Twenty-three Silver Dollars, Spirit Charm Points Skyrocket!

Luo Bin's gaze sharpened slightly, and he thought to himself, steady now.

Just as expected—this Crimson panel's method of acquiring Spirit Charm was basically a budget version of the Gluttony Cauldron...

[White Ape Through-Arm Fist] was now only one Spirit Charm away from advancing to the second layer. Luo Bin glanced at the four remaining sheep tendons still hanging on the wall, then silently took down another one.

Luo Bin slipped back into his room, staring at the points now sufficient for another breakthrough in his technique, feeling a dazed, dreamlike haze. It seemed there was no avoiding the path of a glutton...

He seriously suspected that someone who "loved drinking beast milk" might have a similar hidden cheat.

In another corner of the estate, Cao Jin, the cook assigned by the Green Bamboo Gang, wore a delighted grin on his face.

When he'd been cooking at the gang's headquarters building, he'd taken a considerable risk to pocket these five sheep tendons. In this era of material scarcity, that counted as a massive windfall.

After all, they were rumored to have the miraculous effect of "men praising them, women cursing them."

"Tonight, I'll make my woman beg for mercy!

Let's see if she still dares to flirt with those mud-legged leftovers the Pei Family left behind!!" Cao Jin's lips curled into a smug smile. These were his treasures for reasserting his husbandly authority.

But the moment he stepped inside, his smile vanished.

A sharp, explosive roar erupted from the kitchen.

"Who stole my sheep tendons—!!!"

Back in his room, Luo Bin studied for a long time, troubled by a question he couldn't figure out no matter how hard he thought.

"Primordial Stance" had already reached the entry level that morning. He could feel the smooth, effortless flow of qi, moving as naturally as an arm directing a hand. Logically, with any other technique, it should have shown up on the Crimson panel by now.

But there was still no sign of it. He remembered back when one of the Pei Family's martial instructors taught them, the guards, basic fist techniques—his understanding of the White Ape Fist had been very shallow.

Yet after he'd transmigrated and activated the panel, this technique had already been recorded in Crimson.

Strange, wasn't it?

Could it really be a watered-down version?

Luo Bin pondered a moment longer, then poured all three Spirit Charms into [White Ape Through-Arm Fist].

The specific cultivation details of this modified technique had already been infused into Luo Bin's mind by Crimson. The general outline for the first layer was just eight characters:

"Strength and speed surge; bones and sinews gain might!"

Compared to an ordinary person, his strength increased dramatically, his speed underwent a qualitative leap, and his force condensed into ape-strength, driving straight from his lower back through his fist. But Luo Bin still felt something was lacking.

It wasn't as formidable as the detailed description in his mind suggested.

Most likely, it was because he hadn't entered a proper realm, so the fist's power couldn't fully manifest—only making him a bit stronger than an average person... Still, taking down four or five burly men wouldn't be a problem...

Now, at the second layer, the outline had shrunk to four characters:

"Through-arm splits the wind!"

Ape-force permeates the body; fist wind can reach three zhang beyond. No need for close combat—a sweep of the fist can crack the air, and the wind blades it stirs up can cut through skin...

Luo Bin could naturally feel the surging power of the second layer. He stepped out of his room, stood in the small courtyard, and sensed the muscles writhing beneath his skin, the warm currents flowing into his meridians.

That swelling sensation was indeed even stronger than when he'd first broken into the first layer.

When he swung, he could indeed unleash wind blades that split the air, with considerable power—but it seemed the fist wind's range only covered one zhang?

Breaking through to the second layer confirmed Luo Bin's guess...

Without even entering the lowest realm, he couldn't fully unleash this fist technique's power.

In the days that followed, waiting for Ruan Pei to send someone to pick him up, Luo Bin completely mastered the essence of [White Ape Through-Arm Fist]'s second layer. But he only practiced when the courtyard was empty, since an unranked person unleashing fist wind from their hands would be far too shocking.

Aside from helping Aunt Wen find a job at the neighboring Jishi Hall, Luo Bin had no contact with anyone else in the estate. He spent his days wandering outside, especially around the docks...

Earlier, he'd asked Feng Yi: "Where can I use the name of our Green Bamboo Gang's Black Sheath Hall to make some money?"

The answer was Long Wind Pier. With the considerable strength granted by Crimson's point allocation, Luo Bin had already earned a fearsome reputation at the docks in just a few days.

Not to mention, the moment he arrived, Feng Yi had shouted at the top of his lungs that Luo Bin had killed a man right in front of Black Sheath Hall's leader, Luo Wendi—terrifying the dockworkers.

And a fearsome reputation was exactly the golden ticket to making money at Long Wind Pier.

The Green Bamboo Gang was Ping City's largest gang. Since driving out the Pei Family, they'd taken control of most of the dock business, along with the city's nightclubs, theaters, gambling dens, taverns, and more.

Of course, everyone had to get a piece of the pie. The Green Bamboo Gang couldn't monopolize Ping City. Besides them, there were many other gangs and families, big and small—who wouldn't want a bite at the docks?

The scene of big fish eating small fish, and small fish eating shrimp, played out here every day.

So Long Wind Pier, neither too big nor too small, had become a "white-hot" little battlefield for turf wars.

When Luo Bin wrapped himself in the gang's banner, claiming to have blood on his hands in front of Luo Wendi, and started protecting the weaker small fish or shrimp, his wallet naturally began to fatten.

After three days of standing guard, aside from some tough customers carrying guns that Luo Bin dared not touch, the smaller sects and gangs had probably all tasted his wrath... But all of this was done with the Green Bamboo Gang's interests as the bottom line.

A full twenty-three silver dollars had been pocketed.

From the memories of his past life, such a fortune was unimaginable—a dockworker earned only two to three silver dollars a month, about the same as a rickshaw puller.

The Pei Family's guards and Green Bamboo Gang members made around three to five silver dollars a month, and many of them had families to support, with elders above and children below.

That income was barely enough to keep a family alive, let alone a windfall like this.

Luo Bin was about to go "study" at the Chen Family Mansion, and these twenty-three silver dollars could buy a lot—things like high-energy medicinal herbs and meat.

After eating these, most could be converted into Spirit Charm points, though the amounts varied. Some aged ginseng roots at the pharmacy could yield one Spirit Charm point from just a single strand.

But for meat, like beef or mutton, it might take ten pounds to convert into one Spirit Charm point.

Though twenty-three silver dollars was a huge sum, to Luo Bin, it still wasn't enough to last.

On the afternoon of the third day, Luo Bin sat cross-legged in his room as usual, pulling up "Crimson" to check.

[Luo Bin]

[Realm: Unranked]

[Technique: White Ape Through-Arm Fist (Second Layer, 0/6)]

[Modification Value: 0]

[Spirit Charm: 11]

Spirit Charm had reached 11 points, but since he wasn't yet cultivating a mainstream technique to elevate his realm and solidify his foundation, Luo Bin planned to save these points for now.

He'd wait until tomorrow at the Chen Family Mansion to see what Uncle Jiang, as Chen Jing had mentioned, could teach him.

Just as he was mulling over his plans, Zhang Xin's voice came from the door:

"Ah Bin, are you in there?"

"Uncle Zhang? What's wrong?"

Zhang Xin opened the door, his face full of worry as he stepped closer. "Come out and take a look. Your Aunt Wen... she's gotten into a conflict with someone!"