Getting Married?

Zhang Qingfeng's smile stiffened for a moment as he frowned slightly.

"Brother Xiao Shan, five Blood Vitality Pills... that's a hundred and fifty taels of silver!" He counted on his fingers. "I'm only asking you to teach him a lesson, break his arms and legs so he can't practice martial arts or hold a brush anymore. I'm not asking you to get tangled up in a murder case."

"I don't care," Xiao Shan said.

"If it's not a hundred and fifty, I'm not taking the job."

Zhang Qingfeng gritted his teeth and tentatively held up three fingers. "How about a hundred and thirty?"

Xiao Shan frowned and got straight up to leave without a word.

He shoved his chair back with a bang.

"Wait!"

Panicking, Zhang Qingfeng grabbed Xiao Shan's sleeve and lowered his voice.

"Brother Xiao, listen. That kid's sister-in-law is gorgeous. That figure—tch, curvy in all the right places. You couldn't find another woman like her in all of Blackwater County..."

"Is that really true?"

Xiao Shan turned around abruptly, his eyes instantly burning with interest.

"Why would I lie to you?" Seeing that Xiao Shan was tempted, Zhang Qingfeng's lips curled slightly. "If she's not as beautiful as I say, you can come to me afterward and I'll make it up to you with another twenty taels."

"Fine!"

Xiao Shan agreed at once, greed practically spilling from his eyes.

Watching his eagerness, Zhang Qingfeng wore a smug, sinister smile.

That day, Jiang Tian had punched his nose crooked. Even now, he still had a medicinal plaster stuck to the bridge of it, and he didn't dare walk too fast. The slightest jolt made him suck in a sharp breath from the pain.

He had to avenge this grudge!

Practice martial arts? What good was that? Could it compare to silver?

He could've been studying like a proper scholar, but instead he insisted on practicing martial arts and courting death! And he'd even dared to injure the face Zhang Qingfeng was so proud of!

Xiao Shan had been in the Body Tempering Realm for some time. Taking care of a kid who'd only been studying at the Martial Arts Hall for a few days would be as easy as lifting a hand.

Zhang Qingfeng raised his wine cup and drained it in one gulp, unable to suppress the smile tugging at his lips.

The Martial Arts Hall.

After an entire bottle of Blood Vitality Pills went down, the emptiness in Jiang Tian's body was finally filled.

The warm current produced by the pills surged through his limbs and bones, like a dry riverbed welcoming the spring flood. It nourished every meridian and every bone, inch by inch.

The blood and qi in his body grew full again, more than twice as abundant as before.

His body underwent an earth-shattering transformation as he broke through. His muscles grew tighter, his bones denser, and even his skin became a little tougher.

The feeling was somewhat like when his Root Bone trait had upgraded, but not quite the same.

The evolution of his Root Bone was a reconstruction at the foundation, while a breakthrough was a transformation that came naturally.

Jiang Tian didn't rush to open his eyes.

He knew there had to be a crowd around him.

First, he checked his status panel.

Transformation Energy could extend one's life by sixty years. The Body Tempering Realm should at least add a year or two, right?

[Name: Jiang Tian]

[Lifespan: 16/17]

[Realm: Body Tempering]

[Martial Arts: Five Animals Fist (Minor Mastery) (1+/500)]

[Traits: Innate Martial Bone (Purple) (446+/5000), Superb Comprehension (Purple) (1+/5000)]

"sigh—"

Jiang Tian sighed inwardly.

The lifespan column still read "16/17."

In other words, he still had less than a year to live.

Still, he soon recovered his composure.

He'd reached the Body Tempering Realm in three days. Reaching Transformation Energy within a year wasn't necessarily impossible.

He had that much confidence.

With that thought, he slowly opened his eyes.

The first thing he saw was a dense ring of heads.

Nearly every disciple in the Martial Arts Hall had crowded over, surrounding the spot behind the big tree until not even a drop could squeeze through.

Every face wore a different expression: shock, jealousy, astonishment, envy, disbelief...

What a kaleidoscope of humanity.

At the very front of the crowd, closest to him, was naturally Yuan Long, the master of the Five Animals Martial Hall.

At that moment, the word "shocked" couldn't begin to describe Yuan Long's expression.

In his clear black-and-white eyes, clouded ever so slightly with age, two flames seemed to be burning. The way he stared at Jiang Tian was as if he'd just laid eyes on a peerless beauty standing there stark naked.

"Congratulations, Junior Brother Jiang!"

Li Batian was the first to recover. His eyes flickered, his Adam's apple bobbed, and he forced down his shock as he plastered a smile across his face.

"Body Tempering in three days! A genius! Truly a genius!"

He congratulated Jiang Tian aloud, but in his mind he was already calculating at breakneck speed.

If he could bring Jiang Tian under his wing... wouldn't he be all but guaranteed to become the Li Family's next head?

He had to win him over.

At any cost.

With Li Batian setting the example, the others joined in, their congratulations rising and falling in a steady wave.

"Congratulations, Senior Brother Jiang!"

"Senior Brother Jiang is truly a heaven-gifted genius!"

"Body Tempering in three days—I've never heard of anything like it!"

The amusing thing was that most of them had joined the Martial Arts Hall before Jiang Tian, yet every one of them called him "Senior Brother Jiang."

While the crowd was still chattering among themselves, a voice suddenly boomed out.

"Listen up!"

Yuan Long slowly turned to face everyone, his eyes cool and his expression more severe than anyone had ever seen it.

"Not one of you is to tell anyone what happened today."

"If I hear even the slightest rumor, I don't care which family's young master you are or how distinguished your background is. I, Yuan Long, will not let you off."

As the final word fell, the aura unique to a Transformation Energy expert erupted.

An invisible shockwave swept outward from Yuan Long, stirring up a ring of dust on the ground. It pressed against everyone's chests, leaving them short of breath.

A few disciples with weaker cultivation turned pale on the spot.

"We'll obey your orders!"

"We'll obey your orders!"

The crowd answered in unison.

"Good. That's all. You're dismissed." Yuan Long waved them away.

The crowd gradually dispersed, though a few gazes still lingered on Jiang Tian, some more openly than others.

Li Batian, Cai Yuming, Tan Hongyu... and Zhou Mu.

Standing at the edge of the crowd, Zhou Mu watched Jiang Tian follow Yuan Long toward the inner courtyard. He quietly clenched his fists, his expression shifting as he wondered what to think.

He should have been the one basking in everyone's attention.

Hadn't Yuan Long personally fed Jiang Tian at least ten Blood Vitality Pills just now?

Only yesterday, when he'd eaten with Li Batian, had he found out how precious those things were—thirty taels of silver for a single pill!

Thirty taels!

Zhou Mu licked his dry lips.

Jiang Tian followed Yuan Long into a room in the inner courtyard.

The room was simply furnished: a writing desk, a chair, and a piece of calligraphy on the wall bearing a large "martial" character. The brushwork was bold and flowing, the ink strokes forceful enough to pierce the paper.

With his back to Jiang Tian, Yuan Long said, "Close the door."

Jiang Tian did as he was told.

The light in the room dimmed slightly as the door shut.

Almost in the blink of an eye, Yuan Long turned around and was suddenly right beside Jiang Tian.

He moved so fast that Jiang Tian hadn't even seen how he'd done it.

Just like last time, a large hand reached out and roamed over Jiang Tian's arm, ribs, back, and neck.

But this time, Jiang Tian felt no pain. Instead, he felt a tingling sensation, as though a gentle force were probing him for something.

"Tiger Bone, Mantis Leg, Ape Arm..."

Yuan Long muttered as he felt him over, his voice growing more and more urgent. His fingers repeatedly rubbed certain bones, as if confirming something extraordinary.

"Grade A Bone Structure!"

"It really is Grade A Bone Structure!"

He abruptly stopped and looked up at Jiang Tian, his brows knitted together.

"Could I have made a mistake when I examined you that day?"

"Impossible... absolutely impossible!"

Yuan Long muttered to himself, his expression shifting from a frown to a wide-eyed stare.

A moment later, his gaze suddenly turned distant. He murmured so softly that he could barely hear himself, "Could the kind of... evolvable Root Bone my master spoke of really exist?"

Evolvable Root Bone?

Jiang Tian's expression remained unchanged, but he was slightly startled inside.

Could such a thing really exist in this world?

"Kid."

Yuan Long suddenly reached out and clapped Jiang Tian heavily on the shoulder, staring intently at him.

"Would you be willing to marry my daughter?"

"Ah?!"

Jiang Tian's eyes widened, and his old face turned bright red in an instant.

Get married?

What the hell?

He'd thought Yuan Long had called him in to discuss cultivation or question him about his Root Bone. But instead, it was this?

The moment Yuan Long spoke, Jiang Tian's ears twitched. He faintly heard a burst of hurried footsteps outside the room, receding into the distance, as if someone had just run away.

"Master Yuan." Jiang Tian swallowed, his voice a little hoarse. "You... aren't joking, are you?"

"I'm not joking."

Yuan Long shook his head slightly, his expression utterly serious.

"Then let me ask you: Is my daughter pretty?"

Jiang Tian froze for a moment. Yuan Manzhi's face and figure involuntarily rose in his mind.

An oval face, peach-blossom eyes, a slender waist, and a full, shapely bust. And especially that beauty mark at the corner of her eye... well, she really was quite pretty, and her figure was curvy in all the right places.

But she always wore such a cold expression, as if someone owed her eight hundred taels of silver.

Jiang Tian couldn't figure out what Yuan Long was getting at. He gave a bitter smile and said, "Master Yuan, I'm not thinking of getting married yet—"

Before he could finish.

Yuan Long held out an open palm before Jiang Tian's face and said expressionlessly, "Then pay me back."

The words nearly made Jiang Tian bite his tongue.