Hanging

Zhang Lingshan froze for a moment, then cupped his hands. "Thank you."

Ignoring Li Fu's pleading gaze, he left Three Rivers Gambling House.

With his current status, he was not even worth a fart. The fact that they had let him go out of respect for Shi Lei and Hong Clan Martial Hall was already more than enough face.

If he shamelessly remained standing there, the ending waiting for him would not have been much better than that of Li Fu and his son.

In the end, he was still too weak.

Shi Lei was too weak as well.

If Shi Lei had been able to defeat Gambling House Master Chen Hui today, not only could he have wiped out the debt, he could also have taken Li Dong away as a matter of course.

What a pity.

Strength!

Zhang Lingshan silently repeated those two words in his heart.

His Standing Posture training had shown slight results lately, improving both his physique and height. He had tasted the sweetness of it and thought he had gained a measure of strength.

But now, it seemed that his little bit of strength was truly insignificant.

Even Shi Lei had suffered a setback today.

If he had come alone, he would have fared even worse than Shi Lei.

So he had to speed up his cultivation. He could not grow lazy just because he had achieved a little.

With that in mind, Zhang Lingshan immediately went to the pharmacy and bought Spirit Root Grass, Iron Dendrobium, Azure Ling, and other medicinal ingredients that had proven effective in his experiments.

Then he hurried home.

He wanted to try boiling these medicinal ingredients together and see whether it would make energy accumulate faster.

"Xiao Shan, why did you come back alone? Where's my Old Li?"

At the entrance to his home, Li Fu's wife grabbed him and anxiously asked.

Zhang Lingshan waved a hand. "The master of Three Rivers Gambling House came back. He's highly skilled and cannot be provoked. Senior Brother Shi has already admitted defeat, and I was thrown out as well. As for Uncle Fu, he'll have to pray for his own luck."

With that, he shook off Li Fu's wife, quickly rushed into his home, and tightly shut the courtyard gate.

Right now, he could not afford to offend anyone. He could only hide away and ignore worldly affairs.

Li Fu had come begging him, and he had never wanted to get involved in the first place. It was only because Li Fu had cried and made a scene, while the neighbors egged things on until his household was in uproar, that he had helped ask around—merely acting as an intermediary between Li Fu and Shi Lei.

He had not expected to get dragged into it in the end anyway.

It was truly helpless.

No wonder the saying went: "Be neither guarantor nor mediator; be no matchmaker, and three generations will prosper."

That was a supreme truth.

"Brother, what happened? Is someone chasing you?"

His younger sister Zhang Lingyu, who had been doing needlework in the courtyard, hurriedly rose to her feet, went to Zhang Lingshan's side, and cautiously asked.

Zhang Lingshan shook his head and sighed softly. "Li Fu was detained by Three Rivers Gambling House, and I nearly got dragged down with him. I'm never dealing with this rotten business again. Before I get home in the future, keep the courtyard gate locked. I'm afraid Li Fu will make trouble after he comes back and curse me for failing to get things done for him."

"What?"

Zhang Lingyu was startled. "That's too unlucky. We already said we couldn't help them. He was the one who insisted on begging us. If he isn't satisfied with the result in the end, that can't be blamed on us."

"Enough of that. A good deed turned into a bad thing. Let's eat first. I'm going to brew some tonic medicine. Once I've secured my footing at Hong Clan Martial Hall, we'll move to Hongwu Street too and get away from all this trouble."

Zhang Lingshan sighed.

Zhang Lingyu nodded. "Everything will be as Big Brother says. I heard that the Zhao Family on Qinghe Road was wiped out too. Changning Street isn't far from Qinghe Road, so it would be best if we could move away."

"You're still the sensible one, Xiao Yu. I can rest easy leaving the household matters to you. After that, I'll leave the work of persuading Mother to you."

"Mm, don't worry, Big Brother."

Zhang Lingyu nodded heavily.

The old Zhang Lingshan had always been willful, so Zhang Lingyu had been forced to grow into a role like an elder sister's, becoming mature and steady before her time.

That made her completely unlike most girls her age.

She was even more resolute than many boys.

That was what Zhang Lingshan admired most about her. With this younger sister holding down the fort at home, he could go out and practice every day without worry.

"Mother, you and Xiao Yu eat. I've already eaten."

After entering the kitchen.

Zhang Lingshan swiftly began brewing medicine, then practiced the Standing Posture, drank the medicine, and ate Tiger Meat Jerky—the same routine as every other day.

The difference was that he discovered he was getting hungry faster.

This caused him to consume medicinal ingredients and Tiger Meat Jerky more quickly.

Correspondingly, his energy accumulated faster as well.

It seems that after the Primal Chaos Righteous Yang Posture broke through to Minor Accomplishment, my physique improved, and my digestion and absorption of food and medicine improved too.

Zhang Lingshan silently analyzed.

This was a good thing.

But it also meant he was spending money faster.

The amount of Tiger Meat Jerky and medicinal ingredients that used to last three days would likely be exhausted in less than two now.

Yet he did not have much money left.

That was only because he had taken twenty taels of silver from the corpses of Wang Datou and Li Xiaole back then.

Without those twenty taels of silver, he would not have had the chance to research medicinal ingredients during this period, much less the money to buy Tiger Meat Jerky. He would never have been able to reach his current level.

But speaking of those twenty taels of silver, he could not help thinking of the nightmare he had every night, of hands growing from his chest.

Even now, he did not know where those twenty taels had come from.

But one thing was certain: there was definitely something inside his body. The red mark still had not disappeared.

Forget it. I won't think about it. The Primal Chaos Righteous Yang Posture reached Minor Accomplishment today, and my physique has improved. The pain should lessen further tomorrow, and the red mark should fade too.

Zhang Lingshan silently prayed that his estimate was correct.

The next day.

As soon as the first ray of morning light shone in, Zhang Lingshan sprang up and checked the red mark on his body.

Sure enough!

Just as expected!

Compared with before, the red mark had indeed faded today, and the pain had lessened as well.

It seemed that as long as he continued cultivating and broke the Primal Chaos Righteous Yang Posture through to Greater Accomplishment, his Yang energy and Blood Qi would be abundant. No matter what Evil Spirit or strange phenomenon was inside him, it would be suppressed.

Ha ha!

His heart felt incomparably exhilarated.

But before he could rejoice for long, he heard a frantic cry outside. "Someone, come quickly! The three members of Old Li Family have all hanged themselves to death!"

"What? They hanged themselves? Weren't they fine yesterday?"

"All three of them? Xiao Dong came back too? But why would they hang themselves? The child coming home should be a good thing."

"No idea. But their deaths look extremely Weird. If you're not afraid, come take a look and you'll understand. I think their deaths have something to do with the Zhang Family. What kind of grudge must that be?"

The voices of the neighbors outside came one after another, reaching the ears of Zhang Lingshan and his family.

"What happened?"

Zhang Mother asked nervously, "Why did Old Li Family hang themselves? And why are they saying it has something to do with our family? What exactly happened?"

"Mother, don't be nervous. We aren't the only family surnamed Zhang. I'll go take a look first and see what's going on."

Zhang Lingshan offered a word of reassurance, then took a deep breath to calm himself before walking out of the room.

Though he said there was more than one family surnamed Zhang.

He estimated that nine times out of ten, they meant his family.

Sure enough.

The moment he stepped outside, the surrounding neighbors immediately made way for him, each one avoiding him as though he were the plague.