Time slipped by, and three months passed in the blink of an eye.
That night, a romantic atmosphere filled a fine room on the third floor of Red Sleeve Beckons.
At that moment, Xiao Yu'er, the top courtesan whose fame had spread throughout the brothel, was nestled beside Qing Chen.
She had a graceful figure, and words of flattery for Qing Chen kept spilling from her lips.
She praised his vigor just now, as though she would swoon over it, almost fainting dead away.
Although the lame youth's older sister had indeed retained her charm and carried herself with alluring grace.
After savoring her for several months in a row, even that could grow dull.
Qing Chen held this woman, who looked innocent but was utterly wanton in her bones, and felt a different sort of savor in his heart.
After all, less than half a year ago, as an ordinary hired thug, he had not been entitled to enjoy such treatment at all.
But times had changed, and Qing Chen had vaulted into the position of a street gang leader. Only now could he fully enjoy this haven of tenderness.
Sure enough, wherever one went, fists had the final say.
Qing Chen's hand wandered idly, his gaze gradually growing hazy as the experiences of the past several months replayed clearly in his mind.
After that night, Qing Chen had not trusted them readily either. Instead, he had forced each of them to turn a blade on the Twin Eagles Association's three former minor leaders.
Among them was the scar-faced man who had come to blockade the Qing Household's door.
There were also two street ruffians who had acted as accomplices, and they too were hacked to death in a flurry of blades.
This served as proof of their submission-a pledge of allegiance, one might say!
After consolidating his position, Qing Chen appointed Niu Dali, the short, stout man who had been the first to declare his loyalty, as a new leader.
He then instructed him to give the constables on the streets ten taels of silver each month, a full two or three times the previous amount, and the situation outside the gang settled down as well.
By then, Qing Chen had gathered a small gang of around twenty men under his command, forming the beginnings of his own force.
For the time being, he appointed his second younger brother, Qing Jie, Niu Dali, and the lame youth who had once acted as his inside man as leaders responsible for managing daily affairs.
Niu Dali handled the actual work, while his second younger brother, Qing Jie, and the lame youth served more to learn and keep watch.
His second mother's other children, his third younger brother, Qing An, and his little sister, Qing Yun, were still young, so he did not have them come out to work.
To change the previous state of chaos and disorder, Qing Chen abolished the old practice of collecting protection fees at will and issued strict rules and regulations.
Qing Chen repeated his orders again and again, making them absolute!
Every shop was to be charged a protection fee only once a week, and the amount of silver had to be reasonably determined according to the shop's revenue.
At the same time, he strictly forbade his thugs from using force to extort money. Every action had to comply with the gang's rules.
To establish the authority of those rules, Qing Chen did not hesitate to punish one thug who violated them severely.
He made him vanish from the world, thereby ensuring discipline throughout the gang.
Ever since Qing Chen laid down his rules, the merchants on the streets gradually felt their business environment improve under his reforms.
Although they still had to pay protection fees, compared with the former chaos and harassment, all manner of miscellaneous charges, and petty thugs bothering them every few days, things were now much more stable.
The merchants could conduct business with peace of mind, and trade gradually flourished.
After deducting the protection fees paid to Qing Chen, their earnings were even greater than before.
The Twin Eagles Association consequently saw money pour in as well, with its monthly receipts holding steady at eighty or ninety taels of silver.
After all expenses were deducted, Qing Chen's monthly income also reached an astonishing seventy taels of silver, many times what it had been before.
Over these several months, Qing Chen used his ample funds to buy medicinal ingredients needed to improve the [Jade Forging Art] in large quantities.
His martial arts consequently advanced by leaps and bounds, taking his strength, which had already been close to that of a Third-Rate Expert, a step higher.
Just a month ago, his Jade Forging Art had finally reached minor mastery, and he officially broke through to the level of a Third-Rate Expert.
Now, he only needed to channel his internal force for both hands to become as hard as jade.
A single palm strike was enough to take a life!
Qing Chen confidently believed that if he encountered the Twin Eagles Association's two former leaders again now.
Without using any medicinal assistance, he could beat them until their tendons snapped and bones broke in just seven or eight exchanges.
After taking control of the Twin Eagles Association, Qing Chen had also uncovered some money and precious treasures in the brothers' hideout.
To be honest, those brothers had run the association for so long.
Yet between what they carried and what was in their rooms, they had only saved three or four hundred taels of silver. He truly had no idea how they had lived so miserably.
However, all that money ultimately became medicinal ingredients that went into Qing Chen's stomach, used by him to improve his cultivation.
Aside from that meager sum, the gains from the Twin Eagles Association that most stirred Qing Chen's interest were a unique disguise art and a lightness art.
Unfortunately, those brothers had not had time to display these arts.
Before Qing Chen had the lame youth put knockout powder in the rear kitchen, then sent them to the western heavens.
The disguise art did have some substance to it. It was called the "Appearance-Altering and Bone-Shrinking Art."
Unlike other disguise arts, besides using medicinal solutions applied to the face to alter one's appearance.
More remarkably, it could use internal force to change the shape of muscles and bones.
The wonders of this art left Qing Chen deeply amazed. It truly was extraordinarily marvelous.
By comparison, the lightness art seemed much more ordinary. It was the "Gecko Wall Traversal Art" commonly seen in the martial world.
But to Qing Chen, it was still quite precious, and remained a rare gain.
After all, he had previously been so destitute that he could only rely on his second mother's needlework to get by.
Now that he could obtain such an art, he was already thoroughly satisfied.
Moreover, mastering this lightness art would certainly be a great help when he went to Northern Mang Mountain to search for treasure in the future.
Thus, over the past several months, Qing Chen had practiced this lightness art diligently.
To his pleasant surprise, he discovered that his progress was actually much faster than expected.
He did not know why, or whether it was because his comprehension had improved.
In any case, his ability to fly over eaves and scale walls had improved markedly, becoming more than just a notch or two better than before.
In addition, Qing Chen had specifically instructed Niu Dali to seek out a formidable saber art called the "Five Tigers Soul-Severing Saber"-its moves were not particularly complicated, and, sparing no expense of several dozen taels of silver, he had already practiced it to consummate mastery.
Whenever Qing Chen unleashed this saber art, paired with the powerful internal force generated by the Jade Forging Art, the might of a single swing could truly make one's blood run cold.
That bunch from Northern Mang Mountain actually kept their cool and waited several months before taking action against Young Master Zhao. That really caught me by surprise.
I thought they were frightened and no longer dared seek revenge, Qing Chen mused inwardly.
He recalled the incident several months ago, when Young Master Zhao had violated a woman from Northern Mang Mountain, who was also the daughter-in-law of Northern Mang Mountain's Master Eagle.
Qing Chen had been there at the time, and had even gone with the current and added fuel to the fire.
After so much time had passed without any movement, Qing Chen had thought Northern Mang Mountain feared Ford City's powerful forces and therefore had not dared make a move.
He had not expected this band of mountain bandits to be so bold.
Even though they had developed rapidly in recent years, they numbered no more than eight hundred to a thousand bandits at most, yet they actually dared challenge Ford City, which had several thousand regular troops.
If they truly enraged Ford City, mustering a regular army of over ten thousand would be no trouble either.
But he had to admit, Qing Chen liked it very much.
Only when things turned chaotic would there be a chance to fish in muddy waters.