"What happened to my clothes?" Ning Zhongze got up, heedless of her exposed skin, and quickly searched the room.
Her outer clothes and everything else were there. Only the little embroidered pouch with a mandarin ducks-at-play design was missing.
"That little bastard sure knows how to have fun. He even had to swipe something as a trophy on his way out," Ning Zhongze cursed under her breath. She hurriedly got up, found a fresh one in her travel bag, and put it on.
Once Ning Zhongze had dressed and tidied the room, Yue Buqun pushed the door open and came in.
"Brother Qun, you're back." Ning Zhongze jumped, her heart pounding wildly.
Luckily, as the Heroine of Mount Hua, she had profound inner power. She'd gotten up and cleaned up the scene thoroughly. Otherwise, with Yue Buqun's meticulous mind, one glance at the disordered room would have told him what had happened.
That little bastard only knew how to make a mess, not clean up. If she saw him again... would there even be a next time?
"Mm, I'm back." Yue Buqun looked somewhat despondent. He was clearly unhappy.
"What happened?" After so many years of marriage, Ning Zhongze naturally knew something was troubling Yue Buqun. But his title of Gentleman Sword meant she couldn't comfort her husband like an ordinary wife.
"I doubt Senior Brother Liu's Golden Basin Hand-washing will go smoothly this time. Zuo Lengchan has brought the Five Peaks Command Flag and all of the Song Shan Thirteen Protectors." Yue Buqun spoke gloomily.
The Song Shan Thirteen Protectors! Every one of them was an Innate Master. When would the Hua Shan Sect ever catch up? The only Innate Masters left in the entire Hua Shan Sect were him and his junior sister, Ning Zhongze.
Damn the Sword Sect for destroying Hua Shan's foundations.
"The Song Shan Thirteen Protectors are all here?" Ning Zhongze fell silent. Something was sure to happen this time. She hoped that little fellow wouldn't get into trouble.
Oh no, why was she thinking about that bastard so much? Could it be that familiarity bred affection?
[System, extract the inner force and Fusion Cultivation Method.] As Li Hao hurried down the mountain, he didn't forget to claim the rewards the system had issued.
A surge of energy entered his Baihui Acupoint from the void, then flowed into his dantian. Li Hao was already familiar with the process, so it didn't feel strange to him.
As for the Lesser Formless Art, once extracted, it automatically began merging with Li Hao's original Quanzhen Cultivation Method.
[Spend Villain Points to comprehend the Lesser Formless Art.]
As the Villain Points were spent, the Quanzhen Cultivation Method and Lesser Formless Art quickly fused. By the time his Villain Points ran out, Li Hao had reached the Greater Mastery stage in his comprehension of the Lesser Formless Art.
The Quanzhen Cultivation Method was a basic Daoist cultivation method, while the Lesser Formless Art was a top-tier Daoist technique. After they merged, the inner force in Li Hao's body immediately turned into Attribute-less Inner Force.
This Attribute-less Inner Force was different from the Attribute-less Inner Force rewarded by the system. Though they had the same name, they meant different things.
The system's Attribute-less Inner Force was truly without attributes and could merge with any inner cultivation method.
The Attribute-less Inner Force cultivated through the Lesser Formless Art, on the other hand, was formless and shapeless. You could call it attribute-less, or you could say it had every attribute.
That was because the Lesser Formless Art could imitate any inner cultivation method and power the martial arts that went with it, without causing any conflict.
If Li Hao had profound inner force and mastered a wide range of martial arts, he could face an enemy with the Flame Blade in his left hand, Ice Palm in his right, Heavenly Crippling Leg with his left foot, Wind God Leg with his right, Iron Head Skill on his head, and Golden Bell Shield over his body—all five elements and wind gathered into one. Who could stand against him?
But with Li Hao's current forty years of inner force, trying that would drain him dry in no time.
[Come on, System Bro, couldn't you give me some kind of Lie Down and Win or Sign In ability, so I could become number one under heaven in a flash? Then I could hold a beautiful, rich woman in my arms, trounce handsome, wealthy men, and reach the pinnacle of the world!] Li Bai grumbled inwardly.
[Host, please stop daydreaming and focus on completing system tasks. Lying down and winning, and signing in, are not within this system's service scope.]
Damn it. The Lie Down and Win system and the Sign In system were both ranked among the top hundred systems under the Main God. How could 9527 possibly compare to them?
But it couldn't tell Li Hao that. As long as it maintained its usual aloof demeanor, the host would never find out.
[Fuse medical skills.]
Once he reached the residential district, Li Hao stopped using his lightness skill. There were too many people around, and he wanted to avoid unnecessary trouble.
With nothing else to do, Li Hao decided to study the Grandmaster Medical Skills the system had rewarded him with.
As a flood of information poured into his mind, Li Hao's understanding of medicine gradually deepened.
The Nine Needles of Returning Yang, Thirteen Needles of Ghost Gate, Lesser Heavenly Cycle Acupuncture Method, Greater Heavenly Cycle Array Method... countless miraculous techniques became second nature to Li Hao.
[So this is how silver needles can be used. No wonder that woman Invincible East likes using them. Silver needles really are essential for travel and daily life, and for killing and looting!]
After absorbing all that information, Li Hao finally understood the profound depths of Traditional Chinese Medicine. The things passed down by the ancestors truly were extraordinary.
People had always said that medicine and martial arts were inseparable, and they were absolutely right. Every acupuncture method required a specific inner cultivation method to use, but those rules posed no difficulty at all for Li Hao, who had mastered the Lesser Formless Art.
Of course, paired with a unique inner cultivation method, a silver needle meant to heal could also become a deadly weapon. Using inner force to wield needles against an enemy was nearly impossible to guard against, and always effective.
First, silver needles were tiny. When fired, they made no sound as they cut through the air, making it difficult to locate them by sound.
Second, silver needles were sharp. By concentrating inner force at the tip, they could pierce external hard-body techniques and Innate Qi.
Holy crap, this stuff was amazing. I'm sold.
"Boss, do you sell silver needles at your clinic?" Li Hao passed a medical clinic, walked straight in, and called out.
"Young man, you want silver needles too?" A look of surprise crossed the clinic owner's face.
"What, are lots of people buying silver needles?" Li Hao asked in return.
"People do buy silver needles, but not many. For two customers to come in and buy them on the very day I opened, that's only happened once in all my decades of life—today," the old man said with a chuckle.
Most sizable clinics kept a few sets of silver needles on hand. Some were for their own use, while others were given by masters to apprentices as graduation gifts when they completed their training.
"I'm after another customer, then."
"Exactly. That young lady." The shopkeeper nodded toward the road, his eyes full of admiration. She was stunning.
Li Hao craned his neck and watched for a while. The young woman had a pert rear that looked pretty good.
But the system gave no prompt, so even if she wasn't a mere pretty face, she probably wasn't anything special.
The system had spoiled Li Hao and raised his standards. Since entering the martial world, all three women he'd been involved with had been listed in the Compendium of Beautiful Women in the Martial World.
Bored, he'd even looked up Little Dragon Girl's ranking: 15.
It was very high, and well deserved. The first fifty in the Compendium were practically all peerless beauties.
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