After several more rounds of bargaining, Lu Zhiyuan and Meng Jingxiu settled on ten percent above market price. He would collect the goods at the same time six days later.
Lu Zhiyuan left the black market and returned to his rented courtyard with a smile.
Even paying twice the market price for the medicinal ingredients would not trouble him much. Once he brewed them into pills, the returns would multiply dozens of times over.
But when doing business, he could not simply accept whatever price someone named. They would not think him generous. They would think him easy to fool, and all kinds of trouble would follow.
He pulled a manual for a movement art from beneath the foot of his bed and began studying it.
He was now incorporating the movement art from a thirteenth manual into Rivercrossing Cloud. Each time, practicing it back to Perfected took less time, showing that newly learned movement arts contributed less and less.
After fifteen minutes, he finished the new manual, and Twin Swallows Flight appeared on the panel. He fused it with his Perfected Rivercrossing Cloud.
[Techniques: Rivercrossing Cloud (Mastered 7325/10000)]
Being so close to Perfected immediately after fusion showed how little room for improvement remained. If he could fuse in the technique from a new manual and the result stayed at Perfected, it would mean this technique had no further room to improve.
His original idea of endlessly fusing low-grade techniques to create ever stronger ones had clearly been too fanciful.
Basic techniques were built on simple principles. Fortunately, the panel could simplify techniques found in incomplete manuals. Otherwise, he would hardly know where to look for new techniques.
Roughly a few kilometers away.
"Kill someone for me. If you succeed, we'll call that favor you owe me settled."
"Who?"
"Lu Zhiyuan, from Clearwell Clinic."
"The Tao clan won't let the murder of someone from Clearwell Clinic go unanswered."
"Bandits are running wild in the county. Leave some traces and blame them. Besides, the boy is quite wealthy now. You'll get his money too!"
"All right. I'll do it!"
The house fell silent again. One of the men had left. The other limped toward the table, the candlelight revealing his twisted expression.
"We went there together that day. My leg was broken, leaving me crippled, while you comfortably became a deputy steward! Why should you get all the good things?"
His vicious mutter accompanied the flickering candlelight.
Five days passed in a blink, and Stillshade enjoyed a rare spell of peace. The bandits had not reappeared and seemed to have abandoned the city. Get faster updates on g.com.
Lu Zhiyuan kept to his routine of brewing pills, cultivating, and wiping his face. His cultivation was at the threshold of a breakthrough. His movement art, meanwhile, could improve no further after the arts from sixteen manuals had been fused into it.
He therefore simplified the advanced movement art from the manual he had deliberately acquired, obtaining a technique called Bounding Sprint.
It was not a complete movement art, only one technique. According to the insights he received, using it would briefly increase his running speed.
It would leave him somewhat drained afterward, but had no other serious aftereffects.
Delighted, he immediately fused the technique into Rivercrossing Cloud.
After absorbing ten-odd movement arts, Rivercrossing Cloud was highly comprehensive. Fusing in Bounding Sprint did not distort it. Instead, it gained a secret technique for a burst of speed.
At the same time, its proficiency dropped to Mastered (8123/10000).
At his current rate of movement training, returning to Perfected would take only a day or two.
"Rivercrossing Cloud can fully accommodate a secret technique from an advanced movement art because it has absorbed ten-odd techniques. Then, to fully fuse a sword technique like Immortal Points the Way into my sword art, could completing the fusion of basic sword arts offer another path besides a second simplification?"
The thought came to Lu Zhiyuan unbidden, but he immediately dismissed it.
Sword arts differed from movement arts. Bounding Sprint was more like a temporary burst state than a particular pattern of footwork, which made it fully compatible.
"Still, completing the fusion of basic sword arts will help me fuse in advanced sword arts later. At least it will give me a more adaptable foundation."
Lu Zhiyuan considered it. His movement skills had reached a new point. Next came cultivation and combat techniques. Gaining proficiency was endless work. He simply could not stop.
As for cultivation, he checked the panel. Only a few points remained.
He sat cross-legged and repeatedly performed the Windborne Breathing Method. Blood vitality surged through his body. His skin reddened slightly as warmth circulated through it, then gradually seeped into his muscles.
He did not know how much time had passed when his body trembled slightly. A new surge of power bloomed within him, and his eyes opened of their own accord.
Faint rustling reached his ears. In the darkness, he could see a little farther than before.
The stillness of the night held countless tiny sounds. The two sensations intertwined, filling his awareness.
"Someone's there!"
Lu Zhiyuan suddenly turned toward the door. In the clarity following his breakthrough, he sensed something unusual in the courtyard. Someone was hiding there.
He picked up his longsword, pushed open the door, and walked straight into the courtyard, as if he had come outside for a stroll because he could not sleep.
A sharp hiss cut through the air.
Lu Zhiyuan darted left. Cold light flashed past, and a throwing knife scraped against the courtyard wall. At the same moment, a dark figure leaped from a corner onto the wall and gave him a cold look.
The man in black said nothing. With a swift movement, he vanished from the spot.
Lu Zhiyuan watched him retreat. Lately, he had often felt that someone was secretly following and watching him. He had assumed Luo Chenghou had sent them. But this man had hidden inside his courtyard tonight, then attacked as soon as he realized something was wrong. This was clearly more than surveillance. This chapter is updated first at novelping(.)com.
Sprint!
Blood vitality followed a specific route through his body. He suddenly felt lighter, and everything around him seemed to slow down.
A light breeze stirred the branches. He could see every movement of the swaying leaves with perfect clarity.
The next instant, he drove his right foot backward and appeared behind the man in black, thrusting his longsword.
Sensing something wrong behind him, the man instinctively turned. He saw the longsword coming toward him, his eyes filling with terror and disbelief. How could Lu Zhiyuan be this fast?
The information he had received said the target had only recently broken through to the Skin Tempering stage.
Out of caution, he had even followed Lu Zhiyuan for several days to confirm his cultivation and check that no one was protecting him. Only then had he decided to strike tonight and complete the commission.
Then what was going on with the movement art and sword technique Lu Zhiyuan was displaying now?
The blade passed through his chest. The man in black collapsed to the ground, blood filling his mouth.
Lu Zhiyuan moved to one side and looked down at him.
"Who sent you?"
"Promise you won't kill me, and I'll tell you," the man whispered, pressing a hand over his wound.
"All right." Lu Zhiyuan thought for a moment, then nodded.
"Du Zheng! He sent me!" the man said through gritted teeth. He felt Du Zheng had deceived him. Once he got back, he would make Du Zheng pay!
Lu Zhiyuan frowned, unable to understand it. He had not even gone looking for trouble with Du Zheng, yet the man had hired someone to kill him.
"Can I leave now?" The man struggled to his feet. Lu Zhiyuan's sword strike had robbed him of his physical strength, though he could still barely move.
Lu Zhiyuan shook his head slightly and advanced a step at a time.
"Anything else you want to say?"
"What are you doing? You promised you wouldn't kill me! You can't go back on your word!" the man screamed in terror.
"I just did."
Sword light flashed, and the tip pierced the man's heart. He stared at Lu Zhiyuan in disbelief, then slowly toppled backward.