Time flowed like water. A month passed in the blink of an eye.
At dusk.
Tong District, inside Linxi Courtyard.
"Smack—!!"
The air shuddered, letting out a sharp crack.
A figure darted across the courtyard, an invisible current of air swirling around him.
In Fang Xing's hands, the nine forms of Capture Hand erupted with astonishing power.
Though it was only a basic martial art, it now possessed tremendous lethality.
Martial arts were techniques for killing!
"Boom—!!"
His palm struck the old locust tree in the courtyard. The tree shook, and leaves drifted down, rattled loose by the powerful force.
The instant his palm landed, his qi and blood surged within him, and a powerful force welled up from his body.
The force flowed through him. In that single instant, Fang Xing felt a profound change.
As though he had transcended his former self!
His senses sharpened dramatically. He could even clearly hear the willow branches swaying outside the courtyard.
His qi and blood burst through their limits, swelling severalfold in an instant.
He could easily pick up on the slightest change.
Internal Force had been born. Bright Force had been achieved!
Standing still, Fang Xing was motionless as a statue.
He quietly sensed the changes in his body.
The force coursed within him, as easily controlled as his own arm!
Qi and blood breaking their limits, Internal Force taking shape—
That was the sign of entering Bright Force.
After a month of hard cultivation, he had finally broken through the first Dragon Gate and knocked on the gate of Bright Force!
"So this is the power of Bright Force... It really is extraordinary."
Feeling the vast power within his body, Fang Xing's eyes gleamed.
This power was completely different from what he had possessed before.
The birth of Internal Force was a fundamental transformation.
Entering Bright Force also meant he had officially embarked on the path of martial arts.
"Boom!"
He punched the old locust tree. It shuddered, its leaves rustling before tumbling down one after another.
A clear fist mark appeared on the trunk.
It was deeper than before.
The destructive force of a blow infused with Internal Force went far beyond what the surface suggested.
Before entering Bright Force, force was scattered, like loose sand.
After entering Bright Force, force gathered together, greatly increasing its lethality.
"That punch would be enough to snap someone's tendons and shatter their bones."
Looking at the fist mark on the trunk, Fang Xing could truly feel the strength he now possessed.
To ordinary people, martial artists were like a higher dimension entirely!
Even a casual punch was more than an ordinary person could withstand.
One punch could break bones. If it didn't kill, it would leave them gravely injured!
Taking on ten opponents at once would be no problem.
Moreover, entering Bright Force had greatly improved his body's coordination.
His senses had sharpened.
The change was astonishing.
"Now that I'm an official martial artist, I finally have real power to protect myself."
Looking toward the twilight sky, Fang Xing slowly exhaled a breath of stale air.
Martial artists held a transcendent status!
At last, he had taken this step.
He now counted as a formidable fighter in the County Yamen.
The Qingshan County Yamen had more than a hundred constables across its four departments.
Aside from the four Constables, only a handful had become martial artists!
Only a few Deputy Constables possessed Bright Force.
With Bright Force, he now ranked just below the Constables.
Once he entered Bright Force, everything changed.
His standing was no longer comparable to that of an ordinary constable.
Leaping the Dragon Gate meant more than a leap in strength. It was a leap in status, too.
"Too bad I don't have many Enhancement Points left. If I had enough, perhaps I could have advanced faster."
Fang Xing sighed inwardly. He had spent a great many Enhancement Points over the past month.
After all his expenses, he had only fourteen Enhancement Points left.
Enhancing a Blood-Qi Pill once would nearly use them all up.
Now that he had entered Bright Force, he needed even more resources to advance.
He had nearly run out of Blood-Qi Pills.
If he couldn't keep up his supply, his progress would surely plummet.
He glanced at the fourteen Enhancement Points on the Crimson Panel and felt a headache coming on.
If he spent his points enhancing Blood-Qi Powder, enhancing his martial arts would be a distant dream.
Now that he had entered Bright Force, he definitely needed to enhance his martial arts. Basic Capture Hand might suffice against ordinary people, but it was obviously inadequate against other martial artists.
Besides, Capture Hand was only a basic martial art. Even if he mastered it, he could at best cultivate it to the Dark Force stage.
He would have to replace his martial arts eventually, even if he didn't do it now.
He would either have to enhance his martial arts or acquire a new technique.
But new martial arts weren't cabbages one could pick up whenever one pleased.
Getting them through official channels was very difficult!
And acquiring them through other channels was no easy matter, either.
There might be some circulating on the black market.
But it was hard to say whether they were genuine.
Most were fakes.
There were proper channels for obtaining martial arts, too, but they required great wealth.
Without several hundred, or even a thousand, taels to your name, you could forget about it.
Enhancing Blood-Qi Pills and selling them could bring in money quickly.
But with the Enhancement Points he had accumulated so far, it would still take a long time.
And if he sold too many, he would definitely attract attention.
Selling them once in a while was fine, but if he sold a large quantity all at once, even an idiot would know something was wrong.
Getting watched was inevitable.
Worse, some faction might secretly make a move against him.
He had only just entered Bright Force. In Qingshan County, that meant he had merely set foot on the path of martial arts. He was still nowhere near the top.
From what he knew, there were several Transformation Force martial artists in Qingshan County.
The leading figures of the top Lineages and the major powers that ran rampant through the region were all Transformation Force martial artists.
Transformation Force surpassed Bright Force and Dark Force.
Its practitioners were more than a hundred times stronger than those with Bright Force.
Bright Force, Dark Force, Transformation Force!
The gulf between these three stages was as vast as the heavens and the earth.
A Transformation Force martial artist would be treated with the utmost respect even by the Qingshan magistrate, let alone a lowly constable.
Bright, Dark, and Transformation Force were also known as the Three Foundation Establishment Realms!
Beyond them lay another rung on the martial path.
"Borrow the false to cultivate the true, exchange blood and cleanse the marrow, reach the divine through martial arts!"
Most ordinary people didn't even know that such a realm existed.
Those who reached it had already transcended the limits of ordinary people in both lifespan and strength.
It was the first step toward becoming a transcendent sage.
"I'll build up my reserves slowly. With enough Enhancement Points, I can solve any problem."
He put aside his distracting thoughts and stopped dwelling on it.
To achieve a qualitative transformation, he first needed enough Enhancement Points.
Now that he had entered Bright Force, at least he had taken the first step beyond the ordinary.
He went into the kitchen and stewed some enhanced tiger meat. After eating his fill, he resumed practicing Capture Hand.
After entering Bright Force, the power of Capture Hand was completely different.
With Internal Force infused into every move, each one was lethal!
He practiced until late at night before stopping. After washing up, he went inside to rest.
The sky was as dark as ink, without a single star.
In the county town's North City, inside a room in a courtyard, a young man sat on the bed. Candlelight flickered over him, and a scar-faced man stood respectfully before him, looking extremely uneasy.
"Have you found out everything?"
The young man looked at the scar-faced man and asked coolly.
The scar-faced man nodded and replied respectfully, "Reporting to you, emissary, I've found out. The constable who pursued you back then is named Fang Xing. He lives in the east courtyard on Linxi Street, in Tong District, North City."
"Fang Xing..." The young man murmured, nodding slightly. "Good. I know."
"Emissary, he's still an officer of the authorities, after all. If we touch him, we may draw the authorities' attention, and that could bring unnecessary trouble."
The scar-faced man looked at the young man and spoke in a low voice.
"He's a mere constable, not even a martial artist. Are you afraid?"
The young man looked at the scar-faced man with utter indifference.
"I... I'm not afraid. I'm just worried that it might cause unnecessary trouble," the scar-faced man said quietly.
"You have a point. Then I'll leave this matter to you. Make sure he disappears without raising suspicion," the young man said coolly.
"This..."
The scar-faced man's heart caught in his throat. He stared blankly at the young man on the bed.
"Is there a problem?"
The young man glanced at him, his expression indifferent.
The scar-faced man took a deep breath and forced out a smile. "Reporting to you, emissary, I'll do everything I can."
"Not everything you can. You must get it done. If you can't, you can forget about keeping your position," the young man said coldly.
"Damn it, easy for you to say. You're the one causing trouble, and I'm the one left to clean up after you..."
The scar on the man's face twitched. He cursed inwardly, but he didn't dare show the young man the slightest disrespect. All he could do was nod deferentially. "I'll get it done."
"Mm. You may leave," the young man said, waving a hand.
After bowing respectfully, the scar-faced man left the room.
Once outside the courtyard, he gazed into the ink-dark night and stared into the distance. At last, he sighed, then vanished into the darkness.
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