Someone had set up a challenge ring outside the Li Family Bank to test the mettle of its guards. If they were defeated, the bank would be forced to close.
Had the Li Family Bank really fallen into such dire straits? It had reached the brink of life and death.
And Li Youning had asked him to go help.
"Now, I'll teach you Nine Palaces Palm. It's the companion martial art to the Nine Palace Living Stakes. As long as you can master it, you'll have a chance to pass the Stone Tablet Nine Palace Stakes—Nine Breaks in One Breath!"
Wei Jinlin said slowly, "Are you ready?"
Lu Ming put away the letter, fell silent for a moment, then cupped his hands.
"Master Wei, I can already manage Nine Breaks in One Breath."
"Good... Hm?!" Wei Jinlin whirled around and stared at him. "What do you mean?"
Lu Ming pointed to the Stone Tablet Nine Palace Stakes and said solemnly, "I can already achieve Nine Breaks in One Breath. I can pass the Stone Tablet Nine Palace Stakes."
Wei Jinlin's expression turned a little more serious. "I haven't taught you Nine Palaces Palm yet."
"I don't need Nine Palaces Palm," Lu Ming replied.
Wei Jinlin fell silent for a moment, then said, "Try it."
As he spoke, he stepped back.
Lu Ming took a deep breath and approached the Stone Tablet Nine Palace Stakes. He looked at the heavy stone tablets, motionless in the wind, and his gaze suddenly grew profound.
His vision shifted. The wind around him became wispy gray lines, and a black leak point appeared on each stone tablet, like a little wisp of black smoke the wind couldn't scatter.
He had already tested it with Grass Gliding. He couldn't get through a set of Nine Palace Stakes in one breath; he would run just a little over time.
But that had been without using the Heaven Leak Divine Ability.
Once he used the Heaven Leak Divine Ability, each black leak point he struck would add a little to his momentum and strength. He could definitely keep his time within one breath.
As for needing the strength of Major Completion in Skin Refining to smash the stone tablets, that might be true for other people. But to him, even the stone tablets' momentum was no match for his own.
So...
Lu Ming suddenly kicked off the ground and shot into the Stone Tablet Nine Palace Stakes like a cannonball. His figure darted rapidly between the nine stakes as he joined his index and middle fingers and jabbed them out in quick succession.
In the brief span of a single breath, he struck nine times.
Point Kill!
The instant he hit the stone tablets, he felt he could drive his momentum into them. In that moment, whether a tablet turned to dust or shattered into several pieces was up to him.
Crack, crack, crack...
He chose to break the tablets into several pieces.
And so, he passed through the Stone Tablet Nine Palace Stakes in a single breath. Behind him, the stone tablets burst apart, their fragments scattering across the ground.
Dust billowed for a moment, then the wind swept it away, revealing Lu Ming's resolute face.
"Master Wei! Now do I qualify to leave the Military Service Bureau?" Lu Ming asked slowly.
A trace of surprise finally appeared on Wei Jinlin's usually placid face. He lowered his head to glance at the shattered tablets on the ground, then looked up at Lu Ming.
"If you can break the stone tablets, you can leave. But are you going to help Li Youning?"
Lu Ming was taken aback. Looks like Wei Jinlin hasn't paid attention to the feuds among the great families, but that doesn't mean he knows nothing.
He answered at once, "Yes! Senior Sister Li has helped me a great deal. The Grass Gliding footwork I just used was a gift from her.
"She also gave me medicine for my injuries and Qi-Nurturing Powder.
"Without Senior Sister Li's help, I wouldn't have reached my current level so quickly.
"Now that I can help, I naturally won't shirk my duty."
A trace of approval appeared in Wei Jinlin's eyes. After a moment's thought, he said, "You used lightness skills just now, and finger techniques too?"
"Yes. I once came across a manual called Bone-Unraveling Technique, which included finger techniques. After training in it, I found it very powerful. Even though my cultivation hasn't reached Major Completion in Skin Refining, it lets me break the stone tablets."
"Finger techniques flourished for a time in ancient days, when acupoints were at their height," Wei Jinlin said.
"But the fortune of the acupoint lineage faded and vanished into the river of time, and finger techniques fell into decline with it.
"You have a good gift for finger techniques, but they have no future.
"Since you're also talented at lightness skills, I can teach you a lightness skill. What do you think?"
Lu Ming's heart stirred. "Why do you say finger techniques have no future? Without an acupoint lineage, can't I train in them on my own?"
Wei Jinlin stood with his hands behind his back and gazed up at the sky. A trace of melancholy appeared in his eyes.
"Those matters are too far beyond you.
"For now, you only need to know that a lineage grants an extremely powerful boost to those with great talent.
"A martial artist backed by a lineage is worlds apart from one without.
"The acupoints have no lineage now. Even if your talent for finger techniques were the best under heaven, when disciples of various lineages fight over it in the end, how could you overcome them?
"The farther you go on the martial path, the more you have to fight for everything. If you can't beat others, you won't get far. You'd be better off learning lightness skills."
Lu Ming's eyes were opened.
So this world placed such importance on talent because, later on, lineages would empower the talented.
Wei Jinlin wasn't willing to say more about the details, so Lu Ming could only suppress his curiosity and say, "I do want to learn lightness skills. I just heard that everyone else learns Nine Palaces Palm."
"Your talent for palm techniques isn't as good as your talent for lightness skills," Wei Jinlin said. "So naturally, you should learn lightness skills."
Lu Ming asked, "Could I... learn both?"
Nine Palaces Palm was obviously a palm technique. If he could learn it, wouldn't he be able to develop the Palm Path Divine Ability?
Wei Jinlin gave him a slight glare. "You can't chew more than you can swallow."
Lu Ming pressed his case. "Master Wei, I've got a good set of teeth."
Wei Jinlin replied without expression, "The Military Service Bureau only requires me to teach one. If you want to learn two, or even three... that'll cost extra!"
"Then forget it." Lu Ming shook his head at once. He didn't have a penny to his name right now.
At the same time, he grumbled inwardly that Wei Jinlin was so stingy he was passing up the chance to invest in a disciple of peerless talent. It was Wei Jinlin's loss.
In the end, he chose to learn lightness skills.
After all, although Nine Palaces Palm could develop into the Palm Path Divine Ability, he already had the Bone-Unraveling Technique's finger methods, and together with the Point-Kill Divine Ability, they gave him a measure of fighting strength. He didn't need Nine Palaces Palm for the time being.
And since he had to leave the Military Service Bureau temporarily in three days, it would be safer to learn a more advanced lightness skill.
More importantly, he'd asked one more question just now and discovered that the lightness skill Wei Jinlin planned to teach him was a first-rate martial art, nearly a peerless one!
With a chance to learn a first-rate martial art, he naturally couldn't pass it up.
According to Wei Jinlin, the Grass Gliding lightness skill he was currently practicing was ranked, but it was only a third-rate martial art.
Nine Palaces Palm was only a second-rate martial art, too.
Clearly, Wei Jinlin thought highly of his talent for lightness skills. Otherwise, he wouldn't have taught him a first-rate lightness skill.
"Watch closely."
After Lu Ming made his choice, Wei Jinlin led him to the broad open space in the courtyard and spoke.
"Next... I'll teach you Smooth Ascent to the Clouds!"
Before you continue