Chapter 27: Chapter 24: Half a Year Later _1
The Green Bamboo Gang primarily operates casinos and brothels.
Cui Xiang Tower is one of the brothels run by Green Bamboo Gang, where one could eat, drink, gamble, and enjoy all forms of entertainment.
Once here, there was no need to ask about entertainment.
Smash!
A burly man slapped a table to pieces, roaring: "What’s up with the terrible food? Were you trying to poison me?"
"This is ridiculous, with food so terrible, why even run a brothel? Just shut it down."
"The women are too ugly; they’re absolutely disgusting."
The other burly men at the table also began to shout.
Others in the area fell deadly silent, no one daring to speak a word.
The burly men had tattoos of fierce tigers on their exposed arms — the insignia of the Fierce Tiger Gang. Who would dare provoke them?
"Gentlemen, please don’t be angry. I will have the dishes remade immediately."
The matron approached them, trying to soothe their anger with a smile.
"Remake? I’m already sick from what I ate! Compensation, without a thousand silver coins, this issue won’t be resolved."
One of the burly men retorted.
The matron turned pale.
Everyone could see that these bullies from the Fierce Tiger Gang were intentionally stirring up trouble, but what could they do about it?
They could only hope for the Green Bamboo Gang’s experts to save the day.
"Hurry up! If the compensation isn’t made soon, we’ll demolish Cui Xiang Tower!"
The burly man who had slapped the table threatened.
At this moment, Lu Yan and Li Quan entered Cui Xiang Tower.
"You dare?"
Li Quan rebuked. With Lu Yan’s backing, he had nothing to fear, even becoming a bit... arrogant.
Lu Yan was ruthless, even defeating Fang Xiong with ease, so why should they fear the Fierce Tiger Gang?
In terms of martial prowess, Gang Leader of Fierce Tiger Gang was at best on par with Fang Xiong.
The members of the Fierce Tiger Gang stood up, lining up together.
The matron, ecstatic, quickly ran over and said, "Manager Li, you’ve finally arrived."
"It’s okay; we’ll take care of it from here."
Li Quan waved his hand, his eyes sweeping over the members of the Fierce Tiger Gang. He said, "Cao Hu, it’s always you making trouble. This time you shall pay with a hand before you leave."
At the same time, Zhang Dashan quietly informed Lu Yan that Cao Hu was the Deputy Leader of the Fierce Tiger Gang, a martial artist with three limit-breaks.
The others were the elites of the Fierce Tiger Gang.
"Li Quan, Zhang Dashan, only you two are here. Where are the experts of the Green Bamboo Gang? Have they all died?"
Cao Hu looked around and said in a taunting and probing way.
Lu Yan, too, didn’t want to bother with words, so he walked straight up and said, "You’ve damaged a table, you owe a thousand silver coins in compensation, leave one hand behind, and then leave."
"You insolent brat. You’re still wet behind the ears, but your tone is big. Let me teach you a lesson on behalf of your Gang Leader Fang Xiong."
One of the burly men beside Cao Hu reached out to grab Lu Yan.
But Lu Yan, reacting faster, latched onto the man’s wrist and twisted it.
With a crack, the man’s arm twisted like a pretzel and he screamed out in pain.
"Stop!"
Cao Hu shouted and pounced at Lu Yan like a fierce tiger descending a hill.
Bang!
Lu Yan kicked. Nobody saw how Lu Yan made his move, but they saw Cao Hu’s bulky figure flying out and heavily crashing to the ground.
His chest had already sunk in, and he was vomiting blood heavily, barely clinging onto his life.
This was because Lu Yan was merciful; he didn’t want to kill in public and create trouble. Otherwise, with that kick, Cao Hu would have definitely died.
The brothel fell into a pin-drop silence.
"I am deputy Gang Leader of the Green Bamboo Gang, Lu Shan. Go tell Lei Laohu that if the Fierce Tiger Gang dares to cause trouble again, I’ll personally decapitate him. Now, leave."
Lu Yan rebuked.
The few members of the Fierce Tiger Gang quickly aided Cao Hu and scampered away in a hurry.
Lu Yan did not intend to have a full-on confrontation with the Fierce Tiger Gang; it was pointless.
The main reason he took over the Green Bamboo Gang was to use its resources to help him find items similar to the white stone pieces, not to fight over territories.
He believed that after revealing his skills today, the Fierce Tiger Gang wouldn’t dare to cause trouble again.
Only by stabilizing the Green Bamboo Gang could they help him find the ’Dao Food’.
This was a name coined by Lu Yan himself, referring to the favorite food of Dao Book, also called Dao Food.
Certainly, in the following days, no one caused trouble on the Green Bamboo Gang’s territories.
Meanwhile, Li Quan handed over the transcription of the Shattering Stone Palm manual to Lu Yan.
Lu Yan instructed the entire Green Bamboo Gang to help him search for ’Dao Food’. Without any reference, ancient-looking objects were enough to catch his attention.
The white stone piece and the sphere did not share any common appearance, they were both old.
They appeared to be ancient objects that had gone through the long river of time.
There was no other option but to search in this direction.
Lu Yan began to contemplate the Shattering Stone Palm technique.
Having two martial arts that achieved the Unity of Man and Martial Arts made understanding the Shattering Stone Palm easier. He grasped the basics in five days, and then with the help of eating several pounds of meat every day, made rapid progress.
Half a year passed in the blink of an eye.
It’s been eleven months since Lu Yan joined the Red-clad Guard. He turned sixteen, and his cultivation level finally reached the overflowing Qi-blood status of the second limit-breaking phase, which enabled him to sense the third sealed door.
Through practicing two acquired martial bodies, his Qi-blood capacity greatly increased. Under the overflowing Qi-blood status of the second limit-breaking phase, the thickness of his Qi-blood was almost comparable to a third breakthrough.
With his two martial arts that achieved the Unity of Man and Martial Arts, the third sealed door did not pose any obstacles for Lu Yan and was broken easily.
Lu Yan had prepared dried martial food in advance and immediately devoured a pound of it, converting it into Qi-blood.
After a rapid seven-day enhancement period, Lu Yan’s Qi-blood doubled. It surged like a river in his meridians.
Even though he was not a match for a martial artist who achieved four limit-breaking phases, the gap wouldn’t be too large. By the time when Lu Yan reached the overflowing Qi-blood status of the third breakthrough, he could compare with them.
Of course, this is only in terms of quantity, not quality.
After all, the martial arts practiced during the four limit-breaking phases are second-rate martial arts.
"Everyone says that third-rate martial arts can only be cultivated to the third breakthrough, but I feel like the fourth sealed door... it can’t stop me."
Lu Yan had strong confidence.
Other people cultivating third–rate Martial Arts fail to reach the fourth limit-breaking phase, unable to shatter the fourth sealed door, because the level of their martial arts is too low, limiting their Qi-blood’s upper limit.
As for him, he has two martial arts that achieved the Unity of Man and Martial Arts. His Qi-blood is much stronger than others, the fourth sealed door would pose no threat to him.
If he can achieve the Unity of Man and Martial Arts using another two third-rate martial arts, not to mention the fourth sealed door, even the fifth sealed door would be breached.
Rules are there to limit the mediocre.
Lu Yan smiled.
"Unfortunately, the Green Bamboo Gang hasn’t been able to find any new ’Dao Food’."
Without Dao Food, progress on the Shattering Stone Palm, which had entered the transcendent phase, was slow.
Three months ago, the Shattering Stone Palm entered the transcendent phase. Since then, Lu Yan began to consume martial food and dried martial food to accumulate Qi-blood and improve the progress of Shattering Stone Palm.
In the following three months, Lu Yan bought a total of fifty pounds of dried martial food, spent a total of one thousand five hundred taels of silver.
With the assistance of dried martial food and fresh martial food, the progress of his Shattering Stone Palm came 90% close to transcending and entering the Unity of Man and Martial Arts.
Only 10% was left before reaching the Unity of Man and Martial Arts.
"I must raise it to the Unity of Man and Martial Arts as soon as possible."
Lu Yan thought.
During this period, the surroundings of Changfeng City were not peaceful. The bandits from Qingfeng County became more rampant and frequently attacked passing merchants and caravans.
The businesses and escort agencies in the city are having a difficult time.
Not only that, the bandits also raided villages, plundering food and women.
Lu Yan and the other red-clad guards have pursued them several times, but the bandits are as elusive as the wind, hiding in the deep mountains and forests, making them extremely difficult to trace.
Lu Yan heard rumors that the Liu Family and Wu Family were planning to join forces to eliminate the bandits in the mountains.
When that time comes, the Red-clad Guard will surely be the main force.
He must improve his strength as soon as possible. Those bandits, known as the Red Sleeve Army, are not common thieves, there are martial arts masters among them.
Originally, Lu Yan planned to reveal that he had achieved the second limit-breaking phase after breaking through to the third phase, to get better treatment.
But now he might have to hold off that.
The higher the level of cultivation, the higher the chance of being called upon to eradicate the bandits.
If he remains at the first limit-breaking phase, he might not get called upon at all.
However, he still needs to be prepared.
With this in mind, Lu Yan went to the Linglan Chamber of Commerce and bought ten pounds of martial food in one go.
After consuming martial food, Lu Yan did not practice martial arts; instead, he allowed all the energy to fuel his Dao Book, accelerating the progress of Shattering Stone Palm.
After consuming four pounds of dried martial food, the progress of Shattering Stone Palm finally reached transcendent 100%, and then it entered the Unity of Man and Martial Arts.
The reward for achieving the third Acquired Martial Body arrived.
At the end, Lu Yan’s body improved somewhat, with an increase in Qi-blood capacity and a three-tenth increase in Qi-blood concentration.
"Just as expected, the benefits were diminished this time, and both my body’s capacity and Qi-blood only improved by around thirty percent."
Lu Yan contemplated.
"Wait..."
Suddenly, Lu Yan was taken aback.
The three Martial Arts Avatars next to the Dao Book suddenly collided with each other and then merged together.
