Optimized Tiger Python Force

Two taels?

Chu Ming's lips twitched. Hou Wuchun looked like a simpleton, and in truth, he was one, but he still had a bit of cunning in him.

"Dad," Wuchun stumbled over to Hou Ping's ear and lowered his voice, "I want to buy a technique."

"A technique?" Hou Ping's expression shifted. "The Tiger Python Force I taught you is the best Body Forging Technique there is."

"It's not that, Dad. That technique is even more powerful than the Tiger Python Force." Wuchun was so anxious that sweat was starting to bead on his forehead.

"Heh, and since when can you tell which technique is powerful and which isn't? Oh, Hou Wuchun, your mother was right—you really should read more. Who knows what you have rattling around in that head of yours all day."

"Dad, it really is better than the Tiger Python Force..."

"Bring it here, let me see."

"If you look at it, will you buy it?"

"Let me see it first."

"Fine."

Wuchun ran breathlessly back into the room. "Brother Chu, can I take this out to show my dad... wait, no, Brother Chu, don't actually tear it!"

Riiip—

The paper was torn in two. Wuchun felt as if his own body had been snapped in half.

"Take it." Chu Ming crumpled the paper into two balls and tossed one out.

Wuchun jolted, lunging forward to catch the paper ball as if it were made of delicate porcelain that would shatter if dropped.

He clutched the paper ball and rushed out of the room in a hurry.

"Dad, look." Wuchun held the paper ball out with both hands.

"Kid, are you playing games with your old man?"

Seeing Wuchun emerge with a crumpled ball of paper, Hou Ping's temper flared. He raised his hand, his posture suggesting he was about to swat his own son away.

"Dad..." Hou Wuchun was agile; he performed a roll on the spot and tumbled over to Fang Xiao's side. With clumsy, oversized hands, he unfolded the paper and spread it across the stone table.

"You brat, bringing me a paper ball is one thing, but it's torn, too... Huh?"

Hou Ping's raised hand froze in mid-air. His eyes locked onto the wrinkled, tattered sheet.

Fang Xiao glanced over inadvertently, and his attention was immediately snagged by the movements depicted on it.

"Dad, how about that? I didn't lie to you." Hou Wuchun lifted his chin, a flash of smugness crossing his features.

"These movements... they're the Tiger Python Force... no, the Tiger Python Force is more complex than this..." Hou Ping muttered, "But the feeling these movements give me..."

The morning breeze swept by, causing the paper to flutter.

Swish—

Fang Xiao reached out, caught the paper, and solemnly laid it flat on the stone table again.

"It isn't that the movements are simple; they are smoother and more coherent. They look simple, but they are actually far more advanced," Fang Xiao exclaimed in awe.

On the half-sheet of paper, there were only a dozen movements, yet one could see the traces of the first through fifth forms of the Tiger Python Force...

"Boy, where did you get this?" Hou Ping grabbed Hou Wuchun.

"Brother Chu, it's Brother Chu's!" Hou Wuchun winced in pain. "Dad, take it easy."

Only then did Hou Ping realize that in his excitement, he had used his Qi and Blood Power to clamp down on Wuchun's wrist.

The Young Master?!

Fang Xiao's gaze sharpened. The shocking memory of Chu Ming intuiting a palm technique out of thin air flashed through his mind.

Could it be that the Young Master had derived a more advanced Body Forging Technique from the Tiger Python Force?

The moment the thought occurred, even he was startled by it.

The little master of Brother Fang's household?!

Hou Ping raised an eyebrow and cast a questioning look at Fang Xiao. "Brother Fang..."

Fang Xiao regained his composure. He looked at the half-sheet of paper pressed under his palm and slowly looked up. "Brother Hou, I cannot make this decision."

"Dad, it was originally one whole sheet! Brother Chu was going to throw it away like trash. Give me the silver quickly, or it'll be gone for good!"

"What?!" Hou Ping slammed a palm onto the stone table and jumped up. "Wait here, I'm going to get the money from your mother!"

He rushed toward the kitchen in a frantic hurry.

Immediately after, a furious scolding that everyone could hear rang out: "Three taels?! Hou Ping, you already asked for five, and now you want another three? We can't live like this!"

"?" Inside the room, Chu Ming paused. Like father, like son, I suppose?

In the courtyard, Fang Xiao also felt that something was amiss.

A moment later, whatever Hou Ping had said, he emerged with a strange smile on his face.

Hou Wuchun recognized that expression instantly—it was the look of a scheme successfully executed!

"Dad... Dad..." He rubbed his hands together and leaned in close to Hou Ping.

Hou Ping picked a tael of silver out of his palm, glared at Hou Wuchun, and then stealthily tucked it into his tunic. "I'll go myself!"

"Huh?" Hou Wuchun became anxious at once. "Dad, let me do it, let me do it."

However, Hou Ping had already taken a few strides to the door of Chu Ming's room and said in a low voice, "Young Master Chu..."

"Come in."

Before he had even finished speaking, a voice came from inside. Hou Ping pushed the door open on tiptoe to see a thin, frail youth sitting calmly at a desk.

"Young Master Chu, here is the silver." He placed two taels on the table, his eyes fixed firmly on a crumpled ball of paper discarded carelessly on the edge of the desk like trash.

Hou Wuchun stood stuck at the doorway, his expression gloomy, sweat rolling down his forehead as he grew anxious and uneasy.

Chu Ming picked up the paper ball and rose to walk over to Hou Ping. "Uncle Hou, there is no need for such formalities. One tael is enough."

"One tael? Isn't it two?" Hou Ping asked suspiciously.

It's over!

Hou Wuchun frantically gestured and winked from behind, signaling Chu Ming not to let the secret slip.

Chu Ming found it amusing inside but kept his expression indifferent. "Since Uncle Hou came personally, only one tael is needed."

"Phew..." Hou Wuchun let out a long sigh of relief.

Hou Ping looked at the youth before him, then listened to the sound of relief from behind, and roughly guessed what had happened.

"Many thanks, Young Master Chu."

Taking the paper ball, he consciously turned and walked out of the small room, though the fierce look he shot Hou Wuchun made the boy's teeth chatter.

In the small courtyard.

Hou Wuchun carefully pieced the two crumpled halves of paper together, and thirty movements leaped out before their eyes.

"Brother Fang, excuse the display."

Hou Ping had Hou Wuchun hold the paper upright, and following the movements, he began to practice right there in the courtyard.

As he performed more and more of the movements, the shock in Hou Ping's eyes grew deeper.

Fang Xiao stood to the side watching, his expression becoming equally shocked. Although he did not practice them himself, just by observing, he could feel that this set of movements was absolutely more profound than the original Tiger Python Force.

When Hou Ping finished the movements on the paper, the Qi and Blood Power in his veins had actually been stirred.

One had to realize he was a martial artist at the middle stage of the Blood Activation Realm; the Tiger Python Force could no longer affect his own Qi and Blood.

With slightly ragged breathing, he looked at Fang Xiao. "Brother Fang, this set of movements seems to be an advanced version of the Tiger Python Force. There are fewer of them, the movements are more fluid and easier to perform, yet the effect is several times better than the Tiger Python Force."

"Dad, how is it? I didn't misjudge it, did I?"

"I suppose you finally showed some discernment for once, boy."

"Then the silver you embezzled from Mom..."

"Say that one more time!"

"Fine, I'll say it." Hou Wuchun turned toward the kitchen and prepared to shout.

Smack—

The next instant, a pile of white silver slapped against his face, plugging his mouth.

"Thanks, Dad!"

At noon, Hou Ping's wife and Xiao Shan prepared a table full of sumptuous dishes—big fish and meat. Chu Ming, still in his room, could smell the aroma.

It tasted truly delicious, better than what Xiao Shan usually cooked, and it satisfied his stomach well.

After the meal, Hou Ping and Fang Xiao discussed the case for a while, and then the family of three prepared to leave.

But just as they walked out of the courtyard, they saw a well-decorated carriage slowly approaching.

Hou Ping and Fang Xiao stood still and watched as the carriage curtain was lifted and an old man and a youth stepped out.

"Chief Constable Hou?!"

"Chi Jin?!"

"Wuchun!"

"Chi Lin!"

The four of them locked eyes, as if they could all see something in each other's gaze.