[Blessed Land Dao Lord (Gray)—Ascending the Platform, First Step: Hong Yuan (18)] [Root Bone: 5/100] [Comprehension: 6/100] [Talents: Qi Through All Bones, Clear Eyes Through the Nether]
Hong Yuan raised an eyebrow. He immediately noticed the change in the information panel, but his attention went first to [Qi Through All Bones].
"One effect of [Qi Through All Bones] is faster recovery from injury. Even if I accidentally damage something inside while experimenting with Subtlety-level force, this talent can help me recover."
Besides, his powerful Root Bone benefited his limbs, bones, and internal organs alike. There was no reason not to run a few experiments.
Hong Yuan had no intention of recklessly mastering it in one leap. He could take his time and try things gradually.
Even if the first attempts backfired, there was no telling whether they could hurt him. And if they did, he still had [Qi Through All Bones] to fall back on.
Not having a secret method did not matter.
Every variation of Subtlety-level force was merely an offshoot of hard and soft force.
Hard and soft force was its embryonic form.
Martial arts had not existed from the beginning, either. Someone before him had always had to blaze the trail.
If others could do it, so could he.
It was not blind confidence on Hong Yuan's part.
After all, he had been a bona fide college student. His Comprehension might not have been first-rate, but surely it counted as above average.
On top of that, he had gained six more wisps of Comprehension. His mind felt clearer and sharper by the moment, especially when it came to martial arts, as though a Spirit Aperture had opened.
Combined with the notes True Person Li had left behind, all sorts of ingenious ideas about using force came flooding into his mind.
Thinking back to the current he had faced underwater, he even began to glimpse a way to develop Spiral Force.
But there was no hurry.
Hong Yuan set the thought aside and willed it.
Whoosh!
His consciousness instantly entered that gray-white space.
The vast white plaza was surrounded by blinding white mist, as though layer upon layer of shackles had sealed off this world.
The gray-white stone gate stood immovable before him.
Nine steps extended down from it.
Hong Yuan had entered this space again because he had noticed that the suffix after [Blessed Land Dao Lord] had changed from "Outside the Threshold" to "Ascending the Platform, First Step."
Without dwelling on it, Hong Yuan walked toward the steps.
Each step was as tall as a person. Hong Yuan tapped his toes against the ground and leaped lightly up onto the first.
He checked his information for changes.
Nothing had changed.
He had hoped Ascending the Platform might bring some reward. Evidently, he had expected too much.
He reached out to touch the second step and felt a faint resistance. Remembering how he had been flung away the first time, he pushed straight against it. It would not hurt anyway.
Bang!
Beside the great river, Hong Yuan murmured, "As expected, forcing my way up won't work. I have to win its heart. Power and martial strength—I need to reach the summit of both."
He turned, and force erupted beneath his feet. Like an arrow loosed from a bow, he shot several yards in the blink of an eye and raced toward Qingxu County once more.
When the Imperial Court abolished the Civil Service Examinations, Hong Yuan lost the protection that came with being a Qingxu Academy student. Yamen runners and local thugs alike had come to pressure him.
Leaving the yamen runners aside, Hong Yuan knew the thugs had been sent by several wealthy households with their eyes on his fields and home.
Possibly on him, too.
Only after his second uncle intervened in secret had the matter ended. Though Hong Yuan handed over all his family property, he kept two tile-roofed rooms in Flagstone Alley as a place to live.
Hong Yuan had no time to settle accounts with each of those people. There were too many, and finding them all would take time.
So the second demand he had made of County Magistrate Zhang was to deal with them for him.
Hong Yuan's father had only been a scholar who had passed the county examination. His family wealth was substantial only by ordinary standards. In County Magistrate Zhang's eyes, the so-called "wealthy households" coveting it were ants he could crush at any time.
Until he had dealt with the threat Hong Yuan posed, he would probably be happy to vent his anger on them.
As for Hong Yuan's real identity, he had not even covered his face this time. How could County Magistrate Zhang fail to uncover it?
But there was little to fear. The more Hong Yuan learned about the ramshackle outfit that was Great Yin, the more speechless he became—and the less restrained he was in his actions.
Less than fifteen minutes later, Hong Yuan entered the county town again, scaling the wall rather than using a gate and slipping past the guards without alerting them.
At Guiling Manor, County Magistrate Zhang might still have been cleaning up the aftermath and keeping the guests quiet. At any rate, news of the Huang Family's sudden upheaval had yet to spread.
It was nearly noon, and the county town remained bustling.
Hong Yuan headed for Flagstone Alley.
He was returning "home" because he had been missing for half a month. If his second uncle had come back during that time, he might have left him a message.
That second uncle of his was rather mysterious and had never bought a home in Qingxu County.
He had married, though, and even had a son and daughter, both a few years younger than Hong Yuan.
Several years ago, while Hong Yuan's father was still alive, his second uncle had brought those two younger cousins home once. Hong Yuan had met them only that one time, and his memories of them were hazy.
Unlike Rongqing Alley, where wealthy gentry crowded together, Flagstone Alley had muddy roads and a pervasive stench of rot. Its dark corners reeked of excrement and urine.
One low, dilapidated house pressed against the next, yet plenty of people lived there.
Hong Yuan's arrival drew many eyes.
The original Hong Yuan had been handsome and refined, a promising scholar at Qingxu Academy. With his second uncle backing him, he had also beaten quite a few rogues and hooligans to death or left them crippled.
Thus, everyone in Flagstone Alley knew of him.
Yet in a mere half month, he had been transformed. Gone was the frailty of a scholar. His bones and muscles were strong, he moved with the stride of a dragon and the tread of a tiger, and his keen presence pressed upon everyone around him.
Even those who found him familiar shrank back, not daring to look him in the eye.
Only when he reached his home at the end of Flagstone Alley—the two tile-roofed rooms beneath an old elm—did some stare uncertainly at his back.
But no one approached him. For one thing, Hong Yuan had killed time and again of late. He could not sense the change in himself, but these common folk lived so cautiously that the slightest stir set them trembling. They faintly sensed something terrifying about him.
And for another—
As Hong Yuan reached the old elm, his steps faltered and his brow creased.
Then doors creaked open one after another. More than twenty fierce-looking men poured out of Hong Yuan's two rooms and several neighboring houses. They spread out at once, blocking every path of retreat.
Every man was sturdy, dressed in a gray-black shirt, and armed with a club or blade. They closed in with vicious grins.
At their appearance, hurried footsteps pattered through Flagstone Alley. The residents scurried indoors, shutting their doors and windows, not daring even to breathe loudly.
"Is this the brat?" The scar-faced man at their head eyed Hong Yuan doubtfully. "Weren't we told he was a scholar?"
"That's him!" another man with triangular eyes replied. "He's a scholar, but he knows how to fight. How else could he have injured the mistress's men and escaped? Be careful. Don't let him get away again, or we'll have trouble answering to the mistress."
The scar-faced man tightened his grip on his Steel Saber and turned to Hong Yuan with a snarl. "Brat, will you give yourself up, or do we knock you out and carry you away? Don't make this harder on yourself!"
Those few sentences told Hong Yuan who they were. Wei Zhenzhu had sent them.
Only Wei Zhenzhu could have stationed men in advance to ambush him outside his "home."
He had sensed no danger, or he would never have walked straight into it.
Hong Yuan did not answer. He glanced over the men and stepped forward.
The scar-faced man waved a hand. "Grab him!"
Hong Yuan's figure blurred. In an instant, he was before the scar-faced man, driving out a savage kick. A sharp crack rang out as the man's left leg snapped and he fell.
He screamed. As he toppled, his saber flew from his hand. Hong Yuan caught it neatly and swept it back, slitting the throats of two men charging in with clubs!
Hong Yuan could tell the scar-faced man was their leader, so he spared him for now. Saber in hand, he moved like the wind through the men rushing at him. The blade flashed and wheeled, streaks of cold light darting through the crowd.
Cries of pain rang out without end as one burly man after another thudded to the ground. In barely a dozen breaths, Hong Yuan had brought them all down.
The scar-faced man was still screaming when a foot planted itself on the back of his head.
"Where is that fat sow?"
Before you continue