Martial Master

Xu Donglai saw this and rose abruptly, striding away without a second of hesitation.

Before leaving, his gaze was gloomy. He swept a look at Zhou Hu without a word, then his eyes locked onto Zhao An for a moment; the icy killing intent and boiling rage within him seemed already beyond control.

But according to the rules, since Zhao An had passed the Three Trials, there was nothing more he could say.

After the people from the Python Gang left, Zhao An took a deep breath and pulled the Big Ring Blade out of Dazhuang's face, accidentally splashing blood all over his hand.

His gaze remained fixed on Zhou Hu.

Xu Donglai had let him go, but the leader of the Tiger Head Gang had yet to speak.

"Zhao An, when did you practice the Black Tiger Blade Technique to such proficiency?" Zhou Hu, whose emotions were never visible on his face, asked Zhao An indifferently.

"Daily practice, finally yielding results," Zhao An replied calmly.

Seeing Zhao An's cold tone, Zhou Hu couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. "You seem to hold a grudge against me. Are you blaming me for not protecting you just now?"

Zhao An did not respond; he was more concerned with what level of strength he would need to kill a high-level red-named target like Zhou Hu.

At the moment, he was afraid he couldn't pull it off.

At the very least, he needed to cultivate internal energy first.

"Zhao An! What kind of attitude is that! How dare you be disrespectful to the leader!" A Tiger Head Gang lieutenant slammed the table and pointed at Zhao An, scolding him.

"Don't even think about it—if it weren't for the leader, you would have already been hacked to pieces and fried in oil by that Xu Donglai!"

"When it comes down to it, isn't this all a mess you stirred up yourself? Hurry up and kowtow to apologize! Do you really think you're so impressive just because you showed off a little, that you can now look down on everyone?!"

"..."

With just one sentence from Zhou Hu, the entire hall erupted into angry reprimands and accusations against Zhao An.

Only the advisor, Hao Wei, stepped forward to say a few words to smooth things over for Zhao An.

"Zhao An passed the Three Trials today and dampened the Python Gang's arrogance; in the end, he has brought honor to our Tiger Head Gang, so let his merits and faults cancel each other out. Leader, Zhao An still has wounds on his head, let him go back and rest early," Hao Wei said, cupping his hands to Zhou Hu as he offered his suggestion.

"Hmm." Seeing his advisor speak up, Zhou Hu complied and did not continue to make things difficult for Zhao An.

Once they walked out of the hall, Li Gou'er and Zhao Chunzi both felt a sense of relief; they didn't know when their backs had been soaked through with cold sweat.

"It really felt like walking through the gates of hell. It's a good thing Advisor Hao spoke up for us," Li Gou'er said, feeling fortunate.

"Yeah, the advisor is truly a good man," Zhao Chunzi said, not thinking too deeply about it and nodding repeatedly.

"I'm just worried that the Python Gang leader will come looking for trouble again in the future..." Li Gou'er thought further ahead, recalling the ugly look on Xu Donglai's face before he left.

Today, they had caused the leader to lose so much face that this grudge was now set in stone.

"Don't be afraid, our Brother Zhao is very strong! Kill one if one comes! Kill a pair if two come!" Zhao Chunzi laughed.

Compared to Li Gou'er's worried face, Zhao Chunzi seemed very confident, possessing absolute faith in Zhao An's strength.

"You, you really are fearless because you are ignorant. You haven't seen how terrifying those real martial artists are!" Li Gou'er shook his head.

"So what? Do you think Brother Zhao can't beat them?" Zhao Chunzi retorted.

"..." Li Gou'er immediately shut his mouth.

No matter what he thought in his heart, he dared not say it in front of Zhao An, lest he annoy his big brother for no reason.

Regarding this, Zhao An was not annoyed; after all, Li Gou'er's worries were not without reason.

As long as the threat of the Python Gang remained, it would always be there, like a venomous snake in the shadows, ready to strike at him at any moment.

"Martial artists..."

In Zhao An's past memories, his understanding of martial artists was shallow; he hadn't even seen many of them in person.

He only knew that one could only be called a martial artist once they had cultivated internal energy.

And to cultivate internal energy, one had to practice graded martial arts.

Graded martial arts usually came with a corresponding "internal energy" cultivation method; that was one of the important hallmarks of graded martial arts and the key to developing internal energy.

However, it was not easy for ordinary people to obtain the opportunity to practice graded martial arts, and developing internal energy required a certain amount of talent for martial arts.

This was why, since ancient times, there had always been many Martial Savages but few martial artists.

If not for the help of the Soul Slave, Zhao An would not have had much confidence in being able to cultivate internal energy.

But now that he had the Soul Slave, everything was naturally different.

Looking at the three soul bodies floating and wailing in pain in the Soul Pool, he didn't need to worry about running out of Soul Slaves for the time being.

"I wonder if this Soul Slave can deduce the complete version of the Fierce Tiger Blade Art. This graded blade technique should have an 'internal energy' method too, right..."

Zhao An's attention fell on the Soul Slave in the Soul Pool bearing the name Xu San.

It seemed that compared to before, this Soul Slave had made some progress; the blade techniques he displayed were becoming more complete and increasingly authentic.

And the first day in this reality hadn't even passed yet.

After returning to his residence, Zhao An spent the next few days in his room recovering from his injuries, only going to the medical clinic once during that time to have the female physician change his dressings.

"Much obliged, that will be five taels of silver." Meng Wanyi had just finished changing the dressing and immediately held out her hand for payment.

"Five taels just for a dressing change?" Zhao An was stunned, voicing his doubt.

He had assumed the ten taels he paid last time covered everything.

"That ten taels was for what you owed me previously. I used high-quality medicine and a secret recipe that you won't find anywhere else in all of Lianjiang City. I'm only charging you five taels this time because you spared the Lin Family Girl that day," Meng Wanyi huffed.

Zhao An touched the back of his head, which no longer hurt as much, and conceded that her medicine was indeed effective.

However, his pockets were completely empty.

"Put it on my tab," Zhao An said, acting as brazen as he could.

"You scoundrel!" Meng Wanyi's delicate brows arched, and she gritted her teeth in anger.

At that moment, a thought struck Zhao An, and he suddenly said, "Or, I could make a deal with you."

"What kind of deal?" Meng Wanyi asked, suppressing her impatience.

"I imagine you have quite a few patients who skip out on their bills at this clinic," Zhao An said.

"How did you know?" Meng Wanyi was taken aback.

"I guessed. Am I right?"

"There are indeed quite a few," Meng Wanyi admitted.

In truth, it wasn't hard to guess. This clinic had no one looking after it, and as a female physician with no backing or influence in the city, her temperament was simply too easygoing. Even when she got angry enough to use a little poison, she never actually killed anyone.

As the saying goes, the kind-hearted are easily bullied. Especially with people like Zhao An who were involved in gangs, spending their days fighting and killing; they were no good, and not paying for medical treatment was perfectly normal for them.

"I'll help you collect these outstanding fees, and we'll split the money fifty-fifty," Zhao An proposed.

This was an idea he had come up with on the spot, mainly because he was also short on cash.

Extracting martial arts achievements from a Soul Slave required an energy supplement similar to the Earth Origin Pill he had consumed last time.

And such pills, aside from being wished for through merit points, could only be bought with silver.

For this reason, he had to find a way to make money; he couldn't just stay penniless like this.

Meng Wanyi fell into deep thought.

Meng Wanyi was somewhat tempted.

"But a fifty-fifty split is too much."

"You should realize that without my help to collect these, you wouldn't see a single copper of this money," Zhao An said as he stood up.

"Deal!" Meng Wanyi agreed.

"The ledger."

"Xiaoshao, go get it for him," Meng Wanyi ordered.

The assistant physician nearby acknowledged the order, went over to rummage through some things, and quickly returned with a stack of papers.

Each sheet represented an uncollected medical fee, and there were at least thirty or forty of them.

"I honestly don't know how you've managed to keep this clinic open," Zhao An said, shaking his head.

"Let's be clear, if there are any poor families in there, then... just let it go. Don't force them," Meng Wanyi added, feeling a bit uneasy.

"And what if they are poor, wicked people?" Zhao An retorted, leaving Meng Wanyi momentarily speechless.

Without waiting for Meng Wanyi to say anything more, Zhao An picked up his Big Ring Blade and stepped out of the clinic.