Brazen

The halberd howled through the air, hurtling toward Lin Zheyu's back with ferocious force. Sensing an intensely sharp prickle of danger behind him, he lightly tapped the ground, pivoted sideways, and evaded the strike by a hair's breadth. By now, the soldiers at the city gate had caught on as well, raising their weapons one after another to cut Lin Zheyu off. Lin Zheyu leapt up, stepped hard upon the shaft of one soldier's spear, and bounded over the soldiers' heads. Darting straight into the city, he vanished from sight. "He got away!" Xing Penghai's gaze darkened as he stared at Lin Zheyu's retreating figure, fury welling in his chest. A mere kid in the Bone Tempering Realm had actually managed to escape from his grasp, leaving his face sour. The kid's lightness skill and movement technique were extraordinarily nimble. He had clearly trained in leg techniques and attained considerable mastery. "Brother!" Xing Jinglong caught up and asked, "Brother, he escaped. What do we do now?" "What can we do?" "So what if the Feihong Gang finds out we made a move? He's just a brat who joined not long ago. At most, we'll pay a little silver in compensation." "Would Xu Jingwu really fall out with our Xing clan over some kid in the Bone Tempering Realm?" Xing Penghai scoffed. Hailing from the Xing clan, he had no fear of Xu Jingwu, the leader of the Feihong Gang. "Still, this kid's martial talent truly is remarkable, having reached such a stage in such a short time. With his natural aptitude, he might meet the criteria for cultivating with the secret medicine." Xing Penghai pondered for a moment, then said, "Once we get back, report this up." He swung onto his horse, squeezed his thighs, and galloped off into the distance. His voice drifted back from afar: "Keep up. I'm taking you somewhere." Hearing this, Xing Jinglong swiftly mounted his horse and followed. ... "Are they truly this brazen?" Lin Zheyu gazed toward the city gate with a solemn expression. Judging by their posture earlier, had he not immediately fled into the city, the consequences of being captured would have been disastrous. He hadn't expected Xing Penghai to brazenly move against him in broad daylight, despite the Feihong Gang standing behind him. Fortunately, they only dared to act outside the city. If they were reckless enough to do so inside as well, it would mean order in Songyi City had ceased to exist, and there would be no way to stay any longer. "I need to increase my strength as quickly as possible!" A sense of urgency arose in his heart. If he hadn't already raised the Golden Goose Skill to the third layer and entered the Viscera Tempering Realm, giving him far longer breath than before, he probably would have fallen today. If he swallowed that black pill, his life and death would no longer be in his own hands, and he would be reduced to someone else's running dog. "I have to be even more cautious from now on, and keep a lower profile." Lin Zheyu told himself. Although he had already been exceedingly cautious and barely revealed his strength, Xing Jinglong had still targeted him. ... Three days later. Early morning. Thump, thump... crack, snap... In the courtyard came the sounds of Lin Zheyu striking the wooden post with full-power whip kicks. The cold wind howled; the weather was bitterly freezing. Yet Lin Zheyu was drenched in sweat from head to toe, the muscular lines of his body sleek and defined. He had been training continuously for over two hours and had nearly reached his limit. His face was flushed red, and he panted as heavily as an ox. Another half an hour later... The moment Lin Zheyu reached his physical limit, his essence, qi, and spirit converged into one, plunging him into an inexplicable state. This state was exceedingly brief, vanishing in the blink of an eye. He let out a breath and leaned against the wooden post, panting heavily. His muscles twitched uncontrollably throughout his body, and an intense ache ran through him from head to toe. Even with multiple experiences of pushing past his limits, Lin Zheyu still found it excruciatingly arduous. Every breakthrough of his physical limits tested both his body and spirit. After resting for a moment, Lin Zheyu checked the data in his consciousness. Huh! A look of surprise and delight washed over Lin Zheyu's face. When he looked earlier, his Origin Power had still been 4, but now it had turned into 6. Breaking through his limit just now had granted him two units of Origin Power in one go! "Could it be that after my essence, qi, and spirit improved, the Origin Power gained with each breakthrough increased as well?" Lin Zheyu guessed. He just didn't know whether every future breakthrough would add two units of Origin Power, or if breaking through his physical limits several times in a row led the next breakthrough to award two units, whereas earlier ones had only given one. Lin Zheyu felt the second scenario was quite likely. As his strength improved, the Origin Power he gained during each breakthrough might have increased slightly—say, 1.x each time—while the display simply showed 1 and hid the decimal. Only after the digits after the decimal point accumulated to a full 1 would it show up. Yet this was merely a guess; how it actually worked would require Lin Zheyu to test it further. He rested for a bit. He stretched his muscles and bones for half an hour, recovering some of his stamina. Walking inside, he retrieved the medicinal herbs he had previously purchased for the Blood-Nourishing Bone-Strengthening Decoction. After his previous use, only six doses had remained. Lin Zheyu had recently earned some money and spent it all on more herbs, bringing the total to eight doses. Brewing the medicinal decoction was meticulous work. It required managing the heat carefully and simmering it for a long time to draw out all the medicinal potency from the herbs. "These herbs keep getting more and more expensive. When will these days ever end?" Lin Zheyu muttered to himself. When he went to buy medicinal herbs this morning, the price for a single dose was nearly a tael of silver more expensive than before. The shopkeeper had said it was because bandits infested the mountains now; every time the herb gatherers ventured in, they were frequently robbed, bringing back very little. With the cost of herbs driven up, they naturally sold for more.