Jiang Liu was staying in a small courtyard. With a thought, a deep-blue light screen visible only to him appeared before his eyes.
Auxiliary System: Name: Jiang Liu Realm: Body Refinement (Bone Tempering 136/206) Alchemy (Beginner 42/100) Five Elements Fist (Perfection) (Trait: Qi-Blood Stimulation) Wandering Steps (Minor Mastery 768/800)
Looking at his nearly-mastered Wandering Steps, Jiang Liu now only wanted to devote himself more fully to cultivation.
Swish!
A figure shot out from the small courtyard where Jiang Liu lived and vanished in an instant.
The figure darted left and right, forward and back, making its movements impossible to predict.
It turned out Jiang Liu had already cultivated Wandering Steps to mastery. Unable to suppress his delight, he had wanted to give it a try.
Back when it was only at minor mastery, its power had not seemed particularly impressive. Now that he had cultivated Wandering Steps to mastery, he finally understood what the technique truly meant: wandering around you as one pleased, while you remained unable to pin down my position.
This nimble footwork was simply like adding wings to a tiger when used against an enemy, but it could not be sustained for long when used for long-distance travel.
Jiang Liu ran all the way to Apprentice Plaza, assumed the stance of the Five Elements Fist, and began practicing.
Figures appeared all over the plaza, then gradually faded away. Amid repeated roars like tigers howling, the sound sent shivers through the heart.
It turned out Jiang Liu had integrated the attack method of the Fierce Tiger Fist's final move, Tiger's Roar in the Mountain Forest, into the Five Elements Fist. While practicing in high spirits today, inspiration had suddenly struck him, and he had used it.
He did not know whether it was because the Fierce Tiger Fist had already been merged into the Five Elements Fist, but the move had come out so smoothly.
Jiang Liu happily practiced several rounds of boxing in Apprentice Plaza. Drenched in sweat, he returned to his small courtyard, washed up, and prepared to sit in meditation and begin Bone Tempering.
Jiang Liu now maintained enough time every day for Bone Tempering.
Realm: Body Refinement (Bone Tempering 140.8/206) Alchemy (Beginner 45/100) Wandering Steps (Mastery 6/1500)
At most, another two months would be enough to complete Bone Tempering. Jiang Liu's heart was filled with anticipation.
While Jiang Liu cultivated tirelessly, quite a few dirty dealings arose among the Six Great Families of Cloud Sun City.
First, many of the shops operated by the Pan Family could not withstand the suppression from the Chen, Li, and Wang Families. They had been forced to transfer them at low prices to the Hu and Ma Families, barely managing to fend off the Chen, Li, and Wang Families' encroachment.
In the end, the Pan Family had been left with only its core industries—the carriage and horse business, herbal medicine shops, armory, and money house—the foundations with which it had started. The escort agency, restaurants, eateries, inns, pawnshops, cloth shops, general stores, gambling dens, brothels, and so on had all been lost, more or less.
Now, even those that had not been lost were merely dragging out their last breath.
Bang!
"The Chen, Li, and Wang Families are going too far! The Hu and Ma Families are even more despicable! Don't they know the principle that when the lips are gone, the teeth grow cold? And now they're taking advantage of our misfortune?" Pan Qi said as he slammed the table hard.
"That's enough, Elder Qi. Losing your temper now won't help. Yunhu, Yunlong—how have things been these past few days? Is there any hope of a breakthrough?" asked the elder of the Pan Family's third branch.
"Elder Brother has been in the secret chamber this entire time and hasn't come out. If he had broken through, he would have come out long ago," Pan Yunhu said helplessly.
Alas, helplessness also showed across the faces of the Pan Family elders.
Under these circumstances, that detestable Physician Pavilion had actually claimed that it was out of Grade Five Breakthrough Pills. If they wanted supplies transferred from the commandery city, it would take at least three months.
The Breakthrough Pills Pan Yunlong was using now were all part of the reserves saved up before. They could no longer afford to worry about that and could only use them first.
After reaching Entry Grade, there were two ways to break through. The first was to break through naturally, like water overflowing once the vessel was full. One cultivated one's essential qi to the utmost limit, until there was no more room to contain it, and then broke through naturally. Only in this way could one's martial path stretch farther.
The second was to rely on pills for a breakthrough. If the water was not full, one artificially filled it to the brim, using the medicinal power to stimulate the essential qi required for the breakthrough until it was full. Because this was a violent breakthrough aided by medicinal power, it caused great damage to the meridians. How easy could it be to repair damaged meridians? Thus, one's martial path could not go far.
Unless forced into a corner, people generally would not take pills and force a violent breakthrough like this. Even when using pills, they would take one and slowly absorb its medicinal power to break through. They would not even use up one pill in several months.
I hope the Pan Family can make it through this crisis. Otherwise, none of them will meet a good end. The Pan Family elders worried inwardly.
Night fell. In the Western District, there was Horn Alley. This alley originally had no name, but a gang led by a boss called Horn had entrenched itself here, and over time, the alley came to be known by that name.
A neatly arranged procession walked slowly and silently. The person at the front carried a lantern, wore black clothes, and had a felt hat pulled low over his face, hiding most of it. The entire procession was dressed the same way.
Starting with the first household at the mouth of the alley, they knocked on each door. Whenever someone opened it, they delivered a small bag of rice and a flyer, said, "White Lotus Sacred Mother saves the suffering and rescues the afflicted!" and then slowly turned and left.
The households that received the rice hurriedly knelt and bowed. Watching the figures recede into the distance, they called out, "White Lotus Sacred Mother saves the suffering and rescues the afflicted!"
After the procession had gone far away, they picked up the flyers and looked at them. Written on them were the words: White Lotus Sacred Mother saves the suffering and rescues the afflicted, practice kindness and accumulate virtue, blessings will return to the good, spread this throughout the world, and gather together with those who share the affinity!
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