Chapter 11

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

When Butler Zhang went to the dungeon to look for Bai Qiu, he found that he had been beaten up. His body was covered in blood marks.

Butler Zhang flew into a rage. He scolded the guards of the dungeon and the two guards who were escorting Bai Qiu.

This time, he had wronged Bai Qiu, which caused him to be beaten up in the dungeon.

Butler Zhang felt guilty. That was why he was so angry.

After scolding the dungeon guards and the guards escorting Bai Qiu, Butler Zhang also knew that they did not take the initiative to beat Bai Qiu up.

The Third Old Master of the Han family knew Bai Qiu was escorted into the dungeon by the guards. Because he was angered in the courtyard, he wanted to find a punching bag. So, he ordered the guards to torture Bai Qiu.

On the surface, he said that he was interrogating Bai Qiu, but he was just venting his anger.

When Butler Zhang found out that it was the Third Old Master’s orders, Butler Zhang’s face was gloomy.

When he saw the two guards brought Bai Qiu out, Butler Zhang said to him with self-blame and concern, “Steward Bai, why are you being so stupid!”

“Why didn’t you tell me what happened? Why did you have to make your own decision? Well, now that you’ve been beaten up for nothing, and you also lost your position.”

“Cough, cough, cough, I didn’t want to cause you any trouble.”

“He’s the young master of the Han family, we servants can’t say anything, I can’t stop him, I have no other way.” Bai Qiu also had a helpless look on his face. He had no choice but to cover up for his young master. This was the sorrow of being a servant.

“Nonsense! If everyone was like you and allowed the Han family disciples to do whatever they wanted, then the Han family would really be finished!” Butler Zhang criticized sternly.

When the others heard Butler Zhang words, they all lowered their heads and pretended not to hear anything. Only Butler Zhang dared to say such words.

“Cough, cough, I know I’m wrong.” Bai Qiu admitted his mistake humbly.

Seeing him coughing up blood, Butler Zhang also waved his hand and asked the two of them to take him down to recuperate.

“Go back and recuperate first. I’ll arrange a job for you after your injury is healed. However, you can’t continue to be the steward of the logistics department.”

Bai Qiu was carried away by the guards and sent back to recuperate. Butler Zhang brought Wang Qiang and Lu Yu around the inner court before leading them out.

The main purpose of bringing them in this time was to let them get to know the master of the Han family — Old Master Han. He wanted them to be able to recognize the master of the Han family when they entered the inner courtyard.

“Wang Qiang, you can move into the inner courtyard after the formalities are completed.” Butler Zhang left after leaving these words. He was the butler of the entire Han Residence and had to deal with many matters. Time was very tight for him.

The incident involved Bai Qiu, a good friend of his for many years. That was why he spent so much time to deal with it. Otherwise, he would just have to look at the final report and make a decision.

Regarding Steward Bai’s matter, Wang Qiang and Lu Yu were also very regretful. They felt sorry for him.

The cause of this matter was very simple. Han Fan might be short of money, but he did not have any way to earn money.

The inner court’s warehouse was not open to the Han family’s disciples, so Han Fan had set his sight on the outer court’s warehouse.

Every time he entered the warehouse, he would use the excuse of inspecting the materials to secretly take away some valuable pills. Then, he would walk out of the warehouse arrogantly, but no one dared to stop him.

After Bai Qiu discovered this, he did not dare to report it. He was afraid of offending Third Master Han and implicating Butler Zhang, so he secretly bought some pills from the outside to cover the losses in the warehouse.

After a few times, Han Fan found out that nothing had happened even though he stole the pills, so he became even more rampant. Almost every day, he would go to the logistics department to steal the pills.

Until for some unknown reason, he was caught trespassing into the study room on the spot, and the scene just now appeared.

Perhaps it was because no one dared to stop him from taking things from the warehouse without permission, it emboldened him. Hence, he dared to trespass into the master’s study room.

Thinking of the study room, Lu Yu remembered something. He seemed to have heard the word “study room” somewhere before?

The impression was not very deep. Lu Yu could not remember where he had heard it for a while.

“Sigh, we are just servants. Steward Bai was beaten half to death just because he was suspected. The truth was out, but Young Master Han Fan was only grounded at home for ten days.” Wang Qiang said helplessly.

After Han Fan was beaten unconscious, Butler Zhang announced the punishment for Han Fan stealing the goods of the outer court. Just as his father had said, he was confined at home for ten days, reflecting on his mistakes.

However, compared to the injuries on his body, this punishment was nothing. He had been recuperating at home for more than ten days.

With that, Steward Bai’s case came to an end. Lu Yu also resumed his usual life, cultivating, eating, patrolling, sleeping.

In the evening, Lu Yu walked out of the logistics department. He received a body tempering pill every day.

He casually threw the pill into his mouth and ate it as if it was a candy.

The effect of the body tempering pill was a little weak for Lu Yu now. Perhaps it was because his qi-blood had increased too quickly. After eating the second body tempering pill, it barely increased his qi-blood by two points.

The third body tempering pill only increased his qi-blood by 1 point. After that, he had to eat a few more pills to increase his qi-blood by 1 point.

Because his qi-blood had become much stronger, when he ate the body tempering pill, his entire body didn’t tremble and sweat like the first time.

Now that he ate a body tempering pill, he would feel his entire body warm. Soon, he would not feel it anymore.

Looking at his attributes, he knew that it was getting harder and harder for him to raise his qi-blood.

[ Name: Lu Yu ]

[ Realm: Body refining realm (second level) ]

[ Qi-blood: 44 ]

[ Cultivation Technique: Fierce Tiger Fist Style (third level) ]

[ Skills: Fierce Tiger Fist-Hungry Tiger Pounce (highly skilled), Fierce Tiger Fist-Fierce Tiger Descending (skilled), Fierce Tiger Fist-Fierce Tiger Roar (slightly skilled)]

[ Experience Points: 300 ]

After a few days of training, his Fierce Tiger Fist Style was still 800 experience points away from leveling up to the next level. With the 300 experience points he had now, he still needed 500 more.

It would take at least three to four days to level up.

It was so difficult to level up when he was still in the novice village of the game. Lu Yu could not imagine how difficult it would be to level up later on.

Moreover, body tempering pills were obviously effective on martial art cultivators at the third level of the body refining realm. Why did he feel that the pill was losing its effect when he was only at the second level of the body refining realm?

Lu Yu was puzzled. Could it be that the quality of the body tempering pills produced by the Han family was not as good as the system’s?

When he walked to the entrance of his courtyard, he found a person inside. It seemed to be an inner court guard. Lu Yu did not know why he was here?

Just as he was about to ask, the person took out a book and a porcelain bottle and gave it to Lu Yu. He said, “This is what Butler Zhang instructed me to pass to you. He said that this is your reward.”

“This is a mortal class martial skill — Eight Steps Chasing Cicada. This bottle of pills is a body enhancing pill. It can increase the strength of the body and is suitable for consumption before cultivation.”

“Butler Zhang also instructed me to instruct you to cultivate well and strive to enter the inner courtyard as soon as possible.”

With that, the guard left Lu Yu’s small courtyard.

Looking at the martial skill and medicinal pills in his hands, Lu Yu could also sense Butler Zhang’s intentions.

Under normal circumstances, no matter how much Butler Zhang valued Steward Bai, it was impossible for him to receive such a generous reward after resolving this matter.

At most, he would only be rewarded with a bottle of medicinal pills. It was impossible for him to be rewarded with a martial skill.

Butler Zhang was investing in Lu Yu. He valued Lu Yu’s talent, so he spared no expense in investing Lu Yu.

As for whether Lu Yu was trustworthy and whether he had other motives for entering the Han Residence, he had already investigated thoroughly.

Lu Yu’s background was very clean. His parents were once residents of Windmill Town, but they had died in an accident when he was young.

From the age of nine, Lu Yu had followed the other street children to make a living. Even the intelligence report that Lu Yu had received a few beatings that year was very clear.

Lu Yu entered the room and opened the cover of the manual of the martial skill that had the words “Eight Steps Chasing Cicada” written on it.

[ Detected that the player is learning a mortal class movement skill– Eight Steps Chasing Cicada ]

[ Eight Steps Chasing Cicada skill template generating, 1%… 2%… ]

Soon, Lu Yu had an additional skill.

With curiosity, he came to the martial arts practice field. After a few attempts, he found that Eight Steps Chasing Cicada was equivalent to the displacement skill in traditional games. This skill allowed him to move swiftly eight times in a row.

The displacement speed, displacement distance, and displacement interval were all related to the skill level. The higher the skill level, the faster the displacement speed, the longer the displacement distance, and the shorter the displacement interval.

At present, the Eight Steps Chasing Cicada was only at beginner level. Its displacement was short, and it had no explosive power.

Upgrading the Eight Steps Chasing Cicada required 80 experience points. After thinking for a while, Lu Yu used the experience points he had just obtained to level up Eight Steps Chasing Cicada.

If the level of the Eight Steps Chasing Cicada was too low, it would not be useful at all. Of course, the higher the level of the displacement (escape) skill, the better.

Eighty experience points were consumed.

[ Skill level up! Eight Steps Chasing Cicada (beginner)→ Eight Steps Chasing Cicada (slightly skilled) ]

The next level up required 150 experience points. Looking at the remaining experience points, Lu Yu did not hesitate to continue leveling up. 

[ Skill level up! Eight Steps Chasing Cicada (slightly skilled) → Eight Steps Chasing Cicada (skilled) ]

The next level up required 300 experience points. Lu Yu did not have enough experience points, he only had 70 experience points left. When he had accumulated enough experience points in the future, he would level up the skill again.

Lu Yu used Eight Steps Chasing Cicada. With a bang, he appeared four meters away, leaving a cloud of dust on the ground.

After using the skill eight times in a row, Lu Yu was already more than thirty meters away from his original spot. It only took him one second.

More than thirty meters in one second. This speed was almost as fast as Han Yu’s when she ran out of the forest. However, Lu Yu used a skill to achieve such explosive speed, while Han Yu’s was just running normally.

Moreover, Lu Yu also realized that using skills required the consumption of qi-blood. It was just that he had never used the Fierce Tiger Fist with all his strength, so he did not realize it.

Using Eight Steps Chasing Cicada consecutively consumed 16 qi-blood. In a short period of time, he had consumed nearly one-third of his qi-blood. Lu Yu felt that his body was a little tired and he was panting.

“It seems that I cannot use Eight Steps Chasing Cicada in one go unless I’m running for my life. It consumes too much qi-blood..”