Did that mean killing required training one's nerve?
Lu Sui froze slightly.
In that case, once he mastered the killing techniques, would he have to witness bloodshed himself, or even personally...
"Zhan'ao, there's no need to rush."
As though noticing Lu Sui's disappointment, Tan Jingzong reassured him:
"Training in martial arts has never been something achieved in a single bound.
"You've learned the Cicada-Chasing Steps quickly, and you perform both Wind Chasing and Swallow Stepping well. Today, I'll teach you how to use Startled Swan..."
Lu Sui put aside his stray thoughts and listened intently.
Tan Jingzong lived up to his formal martial training, proving adept at teaching through both words and demonstration.
His figure suddenly swayed, his soles hugging the ground as he glided several feet in an instant, like a boat traveling over water!
His movements were so light that not even the hem of his robe stirred!
"When you kick someone, your Qi and Blood moves downward from above, emerging through the Yongquan point and condensing into a single point. Only then can you injure an enemy;
"but when you dodge and retreat, your Qi and Blood moves upward from below, rising through Yongquan, passing through your waist and hips, then converging and surging through every bone.
"That makes your body 'light,' like the wind, silent and soundless. Your opponent will find it hard to keep up."
Tan Jingzong's voice drifted unpredictably, sometimes to the left, sometimes to the right.
Lu Sui strained his eyes to their utmost, trying to lock onto Master Tan's figure.
But the latter's toes tapped the ground in succession, his body swiftly changing direction like a swallow skimming water, darting away at the slightest touch.
In an instant, blurred images of Tan Jingzong filled the training hall, a hundred paces wide!
"When you thoroughly integrate Wind Chasing, Swallow Stepping, and Startled Swan..."
Lu Sui's vision suddenly blurred, and Tan Jingzong vanished like a swan flying into the distance.
The rushing wind abruptly ceased as well.
Then someone lightly patted Lu Sui's shoulder.
"-you can 'chase down a cicada in eight steps and catch a sparrow with one hand.'"
Master Tan?
When did he appear?
Lu Sui's back involuntarily tightened, like a cat's fur bristling, and he abruptly lunged forward.
When he looked back, Tan Jingzong stood tall with his hands behind his back, every inch a master.
So mastering the Cicada-Chasing Steps lets you show off like that! You should've said so earlier!
A little heat rose in Lu Sui's heart. He decided to properly spur on that gray cicada and speed up its incense-burning progress!
"If there's anything else you don't understand, feel free to visit the rear courtyard. If I'm not there, your eldest senior brother can answer your questions."
Having awed Lu Sui with a small display, Tan Jingzong's lips also curved upward.
He had originally thought Lu Sui was the Hundred Victories Martial Arts School's "money bag."
Now, looking again, the young man might have a chance of becoming the "face" that upheld the school's reputation.
Having Chuanjie and Zhan'ao grow closer will benefit our long-term development.
The thought stirred in Tan Jingzong's mind, and his gaze grew even gentler.
He took a porcelain bottle from inside his robe and said:
"Here, keep this."
Lu Sui accepted it with both hands, but did not know what was inside.
"Leopard Fetus Sinew-Changing Pills."
Tan Jingzong said softly:
"I know the Dacheng Trading Firm has fine medicinal ingredients of every age, but this is the Hundred Victories Martial Arts School's 'tiger-and-wolf medicine.' No disciple I don't value could possibly get it."
Tiger-and-wolf medicine?
Lu Sui's expression grew solemn. This was good stuff!
When martial practitioners opened schools and took disciples, their skill came first, their financial resources second.
Finally, there was one more thing: "potent medicinal formulas"!
The Fleshly Body Realm's four stages and twelve gates had long been described as "every gate hard to cross, every step hard to take."
Qi nourishing, blood strengthening, force tempering.
To perfect these three gates, one either spent years working bitterly hard, like dripping water wearing through stone;
or took medicine, relying on its tiger-and-wolf potency to charge through in one go.
Tan Jingzong's willingness to offer the Leopard Fetus Sinew-Changing Pills showed how highly he regarded Lu Sui.
"Thank you for your generous gift, Master Tan!"
Lu Sui carefully put it away and bowed.
"Remember, don't take them during ordinary training. They're for breaking through gates, not increasing your cultivation.
"Wait until you feel your Qi and Blood has condensed and can progress no further before taking a pill.
"Use that fierce medicinal potency to break through the bottleneck in one push!"
After explaining carefully, Tan Jingzong waved his hand:
"Go on. Think carefully about learning killing techniques when you get back. Once you've thought it through, come give me your answer."
Just as Lu Sui left the rear courtyard, he ran straight into Bai Fangfang and Liang Bao.
"Senior Brother Lu!"
Liang Bao's face was full of envy:
"Master Tan summoned you today? Tsk, tsk. Senior Brother Zheng wasn't called into the rear courtyard until his tenth day after hanging the curtain. You really do get special treatment, Senior Brother Lu!"
Bai Fangfang also pursed her lips and smiled:
"That's right. Senior Brother Liang and I waited half a month before Master Tan gave us instruction. That shows how frightening your martial talent is, Senior Brother Lu! Who knows, we might soon have to call you 'Second Senior Brother'!"
"Master Tan simply favors me."
Answering casually, Lu Sui walked into the inner courtyard with Liang Bao and Bai Fangfang.
His gaze swept around, and he changed the subject:
"Why isn't Deng Yun here?"
"Deng Yun?"
Liang Bao paused.
"He doesn't seem to have come to the Hundred Victories Martial Arts School since that day..."
Liang Bao glanced at Lu Sui out of the corner of his eye and silently swallowed the rest.
-Deng's Shop Weapon-Forging Shop has closed too.
In his view, Deng Yun must have offended Lu Sui, and Lu Yulin, doting on his son, had given Deng's Shop a thorough thrashing.
Otherwise, why would people say the Lu Family of Changle County could blot out the sky with one hand!
None of the other families had anyone as domineering as Master Lu!
He hasn't come to the Hundred Victories Martial Arts School again.
Lu Sui frowned slightly.
Deng Yun had vanished without a trace. Could he have fallen victim to Zhou Qing?
Night fell.
Lu Sui sat before his desk, holding a book, but his thoughts drifted back to his conversation with Dou Xiaowen the previous night.
After asking about "Calamity Artifacts" and learning that the warding object was enshrined at the brokerage's Zhou Family, he had asked:
"Uncle Wen, if an evil calamity broke out in Changle County, how would we handle it?"
Dou Xiaowen had answered:
"Once an evil calamity appears, the Five Great Trades take the lead in meeting. It's simply a matter of pooling silver, recruiting insiders, and settling on a method to quell it.
"At Shaqing Pass, there are always self-taught types or formidable figures waiting to take down posted commissions."
Lu Sui had asked again:
"What if the source of the evil calamity lies within the Five Great Trades?"
Dou Xiaowen had frowned then and replied:
"...Then it becomes troublesome. You'd need solid evidence and respected elders to hold an impartial judgment before the warding object."
"Solid evidence?"
"The Five Great Trades band together on the surface, but each has its own designs underneath. There's no guarantee someone won't use 'exorcising evil and eliminating calamity' as a pretext to crush and swallow up another."
Dou Xiaowen had puffed away at his pipe, clearly having encountered such things before.
"So ironclad evidence must be brought before the warding object to verify its truth, and then the others decide what to do."
Lu Sui set down the book, his gaze flickering.
Solid evidence that Zhou Qing possesses a Calamity Artifact... would Deng Yun count?
Another three days passed in a flash.
Autumn deepened, and yellow leaves carpeted the courtyard.
As though a strong wind had swept through, they billowed apart in layers!
"Eighty punches!"
Lu Sui breathed steadily, but his Qi and Blood boiled like bubbling water.
Like little snakes, it traveled along his arms, passed through his waist and hips, and reached his feet.
It washed through him again and again, forming a full-body circuit.
My daily limit has improved from forty-nine punches to eighty.
At this rate, sooner or later I'll manage a hundred punches a day, then a thousand!
Lu Sui faintly sensed his arms, shoulders, back, waist, and hips being tempered firm by his searing Qi and Blood.
Like finely forged iron hammered a hundred times, it lacked only "quenching"!
Then it would take shape!
Six harmonies unification is only one final step away.
Lu Sui slowly withdrew his stance, and the heaviness of bearing a mountain abruptly dispersed.
Every section of sinew and bone seemed like a spring compressed to its limit, suddenly leaping up and setting the great dragon of his spine in motion.
Crack! Crack!
A string of sharp reports like frying beans rang through the courtyard!
Lu Sui pressed his tongue against his palate, holding his breath without letting it escape. His pores opened slightly, releasing wisps of perspiration vapor.
His scorching Qi and Blood dispersed them into a hazy mist that shrouded his body.
Six harmonies unification means Qi and Blood connects the hands, feet, shoulders, back, waist, and hips, like intersecting waterways, gathering strength into one place so your blows can take lives!
Lu Sui's face flushed slightly, then quickly returned to normal, his eyes shining brilliantly like great stars.
He reckoned he was not far from that step.
At least he had met the firm requirements: his Qi and Blood was sufficiently condensed and abundant.
What was he still missing?
Lu Sui wondered.
Pitter-patter.
Another autumn rain fell.
Lu Sui stepped out of the Hundred Victories Martial Arts School, but instead of boarding his carriage, he headed toward a stall across the street.
Xiaotang and Xiaohuan quite liked this stall's roasted chestnuts, saying they were fragrant and soft.
Fine rain slanted through the air. The long street was deserted, without a single passerby.
"Hmm?"
Lu Sui halted. First, his ears caught a familiar sound of breathing; then, out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a figure standing at an alley entrance.
A bamboo hat was pulled extremely low over a burly frame, revealing only the lower half of a bluish-white chin.
-Deng Yun?
After a moment's thought, Lu Sui set down the roasted chestnuts wrapped in oiled paper:
"I'll come back for these in a bit."
With that, he walked toward the narrow alley.
Where was he?
When Lu Sui stepped into the alley entrance, Deng Yun was nowhere to be seen.
He continued deeper and discovered it was a dead end.
Just then, a hoarse voice abruptly drifted from behind.
"Lu Sui."
The man in the bamboo hat blocked the alley like a wall, as though intent on cutting off Lu Sui's path to survival completely.
"I've waited so long for you."
Deng Yun removed his bamboo hat, revealing his face. His skin was no longer deathly pale, having regained a faint trace of color.
He grinned, his teeth eerily white, unlike a living person's:
"You'll pay with your life for all twenty members of my Deng Family!"
Lu Sui froze at his words, then understood and said, speechless:
"You turned yourself into this thing, neither human nor ghost, wiped out your entire family, young and old, and then laid the blame at my door?
Little Deng, you really have ruined your brain practicing martial arts."
Compared to that night, Deng Yun was somewhat more lucid. His face twisted as he said:
"If you hadn't joined the Hundred Victories Martial Arts School, how could I have done such evil things? I should have been with Junior Sister Bai..."
Well, the only thing that hadn't changed was his simp nature!
A mocking smile surfaced in Lu Sui's eyes:
"Little Deng, did you think that luring me here would let you kill me without anyone being the wiser?"
"How should I explain this to someone like you, who's never been a young master?"
"When I go out, I have someone at Half-Step Fetus Embracing as my bodyguard."
Deng Yun whipped his head around and discovered someone standing at the mouth of the alley.
It was a short, scrawny old man with dark skin.
Though his appearance was utterly unremarkable, Deng Yun reacted as though he had seen raging floods and savage beasts, his heart pounding with fear as he trembled uncontrollably!