Formula

By the water well, Chen Mu sat on a bamboo stool.

He soaked a towel in the icy well water and pressed it against his arms.

He had trained too fiercely the first time, leaving both arms sore and aching.

He did not dare keep training. Medical care in this ancient world was poor; if he truly ruined himself through training, recovering would not be easy.

The icy well water stung his skin, and Chen Mu shivered as thoughts of the Wang Family surfaced unbidden in his mind.

When he had gone there yesterday, he had still marveled at the Wang Family's wealth and vast estate.

Who could have imagined that overnight, their direct bloodline would vanish like smoke and clouds?

To wipe out the entire Wang Family without a sound—what kind of fierce bandits could have done it?

"It must have been someone like Constable Lu, a figure who can soar over roofs and leap across walls."

If someone with his scrawny arms and legs ran into such people, he would probably die without even knowing how.

"I have to find a way to learn martial arts." Chen Mu secretly steeled his resolve. "First, make money. With money clearing the way, everything will be easier."

"But making money isn't easy either." Chen Mu could not help sighing.

After shutting himself away for a month and a half, he had finally developed a Second Tier Drawing skill.

He had thought he could finally turn his life around. Yet on the very first day, Master Yan had set his sights on him.

I just want to earn some money honestly. Why is it so damn hard?

That Master Yan was hateful too. He had actually wanted someone to cripple both of Chen Mu's hands outright.

Though Chen Mu had used the Wang Family Massacre Case to put Wonderful Painting Workshop in a bit of a bind.

It was hard to say how effective it would be.

"This is as far as I can go." Chen Mu sighed.

He was merely a poor scholar, with no family or support. How could he dare oppose a local tyrant like Master Yan?

"I can't go to Anle Ward anymore." Chen Mu thought gloomily.

He had to find another way to make money.

Qingshan County Office.

Master Yan strode out through the gates of the County Office with a livid expression.

His heart ached over the hundred taels of silver he had just lost.

Who knew what madness had seized the County Lieutenant? He was an old man too weak to truss a chicken—how could he possibly have massacred the entire Wang Family?

"Such a bottomless greedy wretch—I'd like to see how long he can keep strutting about!" Master Yan huffed.

"Keep your voice down, Master Yan!" A Middle-aged Man beside him immediately urged in a low voice. "We're right outside the County Office."

"He dares to do it, but he's afraid of me talking about it?"

The Middle-aged Man gave a bitter smile. "I'm afraid they'll seize on your words and refuse to let go, then extort another sum from us."

Master Yan's face immediately reddened with pent-up rage.

Those greedy yamen runners really were capable of such a thing.

Master Yan snorted coldly, lowered his head, and strode away.

The Middle-aged Man could only shake his head with a bitter smile and follow.

"The Wang Family was such a large clan, yet they were slaughtered overnight. A case this huge implicates far too many people. Being able to sever our ties to it counts as spending money to ward off disaster," the Middle-aged Man consoled him.

Only then did Master Yan nod and resign himself to his bad luck.

He could not understand how a massacre case had somehow entangled painters like them.

A method for removing pigments? Who would know such a thing?

The more Master Yan thought about it, the more stifled he felt.

If he ever found out who was pulling strings behind the scenes, he would make them pay!

The two continued discussing the Wang Family Massacre Case for a while, guessing which fierce bandit had committed it. The Wang Family had so many Guards and household protectors, yet none of them had been able to stop the culprit.

By now, the lanterns had just begun to light up. In the past, Master Yan would certainly have gone to Anle Ward for some fun.

But he had lost a hundred taels of silver today, and his heart bled at the thought. He squeezed the loose silver remaining in his sleeve; how could he possibly be in the mood for pleasure?

After parting from the Middle-aged Man, Master Yan swayed home beneath the lingering glow of the setting sun.

The moment he turned into a street, a burlap sack fell from the sky and enveloped him in one go.

Before he could open his mouth to beg for mercy or cry for help.

Whoosh...

The sound of a wooden club slicing through the air came.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Aah! Aah! Aah!

Before he could struggle more than a few times, pain shot through his neck. His eyes rolled back, and he passed out.

East Market, vegetable market.

"Butcher Zheng, give me ten jin of pork belly, and a whole cured ham too," Chen Mu said as he stood before a Butcher Shop.

"Scholar, struck it rich, have you?" The fat on Butcher Zheng's face rippled as he sliced meat and chuckled.

"Not as well as you, Butcher Zheng. I only made a small profit, barely enough to afford some meat," Chen Mu said with a smile, feeling quite cheerful.

His arms hurt too much for him to continue training Flying Locust Stone. With nothing else to do, he had wandered near the County Office to see whether the painters from Wonderful Painting Workshop had truly been arrested.

Instead, he had spotted Master Yan.

Chen Mu believed it was better to settle feuds than deepen them, so he had intended to follow the man and have a private talk with him.

He had worked so hard to grind his Drawing ability up to the Second Tier. He could not let it go to waste.

If the conversation went well, perhaps they could even make money together.

After all, if you could not beat them, joining them was a perfectly normal move.

But for some reason, someone had thrown a torn burlap sack at the street corner, and several thick firewood branches lay scattered on the ground.

Looking at Master Yan's back, Chen Mu felt that old friends meeting again deserved a surprise.

So he picked up the sack, grabbed a wooden club, and silently stepped forward...

Over the next few days, the atmosphere in Qingshan County visibly grew tense.

The normally slack three squads of yamen runners patrolled the streets and made inquiries all day.

Large numbers of Ruffians were thrown into prison, all for the sake of obtaining even the slightest clue about the Wang Family massacre.

Clearly, County Lieutenant Du was getting anxious.

At a time like this, Chen Mu did not dare wander outside. He could only stay behind closed doors.

Every day, he ate meat and trained Flying Locust Stone bitterly.

With the loose silver Master Yan had given him as a return gift, he could afford the expense even if he ate meat every day.

As his Flying Locust Stone Proficiency rose.

Chen Mu discovered that not only was his throwing becoming more accurate, its force was also steadily increasing.

The most obvious change was that distinct muscle lines had appeared on his arms!

His former self had been nothing but a skinny rack of bones, yet now he was actually growing muscles!

"Raising Proficiency doesn't merely improve technique!" Chen Mu joyfully squeezed the hard muscles of his forearm.

With a thought, the Gray Wall appeared.

Writing: 1043/10000/Second Tier;
Drawing: 157/10000/Second Tier;
Throwing: 3229/10000/Tier 1;

"This is only Tier 1. If it reaches the Second Tier, where a qualitative transformation occurs..."

Chen Mu's heart immediately burned with excitement.

He had underestimated the Gray Wall!

The visible growth in strength made him addicted to training every day, unable to pull himself away.

Until someone knocked on his front door.

"Constable Lu?!" Chen Mu's scalp tightened. Why has he come looking for me again?

They can't really be trying to arrest me as a Scapegoat, can they?

"The County Office found a clue about the culprit. They want you to draw a wanted portrait," Constable Lu explained with a smile.

Chen Mu immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

He turned back to shut and lock the door, then followed Constable Lu toward the County Office.

"Constable Lu, how did the County Office find the culprit?" Chen Mu asked curiously.

Constable Lu gave Chen Mu an odd look. "We have Young Master Chen to thank for the reminder."

"Wonderful Painting Workshop provided the formula for the medicinal liquid that removes pigments. That allowed us to narrow things down to the Medicine Shops in the city and find traces of the criminal."

At the time, he had thought Chen Mu merely wanted to use the County Office to retaliate against Wonderful Painting Workshop.

Who would have thought Wonderful Painting Workshop had truly provided a crucial clue?

Constable Lu felt somewhat guilty. He had wrongly accused a good man.

Chen Mu was dumbstruck.

Wonderful Painting Workshop really had a formula?!

I only wanted to make things difficult for them!

How did it become a crucial clue instead?!

Then another key question occurred to him.

Since the formula Wonderful Painting Workshop had provided was useful, that meant it was genuine.

Then were their formula and his formula the same version?

Could the Proficiency Gray Wall even steal someone else's formula?!