Willow Tree Village, outside the small courtyard of Cui Hao's home.
"Brother Hao." Lin Da wore his usual bashful expression. "Master asked me to pass on a message. If you're free this afternoon, go to the martial school."
"Did he say what it was about?" Cui Hao had just finished his practice, the qi and blood throughout his body warm and smooth.
"Captain Zhang Hu of the City Guard," Lin Da explained, lowering his voice a little. "He said that with the Summer Gathering approaching tomorrow, they were inspecting the martial schools' preparations as usual. Master said... if you were there, you should come take a look too."
Inspecting preparations?
What a far-fetched excuse—completely unrelated on the surface. But there had to be some secret he did not know.
He drank from the source of the water. His current cultivation at the Clear Force stage had come from his painstaking training, risking his life in the mountains, and repeated experiments before the medicine furnace—each of those counted for one share of the credit.
The support of his wives and concubines counted for another.
The martial school's grace in imparting its teachings, his senior brothers' and sisters' guidance, two old mountain ginseng roots, and a rare Hundred-Spirit Fruit easily accounted for eight shares of the credit.
Only with all ten shares complete had he achieved what he had today.
Now that the martial school was in decline, he needed to show up and hold the fort.
That afternoon, the Zhanhong Martial Arts Academy.
Cui Hao changed into a clean, neatly pressed dark-gray short jacket and stepped through the gate.
A far more solemn and tense atmosphere than usual swept over him.
There were more people in the courtyard than usual. Most of the disciples of the Hongzhan Martial School were