Ancient Sun had his hundred thousand; now Lu had his hundred thousand

Linjiang County, a seaport on the outskirts of Tianjin, had never lacked fresh gossip.

In days past, people talked over tea and after meals about little more than which warlord was about to start another war, whose concubine had run off with an actor, or which dock had turned up a few more unidentified corpses.

Those stories reeked of blood and face powder. After chewing them over long enough, people found them bland.

But today, Linjiang County was in an uproar.

One name spread like a sudden plague. In a single morning, it swept through streets and alleys at astonishing speed, making him a celebrity everyone knew.

Lu Jin.

Or, more precisely, Lu Hundred Thousand.

Overnight, the Lu family's third young master, freshly returned from studying in Britain, had become the talk of half of Linjiang County.

In an age when an ordinary family spent only a few silver dollars a year, and a decent long gown sold for two, what did a hundred thousand silver dollars mean?

It was a mountain of gold, wealth countless people could not dream of amassing in several lifetimes.

"Last night at Zither Strings House, it was a battle of immortals!"

"What immortals? That was the God of Wealth descended to earth! The third young master from the Dragon Gate Escort Agency, the one back from overseas, dropped a hundred thousand silver dollars without blinking!"

"Good heavens, a hundred thousand silver dollars? In these troubled times, lives are cheaper than weeds. Five silver dollars could buy a life and dump it in a ditch."

"Was Miss Haitang made of gold, or was she studded with diamonds down there?"

In the teahouse, a waiter clicked his tongue as he wiped a table. "Tsk, tsk. A hundred thousand silver dollars!"

At the docks, laborers hauling heavy sacks puffed on their tobacco pipes during a break.

"If I had a hundred silver dollars, I'd go home, build a tile-roofed house, and marry a plump wife."

"What the hell do you know?" The foreman beside him spat. "He did it for art. To... to study the human body!"

It wasn't just the low trades gossiping. Even the sixteen martial establishments in and around Linjiang County couldn't resist.

Everyone had been focused on the coming match between Shocking Heron Martial Hall and Eight Gates Martial Hall. Then "Lu Hundred Thousand" burst onto the scene and snatched away half the conversation.

The year was drawing to a close. Linjiang County had produced no true gentleman concerned for the nation and its people, but it had produced a true celebrity who scattered money like dirt.

Lu Jin's new name, Lu Hundred Thousand, became the most expensive topic of dinner conversation in the county.

In the rear courtyard apothecary of Shocking Heron Martial Hall, thick walls shut out the clamor beyond. Only waves of heat and the sharp scent of medicine remained.

The enormous black iron vat glowed red from the fire again. Dark red medicine churned inside it like boiling lava.

Li Xiang sat immersed in the scalding liquid, bare from the waist up.

With his first experience behind him and the stronger physique his Boxer profession had given him, he did not struggle in agony this time.

His eyes were half closed, his breathing long and steady. He held the strange Living Stance in the water and let the searing medicine pierce his pores like steel needles.

The Golden Cicada lying dormant inside him seemed to have developed a taste for it. Almost the moment Li Xiang entered the water, it gave a delighted tremor.

"Bzz—"

A faint cicada cry rang out, too soft for anyone but Li Xiang to hear.

The Golden Cicada went to work.

Like a precise, ravenous filter, it devoured the violent medicinal power surging into Li Xiang's body.

The Golden Cicada drew away every trace of fire toxin that would have damaged his meridians, leaving only the purest, gentlest golden energy to nourish his limbs and bones.

His tendons snapped taut, his bones trembled, and the great dragon of his spine awakened, greedily drawing in nourishment.

[Tempered by the medicinal bath, your innate physique is strengthening...]

[Boxer experience +1]

[Boxer experience +1]

[...]

Li Xiang kept his eyes closed, feeling the hot current surge through him.

The tingling sensation of bones growing and muscles rebuilding was almost addictive.

An hour passed. The dark red medicine, once so thick it seemed impossible to dilute, visibly faded until it was no more than a vat of watery bathwater.

Li Xiang opened his eyes and smacked his lips, still wanting more.

"That's it?"

He glanced at the Book of a Hundred Trades in his mind.

[Profession: Boxer]

[Level: Lv3 (21/30)]

"Only fifteen experience points?"

Li Xiang frowned.

The first time he had soaked in Dragon-Tiger Bone-Tempering Soup, his experience had shot up like a rocket, carrying him straight past the Lv2 threshold.

This time, though, it had only three-quarters of the previous effect.

The extra point had come from last night. After hearing Miss Haitang's Sea-Taming Tide at Zither Strings House, he had been too excited to sleep, so he had gone into the courtyard and ground out a set of Taizu Long Fist.

"The medicine's losing its effect this fast?"

Li Xiang rose from the vat with a splash. His lean, powerful muscles gleamed bronze through the steam, and the great dragon along his back showed the first hints of its fierce shape.

At that rate of decline, after two more soaks, the Dragon-Tiger Bone-Tempering Soup—fifty silver dollars a batch—would be no different from a hot bath to him.

That wouldn't do. He was already risking his life for Hong Tianbao; he had to squeeze something more out of him, or the risk would be for nothing.

"Master Hong, did you water this soup down? It barely did anything."

Li Xiang called to Hong Tianbao, who was dozing nearby. "Can you add something stronger? I'd find this too lukewarm for a scrub."

Hong Tianbao's eyelid twitched. He opened his eyes and shot Li Xiang an irritated glare.

"You think I'm stewing meat? Add something?"

Hong Tianbao came over, inspected the dregs in the vat, then pinched Li Xiang's muscles, tough as oxhide. Shock flashed through his eyes, though his tongue remained as sharp as ever.

"Take your good fortune and quit complaining. Dragon-Tiger Bone-Tempering Soup is a secret formula from the Celestial Master Mansion. Its medicinal force is ferocious beyond measure. An ordinary person needs ten days or half a month after one soak to purge the fire toxins."

"You brat, you dared to soak again after just one day. Be glad it didn't burn you alive."

"Besides, the human body has limits. It has a memory, too."

"A memory?" Li Xiang asked as he dried himself.

Hong Tianbao snorted. "Every medicine is part poison and part tonic. Take too much of a good thing, and your body gets used to it. Then it becomes immune. Westerners call that drug resistance."

"It's like getting beaten every day. After enough beatings, your skin toughens up and it stops hurting. Same principle."

Drug resistance.

It was the greatest headache for martial practitioners who relied on medicinal baths.

The body had a memory. Stimulate it repeatedly with the same medicine, and it developed a defense against it—what people called getting "thick-skinned."

For martial practitioners, resistance came sooner or later. But Hong Tianbao had never heard of anyone showing such a sharp decline after just a second soak, as Li Xiang had.

Was this brat really born with the sacred body of a medicine pot, able to absorb drugs at a monstrous rate?

With that thought, Hong Tianbao pointed toward the door. "Get out and practice. If you leave that medicinal power sitting in your flesh instead of working it through, don't blame me when you're covered in festering sores tomorrow."

"And have you decided which real martial art you want to learn?"

"I have."

Li Xiang got dressed and grinned. "I want to learn the kind that can kill an old master with one punch."

"Get out!"

Hong Tianbao kicked at him. Li Xiang nimbly slipped aside and hurried out.

Watching Li Xiang leave, Hong Tianbao settled back into his rocking chair and stared at the spent medicine in the vat. The irritation vanished from his face, replaced by deep gravity and... a pang over the cost.

"What a monster..."

Hong Tianbao muttered to himself and dipped his fingers into the liquid.

"He absorbs it down to the last drop every time. Doesn't leave me so much as a scrap. At this rate, two more soaks and he'll be completely resistant to Dragon-Tiger Bone-Tempering Soup."

"But that means his body is evolving at breakneck speed. This medicine is about to fall behind his growth."