The Chu family lived in the wealthy district inside the city. Their gatehouse was built of polished bricks and carved tiles, and flowers and trees filled the courtyard. The atmosphere was peaceful, rarely disturbed by noise.
After Hu Xuezhi's warning, Chu Ge had also become more vigilant.
Upon returning home, he ordered his servant Hei Gouzi to go out and gather information.
It was deep winter. The wealthy district was doing all right, with enough food and drink, but many of the city's other residents were living in dire straits.
Some poor families were now eating millet every day. Some even relied on wild plants and flowers as their staple food—Chinese scholar tree blossoms, the skins of elm seeds, and the roots of fish mint. Their plight was utterly miserable.
Now bandits had appeared on top of everything else. People's lives were bound to become even harder.
It wasn't long before Hei Gouzi returned from gathering news. He reported that a band of horse bandits had indeed been roaming outside the city and committing crimes, and that several traveling merchants had fallen victim to them.
Even the Xu Family inside the city had been robbed, and Master Xu had lost his life.
"Master Xu is dead? When did this happen?"
Chu Ge was taken aback, his expression turning serious.
The Xu Family was one of the wealthiest families in Linyuan City. Though not as rich as Wang Youcai, the city's wealthiest man, they were every bit as wealthy as the Chu Family, and had hired many armed guards.
"In reply to Young Master, it happened yesterday."
Hei Gouzi, who had gone out to gather information, looked alarmed as well. "They say Master Xu died in his own home, and the whole household was ransacked.
"And the womenfolk were... were..."
The County Yamen officials have sealed off the Xu residence. They won't let anyone get close to ask questions, and they've forbidden the neighbors from spreading rumors. But something so horrifying happened—how can they possibly keep people quiet...?"
"Those bandits are so brazen? They even... the womenfolk..."
Chu Ge's expression was grave. It seemed Master Hu's warning had been mild and understated.
The bandits were not only robbing people, but killing them too. They had even entered the city and ransacked a home. They had no regard for the law at all, trampling City Guard Captain Tian Youji's face into the dirt.
"Young Master, what do you think? Should we hire some formidable guards too? I heard martial arts instructors in the city are already raising their prices."
Hei Gouzi ventured the suggestion, looking uneasy.
"That won't be necessary for now. Don't forget, your young master here is a martial arts instructor himself."
Chu Ge waved him off, sent him to collect his reward, and then summoned Steward Fu.
The Chu Family had once employed guards, but they were all first-realm flesh-training martial artists, and quite old. After Chu Ge had made progress in his martial arts, he gave them money to retire back to their hometowns. There was even less reason to hire new guards now.
Judging by what had happened to the Xu Family, ordinary first- or second-realm martial artists would be of little use against those bandits.
Third Realm: Bone Training martial artists were all prominent figures. They could not be hired for an ordinary price, and their strength was only on par with his own.
Over the past two years, he had studied the Left Path Skills that had undergone a mutation after he brought them along when he crossed into this world. He had already set up various defenses around his own home, one after another.
Things like Shadow Lanterns and Paper Cuttings were all capable of giving warning. That was one of the benefits of studying the Left Path.
Still, this world revolved around martial arts. Martial arts could strengthen the body and prolong life; they were the foundation for making one's way in the world.
Since powerful bandits had recently set their sights on the city's wealthy merchants, Chu Ge felt threatened too.
He planned to devote himself over the next few days to breaking through into the martial arts Fourth Realm: Blood Change Realm, reaching the same level as his master, Hu Xuezhi.
A short while later.
Steward Fu arrived after being summoned by the servant Hei Gouzi.
The old steward, who had served Chu Ge for many years, seemed to have guessed why Chu Ge had called him. He had brought a box of expensive Gold Paper.
"Young Master, these are what the shopkeeper at Baolin Pavilion has been stockpiling recently. We're still gathering the other old items... but should we stop buying them for the time being?"
Chu Ge thought it over, then waved a hand. "No need to stop. Keep buying them as usual. My cultivation has reached a crucial juncture, and I can't slack off.
"If you're worried, go to Baolin Pavilion yourself."
He knew what the steward was concerned about.
But Gold Paper was a crucial material for making Shadow Puppets and special paper talismans.
A single thin sheet was worth a great deal.
The other old items could be offered to the Dragon Clock to refine strange power.
All of it was tied to his martial arts cultivation, so he naturally could not slack off.
The more chaotic and dangerous his surroundings became, the more urgently he needed to improve his strength and means of self-protection.
He mustn't lose his head and throw his cultivation off track, putting the cart before the horse.
Hearing this, Steward Fu could only accept the order and carry it out.
His young master seemed to have become a different person over the past three years. He had developed a taste for strange and unusual things, collecting all kinds of odd old objects, and had even taken up martial arts.
Still, as a young master of an aristocratic clan, he had avoided vices like visiting brothels and gambling. That was a good thing, all in all.
Steward Fu simply couldn't understand what collecting these strange objects had to do with cultivation.
After taking the Gold Paper, Chu Ge went alone into the Secret Chamber where he studied his skills and martial arts.
The walls inside were covered with Shadow Puppets of all shapes and sizes, young and old.
Bathed in lamplight, they looked eerie and uncanny. Each face seemed so lifelike that it might have belonged to a real person.
They were all Chu Ge's handiwork.
After the Five Mao Mountain Marvelous Skill had mutated, cultivating it required strange power. To use the strange arts it contained, he also needed the corresponding materials as catalysts. Only then could those arts work their wonders.
These Shadow Puppets had been made by combining the crafts of shadow puppetry and paper cutting.
Chu Ge put away the Gold Paper and went to the desk. He picked up a damaged Wooden Fish he had recently acquired. The Dragon Clock tattoo on his wrist flashed with light.
The Wooden Fish was offered into the recess at the clock's heart, and a line of information appeared.
"Wooden Fish of the Linshan Temple Abbot: Description: (This Wooden Fish was struck by a monk as he chanted sutras and prayed to Buddha for many years. It has been consecrated. Unfortunately, it is damaged, though it seems to have absorbed a trace of strange power.)"
In this world, things that had existed for many years or had been steeped in spiritual influence for a long time would attract strange power from the world around them.
The only difference was how much strange power they had absorbed.
Over the past few years, Chu Ge had acquired many old objects and encountered many spiritually imbued items, all to collect strange power for cultivation or to animate Shadow Puppets.
Strange power was a form of energy from heaven and earth that only experts at the Force Condensation Realm, above the Four Martial Arts Realms, could access. It had endless uses.
Injecting it into his body for cultivation was like having a Force Condensation expert expend their own power to pour it into him and boost his blood and qi.
Infused into specially made Shadow Puppets, it could make them vivid and lifelike.
At that moment, he chose to offer up the Wooden Fish.
At once, golden light from the heart of the clock enveloped it, just as it had the Spirit Fish nearby, and began to refine it.
Beyond the golden light, strands of strange energy flowed and drifted about. This was all the strange power he had accumulated, already more than a hundred and fifty strands.
"More than a hundred and fifty strands should be enough to strengthen my blood and qi, break through the bone-training bottleneck, and reach the final stage of bone training—tempering my skull."
Chu Ge pondered as he took out the original manuscript of the fourth section of the Tiger Crouching Technique from his robes.
If a breakthrough to the Blood Change Realm failed, the consequences could be severe: at best, his blood and qi would decline drastically; at worst, he could suffer a stroke or even die on the spot.
But by now, he was prepared.
Among the Four Martial Arts Realms, the first two—skin training and flesh training—required only that one practice different boxing techniques, footwork, and stances to strengthen one's blood and qi, sinews, bones, skin, and flesh. Once these exercises were complete, one's martial arts training would be complete, and one's strength would improve.
But at the Third Realm: Bone Training, one also had to use a mental cultivation method to circulate blood and qi through the body and produce "qi."
Only by combining this qi with one's blood and qi could one temper the bones with precision, driving one's strength deep into the marrow and even every cell in the body. Only then could one's strength improve.
Once the bones throughout the body had been tempered and this qi had grown strong, one's blood and qi would surge, allowing one to send force beyond the body to injure or defend against others.
By then, Chu Ge's mind had entered a state of utter stillness and unwavering focus.
As he observed himself with the "inner clarity" of his mind, the state of his body seemed like glowing lines in the dark, growing ever clearer.
His muscles were fine and tightly knit, filled with resilience and abundant strength. Streams of blood and qi surged through his body, but when they reached the Yuzhen Acupoint at the back of his head, near his hairline, they seemed to meet an obstruction.
"To break through with blood and qi, I only need to open the Yuzhen Acupoint and reach the head. Once I temper the skull, my blood and qi can flow downward, forming the Greater Celestial Circuit. It will wash through every limb and bone, nourish my organs, and carry me into the Blood Change Realm."
Thinking this, Chu Ge opened his eyes and began studying the fourth section of the Tiger Crouching Technique.
Every orthodox martial arts cultivation method came with a visualization diagram to assist in training.
These diagrams captured the essence of the method, which was difficult to reproduce with brushwork. Only someone who had cultivated the method to great mastery and perfection could depict it by pouring Essence, Qi, and Spirit into it. It could only be understood, never explained.
So even if one had the incantations and other instructions for the Tiger Crouching Technique, one could not cultivate it to its highest level.
As Chu Ge focused intently on his study,
a moment later, the image of a fierce tiger crouching on a mountainside appeared in his mind.
The tiger had a big head and a round face, with its eyes wide open. Its body was covered in alternating stripes of brownish yellow and black, and its breathing was deep and restrained.
Suddenly, it opened its enormous, basin-like mouth and yawned, lolling out a bright red tongue. It licked its knife-sharp teeth, twitched its needle-like whiskers, shook its body, and sprang to its feet. Then it let out a furious roar, a thunderclap in a clear sky that shook the mountainside.
"ROAR!!—"
A bolt of thunder seemed to flash through Chu Ge's mind. The blood and qi throughout his body surged, transforming into a fierce tiger that roared within him and charged straight toward the Yuzhen Acupoint.
In an instant, his face flushed red, his hair rose as if blown by a wind, and blood vessels spread across his wide-open eyes. The sight was startling.
The Yuzhen Acupoint suddenly opened. His boiling blood and qi surged straight into his skull, but after only reaching halfway, they showed signs of fading.
At that moment, the Dragon Clock tattoo on Chu Ge's wrist flashed.
More than a hundred strands of strange power suddenly appeared, distinct from his blood and qi, and seeped into his flesh, limbs, and bones.
A faint golden light spread over the muscles and bones throughout his body, quickly surging toward his head to help him break through.
On the second floor of Baolin Pavilion, the shopkeeper saw Steward Fu off at the top of the stairs with a friendly smile.
Steward Fu cupped his hands and bowed.
"Shopkeeper Lin, my young master needs those old items I mentioned. I'll leave it to you. Things have been unsettled lately, so if you acquire any, you can send them straight to our residence. We can discuss the price."
The round-faced shopkeeper hurriedly replied with a genial smile, "Certainly, certainly. The one thousand taels Young Master Chu gave this old man last time for purchases hasn't been spent yet. If I come across anything, I'll send it over at once."
"One thousand taels as an advance... Young Master Chu of the Chu Family sure is rich."
In the first-floor hall below the stairs, a customer stood near the stairwell, pretending to admire the wares. His ears twitched as he used his Eavesdropping Divine Skill to listen in on the conversation, his eyes narrowing.
"I came here to scout out Baolin Pavilion, but I didn't expect to hook a big fish too. Two birds with one stone..."
A thousand taels of silver would be enough to buy the lives of a hundred people.
It was no surprise. The Great Zhou Kingdom had begun to decline.
The "Dragon-Slaying Hero" who had destroyed the Yun Kingdom, Emperor Wu of Zhou, seemed to have grown increasingly negligent in recent years. He kept making one disastrous decision after another, building a pleasure palace filled with wine and women in the imperial palace, then constructing temporary palaces all over the place for his amusement. This not only drained the people's labor and wealth; when enemy states launched raids and invasions, he relied entirely on rounding up conscripts to plug the gaps at the front. He called up soldiers nearly every other year.
Many young men had to choose between serving in the military and paying ten taels of silver to be exempted from labor service.
For most ordinary households, ten taels of silver was no easy sum to produce. It could buy ten shi of rice, enough to eat for an entire year.
Young Master Chu was willing to spend a thousand taels of silver on strange old trinkets. His family's fortune must be exceptionally deep.
"...Good. As long as he's rich, he meets the standards laid down by the sect. Baolin Pavilion is conspicuously located and employs plenty of martial artists. As for the Chu residence, I can take a look there first."
After casually buying an item, the customer downstairs slipped away without drawing attention and followed Steward Fu.
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