Getting Started

As time trickled by, daylight gradually brightened, and stirrings began to arise one after another in the communal sleeping quarters.

Rough-looking men in coarse hemp clothes ambled lazily out of the room. Some fetched water, some washed their faces, each tending to his own business.

"Ah, day after day—when will this kind of life ever end? Once we get paid, I'm damn well going to Moon Gazing Pavilion to have some fun. I hear the women there are so tender you could squeeze water from them."

A short young man with a pockmarked face squatted in the corner, dipping a willow twig into tooth powder to clean his teeth as he muttered longingly.

The middle-aged man beside him, who was washing his face, snorted and cursed:

"You brat should count yourself lucky. The work here may be tiring, but at least we live in peace. Do you know what happened at Spring and Autumn Martial Arts Hall? Evil entities invaded, and more than a dozen people died overnight!"

The people around them chimed in as well:

"Ah, the world is getting more chaotic by the day. Everything else is secondary. Staying alive is what truly matters."

Fragments of conversation drifted through the crack in the door and into Jiang Feng's ears.

He knew it was nearly time to start work, but he did not panic. He continued practicing the method with a calm heart and steady mind.

By then, his clothes were completely soaked through, and he looked as though he had just been pulled from the water.

Sweat streamed down his clothes and onto the ground, gathering into a small puddle beneath him.

His body was already nearing exhaustion, yet he had completed only half of the entire set of movements.

He believed he could finish it, but he needed time—at least another half an hour.

Clang! Clang! Clang—!!!

At that moment, a piercing gong abruptly exploded through the small courtyard.

"Emergency assembly! Everyone, immediately put down what you are doing and head to the front courtyard as quickly as possible! The shopkeeper has an extremely important announcement! Anyone who is late will not only have this month's wages deducted, but will also receive severe punishment!"

This sudden order instantly threw all the Medicine Hall apprentices into an uproar.

"What happened? Why are we gathering in an emergency so early?"

"Could that evil entity from Spring and Autumn Martial Arts Hall have come here?"

Hurried, chaotic footsteps intertwined with scattered voices, filling the entire small courtyard in the blink of an eye.

Xue Zhao, the apprentice supervisor, stood silently at the entrance. He wore a washed-faded indigo robe, its sleeves rolled to his forearms, with an old leather belt tied around his waist. His cold, sinister gaze slowly swept over everyone present.

Whenever an apprentice walked before him, he could not help falling silent and lowering his head, afraid that the slightest misstep would displease the supervisor.

In the eyes of these apprentices, Xue Zhao was a living King Yama.

Once he bore a grudge against someone, life in the Medicine Hall became worse than death. There were far too many examples before their eyes. Of the fifty-odd apprentices in the entire courtyard, not one was unafraid of him.

"Hm? What, is someone still not out?"

Xue Zhao's gloomy gaze swept toward the inconspicuous little room in the corner of the courtyard, its door tightly shut. He snorted, and a savage curve pulled at the corner of his mouth.

"Such monstrous gall. You even dare disobey my orders?"

He strode toward Jiang Feng's quarters.

The apprentices who had been preparing to leave the courtyard saw that there might be another spectacle to watch and stopped to look back.

"Haha, just watch. That Jiang brat is in for a huge disaster today."

"That's not right. I remember Jiang Feng being quite diligent normally. Why did he oversleep today of all days?"

"Just look at his workload lately. It's three to five times ours, and that shack of his lets in both wind and rain. Even an iron-forged body couldn't endure that kind of torment. I'd say he's fallen sick and can't get up."

"Hmph, who in the Medicine Hall doesn't know Xue Zhao is Young Master Wu Han's trusted lackey? That brat dared to offend Young Master Wu Han over a woman—he truly doesn't know whether he's alive or dead. This time, I'd say death isn't far from him..."

A moment later, Xue Zhao reached the little room. Just as he raised his foot to kick the door open, it opened from the inside before he could.

Then a brisk voice came from within:

"Supervisor Xue, good morning. I was just about to head over for the assembly. Did you come all this way to remind me? Thank you, thank you. I'm truly flattered."

Jiang Feng emerged from the room with a friendly smile.

Although his hair was still somewhat damp, he had changed into clean clothes. He looked fresh and composed, as though he had just finished bathing.

Xue Zhao's gaze kept examining him. For some reason, he felt that this brat's bearing had changed considerably from before. He no longer looked like a coarse, uncouth mud-legged peasant; instead, he carried a touch of otherworldly liveliness.

That made Xue Zhao deeply uncomfortable. He had sent the other man here to suffer, so why did this brat seem to be living more comfortably by the day?

"What were you doing just now? Everyone else was heading out, yet you alone did not even open your door."

Xue Zhao's gaze was sharp as blades, and his voice remained icy. Like he was interrogating a criminal, he gave Jiang Feng not the slightest pleasant expression.

The smile on Jiang Feng's face instead grew even brighter.

"You know how it is, Supervisor Xue. This broken room of mine truly does nothing to keep out the wind. I was frozen stiff all night. Just now, I was inside patching up those holes."

Jiang Feng's expression was utterly natural, without the slightest trace of lying.

Yet Xue Zhao did not turn and leave. He shoved Jiang Feng aside and strode directly into the cramped little room.

His sharp gaze swept across the entire room.

The room remained as ruined and bare as ever. As Jiang Feng had said, many damaged corners bore traces of fresh mud plastering. Other than a faint, almost imperceptible smell of ash lingering in the air, there was nothing else suspicious to be found.

Xue Zhao walked around twice. Seeing nothing questionable, he did not intend to waste any more time.

"Be more careful in the future. If you dare dawdle over your work like this again, I certainly won't let you off lightly. Come on, go gather in the front courtyard."

Jiang Feng immediately bowed and replied, "Rest assured, Supervisor Xue. I definitely won't be late."

Xue Zhao turned and left the little room. Seeing there would be no spectacle after all, the gathered crowd at the courtyard entrance immediately dispersed as well.

Seeing this, Jiang Feng let out a subtle sigh of relief.

At that moment, an additional line had appeared under the cultivation methods section of his personal panel.

[Exquisite Breathing Method (Beginner 1/100)]

He had successfully cultivated the method, but he had not reached the beginner stage through his own practice.

The moment he noticed something was wrong in the courtyard, he decisively used his only enhancement point to forcibly raise this method to the beginner stage.

That had actually been quite wasteful. After all, cultivation methods usually gained proficiency the fastest in the early stages, while progress only became slower and slower later on.

But judging from the current situation, his decisiveness then had been entirely correct.

Otherwise, Xue Zhao would have caught him red-handed.

The reason he was living in this doghouse now was entirely due to Xue Zhao's arrangements. To curry favor with Wu Han, that man truly would not miss any chance to torment him.

If the other man learned that he had acquired a new cultivation method, he would undoubtedly be in for terrible misfortune.

Jiang Feng turned back and carefully checked the room. Only after confirming that everything was foolproof and no clue could be found did he step out of the little room.

Yet his heart had not truly relaxed, because the real search was still waiting ahead.