Is He Dead Just Like That?

After that group of wealthy patrons left, the martial academy resumed its training.

Quite a few disciples had been stirred up. Their fists and palms struck with even greater desperation, and the Wooden Dummies rang with repeated bangs.

Wang Sheng, however, seemed somewhat distracted, unable to focus.

He was thinking about how to solve his money problem.

He needed at least one hundred taels of patterned silver.

"Junior Brother, did that blow shake you up?"

Luo Wenzheng suddenly asked.

"Not everyone is as talented as Junior Brother Lin Shu."

"How about this? I think highly of you, Junior Brother. My Luo Family is willing to offer you ten taels of patterned silver every month in exchange for a nominal position. What do you think?"

"But the term is only half a year. Once half a year passes, the money stops."

Luo Zhengwen had always enjoyed those little books full of strange tales and curious anecdotes. He had read of many people who had been ordinary in their youth, only to bloom late into great talents.

Thus, after Wang Sheng had entered the gates of both the Great Tablet Shattering Hand and the Stone Stance Technique, then defeated the senior disciple Meng Xu, Luo Zhengwen had wanted to tend a cold stove, hoping to see the day Wang Sheng became a late-blooming great talent.

At those words, Wang Sheng's eyes lit up. He turned his head, and his gaze toward Luo Zhengwen carried a trace of delight.

"What are you looking at? I don't swing that way!"

Luo Zhengwen felt his scalp prickle under Wang Sheng's fixed stare and hurriedly took a step back.

"Senior Brother, how about this? Give me sixty taels of patterned silver all at once. Within half a year, I'll definitely develop inner force."

Wang Sheng said.

"You brat!"

Luo Zhengwen was somewhat speechless.

Give this kid a pole, and he would climb straight up it.

Luo Zhengwen fell silent for a long while. Seeing that Wang Sheng was serious rather than joking, he hesitated for a moment before finally sighing.

"I'll give you forty taels first."

"Thank you, Senior Brother!"

Wang Sheng nodded.

Luo Zhengwen was neither family nor friend, and they had only been fellow disciples for a few months. For him to give Wang Sheng forty taels at once was already taking no small risk.

After all, forty taels could cover an ordinary household's food and expenses for four years.

Afterward,

Wang Sheng left the martial academy early that day. Using the deed to the old house on Loach Street as collateral, he borrowed twenty taels of silver from a pawnshop.

Then,

Wang Sheng borrowed ten taels of patterned silver from Old Master Li.

He borrowed twenty taels of patterned silver from Fourth Madam.

Finally, Wang Sheng borrowed thirty taels in usury from a gang, the White Tiger Gang. Two months later, he would have to repay fifty taels.

After all that,

Wang Sheng had gathered a total of one hundred and twenty taels of patterned silver.

The reason he had raised far more than one hundred taels

was that after coming out, Wang Sheng had wandered around and discovered that the situation was extremely grim.

Previously, he had devoted himself wholeheartedly to martial arts. He had never expected that in just one month, the outside world would undergo such tremendous changes.

The tidal wave of rebellion brought on by the great drought in Southern Ridge Prefecture could no longer be stopped. The Prefecture Lord had been killed, and the rebel army had begun seizing other great prefectures.

Meanwhile, Han Country had invaded the northern border. It was said that Great Jing had suffered crushing defeats in several battles, and the border had become unstable as well.

Caught in the middle, Jiangling Prefecture, where Ershui City was located, had already begun fully preparing troops. Grain prices were constantly rising, and more and more beggars were starving to death by the roadside.

Wang Sheng worried that the calamity of war would arrive before he reached the Bright Force Realm.

Therefore, when he saw Premium Blood Replenishing Pills at the pharmacy and learned that they were even more effective than ordinary Blood Replenishing Pills, he decided to spend more money and buy Premium Blood Replenishing Pills to consume.

Ershui City, Baolai Pharmacy.

"Twelve Premium Blood Replenishing Pills come to one hundred and twenty taels of patterned silver. We'll also give you one ordinary Blood Replenishing Pill as a gift. Please take them!"

"Alright!"

After taking the pills, Wang Sheng immediately hurried away.

After he left the pharmacy,

A middle-aged man with an indifferent expression emerged from the back room. "How was he? A fat sheep?"

Although this was within the city, the chaos in Southern Ridge Prefecture had driven many people into Jiangling Prefecture. Some jianghu wanderers had also come to Ershui City, worsening public order considerably and causing deaths to rise.

Some people had begun fishing in troubled waters, and robberies occurred from time to time.

The clerk who had just been bowing and scraping to Wang Sheng lost the smile on his face and shook his head slightly. "Judging from the marks on his hands, he should be Iron Hand Zhao's disciple. I heard Iron Hand Zhao recently accepted a young disciple with quite high talent. It may be him."

"It isn't worth offending a Transformation Force expert over such a small amount of silver."

The middle-aged man nodded and withdrew.

They were only at the Dark Force level and did not dare casually offend someone at the Transformation Force level.

Loach Street.

The Wang Family ancestral home.

After Wang Sheng swallowed a Premium Blood Replenishing Pill, he immediately felt a powerful medicinal force surge forth, turning into streams of heat that flooded into the meridians throughout his body and stimulated them all.

Wang Sheng's face flushed crimson. He immediately sank his waist into a horse stance and began standing his stance and practicing the Great Tablet Shattering Hand, venting and digesting the medicinal force.

Now that he had money, Wang Sheng's dietary supplementation had also become remarkably effective. Unlike before entering the gates, when he went hungry three meals in three days and practiced his punches weakly, wasting much time.

Thus, supported by meat and Premium Blood Replenishing Pills,

Wang Sheng's progress in the Great Tablet Shattering Hand skyrocketed from four points a day to ten points a day.

In less than twenty days, after consuming ten Premium Blood Replenishing Pills, Wang Sheng's Great Tablet Shattering Hand smoothly reached Minor Accomplishment. Inner force arose within his body, and he officially became a Bright Force Martial Artist.

[Heaven Rewards Diligence: What is learned shall bear fruit.]

[Realm: Early Bright Force]

[Stone Stance Technique: Minor Accomplishment (1/1000)]

[Great Tablet Shattering Hand: Minor Accomplishment (1/1000)]

A Bright Force Martial Artist not only possessed strength far beyond ordinary people, but also senses and reactions incomparable to those of normal men. Such a person could easily crush an ordinary person.

Inside the ancestral home,

Wang Sheng clenched his fist and felt the surging power in his hand. A sharp gleam flashed through his eyes.

Once he circulated his inner force, his strength increased by at least three or four times.

Previously, he could at most kill a wolf with one punch.

But now, he could kill a cow with a single punch.

"Good. It's time to settle matters with Lin Shu."

Wang Sheng muttered.

Inner force burst outward from within, yet remained contained inside the body.

Therefore, as long as he did not normally use his inner force or let someone take his pulse at close range, no one could tell that Wang Sheng had already become a Bright Force Martial Artist.

That day.

The sky was dim.

Lin Shu left the martial academy and headed toward the Liu Family residence.

"Miss Liu may fancy me, and she isn't bad-looking either. But I'm destined to become a Transformation Force expert, a great figure comparable to Master. Being my concubine would be acceptable, yet she wants to be my principal wife? Hmph!"

"Still, for the Liu Family's support, I should agree for now. Once I become Transformation Force—"

As Lin Shu walked, he dreamed of a beautiful future.

Suddenly.

At a corner,

Just as Lin Shu was about to turn,

White lime powder filled the sky and rushed straight at his face.

"Not good!"

Because his mind had wandered, Lin Shu, who should have been able to evade at least most of the lime powder, was drenched head to toe instead.

Three daggers shot out, striking Lin Shu's cheek, chest, and wildly flailing arm respectively.

"Ah!"

Lin Shu screamed and fell straight to the ground.

"Damn, he died just like that?"

With black cloth covering his face, Wang Sheng looked somewhat surprised.

He had only just started. He still had an entire set of punches prepared, and he had wanted to test his strength after reaching Bright Force.

But Wang Sheng did not know that his reaction speed and the force behind his thrown daggers had both been enhanced by the transformation brought by inner force, far surpassing ordinary people.

Moreover, Lin Shu had been daydreaming and was distracted.

That was how a genius had died so easily.

"He's really dead?"

Wang Sheng cautiously approached Lin Shu, inner force circulating in his hand as he remained poised to strike.

Crack!

Wang Sheng stomped on Lin Shu's arm, snapping it cleanly.

Lin Shu showed no reaction at all.

"Damn it, he really got off too easily."

"He doesn't even know who killed him!"

"What a stifled death!"

Wang Sheng cursed under his breath, then casually stomped on Lin Shu's neck, completely cutting off even the slightest possibility of survival.

"What a shameless bastard!"

At the same time as a voice came from the rooftop, someone lunged directly at Wang Sheng.

Wang Sheng's heart tightened and his scalp went numb. He spun around and threw a punch without hesitation, while the bag of stone powder in his other hand burst open as well.

"Cough, cough!"

The attacker had not expected Wang Sheng to dare play such a trick. At such close range, both of them were drenched in lime powder.

Furthermore, the attacker had stepped on empty air and could not borrow much force.

Wang Sheng, on the other hand, had sunk his waist into a horse stance. With his Stone Stance Technique at Minor Accomplishment, his lower body was planted firmly on the ground. His fist had long been charged and ready, and the power behind it was not something the attacker dared underestimate.

After making two unexpected mistakes in succession, this ambusher no longer dared linger. He cursed, "Damn it, this target's tough!"

The ambusher then leaped onto the rooftop and swiftly vanished among the closely packed houses.

Wang Sheng's expression turned grave. He hurriedly searched Lin Shu's entire body, obtaining a silver hairpin, three Blood Replenishing Pills, five taels of silver, and a booklet titled Blood Stacking Technique before quickly leaving as well.