Inner Sect Third Senior Brother

Just as Su Xinghe was about to practice his punches,

something suddenly stirred in his heart.

His gaze involuntarily fell upon those seven bottles of Bone-Forging Pills.

Others could only take one Qi-Replenishing Pill a day, but he could eat several at once like candy. Then what about these Bone-Forging Pills, which others needed to reach the Upper Ninth Rank before they could take?

At the thought, his Adam's apple bobbed.

They were both Ninth Grade Realm pills. Nothing should go wrong, right...

He had long suffered enough from having no pills.

A hard-to-suppress impulse rose from the depths of his heart.

"Let's do it!"

He had Fate traits. At worst, he could just dig it out with his fingers.

He was fairly reassured about the safety of these pills. At the very least, the opened bottle had originally been one Lü Chenggong had been taking himself.

He poured out one pill and tossed it into his mouth.

It was also icy cold, and it did not melt upon entering his mouth.

A pungent, spicy sensation shot straight into his head.

If Qi-Replenishing Pills were like summer-cooling Ren Dan pellets, then this Bone-Forging Pill was mustard seasoning.

It choked him so badly that tears nearly streamed from his eyes.

Su Xinghe hurriedly picked up the teapot beside him and gulped down tea.

Boom!

A surge of qi and blood at least four or five times stronger than the Qi-Replenishing Pill suddenly erupted from his stomach.

The medicinal strength seemed manageable. It would not burst him apart anytime soon.

"Practice!"

"Test it with my own fist art first..."

As the Golden Ape Earth-Splitting Art circulated, an endless stream of qi and blood gathered in his chest.

Ten minutes later.

An incomparably condensed force of qi and blood slammed into the flesh of his lower abdomen.

"Diligence Makes Up for Dullness, a hundred practices a day."

"Golden Ape Earth-Splitting Art, experience +1."

A fist-sized bruise immediately appeared on his lower abdomen, and bone-piercing pain struck him.

But he still could not stop.

The medicinal power in his stomach seemed endless. If he dared stop, it might burst his body apart.

The second round...

The third round...

After five rounds in succession, the qi and blood within his body finally subsided.

Su Xinghe withdrew his art and stood still, sensing the changes in his body.

At this point, half of his lower abdomen had turned black and blue.

Only after a long while did he finally let out a deep breath.

Not only had the pill not upset his stomach, his condition was astonishingly good instead.

He focused his mind on the Fate Panel.

``` "Su Xinghe: White Ape Martial Academy (Outer Disciple)"

"Martial Dao: Ninth Grade Realm (Body Tempering 56%)"

"Fate: Diligence Makes Up for Dullness"

"Trait 1: Water-Tight, Unyielding"

"Trait 2: Grains of Sand Build a Tower, When Water Flows, a Channel Forms"

"Dripping Water Swordsmanship (First Glimpse of the Path) 0/100"

"Listening to Tides Art (Transcendent Mastery) 1330/100000"

"Golden Ape Earth-Splitting Art (Perfect Mastery) 3226/10000"

"Ascending Dragon Stance (Hall-Entering) 566/1000"

"Incomplete Red Lotus Treasure Vase Qi 0/10000"

One Bone-Forging Pill had actually raised him by five whole percentage points!

This...

Su Xinghe looked at the seven small porcelain bottles in the wooden box.

Though each bottle of Bone-Forging Pills held only ten pills, he had a full six and a half bottles!

"Sixty-six more pills. I've struck it rich!"

After completing the test, he began cultivating with the two silver little figures in the Consciousness Space within his mind.

Another Bone-Forging Pill went down, and qi and blood surged wildly through his body.

Ten minutes later.

"Diligence Makes Up for Dullness, a hundred practices a day."

"Golden Ape Earth-Splitting Art, experience +2."

"...+2."

"...+1."

Before he knew it,

sounds of drawing water and washing came from the backyard. Outside the window, the sky had already brightened with a pale strip of dawn.

After tidying his room, he went into the courtyard to draw water and wash up.

Hearing the movement, Su Haitao came out to take a look.

"Brother, Mother told you to eat breakfast."

"Right away!"

Breakfast was a pot of porridge, stewed with shredded chicken and mixed with pickled dried bamboo shoots. The five of them chatted on and off, while Su Xinghe took the chance to observe the sturdy, formidable younger sister-in-law opposite him.

As usual, Yang Huaiyu did not say much. She merely listened silently and buried her head in her food.

It was as though nothing that had happened last night had ever occurred.

Prices in the city had risen again recently. Their family's security tax and shop tax were now comparable to the prices in the bustling southern district.

Lu Zhengyi, head of the Lu Family, would celebrate his birthday next month. This month, the head tax in the neighborhood might increase again.

Wages at the docks had fallen again. A strong laborer could earn only four copper coins a day.

What could four copper coins do? It was hard enough to buy four buns with that.

Travel Pass Talismans were becoming less and less durable. They used to last ten days to half a month, but now they expired after seven or eight days. However, the Goddess Temple at the northern end of the city seemed to have a solution.

Su Xinghe listened as well.

He felt that life in the city was becoming harder and harder. The Lu Family seemed determined to drive the poor out of the city.

It left a bitter taste in his heart.

After breakfast, he secretly slipped his father a hundred-tael silver note, then went to the Martial Arts School.

White Ape Martial Academy, training grounds.

Su Xinghe set down the five-hundred-jin stone lock in his hand and walked over to the strength-testing sandbag nearby. He sank his shoulder, twisted his hips, and threw a punch. The four-hundred-and-eighty-jin sandbag swung high into the air.

"Good!"

Before the sandbag could even fall back down, Xie Guang could not help clapping and shouting his praise.

"Five hundred jin of strength in one arm, and four hundred eighty jin in punching force. Excellent. Even among those at the Inner Tempering level, you count as a capable hand."

He looked at Su Xinghe with a gratified expression.

Early that morning, Su Xinghe had come in and told him he could lift a five-hundred-jin stone lock.

He had thought the boy was boasting.

Who would have expected this lad to break through to Inner Tempering without making a sound?

"Congratulations, Second Senior Brother!"

"As expected of Second Senior Brother! You'll be an Inner Disciple from now on."

"That's right, we'll have to call you Third Senior Brother from now on!"

The watching disciples wore envious expressions as they stepped forward one after another to offer congratulations.

Though they were all in the midst of growing, and their strength had visibly increased after learning true arts, they also had Bone-Strengthening Soup to nourish themselves. Yet even the strongest among them could only manage around two hundred jin.

Who would have thought that their Second Senior Brother, also an Outer Disciple, possessed more than twice their strength?

"Alright, all of you should take your Senior Brother Su as your example and strive to become Inner Disciples as soon as possible."

"Now get back to practicing your punches!"

Seeing that the commotion had gone on long enough, Xie Guang began chasing everyone off.

Su Xinghe's talent was now an open secret among the White Ape Martial Academy's upper ranks. Only the old hands from the Brokerage Guild knew that he had trained in martial arts for less than three months.

These new disciples only knew that their Second Senior Brother among the Outer Disciples had broken through to Inner Tempering. But for fifteen- or sixteen-year-old youths like them, someone reaching Inner Tempering at twenty-two was actually nothing remarkable.

"You, come with me."

At the back of the crowd, Liu Bin hid in a corner with a dejected expression.

He was one of the old hands from the Brokerage Guild, and he knew that this Junior Brother Su's talent far surpassed his own.

The thought of his own circumstances twisted his heart like a knife.

East City, Lu Family estate.

Inside a blue-brick pavilion adorned with carved beams and painted rafters.

Lu Zhengquan, the Lu Family's Second Master, was being attended by a young maid as she combed his hair beside the bed.

Strands of silver hair slid through the girl's jade-smooth fingers, and waves of subtle fragrance intoxicated him.

A rough, large hand slowly slipped into the crimson cotton silk before anyone noticed. It went from tentative groping to wanton wandering.

After a moment, the young maid's eyes became as seductive as silk as she bit her lower lip, and half her body slowly went limp.

Just as someone was about to press further, a knock at the door downstairs interrupted him.

He frowned slightly and looked toward the middle-aged serving woman standing outside the curtain.

Very quickly, the servant woman brought him a piece of news.

His nephew, Lu Xuanlin, requested an audience.

If it had been any other nephew, Lu Zhengquan, as the county commandant, could have dismissed him with a single word.

But Lu Xuanlin was different.

Not only was he the son of the Lu Family's Third Master, he was also an important person the Lu Family had painstakingly placed in the Third Division of the Martial Dao Bureau.

One of the officials in charge of Lin County's Public Security Office, an Upper Ninth Rank Martial Warrior.

He could bring the Lu Family certain information from the higher ranks of the Martial Dao Bureau.

He withdrew his hand and wiped it on the young maid's soft breasts. After straightening his clothes and cap, he finally headed outside.

"Second Uncle, Liu Jin from my father's side may have run into trouble!"

The moment they met, Lu Xuanlin gave him a "pleasant surprise," extinguishing the trace of heat he had brought out of the room.

As he walked toward the desk, he asked,

"What happened?"

Lu Xuanlin quickly recounted the information he had just received.

It turned out that the Fierce Tiger Martial Hall in the western part of the city had suffered an incident in the middle of the night.

The entire Martial Arts School had been wiped clean overnight, not even a chicken or dog left behind. No one knew who had been so bold as to make a move.

The backyard training grounds were even worse. Two Ninth-Rank Martial Warriors had lost even their heads. One of the large headless corpses had already been identified as Lü Chenggong, master of the Fierce Tiger Martial Hall.

The other elderly headless corpse was unfamiliar, and no clues could be found on him either.

The Bandit Suppression Bureau of the Martial Dao Bureau had taken control of the scene immediately. Even Lu Xuanlin only learned of it after going to the Public Security Office that morning, when a subordinate reported it.

"Come, take me to see!"