Assassination

Medicine King Temple, entrance to the Black Market's old theater.

A scraping sound came from the stone slabs.

The stone table inside the pavilion slowly shifted.

Lu Cheng emerged, led by someone wearing an Asura Mask.

Before the stone table could return to its original position, the guide swayed and vanished back inside without a sound.

Lu Cheng took off the veiled hat on his head and walked out of the pavilion.

The pack on his back held ten packets of Blood-Activating Powder and six taels and three mace of silver.

After successfully refining his first batch of Blood-Activating Powder, Lu Cheng had made no mistakes in the next fourteen batches of ingredients either.

In less than half an hour, he had refined them all.

He left four packets for the man to sell.

According to their seventy-thirty split, Lu Cheng had taken five taels of silver from the man in advance.

The two had spent three days together, but both tacitly avoided discussing their identities.

Since the man always wore a leather mask, Lu Cheng had given him the nickname Old Pi.

Besides the finished Blood-Activating Powder and the silver, Lu Cheng's proficiency in refining it had also skyrocketed overnight.

It had reached 186 in one fell swoop.

He quickly glanced through his Consciousness Sea.

[Pill Refining: Blood-Activating Powder]

[Grade: None]

[Realm: Minor Achievement (199/300)]

The greatest gain had come from successfully refining Blood-Activating Powder for the first time.

His proficiency had instantly increased by fifty.

The next thirteen attempts had pushed it up to 199.

Although the increase got smaller as he progressed, Lu Cheng estimated that he would break through to Great Achievement in refining Blood-Activating Powder within ten more batches of ingredients.

According to Old Pi, a pill refiner like Old Yang could make at most three batches of Blood-Activating Powder in one furnace.

The last time Lu Cheng had refined it, he had made two batches in one go.

Judging by that, once he reached Great Achievement, he would be able to refine at least five batches at once.

If he reached Perfection, it would probably depend on how big his pill furnace was.

For the time being, he no longer had to worry about money or the problem of "rebounding force."

From now on, he would come every ten days to refine Blood-Activating Powder for the man to sell.

The rest of the time, he would focus all his efforts on improving his cultivation, preparing for the contest three months later.

Tightening the pack on his back, Lu Cheng slowed his pace and walked toward the alley, fully on guard.

Though he had walked through this narrow alley for three days, its deep, lightless passage still made his heart pound.

Next time, he'd have to ask Old Pi where the entrance in North City was.

This narrow alley really didn't feel safe.

Every time he came through, he was scared out of his wits, and it was all too easy to capsize in the gutter.

Thirty paces wasn't a long way, but Lu Cheng stayed on high alert the entire time.

Just as he was about to leave the alley, his heart suddenly sank.

Two breaths, barely suppressed, reached his ears from the alley's mouth a few steps ahead.

Lu Cheng didn't stop, nor did he change his pace. He slowly approached the alley's exit.

With just two steps left before he was out, Lu Cheng drove his left foot against the ground and twisted his hips. The force of Early Stage of Strength Refining erupted, and he shot two meters forward in an instant.

The two men outside the alley only swung their blades down instinctively when they heard the noise.

But Lu Cheng had already darted out, and their blades cut through empty air.

"Huh, you've actually developed force! I underestimated you."

"But then, I suppose it's only natural. Even a crippled Human Hero is still a Human Hero."

Lu Cheng turned to look back at the alley. A figure dropped down from the wall of Medicine King Temple.

He walked slowly to the alley's entrance, blocking Lu Cheng's view.

"Don't bother looking. Once you're out of the alley, Bogu Hall won't protect you."

The man wore a moon-white brocade robe, his hair tied behind his head with a gold-threaded ribbon.

He looked at Lu Cheng and gave a cold smirk.

He waved his right hand, signaling the two armed men to attack Lu Cheng.

The street outside the alley remained quiet.

A few steps away, the doors of Medicine King Temple were shut tight, and the sign outside rustled in the night wind.

The two men advanced on Lu Cheng from either side, their long blades gleaming coldly.

"Looking to die!"

Lu Cheng snorted. His body suddenly leaned left, then darted around in a curve, flashing behind one of them in the blink of an eye.

It was a movement technique from the Seven Strikes of the Black Hawk: Slanting Wind Returning Wing.

Once executed, the technique let him dodge swiftly to the side, changing position with the ease of an eagle wheeling on its wings.

The two men had just raised their blades to strike when Lu Cheng suddenly vanished before their eyes.

When he reappeared, the blade in the man on the left's hand clattered to the ground, and the man collapsed limp and motionless.

Before the man on the right could recover, Lu Cheng used the same trick again.

But this time, instead of a blade hitting the ground, there came a dull thud as fist met palm.

The sound rang out, and the two figures abruptly sprang apart.

Lu Cheng looked at the man opposite him and shook his hand.

"Refining Strength Mid-Stage? Who are you?"

The man's punch had arrived after Lu Cheng's but struck first, and the force behind it far surpassed his own. His cultivation was clearly above Lu Cheng's.

But that force hadn't penetrated Lu Cheng's body, which meant the man hadn't reached the late stage.

The man opposite him was surprised that his punch hadn't taken Lu Cheng down.

"Seven Strikes of the Black Hawk?"

"I never thought you'd learned martial skills, let alone trained them to such a level!"

"The Long Wind Escort Agency has hidden you well. Too bad you shouldn't have come here alone."

He tilted his head, signaling the armed man beside him to move aside.

But the man crashed to the ground.

Only then did the man's expression turn grave.

He hadn't even noticed when Lu Cheng had struck.

Lu Cheng looked at the man as if he were an idiot.

This guy was dressed in white in the middle of the night, didn't even cover his face, and had started running his mouth the moment he showed up.

His strength was nothing special, yet he put on the airs of an unrivaled master. Lu Cheng had no idea what was going through his head.

But Lu Cheng felt excitement stirring inside him.

Since learning the Seven Strikes of the Black Hawk, he hadn't had a chance to test it in a real fight.

From his previous experiences, Lu Cheng knew how much he benefited from combining training with combat.

Judging from their exchange, this man's force was stronger than his own, but not by much.

He was just right for testing Lu Cheng's fists and helping him improve his proficiency!

At the thought of that, Lu Cheng's fighting spirit flared.

Beating a motionless wooden dummy could never match the speed of fighting a real person!

"Enough talk. Come on, let's see what you've got. You've got a lot of nerve, standing here spouting nonsense!"

With that, Lu Cheng slammed his foot against the ground and lunged forward.

His hands floated open in a V as he reached for the man.

As he closed in, his hands suddenly changed from palms to claws, one high and one low. Like hooks, they struck toward the man's face and chest.

"Good!"

The man snorted, stamped both feet on the ground, and sent force surging from his legs to his hands.

At the same time, as he drew breath and bellowed, a force welled up from within him and burst outward.

He clenched his fists and met Lu Cheng's attack.

The man had already developed inner force, and the power erupting from his whole body was far greater than Lu Cheng's.

But Lu Cheng's attack was one of the Seven Strikes of the Black Hawk.

As fist met claw, Lu Cheng's wrist suddenly twisted at an impossible angle.

Under the man's disbelieving gaze, he pressed the man's force downward.

Then he borrowed that force to leap into the air and kicked both feet toward the man's face.

The man had no choice but to lean back and draw away, swinging both fists at Lu Cheng's feet.

But at that moment, Lu Cheng rose like a soaring eagle, his body suddenly lifting higher. His legs tucked toward his lower abdomen as he shifted his center of gravity, bent down, and thrust out his claws. His five fingers hooked into the man's shoulder sockets like lightning.

A crisp crack rang out as sinew snapped and bone broke.

"Argh!"

The man howled in pain, his hands dangling limply at his sides.

Lu Cheng borrowed the force again, flipped over the man, and stomped down with both feet.

The man spat out a mouthful of blood, staggered forward two steps, and fell face-first to the ground.

No matter how he struggled, he couldn't get back up.

[Seven Strikes of the Black Hawk]

[Grade: Mid-Grade Human Tier]

[Realm: Entry (17/200)]

Lu Cheng glanced through his Consciousness Sea and couldn't help curling his lip.

He'd thought the man was tough, but including the two lackeys from before, his proficiency had only risen from three to seventeen.

Still, this Mid-Grade Human Tier martial skill was indeed powerful.

Not only was the movement technique agile, its offensive techniques were also first-rate.

In that brief moment, Lu Cheng had unleashed three moves in succession.

He had cleanly taken down a man one realm above him.

No wonder Feng Qi and the other two had been able to hold their own against someone at the peak of Body Tempering.

Lu Cheng picked up a long blade and walked toward the man.

Before he could get close, the man shouted:

"I'm Zhang Yuchuan, and my father is Zhang Rensheng. If you kill me, he won't let you get away with it!"

Lu Cheng paused, suddenly feeling a headache coming on.

How had yet another son popped up?

One Young Gang Leader, one Young Hall Master.

Was he at odds with their ancestors or something?

Lu Cheng laid the blade against the man's neck and drew a thin line of blood.

"So your father sent you here to ambush me?"

That old dog had no scruples.

They'd agreed on a contest, yet he'd sent his son to assassinate Lu Cheng.

The man had shouted out his father Zhang Rensheng's name, and felt a little relieved.

In his eyes, his father was a Body Tempering expert, practically the sky over Yang City.

No matter what, Lu Cheng wouldn't dare kill him.

But with a blade at his throat, he didn't dare ignore Lu Cheng's question.

"N-no, my father doesn't know anything about this. That old dog Yang Biao put me up to it."

"Yang Biao?"

"The leader of the Fish Gang. He promised me five hundred taels of silver to kill you."

So that was it. But after a moment's thought, Lu Cheng sensed something was off.

"Five hundred taels is a lot, but why would you have to come out and do this yourself?"

The Vermilion Bird Martial Arts Hall had plenty of disciples. As its Young Hall Master, wouldn't it have been easier to bring along a few senior brothers who had reached Refining Strength?

At that moment, the man only wanted Lu Cheng to let him go.

Without waiting for Lu Cheng to press him, he volunteered the whole story.

"The martial arts hall's treasury is in my hands. I spent five hundred taels from it."

"That wouldn't have mattered under normal circumstances, but my father's now buying a huge amount of medicinal ingredients. The treasury's nearly empty, and if I don't replace that five hundred taels, he'll find out."

"So I agreed to Yang Biao's offer."

Hearing this, Lu Cheng suddenly remembered the fleeting thought he'd had when he heard Old Pi say medicinal ingredients were hard to come by.

So that was it.

Shen Yi had made seventeen factions prepare a massive supply of pills as the stakes.

No family could possibly have that many pills on hand.

Naturally, they'd be scrambling to buy medicinal ingredients and refine them.

The Vermilion Bird Martial Arts Hall was so short on money that even five hundred taels had to be guarded carefully. It seemed they really were broke.

At the thought, a storm suddenly surged in Lu Cheng's heart.

Maybe he could collect a little interest from those seventeen families in advance.

Lu Cheng clicked his tongue.

He pressed the blade down even harder.

"I ask, you answer. Hesitate for even a second, and I'll send you to meet the Young Gang Leader!"