Creak.

Closing the door, Song Zhenguo walked to the window sill and happened to see a black pigeon with pinkish-white eyes squatting on his window lattice, busily grooming its feathers.

Seeing this, his spirits were immediately lifted. He swiftly went over to grab the pigeon, gently removing a small paper tube from its leg.

Unfurling the paper, a line of fine cursive writing was clearly visible: 'Brother Song, Yun'er will help ask about that Young Master's matter.

Also, the Incense Pouch Festival is approaching soon. Can Brother Song promise Yun'er to definitely, definitely not come to the flower boat that day, definitely don't come!'

Song Zhenguo froze for a moment as he continued reading.

'The boat madam and the others will use the maidens' names that day to stir up trouble everywhere and cheat people. There are also some bad arrangements against Brother Song. Promise me. After this Incense Pouch Festival, Yun'er will agree to return home with Brother Song...'

Seeing the contents on the unrolled paper, joy instantly flowed across Song Zhenguo's face.

"Brother Song promises you. I definitely won't give them any opportunity!" Although he felt somewhat doubtful since the reasoning seemed forced here, but out of trust for Yun'er, he did not suspect anything.

Song Zhenguo swiftly took out paper to write his response. Then he rolled it up and tied it to the black pigeon's leg. Cupping the black pigeon in both hands, he tossed it out the window. The pigeon immediately fluttered off.

Flapping its wings, the pigeon shot out from the Song household's courtyard, lightly gliding between the vermilion roof tiles, sweeping over streets lined up like tofu blocks, and over the uneven black rooftops of buildings of varying heights. Very quickly, it arrived above Songbai River and descended towards a red flower boat.

Fluttering its wings, the black pigeon landed on the window of a cabin on the flower boat. A slender fair hand gently held it.

Yun'er swiftly removed the paper roll tied to the pigeon's leg and looked left and right. Then she hurriedly released the pigeon.

"Go on, back to your nest." She said softly.

The black pigeon flapped its wings and swiftly flew off, soon disappearing past the window ledge.

Yun'er closed the window. Gently unfurling the paper roll, a trace of tenderness flashed across her face. Hurriedly, she lit the paper roll aflame over a candle.

Holding it in her hand, she waited until only a tiny corner remained before gently opening the window a crack and throwing it out to drift into Songbai River.

Creak...

Suddenly, the room door opened automatically as if someone was pushing it from outside. Yun'er was badly frightened, whipping around with a wildly thumping chest as she stared fixedly at the entrance.

After settling her nerves, she walked over and looked left and right but did not notice any movements or figures. She also stuck her head out into the corridor outside to take a look.

This was the dressing room below decks. Due to Song Zhenguo, she now had her own independent dressing room. With the other sisters all gone above deck to receive customers, there was no one else around.

The corridor was completely empty without a single person.

Yun'er gently breathed a sigh of relief and turned back into the room, locking the door and adding another door bolt.

She sat in front of the dresser and picked up a comb to gently brush her hair. Whenever her mood fluctuated, combing her hair could always gradually calm her down.

But she had barely picked up the comb when her expression drastically changed.

On the wooden table surface below, a line of words was shockingly written in black ink:

'Must take action on Incense Pouch Festival. Don't forget your identity.'

Yun'er bit her lower lip as her eyes betrayed inner struggle. After some hesitation, she lightly wrote 'yes' with the ink brush before reaching out her hand to wipe away the words, leaving only a blotch of black smudges.

Raising her head again to look at her blurry visage in the bronze mirror, she was momentarily lost in thought.

She knew that it was a warning for her not to do anything extra and luckily, the paper roll's contents were not discovered.

"What a pity... can no longer spend a lifetime together with Brother Song..." Regret and determination flashed through her beautiful eyes.

The master wanted to collect living people born during their own zodiac birth hours on an inauspicious year, month and time. And Song Zhenguo was one of the targets. In order to capture him, all kinds of contingency plans were prepared and ready, only waiting for her to ask him to come on the day of Incense Pouch Festival.

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But unknowingly, she had gradually grown to like the righteous and generous Song Zhenguo, admiring and adoring him, wanting to rely and depend on him...

"Brother Song... Yun'er is so tired... so tired..." Yun'er softly stroked her own cheek as a tear soundlessly slid down her eye corners.

............

Within a small valley outside the city.

Boom!!

Lusheng lashed out with a palm behind him, thunderously pulverizing the massive rock into rubble. The arm-length rocks were smashed into smithereens, scattered on the ground.

Boom boom boom!!

Lusheng rapidly turned and unleashed a barrage of palms, pounding the several remaining hanging rocks around him into pieces.

Plumes of gray dust slowly dispersed, somewhat choking.

Lusheng slowly stayed his actions, joining his palms with sinking dantian to stand firmly.

"My saber and palm techniques are already sufficient. What I still lack are qinggong lightness skills. I also need to make up for projectiles from afar. Otherwise once out of immediate range, troublesome kite-flying opponents would pose an issue." As Lusheng slowly stabilized his inner energy, he contemplated in his heart.

"Additionally, Jade Crane Skill absorbed Black Tiger Saber's energy method to obtain enhancement and transformation. But this improvement relied on the strange creature's leftover powder.

The fusion process and intricacies in between, if I were to comprehend and grope through them by myself, the required experience and exploration would truly be far too much. This is similar in difficulty to creating entirely new martial arts. It's simply impossible to accomplish alone."

He had also tried attempting breakthroughs in other external and internal cultivation arts but unfortunately to no avail. After several tries, they all ended with injured body channels. Moreover, the results produced from repeated experimentation were also completely different from his predictions.

"Without sufficient abundant martial arts experience, wanting to break through self-created martial art restrictions seems unfeasible," Lusheng understood in his heart. "Jade Crane Skill absorbing Black Tiger Saber's energy technique and producing positive transformation looks simple, but was actually likely simulated countless times to derive the best outcome. If I wish to continue improving my martial arts, I must find more similar leftover objects from those strange creatures."

After ending his inner energy cultivation, Lusheng walked to the big tree trunk and took down his hanging outer coat, towel etc to wipe the sweat off his body.

"Should test out the might of third stage Heishi Skill." All this time, he had not gone all out with it before. Now that his body had recovered, it was a good chance to try out exactly how formidable third stage Heishi Skill was.

Looking at the big tree before him, a thought arose in Lusheng. He fully stirred up his inner energy, channeling it into his right hand before fiercely lashing out a palm.

Boom!!

The same booming sound. His explosive power had not increased much. After all, amplification was not the crux of Heishi Skill.

Lusheng gently pulled his hand back and saw a clear jet-black palm print stamped on the direct center of the tree trunk around a dozen centimeters deep, exuding a pungent spicy aroma overall.

Lusheng stretched his hand to gently touch around the edges of the black palm print and a large piece of bark promptly peeled off. The inner side of the bark was covered in numerous wrinkle-like black tracings.

"This looks like burn injuries from fire. Heishi Skill, among orthodox internal cultivation arts, should also be pretty good tier. What a pity there's only the inferior remnants of a few levels... If I could deduce and strengthen Heishi Skill, perhaps there would be greater potential and improvements in the future!"

By now, his level was equivalent to the profound cultivation of ordinary people practicing for forty to fifty years. This still did not account for the practice time in Black Tiger Saber and his other martial arts.

"Next, I should pick up a specialized footwork technique. Be it Black Tiger Saber or my other skills, I only have complementary offensive steps but no truly pure footwork meant solely for travelling long distances, chasing, and escaping."

Lusheng began browsing through the footwork techniques he had collected thus far. Up till now, there was only one - the Eight Treasures Steps obtained at Jiuliu City. However, that was specifically for evasion during fights.

"Shenlan," he silently recited in his heart.

The Modifier interface appeared, suspended before his eyes.

Lusheng swiftly halted his movements. With his mind's intent, he pressed the modify button.

The entire Modifier interface promptly flashed once.

"Raise Eight Treasures Steps by one level," Lusheng continued.

In the interface's options, Eight Treasures Steps' status instantly changed from Null to Basic.

Lusheng examined his own body state. Apart from somewhat numb and itchy legs, his Black Tiger Jade Crane inner energy had decreased a bit. There were no other reactions.

"Unknowingly, I've already accumulated to this degree... Such inferior martial arts from Jianghu can no longer burden my feeling," Lusheng felt emotional for a moment as he continued looking at the Modifier interface.

'Eight Treasures Steps: Basic'

"Raise Eight Treasures Steps to the maximum third level," Lusheng directly recited silently.

Ding!

Eight Treasures Steps flashed once, changing from Basic to First Level. Lusheng seemed to feel nothing.

Ding!

Second level. Lusheng felt his legs turn number.

Finally with a whoosh, Eight Treasures Steps directly jumped to third level. Black Tiger Jade Crane inner energy consumption also reached four-fifths, an amount that would take him at least two days to recover from.

But this footwork technique, Lusheng could now feel innumerable experiences, walkways and applications regarding Eight Treasures Steps all fused and linked in his mind. His legs were also clearly more nimble and stronger compared to before.

"Let's test it out!"

Lusheng's sight landed on a sparrow ahead that had just fluttered up from the grasslands, shooting towards the distance.

Exerting strength in his feet, he fiercely charged forward.

Pu pu pu...

Continuously rushing forward eight steps, before the small bird could react to change directions, it was caught in Lusheng's palm.

"My explosive power is strong. Both Heishi Skill's inner energy and Black Tiger Jade Crane have boosted my explosiveness and strengthened my physique. Executing Eight Treasures Steps on this foundation, the effect turns out pretty good. This should be on par with Eight Steps Chasing Cicada right?" Satisfied, Lusheng loosened his hand only to see the completely crushed and mangled remains of the little sparrow...

He helplessly shook his head.

"With footwork settled, time to go try finding external exercises to attempt," Lusheng pondered. Over the past months in Yanshan City, he had also secretly investigated and asked around, gaining a clear picture of circumstances here.

Yanshan City did not have many top experts because official forces held great power, exercising control and restraint over Jianghu figures. Thus, the experts here were instead bureaucrats and military generals.

Among them, the most famous was the number one expert in Yiqing Peak, Swordmaster Lu Chengzhong. Compared to this personage, everyone else was just minor characters. However, Lu Chengzhong was already eighty-seven years old with three sons who were all high officials in the city. It was simply impossible to approach him for guidance.

Lusheng eliminated this candidate right from the start.