Sigh... I wonder who that person's backer is, and how he managed to offend Qingwen Long.
With the Black Tiger Gang, the overlord of Huangshi Town, backing him,
life in town would probably become difficult from now on!
What a pity about such a huge business deal. That person must have been able to produce quite a bit of money.
After Qingwen Long left,
watching Wang Xiaoshi's departing figure, the Zhang family shopkeeper also let out a sigh.
"During this period, the two major forces have been locked in confrontation, and conflicts have increased throughout the streets and alleys. This has caused all trades to wither. Although the number of injured people has driven up the demand for medicinal materials, the materials handed over to the Black Tiger Gang are practically given away for free—we can't even recover the cost. And the people from Weilong Martial Arts School, who have ties with the Sifang Society, refuse to sell to us."
"Business is hard to do."
The Zhang family shopkeeper sighed softly.
When the great powers above clashed and fought, the ones who suffered the most were actually the ordinary people struggling to survive at the bottom.
Their medicine shop was still doing all right.
They could at least scrape by.
But the common folk at the bottom, who barely had enough to eat from one meal to the next, were the truly miserable ones.
These days,
the number of people at the bottom who silently starved to death in the filthy gutters of the city was probably several times greater than the number killed in the battles between the two major forces!
Shaking his head,
the shopkeeper turned around with his hands behind his back and returned to the counter.
No matter what,
life still had to go on.
"What? Ten times the price?!"
In the courtyard,
Yang Qingyun had just finished a set of boxing moves, his Qi and Blood steaming from his body. Upon hearing Wang Xiaoshi's report that he had returned with only a scant handful of medicinal materials, he was stunned,
and turned to look over, confusion on his face.
"Yes. Every medicine shop I visited said that, because of the conflict between Weilong Martial Arts School and the Black Tiger Gang, there has been a major fight every three days and a minor fight every two. The streets are in turmoil, and their supply channels have been severely disrupted, so they can only raise their prices."
"I didn't dare make decisions on my own. And considering that this might delay your training, Young Master, I could only select a small amount of medicinal materials and bring them back. I planned to ask for your instructions first before deciding whether to purchase them on a large scale."
Wang Xiaoshi wore a bitter expression. He lifted the few packets of tonic herbs in his hands and displayed them to Yang Qingyun.
"Young Master, I'm afraid it isn't only these medicinal materials that will rise in price. Soon, even refined charcoal, firewood, rice, oil, and salt will probably become more expensive!"
"Price increases are normal. With the chaos outside these days, it would be strange if prices didn't rise."
"But ten times the price?"
"Hmph! There must be a problem here!"
Yang Qingyun snorted coldly and flicked his sleeve.
He immediately realized that someone was definitely pulling strings behind the scenes!
Although the two major forces had clashed in Huangshi Town, prices couldn't possibly have soared to such an outrageous level all at once!
Someone was targeting him!
Nine times out of ten, it was the Black Tiger Gang.
Only the Black Tiger Gang had such great power in Huangshi Town!
Perhaps
he had become a target of the Black Tiger Gang because he had been close to Weilong Martial Arts School?
Or perhaps
he had offended someone in the Black Tiger Gang!
A small-time Black Tiger Gang leader with a blue dragon tattoo on his forehead suddenly flashed through Yang Qingyun's mind.
Qingwen Long!
If he had ever clashed with anyone from the Black Tiger Gang,
then it could only have been him!
"You'd better pray that I never catch you!"
It was nine times out of ten Qingwen Long.
A flash of killing intent passed through the depths of Yang Qingyun's eyes.
"Young Master, what should we do next?"
Wang Xiaoshi asked cautiously from the side, his expression respectful,
his posture one of submission and entreaty.
Although Yang Qingyun had always behaved with great composure and never punished him over minor mistakes,
his years of doing odd jobs at the martial arts school had still cultivated in Wang Xiaoshi a cautious and respectful attitude toward important figures.
Especially in his understanding, being at the side of such a powerful expert meant he had to be even more careful.
Wang Xiaoshi didn't want to lose the opportunity to remain at his side and receive guidance from such an expert because of one of his own mistakes!
During these days, with Yang Qingyun's guidance, he had already successfully entered the Initiate Realm through medicinal baths.
That was an achievement he had been unable to attain despite spending years doing odd jobs at the martial arts school!
Wang Xiaoshi understood very clearly
what an opportunity it was to follow Young Master Yang!
If he lost such an opportunity because he overstepped himself or ruined something, he would surely beat his chest and stamp his feet in anguish.
Yang Qingyun naturally had no idea what Wang Xiaoshi was thinking.
He pondered for a moment, then shook his head.
"Ten times the price? Forget it, then."
His money had not blown in on a gale.
Knowing there was a pit ahead, he wasn't foolish enough to jump straight into it.
"Go ask Master Zhou whether we can use their martial arts school's channels to purchase medicinal materials from outside. Hmm, I don't know whether Master Zhou has any time these days. You should first deliver a calling card, and I'll personally pay him a visit on an appointed day."
After thinking it over, Yang Qingyun spoke.
The matter of medicinal materials concerned his martial path.
If it meant some trouble,
there was no other way.
"The Black Tiger Gang..."
A dark expression flashed through Yang Qingyun's eyes.
Suffering this undeserved calamity for no reason and having his training plans disrupted had also stirred a trace of anger within him.
But he did not allow that anger to cloud his judgment.
With three lifetimes of experience,
he was more than capable of controlling his emotions.
"Since I can't continue refining Qi and Blood to raise my cultivation realm, I'll comprehend the Blade Path will attached to that fragment for now. Sigh, I had originally planned to comprehend it after breaking through the Viscera Refining Realm..."
Yang Qingyun let out a long breath and could only alter his subsequent plans along the way.
After Wang Xiaoshi left,
Yang Qingyun returned to the study,
took out the jade box placed in the cabinet beneath the desk,
and walked into the training room where he practiced meditation.
Yang Qingyun sat cross-legged on the cushion in the training room and placed the jade box in front of him.
He slowly opened it,
revealing a black fragment covered by a long silk cloth.
The instant Yang Qingyun lifted the silk cloth, a white radiance seemed to flare in a daze, surging outward as though it were solid!
In the air,
a resplendent blade-light seemed to bloom faintly. The air appeared to be filled with countless tiny needles,
causing Yang Qingyun's entire skin to ache with a tangible prickling pain!
"Every time I see it, I still find it unbelievable!"
Yang Qingyun sat cross-legged on the cushion, gazing at the black fragment before him and sensing the sharp will drifting through the air. He couldn't help voicing his admiration.
Afterward,
he closed his eyes and rested for a moment, raising his state of mind to its peak.
Then,
his gaze fixed on the patterns within the fragment.
As he stared,
the strange lines on the black fragment seemed to come alive at that moment. As they twisted and turned, they evoked boundless imagination and an infinitely mysterious profundity!
In a daze,
a resplendent blade-light suddenly flared within his field of vision. It abruptly shattered the heavens and earth, leaping out of the boundless illusion and descending toward him with the power to annihilate heaven and earth!
A tremendous fear rose within Yang Qingyun's mind,
as though death were about to arrive in the next instant!
His entire body involuntarily retreated.
He stumbled and nearly fell to the ground.
Yang Qingyun instantly awoke. The clothes on his back were already soaked with cold sweat.
The surrounding illusions vanished.
Familiar surroundings entered his eyes.
Where was the blade-light that had shattered heaven and earth?
Only the black fragment remained, quietly resting in the jade box, seemingly laughing at Yang Qingyun's cowardice.
Yang Qingyun paid it no mind.
Instead, he closed his eyes and carefully savored the blade-light from earlier, the one that had shattered heaven and earth and seemed to leap out of the illusion.
"What terrifying Blade Path. It is merely a wisp of aura left behind, yet it possesses such frightening power..."
"But you are nothing more than a wisp of tainted energy. You have long since become a rootless duckweed. So become the whetstone for my path along the Blade Path!"
Yang Qingyun gritted his teeth, his expression firming.
He closed his eyes, sinking his mind into the depths,
and summoned the blade force he had nurtured through cultivating the Drawing Sword Technique to oppose it!
Although the blade in Yang Qingyun's heart, formed from the grand momentum of his own unstoppable advance, was extremely weak compared with the residual Blade Path aura of the supreme expert left on the fragment,
it was defeated in an instant!
But Yang Qingyun did not feel the slightest discouragement.
He kept his eyes closed,
carefully comprehending.
After a quarter of an hour,
he once again gathered the force in his heart and condensed his blade, incorporating several insights from his previous defeat and collapse.
Then he challenged his opponent once more.
The result was self-evident.
He was defeated in an instant.
Yet Yang Qingyun still did not lose heart in the slightest.
After enduring the thirty years of hardship in his Previous Life, the one thing he had never lacked was the perseverance to grit his teeth and cultivate again and again, even when he could not see any progress!
Yang Qingyun once more condensed the Blade in the Heart and opposed it!
Again and again, they clashed.
Again and again, he was shattered and defeated!
Yet throughout the process,
Yang Qingyun's Blade Path cultivation
rose rapidly!
Through repeated setbacks and tempering, he gradually gained complete command of the blade he had nurtured deep within his mind. Using it as a bridge, he began stepping into the next realm of the Blade Path.
Before you continue