The White Ram Gang Leader's Failed Breakthrough

Over the following days, the Su Family was on high alert. Every nightfall, lanterns throughout the estate were lit early and hung high, shining far brighter than before, while patrolling guards streamed endlessly along every bluestone road.

At Sunset Glow Courtyard, besides cultivating, Lin Fan would sometimes stand quietly atop the roof at night, activating the five senses of his Mid Bone Tempering Realm cultivation to perceive the movements around him. At once, even the sound of ants gnawing at food dozens of meters away became crystal clear.

To prepare for and guard against possible battles in the future, Lin Fan had specially refined many pills for combat, enhancing his strength, explosive power, endurance, recovery, and more in battle. Naturally, every batch was still of top grade. Each time he refined pills, he would process eight or nine portions of medicinal ingredients at once, producing eight or nine top-grade pills in a single batch. He had someone deliver some to Su Yuanshan, while he still kept quite a few for himself.

A few days later, the people the Su Family had sent out to gather information returned with new intelligence. The Flower Thief had already left the several towns where he had previously caused trouble. His whereabouts had vanished, and no one knew where he had gone.

Naturally, this was both good news and bad news for the Su Residence. The good news was that he might have left, moving far away from this region. The bad news was that he might have arrived, since they could no longer track his movements.

Several peaceful days passed like this. Lin Fan's cultivation was also steadily improving. Though the atmosphere within the Su Residence remained tense, nothing had happened in the end. Feeling his strength increase day by day, the little worry Lin Fan had in his heart gradually dissipated. When he was with his wife, Su Qingwei, each day, his smiles began to return as well. His younger sister Lin Ruoruo and the Golden Rat were even more relaxed, eating when it was time to eat and drinking when it was time to drink, never burdening their little heads with anything. Laughter and squeaking from one girl and one rat often rang out in the courtyard as they played.

At this moment, however, Lin Fan did not know that aside from the Flower Thief, another storm was brewing in the small town.

Within the town, at the White Ram Gang's headquarters, the cultivation chamber of the White Ram Gang leader was steeped in a deathly stillness.

The heavy stone door to the cultivation chamber was tightly shut, cutting off every sound from outside. Only a chaotic martial aura churned violently within the room.

The White Ram Gang leader, seated cross-legged on the ground, was trembling violently from head to toe, veins bulging. Unlike the calm, imposing presence he had displayed in the main hall before, his aura was now in complete disarray. Flesh had ruptured inside his body, and his internal meridians surged backward in chaotic currents.

"Puh—!"

In the end, the White Ram Gang leader violently spat out a mouthful of scarlet, steaming blood. It splashed across the bluestone floor before him, its red stains glaring and horrifying.

He felt as though every meridian in his body had been sliced by knives, while his aura roiled violently. He had clearly touched upon that sliver of opportunity at the barrier to the Late Bone Tempering Realm, yet in the end, it had completely collapsed with a crash.

The White Ram Gang leader had used many precious pills and several auxiliary treasures to charge at the Late Bone Tempering Realm. He had failed.

He sighed inwardly. In the end, his accumulation had still been insufficient—he had fallen short by a thread. This forced breakthrough had not only failed, but had also brought a backlash upon him, leaving him seriously injured.

Though the White Ram Gang leader looked only middle-aged, that was merely the youth-preserving effect of his relatively high martial cultivation. His true age had already reached sixty. Moreover, once martial artists grew old, the difficulty of breaking through increased accordingly. Adding the pressure from Lin Fan and the Su Family, the White Ram Gang leader had chosen to force this breakthrough. Who would have thought that he would actually fail?

He had cultivated bitterly for more than ten years, exhausting much of the gang's savings and countless heavenly treasures, all to step into the Late Bone Tempering Realm in one stroke. This breakthrough had also been meant to let him contend with the Su Family and Lin Fan, reclaiming the right to speak in the town. Yet all his efforts had come to nothing!

The cultivation chamber fell silent for a moment. Then that silence was utterly torn apart by the White Ram Gang leader's towering roar of fury. His eyes were bloodshot, dense veins filling them, and he looked utterly crazed. He suddenly raised his head, clenching his teeth tight, his entire face twisted in hideous distortion, revealing a terrifying unwillingness and brutality.

"Why?!" His furious roar made the cultivation chamber hum and tremble, while dust rained down in streams.

Then he abruptly raised his hand, his iron fist smashing toward the solid square stone table beside him, carved from a single massive block of hard blue stone.

Boom!

The thousand-pound bluestone table exploded and shattered on the spot. Broken stones flew in every direction, smashing viciously into the surrounding walls and other objects in the cultivation chamber, instantly leaving countless dense pits and scars throughout the room.

The White Ram Gang leader's rage, unwillingness, and humiliation, suppressed for so long, erupted in complete madness at this moment.

"I cultivated bitterly for more than ten years—why am I stuck at this stage?!"

He staggered to his feet, his aura rolling with savage violence. His internal injuries were stirred, and another surge of blood and qi rose within him. His chest heaved fiercely, his breathing heavy as a beast's panting.

The White Ram Gang leader thought again of Lin Fan. He was merely a teenager, yet he had attained the Bone Tempering Realm so easily.

That vast disparity caused the jealousy and hatred in his heart to grow wildly, nearly burning away every shred of reason. "Talent? Fortuitous encounters?!" The White Ram Gang leader's eyes were split wide with rage. His hands clenched so tightly that his knuckles crackled. "I refuse to accept this!!"

This failed breakthrough had not only prevented the White Ram Gang leader from advancing in realm, but had instead injured him through the backlash. He was already sixty years old. The Three Body-Tempering Realms did not increase one's lifespan, and he could live to at most a hundred. With the hidden wounds from years of gang conflicts added in, perhaps he would not even live to see a hundred.

For this attempt to break through to the Late Bone Tempering Realm, the White Ram Gang leader had accumulated cultivation for more than ten years. Yet now that the breakthrough had failed, not only had all those years of accumulation been wiped clean, but after recovering from his injuries, he would need at least another twenty years of accumulation before he could attempt the Late Bone Tempering Realm again. By then, he would already be eighty. Whether he would even still be alive was uncertain.

Thus, barring an unforeseen opportunity, this meant that the White Ram Gang leader would remain at the Mid Bone Tempering Realm for the rest of his life. That was why he had been so violently enraged just now. From now on, the White Ram Gang would forever be crushed beneath the Su Family in this town.

Several trusted gang members standing guard outside heard the tremendous crash and their leader's furious howls. Every one of them trembled all over, bowing their heads in silence, not even daring to breathe loudly. The situation clearly meant he had failed.

A long while later.

Only then did the mad sounds of smashing within the cultivation chamber gradually cease.

The White Ram Gang leader stood amid the wreckage, gasping heavily, a grim and vicious glint in his eyes. Not a trace of his former steadiness remained.

He clenched his fists tightly, his voice cold and hoarse.

"If a normal breakthrough cannot succeed... then what about the demonic path?!"

Within the Su Family Estate.

Over the following days, the Flower Thief seemed to have appeared like an epiphyllum bloom, vanishing just as quickly. The spies sent out by the Su Family never uncovered any further news related to him. No updates appeared in the notices issued by the imperial authorities either.