Harvest

Slaying a Late Xiantian Mortal Transformation Realm martial artist yielded three hundred Vitality Essence.

One slash killed Gao Kaiyuan, and Han Zheng felt a sudden clarity in his heart.

The Han Zheng of this life had died without knowing why. Though his soul had scattered, some lingering unwilling obsession might still remain.

Only after killing Gao Kaiyuan did Han Zheng finally feel a bit more at ease.

But this vengeance didn't seem fully settled yet. Behind Gao Kaiyuan stood the Song Family—something Han Zheng hadn't expected.

Black Stone County had two great martial arts families: the East City Song Family and the West City Shen Family.

Their strength was on an entirely different level from the three gangs.

Not only did they have experts who had reached Xiantian Mortal Transformation Realm Perfected and forged the Water-Fire Immortal Robe, but their number of Xiantian martial artists was also considerable.

He could strike in the shadows to bring down the Three Harmonies Gang now, but to seek revenge on the Song Family, his current strength was far from enough.

Pushing aside these troubling thoughts, Han Zheng's harvest from this battle was still rich.

Three hundred Vitality Essence—after sacrifice, he could gain three thousand points of Satiety. Han Zheng had never been so wealthy.

Killing Feng Yuan before had only given him thirty points of Vitality Essence. A Late Xiantian Mortal Transformation Realm martial artist had astonishing vitality, ten times that of Feng Yuan.

He searched Gao Kaiyuan's corpse and found nothing but a stack of silver notes.

The denominations weren't large, totaling just over two hundred taels—probably Gao Kaiyuan's daily pocket money.

Han Zheng was a bit disappointed.

He had hoped to find the manual for the Shattered Jade Hand.

He was genuinely tempted by the Shattered Jade Hand.

Now that he had reached the Innate Realm and possessed three innate techniques, he had truly stepped through the gate of martial arts and had his own understanding of it.

The Shattered Jade Hand was a technique that straddled the line between cultivation method and martial skill.

Cultivating the Shattered Jade Hand, combined with the Vajra Demon Subduing Seal and the White Ape Through-Arm Fist, would surely multiply its power several times over.

Han Zheng tossed Gao Kaiyuan's corpse into the river outside the city to feed the fish.

Actually, leaving the corpse untouched wouldn't have been a big problem either.

Han Zheng's martial arts were too mixed now, especially the Vajra Demon Subduing Seal, whose force was completely different from the Vajra Fist—no one could trace it back to him.

Returning to the city, Han Zheng found Black Stone County in chaos. Many Three Harmonies Gang members were fighting, with the Sky Eagle Gang and Black Tiger Gang fishing in troubled waters.

Jiang Tai had become the sole leader of the Three Harmonies Gang, but Gao Kaiyuan and Cao Bin both had loyal followers who refused to accept him.

Some high-ranking members of the Three Harmonies Gang thought it didn't matter who became the leader, as long as their own positions were secure.

So even with Cao Bin and Gao Kaiyuan dead, the Three Harmonies Gang couldn't avoid internal strife.

None of this concerned Han Zheng. Back home, he immediately opened the Gluttonous Crucible to see how to use the Vitality Essence gained from killing Gao Kaiyuan.

Three hundred Vitality Essence, all sacrificed, gave him three thousand points of Satiety—enough to let him train in the Gluttonous Crucible for nearly ten years.

But Han Zheng couldn't use it all just to raise his realm; he also had to improve his martial skills.

Entering the Gluttonous Crucible, Han Zheng first cultivated his inner force, aiming to raise his realm while bringing the Dragon Elephant Prajna Skill's proficiency to perfection.

The Early Xiantian Mortal Transformation Realm was Bronze Skin Iron Bones. Han Zheng had broken through to the Innate Realm so quickly largely thanks to the Spirit Nurturing Pill Yuan Longshan had given him.

But going from Early-stage Bronze Skin Iron Bones to Mid-stage Golden Muscles Jade Meridians wasn't so easy.

Golden Muscles Jade Meridians required tempering all the body's meridians and channels with inner force, mainly improving control over power.

Meridians and channels were fine and intangible, making tempering them more difficult and requiring extreme care—a slow, grinding process.

Han Zheng trained in the Gluttonous Crucible for over five hundred days. The Dragon Elephant Prajna Skill was perfected, but the tempering for Golden Muscles Jade Meridians was still only at the entry level, with no visible progress.

Han Zheng wasn't discouraged. He was used to his rotten talent.

Going from Peak Acquired Stage to Bronze Skin Iron Bones had taken a Spirit Nurturing Pill and over three hundred days of hard training.

Going from Bronze Skin Iron Bones to Golden Muscles Jade Meridians was more than ten times harder.

Even using all this Satiety might not be enough to break through.

So after perfecting the Dragon Elephant Prajna Skill, Han Zheng stopped cultivating and instead focused on bringing the White Ape Through-Arm Fist to perfection.

In terms of raw power, the White Ape Through-Arm Fist wasn't necessarily stronger than the Vajra Demon Subduing Seal.

But it had greater potential and could fuse with the Nine Heavens Ape Demon Plucking Stars Chart.

Han Zheng wanted to see what astonishing martial art the White Ape Through-Arm Fist would become after fusing with the Nine Heavens Ape Demon Plucking Stars Chart.

After the battle with Gao Kaiyuan, the White Ape Through-Arm Fist's proficiency had risen to 20%.

Then Han Zheng continued training in the Crucible, and the Martial Intent began to emerge.

A divine white ape, like a small giant, roamed through the mountain forest. The ape stretched its arms, and the essence of its movements was vividly displayed.

It took over six hundred days for the White Ape Through-Arm Fist to finally reach perfection.

The difficulty of cultivating an innate martial art was far beyond that of an acquired one like the Vajra Fist.

Han Zheng checked the White Ape Through-Arm Fist's attributes.

Currently breakable techniques:

"Dragon Elephant Prajna Skill" breakthrough requires three thousand Satiety points.

"White Ape Through-Arm Fist" breakthrough requires two thousand Satiety points; fusing with the Nine Heavens Ape Demon Plucking Stars Chart for breakthrough costs an additional five thousand Satiety points.

Han Zheng gritted his molars and suddenly felt a twinge of toothache.

Breakthroughs for Houtian Realm techniques were dirt cheap—back then, breaking through Vajra Fist only cost a hundred Satiety points.

But now, at the Xiantian Mortal Transformation Realm, it had more than doubled tenfold, and the cost of fusing with the Nine Heavens Ape Demon Plucking Stars Chart was staggering.

After training Dragon Elephant Prajna Skill and White Ape Through-Arm Fist to perfection, he didn't even have two thousand Satiety points left—no way to break through.

After a moment's thought, Han Zheng decided to also train Vajra Demon Subduing Seal and Blood Fiend Saber Art to perfection.

That way, as long as he had enough Satiety points, he could elevate any technique to the next realm at any time.

After raising all several techniques' proficiency to perfection, Han Zheng had only seven hundred Satiety points left.

He didn't use these Satiety points, saving them to accumulate enough all at once next time, then break through a technique.

Glancing at his stats, Han Zheng nodded with satisfaction.

Name: Han Zheng

Cultivation: Xiantian Mortal Transformation Realm, early stage (Bronze Skin Iron Bones)

Martial Techniques: Houtian Realm "Iron Elephant Skill" perfected, Houtian Realm "Vajra Fist" perfected, Houtian Realm "Blood Fiend Saber Art" perfected.

Xiantian Realm "Dragon Elephant Prajna Skill" perfected, Xiantian Realm "Vajra Demon Subduing Seal" perfected, Xiantian Realm "White Ape Through-Arm Fist" perfected.

Current Status: Pain insensitivity, abundant qi and blood

Han Zheng let out a long breath, an indescribable sharp aura radiating from him, gradually settling after a long moment.

This was his longest cultivation session inside the Gluttonous Crucible—two thousand three hundred days, nearly six years.

Six years to perfect all these techniques, and even that was taking a shortcut; the Gluttonous Crucible contained Martial Intent, which also boosted training speed.

For any other martial artist, these techniques would be enough to occupy half a lifetime.

The next morning, Han Zheng headed straight to Shenghe Hall.

One reason was to ask Li Feng about the commotion in the county town yesterday, and another was to inquire about the Heavenly Demon Vermillion Fruit.

He arrived too early; Shenghe Hall had just opened its doors, and Li Feng was sitting there leisurely sipping tea.

Seeing Han Zheng arrive, Li Feng immediately beamed and had someone bring a chair for Han Zheng to sit.

"Authentic Huainan tribute tea, Young Master Han, give it a taste."

The idea Han Zheng had given him last time was absolutely brilliant.

Shenghe Hall had washed its hands of all connections—after all, they were the ones fighting over the Spiritual Medicine themselves, nothing to do with Shenghe Hall.

But the consequences were a bit severe.

The Three Harmonies Gang had directly descended into internal strife and gang war over this, brains nearly beaten out.

But what did that have to do with Shenghe Hall, or with Li Feng?

Han Zheng took a sip of the tea, shook his head with a wry smile, and said, "I'm a rough man—can't tell this from cheap tea dregs.

By the way, Pharmacist Li, I was cultivating at home all day yesterday, but it sounded like the county town was in quite a stir. What happened to the Three Harmonies Gang in the end?"

Li Feng waved his little white jade folding fan and said, "Don't even mention it. Yesterday the Three Harmonies Gang fought all day long.

Cao Bin died, Gao Kaiyuan fled the city, but was later found dead in a ditch outside the city, his body bloated and waterlogged—no one knows if it was Jiang Tai's men, the Sky Eagle Gang, or the Black Tiger Gang who killed him.

Anyway, it was a complete mess. Jiang Tai couldn't control the situation, and with the Black Tiger Gang and Sky Eagle Gang taking advantage of the chaos to loot, the Three Harmonies Gang suffered heavy losses.

In the end, it was our Black Stone County's chief constable, Zhang Tianyang, who stepped in and calmed things down, arresting quite a few people and taking them back to the yamen. Only then did the three gangs settle down.

And you know what? Our Black Stone County chief constable is pretty strong—he actually blocked a strike from all three gang leaders at once and forced them to back down."

Han Zheng nodded thoughtfully.

Stirring up infighting in the Three Harmonies Gang had thoroughly muddied the waters.

Only then did Zhang Tianyang have enough reason to openly step in and make arrests. He should be able to find out whether anyone in the Three Harmonies Gang was colluding with the Incense Cult.

But Han Zheng guessed there wasn't, because there was no need.

Cao Bin only wanted to prop up his son for succession, not join the Incense Cult to chase a future.

Gao Kaiyuan worked for the Song Family; if the Incense Cult had promised to help him seize the gang leader position, he wouldn't have played the Song Family's dog.

As for Jiang Tai, he was even more of a nonentity; if he had the Incense Cult backing him, he wouldn't have been swayed by Han Zheng's provocation.

Zhang Tianyang might come up empty-handed this time.

But none of that had anything to do with Han Zheng.

He had done what he promised Zhang Tianyang—stirring up the waters in Black Stone County. Whether Zhang Tianyang could catch fish in the muddy waters was up to his own ability.