Chapter 16

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

These black-clothed men were actually the people of the Wild Wolf Sect, Blood Blade Sect, Fierce Tiger Sect, and many other underground sects of Windmill Town. They fought their way into the Han Residence’s inner courtyard.

Under Lu Yu’s timely warning, they were stopped before they could enter the inner courtyard. Their invasion did not cause too much of an impact to the Han family who was heavily protected by the guards.

However, many courtyard guards and guards from the inner courtyard were transferred to the battlefield in between the inner and outer courtyard. Other than a few key places that were guarded, the inner courtyard was completely empty.

Han Yaozu brought his guards to the biggest battlefield personally — the martial arts hall.

The martial arts hall was the passage connecting the west outer court and the inner court. When the alarm sounded, this place became the biggest battlefield.

A few powerful squires stood in the martial arts hall. In the martial arts hall, a few black-clothed men who had reached the ninth level of the body refining realm were fighting with many strong guards.

The squires didn’t make a move because they were afraid that there were stronger enemies hidden among the black-clothed men.

However, when Han Yaozu arrived here, the balance was broken. The squires started to join the fight. They used their powerful strength to crush the black-clothed men and beat them out of the martial arts hall.

After the squires joined the fight, some experts of qi cultivating realm appeared among the black-clothed men. 

One was with a blood-colored sword. He was the chief of the Blood Blade Sect.

A man punched and shattered the steel saber, and his fist was like a tiger’s roar. It was the chief of the Fierce Tiger Sect.

A sneaky black shadow, like a wolf in the dark night, was the chief of the Wild Wolf Sect.

Three qi cultivating realm experts hidden in the crowd revealed themselves. The squires were caught off guard. However, they quickly made use of the advantage in number and successfully suppressed the three of them.

Seeing that his squires could not defeat the three chiefs even though they had the advantage in number, Han Yaozu was a little dissatisfied, “What were these squires doing? They could not even do such a small thing well!”

He was wondering if he was too merciful to them. He had tolerated these squires who were so weak to stay in the Han Residence for so many years.

The squires of the Han Residence received many benefits from the Han Residence every year. Yet, they could not even defeat a few underground sect chiefs. It was simply a disgrace to Han Residence.

Basically, no one in Windmill Town dared to provoke the Han clan. So, these squires did not have the chance to put their strength in use. After many years of peaceful time, their skill became rusty, and they were not as strong as before.

There were some small factions and individuals that provoked Han Residence from time to time, but they were easily eliminated. The squires were not needed for these small fries.

Of course, these weak forces could not compare to the underground sect chiefs who had been licking their wounds all year round.

Even if the squires had the same or even higher cultivation level than the three chiefs, they couldn’t defeat the three chiefs. It was because they had not been in a battle for a long time, they didn’t have the courage to risk their lives anymore.

Even so, these squires had climbed all the way from the courtyard guards to the position of squires and experienced many hardships. Under the instruction of Han Yaozu, they finally counterattacked.

They cooperated with each other and successfully suppressed the three chiefs of the Fierce Tiger Sect, Wild Wolf Sect, and Blood Blade Sect.

Without their chiefs’ support, the remaining black-clothed men were defeated by the courtyard guards and guards.

Seeing that the situation was not good, the three chiefs looked at each other and simultaneously crushed the cloth bag in their arms. A ball of yellow smoke filled the martial arts hall.

The squires who were closest to them felt dizzy as soon as they inhaled the yellow smoke. They hurriedly retreated and reminded, “It’s poisonous smoke, retreat!”

After hearing that the yellow smoke was poisonous smoke, the courtyard guards and guards who were chasing after the black-clothed men all retreated and watched as the remaining black-clothed men escaped.

The yellow smoke permeated the martial arts hall. Many black-clothed men had taken the antidote and escaped from the martial arts hall. Seeing this scene, Lu Yu quickly hid himself.

He had seen it all. The three chiefs of the black-clothed men who could emit light were able to kill the courtyard guards at the body refining realm as easily as killing chickens. If he bumped into them, he would definitely die.

“Retreat!”

The leader of the black-clothed men shouted.

When they were retreating, the leader of the black-clothed men slapped the courtyard guards who were blocking their way into pieces.

It was a shocking scene. Lu Yu saw one of the courtyard guards was smashed into pieces by the black-clothed man who could emit light. Only two of his legs were intact.

Seeing this scene, Lu Yu almost spitted out the dinner he had eaten the night before.

When he crushed an enemy’s heart with his bare hands, he did not feel disgusted or uncomfortable.

However, Lu Yu really felt nauseous when he saw a person was punched into a pile of minced meat.

After becoming a martial art cultivator, his digestive ability had greatly improved. Now, there was nothing in his stomach to vomit.

After retching for a while, Lu Yu wiped the saliva from the corner of his mouth and walked out of the corner. He felt that his mouth was still a little sore.

The black-clothed men had already left, leaving behind piles of corpses.

When the yellow smoke in the martial arts hall thinned out, there were guards still holding their breath. They forcefully ran past the martial arts hall and chased after the black-clothed men.

Lu Yu didn’t need to join in the chase. His strength was too low, so he couldn’t catch up to the escaping black-clothed men.

Soon, Lu Yu joined in the rescue of the wounded. He did not forget the courtyard guard he had hidden in a room. When Lu Yu found him, he was still alive.

While helping the others find the wounded, he checked his harvest today.

[ Name: Lu Yu ]

[ Realm: Third level of the body refining realm ]

[ Qi-blood: 63 ]

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

[ Skills: Fierce Tiger Fist Style (highly skilled), Eight Steps Chasing Cicada (skilled) ]

[ Experience Points: 837 ]

Leveling up fourth level of body refining realm required 1,000 experience points, and 600 experience points were required to increase one point of qi-blood.

The Fierce Tiger Fist Style had already been upgraded to the highest level, and it could not be further upgraded.

Moreover, the skills had also undergone changes. The Hungry Tiger Pounce, the Fierce Tiger Descending, the Fierce Tiger Roar, and the Black Tiger Heart Piercing were all simplified into one skill — the Fierce Tiger Fist Style.

However, when he clicked open the Fierce Tiger Fist Style, he could still see the specific information of the four moves.

The amount of experience points required to upgrade the Fierce Tiger Fist Style, had also become the sum of the experience points of all four moves required to upgrade to ‘highly skilled’.

Of course, he could still upgrade the level of a single move. He did not have to upgrade all four moves at once.

The Fierce Tiger Fist Style had already been upgraded to the maximum level. This was something that Lu Yu had not expected.

He had thought that he would be able to continue upgrading the Fierce Tiger Fist Style until he reached the seventh level of the body refining realm.

That was because Yang Xiu had told them that the Fierce Tiger Fist Style could be cultivated to the seventh level of the body refining realm.

However, he had already upgraded the Fierce Tiger Fist Style to the fourth level when he was at the third level of the body refining realm. From now on, he would not be able to continue upgrading the fist technique to the next level.

As for his realm, he had to maxed out his qi-blood and then cultivate slowly, or he could directly use experience points to increase his realm.

But no matter which one it was, it was not as cost-effective as directly upgrading his cultivation technique to increase his realm.

Lu Yu thought again, could he learn a new cultivation technique and increase his realm by upgrading the new cultivation technique?

He did not know if this would work.

Otherwise, it would take him a long time to max out his qi-blood and then slowly increase his realm through cultivation.

“Brother, be gentle. What are you thinking about? Can you carry me to the clinic first before you daydream?”

Just as Lu Yu was thinking about finding a new cultivation technique to increase his realm, the injured courtyard guard that Lu Yu carried finally urged him.

“Oh, oh, I’m sorry.”

Lu Yu quickly changed his position to make him more comfortable.

…

Han Yaozu rushed to the study as soon as he received the report from his subordinate, but the mysterious person didn’t leave any trace in his study room.

Looking at the messy study, he went downstairs to check on the injuries of the guard.

There was only one wound on the body of the guard, and there was a charred palm print on his chest.

Han Yaozu touched the body of the guard and felt that there was a burning spiritual energy in the guard’s body. It burned the internal organs of the guard.

The cause of death of the guard was severe damage of his internal organs by the powerful fire-elemental spiritual energy.

His finger lightly touched the charred palm print on the guard’s chest, causing Han Yaozu to frown.

“This is the mark left behind by the Raging Flame Palm. Could it be that it was done by an elder?”

The Raging Flame Palm was a spirit class second grade martial art of the Han clan. Only martial art cultivators above the qi cultivating realm could cultivate it.

However, only Han clan disciples were qualified to cultivate the Raging Flame Palm. Those squires were not allowed to cultivate this skill.

Unless the squires had contributed greatly to the Han clan, and only the squires of their own clan were qualified to cultivate it. Otherwise, they could only cultivate other spirit class first grade skills.

“Who did it?” Han Yaozu felt that all the things that had happened in the past few days were plotted by the same mastermind.

The target of the mastermind was something in his study.

Moreover, the mastermind was very familiar with the situation in the study because he found that the mechanism to open the secret room in the study had been tampered with.

Unfortunately, that was a set of array formation left behind by the Han family a long time ago. Only the family head could open it. Even if the mastermind entered the study room, he would not be able to enter the secret room.

There were many important things in the secret room. Han Yaozu had no idea what the mastermind was up to.

However, he was sure that the mastermind was hidden in the Han Residence.

In an empty space in a forest, there were people standing around. They were the dozen or so black-clothed men who had escaped the Han Residence’s pursuit.

Originally, the three forces and some small gangs had a total of nearly 200 people. In the end, only a dozen or so people managed to escape the Han Residence’s pursuit.

In the middle of the black-clothed men stood a young man wearing a green robe with a square jade hanging on his waist. The young man punched the tree trunk angrily, leaving a scorched black fist mark on the tree trunk.

“D*mn it!”

“I didn’t expect that the declining Han Residence still had a functioning array formation. All our efforts are in vain.”

The chief of the Wild Wolf Sect stepped forward and said, “I suggest that we just kidnap a member of the Han family and force Han Yaozu to hand over the cultivation technique.”

“Aren’t you very close with Miss Han? Lure her out and tie her up. Han Yaozu will agree use an incomplete cultivation technique to exchange for his daughter.” the chief of the Wild Wolf Sect suggested.

The young man’s eyes flickered a few times before he said, “We’ll do as you say!”

“After the matter is done, don’t forget what you promised us.” the chief of the Wild Wolf Sect reminded.

“Don’t worry, I have some resource in Bei Feng City. What you have is just a small matter. If I could openly strike the Han family, would I have gone through so much trouble?”

“That’s good!” the voice of the Wild Wolf Sect chief faded into the distance..