Wang Hu dodged Zhou Feng’s palm strike with a clumsy roll.
However, he wasn’t being attacked by just one person this time.
Lu Changfeng, who had been lying in wait, swept in. With a swift and precise slash, he lopped off one of Wang Hu’s arms at the shoulder.
Zhou Feng followed up with another palm strike to Wang Hu’s chest, sending him spewing blood.
"Spare me! Please, spare me, you two heroes!" Clutching his arm, Wang Hu collapsed weakly to the ground, all fight gone from him as he wailed and begged for his life.
"Whatever you want, I’ll give it to you!"
Zhou Feng and Lu Changfeng exchanged a glance. Zhou Feng stepped forward and asked, "Where are the valuables you’ve extorted?"
Seeing that his life was safe for the moment, Wang Hu gasped for breath and said, "It’s in a hidden box under the bed! All my money is in there! Just take the money and spare my life, heroes!"
Zhou Feng kept his eyes on Wang Hu while Lu Changfeng quickly walked to the bed.
On the bed was a young girl, stripped naked, her face stained with tears. Lu Changfeng couldn’t bear the sight. With a flick of his longsword, he cut the ropes binding the girl and then used the sword to lift a quilt and cover her body.
Lu Changfeng then began to feel around under the bed. Before long, he found a hidden box, just as described.
With a slight tug, he removed the hidden box.
Fearing it might contain a Hidden Weapon, Lu Changfeng placed it on the ground, sliced off the small lock with his longsword, and pried open the lid.
Fortunately, the box was safe.
Inside the opened box was a thick stack of silver banknotes.
The silver banknotes were all in denominations of a hundred taels. Lu Changfeng counted them—there were twenty-two in total.
This haul would be enough to support Lu Changfeng’s cultivation for some time.
"Is this all?"
Lu Changfeng raised his longsword and pressed the tip to the spot between Wang Hu’s eyebrows, his voice cold.
"Hero, that’s really all I have! We’ve only been in Feng City for half a year, and my brothers under me have expenses too. It wasn’t easy to save this much!"
"Take all the money, I beg you, just spare my life!"
Lu Changfeng slowly withdrew his longsword. Then, in a sudden reversal, the blade flashed back, severing Wang Hu’s head in a single strike.
He bent down and searched Wang Hu’s body, finding only a few dozen taels of broken silver, but he did discover a booklet.
Lu Changfeng looked at it and saw it was a manual for a decent Saber Technique. If sold, it could fetch a good amount of silver.
"Miss, you should leave quickly through the side door. Be careful not to get caught again."
After saying this, the two martial brothers left the house, climbing over the wall to exit the courtyard.
Before long, the two returned to the Martial Arts Hall.
Inside Lu Changfeng’s bedroom, the two martial brothers began to divide the spoils.
Zhou Feng was very interested in the Saber Technique manual, so it went to him.
In exchange, Lu Changfeng took one thousand three hundred taels of the silver, while Zhou Feng took nine hundred taels plus the broken silver.
"It’s true what they say, ’arson and murder are the quickest paths to riches’!" Zhou Feng’s face was alight with joy.
This raid had gone rather smoothly.
A key factor was that Lu Changfeng had scouted Wang Hu’s strength beforehand.
Furthermore, neither of the martial brothers was weak, and with the element of surprise in a two-on-one attack, the Blood Forging Third Layer Wang Hu never stood a chance to fight back.
If Lu Changfeng had acted alone, he might have caused a much bigger commotion.
It was well worth it to bring along a trustworthy senior brother to share the risk.
The next day, Lu Changfeng took the earnings from last night, combined them with his usual savings for a total of two thousand taels of silver, and went to the largest apothecary in the Outer City to buy Exotic Beast Meat.
This apothecary was opened by an influential figure from the Inner City and sold Exotic Beast Meat.
They stated their purpose.
The apothecary’s attendant led the two martial brothers to the second floor to see the manager.
The manager was a portly middle-aged man. After hearing the attendant’s explanation, he got straight to the point.
"Welcome, you two. Our shop does indeed have Earth Dragon Meat for sale. However, prices have skyrocketed recently. A single strip of Earth Dragon Meat has risen to four taels of silver. If you buy by the bundle, there’s a small discount. A bundle of one hundred strips is three hundred and eighty-five taels of silver. Is this acceptable to you?"
Prices had indeed been rising too quickly lately.
More and more people couldn’t afford rice.
Some shops outside had already stopped accepting copper coins, only taking silver.
Lu Changfeng did a quick calculation. After his Root Bone improved in a few days, he estimated he would consume five hundred strips of meat per month.
By his calculations, the silver coins he brought would be almost completely spent after buying just one month’s supply for his cultivation.
However, Lu Changfeng also had strong financial support from his master, Zhang Desheng.
Combined, it was enough for two months of cultivation.
As for Zhou Feng, although his Realm was higher than Lu Changfeng’s, his Root Bone was only B Class+.
Paradoxically, he only needed a little over a hundred strips of Exotic Beast Meat each month.
Lu Changfeng bought five bundles.
Zhou Feng gritted his teeth and used his savings to buy five bundles as well, intending to use this Exotic Beast Meat to break through the Blood Forging Fourth Layer and reach the Blood Forging Fifth Layer in one go!
Seeing he had big customers, the manager’s interest was piqued.
He had the goods gathered at top speed and handed them over to Lu Changfeng and his companion.
After paying, Lu Changfeng and Zhou Feng left the apothecary and returned to the Martial Arts Hall to begin their secluded cultivation.
In the Outer City, Wang Hu’s gang was just a minor one, at best considered one of the more proficient troublemakers among the small gangs.
The news that Wang Hu had been decapitated in his home at night didn’t cause much of a stir in the Outer City.
However, the small gang he led was quickly swallowed up by another faction.
And so, a few days passed in the blink of an eye.
Lu Changfeng waited for the copy cooldown to end, then decisively found another opportunity to copy his master Zhang Desheng’s Root Bone.
After the successful copy, Lu Changfeng returned to his bedroom.
’Interface, begin fusion!’
"Fusion successful. You have obtained three Middle A Class Root Bones!"
’Continue fusion!’
"Fusion successful. You have obtained one Upper A Root Bone!"
BOOM!
Another transformation began within Lu Changfeng’s body.
It had taken four Middle A Class Root Bones to succeed in this fusion, and the effects of this transformation seemed even more profound than the previous ones.
Lu Changfeng could even clearly sense the flow of blood within his body—something that had never happened before.
After the fusion was complete, Lu Changfeng directly took out ten strips of Earth Dragon Meat, stuffed them into his mouth, and swallowed them whole.
An ordinary Martial Artist would be shocked to see Lu Changfeng’s eating speed. Only a Root Bone like his could absorb the energy from Exotic Beast Meat so quickly.
Lu Changfeng practiced the [Le Mountain Angry Vajra] in his room.
He wanted to experience the effects of the Upper A Root Bone.
Lu Changfeng discovered that the Upper A Root Bone not only increased his capacity to absorb Exotic Beast Meat but also dramatically improved the efficiency of the absorption.
As long as he maintained his supply of Exotic Beast Meat, Lu Changfeng was confident he could advance to the Blood Forging Fourth Layer within half a year.
In half a year, Lu Changfeng would only be sixteen. A sixteen-year-old at the Blood Forging Fourth Layer was rare, but not unheard of in Feng City.
However, if you added the prerequisite of only having started cultivating at age fifteen, you would be hard-pressed to find another prodigy like him.
Only the genius disciples from the Major Sects could possibly compare to Lu Changfeng.
’Looks like I’ll have to go on a few more ’raids’.’
’I’ll bring Senior Brother Zhou Feng along with me again next time.’
’Right, is there a higher Talent above Upper A?’
The interface displayed the next steps: eight Upper A could be synthesized into one Heroic Root Bone.
Sixteen Heroic Root Bones could be synthesized into one Earth Spirit Root Bone.
’Heroic Root Bone... just the name sounds incredible.’
In the Ancient Era, someone with such a Root Bone might have been one of the legendary figures who created new Cultivation Techniques.
But it took eight Upper A Root Bones to successfully fuse one. If he continued to copy Zhang Desheng’s Lower A Class Root Bone, he would need to copy it fifty-six times to gather enough.
That would take more than seven years.
This meant that for over seven years, the copy interface would be useless for anything else.
The cost would outweigh the benefit.
It would be far better to wait for an opportunity to directly find and copy a Middle A Class, an Upper A, or—if he got lucky—a Hero, which would be much more straightforward.
For now, it was better to look for opportunities to copy more Talents to enhance his Martial Arts strength.