Over the next few days, the entire Su Family remained under heavy guard. Every evening, the lanterns in the residence were lit and hung high well before nightfall, shining much brighter than before. Guards patrolled back and forth without pause along every Bluestone Avenue within the grounds.
At Sunset Glow Courtyard, aside from cultivating, Lin Fan sometimes stood quietly on the rooftop at night, sharpening his mid Bone Tempering Realm senses to perceive the movements around him. Even the sound of ants nibbling food on the ground dozens of meters away became clearly audible.
To prepare for any battles that might arise, Lin Fan had also specially refined many pills for use in combat, enhancing his strength, explosive power, endurance, recovery, and more. Naturally, every batch was still high-grade. Moreover, he refined eight or nine portions of ingredients together each time, producing eight or nine high-grade pills in a single batch. He had someone deliver some to Su Yuanshan and still kept plenty for himself.
Several days later, the people the Su Family had sent to gather information brought back fresh intelligence. The Flower Thief had already left the towns where he had previously wreaked havoc. His trail had vanished, and no one knew where he had gone.
Of course, this was both good news and bad news for the Su Residence. The good news was that he might have left and moved far away from the surrounding area. The bad news was that he might have come here instead, since his whereabouts could no longer be traced.
A few more days passed uneventfully. Lin Fan's cultivation steadily improved. Although the atmosphere within the Su Residence remained tense, nothing had happened yet. As he felt his strength growing every day, what little worry he had gradually faded. He also began smiling more again when spending time with his wife, Su Qingwei. His younger sister, Lin Ruoruo, and the Golden Rat were even more relaxed, eating and drinking as usual every day without letting any worries lodge in their little heads. The laughter and squeaks of the girl and rat playing together often rang through the courtyard.
What Lin Fan did not know at that moment was that, besides the Flower Thief, another storm was brewing in the town.
Within the White Ram Gang's headquarters in town, the gang leader's cultivation chamber was filled with a deathly gloom.
The cultivation chamber's heavy stone door was tightly shut, cutting off every sound from outside. All that remained was a turbulent martial aura churning violently within.
The White Ram Gang leader sat cross-legged on the floor, his entire body shaking violently and his veins bulging. Unlike the steady, imposing presence he had displayed in the main hall before, his aura was now in disarray. Some of the flesh within his body had ruptured, and the energy in his meridians surged chaotically against its proper flow.
"Pfft—!"
Finally, the White Ram Gang leader violently spat out a great mouthful of hot, crimson blood. It splashed onto the bluestone floor before him, leaving a glaring, horrifying stain.
He felt pain stabbing through every meridian like knives, while his aura surged violently. Just moments earlier, he had clearly touched that sliver of opportunity at the barrier to the late Bone Tempering Realm, yet it had ultimately collapsed completely.
The White Ram Gang leader had used many precious pills and several supporting treasures to attempt a breakthrough to the late Bone Tempering Realm. He had failed.
He sighed inwardly. In the end, his accumulated foundation had still been insufficient, falling just a hair short. Not only had this forced breakthrough failed, but he had also suffered a backlash that left him considerably injured.
Although the White Ram Gang leader looked middle-aged, that was only because his relatively high martial cultivation helped preserve his appearance. His true age had already reached sixty. Moreover, breakthroughs became somewhat harder as martial artists grew older. Combined with the pressure from Lin Fan and the Su Family, this had driven the White Ram Gang leader to force a breakthrough now. He had never expected it to fail.
He had cultivated bitterly for more than ten years, consuming much of the gang's savings and countless treasures of heaven and earth, all to enter the late Bone Tempering Realm in one stroke. This breakthrough had also been meant to let him stand against the Su Family and Lin Fan and reclaim his authority in town. Yet all his efforts had come to nothing at the final hurdle!
Dead silence lingered in the chamber for a while before the White Ram Gang leader's towering fury tore it apart. His eyes were scarlet, their depths covered in dense threads of blood, and he looked utterly deranged. He suddenly raised his head, his teeth clenched tight. His entire face twisted into a savage grimace, revealing a terrifying unwillingness to accept defeat and a vicious rage.
"Why?!" His furious roar made the chamber hum and tremble, sending dust showering down.
Then he abruptly raised his hand and slammed his iron fist into the solid square stone table beside him, carved from a single massive slab of hard bluestone.
Boom!
The entire thousand-jin bluestone table exploded on the spot. Stone fragments flew in every direction, smashing into the surrounding walls and the other objects in the chamber, instantly leaving countless densely packed pits.
The anger, resentment, and humiliation the White Ram Gang leader had suppressed for so long erupted in utter madness at that moment.
"I cultivated bitterly for more than ten years! Why should I be stuck at this barrier?!"
He staggered to his feet, violent energy roiling around him. The movement aggravated his internal injuries, making his blood surge again. His chest heaved, and his heavy breathing sounded like a beast's panting.
The White Ram Gang leader thought of Lin Fan again. He was merely a boy in his teens, yet he had so easily attained Bone Tempering Realm cultivation.
That immense disparity made the jealousy and hatred in his heart grow wildly, almost burning away every shred of reason. "Talent? Fortunate encounters?!" The White Ram Gang leader's eyes bulged with rage. He clenched his hands so tightly that his knuckles cracked. "I refuse to accept this!"
His failed breakthrough had not only left his cultivation without any improvement, but had also inflicted backlash and injuries upon him. He was already sixty, and the three body-tempering realms did not extend one's lifespan. He could live to a hundred at most. With the hidden injuries accumulated over years of gang conflicts, he might not even reach that age.
He had spent more than ten years building up his cultivation for this breakthrough to the late Bone Tempering Realm. But now that he had failed, not only had all those years of accumulation been wiped away, he would also need nearly twenty more years to build it up again after recovering from his injuries before he could attempt another breakthrough. In twenty years, he would already be eighty. Whether he would even be alive then was uncertain.
This meant that, barring anything unexpected, the White Ram Gang leader would remain in the mid Bone Tempering Realm for the rest of his life. That was why he had been so furious just now. From now on, the White Ram Gang would forever be kept a head beneath the Su Family in this town.
The trusted gang members guarding the door heard the crashes inside and their leader's furious howls. Every one of them trembled in fear, lowering their heads and keeping silent, not even daring to breathe loudly. Judging by this, he had clearly failed.
A long time passed.
Only then did the frenzied smashing inside the chamber gradually cease.
Panting heavily, the White Ram Gang leader stood amid the wreckage strewn across the floor. A chilling viciousness filled his eyes, with not a trace of his former composure remaining.
He clenched his fists tightly, his voice cold and hoarse.
"If I can't break through by normal means, then what about the demonic path?!"
Within the Su Family Estate.
Over the following days, the Flower Thief seemed to have been a flower that bloomed for only a moment. The scouts sent out by the Su Family found no further news about him, and the Imperial Court's official notices carried no updates either.
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