Golden Goose Art perfected!

"I finally reached Entry!"

Joy showed on Wei Sheng's face.

He had deliberately held back from improving his skin refinement method, waiting until he reached Entry in the Golden Goose Art.

After all.

Raising the Ox Demon Skin Refinement Method to the third refinement would only add a few hundred jin of strength, doing little to improve his combat ability.

But if he perfected the Golden Goose Art, he could escape unscathed even against a Six Refinements expert.

"Dao Origin, help me cultivate!"

The Dao Origin points he had accumulated over a month began dwindling bit by bit as he invested them in the Golden Goose Art.

[Year one: every day, you performed weighted squats, brisk walking, and long-distance running... You finally brought the Golden Goose Art to minor mastery, reaching a speed of thirty meters per second.]

[Year five... Your Golden Goose Art advanced again, reaching major mastery and a speed of forty meters per second.]

[Year six: you began striving to perfect the Golden Goose Art, but conventional training could no longer satisfy its requirements for improvement. You began seeking another path.]

[Year nine: after trying dozens of methods, you stood atop the seven-story tower, the tallest in the Outer City, and began observing wild geese flying north and south.]

[Year twelve: after observing countless wild geese flying south, you felt as though you had become a wild goose yourself. Unconsciously, you walked to the edge of the tower, spread your arms, and leaped.]

[The weightlessness of your body, mingled with the howling wind, seized you in an instant. You felt death's summons. Rather than alarm, you felt joy, your expression excited. So this was a wild goose... At that moment, you understood!]

[You stepped upon flying swallows, borrowing their force to take nine steps through empty air and return to the top of the tower.]

[Golden Goose Art (perfected)]

The instant he opened his eyes, Wei Sheng felt as though his legs were no longer his own. They had become extraordinarily heavy, while also feeling as though thousands upon thousands of steel needles were piercing them, riddling them like sieves, painful and itchy.

But the next second.

The pain and itching turned into coolness.

The muscles in his legs repeatedly expanded and contracted until they became exceedingly firm and filled with strength.

Wei Sheng felt his body grow somewhat lighter.

With just a small step.

He was already several meters away.

He came into the courtyard. It was the dead of night, and everything around him was pitch-black.

Wei Sheng lightly tapped his toes against the ground, and his body floated lightly onto the roof.

When he leaped down.

He was like a leaf.

Landing without a sound.

Wei Sheng greatly enjoyed this feeling. Compared with an increase in strength, this leap in his movement skills finally gave him the feeling of soaring up and away.

At that moment, he felt an irrepressible urge to "fly."

Whoosh!

Wei Sheng turned into a wisp of smoke, drifting across the rooftops like the lightness-skill experts he had seen on television in his previous life, scaling roofs and walls, treading snow without a trace.

Along the way, he also drove his qi and blood, unleashing the Golden Goose Art's strongest technique, Void Traversal.

The instant he stepped out, an immense force seemed to propel him forward from behind, and his body shot over a hundred meters in a flash.

After nine steps, Wei Sheng's face paled. He felt as though all the qi and blood in his body had been drained away in an instant, and his body fell uncontrollably. In the end, he relied on his superb movement skills to land safely.

"It drained all my qi and blood in one go..."

Wei Sheng was somewhat alarmed. "It looks like Void Traversal can only serve as a life-saving trump card. I can't use it lightly unless it's a matter of life and death..."

"But why do I feel that qi and blood aren't the best fuel for the Golden Goose Art..."

After all, Wei Sheng had spent twelve years studying and cultivating the Golden Goose Art. His understanding of this lightness skill was countless times deeper than Zhang Yan's.

He felt that using qi and blood to power the Golden Goose Art did not seem to bring out its true power.

But as for precisely what "fuel" the Golden Goose Art needed, he remained lost in a fog even after thinking for a long time.

"Forget it. I'll ask Che Zhenzhong tomorrow if I have time... Hmm? How did I end up in Black Firewood Ward?"

Among the Outer City's thirteen wards, the closer they were to the Inner City, the more affluent their overall living standards were; the closer they were to the Outer City's gates, the poorer they were.

Black Mud Ward was the seventh ward, situated between the Outer City's poor and affluent areas, belonging to neither.

Black Firewood Ward was different. It was the third ward, very close to the Outer City's gates, putting it on the front line of poverty.

Wei Sheng had not expected to run this far in one go.

Judging by this, as long as he did not face a Six Refinements expert, major mastery of the Golden Goose Art was sufficient to handle most situations.

"Whoosh!"

Wei Sheng landed on a small three-story building, his figure disappearing into its shadows:

"I still have eighteen points left. Then I'll ride this momentum and raise the Ox Demon Skin Refinement Method to the third refinement."

After the previous thirty years of tempering, his Ox Demon Skin Refinement Method had already touched the threshold of the third refinement.

This time, he spent only three points before the Ox Demon Skin Refinement Method broke through to the third refinement. Qi and blood filled his entire body, allowing him to perform Void Traversal three times in succession, while his strength soared to two thousand five hundred jin!

"With my current strength, few in the third refinement can match me. Even against someone in the fourth refinement, I'd have a fighting chance thanks to the Golden Goose Art...

"Unfortunately, I failed to develop Copper Skin!"

Wei Sheng stirred his skin membrane. His complexion remained normal, without the bronze hue of completed Copper Skin, and his defenses and ability to withstand blows had not reached the pinnacle either.

"If one method isn't enough, I'll add another!"

This result was within his expectations.

He planned to buy two doses of the White Crane Skin Refinement Method's secret medicine tomorrow, then begin tackling that skin refinement method.

"No matter what, I must develop Copper Skin!"

The Four Gates of Body Tempering were the foundation of martial arts. The stronger the foundation built at this stage, the farther one could go in the future!

What was more.

For others, layering skin refinement methods cost time and effort without any guarantee of success, but for him, it was merely a matter of spending a few more Dao Origin points.

"Hmm? Is someone crying?"

On his way back, Wei Sheng paused and looked toward a cluster of single-story houses to his left.

Sobs came from there, faint and intermittent, yet exceptionally clear in the dark night.

Wei Sheng took a black cloth from inside his robe and covered his face. His figure moved, darting toward the source of the crying.

"You fucking unruly peasant! My master taking a fancy to you means blue smoke is rising from your ancestral graves! Never mind not weeping tears of gratitude-you actually dare refuse?!"

Four or five burly men had broken into the cramped, dim room, seized all three members of the family inside, bound them, and thrown them before a steward dressed in red.

The three struggled fiercely, gazing pleadingly at the red-clad steward seated in the place of honor.

Among them.

The boy's face was especially thick with regret.

He had never imagined that just one family outing to Black Glory Ward would get them targeted upon returning!

These men had first approached his parents, declaring that they wanted to buy him as a study attendant. Upon learning that the buyer was the Hong Family, his parents had politely refused.

As a result.

These men had broken down their door that very night and forcibly seized all three of them...

"Now, I'll ask you one more time. Are you willing or not?"

The red-clad steward asked mockingly.

A burly man beside him pulled the rag from the boy's mouth. The boy gulped air and said angrily, "Breaking into a private home at night, imprisoning people unlawfully-aren't you afraid of the authorities?"

"This is how we do things at the Hong Residence!"

The mockery on the red-clad steward's face deepened:

"It seems that unless we show you a little color, you'll really think the Hong Residence lives on vegetables."

"What are you going to do?"

Panic crossed the delicate-featured boy's face, and he had a bad premonition.

The red-clad steward's gaze fell on the woman beside the boy. "She does have some looks. Lucky you lot!"

At these words.

The expressions of both the delicate-featured boy and the middle-aged man beside the woman changed drastically.

The middle-aged man kowtowed repeatedly, trying to say something through muffled sounds, but nothing was intelligible.

"I agree! Don't hurt my mother!"

The delicate-featured boy cried out through his tears.

"Too late!" The red-clad steward sneered.

Immediately, three or four brawny men dragged the woman over and laid her on the table like a doll, preparing to have their way with her.

The middle-aged man's eyes blazed with fury. In the end, he abruptly stood and charged headfirst at the red-clad steward.

A trace of mockery flashed through the red-clad steward's eyes, and he raised his hand.

"No! Don't hurt my father! I'm willing to become a slave in the Hong Family..."

Before the delicate-featured boy could finish, the red-clad steward's palm fell. With a crack, the middle-aged man's skull split open. Blood poured from his mouth and nose, and he collapsed headfirst, his breath gone.

"Father!"

The delicate-featured boy's eyes bulged as though their corners would split.

"There's still one more..."

The red-clad steward looked at the woman, who had already been stripped naked, with the ghost of a smile.

Despair covered the boy's face, and he was in unbearable agony.

Just then.

Bang!

Someone kicked the door open, and a tall, striking masked figure walked in.