Unbridled

"Heh, so he's one of Han Mo's men? That makes things even more interesting."

"Kid, I'll give you a choice. Join my ranks and become a private soldier for the Xing Family. Are you willing?" Xing Penghai sat atop his horse, looking down at Lin Zheyu from his high vantage point.

Lin Zheyu frowned slightly, pondering for a moment before saying, "My lord, a twisted melon is never sweet. If I were to agree, I fear you wouldn't be able to trust me anyway, would you?"

"Rest assured, I have my own ways of ensuring your loyalty."

"As long as you swallow this pill, you will be a member of the Xing Family, and nothing will happen to you today." Xing Penghai pulled a pitch-black pill from his robes.

It was obvious that this pill was likely a poison used to control people.

Lin Zheyu put on a look of struggle and hesitation, while the corner of his eye tracked the movement at the city gate.

"Hoo..."

"Alright then, I will join the Xing Family and serve you, my lord."

After hesitating for a while, he spoke as if he had made a compromise.

"Haha, a wise man knows his place."

"Serve me well from now on. Once the job is done, I will naturally provide you with the anti—damn it, stop him!"

Xing Penghai's smile froze, and he shouted loudly.

He braced his left hand against the horse's back, vaulted into the air, and gave chase to Lin Zheyu.

Just as he had let his guard down while speaking, Lin Zheyu had noticed the activity at the city gate and spotted his chance to escape.

He immediately pushed the Golden Goose Technique to its limit, shooting toward the city gate like a cannonball.

"Such speed! How could a brat in the Bone Forging Realm possess such speed!"

Xing Penghai pursued Lin Zheyu with all his might, but the distance between them only grew.

A look of disbelief crossed his eyes; he was a powerhouse at the peak of the Organ Refining realm, yet he couldn't catch a mere kid in the Bone Forging Realm!

"Hah!"

Seeing that he couldn't catch up, Xing Penghai made a split-second decision. He exerted force in mid-air and violently hurled the war halberd from his hand.

Whoosh—

The war halberd whistled through the air, striking toward Lin Zheyu's back with terrifying momentum.

Feeling an extremely sharp sense of danger behind him, he tapped his foot lightly, turned his body, and dodged it by a hair's breadth.

By now, the soldiers at the city gate had reacted, raising their weapons in an attempt to block Lin Zheyu.

He simply leaped into the air, stepped firmly onto a soldier's spear, vaulted over the man's head, and charged into the city, vanishing from sight.

"He got away!"

Xing Penghai's eyes were gloomy as he watched Lin Zheyu's retreating back, a surge of anger rising in his heart.

A brat in the Bone Forging Realm had actually managed to escape from his grasp, which made his expression look quite ugly.

The kid's movement technique and footwork were extremely agile; he had clearly practiced leg techniques and had attained a high level of mastery.

"Brother!"

Xing Jinglong caught up. "Brother, he escaped. What do we do now?"

"What else can we do?"

"So what if the Flying Rainbow Gang knows we made a move? He's just a kid who joined the Flying Rainbow Gang recently; at worst, we'll just pay a bit of compensation."

"Do you really think Xu Jingwu would fall out with the Xing Family over a mere kid in the Bone Forging Realm?" Xing Penghai sneered.

Coming from the Xing Family, he did not fear the Flying Rainbow Gang leader, Xu Jingwu.

"However, that kid's martial arts aptitude is truly extraordinary. To have reached this level in such a short time... with his talent, he might just meet the requirements for the secret medicine cultivation."

Xing Penghai pondered for a moment and said, "Report him when we get back."

He swung onto his horse, squeezed his legs, and galloped away into the distance.

His voice drifted back from afar: "Follow me, I'm taking you somewhere."

Hearing this, Xing Jinglong quickly mounted his horse and followed.

"Are they really this unscrupulous?"

Lin Zheyu looked toward the city gate with a solemn expression.

Judging by the display just now, if he hadn't escaped into the city immediately, the consequences of being caught would have been dire.

He hadn't expected Xing Penghai to dare make a move on him so openly, especially with the Flying Rainbow Gang standing behind him.

Fortunately, they only dared to act outside the city. If they were this unscrupulous inside the city, it would mean the order of Songyi City had collapsed, and he would have no choice but to leave.

"I need to improve my strength as soon as possible!"

A sense of urgency rose in his heart.

If he hadn't previously upgraded the Golden Goose Technique to the third level and entered the Organ Refining realm, giving him more stamina than before, he would have been finished just now.

Swallowing that black pill meant his life would no longer be his own to control; he would be reduced to nothing more than someone else's lackey.

"I have to be even more careful from now on, keep a lower profile."

Lin Zheyu said to himself.

Although he had already been extremely cautious and had barely exposed his true strength, he had still caught the eye of Xing Jinglong.

Three days later.

Early morning.

Bang, bang... crackle...

In the courtyard, the sound of Lin Zheyu unleashing his full power, his whip kicks striking the wooden post, echoed through the air.

The cold wind howled, and the weather was biting.

Yet, Lin Zheyu was drenched in sweat, the muscles of his body defined in perfect, fluid lines.

He had been training continuously for over an hour and had nearly reached his limit.

His face was flushed red, and he was panting like an ox.

Another half hour later...

The moment Lin Zheyu reached his physical limit, his essence, energy, and spirit coalesced into a single point, entering an inexplicable state.

This state was extremely brief, fleeting in an instant.

He let out a breath and leaned against the wooden post, gasping for air.

His muscles twitched uncontrollably, and his entire body ached with intense soreness.

Even with the experience of breaking through his limits several times before, Lin Zheyu still found it incredibly difficult.

Every time he pushed past his physical limits, it was a test of both his body and his spirit.

After resting for a moment, Lin Zheyu looked at the data in his consciousness.

Huh!

A look of surprise appeared on Lin Zheyu's face.

When he had checked just a moment ago, his Source Power was 4, but now it had actually become 6.

Just after breaking his limit, he had gained two units of Source Power at once!

"Could it be that as my essence, energy, and spirit improve, the Source Power gained from each breakthrough increases as well?" Lin Zheyu speculated.

He just didn't know if he would be able to gain two units of Source Power every time he broke through from now on.

Or perhaps, after breaking his physical limits several times in a row, the next breakthrough would grant two units, whereas previously it had only granted one.

Lin Zheyu felt the second scenario was more likely.

As his strength increased, he was gaining more Source Power with each breakthrough; he was likely gaining 1.x each time, but the display only showed the integer, hiding the decimal.

The numbers after the decimal point accumulated, and only once they reached 1 would they be reflected in the total.

But this was just a guess; he would need to conduct further tests later to be sure.

He rested for a while.

After stretching his muscles and bones for half an hour, he recovered a bit of his stamina.

He walked into the house and took out the medicinal ingredients for the Blood-Nourishing Bone-Strengthening Soup he had purchased earlier.

After his previous consumption, only six sets of ingredients had remained. Recently, Lin Zheyu had earned some money and bought more, so he now had a total of eight sets.

Brewing the medicinal soup was delicate work; it required precise control of the heat and a long simmering time to extract all the medicinal potency from the herbs.

"These herbs are getting more and more expensive. When will this ever end?"

Lin Zheyu muttered.

When he went to buy the herbs this morning, the price per set was nearly one tael of silver more expensive than before.

The shopkeeper said it was because there were many bandits in the mountains now. The herb gatherers were frequently robbed whenever they went into the mountains, resulting in very few harvests.

As the cost of the herbs went up, the selling price naturally rose as well.