-----
-----
Old Li held the bronze cauldron high above his head, still looking relaxed and calm.
At that moment, a layer of light began to glow from his body, faintly shimmering like misty colors. It looked like a sticky liquid coating his entire body, flowing gently like a stream.
"You see that power now?" Old Li stood there peacefully and asked Weiyuan.
Weiyuan held his breath and nodded. "Yeah... looks like some kind of snotty slime."
Old Li's calm face instantly cracked. He snapped, "What snot?! That's called Blood Force! It's when the force inside your blood gets so strong that it becomes visible to the naked eye. Do you get it or not?"
Weiyuan, half-confused, still nodded. "Got it. Thanks for the lesson, Master."
Old Li set the bronze cauldron down. Originally, he'd planned to show off a bit—to use his strength to stun this country bumpkin of a disciple. Normally, this move alone would leave students wide-eyed and worshipful, treating him like a living god.
But this kid, Weiyuan… he was just plain dense.
Forget it. Old Li suddenly lost all interest. He started explaining: "The martial art I practice is called Baji Collapse, from the Baji Sect. It's divided into several levels: 'Blood Mutation,' 'Tendon Transformation,' 'Bone Tempering,' and so on, from low to high."
"The first step in learning martial arts is mutating your blood. In other words, you change your blood to strengthen your internal force."
Finally, they were getting to the important stuff.
Weiyuan perked up and memorized every word.
"To train in the first level of Baji Collapse, you need to use our sect's secret medicine and absorb the essence from exotic beast meat. That's how you mutate your blood."
Old Li took a stance. "The first level of Baji Collapse has three core moves. Watch closely. First move: One Arm to the Heavens…"
He performed all three moves in one smooth, powerful sequence.
Then, he started breaking down each move slowly, step-by-step, explaining every little motion.
He was surprisingly serious about teaching—not sloppy at all.
Weiyuan, of course, soaked it all up like a sponge.
But he quickly realized… these moves were anything but simple. You couldn't just strike a cool pose and call it done.
Each move was packed with dozens of connected motions, some of which had to be paused or done with precise timing. Even the breathing patterns mattered.
"When raising your arm to the sky, start slow, then speed up. Keep your breathing steady.
When your palm passes your chest, slow it down slightly—your breathing should be three long breaths, one short.
When your hand is over your head, relax your shoulders, tense your waist to generate power, and breathe in long, rhythmic intervals…"
All of that… just for a basic arm-raising move.
Even with Weiyuan's solid foundation, it was a massive struggle to keep up. He couldn't even memorize all of it, let alone do it properly.
Old Li taught him through the whole morning, and continued in the afternoon, silently observing his progress.
"Alright, that's enough for today. Come back tomorrow. As per the rules, I'll teach you for three days straight. After that, you'll train with the other disciples until you've got it down perfectly. Only then can you take my secret medicine and eat exotic beast meat to nourish your body."
Old Li waved him off.
Weiyuan hesitated, then said, "Master Li… there's something I'm not sure I should say."
"Out with it," Old Li replied casually, but then his eyes narrowed. Why would I want to give your five taels of silver back?
"No way!" Weiyuan laughed awkwardly. "It's just… on my way here this morning, I heard some unusual talk among the villagers."
He told the story slowly.
He didn't reveal that he was the one who witnessed it directly, making it sound like a story he'd overheard from a farmer who had been out on a night walk and seen something strange.
At first, Old Li didn't care much. But when he heard about the glowing thing eating someone and turning into them, his brow furrowed deeply. He got more serious, pacing silently as Weiyuan finished the story.
After a moment, Old Li stopped. "Who was this farmer?"
Weiyuan shook his head. "I don't know him. Probably from one of the villages deep in the bends of Jiǔqū."
Old Li frowned in thought. "Go call Huang Kaishan."
Weiyuan had been hanging around the Li residence courtyard long enough to know who the top fighters were—Huang Kaishan was one of the best. He'd heard from Zhang Wu that Huang Kaishan was the boss of the Wolfbone Gang, and the entire Anping Street was his turf.
Basically, if you were a top dog in this courtyard, you could dominate the streets outside too.
Huang Kaishan wasn't in the courtyard at the moment, so Weiyuan had to run over to Anping Street to find him.
The Wolfbone Gang's place was no joke—huge mansion, tons of people, full-blown operation.
Weiyuan found Huang Kaishan there.
The guy was massive, nearly two meters tall, arms thick and long, with a full beard covering his face.
At that moment, Huang Kaishan was sitting in front of a table, wearing nothing but shorts, enjoying dinner and sipping wine—with a pretty boy snuggled in his arms.
Weiyuan glanced at the flamboyantly dressed man and didn't go any closer. He just called out his message.
"Old Li's looking for me? Did he say what for?" Huang Kaishan raised an eyebrow.
"You'll know when you get there," Weiyuan replied quickly.
Huang Kaishan didn't say much. He shoved the pretty boy aside, leapt onto a white horse, and galloped off into the night.
Weiyuan originally wanted to tag along to see how Old Li would deal with it all—but Huang Kaishan left on horseback. No way a mule could keep up, so he had to give up that plan.
Instead, Weiyuan went to the Qin residence.
To practice calligraphy—and spend the night.
"....."