Interestingly enough...
Even in this foul-smelling place, the silk gave off a faint fragrance. Its surface seemed to have been coated with a specially made oil film.
The Old Madman said, "This is a family heirloom. It contains a cultivation method that my ancestors told me to guard with my life.
"I've kept it safe all these years... unfortunately, I have no talent for the Martial Way, so I couldn't practice it.
"I'm dying. I'll leave it in your care for now. If you can learn it, consider it payment for coming here."
Li Xiuwen took the visibly extraordinary object, inwardly astonished.
The Mad Old Man actually had a cultivation method handed down from his ancestors in the Prosperous State.
Master Xing had not lied to him.
Still, he also knew that the Mad Old Man was not truly mad.
Even if he had given the Mad Old Man fifty earlier, the old fellow would have reneged. Scamming people out of food and drink was how he got by.
Only now that he was dying, afraid his ancestral heirloom would be lost forever, had the old man handed it over.
"All right. If I get the chance, I'll visit Thousand-Buddha Mountain. You can go in peace," Li Xiuwen said.
As far as Li Xiuwen remembered, the Lu Region was one of the major martial centers in the northern Prosperous State. Many schools originated there.
Thousand-Buddha Mountain sounded like a Buddhist holy site, and a large proportion of this world's martial schools traced their origins to Buddhism or Daoism.
"Young man, I wasn't lying. The very first time I saw you, I knew you were no ordinary person..." the Old Madman said with a foolish grin.
"Then you've got a good eye." Before Li Xiuwen finished speaking, the Old Madman breathed his last. His head slumped to one side, and he fell silent.
"Well, I can afford a coffin, but there's nowhere to bury you... I'll find somewhere to cremate you. I won't feed you to Crocodile."
Fires broke out easily in the Enclave, and the crematorium was rather out of the way.
It took Li Xiuwen half a day to have the Old Madman cremated, costing him sixty.
"Old Madman, you asked for fifty, and I spent sixty on you. That's more than fair."
Holding the mere handful of ashes that remained of the Old Madman, Li Xiuwen went up to the rooftop.
He waited quietly until a strong gust of wind blew past.
He scattered the ashes high into the air and said, "Off you go. The wind will take you back to Thousand-Buddha Mountain."
By the time he finished everything, it was already afternoon, so he did not return to the Martial Arts Hall.
He found a quiet spot at home and took out the golden silk. It contained over a thousand tiny characters.
Li Xiuwen read it from beginning to end, but found it utterly obscure and bewildering. It was several times harder than the Binding Armor Skill, the most difficult cultivation method he had encountered before.
"Heart Furnace Three Forgings... to think such profound martial arts existed!"
Although he had not grasped enough to begin practicing it, he understood roughly what it did.
This method did not train the body, muscles, or bones. It focused entirely on the mind and will.
It treated the human mind as a piece of raw iron, tempering it three times in a furnace to forge a powerful martial will.
After four months of martial training, Li Xiuwen had gained some knowledge.
Yet he had never heard of a method capable of tempering the mind.
He had always thought martial will was either innate or honed through hardship and combat.
"Heart Furnace Three Forgings belongs to the Heart Furnace School of Thousand-Buddha Mountain, a Buddhist school. Anyone capable of creating a method like this must belong to an authentic tradition of renowned masters."
Calming himself, Li Xiuwen began studying [Heart Furnace Three Forgings]. He studied from afternoon until night, but even after an entire day, he still could not get started.
He felt it was not a lack of comprehension. This martial art was simply too advanced, far beyond what someone at the membrane gate should learn.
His current grounding in martial theory and his attainments could not provide a foundation for this martial art.
It was like trying to learn calculus without knowing even basic addition and subtraction.
"If I raise [Beginner Martial Arts Knowledge] to great mastery, I wonder if I'll be able to learn it."
Li Xiuwen could only suppress his excitement and put [Heart Furnace Three Forgings] away.
The difficulty of merely getting started showed that this martial art was already beyond anything he could imagine.
Sand-Turning Palm, Sea-Sand Stance, Thousand-Wave Floating Radiance-none could compare.
The only one even fit to carry its shoes was the Binding Armor Skill.
Of course, that did not mean the Sea Sand Style was weak.
It was simply that what Old Huang taught First-Floor Disciples like them was bound to be the most basic, straightforward martial arts.
That night, Li Xiuwen continued practicing the Binding Armor Skill.
The lurking enemy left him feeling unsafe. Without question, the martial art that gave him the greatest sense of security was Hard Qigong.
"Uncle-in-law, harder!" Li Xiuwen said.
"All right! Tell me if it hurts." His uncle-in-law tightened his grip on the little hammer and struck harder.
As the Binding Armor Skill approached minor mastery, Li Xiuwen seldom asked his aunt-in-law to help with his striking conditioning anymore.
Women had less strength, were reluctant to hit hard, and lacked stamina. Even after a long session, she could not make him hurt.
He also worried about hurting his aunt-in-law's wrist if they switched to a medium-sized hammer, so he would probably have to trouble his uncle-in-law with his future training.
Fortunately, the ten thousand he had given them had helped them out of their immediate difficulties. The flour mill had hired several workers, and his uncle-in-law had largely become a hands-off owner, responsible only for sales.
In the blink of an eye, another three days passed.
Only one week remained until the second-floor martial competition.
During this time, Li Xiuwen made frequent trips to the dental clinic, secretly investigating the would-be killer's identity.
Unfortunately, he had found nothing yet. He had to figure out who wanted to harm him.
After Little Trumpet left, Heshengtu did not approach Li Xiuwen again.
He did not particularly care. With his current cultivation, there were plenty of jobs he could do if he ran out of money.
Besides, once he reached the second floor, he would no longer have to pay the monthly fee, immediately eliminating a major expense.
And so he trained quietly in the Martial Arts Hall, his progress advancing steadily.
Of course, his nightly "showdowns atop the Supreme Illusion Realm" with Chun Liu continued without fail.
At first, he could withstand thirty exchanges; later, he could manage a hundred.
By now, his win rate against Chun Liu in the Supreme Illusion Realm had reached forty percent.
After all, his black membrane progress had reached 36%, bringing him ever closer to Chun Liu.
Without her overwhelming advantage in physical attributes, Chun Liu became much easier to fight.
Meanwhile.
On Wangguang Street, inside a brothel,
Three pale-skinned prostitutes lay on the bed.
Naked, Za Jiu sat on the edge of the bed smoking a cigar, catching his breath after setting a new personal record for "duration."
This brothel belonged to Lei Gongpeng. Za Jiu occasionally helped keep an eye on the place, so he could enjoy its services for free.
Knock, knock, knock. Someone knocked outside, and a subordinate came in, bowing as he said, "Master Jiu, Missing-Tooth Kid hasn't come back for several days."
Za Jiu frowned slightly. "Have you asked his family?"
The subordinate said, "I went to Missing-
Tooth Kid's home, and I also looked for his lover on Temple Street. They all said they hadn't seen him these past few days. I'm afraid he's dead."
Za Jiu took a drag, drawing the smoke deep into his lungs. "Have you found the body?"
The subordinate shook his head. "No."
After the subordinate left, Za Jiu mused, "How strange. Missing-Tooth Kid was only investigating something. How did he disappear?"
Could he have offended someone else in the underworld while investigating that kid on Longjin Road? Did they kill him?
Li Xiuwen might have been capable of killing Rotten-Life Ji, but Za Jiu did not really believe he could kill Missing-Tooth Kid.
He now felt that the person who killed Rotten-Life Ji had never been that kid from Longjin Road at all. It had been someone else entirely!
Even after finishing his cigar, Za Jiu still could not make sense of it, so he put the matter aside for the moment.
"Forget it. I'll make a discreet trip myself another day and investigate in person."
He returned to the bed to attend to the important matter before him. Every moment of a spring night was worth a fortune.
The day after tomorrow would be the contest for the second floor.
On the rooftop, his uncle-in-law wiped away his sweat and collapsed onto the ground, saying,
"Xiuwen, is what you're practicing the legendary Iron Shirt? I've seen gang fights before, and even those trained fighters didn't seem as tough as you.
"When I was little, back in the Prosperous State, I saw a very impressive traveling performer who'd mastered Iron Shirt. Wooden clubs snapped clean in two when they hit him."
Before you continue