Chapter 96: Southern Yi City

Spring gave way to autumn, and before long another year had passed.

By his reckoning, it had now been seven years since he first came to this world.

He was twenty-one now. The boyishness had faded from his face, replaced by a hard, resolute look. His features were sharply defined, his build tall and powerfully set, and there was a certain authority in the way he carried himself.

At first, he had estimated that reaching the point where his qi and blood overflowed at the fifth limit break would take at least two years.

To his surprise, he had underestimated the speed of cultivation at the level of uniting body and martial art in a first-rate martial discipline. In just one year, his qi and blood were already close to overflowing.

And this was no small feat. His total qi and blood were six times greater than that of an ordinary person, yet he had still reached this stage so quickly. The pace of his cultivation was truly astonishing.

Still, it made sense. Even those disciples of powerful clans, however gifted they might be, generally could only refine a first-rate martial art to a highly accomplished level by the fifth limit break.

Those who could push a first-rate martial art all the way to the pinnacle at that stage were exceedingly rare.

Li Canglin and Li Cangqing were among them, which was why they were known as the Li Clan’s Twin Young Masters.

The subsidiary meridians opened by the pinnacle level were far fewer than those opened through uniting body and martial art, so the speed at which qi and blood accumulated could not possibly compare.

What was more, Lu Yan discovered that although his qi and blood had surged tremendously and become incomparably thick and abundant, he could still control it with perfect ease. It possessed exactly the quality Shen Yinuo had once described: a balance of hardness and softness.

“Once an ordinary person reaches overflowing qi and blood at the fifth limit break, they have to spend time refining it until it becomes balanced in both hardness and softness, and only then can qi and blood enter the bones and they can attempt to break into the Martial Marquis realm. Could it be that I can skip that step?”

Lu Yan felt a surge of quiet delight.

He suspected that this might be related to the repeated forging of his acquired martial body and the gifts bestowed by heaven and earth, or perhaps to the fusion of his martial arts, which had indirectly refined his qi and blood and made it easier to control.

If so, then the only things standing between him and the attempt at Martial Marquis were two martial foods.

One was the mutated Nine-Section Heart Flesh. The other was the Beast King Bone-Guarding Soup.

The mutated Nine-Section Heart Flesh was easy enough. There was still a mutated blood-armored lizard in the Blood Earth Vein. All he needed to do was kill it, take the meat, and have a master martial chef prepare it for him.

If he truly could not invite a master martial chef, then gathering a few high-level martial chefs to work together would still give him a chance of success. At worst, he would waste a few sets of ingredients.

Only the Beast King Bone-Guarding Soup was troublesome.

But there was already a clue.

As far back as half a year ago, Lu Yan had asked Li Quan to look into the soup’s whereabouts.

With manpower at Li Quan’s disposal, he had spent over a year developing it into an intelligence network devoted to gathering information, and it had been thriving ever since.

Of course, all of this required investment. In the course of a year, the silver poured into it had already reached several thousand taels.

But Lu Yan understood all too well the value of intelligence, and every tael had been worth it.

Two months ago, an intelligence report concerning the Beast King Bone-Guarding Soup had finally been placed in his hands.

The rarest ingredient in the soup was the exotic beast known as the Jade-Bone Tiger.

Within the Six Commanderies of East Ridge, only one power kept Jade-Bone Tigers in captivity: the Gao clan of Nanyi Commandery City.

They were a famous martial-marquis-level aristocratic clan, and their overall strength even surpassed that of the Li clan in Hundred Herbs City.

In Nanyi Commandery, there were three martial-marquis-level aristocratic clans in total, and the Gao clan stood first among them.

Among the Six Commanderies of East Ridge, Li'an Commandery was the smallest in area and the weakest in strength, with only one martial-marquis-level aristocratic clan: the Wei clan.

It lay by the sea to the west, and bordered a major commandery to the south, north, and east.

It was said that raising Jade-Bone Tigers was extremely difficult, and even their feed had to be mixed according to special methods. No one outside the Gao clan knew the details.

Moreover, a Jade-Bone Tiger took thirty years to reach adulthood, and only the bones of a mature Jade-Bone Tiger, simmered into soup, could protect the entire skeleton when one broke through into the Martial Marquis realm, thereby increasing the chance of success.

For that reason, the annual output was pitifully small.

And since the Gao clan needed them for their own use as well, the number sold to the outside world was even smaller.

Only once every few years would there be a sale, and even then the quantity was no more than one or two tigers.

Recently, the Gao clan had already released word that the next sale would be in three months.

“The Jade-Bone Tiger. I have to get one.”

Lu Yan resolved inwardly.

He instructed Li Quan that for the time being, nothing else mattered. The only thing that needed constant attention was the Gao clan and any news of the Jade-Bone Tiger.

In the practice hall, Lu Yan swung the Scarlet Blood Saber, and in an instant, streaks of crimson moonlight flashed forth, leaving trails of sword-cut marks across a marble slab over two meters tall.

This was Moon-Reflecting Saber Technique.

Lu Yan had helped Wang Dao step into uniting body and martial art, and in gratitude Wang Dao had gifted him the family’s Moon-Reflecting Saber Technique.

Lu Yan naturally accepted it without ceremony.

A saber technique was precisely what he needed next.

By his estimation, once he had cultivated nine second-rate saber techniques to the level of uniting body and martial art, they could merge into a single first-rate saber art.

He had no intention of learning too many weapon-based martial arts. Specialization was enough. His main focus would remain on saber techniques.

Of course, if he ever found an archery-based martial art, he would not mind learning another.

“Moon-Reflecting Saber Technique is not far from uniting body and martial art. In another half month, I should reach that level. I ought to go buy a few more saber techniques to practice.”

Lu Yan thought to himself.

Over this past year, he had not only cultivated the Shifting Form Art to the level of uniting body and martial art, but had also brought the Sky Eagle Eye to that same realm.

With the Shifting Form Art at the level of uniting body and martial art, disguise became far more effortless, and his control over the muscles and bones of his face grew markedly stronger.

Of course, becoming another person’s exact likeness was still beyond him.

Everyone’s bone structure was different. The size and thickness of the facial bones varied from person to person. To disguise oneself as someone else would require exquisite control over the bones of the face, to the point of freely altering their size and thickness. That was plainly impossible.

Even if one forced a rough imitation, it would be easy to see through at a glance.

Changing his own appearance, however, was far simpler. He only needed to shift the position of the facial bones and alter the shape and size of the muscles.

As for the Sky Eagle Eye reaching the level of uniting body and martial art, it had increased his eyesight severalfold. Even in pitch darkness, so long as there were no obstructions, he could see a bird flying a thousand meters away.

“With eyesight like this, if I combine it with an archery martial art, it would be a perfect match. I should have Li Quan look for an archery technique.”

Lu Yan thought.

Then he left the practice hall.

In the courtyard, more than two hundred martial hall disciples were focused on their training.

“Hall Master.”

“Greetings, Hall Master.”

A few disciples spotted Lu Yan, immediately stopped training, and bowed respectfully.

Lu Yan nodded, signaling for them to continue, and after surveying the courtyard, he let his gaze rest a little longer on one youth.

It was Wen Yuan.

One had to admit, Wen Yuan possessed extraordinary talent in martial arts.

He practiced the Breaking Void Saber.

In the span of a year, he had gone from knowing nothing at all about martial arts to reaching the stage of mastery and fluency with the Breaking Void Saber.

Second-rate martial arts were far more difficult than third-rate ones. For ordinary people, merely reaching the entry level of a second-rate martial art took three months, and attaining true mastery and fluency took five years.

To achieve that in a single year was an astonishing talent.

Even Lu Yan himself could not claim with certainty that he would definitely surpass him.

And his cultivation was no less impressive. Two months earlier, he had already broken through a sealed gate and become a limit-breaking martial artist.

By comparison, the other disciples were still accumulating qi and blood, not even having touched the threshold of the sealed gates.

Lu Yan had once asked Li Quan to investigate Wen Yuan’s background, and it turned out to be strikingly similar to his own. For three generations, Wen Yuan’s family had been hunters, living by the bow and blade in the mountains and forests.

It had taken three generations of saving before they had finally amassed enough silver for him to study martial arts.

Wen Yuan also had an excellent reputation in his hometown. He was honest and dependable, and filial toward his parents.

Good character, exceptional talent. Lu Yan had almost been tempted to take him as a disciple, but in the end he restrained himself.

He had no intention of taking disciples for now.

A direct disciple was not so easily accepted. Once one took in a disciple, one also took on responsibility and an unbreakable tie.

In the words of his former world, that meant karma.

He did not want such ties to bind him, or at least not yet.

Lu Qingshan and Wang Cui had been unavoidable; by the time he arrived in this world, those ties had already been there.

After finishing his inspection, Lu Yan left the Three Ultimates Martial Hall and went to the Hundred Herbs Commerce Guild, where he purchased two second-rate saber techniques.

Blood Shadow Saber and Thunderbolt Saber.

Blood Shadow Saber was eerie and elusive, while Thunderbolt Saber was domineering and overwhelming.

In the blink of an eye, two more months passed.

At last, his qi and blood reached the overflowing stage.

Now, so long as he obtained the Beast King Bone-Guarding Soup and the mutated Nine-Section Heart Flesh, he could immediately attempt the breakthrough into the Martial Marquis realm.

He brought Li Quan and Cao Hu with him and set out for Nanyi City.

Although there was still one month left before the Gao clan’s sale of the Jade-Bone Tiger, he preferred to arrive early to avoid any unforeseen changes.

Li Quan had already sent several spies to infiltrate Nanyi City.

Hundreds of miles separated Hundred Herbs City from Nanyi City, and even at full gallop it took them three days to arrive.

After reaching Nanyi City, they stayed at an inn. Li Quan promptly met with the spies and gathered information.

Very soon, a far more detailed intelligence report was delivered into Lu Yan’s hands.

After reading it, Lu Yan fell into deep thought.