14: Chapter 14 Yunzhou

Su Wanqing opened her mouth as if to say something, but in the end, she said nothing.

You bowed deeply to her.

Then, you turned around and walked out the gates of the Qingluan Martial Arts Hall.

The moment you stepped out the gate, the Innate True Qi surged violently through your shattered Meridians again, the pain so intense you nearly collapsed to the ground. You gritted your teeth to steady yourself, one hand against the wall, and walked step by step toward the city gate.

You knew that only by dissipating the Innate True Qi of the Mysterious Tiger Force could you stop this agony. But dissipating your cultivation meant you would fall directly from the Innate level back to the state of an ordinary person, and you wouldn't be able to use Internal Energy for a long, arduous recovery period.

You dared not stop.

Toad Qian and Iron Eagle were dead; once the Black Tiger Gang discovered this, you might not be able to escape. Therefore, you had to run—the further, the better.

Enduring the knife-like agony in your Meridians, you headed west.

While traveling, you flipped through the few Cultivation Techniques you had scavenged from Iron Eagle and Toad Qian.

There were four in total.

You continued heading west.

The Innate True Qi rampaged through your shattered Meridians; every step felt like walking on knife tips. But you dared not stop. You didn't know when the bodies of Toad Qian and Iron Eagle would be discovered; you had to put enough distance between you and the Black Tiger Gang before they reacted.

You walked mountain paths by day and found hidden spots to rest at night. During your brief rests, you opened the items you had scavenged from the two corpses.

Aside from a few hundred taels of silver notes, there were four booklets in total.

One Internal Skill Mind-Cultivation Technique—《Cold Iron Skill》, Innate-Grade, which followed a rigid and fierce path, similar to your Mysterious Tiger Force. It was useless to you.

Three Innate Martial Skills—Iron Eagle Claw, for close-quarters grappling, specializing in joints and acupoints; Snake Step, a movement technique known for being treacherous and unpredictable; and Wind-Splitting Saber Technique, which was broad and open, focusing on heavy slashes and suited for a large saber.

You flipped through them once, set the 《Cold Iron Skill》 aside, and memorized the contents of all three Martial Skills.

After reading and putting them away, you continued your journey.

As you walked, you mentally simulated the Meridian pathways and exertion methods. With the blessing of being a Martial Arts Prodigy, your speed in understanding Martial Skills and Moves far exceeded that of an ordinary person. Three days later, you mastered the basics of Snake Step.

System Notification: Congratulations, you have learned the Martial Skill Snake Step (Basic).

You tested a few steps on the mountain road. With a sway of your figure, you slid across the ground like a swimming snake for three zhang, landing without a sound.

Useful.

Five days later, you mastered the basics of Iron Eagle Claw.

System Notification: Congratulations, you have learned the Martial Skill Iron Eagle Claw (Basic).

Four days later, you mastered the basics of Wind-Splitting Saber Technique.

System Notification: Congratulations, you have learned the Martial Skill Wind-Splitting Saber Technique (Basic).

You had mastered the basics of all three Martial Skills in just twelve days. For anyone else, even a Martial Artist with decent talent, mastering the basics of just one Innate-Grade Martial Skill would take at least a month or two.

However, you couldn't practice the Azure Sky Heart Method yet. Two completely different Internal Skill Mind-Cultivation Techniques could not exist simultaneously; you had to dissipate your cultivation first and wait for your Meridians to clear before you could switch.

But you dared not dissipate your cultivation now.

Dissipating your cultivation meant falling from the Innate level back to an ordinary person, unable to use any Internal Energy during the recovery period.

You endured the pain, gritted your teeth, and continued your journey.

The road was not peaceful either.

You encountered three waves of mountain bandits and road thugs. The first two waves were ordinary bandits who harbored evil intentions upon seeing a lone woman, but they were sent flying seven or eight zhang away by a single palm strike of your Innate True Qi, and they immediately knelt and begged for mercy.

The third wave was a bit more troublesome. The leader was a man at the Post-Heaven Peak, holding a ring-pommel saber, blocking the middle of the road and tilting his head to size you up.

"Young lady, leave behind your luggage and—"

He didn't finish his sentence.

You were truly too tired to listen to nonsense; the True Qi in your Meridians had tortured you so much you hadn't closed your eyes in three days.

With one step, you infused your palm with Innate True Qi and struck his chest.

The man flew away like a kite with a broken string, snapping two bowl-thick trees before landing and spitting out a mouthful of blood, his eyeballs even bursting out on their own.

The three lackeys behind him watched this scene, and the sabers in their hands dropped directly to the ground.

"Get lost." You spat out the word.

The three of them dragged their leader away, scrambling and crawling as they fled.

Fortunately, no one from the Black Tiger Gang chased you along the way. You guessed it was likely because Qinghe County was too far from the Black Tiger Gang's core sphere of influence, and news took time to travel. Bounty hunters like Iron Eagle and Toad Qian were merely loose cannons; even if they died, the news might not reach headquarters immediately.

Four months later.

You finally arrived in Yunzhou.

To be precise, it was Qingyang County, under the jurisdiction of Yunzhou.

Compared to the dusty, gray county towns of Xizhou, Qingyang County was a sight for sore eyes. The city gates were built with blue stone, and the lintel was inlaid with gilded characters. After entering the city, the main street was wide enough for three carriages to travel side by side. Shops lined both sides, with teahouses, taverns, silk shops, and herbal medicine stores standing one after another. There were many pedestrians on the street, dressed more elegantly than those in Xizhou. Occasionally, you could see Martial Artists carrying swords or wearing sabers entering and leaving taverns, with jade plaques hanging from their waists, walking with composure.

In the center of the city stood a three-story Wangjiang Tower with upturned eaves; it was the most imposing building on the entire street. In the square in front of the tower, a stage had been set up, with a crowd of commoners gathered to watch the performance, their cheers rising one after another.

Where there is money, there is order. Where there is order, it is not easy for others to cause trouble.

You adopted the alias Senior Sister Lin Shuang and observed for three days.

There was no wanted poster for you on the city's notice board, and no one in the teahouses was discussing the Black Tiger Gang's bounty. You specifically went to the notice wall at the entrance of the government office, read it from top to bottom, and confirmed there was no mistake.

You asked a storyteller to inquire and learned that Yunzhou was under the jurisdiction of Liangbei Dao; it was finally outside the Black Tiger Gang's sphere of influence. Although the Black Tiger Gang was known as the number one gang in Great Qing, its Foundation was in the three southeastern states, and its reach had not yet extended here.

The string in your heart that had been pulled taut for four months finally relaxed a little.

You learned from your lesson in Qinghe County and wore a veil whenever you went out.

You rented a house with a small courtyard in a quiet alley in the west of the city; it had two bedrooms, a living room, and a small yard in the back, which was perfect for practicing martial arts. The rent was not expensive: two taels of silver per month.

On the first night after settling in, you sat by the bed, looking at your slightly trembling hands.

It was time to dissipate your cultivation.

For these four months, the rigid and fierce Innate True Qi of the Mysterious Tiger Force had been crashing through your shattered Meridians day and night, torturing you until you were no longer human. Your complexion was sallow, your eye sockets were sunken, and your body, which originally weighed over a hundred jin, had withered down to less than eighty jin. You didn't dare look at yourself in the mirror for too long, afraid that the face you saw would frighten you.

You sat cross-legged and began to guide the Innate True Qi within your body.

It took the entire night.

When the very last trace of the Mysterious Tiger Force True Qi dissipated from your body, you collapsed onto the bed, your whole body feeling as if it had been hollowed out; you didn't even have the strength to lift your hand.

But that persistent, shadow-like pain had finally disappeared.

Four months.

You finally knew what it felt like not to be in pain again.

You lay on the bed, staring at the ceiling, and your eyes suddenly turned red.

After resting for two days, you began to switch to practicing the Azure Sky Heart Method.