Dusk was gradually falling...
Chu Fan was silent for a mont, then turned to the short, chubby youth and asked, "The Small Leaders of the three major gangs in Cyan Yang Ancient City—has their Cultivation reached the Bone Marrow Forging Realm?"
The chubby youth’s eyes darted around as he lowered his voice. "Most of them have, but not all."
"Take that Zhou Ye from earlier, for example. His uncle is an Incense Master in Cyan Wood Hall. He was made a Small Leader back when he had only just entered the Blood Refining Realm."
"Fatty, you sure know a lot." Chu Fan patted the chubby youth’s shoulder, then turned and strode away.
The chubby youth watched him walk out of the Sub-Branch gate, his mouth twitching as he muttered, "Calling Fatty every other second. Where are your manners!"
’We’ve been chopping firewood together for over twenty days, and he still doesn’t even know my na...’
But Chu Fan was already too far away to hear his words.
The chubby youth turned and left in a huff.
「...」
Chu Fan bought a plump, tender roast chicken at the market. When he returned to his ho, he saw that the old, broken door had been replaced with a new one. It wasn’t fancy, but it was clean and tidy.
He pushed the door open and went inside to find Zhao Hu and his wife sitting in the courtyard, weaving bamboo baskets. Their child, Bean Bun, was helping them.
"Fan is back!" Zhao Hu and his wife quickly got to their feet.
Chu Fan handed over the roast chicken, which was wrapped in a lotus leaf. "Mr. Zhao, this is for you."
Zhao Hu froze, trying to refuse. "We can’t possibly accept this..."
A roast chicken this large would cost at least two hundred wen.
An ordinary family wouldn’t even splurge on a whole one for the New Year festival.
Chu Fan wouldn’t take no for an answer, pressing the roast chicken directly into his hands before asking, "Did you sell the house to the Huang Family?"
Zhao Hu sighed. "We sold it, but it seems the Huang Family still hasn’t given up on your family’s ancestral ho."
"Yesterday, the Huang Family’s steward ca by with another ssage, saying they’re still willing to buy it at the original price. And this morning, a few ruffians were loitering at the mouth of the alley, shouting at us and probing."
Chu Fan’s gaze hardened. "Did you recognize them?"
"...No." Zhao Hu’s heart skipped a beat. "I heard from the neighbors that they’re local thugs from around Xingning Street, the kind who specialize in extorting rchants."
Chu Fan narrowed his eyes. "Do you have any idea what the Huang Family is buying all these houses for?"
"No idea..." Zhao Hu shook his head. "There are two n living in my old house now. During the day, they wander the neighborhood, knocking on every door to ask if anyone has old artifacts. They say they’ll pay a high price for them."
"It’s so strange..."
"Why would you need to buy so many houses to run a business like that?"
’Buying old artifacts?’ A thought flickered in Chu Fan’s mind, but his expression remained unchanged.
After a bit more small talk, Chu Fan returned to his parents’ old ho.
Ever since he returned from the cave, the strange, beckoning voice in his room had vanished, which was a great relief.
’If that ’co, co, co’ was ringing in my head all day, I’d probably go insane.’
Chu Fan placed the cloth-wrapped Long Saber by his bed and focused, recalling the contents of the Twelve Forms Fist Boxing Manual.
The Twelve Forms Fist was a profound Technique for breaking through the Five Gates of Martial Arts Foundation Establishnt; it wasn’t just for the Blood Nourishing stage.
The latter half of the Boxing Manual was divided into five sections, corresponding to Blood Nourishing, Blood Refining, Bone Marrow Forging, Bone Tempering, and Entering Force.
However, its profound mysteries could hardly be grasped just by reading the manual.
The famous genius Ling Feng, even after breaking through the Blood Nourishing stage, often returned to the Sub-Branch for lectures. He did so to learn how to use the Twelve Forms Fist to break through the subsequent gates.
Previously, Chu Fan had only morized the entire Boxing Manual, without studying the parts that ca after the Blood Nourishing stage.
Now that he was about to begin Blood Refining, he naturally had to master this section.
The simplest thod would be to ask Master Cao for guidance.
’But if I ask about Blood Refining, it would be easy to expose that I’ve already reached the Blood Nourishing realm.’
After much thought, Chu Fan decided to wait a few days. Once Zhao Tianxing broke through, he could just listen in when Master Cao taught him about Blood Refining.
For the next few days, he would focus his energy on reaching Perfection in the Twelve Forms Fist and cultivating the Ninefold Thunder Shock Saber.
Chu Fan took up a Pile Skills stance in his room and began to practice his fist forms with a focused mind...
[Twelve Forms Fist Experience Points 1]
[Twelve Forms Fist Experience Points 1]
「Until the dead of night...」
He finally stopped and walked over to the window.
The Blood Moon was a deep red.
The wind whistled through the air.
Chu Fan pushed open the wooden window and leaped out, as nimble as a cat. He vaulted over the courtyard wall and lted silently into the night.
He cut through several familiar alleys and soon arrived outside the window of Zhao Hu’s old house.
Faint yellow candlelight shone through the paper window, revealing two n sitting across from each other, drinking wine.
Chu Fan held his breath, wet his finger with saliva, and silently poked a small hole in the window paper.
Through the tiny hole, he saw a dilapidated wooden table. On it were two side dishes—a plate of pickled radishes and another of clean-picked bones—along with a jug of cheap wine, more than half of it gone.
Two n sat at the table, one slightly plump and the other thin and small. They were raising their wine bowls and drinking in large gulps.
"I’m telling you, Old Zhang, do you think the Young Master has lost his mind?"
The plump man put down his chopsticks, picked up the wine jug to pour more, and grumbled, "It’s the middle of winter, and he sends us to this place to collect ’old artifacts,’ but he won’t even tell us what we’re supposed to be looking for! Is he just trying to tornt us?"
"You can say that again!" The thin man set down his wine bowl, wiped the wine from the corner of his mouth, and sighed. "We’ve spent the last few days combing the streets and alleys, asking everyone in the neighborhood. We’ve spent a fortune and have nothing to show for it but a pile of scrap tal!"
"Who knows when this will ever end!"
These two were not disciples of the Blood Saber Sect, but servants of the Huang Family.
Chu Fan pulled a black cloth he had used before from his robes, masked his face with it, and continued to listen intently.
"What kind of old artifact do you think the Young Master is really looking for?"
The plump man spoke again. "Our Young Master is a leader in the Blood Saber Sect. Why would he be interested in this worthless junk?"
The thin man shook his head, a look of confusion on his face. "Who knows! How could we servants ever hope to understand the Young Master’s mind?"
"But I heard it’s related to so treasure passed down from hundreds of years ago. I don’t know the details. I just know it’s extrely important to the Young Master, which is why he’s making us search so hard."
"A treasure from hundreds of years ago?" The plump man’s eyes widened in astonishnt. "If sothing like that really existed, its owner would have it deeply hidden. Why would they ever show it to anyone, let alone sell it to the likes of us?"
"Sell?" The thin man sneered, revealing a set of yellow teeth, and lowered his voice. "The Young Master ordered us to go around collecting old artifacts, but who said anything about actually *buying* them?"
"And if we really were to find it..." His voice grew even lower, and a cunning glint flashed in his eyes. "Given the Young Master’s temperant, do you really think he’d follow the ways of a rchant and trade for it with silver coins?"
"Hehehe!" Hearing this, the plump man exchanged a look with him. Both ca to a tacit understanding and began to chuckle quietly.
Just then, the strange sound of a bell suddenly rang out in the distance.
Hearing the sound, the faces of the two n in the room changed instantly. They scrambled to their feet and headed for the door.
Chu Fan’s figure flickered as he hid himself in the shadows.
He saw the two n standing silently behind the door, their tense expressions fixed on the direction of the ringing.
A chill ran through Chu Fan’s heart. ’Are they monitoring the Moon Worship Sect?’
’How did Huang Yu’s affairs get tangled up with the Moon Worship Sect?’
The ringing grew closer and closer...
Chu Fan rembered the day the white-robed mbers of the Moon Worship Sect had discovered his presence, and he imdiately began to retreat in silence.
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