The black-awning boat rocked with the waves.
Geng Weizhi untied the canteen at his waist, took a swig, and continued,
“The Star-Plucking Sect, along with the Qingyuan Sword Pavilion, Bixia Villa, and the Zhenhai Marquis Mansion, stand as the four major powers of Nanxiang Prefecture!
“The sect is filled with experts as numerous as the clouds, its heritage as deep as the abyss, and its rules are naturally strict!
“According to the sect rules, any disciple from the eight branch academies must break through the Mingjin barrier before the age of sixteen to qualify to join the Star-Plucking Sect as an outer disciple.
“If they want to go a step further and enter the inner sect, they must clear the meridians throughout their entire body and shatter the Anjin barrier before the age of twenty-five!”
To even become an outer disciple, one had to reach Mingjin!
And the inner sect required Anjin!
There were even strict age requirements!
Shen Xiuhan clicked his tongue in wonder. As expected of a major martial arts sect in the prefecture capital!
If such thresholds were placed in Changyun County, they would be enough to make ninety-nine percent of martial artists sigh in despair and give up all hope.
At this point, a trace of regret appeared on Geng Weizhi's face.
“I hope you won't laugh, Patrol Envoy, but my master, Hall Master Qin Hu of the Dragon-Tiger Hall, was once an outer disciple of the Star-Plucking Sect in his early years.
“Unfortunately...
“Master wasted many years but could never break through to Anjin. In his disappointment, he had no choice but to leave the Star-Plucking Sect and retreat to Changyun County to open a hall and take in disciples.”
...
Shen Xiuhan understood.
This Hall Master Qin Hu had probably made no further progress after leaving the Star-Plucking Sect.
Otherwise, Shen Xiuhan wouldn't have barely heard of his name.
In Changyun County, martial arts halls lined every street and alley.
But putting aside those showy, deceptive frauds, there were only about ten or so martial arts halls that were actually respectable and possessed genuine talent.
Among these dozen or so halls, most of the hall masters' cultivations were blocked outside the Anjin Rank.
Only three halls were actually guarded by Anjin experts!
The Zhendong Martial Arts Hall!
The Tongbei Martial Arts Hall!
And the Mei Courtyard.
Shen Xiuhan's thoughts drifted.
He couldn't help but recall how, during a break in his training, he had curiously asked Xu Chuan about their master's cultivation.
Xu Chuan's exact words were:
“When Master came to Changyun County four years ago, her cultivation was already at the Great Accomplishment of the Anjin Rank...”
Great Accomplishment of the Anjin Rank four years ago...
What about four years later?
There was a high probability she had gone a step further, approaching the Huajin Rank!
In the past twenty years, there had only been three Huajin martial artists in Changyun County.
In the last ten years, not a single martial artist had stepped into the Huajin Rank!
As for Anjin martial artists, even counting the guest elders hired with heavy sums by the various major families, there were no more than twenty in total.
Of these twenty, most were likely only at the early stage of Anjin, or had barely reached Minor Accomplishment.
Those who could cultivate to the Great Accomplishment were already as rare as phoenix feathers, let alone Great Perfection of the Anjin Rank.
According to Shen Xiuhan's guess, the combined number of those at the Great Accomplishment and Great Perfection of the Anjin Rank in the entire county would not exceed five.
In other words, the only ones in Changyun County who could truly suppress the Mei Courtyard were the three major Huajin families: the Wang, Bai, and Luo families.
“Whew...”
The river wind blew against his face.
It brought the slightly chilly moisture of early spring, with the faint, salty scent of aquatic weeds lingering around his nose.
Shen Xiuhan stood at the bow with his hands behind his back, gazing into the far distance, letting the river wind ruffle his hair as he suppressed the thoughts rising in his heart.
The path of martial arts was as long as the endless night.
He had only just broken through to the Bone Tempering Rank; he must not allow himself to become arrogant and lose his original martial heart.
...
After chatting with Geng Weizhi for a while, Shen Xiuhan returned to the cabin and closed his eyes.
He had always acted as if walking on thin ice.
This sudden mission required him to travel over a hundred miles, with unpredictable dangers along the way. Naturally, he had to use the intelligence system to investigate.
【Daily Intelligence Refreshed】!
【Intelligence 1: The Ji family caravan is transporting a Five Elements Qi-Refining Pill purchased at a high price, but the news was accidentally leaked, attracting the covetous eyes of Qu Wu, a first-class Sea Patrol Guard of the Zhenhai Marquis Mansion. To deceive others, the Ji family is openly gathering guards to protect the caravan, but in reality, they have secretly hidden the pill with the Ji family's Second Young Mistress, to be escorted back to Changyun County by you in secret.】
【Intelligence 2: Two days later, at Lingshui Pier, Qu Bushi, the tenth chief of Chenjian Dock, and his subordinate leaders will attempt to plunder the Ji family's young mistresses, including three Blood Tempering martial artists!】
【Intelligence 3: The Ji family has dispatched the Martial Hall Master, Ji Wen, to secretly protect them. He is currently hiding at the foot of Mount Mang.】
There were only three pieces of new intelligence.
But with each piece of intelligence he read, Shen Xiuhan's face grew a shade darker.
The waters of the Ji family were indeed incredibly muddy!
“The Five Elements Qi-Refining Pill...”
Shen Xiuhan searched through his memory.
Previously, when he was browsing through ancient texts in the study of the Mei Courtyard, he had seen related records:
If a martial artist wished to step into the Huajin Rank, they had to first cultivate a breath of inner force to perfection within their dantian's sea of qi, reaching the point where their qi force could penetrate the body and injure others from a distance.
Especially when breaking through to the Huajin Rank, one had to prepare a large amount of spiritual materials to ensure that the inner force would not be interrupted during the breakthrough process.
This Five Elements Qi-Refining Pill is highly likely what the Ji family intends to use to break through to the Huajin Rank. It is a treasure among pills, no wonder the Zhenhai Marquis Mansion is drooling over it like flies to blood!
But the Ji family isn't stupid either. They anticipated the danger of possessing such a treasure, so they set up this risky play of making a feint to the east while attacking in the west.
On the surface, they are escorting the caravan with great fanfare, but in secret, they stuffed the precious pill into their Second Young Mistress's hands and even dispatched experts ahead of time to protect her in secret along the way.
Shen Xiuhan's eyes flickered.
Shen Xiuhan had naturally heard of the Ji family's Martial Hall Master, Ji Wen.
This person's cultivation was at the Minor Accomplishment of the Anjin Rank. Aside from the head of the Ji family, he was the only Anjin martial artist within the Ji family's main lineage, responsible for managing all martial affairs in the family, holding an exceptionally high status!
But the tricky part stemmed from precisely this.
As a grand Anjin expert, since he chose to hide, it meant he did not dare to easily expose his movements.
In the final analysis, he was simply afraid of being noticed by the scouts of the Zhenhai Marquis Mansion, which would ruin the Ji family's escape plan!
From this, it could be inferred...
As long as the Ji family's Second Young Mistress's life was not hanging by a thread and there was no risk of losing the Five Elements Qi-Refining Pill, this Martial Hall Master would most likely stand by and watch, remaining in hiding!
In fact, in an emergency, it was not impossible for him to protect the pill and abandon the person.
After all... a Huajin expert was far more useful than a young mistress!
So in the end, dealing with the fierce bandits of Chenjian Dock at Lingshui Pier still falls on me!
At this thought, Shen Xiuhan exhaled slowly, his expression growing even colder.
Having been stationed on Yunyi Island for many days, he had already gained a good understanding of the surrounding water bandit chiefs.
Qu Bushi, the tenth chief of Chenjian Dock, had only taken his chief seat within the last two years.
Chenjian Dock once had an unwritten rule:
Those who had not entered the Anjin Rank could not take a chief seat!
But ever since Chenjian Dock ambushed and killed Ji Guannan, and the two Huajin experts, Luo Changming and Wang Zhidao, went to Chenjian Dock together,
the Anjin experts within Chenjian Dock had never made a move again.
After some time, they promoted five Mingjin experts, filling the chief seats back up to ten.
In recent years, it had been these five who harassed the merchant ships of various firms everywhere.
Qu Bushi was one of them.
Two and a half years ago, when he first took his seat, his cultivation had already entered the early stage of the Bone Tempering Rank.
Two and a half years later, his strength could not have remained stagnant.
He would certainly be even more ferocious and difficult to deal with!
Moreover, Qu Bushi was accompanied by two elite Blood Tempering bandits...
This is going to be a tough battle!
A trace of coldness flashed in the depths of Shen Xiuhan's eyes.
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