Night Fragrance

Leaving the martial arts hall, the atmosphere on the street was a stark contrast to the quiet of the inner courtyard.

"Extra! Extra!"

Several newsboys, their grey cloth satchels slung over their shoulders, wove through the dense crowd like loaches.

"Progressive students and the Hetero-Martialist Family Alliance gather at City Hall! A joint telegram condemns the authorities' policies!"

"One hundred thousand students strike in protest! Demanding the start of a new Westernization Movement!"

Lu Zhen stopped at the street corner and looked up.

In the center of the main thoroughfare, a massive, surging parade stretched out like a long dragon, blocking the entire main road completely.

Leading the procession were groups of progressive youths and intellectuals dressed in student uniforms and Zhongshan suits. Surrounding them were large numbers of well-dressed members of the Hetero-Martialist Family Alliance.

Some of these people had their right arms equipped with Western Battle Gear that hissed with high-pressure steam, while others had slit pupils, their bodies radiating the violent, surging blood-qi gained from injecting Beast Blood Serum.

They held up massive banners with black characters on white cloth, their emotions running high as the waves of shouting grew louder and louder.

"The nation is weak to this point, our mountains and rivers shattered, all because the authorities have closed the country off and refuse to open their eyes to the world!"

"Old-school martial arts cling to the past and are hopelessly rotten; they cannot save China!"

In the middle of the parade, a young scholar wearing gold-rimmed glasses stood atop a stalled Western-style car, waving his fist and shouting until his voice grew hoarse:

"Compatriots! The Westerners' sturdy ships and powerful cannons have long since shattered our national gates, yet we still cling to the old ways from hundreds of years ago!"

"Those traditional martial artists who only train brute strength consume gold by the bucketful every day, devouring the nation's precious medicinal herbs and resources, yet they cannot stop the Westerners!"

"We must boycott old-school martial arts! Ban the establishment of traditional national martial arts halls! Stop the waste of national treasury funds!"

The young scholar's voice, amplified through a tin megaphone, spread across the entire street with inflammatory intensity:

"We strongly demand that all national resources be fully committed to advancing the research of Hetero-Martial Serum and Western Battle Gear! Use the advanced techniques of the West to strengthen the physique of our Huaxia!"

"This is the only way to strengthen the nation and preserve our race! This is our new Westernization Movement!"

"Open your eyes to the world! Ban traditional martial arts! Promote hetero-martial battle gear!"

The deafening slogans were like a raging tide, sweeping through the entire foreign-influenced district. Many commoners and laborers along the street were infected by this fanatical emotion and began to raise their arms and shout along.

"Give me a newspaper!"

Lu Zhen frowned slightly, fished out a copper coin, and snatched a copy of the Shen Bao, which reeked of pungent printer's ink.

He shook the paper open, and the bold, pitch-black lead characters on the front page struck his eyes like a heavy hammer—

<Hetero-Martialists Force the Palace! Government Compromises, National Martial Arts Fate to be Decided in Three Days!>

Lu Zhen's gaze swept rapidly over the dense columns of small print.

It turned out that the massive strike of one hundred thousand students and the hetero-martialist parade in Ocean City today were merely the ripples of a distant disturbance.

The eye of the storm that had truly whipped up this heaven-shaking disaster was ten thousand miles away in the capital, Shangjing!

The newspaper stated it clearly: Grand Marshal Zhang Wu Tianlin of the Beiyang Zhilu Allied Forces had sent a telegram to the entire nation yesterday. His "Steel Heavy Armor Army" of fifty thousand, equipped with high-pressure Western battle gear, had already deployed in Zhili, their spearhead pointed directly at Shangjing!

At the same time, the Fengtian warlord Grand Marshal Zhang, entrenched outside the pass, was not to be outdone.

His thirty thousand "Berserk Beast Legion," injected with high-grade Beast Blood Serum, had breached the pass and entered the sea, echoing the demands of the thirteen Western nation envoys and the Hetero-Martialist Family Alliance, joining forces to pressure the national government!

These warlords, holding heavy troops and armed to the teeth with sturdy ships, powerful cannons, and Hetero-Martial Serum, had only one demand—the total abolition of the costly traditional national martial arts halls, with all the nation's martial resources and treasury funds poured into Western Battle Gear and beast blood refinement!

The world was shaken, and public sentiment was boiling.

The authorities had been forced to telegram the nation: in three days, a "National Martial Arts Abolition Conference" would be held in Shangjing to finalize the ultimate national policy!

"Three days..."

Lu Zhen composed his mind, turned, and walked through the bustling streets, returning to the newly purchased, private three-section courtyard on Anping Street.

As soon as he stepped through the thick, iron-clad jujube wood gate, the quiet, peaceful scent of hearth smoke greeted him.

"Creak—"

Lu Zhen pushed open the partition door of the main room, only to find that his eldest sister, Lu Fang, had arrived at some point. She was pulling Shen Yun to sit on the edge of the warm, heated brick bed, the two of them whispering about something.

Shen Yun kept her head down, wringing the corner of her clothes tightly, her voice as thin as a mosquito's.

Lu Zhen stepped over the threshold, bringing the chill of the outdoors with him.

"Big Sister? When did you get here?"

Hearing Lu Zhen's voice, the two women on the brick bed jumped like cats whose tails had been stepped on.

Shen Yun, in particular, stood up with a start.

"I... I'll go to the kitchen and check the stove..."

Passing by Lu Zhen, she was so flustered that she nearly tripped over the threshold, stumbling as she fled the main room.

Lu Zhen looked at Shen Yun's retreating figure in confusion, then turned to his sister, Lu Fang: "Sister, what's wrong with Sister Shen? Is she ill?"

"You, you've practiced martial arts until your brain has turned into a block of wood!"

Lu Fang gave her younger brother a look of annoyance, though a smile played on her lips. She didn't offer an explanation, simply rising to brush off her clothes: "Alright, I just stopped by to see how you two were settling in. Since everything is fine, I'll head back. Your brother-in-law is still waiting for me to cook dinner."

Lu Zhen touched his chin in bewilderment as he saw his eldest sister out the courtyard gate.

Night fell, and the lanterns were lit.

In the residence on Anping Street, a steaming meal was laid out on the Eight Immortals table in the main hall.

Having moved to a new home and with money to spare, the quality of their food had naturally risen accordingly. There were plenty of large, white flour steamed buns, and a basin of tender, braised pork sat in the center of the table.

The three crates of Red Scale Treasure Fish sent by Gu Yanzhi had been consumed by him over the past few days like a whale gulping down water, leaving only a few scraps at the bottom; as for the three stalks of Century-Old Mountain Ginseng, not even a single root hair remained.

"All gone."

Lu Zhen frowned slightly.

Since stepping into the realm of a Bright Force Martial Master, his appetite and demand for Blood-Qi had become a bottomless pit.

No matter how much ordinary pork, beef, or mutton he ate, it could only be converted into fat and impurities, failing to satisfy the "internal strengthening" consumption that a Bright Force Martial Master required deep within their five viscera.

Without such mutated treasure meat and potent medicinal herbs to sustain him, the progress of his cultivation would be agonizingly slow.

I need to find a way to get some precious medicine.

Lu Zhen pondered to himself.

Should he go to Gu Yanzhi?

The Gu Family had just lost a group of men and their trade routes were obstructed; Red Scale Treasure Fish were already hard to come by, and he couldn't keep taking things from them for free.

Buy them on the black market?

Although the two thousand silver dollars he had seized from Duan Hu were not a small sum, such heavenly treasures capable of assisting Bright Force cultivation were always in high demand but short supply in Ocean City, mostly monopolized by large merchant firms and the Hetero-Martialist Alliance.

After finishing dinner, Lu Zhen returned to his private bedroom.

[Daily Settlement Panel Activated]

[Today's Settlement: Three hours of intensive martial arts training, digestion of remaining treasure fish and medicinal meal...]

[Base Gains: Silver Dollars +0, Profession EXP +10, Martial Skill EXP +20, Physique EXP +20, General EXP +20]

[Level Bonus Triggered: Daily Settlement Lv.3 (Daily rewards multiplied by 3x)]

[Final Gains: Silver Dollars +0, Profession EXP +30, Martial Skill EXP +60, Physique EXP +60, General EXP +60!]

Lu Zhen shook his head. Without the support of precious medicine, the gains from this routine training were truly a drop in the bucket for a Bright Force Martial Master.

[Lu Zhen (30 years old)]

[Wealth: 1996 Silver Dollars (including bearer notes, small gold bars, etc.)]

[Current Profession: Ship Guard]

[Level: Daily Settlement Lv.3 (185/800)]

[Skills:]

[Cart Pulling Lv.3 (50/800)]

[Ship Guarding Lv.2 (15/20)]

[Coiling Dragon Stake Lv.4 (510/3000)]

[Iron Wire Fist Lv.4 (510/3000)]

[Physique: Blood-Qi Like a Furnace Lv.5 (360/10000)]

[General EXP: 285 points]

Lu Zhen stared at the data on the panel and calculated silently.

Now that his physique had entered the fifth stage of "Blood-Qi Like a Furnace," he needed a full ten thousand points of experience to advance further; his two martial skills were also at Lv.4, with a gap of three thousand points each.

With less than three hundred General EXP in his hands, dumping it in now would be like throwing a stone into the ocean—it wouldn't even make a splash, and the cost-effectiveness was far too low.

Good steel must be used on the blade.

Lu Zhen made his decision.

This General EXP could no longer be squandered on martial skills and physique; it had to be hoarded to push the [Daily Settlement] level.

Once the settlement level rose from Lv.3 to Lv.4, the daily doubled reward base would naturally rise as well. This was the true method of high returns, the fundamental way to leverage his martial path.

Just as he was deep in thought, a very light sound of footsteps suddenly came from outside the door.

Following that, two hesitant and faint knocks echoed in the night.

"Knock, knock."

Lu Zhen collected his thoughts and spoke calmly:

"Come in."

"Creak—"

The heavy carved wooden door was pushed open just a crack, letting in a sliver of the cool night breeze from the courtyard.

Along with the breeze came a faint, lingering fragrance, a mixture of the clean scent of soap and the natural, ripe aroma of a woman's skin.

Lu Zhen lifted his gaze, his deep eyes suddenly narrowing.

The person who entered was Shen Yun.

But at this moment, she had long since shed the coarse cloth and simple attire of a widow she wore during the day.

She was draped in nothing but a white silk robe, the fabric clinging to her mature, voluptuous figure.

The neckline of the robe was cut extremely low, vaguely revealing a crimson bodice embroidered with mandarin ducks playing in the water underneath. That glimpse of undulating, dazzling white skin glowed with the alluring luster of warm, mutton-fat jade under the dim, yellowish light of the kerosene lamp.

What was even more lethal was that her long hair was still slightly damp from a bath, with a few strands of dark silk clinging to her slender, swan-like neck, exuding an indescribable, languid charm.

A man and a woman alone, in the dead of night, in such an incredibly seductive outfit...

The image of his eldest sister, Lu Fang, sitting on the edge of the kang whispering to him earlier that evening flashed through Lu Zhen's mind.

With a setup like this, the intention was self-evident.