Night Fragrance

After leaving the martial arts school, Lu Zhen found the atmosphere on the street completely different from that in the Inner Courtyard.

"Extra! Extra!"

Several newsboys with gray cloth satchels slung over their shoulders darted through the crowds like loaches.

"Progressive students and the Hetero-Martialist Family Alliance gather at City Hall! They denounce the government's policies by telegram!"

"One hundred thousand students go on strike! They demand the launch of a new Westernization Movement!"

Lu Zhen stopped at the street corner and looked up.

A vast procession stretched down the main road like a long dragon, blocking it so thoroughly that not a drop could pass.

At its head marched a group of progressive young people and intellectuals dressed in student uniforms and Zhongshan suits. All around them mingled large numbers of impeccably dressed members of the Hetero-Martialist Family Alliance.

Some had Western Battle Gear fitted to their right arms, spewing high-pressure steam. Others had vertical pupils, their bodies radiating the frenzied blood and qi brought on by injections of Beast Blood Serum.

They carried enormous banners with black characters on white cloth, their passions inflamed and their cries rising louder with every wave.

"The country has grown this weak, its lands shattered, all because the government shuts itself away and refuses to open its eyes to the world!"

"The old-school martial arts cling to outdated ways and have rotted to the core. They can't save China!"

In the procession, a young scholar wearing gold-rimmed glasses stood atop a stationary rickshaw, waving his fist and shouting himself hoarse:

"My fellow countrymen! The Westerners' ironclad ships and cannons have already smashed open our gates, yet we're still clinging to methods from hundreds of years ago!"

"Those traditional martial artists who train nothing but brute strength consume a fortune every day, swallowing up the nation's precious medicinal herbs and resources, yet they can't stop the Westerners!"

"We must boycott old-school martial arts! Ban the opening of traditional National Martial Arts schools! Stop wasting public funds!"

The young scholar's voice rang through a tin megaphone, spreading across the entire street with stirring force:

"We strongly demand that all national resources be poured into researching Hetero-Martial Serum and Western Battle Gear! Let us use the West's strengths to strengthen the bodies of Huaxia!"

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

"Open your eyes to the world! Ban Traditional Martial Arts! Advance Hetero-Martialist weapons!"

The deafening chants crashed over the entire Ten-Mile Foreign Field like storm waves. Many locals and laborers along the street were swept up in the fervor and raised their arms to shout along.

"One newspaper!"

Lu Zhen knitted his brows, casually took out a copper coin, and grabbed a copy of Shen Bao, its pages reeking of pungent ink.

He unfolded the paper. The bold, black headline on the front page struck the eye like a heavy hammer—

"Hetero-Martialists Force the Government's Hand! National Government Backs Down; Fate of National Martial Arts to Be Decided in Three Days!"

Lu Zhen's eyes swiftly scanned the dense columns of text.

It turned out that the vast strike by one hundred thousand students and the Hetero-Martialist procession in Ocean City were merely ripples in a remote corner of the country.

The storm's true eye, the force that had stirred up this earth-shaking tempest, lay thousands of miles away in the capital, Shangjing!

The newspaper spelled it out clearly: Wu Tianlin, marshal of the Northern Zhilu Allied Army, had sent a telegram to the entire country yesterday. His Steel Heavy Armor Army, fifty thousand strong and equipped with Western high-pressure battle gear, had already massed in Zhili, its spearhead pointed straight at Shangjing!

Meanwhile, Grand Marshal Zhang, warlord of the Fengtian clique entrenched beyond the passes, was not about to be outdone.

The Berserk Beast Legion, thirty thousand strong and injected with high-grade Beast Blood Serum, had crossed the passes and entered the coastal provinces. Echoing the envoys of the thirteen Western nations and the Hetero-Martialist Family Alliance, they joined forces to pressure the National Government!

These warlords, with their armies in hand and their forces utterly armed with ironclad ships, cannons, and Hetero-Martial Serums, made just one demand: abolish the expensive traditional National Martial Arts schools across the country and pour all martial arts resources and treasury funds into Western Battle Gear and beast-blood refinement!

The whole country was shaken, and fury surged through the crowds.

The government had been forced to send a telegram to the entire nation: in three days, the National Martial Arts Abolition Conference would be held in Shangjing to determine the final national policy!

"Three days..."

Lu Zhen gathered his thoughts, turned, and made his way through the bustling lanes back to the newly purchased private courtyard on Anping Street.

The moment he stepped through the sturdy, iron-reinforced jujube-wood gate, the courtyard's quiet, homely warmth washed over him.

Creak—

Lu Zhen pushed open the partition door to the main room and saw that his eldest sister, Lu Fang, had arrived at some point. She was sitting with Shen Yun on the edge of the heated brick bed, whispering about something.

Shen Yun kept her head lowered, twisting the hem of her clothes tightly in her hands. Her voice was as faint as a mosquito's.

Lu Zhen stepped over the threshold, bringing in the chill from outside.

"Eldest Sister? When did you get here?"

At the sound of Lu Zhen's voice, the two women on the heated brick bed sprang up like cats whose tails had been stepped on.

Shen Yun especially shot to her feet.

"I... I'll go check the pot in the kitchen..."

As she passed Lu Zhen, she was so flustered that she nearly tripped over the threshold. Stumbling, she fled the main room.

Lu Zhen watched Shen Yun's hasty retreat in utter confusion, then turned to his eldest sister. "Sister, what's wrong with Sister Shen? Is she sick?"

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

Lu Fang shot her younger brother an exasperated look, though a smile tugged at her lips. She offered no further explanation, only rising to pat down her clothes. "All right, I just stopped by to see how you were settling in. Since everything's fine, I'll head back. Your brother-in-law's waiting for me to cook."

Lu Zhen rubbed his chin, baffled, and saw his eldest sister out of the courtyard.

Night fell, and the street lamps flickered to life.

A steaming meal had been laid out on the Eight Immortals table in the main room of the Anping Street residence.

With the move to their new home and money no longer so tight, their meals had improved accordingly. There were plenty of big, white-flour steamed buns, and a whole basin of tender, braised pork sat on the table.

The three crates of Red Scale Treasure Fish Gu Yanzhi had sent had been devoured over the past few days, vanishing like water sucked down by a whale. Only a few scraps remained at the bottom. As for the three Century-Old Mountain Ginseng roots, not even a single rootlet was left.

"Gone."

Lu Zhen furrowed his brow.

Since stepping into Bright Force, his appetite and his need for blood and qi had become a bottomless pit.

No matter how much ordinary pork, beef, or mutton he ate, it could only turn into fat and impurities. It could never meet the internal-strengthening demands that penetrated the five viscera of a Bright Force Martial Master.

Without exotic treasure meat and powerful tonics to sustain him, his cultivation would inevitably progress at a snail's pace.

"I need to find a way to get my hands on some treasure medicines."

Lu Zhen considered his options.

Go to Gu Yanzhi?

The Gu Family had just lost a group of men, and its trade routes were blocked. Red Scale Treasure Fish were rare to begin with; he couldn't keep taking them for free.

Buy some on the black market?

The two thousand silver dollars he'd seized from Duan Hu were no small sum, but in Ocean City, natural treasures that could aid Bright Force cultivation were always in short supply, however high the price. Most were monopolized by major merchant houses and the Hetero-Martialist Alliance.

After dinner, Lu Zhen returned to his private bedroom.

[Daily Settlement Panel Activated]

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

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

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

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

Lu Zhen shook his head. Without treasure medicines to support him, the gains from routine training were indeed a mere drop in the ocean for someone at Bright Force.

[Lu Zhen (30 years old)]

[Money: 1996 silver dollars (including the estimated value of bearer notes, gold bars, and other assets)]

[Current Profession: Ship Guard]

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

[Skills:]

[Carriage Driving Lv.3 (50/800)]

[Boating 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 Experience: 285 points]

Lu Zhen studied the figures on the panel and calculated silently.

Now that his physique had reached the Fifth Realm, Blood-Qi Like a Furnace, it would take a full ten thousand experience points to advance again. His two martial skills had also reached Lv.4, each requiring as many as three thousand points.

If he poured the fewer than three hundred General Experience he had into them now, it would be like mud oxen sinking into the sea—not even a ripple. The return would be far too poor.

"Good steel must be used on the blade."

Lu Zhen had made up his mind.

He could no longer squander his General Experience on martial skills and physique. He had to hoard every last point and pour it into raising his Daily Settlement level.

As long as he raised it from Lv.3 to Lv.4, the base for his daily multiplied rewards would naturally grow. That was the true way to reap enormous returns and leverage his martial arts foundations.

Just as he was pondering this, a faint footstep sounded outside the door.

A moment later, two hesitant, delicate knocks came through the night.

"Knock, knock."

Lu Zhen gathered his thoughts and spoke calmly.

"Come in."

Creak—

The heavy carved wooden door eased open a crack, letting in a breath of cool night air from the courtyard.

A faint, delicate fragrance drifted in with the breeze, a blend of soapberry and the warm, ripe scent of a woman's body.

Lu Zhen looked up, his deep-set eyes suddenly narrowing.

It was Shen Yun.

But now, she had already shed the coarse plain clothes and humble widow's attire she had worn during the day.

She wore nothing but a white nightgown, its satin clinging to her mature, voluptuous figure.

The neckline plunged low, revealing the rosy red bodice embroidered with mandarin ducks playing in the water beneath it. The dazzling, milky-white swell of her breasts shimmered beneath the Ocean Lantern's dim, yellow glow, as alluring as warm white jade.

More dangerous still, her long hair was still damp from her bath. A few strands clung to her slender swanlike neck, lending her an indescribably languid air.

A lone man and woman, deep in the night, dressed in such an utterly alluring manner...

The image of his eldest sister, Lu Fang, sitting at the head of the heated brick bed and whispering with Shen Yun that evening suddenly flashed through Lu Zhen's mind.

The meaning behind this whole scene was already obvious.