Time flies, and three months have passed in the blink of an eye.
That night, the atmosphere in the upper room on the third floor of the 'Red Sleeve Pavilion' was enchanting.
At this moment, Xiao Yu'er, the most famous courtesan in the brothel, was nestled beside Qing Chen.
Her figure was alluring, and she showered Qing Chen with flattery.
She praised his valor just moments before, as if she were about to faint from his charm.
Although the limping boy's sister was indeed still alluring and captivating,
after enjoying her for months, it would become tiresome.
Qing Chen, embracing this woman who appeared innocent but was inherently wanton, felt a unique mix of emotions.
Just half a year ago, as an ordinary thug, he wouldn't have been entitled to such treatment.
But times had changed. Qing Chen had risen to become a leader in the street underworld, and now he could finally enjoy this gentle embrace.
Sure enough, wherever you are, might makes right.
Qingchen's hand wandered aimlessly, his gaze gradually becoming unfocused as the events of the past few months replayed clearly in his mind.
After that night, Qingchen didn't easily trust them. Instead, he forced each of them to draw their knives against the three former minor leaders of the Twin Eagles Gang.
Among them was the scarred man who had blocked the Qing family's door.
Two other thugs who acted as accomplices were also hacked to death.
This was seen as proof of their allegiance, a kind of pledge of loyalty!
After consolidating his position, Qingchen appointed Niu Dali, the short, stout man who had first pledged his loyalty, as the new leader.
He then instructed Niu Dali to give the constables on the streets ten taels of silver each month, two or three times the previous amount, and the external environment stabilized.
By this time, Qingchen had gathered a small gang of about twenty people, forming the initial foundation of his own power.
He temporarily appointed his second brother, Qingjie, Niu Dali, and the lame boy who had previously acted as his inside man, as leaders to manage daily affairs.
Niu Dali handled the specific tasks, while Qingjie and the lame boy primarily served as trainers and supervisors.
His second mother's other children, his third brother Qing'an, and his youngest sister Qingyun were too young to be involved in any work.
To change the previous chaotic situation, Qingchen abolished the old practice of arbitrarily collecting fees and promulgated strict rules and regulations.
Qingchen repeatedly emphasized these rules, issuing a firm order!
All shops would only be charged fees once a week, and the amount had to be reasonably determined based on the shop's revenue.
At the same time, he strictly prohibited his henchmen from using violence for extortion; all actions had to adhere to the gang's rules.
To establish the authority of these rules, Qingchen did not hesitate to severely punish a violator.
He made him disappear, thus ensuring the discipline of the entire gang.
Since Qingchen established the rules, the merchants on the street have gradually felt an improvement in their business environment under his guidance.
Although they still need to pay fees, the environment is much more stable compared to the past chaos and harassment, the various miscellaneous charges, and the frequent harassment from thugs.
Merchants can operate with peace of mind, and their businesses are gradually flourishing.
After deducting the fees paid to Qingchen, their income is even more substantial than before.
The Twin Eagles Society thus prospered, with monthly income consistently reaching eighty or ninety taels of silver.
After deducting all expenses, Qingchen's monthly income reached an astonishing seventy taels of silver, many times higher than before.
In these past few months, Qingchen used his abundant funds to lavishly purchase medicinal herbs needed to enhance his Jade Forging Technique.
His martial arts skills improved by leaps and bounds, his already near-third-rate master strength rising to a new level.
Just a month ago, his Jade Forging Technique finally reached the minor completion stage, officially breaking through to the third-rate master level.
Now, he only needs to channel his energy, and his hands can become as hard as jade.
A single palm strike is enough to take a life!
Qingchen confidently believed that if he were to encounter the two former leaders of the Twin Eagles Society again now,
without using any medicinal aids, he could break their bones and tendons in just seven or eight rounds of combat.
After taking control of the Twin Eagles Society, Qingchen also found some money and valuable treasures in the brothers' hideout.
To be honest, after all this time,
the brothers had only managed to save three or four hundred taels of silver on their person and in their house. It was truly baffling how they lived such a meager existence.
However, all this money ultimately ended up as medicinal herbs for Qingchen, which he used to enhance his cultivation.
Besides the meager sums, the most coveted acquisitions from the Twin Eagles Society for Qingchen were a unique disguise technique and a light-body skill.
Unfortunately, the brothers didn't have a chance to use these skills.
Qingchen had the lame boy drug them with sleeping potion in the kitchen, then sent them to their deaths.
The disguise technique was quite sophisticated; it was called the "Disguise and Bone-Shrinking Technique."
Unlike other disguise techniques, it involved applying a medicinal substance to alter one's appearance...
Even more astonishingly, one could alter the shape of muscles and bones by utilizing internal energy.
The wonder of this technique greatly amazed Qingchen; it was truly extraordinary.
In comparison, the lightness skill seemed much more ordinary, a common martial arts technique known as the "Gecko Wall-Climbing Skill."
However, for Qingchen, it was still quite precious, a rare gain.
After all, he had previously been so impoverished that he could only survive by relying on his stepmother's needlework.
Now, having obtained such a skill, he was already content.
Moreover, mastering this lightness skill would undoubtedly be of great help to his future treasure hunt in Beiman Mountain.
Therefore, in the past few months, Qingchen diligently practiced this lightness skill.
To his surprise, he found that his progress was much faster than expected.
He didn't know why, perhaps because his comprehension had improved.
In any case, his ability to scale walls and leap across rooftops had significantly improved, far surpassing his previous level.
Furthermore, Qingchen specifically instructed Niu Dali to collect a powerful sword technique called the "Five Tigers Soul-Severing Blade"—the moves weren't particularly complex, but Niu Dali had spent dozens of taels of silver to master it to perfection.
Whenever Qingchen used this sword technique, combined with the powerful force generated by his Jade Forging Skill, a single swing was truly terrifying.
"The people of Beiman Mountain actually managed to remain calm and wait several months before taking action against Young Master Zhao; this is truly beyond my expectations."
"I thought they were scared and wouldn't dare seek revenge," Qingchen thought to himself.
Recalling the incident from several months ago, Young Master Zhao had violated a woman from Beiman Mountain, who happened to be the daughter-in-law of the mountain's Eagle Master.
Qingchen was present at the time and even added fuel to the fire.
So much time had passed without any movement, and Qingchen had assumed that Beiman Mountain was hesitant to act because they feared the powerful influence of Jin City.
But he hadn't expected these bandits to be so audacious.
Even though they had grown rapidly in recent years, they were still at most a few hundred or a thousand bandits, yet they dared to challenge Jin City, which had thousands of regular troops.
If Jin City really angered them, they could easily muster tens of thousands of regular troops.
But Qingchen had to admit, he liked it.
Chaos created opportunities to fish in troubled waters.