After the time it took an incense stick to burn, Wang Xuance walked toward his small courtyard, one hand gripping a sandalwood box while the other, hidden beneath his sleeve, carried a bulging money pouch.
In a private room at Medicine King Shop behind him, Chen Linger watched Wang Xuance's departing figure with a calm expression.
"You really didn't have to do this. I... I only need another half year..."
A man with sword-like brows, star-bright eyes, and imposing phoenix eyes approached Chen Linger from behind.
"No... I can't let you take the risk. I can't let you take the risk..."
With a click, he pushed open the door and entered.
Wang Xuance looked over the spotless little courtyard and nodded in satisfaction.
With a flick of his sleeve, he shut the door, then stepped into the main room without a word.
He tossed the sandalwood box from his bosom and the money pouch from his sleeve onto the table.
"Wealth is sought amid danger—the rougher the waves, the dearer the fish!"
Earlier, Wang Xuance had agreed to cooperate with Chen Linger. Though the decision had been somewhat rash, that woman was simply offering far too much!
Opening the wooden box, he found a palm-sized purple ganoderma resting quietly inside—Purple Blood Ganoderma, worth a full thirty taels of patterned silver.
And most of the time, it could not be bought at any price!
The Western Desert stretched across eight million li of yellow sands and received too little rain. Medicinal herbs beneficial to martial cultivation were therefore often exceedingly expensive.
They were far beyond what someone of his current status could afford.
Even his two Vermilion Summer Fruits had cost him three taels of silver, painstakingly saved through frugal living.
Compared to that, he truly had been "subdued" by money!
This Purple Blood Ganoderma was an indispensable herb for breaking through to the Martial Practitioner Realm.
Once a martial artist reached the Three-Knock Blood Pass, they would open their first Martial Aperture. After successfully breaking open two more Martial Apertures, they would enter the first stage of martial cultivation—the Fetal Breath Realm.
Countless people exhausted their entire lives without ever stepping into this realm and becoming Martial Practitioners.
The Purple Blood Ganoderma could directly increase a martial artist's chances of breaking open a Martial Aperture by thirty percent.
Do not underestimate those thirty percent. Among purchasable herbs, even a ten-percent boost was often unattainable; most merely served as an aid.
Naturally, such herbs were already immensely valuable. A single plant often cost more than ten taels of silver—enough for a family of four in the outer city to eat, drink, and live for several years.
He casually opened the money pouch. Fifteen taels of patterned silver lay exposed before the youth.
This was the "extra payment"!
The youth was quite satisfied. Though he knew Chen Linger was lavish with her spending, her casually producing nearly fifty taels of silver still gave him quite the "pleasant surprise."
The two had agreed that Chen Feng would leave the city in two months. Following Chen Linger's instructions, Wang Xuance would lie in ambush and wait for her to strike Chen Feng a fatal blow first.
Since the location was outside the city, Wang Xuance was not worried in the slightest that Chen Linger would dare pull any "black-eats-black" trick.
The outer city had three great Lineages—the Chen, Bai, and Li families. Anyone seeking to establish themselves in White Light City naturally valued reputation above all else.
For Chen Linger to join hands with an outsider and murder a member of her own Lineage was itself a capital crime.
He could easily leave himself a safeguard. If he failed to return safely to the city, within two hours, news that Chen Linger had murdered one of her own Lineage members would spread until it filled the sky.
Trading one death for another was a losing deal no matter how one looked at it.
"Besides... hehehe, two months is enough to change far too much!"
After putting away the herbs and silver on the table, Wang Xuance began his martial training.
With a thought, the transparent template appeared in his mind.
[True Martial Qi: 220!]
This was the result of him single-handedly "dueling" everyone in his own team. It was enough to bring both his fist technique and a stance method into the proficient realm!
But by his own estimation, only a stance method trained to mastery could reach the Three-Knock Blood Pass. Two hundred and twenty points of True Martial Qi were likely still not enough.
"Fine. Using it to deduce my fist technique isn't bad either. My hand-to-hand skills are still far too weak!"
With another thought, he poured all of his True Martial Qi into the Vajra Fist entry on the template.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
The muscles all over his body knotted and twisted, every sinew and strand of flesh giving off a resonant hum.
A familiar sensation surged into his heart.
Within a boundless desert, Wang Xuance wore a black short outfit. His arms churned as he focused his mind and gathered strength.
Then he threw a punch. Like a spear, like a cannon, its force was ferocious to the extreme.
Yellow sand exploded into the sky around him, as though stirred by an immense force. Swept up in the force of his fist, the sand formed a yellow python that lunged straight ahead.
His arms became hammering mallets as they smashed fiercely downward. A piercing shriek tore through the air; before his fists even touched the ground, the earth sank several feet in an instant and burst apart with countless spiderweb cracks...
"Hoo~~"
He exhaled all the stale air in one breath, sending it shooting away like a sleeve arrow.
Looking at the changes in his arms, the youth was overjoyed.
Not only had they grown an entire size thicker, even his Jiuwei Acupoint had loosened somewhat, making him ponder deeply.
"It seems martial arts are all connected. Advancing in one art is never an isolated benefit—it greatly strengthens the entire body!"
With a dull slap, Wang Xuance drove out the strength in his back and waist, and his left arm shot forward.
Dong!
A three-foot stone slab capable of blocking blades and swords was shattered by one punch, effortless as blowing dust away.
Moreover, the youth vaguely sensed that the force of his fists was already showing signs of developing toward Fist Aura.
Fist force, Fist Aura, fist intent, and at the highest level, the Fist Domain—a realm martial artists regarded as the most ethereal and elusive.
Every transformation was a tremendous surge in strength, advancing by leaps and bounds!
How many people spent their entire lives unable to enter the realm of fist intent? Thus, many who entered the Martial Practitioner Realm chose a weapon instead. It could defend them and aid their martial training alike.
The efficiency of the gains far surpassed that of practicing barehanded fist techniques.
"Hehehe, what others cannot accomplish is nothing more than a trifling matter to me!"
His thoughts turned to the Vajra Fist entry.
After consuming all of his True Martial Qi, it had already undergone no small change.
[Vajra Fist: 430/4000 (Proficient)] [Note: Upon bringing the fist technique to mastery, you may choose a weapon. Cultivating both together can increase proficiency!]
"Tsk tsk, weapons..."
The youth practiced the fist technique once in the courtyard, stopping only when he was utterly exhausted.
Having entered the proficient level, Vajra Fist also gained more proficiency from the same amount of practice time.
This meant that, with time and accumulation, he would no longer need to consume True Martial Qi.
He could instead use True Martial Qi to deduce his two stance methods. Those were the true foundation upon which he would survive and establish himself.
He had already glimpsed one spot and known the whole leopard from the mysteries of the Dragon Elephant Grand Stance. This incomplete Profound Rank martial art was already so powerful that he dared not imagine what level it would reach if it were complete.
"Could it be Profound Rank?"
"Or Spirit Rank?"
"It can't possibly be Saint Rank, can it?!"
Far from White Light City, ten thousand li away, stood a mountain like one propping against the heavens. Majestic and awe-inspiring, it could truly be called a "pillar holding up the sky"!
Within a spacious, weathered cave in the mountain, nine figures sat cross-legged in the darkness, invisibly imposing a twisting force upon the entire space.
It made everything impossible to see clearly!
A harsh voice, like metal and stone striking together, came from no one knew whose mouth. It was shrill beyond measure, unlike human speech.
"Kongxing died outside. Though he was only an outer disciple, he was still one of our mountain's disciples. Which of you junior brothers will send someone on this journey?"
"Bring that martial art manual back to the mountain. The ancestor's surviving notes recorded in detail the importance of that martial art..."
"Remember! Remember! The martial art must not be damaged. If anyone has secretly learned it... bring them back to the mountain as well!"
Before you continue