Chapter 21: The Second Time

Lu Yan’s expression was cold and indifferent as he fixed his gaze on two of the core members of the Green Bamboo Gang who had broken their limits twice. He rushed forward, killing each with a single punch, and casually dispatched another who had only broken his limit once with a kick.

“Please, sir, spare my life!” One of the lower-ranking enforcers, recognizing the dire situation, fell to his knees with a thud.

By now, the entire Green Bamboo Gang had realized the carnage within the room. Their leadership was annihilated; no trace of resistance remained in their hearts. One after another, they knelt in terror before Lu Yan, fear etched across their faces.

Those who joined gangs did so for pleasure and gain, not out of loyalty. Now that the leaders were dead, vengeance was the last thing on their minds.

Lu Yan refrained from further violence, pausing to consider how to deal with the remaining gang members. He was no bloodthirsty maniac; the ringleaders were already dead, and there was no need to slaughter every underling. Besides, he was in disguise—there was little risk of being recognized.

“Sir, please spare us! From now on, you are our leader—yes, our boss! We pledge ourselves to you!” The first to kneel, sharp and quick-witted, kowtowed repeatedly.

After a brief moment of thought, Lu Yan had an idea. There was, indeed, a use for these men.

“Kneel there for now,” he said coldly. He strode to Fang Xiong’s corpse and began searching through his belongings. He found several silver notes and a palm-sized white stone tablet—thin, even less substantial than a baby’s hand.

This was the source of the Dao Tome’s anomaly: the stone tablet.

Lu Yan studied it in his hand, yet could not determine its purpose.

“Do any of you know what this is for?” he asked, presenting the tablet to the gang members.

They examined it closely, exchanged uncertain glances, and shook their heads in unison.

“Have you ever seen anything similar before?” Lu Yan pressed, but the answer was the same: no. He felt a pang of disappointment.

“Sir, if you’re interested in such things, we can do our utmost to help you find more,” the quick-witted man offered.

“What is your name?” Lu Yan asked.

“Li Quan, sir.”

“You’re clever,” Lu Yan nodded, stowing the stone tablet away. “Tell me, do you know about the children in the rear courtyard?”

Li Quan’s face blanched, and he began kowtowing in fear. “Please spare me, sir! We only followed Fang Xiong’s orders. We were just acting on instructions—I’ll go free them right away!”

Li Quan assumed Lu Yan was here because of the children and was nearly scared out of his wits.

“No rush.” Lu Yan waved his hand. “For now, take good care of those children. Tomorrow, you can send them home. Also, do not breathe a word of what happened here. Behave as if nothing occurred; let the Green Bamboo Gang operate as normal. If I discover anyone has leaked information, I’ll send him to join Fang Xiong.”

His final words carried a chilling note of murderous intent.

The gang members were as silent as the grave, not daring to disobey, and quickly agreed.

“Drag the bodies into the courtyard and bury them. The rest of you, go back to your duties,” Lu Yan commanded, and the gangsters felt as if they had been granted a reprieve.

While the gang busied themselves, Lu Yan searched the bedrooms of Fang Xiong and the other senior members, eventually collecting over two thousand taels in silver notes. Fang Xiong alone had fifteen hundred taels; the rest together amounted to about five hundred.

Logically, as the leader of a gang with many businesses and a cut of Liu’s “protection fees,” Fang Xiong should have had more than two thousand taels. But martial cultivation required vast amounts of silver.

Especially for those who had broken their limits four times or more—cultivators needed to consume special martial rations to accumulate vital energy. Eating ordinary meat was just enough to maintain one’s strength; to refine more energy and advance further was wishful thinking.

Lu Yan, nonetheless, was satisfied. Two thousand taels, in his previous life, would have been equivalent to two million yuan—a fortune he could hardly have imagined as a failed writer.

Unfortunately, other than the silver notes, he found none of Fang Xiong’s second-tier martial arts manuals. It was understandable; in this world, martial techniques were often passed down orally rather than by written manuals, as with Lu Qingshan teaching Lu Yan the Iron Wire Fist.

After securing his gains, Lu Yan returned home at once, entered his training chamber, and took out the stone tablet.

Focusing his mind, he communicated with the Dao Tome. Instantly, a light shone from his brow, and the tome’s phantom emerged. With a flash, the stone tablet was swallowed by the phantom.

Within his mind, his “Six Harmonies Leg” avatar began to train. Just as with the previous time he absorbed a round orb, the avatar glowed with a holy brilliance, as if enlightened, and the progress of the Six Harmonies Leg technique soared.

In no time at all, progress leaped from twenty to thirty percent mastery, and it continued to surge—forty, fifty, sixty percent…

Clearly, the energy contained in this bone tablet far exceeded that of the previous orb. The orb had increased his Iron Wire Fist mastery by fifty percent at the consummate level. Now, the Six Harmonies Leg avatar had advanced by fifty percent and still showed no sign of stopping—eighty, ninety, ninety-nine percent…

Several hours later, the Six Harmonies Leg reached full mastery, and then transformed.

The avatar, the Six Harmonies Leg, and Lu Yan himself became one.

Overjoyed, Lu Yan began training at once. Just as when the Iron Wire Fist reached full unity, every kick he delivered felt as if it moved mountains. Yet, within heaven and earth, streams of energy gathered, permeating his body.

His form underwent another cleansing—bones and marrow purified, reborn anew.

After three hours, the transformation ceased.

Lu Yan’s body grew even more robust, his muscles hard as steel and brimming with power. His height shot up to nearly one meter ninety. The “capacity” of his vital energy increased by a wide margin.

His vital energy was now a third stronger, surging turbulently through his meridians. Yet, despite the increased capacity, it was not overflowing; still, the richness of his energy now far surpassed the fully-saturated strength of an ordinary dual-limit breaker.

“This time, the increase in physical strength and vital energy capacity seems less than fifty percent—more like forty,” Lu Yan reflected.

Achieving full unity with the Six Harmonies Leg confirmed a principle: every distinct martial art, when brought to unity of body and technique, forged a new martial physique and drew a gift from the world itself.

But the enhancement was not constant—it diminished with each successive breakthrough.

“That’s only natural. The stronger the foundation, the smaller the improvement when forging a new martial physique,” Lu Yan reasoned.

For example, those grandmasters who had lived for over a century possessed vital energy and bodies far beyond the norm. When they brought a third-rate martial art to full unity, there was no way they would improve by fifty percent.

Likewise, those with innate martial physiques—born with divine strength and vital energy several times that of ordinary people—would not gain fifty percent from a third-rate art either. That would be far too monstrous.

Lu Yan, possessing only an ordinary body, gained fifty percent in his first breakthrough. But with each subsequent breakthrough, the effect diminished—third and fourth times would yield even less.

Yet, even diminished, it was still an extraordinary improvement. On a strong foundation, even a partial increase was significant.

Now that his Six Harmonies Leg had reached full unity, his combat power had risen by a substantial margin.

“Sun Xiang, he’s broken his limits four times as well,” Lu Yan’s gaze grew icy.

Of the nine squad leaders in the Scarlet Guards, not all had broken their limits five times. In fact, only five had reached that peak; the rest were at four.

Sun Xiang was among the latter.

Fang Xiong had only recently broken through to the fourth limit and was far from filling his vital energy to capacity. Sun Xiang, on the other hand, was at the peak of the fourth limit, approaching full saturation.

After exchanging a few blows with Fang Xiong, Lu Yan had a good sense of a four-limit breaker’s power. Sun Xiang was certainly superior to Fang Xiong. Before, Lu Yan might not have been confident, but now, he was ready.

He left the house to make his preparations, then returned to wait in silence.

As the sun sank and night descended, darkness blanketed the world.

“Sun Xiang, Meng Qi, Wang Hai—your lives are mine to claim.”

Lu Yan’s figure melted into the darkness, vanishing without a trace.