"Sister-in-law, it's fine. You can come out now."
After quite a while, there was still no response from inside the room.
Li Feng furrowed his brow slightly. Could it be that his sister-in-law's hidden injuries had flared up?
Harboring worry, he gently pushed open the bedroom door and looked inside by the light of the moon, freezing in place on the spot.
This...
How should he put it? He did not know whether his sister-in-law was just unconcerned or trusted him far too much, but under these circumstances, she had actually fallen asleep.
Lin Yanqiu lay on her side across the wooden bedchamber, her thin quilt tangled and gripped between her legs. Her skimpy undergarment was slightly rolled up, and through the gaping seam, one plump, snowy mound was squeezed out of shape, faintly revealing something that seemed...
Li Feng stood stock-still on the spot, his breathing gradually slowing down.
After a long while, as if driven by some strange impulse, his feet moved forward slowly as though beyond his control.
He held his breath, creeping on tiptoe to the bedside, his gaze fixed upon that flash of spring scenery as he wanted to get a closer look.
Just a glance. He would just take one glance.
"Mm-ng..."
Lin Yanqiu suddenly let out a soft murmur, her long eyelashes fluttering slightly. Seeming to sense the movement by the bed, she slowly opened her dazed, sleep-heavy eyes.
Li Feng's heart gave a violent jolt. Startled out of his wits, his entire body stiffened in place, and every hair on his skin stood on end.
"Xiaofeng?"
Just waking up, Lin Yanqiu still looked somewhat groggy. Seeing the figure standing by the bed, she instinctively propped up the upper half of her body and asked, "What's wrong? Has the matter outside been settled?"
Li Feng hurriedly reined in his straying thoughts, his voice sounding somewhat dry. "It's fine. Those people have all been sent packing by me. Just now, I called out to you outside the door, but when I didn't get an answer for ages, I worried something might be wrong and came in to check."
"I'm fine. It's just that I was too exhausted these past few days and accidentally dozed off..."
Lin Yanqiu spoke, and just as she let out a sigh of relief, she suddenly noticed that Li Feng was staring at her with an unblinking gaze.
"Is there something on me?"
Looking down along Li Feng's line of sight with some perplexity, Lin Yanqiu finally discovered that her alluring charms were on full display; her slightly parted undergarment utterly failed to cover the vast expanse of snow-white skin across her chest.
"Xiaofeng, what are you looking at?!"
Lin Yanqiu demanded with rising anger. She snatched up the thin quilt from beneath her, covering up every trace of the exposed scenery, and glared at Li Feng with furrowed brows. Evidently, Lin Yanqiu had caught onto Li Feng's little thoughts.
Li Feng snapped out of his trance, cold sweat pouring down in sheets. Then, collecting his focus, he blinked with feigned composure. "No, I wasn't looking at anything."
Lin Yanqiu gazed at him for a long time, sorrow faintly shadowing her brows. With a soft, lingering sigh, she slowly turned her head away. "I'm all right. If you have nothing else to matter, head on out."
"Well, earlier a colleague from the City Guard Office came to find me, saying I'll be promoted to a regular constable tomorrow." Hesitating for a moment, Li Feng spoke with cautious care.
"Mhm, I know." After offering that single response, Lin Yanqiu said nothing more.
"Then I'll head out first. Sister-in-law, get some good rest."
Sensing the awkwardness of the atmosphere, Li Feng dropped those words and hurried out of the room.
Standing in the courtyard and swept by the night breeze, he only then gradually calmed down.
With so many things happening today, Lei Hu would certainly not let the matter rest.
In the days ahead, the troublesome matters would surely be numerous.
Cultivate, cultivate. Once he cultivated to the Qi-Blood Third Stage, he would find an opportunity to slaughter that Lei Hu along the way.
An hour later, Li Feng summoned the Heavenly Dao Advance Panel:
[Heavenly Dao Advance Panel] [Advanced Project 1: Archery Mastery (100% completed)] [Advanced Project 2: Water-Cutting Saber Art Perfection (Completed: 100%)] [Advanced Project 3: Iron Robe Skin-Grinding Method Perfection (Completed: 36%)] [Current Available Advance Projects: 0] [Pending Unlock Advances: Calligraphy, Bedchamber Art, Culinary Arts...] [Current Realm: Qi-Blood Second Level Perfection]
Looking at the figures on the panel, Li Feng felt quite satisfied in his heart. His current daily cultivation yielded a 2% progress. In a little over two months, he would finish paying off the Iron Robe Skin-Grinding Method-equivalent to a skin-grinding method that took other people three years to master, yet he would complete it in half a year. His cultivation speed was a full five times faster than anyone else's!
That night quickly passed.
Early the next morning, Li Feng hurried over to the City Guard Office at a crack of dawn.
"Morning, Constable Jiang."
"Morning, Constable Chen."
"Chief Constable Zhao."
Before long, the chief constables of the City Guard Office arrived one after another, more than a dozen chief constables standing at the front of the formation and waiting quietly.
This made the constables standing below even more silent, the atmosphere inexplicably heavier and more solemn than usual.
"Is something major happening today?"
Zhang San quietly muttered to the others.
"Mhm, you'll know in a moment," Li Feng said.
Not long after, yet another figure arrived. This person was none other than the Deputy Constable Director in charge of internal affairs and personnel at the City Guard Office, Zhou Tong.
"Lord Zhou!"
The various constables offered their greetings one after another, and the chief constables likewise smiled and greeted him respectfully.
Unlike the tension of the other constables, Sun Yan's mood at the moment was extremely excited.
He had practiced the skin-grinding method for half a year already and had now achieved entry-level mastery, while his martial dao realm had also reached the Qi-Blood Second Level. In another half a year, he would be able to reach small success in skin-grinding.
By that time, Chief Constable Zhao would happen to step down. If he could use the opportunity of today's regular meeting to cozy up to Deputy Constable Director Zhou-who was in charge of internal affairs and personnel-and smoothly establish a connection, then once Chief Constable Zhao stepped down, he could rely on his lineage's resources to pull strings. Securing Chief Constable Zhao's position could be said to be a done deal.
Amidst the gaze of everyone present, Zhou Tong walked steadily up onto the high platform. Sweeping his gaze across the crowd, he spoke, "At today's morning meeting, I have an important personnel appointment to announce."
Hearing this, the crowd assumed Zhou Tong was about to utter some more cliché talk about tightening discipline and rules.
Instead, they saw Zhou Tong change the subject and slow down his pace. "A few months ago, an escaped felon who fled from the Inner City made his way into our jurisdiction. After Constable Jiang discovered him, she inflicted severe injuries upon him, yet the felon fled all the way, finally escaping into the courtyard of the white runner Li Feng, where he was ultimately captured alive through Li Feng's quick wit."
"Furthermore, over these past few months, Li Feng's martial dao cultivation has also made progress, officially stepping into the Qi-Blood Second Level and meeting the regular constable standards of our City Guard Office."
"Therefore, following approval from within the office, starting from today, Li Feng is officially promoted to a regular constable. Li Feng, step forward and let everyone get acquainted."
Just as his voice fell, the white runners below instantly erupted into an uproar.
What was going on?!
Was he talking about Liu Wu, the escaped felon who fled from the Inner City a few months ago?
He never expected that fellow had actually been captured by Li Feng.
Hearing the words of the deputy constable director, Sun Yan froze as well. His arrogant face was filled with utter disbelief, unable to process it for a moment.
This Li Feng... had reached the Qi-Blood Second Level? He had become a regular constable just like him?
"Brother Feng, Brother Feng, I knew you weren't an ordinary person!"
Zhang San was overwhelmingly excited, locking Li Feng's neck in a tight chokehold.
Joy surfaced on Li Feng's face.
A regular constable!
He had finally reached this step.
Amidst numerous gazes of envy, shock, and jealousy, he slowly walked up onto the high platform, cupped his fists in a salute, and thus made his formal public debut.
Once the appointment was announced, everyone was dismissed on the spot.
After the dismissal, Constable Chen deliberately walked up before Li Feng, heavily patted his shoulder, and feeling the surging Qi-Blood within his body, praised, "Work hard, put in the effort, and strive to get yourself a chief constable position to run in the future."
Li Feng only felt his shoulder sink, though fortunately Constable Chen had reined in his strength-he merely wanted to test his physique, so there was no harm done.
Standing not far away, Sun Yan watched this scene, so furious his teeth itched. Dammit! Why is this brat's luck so good! That Liu Wu is also a fool. Li Feng's courtyard clearly looks like a poorhouse with not even a watchdog to guard the gate; what kind of medicinal herbs could there be to heal injuries? Why didn't he run into my family's courtyard instead?!
The white runners harboring the same thoughts as Sun Yan were by no means few. One by one, their eyes turned red with envy and jealousy, muttering with bitter sourness, How on earth did that escaped felon happen to blunder into Li Feng's house? If he had run into our house, even if we couldn't become a regular constable, there would still be four hundred taels of hard silver! If we used those four hundred taels to buy resources for cultivation, perhaps the ones standing up there right now would be us.
Yet even as they thought that way, if they truly encountered an escaped felon running from the Inner City, they would likely have been scared piss-less from the start.
Just as he stepped down from the platform, Zhang San and Chen Song both crowded around him.
The two of them were utterly shocked. Wasn't he only at the Qi-Blood First Stage half a year ago? How had he reached the Qi-Blood Second Level after just half a year? Could it be that he truly was some hidden martial dao prodigy?
With wide-open eyes, the two of them took turns pawing at Li Feng from top to bottom, wanting to figure out just what made Li Feng different from them.
"Stop! Cut it out!"
Li Feng could finally endure no more. If it were his sister-in-law or Constable Jiang pawing at him, he might have tolerated it, but what were these two grown men doing hands-on like this?
"I'll treat you two to lunch at noon today, so stop groping me!"
Li Feng said helplessly.
Before you continue