Luo Bin's gaze narrowed slightly. Looks like it worked.
Just as he'd expected, wasn't gaining Spirit Charm from the Crimson Panel basically a youth edition of the Gluttonous Cauldron...?
[White Ape Through-Arm Fist] was only 1 Spirit Charm point away from advancing to the second layer. Luo Bin glanced at the four remaining lamb penises hanging on the wall, then silently took down another.
Luo Bin quietly returned to his room. Looking at the points he'd accumulated—enough to advance his cultivation technique again—he couldn't help feeling dazed, as if in a dream. It seemed there was no avoiding becoming a glutton...
He seriously suspected that a certain "one who loved beast milk best" had a similarly unknown cheat ability.
In another corner of the mansion, Cao Jin, the cook hired by the Green Bamboo Gang, was beaming.
While cooking at the gang's headquarters, he'd taken a considerable risk to pocket these five lamb penises. In an era of material scarcity, they counted as a huge windfall.
After all, they supposedly had the marvelous effect of "men calling them beloved, women calling them wicked."
"Tonight, I'll make that wife of mine beg for mercy!
Let's see if she still dares flirt with those few peasant bastards the Pei Family left behind!" A smug smile played on Cao Jin's lips. These treasures would help him reclaim his authority as head of the household.
But as soon as he stepped inside, his smile abruptly vanished.
A sharp blast rang out from the kitchen.
"Who stole my lamb penises—!!!"
Luo Bin studied things in his room for a long while. One question kept nagging at him, and he couldn't make sense of it no matter how hard he tried.
He had mastered the Primordial Stance that morning. He could feel how smoothly he could direct his breath, as easily as moving his own arm. In theory, if it were any other cultivation technique, it should have appeared on the Crimson Panel by now.
Yet there was still no sign of it. He remembered that when a Pei Family martial instructor had taught their guards some basic boxing and kicking, his understanding of the White Ape Fist had been shallow.
But after he'd transmigrated and activated the panel, the technique had already been recorded in the Crimson Panel.
How strange.
Could it really be a crippled version?
After thinking it over for a moment, Luo Bin added all three Spirit Charm points to [White Ape Through-Arm Fist].
The details of this modified technique had already been poured into Luo Bin's mind by the Crimson Panel. The first layer's guiding principle was summed up in just eight characters:
"Strength and speed surge; muscles and bones grow mighty!"
His strength increased far beyond that of ordinary people, his speed made a qualitative leap, and his force condensed into ape power, flowing from his waist and spine straight into his fists. But Luo Bin still felt something was missing.
It wasn't as powerful as the details in his mind described.
It was very likely because he lacked a mainstream cultivation technique. Since he hadn't entered the ranks yet, he couldn't bring out the full power of his punches, and was only a little stronger than an ordinary person... Still, taking down four or five strong men wouldn't be a problem...
Now that he'd reached the second layer, the guiding principle had become four characters:
"Through-arm wind splitting!"
Ape force surged through his body, and his punches could reach three zhang away. He didn't need to close in; once his fist swept past, it could shatter the air, and the wind blades it whipped up could cut skin...
Luo Bin could naturally feel the powerful strength the second layer had brought him. He stepped out of his room and stood in the small courtyard, sensing the muscles rippling beneath his skin and the faint streams of warmth flowing through his meridians.
The swelling sensation was indeed even more intense than when he'd first broken through to the first layer.
His punches really could unleash wind blades that split the air, and their power was quite impressive. But the area they covered seemed to be only one zhang?
Breaking through to the second layer confirmed Luo Bin's guess...
Without entering the ranks, he couldn't unleash the true power of this fist technique.
During the next few days, while he waited for Ruan Pei to send someone to fetch him,
Luo Bin fully mastered the second layer of [White Ape Through-Arm Fist]. But he only practiced when no one was around in the courtyard where he lived. After all, someone who hadn't even entered the ranks being able to unleash fist winds—
That was far too shocking.
Aside from finding Aunt Wen a job helping out at the Jishi Hall next door, Luo Bin had no contact with anyone else in the mansion. He spent his days wandering outside, especially around the pier...
Earlier, Luo Bin had asked Feng Yi, "Where can I make some money by throwing around the names of our Green Bamboo Gang and Black Sheath Hall?"
The answer had been Long Wind Pier. With the considerable strength he'd gained from adding points through the Crimson Panel, Luo Bin had already made a fierce reputation for himself at the pier over the past few days.
To top it off, as soon as he arrived, Feng Yi had shouted that Luo Bin had killed a man in front of Black Sheath Hall Leader Luo Wendi. The dockworkers were terrified of him.
And a fearsome reputation was the best calling card for making money at Long Wind Pier.
The Green Bamboo Gang was the largest gang in Ping City. Ever since driving out the Pei Family, it had controlled most of the pier business, as well as the city's nightclubs, theaters, casinos, restaurants, and so on.
Of course, everyone had to get a piece of the pie. The Green Bamboo Gang couldn't dominate all of Ping City. Besides them, there were plenty of gangs and lineages, large and small. Who wouldn't want to earn a living at the pier?
Big fish ate little fish, and little fish ate shrimp. Scenes like this played out all the time.
So Long Wind Pier, neither particularly big nor small, had become a little battlefield where clashes were raging at a "fever pitch."
When Luo Bin threw his weight around with the Green Bamboo Gang's name and claimed he'd taken a life in front of Luo Wendi to protect some weaker little fish—or shrimp—
His pockets naturally began to fill.
After three days holding the fort, Luo Bin had avoided only the tough customers who brought guns to the pier. The smaller gangs had probably all suffered at his hands... Though he'd always kept the Green Bamboo Gang's interests as his bottom line.
A full twenty-three silver dollars went into his pocket.
Going by his predecessor's memories, he'd never even dared dream of such a fortune. Dockworkers earned two to three silver dollars a month, about the same as rickshaw pullers.
Pei Family guards and Green Bamboo Gang members earned around three to five silver dollars a month. Many had families to support, with elderly parents above and young children below.
That income was already enough to keep a family alive, let alone a huge fortune like this.
Luo Bin was about to go to the Chen Family Mansion for "further study." With these twenty-three silver dollars, there were plenty of things he could buy, such as medicinal herbs and meat rich in energy.
Most of what he ate could be converted into Spirit Charm points, though the amount varied. At the apothecary, a single rootlet from an old ginseng plant could convert into one Spirit Charm point.
But with meat, such as beef or mutton, he might eventually have to eat ten jin to get one point.
Twenty-three silver dollars was a fortune, but it still wouldn't go very far for Luo Bin.
On the afternoon of the third day, Luo Bin was still sitting cross-legged in his room. He brought up the Crimson Panel and began to inspect it.
[Luo Bin] [Realm: Unranked] [Cultivation Technique: White Ape Through-Arm Fist (Second Layer, 0/6)] [Modification Value: 0] [Spirit Charm: 11]
His Spirit Charm had reached eleven points. But since he hadn't yet cultivated or improved his realm with a foundational mainstream technique, Luo Bin decided to save them for now.
He'd wait until he arrived at the Chen Family Mansion tomorrow and see what Uncle Jiang, whom Chen Jing had mentioned, could teach him.
As he pondered what to do, Zhang Xin's voice came from the doorway:
"A-Bin, are you there?"
"Uncle Zhang? What's wrong?"
Zhang Xin opened the door and walked closer, his face full of worry. "Come take a look. Your Aunt Wen... she got into a clash with someone!"
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