Third Refinement!

Fire Bull Outer Court.

Wei Sheng was training with weights.

Holding a five-hundred-jin stone lock overhead with both hands and wearing four-hundred-jin leg weights, he performed squat jumps around the courtyard.

With every jump, the iron weights clanked against one another.

After training for well over an hour, Wei Sheng stopped, utterly exhausted. He slumped onto the ground, panting heavily, his eyes fixed on the sky above.

"Three days!"

Three days had passed since Wei Sheng killed Steward Hong and Sun Dayou.

The night he killed them, Wei Sheng had taken Wei He away from their home in Black Mud Ward.

Then he rented a house near Fire Ox's residence on Heavenly Sea Street in Black Forest Ward.

Ever since he defeated Zhang Yan, Fire Ox had placed great trust in him. If he really encountered danger, Fire Ox could offer some help.

The next day, he quietly went to the weapons shop to collect his four-hundred-jin leg weights and stopped by his old house along the way.

What surprised him was this.

The Hong Family had shown no reaction whatsoever to Steward Hong's death.

No one had gone to his house looking for him.

Wei Sheng had not moved back. Who knew whether the Hong Family was holding back or had some other scheme?

He had already decided that he would never move back until he had the strength to protect himself against them.

"Damn! Now I know why you've improved so fast. You train like you don't care whether you live!"

Che Zhenzhong handed him a flask of water. "You geniuses already have exceptional talent, yet you still work this hard. How are ordinary martial artists like us supposed to survive?"

"Gulp, gulp!"

Wei Sheng tipped his head back and drained the flask.

Much of his exhaustion seemed to have been driven away, leaving him considerably refreshed.

At those words,

Wei Sheng followed Che Zhenzhong's gaze.

Bare-chested, Niu Yong was slamming into a wooden training dummy with grunts and shouts, his exposed skin bright red and covered in wounds.

Yet Niu Yong seemed not to feel a thing, tirelessly enjoying himself!

A little farther away, the blood and qi beneath Xiao Ran's skin writhed like snakes, rapidly coursing and crashing through his body... clearly, he had grasped the knack of Bull-Demon Skin Refining.

Not only had he corrected both mistakes in his previous skin-refining practice, but his cultivation had also soared, already nearing the peak of the second refinement. Even Wei Sheng's pupils tightened slightly at the sight.

After all,

it had taken him a full thirty years of cultivation to reach this point!

Xiao Ran had taken only three days!

Fuck!

Geniuses really could defy all reason!

"Isn't this all your fault?"

"Mine?"

"Ever since you defeated Zhang Yan, Niu Yong and Xiao Ran have been acting like something set them off...

"Especially Xiao Ran. He's been working much harder than before... I hear he's saving money to attempt the third refinement."

At this point, Che Zhenzhong seemed to recall something and said with feeling, "Still, breaking through from the second refinement to the Third Refinement isn't that easy!"

"You've improved pretty quickly yourself. You're already at the second refinement!"

Wei Sheng glanced at Che Zhenzhong, feeling all along that there was more to this fellow than met the eye.

After all,

Niu Yong had not even brushed the edge of the second refinement.

Che Zhenzhong, on the other hand, had barely trained in the outer court, yet he had reached the second refinement.

Che Zhenzhong looked a little awkward and gave a light cough. "I'm different from you lot..."

Then he changed the subject. "I heard a steward of the Hong Family died. The Eldest Master of the Hong Family is furious and has mobilized his people to investigate."

"Who killed him?"

"They don't know yet..."

Che Zhenzhong seemed casual, but he secretly glanced at Wei Sheng.

After all, Wei Sheng had previously sounded him out about the Hong Family.

Now that a steward of the Hong Family was dead, Wei Sheng had moved from Black Mud Ward to Black Forest Ward and was even living near Fire Ox.

He certainly would not believe there was no connection between the two.

It was just that,

if Wei Sheng did not speak about such a matter, he could hardly ask.

He merely offered a reminder. "The killer was very discreet. No one saw anything! In the end, the Hong Family's investigation will probably come to nothing.

"But although the Eldest Master of the Hong Family is vile, the Hong Family is far from weak!"

"Oh?"

Wei Sheng looked at Che Zhenzhong.

"The Eldest Master of the Hong Family has mediocre strength, but the Hong Family has vast holdings and keeps over a dozen martial artists. Setting aside those at the first refinement, they have three at the second refinement, one at the Third Refinement... and a veteran at the Fourth Refinement!"

"You're back, Brother."

Wei He opened the door, and his taut nerves visibly relaxed when he saw Wei Sheng.

Although he had heard his second brother's voice before opening the door,

the instant he opened it, he still could not help thinking of Steward Hong and Sun Dayou coming to their home.

"Mm."

Wei Sheng glanced at Wei He, knowing that Steward Hong's visit had left him with some lingering psychological scars.

He did not offer much reassurance. More words would do no good; only time could wash it all away.

"Brother, the secret medicinal ointment you need is ready. I'll get it for you now."

Wei He hurried to the kitchen.

Wei Sheng looked around. He was now renting a house with a single courtyard.

Through the entrance was a large courtyard, with a jujube tree roughly ten feet tall standing by the wall on the left.

On the left were the kitchen and a storeroom.

Directly ahead was the main hall, with a bedroom on either side.

The new courtyard house had a similar overall layout to their old home in Black Mud Ward, but it was somewhat larger.

The owner's entire family had moved to the Inner City, leaving the house empty, so he had rented it for just half a tael of silver.

Of course, that was also because it was in the Outer City.

In the Inner City, a house of the same layout would cost at least one or two taels to rent.

Buying it would cost dozens, if not a hundred taels.

"Brother, is this batch of ointment all right?"

Wei He handed the ointment to Wei Sheng and asked with some uncertainty.

"The quality is excellent. Getting it this good on your first try makes you much better than me!"

Wei Sheng offered a word of praise.

"The remaining batches will be ready by the day after tomorrow at the latest."

Happy to have received his second brother's approval, Wei He turned and went back to work in the kitchen.

At this, Wei Sheng smiled too.

He had asked Wei He to make the medicine

partly because he had no time himself.

Besides that, he had deliberately found something for Wei He to do so he would not let his thoughts run wild when idle.

From the looks of it, the results were quite good.

Wei Sheng took two batches of ointment back to his room. After stripping off his clothes, he spread the ointment over his entire body and began refining his skin.

Half a day later,

Wei Sheng opened his eyes, his brows furrowing slightly. "This was supposed to last seven days, and I've absorbed half of it in just half a day?!"

It was not that the ointment had grown weaker, but that he had become stronger, greatly increasing the speed at which he absorbed it.

This was a good thing in itself.

But what troubled him was...

"If I want to break through to the third refinement, I'll need at least thirty-odd more batches of ointment. That's a fucking hundred taels of silver..."

After receiving the thirteen taels gifted by Steward Hong and Sun Dayou, he had had close to forty taels on hand.

But after paying seven taels and six mace for the four-hundred-jin leg weights, five batches of secret medicine, and the rent, he had only fifteen taels left.

Barely enough to buy another five batches...

"Fine, paying to win failed! I'd better stick to using cheats!"

In the days that followed, Wei Sheng's life returned to its usual routine.

In the mornings, he practiced squats and cultivated the Golden Goose Art.

At night, he tempered his skin and cultivated the Ox Demon Skin Refinement Method.

Time flowed by.

In the blink of an eye, a month had passed.

[Martial arts mastered: ...Golden Goose Art (Entry)]