Old Wood Conceals Profound Secrets, Unlocking the Progress Panel

Back at Cloud Perch Courtyard, Liu Yunche indeed saw a pile of old items on the first floor.

A letter lay beside them, explaining the origins of these old things. Liu Yunche picked it up and read it carefully before turning his gaze to the pile.

He casually picked up a dressing mirror with mottled verdigris around its edges. Its cloudy yellow surface reflected Liu Yunche's blurry figure.

It was said to have been passed down from the young lady of some fallen family.

Unfortunately, the equipment slot showed no reaction at all.

Setting the dressing mirror aside, Liu Yunche picked up a severely damaged dagger instead. It was reportedly a burial object that had accompanied an old soldier.

There was no disappointment on Liu Yunche's face. He merely shook his head and set it aside.

Liu Yunche picked up a chipped earthen bowl. It was said to be an heirloom of a certain family.

That family's ancestor had originally been nothing more than a beggar. Relying on the earthen bowl in his hands, he had begged his way along the roads, only to eventually build up an enormous aristocratic family.

"Born lowly, yet he managed to found an entire family. That ancestor was truly someone remarkable."

"What a pity his descendants were incompetent."

Liu Yunche shook his head and set the earthen bowl aside. Clearly, this was not the "equipment" he sought either.

None of the next several items stirred any reaction from the equipment slot.

Just as Liu Yunche thought none of the items in this pile met the requirements, he picked up a wooden board with several crooked, blurry lines of writing on it.

A prompt sounded in his mind. Liu Yunche froze, then delight flashed in his eyes as he recalled the wooden board's origins.

"Dug out of the beach by a fisherman?"

Liu Yunche did not think further. Once it was recorded in the equipment slot, he would naturally learn its origins.

The next moment, the wooden board vanished from his hand. Its corresponding history and ability surfaced in Liu Yunche's mind.

Countless streams of light intertwined before Liu Yunche's eyes, as though endless mysteries flowed within them.

It seemed like an instant, yet also like an eternity.

A panel suddenly appeared before Liu Yunche.

[Name: Liu Yunche]

[Age: 16]

[Cultivation: Iron Skin (83/100)]

[Martial Arts: Nurturing Origin Stance (Perfected), Gale Swift Saber (Perfected), Thunderclap Saber Art (Lesser Mastery: 124/1000), Eight Steps Chasing Cicada (Beginner: 29/100)]

"Heaven rewards diligence? Once proven, forever proven?"

A strange look appeared on Liu Yunche's face. Wasn't this the golden finger—the proficiency panel—belonging to the protagonist of those ultimate-path novels? How had it ended up with him?

A flash of light passed by, and an image appeared in Liu Yunche's mind.

Within the image, a boy was holding a charcoal pencil, writing stroke by stroke upon the wooden board.

It had been left behind by his deceased parents, who had told the boy that as long as he wrote what he wished to say to them upon it, they would know.

Thus, the boy hugged the wooden board every day, writing and drawing upon it.

Yet one night, raging flames filled the village, and everything burned.

The scene in Liu Yunche's mind sped forward, finally freezing on a pair of small hands. Those hands clutched the wooden board and fled swiftly away.

[A peerless powerhouse's beloved "words" board from his childhood, recording his profound longing for his parents.]

[After embedding, ability obtained—Manifestation of All Things!]

[Manifestation of All Things: All skills learned by the host can be manifested as concrete progress. Whatever is learned shall surely be displayed.]

[Refinement time: Three months!]

"Isn't this just a proficiency panel?"

"To think even an ability like this could be unlocked through embedding. My golden finger truly keeps springing the unexpected."

Liu Yunche's expression remained calm and unruffled, with only a restrained smile in his eyes. Having lived two lives, he was no longer someone who wore his joy and anger upon his face.

Maturity, restraint, composure, and caution—those were his true colors.

He picked up the last old item, then set it aside as well. Getting a panel ability from this pile had already been an unexpected delight. He did not ask for more.

"From Grandfather's Goose-Feather Saber, to the shoes inherited by Zhang Laosan's family, and now this wooden board."

"All three were connected to their original owners, and all contained intense emotions."

Thinking of this, Liu Yunche picked up the earthen bowl again and examined it over and over.

Its original owner had used it to beg all along the road, and it had been passed down as a family heirloom. It surely contained intense emotions as well.

So why could it still not be recorded and embedded by the equipment slot?

Liu Yunche set down the earthen bowl and pondered for a long while. He could not help recalling the introduction to the wooden board's owner.

"A peerless powerhouse..."

"Could it be that recording equipment requires not only intense emotions within the object, but also a certain requirement for the cultivation realm of its original owner?"

There was no way to verify this for now, so Liu Yunche silently buried the thought in his heart.

After storing the earthen bowl separately, Liu Yunche carried "Concealed Edge" into the courtyard and began practicing the Thunderclap Saber Art.

Ever since obtaining the Thunderclap Saber Art, Liu Yunche had secretly studied and painstakingly practiced it.

With the ability of a saber arts master, he had even cultivated it to the realm of lesser mastery.

As he drew his saber, the blade sliced through the air and left faint white traces. He raised his hand to chop, thrust, sweep, and crash—every move carried the force of rushing thunder, while the weight and openness of each strike followed his will completely.

Liu Yunche no longer deliberately strained himself. Everything seemed perfectly natural.

With a thought from Liu Yunche, the saber's speed abruptly increased severalfold.

Layers upon layers of saber shadows crashed down from the sky, each strike carrying a faint trembling sound of thunder. Liu Yunche was deliberately suppressing the noise.

Force coursed through all four limbs and every bone. His movements were no longer stiff, while fierce thunderous force clung to the blade. Airwaves surged with every chop and slash, and inch-long saber marks appeared across the surrounding stone benches, tables, and chairs.

Liu Yunche sheathed his saber and stood still, the long blade braced against the ground. Fine cracks spread shallowly across the earth, while faint fragmented thunder lingered in the surroundings for a long time. This was what lesser mastery in the Thunderclap Saber Art looked like.

After practicing it once, the panel also showed the corresponding change.

[Thunderclap Saber Art (Lesser Mastery: 124/1000) → 125/1000)]

When practicing the saber art just now, Liu Yunche had clearly felt himself improve.

With the boost of a saber arts master, cultivating saber-based martial arts was like getting twice the result with half the effort.

With the panel, why fear that the road ahead would be rough and arduous?

As the saying went, where there was a will, there was a way. Now that every bit of progress in martial arts could be seen, he felt the road ahead was broad and bright.

After settling his excited feelings, Liu Yunche turned and returned to the second floor to sleep.

Early the next morning, Liu Yunche arrived at the Martial Academy.

At this time, there were many disciples in the Martial Academy. Most had come to collect their rewards, while some had not participated in the hunt and had merely come to join the excitement.

At the center of White Jade Square, the disciples formed a long queue as they exchanged their rewards at the steward's station. The entire square buzzed with voices and extraordinary liveliness.

Disciples from the martial schools within the city had come as well, among them Han Xu, who had fought Liu Yunche.

Liu Yunche entered White Jade Square alone and unobtrusively. Just as he was about to join the queue, he caught sight of Liu Yu and his group gathered together from the corner of his eye.

"Senior Brother Liu, have you heard?" a disciple whispered.

Liu Yu frowned slightly and asked impatiently,

"Heard what?"

He had had no shortage of worries lately. His family had urged him to cultivate diligently, and their supervision of him had become far stricter.

He had not gone out for several days. In particular, after the several branch-family disciples who had followed Liu Tianlin on the hunt returned and received rewards,

his father's supervision over him had grown even harsher. He had only been allowed out today because he claimed he was going to cultivate at the Martial Academy.

Already in a foul mood, he had even less patience for such suspenseful words.

The disciple wore a fawning smile and hurriedly said in a low voice, "Senior Brother Liu, Zheng Shen is dead."

As soon as those words were spoken, the eyes of everyone around him fell upon him, filled with disbelief.

Liu Yunche, who stood some distance away, paused in his steps and could not help sharpening his attention.

Liu Yu's brow furrowed even more deeply, his face full of disbelief.

Though he wanted to berate the disciple, Liu Yu was ultimately from the Liu Household and did not wish to make a scene. At the same time, he wanted to preserve the bearing of a disciple from an aristocratic family.

The disciple hurriedly said, "I passed by the Zheng Clan today. White mourning silk was hanging from the side gate."

His tone carried a trace of speculation. "I just don't know why there was no white mourning silk at the main gate."

Liu Yunche did not know what Liu Yu and the others said afterward.

He had already walked away, murmuring to himself,

"Could Father have done it?"

The reward exchange in White Jade Square was proceeding in full swing.

It was soon Liu Yunche's turn. Eager to return and ask Liu Wangzhou, he hastily collected his reward and left.

When Han Xu emerged from the crowd, all that remained for him was Liu Yunche's blurry retreating figure.

Han Xu withdrew his gaze and tightened his grip around the Martial Treasure long saber in his hand. He murmured, "There will be a chance..."

Liu Yunche deliberately passed by the Zheng Clan and glanced over from afar. Sure enough, just as that person had said, white mourning silk hung at the side gate, and one or two servants were burning paper offerings in the alley.

After withdrawing his gaze, Liu Yunche headed straight back.

The Liu Household in the eastern part of the city.

When Liu Yunche found his father, Liu Wangzhou was sitting in a chair with an ancient book in his hands.

Liu Wangzhou leisurely set down the ancient book and said with a smile,

"Why did you return so early today?"

Liu Yunche curiously glanced at the ancient book, took a deep breath, then said,

"Father, Zheng Shen is dead."

"Oh?" A trace of surprise flashed through Liu Wangzhou's eyes.

He then slowly poured himself a cup of hot tea and said with a chuckle, "That was not my doing."

"It wasn't Father?"

Liu Yunche took the teapot and poured himself a cup as well.

"Of course." Liu Wangzhou took a light sip of tea. After a moment, he said unhurriedly, "I merely sent a strand of force into Zheng Shen's body."

"Making him unable to live, yet unable to die."

His words were calm, yet what he said made Liu Yunche's heart jump.

"Father, can I learn that force?" Liu Yunche suddenly asked.

Liu Wangzhou was briefly stunned, then burst into laughter. "Naturally."

Whether his son was simply broad-minded or something else, Liu Wangzhou did not know.

But such a steady heart was excellent. He did not panic when faced with trouble, and he was calm and poised.

"Since Zheng Shen is dead, let this matter end here." Liu Wangzhou set down his teacup and said softly.

Liu Yunche nodded. With Zheng Shen dead, the leads in this poisoning case had been severed. If he wanted to investigate new leads, he could only look toward the Zheng Clan.

Yet as one of Verdant Grain County's aristocratic families, while the Zheng Clan was not among the very top, it still had several Bone Tempering Realm martial artists within its ranks.

The Liu Household had only Father Liu as a Bone Tempering Realm martial artist. It truly was not wise to provoke them.

Liu Yunche kept this matter in his heart. Once his strength was sufficient in the future, there would surely be repayment.

"Father, then I'll return first."

"Go."

Only after Liu Yunche had gone far away did Liu Wangzhou slowly rise with his teacup in hand and walk to the window lattice. Looking into the distance, his expression remained calm, but a deep killing intent flashed in the depths of his eyes.

Night shrouded the sky, and heavy clouds filled the heavens.

The Zheng Clan.

Zheng Yu was handling affairs in his study.

In a hall somewhere within the Zheng Clan, white mourning silk hung everywhere, and a coffin lay before the hall.

A beautiful woman nearing middle age sat collapsed before the mourning altar, weeping.

"Shen'er, my son..."

The wind rustled through the courtyard, carrying the mournful cries laced with suppressed grief as they drifted out intermittently.

Zheng Yu set down his brush and turned his head toward the mourning hall, unable to stop himself from frowning.

"Patriarch, should this old servant go remind Madam..." Behind Zheng Yu, an elderly man who looked like a steward spoke at the appropriate moment.

Zheng Yu was about to lose his temper, but upon hearing the old man's voice, he impatiently waved his hand and sighed.

"Let her be."

"Yes." The old man answered, then silently retreated to the side.

The dense clouds dispersed, and the bright moon hung high in the sky.

By then, the night had grown deep, and the old man had long since withdrawn.

After Zheng Yu finished handling his affairs, he prepared to return to his room to sleep. Yet as he walked through the corridor, a sense of unease lingered in his heart.

Zheng Yu soon learned where that unease came from.

A figure stood silently ahead. It made not the slightest sound, yet completely blocked Zheng Yu's path.

Zheng Yu said in a deep voice, "Who are you, Your Excellency? Visiting so late at night, what business do you have?"

His gaze fell upon the newcomer as he observed carefully without revealing anything, attempting to find a flaw in the person before him.

"You need not know." A deep, hoarse voice came from ahead.

He formed a fist seal, and a strand of force spread out, shaking the air.

"This is..."

Zheng Yu's eyes narrowed as he stared intently at the force surrounding that fist seal.

"It's you!!!" Zheng Yu snarled.

He recognized this force clearly. It was identical to the force within his son Zheng Shen's body.

It was this force that had tortured Zheng Shen until he no longer resembled a human. Unable to bear watching his son live in agony, he had ultimately been forced to let white-haired grief send off black-haired grief.

"How daring!" Zheng Yu roared as his body shot forward.

Zheng Yu's shout was like a boulder plunging into a lake. The Zheng Clan's Bone Tempering Realm martial artists had heard the alarm and were rushing in this direction.

As the saying went, new grudges and old debts would be settled together. In Zheng Yu's eyes, the person before him was the true culprit behind his son's death.

And now, this person had even infiltrated the Zheng Clan with the intention of attacking him. One crime piled atop another.

Zheng Yu's bones crackled, while waves of rumbling thundered from his chest. The entire corridor seemed filled with thunderclaps and lightning, alarming the Zheng Clan martial artists.

This was a Bone Tempering Realm martial artist. Usually, they hid their strength without showing a trace, but when they truly made a move, they were like a fierce tiger descending the mountain, a flood dragon surging from the sea, their momentum vast and mighty.

Zheng Yu had thought it through clearly. He did not know the depths of the person before him, so it would be best to swarm him in a single file and forget any talk of rules.

Zheng Yu unleashed the Zheng Clan's inherited high-grade martial art—the Pine-Waves Forest-Sea Seal.

The Pine-Waves Seal in his left hand, the Forest-Sea Seal in his right.

The two seals struck out together like wind howling through mountain forests, carrying an immense oppressive force.

Facing this terrifying blow, the person before him did not move in the slightest, as though he had no time to react and had been frightened senseless.

At the sight, Zheng Yu's heart instead gave a jolt. He did not believe that someone possessing such force could fail to react.

But the arrow was already on the string and had to be loosed. If he abruptly withdrew his power now, he would only inflict serious internal injuries upon himself.

At that thought, the savagery in his eyes deepened, and the force in his hands increased by another thirty percent.

Just as the power of his fist seals crashed into the person before him, a faint crimson current of qi and blood flowed around that person's body.

"Qi-Blood Realm!!!"

Zheng Yu stared with his eyes nearly splitting apart at the film of qi formed from condensed blood and vitality. Before he could react, his body was blasted backward with a thunderous crash, smashing heavily into a beam pillar.