Just as Su Xinghe was about to practice his fist art,
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, while he could swallow several at once like candy. What about these Bone-Forging Pills, which others needed to reach 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.
An irresistible urge rose from the bottom of his heart.
"Let's do it!"
He had his 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 taken by Lü Chenggong himself.
He poured out one pill and tossed it into his mouth.
It was equally icy cold and did not melt upon entering his mouth.
A pungent, spicy sensation shot straight to his head.
If Qi-Replenishing Pills were like cooling herbal pellets, then this Bone-Forging Pill was wasabi seasoning.
It choked him until tears nearly streamed from his eyes.
Su Xinghe hurriedly grabbed the teapot beside him and gulped down mouthful after mouthful.
Boom!
A surge of Qi-Blood at least four or five times stronger than a Qi-Replenishing Pill suddenly erupted from his stomach.
The medicinal power seemed manageable. It would not burst him apart anytime soon.
"Practice fists!"
"First, test it with my own fist art..."
As the Golden Ape Earth-Splitting Art circulated, an unending flow of Qi-Blood gathered in his chest.
Ten minutes later.
An incomparably condensed force of Qi-Blood slammed into the flesh of his lower abdomen.
"Diligence Makes Up for Dullness, one hundred practices a day."
"Golden Ape Earth-Splitting Art, experience +1."
A bruise the size of a fist immediately appeared on his lower abdomen, and bone-piercing pain swept over him.
But he could not stop yet.
The medicinal power in his stomach seemed inexhaustible. If he dared stop, it might burst his body apart.
A second round...
A third round...
After five consecutive rounds, the Qi-Blood within his body finally settled down.
Su Xinghe withdrew his art and stood still, sensing the changes in his body.
At that moment, half his lower abdomen was black and blue.
Only after a long while did he let out a deep breath.
Not only had the pill not upset his stomach, his condition was astonishingly good.
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: Many Grains Make a Tower, Success Follows Naturally" "Dripping Water Sword Art (First Glimpse of the Path) 0/100" "Listening to the 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 directly raised him by five percentage points!
This...
Su Xinghe looked at the seven small porcelain bottles inside the wooden box.
Though each bottle of Bone-Forging Pills contained only ten pills, he had a full six and a half bottles!
"Sixty-six left. I've struck it rich!"
After finishing his test, he began cultivating with the two silver figures in the Consciousness Space in his mind.
Another Bone-Forging Pill went down his throat, and Qi-Blood surged wildly within his body.
Ten minutes later.
"Diligence Makes Up for Dullness, one 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, a pale strip of dawn had already appeared.
After tidying his room, he went into the yard to draw water and wash up.
Hearing the movement, Su Haitao came out to take a look.
"Brother, Mother said for you to come eat breakfast."
"Right away!"
Breakfast was a pot of rice porridge, stewed with shredded chicken and pickled dried bamboo shoots. The five of them chatted intermittently, while Su Xinghe took the chance to observe the sturdy and formidable younger sister-in-law across from him.
As usual, Yang Huaiyu did not say much. She merely listened silently with her head lowered, shoveling food into her mouth.
It was as though nothing from last night had happened.
Prices in the city had risen again recently. Their household peace tax and shop tax were now comparable to those in the bustling southern district.
Lu Zhengyi, head of the Lu Family, would celebrate his birthday next month. The head tax in the ward might increase again this month.
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 steamed buns.
Travel Pass Talismans were becoming less and less durable. They had once lasted ten days to half a month, but now failed 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 to be driving the poor out of the city.
It left a bitter taste in his heart.
After breakfast, he secretly slipped his father a one-hundred-tael banknote, then went to the martial academy.
White Ape Martial Academy, training ground.
Su Xinghe set down the five-hundred-pound stone lock in his hand and walked over to the force-testing sandbag nearby. He sank his shoulder, twisted his hips, and threw a punch, sending the four-hundred-eighty-pound sandbag swinging high into the air.
"Excellent!"
Before the sandbag could fall, Xie Guang could not resist clapping and shouting in approval.
"Five hundred pounds of strength in one arm, and four hundred eighty pounds of punching force. Excellent. Even among those at the Inner Tempering level, you count as a capable fighter."
He looked at Su Xinghe with a face full of gratification.
Early that morning, Su Xinghe had entered and told him he could lift a five-hundred-pound stone lock.
He had thought the boy was boasting.
Who would have thought that, without making a sound, this kid had already broken through to Inner Tempering?
"Congratulations, Second Senior Brother!"
"As expected of Second Senior Brother! You'll be an Inner Disciple from now on."
"Right, we'll have to call you Third Senior Brother from now on!"
The observing disciples wore envious expressions as they stepped forward one after another to offer congratulations.
They were all in the midst of growing up, and after learning true martial arts, their strength had increased noticeably. With Bone-Strengthening Soup to nourish them, the strongest among them could only lift around two hundred pounds.
Who would have expected that their Second Senior Brother from the outer sect possessed more than twice their strength?
"Enough. You should all take Senior Brother Su as your example and strive to become Inner Disciples as soon as possible."
"Now get back to practicing your fists!"
Seeing that the commotion had gone on long enough, Xie Guang began chasing them away.
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 the outer sect's Second Senior Brother had broken through to Inner Tempering. But Inner Tempering at age twenty-two was actually nothing remarkable to teenagers of fifteen or sixteen.
"Come with me."
Behind the crowd, Liu Bin hid in a corner, his face full of dejection.
He was an old hand from the Brokerage Guild and knew that this Junior Brother Su possessed talent far beyond his own.
Whenever he thought of his own circumstances, it felt as if knives were twisting through his heart.
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, sat by the bed as a young maidservant attended to his hair.
Strands of silver hair slid through the girl's jade-smooth fingers, while waves of faint fragrance intoxicated the senses.
A rough large hand slowly slipped beneath the red cotton silk brocade without anyone noticing. It went from slow exploration to wanton wandering.
Before long, the little maid's seductive eyes turned misty. She bit her lower lip, and half her body gradually went limp.
Just as someone wanted to go deeper, a knock at the door downstairs interrupted him.
He frowned slightly and looked at the middle-aged servant woman standing beyond the curtain.
Soon, this servant woman brought a piece of news upstairs.
His nephew, Lu Xuanlin, was requesting an audience.
If it had been any other nephew, Lu Zhengquan, as the county commandant, could have dismissed him with a casual word.
But Lu Xuanlin was different.
Not only was he the son of the Lu Family's Third Master, he was also an important man the Lu Family had painstakingly placed into the Third Division of the Martial Dao Bureau.
He was one of the heads responsible for the Public Security Office in Lin County, an Upper Ninth Rank Martial Warrior.
He could bring the Lu Family certain pieces of information from the Martial Dao Bureau's upper echelons.
He withdrew his hand, wiped it on the little maid's soft breast, straightened his clothes, and only then walked outside.
"Second Uncle, Liu Jin on my father's side may have run into trouble!"
The moment they met, Lu Xuanlin gave him a "pleasant surprise," extinguishing the lingering heat he had brought out from the room.
As he walked toward the desk, he asked,
"What happened?"
Lu Xuanlin quickly recounted the news he had just received.
It turned out that the Fierce Tiger Martial Hall in the western city had met with disaster in the middle of last night.
The entire martial hall had been wiped out overnight, leaving neither chickens nor dogs behind. No one knew who had been bold enough to strike.
The backyard training ground was even worse. Two Ninth-Rank Martial Warriors had lost even their heads. One of the headless, hulking corpses had already been identified as Lü Chenggong, master of the Fierce Tiger Martial Hall.
The other headless corpse belonged to an older man whom no one recognized, and there were no clues on his body.
The Bandit Suppression Bureau of the Martial Dao Bureau had taken over the scene immediately. Even Lu Xuanlin had only learned of it after going to the Public Security Office that morning and hearing a report from a subordinate.
"Come, take me there!"
Before you continue