against a large army.

But he didn't need to be too afraid. If he couldn't win, he could run. Even in the narrow streets of the city, with aerial surveillance, it wouldn't be easy for a large force to surround him.

"Let's leave it at that. It's not good to completely fall out," Jiang Ding sighed. "Hand over the Inner Qi cultivation method you practice, and then get lost."

"Remember, you only get one chance. If there's a next time, be better prepared."

Long Shi was overjoyed, barely believing his ears.

"My lord's great kindness, how could I be ungrateful? If I ever betray you, may heaven strike me down and my descendants be wiped out!" He swore to the heavens, burying the cold resentment deep in his heart, showing no trace of it on his face.

"Don't play these games."

Jiang Ding chuckled and cursed, "If you can chop off my head in the future, that will be your own skill."

Long Shi stammered, not daring to speak. He called someone from outside and whispered a few words in his ear.

A few minutes later, a martial artist in tight-fitting clothes hurried over. He glanced at Jiang Ding with a hint of fear and handed a package to Long Shi.

"Young master, this is the cultivation method I practice, called Desolate Wolf Strength," he said with a fawning smile. "Of course, it's nothing compared to what you practice."

"And this gold and silver is all my savings. I present it to you now."

Beneath the manual was a small pile of gold and silver, about four to five hundred taels, equivalent to half a ninety-year-old ginseng root.

"Leave."

Jiang Ding took the manual. He always wore transparent gloves, so he wasn't afraid of contact poisons.

Long Shi dared not refuse. He bundled up the remaining gold and silver, rejoined the fifteen intact riders outside, and fled as fast as lightning, not even daring to collect the body of Lang Si on the ground.

Jiang Ding said softly, "Steward Huang."

"Owner."

Huang Deyou appeared from somewhere.

"Find a professional corpse handler to clean this place up, leaving no trace. Do you know anyone who can do this?"

"Yes, owner."

Huang Deyou nodded repeatedly. He grew up on Rotten Board Street. Although he wasn't involved in gangs, he knew who to ask.

"Also, find someone to deliver this to the Four Seas Merchant Guild."

A cold glint appeared in Jiang Ding's eyes as he tapped the wide-eyed head of Lang Si with his sword sheath.

Whether the Four Seas Merchant Guild had spies was none of his business, but if it threatened his life, then it was a problem.

"Yes, Master!"

Sitting on a chair, he flipped through the Desolate Wolf Strength, a native internal cultivation manual he had obtained for the first time.

"Hmm, it only has the twelve main meridians and the eight extraordinary meridians, totaling 365 meridians. Its special effect is that the hand speed is 20-30% faster than ordinary internal cultivation manuals. It can be cultivated to Inner Qi Great Accomplishment at most. It's a small top-tier manual."

He casually flipped through it a few times. It was very simple. With the education Jiang Ding received from the Immortal Sect high school, he could understand it almost at a glance, with no secrets.

If this kind of cultivation manual were submitted to the Immortal Sect library, it wouldn't even be worth 0.001 points.

Unless he wrote a thesis like "An Overview of Mortal Sect Cultivation Manuals in Various Realms," he could get tens or hundreds of points, and it wasn't impossible to get thousands of points for high reference value.

"This Internal Force structure located in the Ren and Du meridians..."

Flipping to the latter half, Jiang Ding felt a certain Internal Force circulation structure looked familiar. He carefully recalled what his Chinese teacher had said in class.

"Right, the spiritual root qi conversion structure. Fill-in-the-blank question, 2 points."

Jiang Ding lightly patted the book.

"It can convert the spiritual energy of heaven and earth naturally absorbed by the spiritual root into Inner Qi, allowing for rapid cultivation. The better the spiritual root, the faster the cultivation speed. There are indeed capable people in the martial arts world."

If one didn't have a spiritual root, their cultivation speed would naturally be slow to begin with, which is what is referred to as innate talent or similar.

It was useless. Jiang Ding quickly flipped past it.

About twenty minutes later, Jiang Ding casually tossed the manual into a corner. He had memorized and understood it all, which could barely be considered expanding his reading.

Then, he recalled the contents of the Minor Breath Concealment Technique in his mind, and his whole body fell into a daze.

Inner Qi rolled intermittently, changing according to an extremely complex circulation structure. His aura became ethereal for a moment, causing people to subconsciously ignore him, and then it became extremely conspicuous, attracting a lot of attention.

He had tried it no less than a hundred times in the past few days, but the Minor Breath Concealment Technique was still difficult to perform.

However, it was close. Ever since he obtained the Rusty Sword Tip, his comprehension had been constantly improving. He was confident that he would be able to get started in a few more days.

Four Seas Merchant Guild.

"Who is it?!"

Long San looked at the human head, which was quietly placed in a wooden box and preserved with lime, his face flushed red as he roared.

"My Long family... has been established for over a hundred years, relying on honest business and kindness to others. That's how we gained the attention of the Great Ancestor and became one of the two major merchant guilds in the Yue Kingdom."

"And while serving the royal family, we also gained the trust of various experts in the martial arts world, handling all sorts of miscellaneous matters for them."

"Even though Marquis Zhen Dong dislikes our Four Seas Merchant Guild, he still agreed to let us set up shop and provide protection. This is all thanks to our golden signboard accumulated over hundreds of years!"

"I never thought that today—"

Long San roared, "Who wants to turn the Four Seas Merchant Guild into one of those disreputable dens of thieves?"

The maid beside him waited for him to vent his anger before calmly saying, "Shopkeeper, we've found out. It's Xiao Cui from the pharmacy. His brother works for the Zheng family."

"The Zheng family? Hmph, nouveau riche, just a bunch of dirty trash. They might disappear any day now."

Long San sneered.