Courtyard

"600 cash?" Zhao Feng frowned. For a standalone house with such a large courtyard, the rent was not expensive—it could even be called cheap. But this was the outer city, and times were chaotic. As far as he knew, many families in the outer city with even a little means had moved away, either to the inner city or elsewhere. Therefore, slightly better homes should have become even cheaper to buy or rent. On the contrary, the cheap large inns and shared rentals, such as the row houses by the river where he had lived before, would not become cheaper. They might even rise in price and never lack tenants. After all, more impoverished families were crowding into the outer city.

Seeing him frown, the broker hurriedly said, "Although it's in the outer city, look at the surroundings. This location is among the best areas in the outer city. The furniture and household items are all provided, and it's very close to the Five-Peace Ward you mentioned, right next to it. So this price really isn't expensive."

Zhao Feng turned and walked away. Back when he had been a corporate drone in Magic City on Earth, he had dealt with all kinds of real estate agents. He knew their tricks perfectly well.

"500 cash! The owner's bottom price is 500 cash!" The broker panicked and quickly shouted.

Zhao Feng snorted inwardly but did not expose him. In truth, he had taken a liking to this courtyard at first sight. Five hundred cash was roughly half a tael of silver. With his current finances, that was pocket change, but of course, he could not show it. He put on a show of deliberating for a long time before finally agreeing to rent it.

The gaunt broker finally breathed a sigh of relief. "I'll prepare the contract for you right away." With the world so unsettled, renting out an empty courtyard in the outer city for this price was already quite good. He would even earn a commission.

Once Zhao Feng had signed the contract and paid the rent and commission, he immediately moved into the courtyard in Willow Tree Alley. Looking at the simple furnishings and ample space inside, he nodded in satisfaction.

With the spare rooms, there would be enough space if his family came to live here. He entered his own main room, cleared out the clutter, cleaned it up, then found an empty wooden box. He put the banknotes and pills he carried into it and buried it beneath his bed.

Then he replaced the lock on the front gate and cleared out the open space in the courtyard before finally letting out a breath.

Everything was ready. Next, he would throw himself fully into reaching Dark Force and strive to break through as soon as possible.

At the martial arts hall, Wei Yuan came to find him.

"Junior Brother Zhao, did you know? The Black Tiger Gang you asked about last time was wiped out. Even their leader, Feng Dahu, was hacked to death."

"Oh, I heard." Zhao Feng's expression did not change. The news had spread throughout this part of the outer city; claiming he did not know would only make him look suspicious.

"Everyone outside thinks the Three Harmonies Gang did it."

"But I feel there's something strange about it. Since when did the Three Harmonies Gang become so powerful? Looking at their current momentum, they seem intent on unifying the outer city gangs," Wei Yuan said. Still, he did not take it too seriously. Whether it was the Black Tiger Gang, the Three Harmonies Gang, or any of the others, they were nothing more than outer-city thugs. As long as they did not threaten his family or the inner city, he could not be bothered to care.

Of course, his family had also told them not to provoke the Three Harmonies Gang lightly. The Three Harmonies Gang had connections in the yamen. Naturally, he could not tell Zhao Feng that.

"But the situation now doesn't look promising." Refugees and bandits were growing more rampant by the day. Even in the inner city, some notorious thieves and vicious bandits had begun appearing, and there had even been murder cases. Moreover, he had heard from his family that the political winds in Cong Prefecture might soon change. Whether that would affect those below was still uncertain.

In a three-section courtyard in Treasure Mountain Ward, east of the city.

"Who exactly killed Feng Dahu?" Bald Zhang, leader of the Three Harmonies Gang, was a bald, burly man. He rubbed his bare scalp, unable to make sense of it.

At that moment, Deputy Leader Wang Kui walked over.

"Gang Leader, we can be certain it wasn't our people, nor was it Black Cloud Stronghold. Feng Dahu had offended too many people. The Red Society, Ten Thousand Victories Hall, and the Five Alliances Gang in the western part of the city all could have done it. They must have seized the chance to kill Feng Dahu when he was alone. It's just that the blame has all landed on us now," Wang Kui said.

"Even better. We were already planning to kill a chicken to scare the monkeys. This saves us the trouble. If we say we killed him, then we killed him. Once those other gangs see what happened to Feng Dahu, they'll obediently follow our orders!" Bald Zhang said smugly.

"Gang Leader, but I heard Feng Second Tiger broke through to Dark Force in the prefectural city. If he comes to avenge his brother..." Wang Kui said worriedly.

At the mention of a Dark Force expert, Bald Zhang's expression changed, but he soon relaxed again.

"What's there to fear? We've already pledged ourselves to Black Cloud Stronghold. There's more than one Dark Force expert in the stronghold, and the Stronghold Chief is the renowned martial artist Bloodhand Gu Ming. When the time comes, we'll reveal the name of Black Cloud Stronghold. I don't believe he'll dare make a move," Bald Zhang said.

"Besides, by then, maybe all of Big Stone County will already be our territory. Why the hell should we fear him?" He grinned viciously.

"Gang Leader, even so, I think we should investigate Feng Dahu's cause of death. If Feng Second Tiger comes knocking, we'll have an explanation to give him," Wang Kui said.

"You have a point. I'll leave this matter to you," Bald Zhang said with a nod.

In the courtyard in Willow Tree Alley, Zhao Feng set up a wooden archery target against the courtyard wall. This way, whether he practiced fists or archery, it would be relatively private, and no one could see what was happening inside.

"Cloak Saber Technique." He held the saber manual in his hands and studied it carefully. The manual primarily used illustrations, supplemented by written annotations. Every stance was depicted in great detail. Zhao Feng figured it was intended to make practice easier for martial artists with limited literacy. In this era, martial arts were closely guarded secrets and could not be casually passed on. For instance, he and Wei Yuan had a good relationship, and he could be considered a retainer of the Wei Family, but even Wei Yuan would not dare privately teach him the martial arts and saber techniques collected by the Wei Family.

After studying it for a while, Zhao Feng found that unlike stance training and the fist arts combining inner and outer practice, saber techniques were purely external arts and not difficult to begin learning. As long as he followed the postures in the illustrations, even without instruction, he could get started simply by copying them.

And with the panel at his disposal, that meant that even without a martial arts master's guidance, he could shut himself away and train diligently, slowly raising his mastery of this martial art.

Next, Zhao Feng began thoroughly reading and understanding the introductory essentials of the Cloak Saber Technique, then imitated the illustrated movements.

He practiced until after nightfall.

A flash of white light passed through his mind, and two lines of small words appeared before his eyes.

[Cloak Saber Technique Initiated (1/500)]

He relaxed, walked to the well, drew a bucket of water, and gulped down several ladles. The well water was cool and sweet, and after sweating all over, he felt refreshed from head to toe.

From now on, he only needed to keep practicing this saber technique to raise his proficiency. But Zhao Feng still could not forget the leg technique Feng Dahu had used in his desperate counterattack before dying.

"Eight Extremes Fist strikes like exploding thunder, and its main advantage lies in close-range bursts. Though Pigua can be extended against powerful enemies, its defining trait is its sinking force, and it has no advantage in footwork. If an opponent has nimble leg techniques and movement, and neither close combat nor Pigua can take them down, how should I deal with that?" Zhao Feng was good at thinking things through. He recalled his spar with Xu Song. He had won because he had kept Xu Song entangled and given him no chance to catch his breath. But if his opponent had agile movement and he could no longer get close, how should he respond? He repeatedly reviewed the spar in his mind. If the opponent opened up the distance and the Surging Waves Palm came crashing in layer upon layer, then under the condition that he could not close in and his footwork was inferior to the other man's, he would truly be at a great disadvantage. He needed to ask his master about this problem.