Chapter 5 - Brave Warrior

"Practicing martial arts?"

Lu Quan'an frowned.

"Why have you started practicing martial arts again?" He was just about to admonish harshly, but immediately considered how the other young masters who went out seeking pleasures were much worse in comparison.

The scolding words died on his lips. He sighed instead.

"If you insist on learning martial arts, then follow your uncle Zhao properly. Don't practice blindly on your own, it's too easy to get hurt."

He shook his head and turned to leave, but paused halfway and added:

"Anything you need from the medicine storage, just go ahead and fetch it. I'll provide two thousand taels this month for your expenses."

Having said thus, he strode off with big steps.

Stepmother Lady Liu gently dabbed Lu Sheng's sweat with a towel.

"Your dad is too soft-hearted."

She heaved a long sigh.

"Old Master Xu is like a brother to him with eight bows of fraternity between them. This matter has hit him hard too.

Martial arts practice is good, it's just, others start building their foundations young whereas you're a bit late at this age now..."

She nagged on but Lu Sheng didn't catch everything. His attention fully concentrated on the Black Tiger blade method he had just acquired.

"How bizarre..."

Lu Sheng narrowed his eyes slightly, appearing to listen to his stepmother while actually sensing the changes in his body.

He flexed his arm muscles.

"The muscles are the same as before, but that familiarity, that sensation like having practiced bladework for years, it's just..."

He tried tensing his leg muscles too.

His leg muscles clearly responded with greater explosiveness now.

He could distinctly feel his strength gushing rapidly from his feet all the way upwards to his waist, then down his arms.

This smooth conduction of force was depicted clearly in the Black Tiger manual. It was called unified force.

"If following the blade method's guidance, martial artists generally have ways to mobilize a majority of the body's power.

Being able to utilize fifty percent is considered highly skilled. Mobilizing eighty percent enters what's known as the unified force boundary."

Lu Sheng appraised silently. From what memories this body contained, he faintly recalled uncle Zhao and the other martial arts tutors discussing such concepts before.

Attaining unified force was around the pinnacle level in Jiu Lian Cheng. Being able to coordinate and unleash force as one, even an ordinary person with such attainment could cleave out a simple slash with a saber exhibiting astounding, superhuman power and speed.

"Uncle Zhao has reached unified force..."

Lu Sheng lamented in his heart. The modifier's effects showed no slightest compromise at all, allowing huge relief to flood him.

"What a pity, this modifier seems to consume spiritual vitality and such. Just one modification session, not even some legendary inner force cultivation method, merely an ordinary external family blade method, yet it nearly drained my energy and blood until bedridden in grave illness..."

Lu Sheng faintly grasped more of the modifier's essence now.

This thing appeared to be some kind of calibration device, able to etch combat experience, muscle memory, reflexes and martial arts unto the body.

Yet this calibration consumed energy, seemingly sapping his very spirit, vitality and health.

And etching the body's memory and such was not instantly achievable either.

"The body is like a bundle of materials. This modifier probably utilizes them, establishing a new basic template building on the original foundation.

It cannot arbitrarily strengthen muscle or bone density etc out of nowhere."

Lu Sheng deduced this inference.

The subsequent days proved his speculation accurate judging from the physical changes. His health gradually recovered day by day. Meanwhile, solid muscles slowly sprouted over his arms, legs, chest and back.

Lu Sheng also clearly sensed his pain tolerance turning numb. Callouses progressively thickened over his palm skin.

And his appetite grew increasingly voracious too.

To avoid drawing attention, he secretly snuck out extra meals outside.

Four meals at home - breakfast, lunch, dinner plus late night supper. Outside he would again eat just as much.

After seven days, Lu Sheng's entire being subtly turned stouter, his figure no longer as weak as in the past.

He had also long returned that blade method manual back to uncle Zhao completely.

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Having heard about Lu Sheng falling ill bedridden, uncle Zhao only shook his head with a sigh when accepting the manual, nothing else. He did not ask about the blade practice again either.

Lu Sheng guessed Zhao probably thought he had blindly attempted learning it himself and got injured as a result.

And that was exactly what Zhao believed.

He had been waiting for Lu Sheng to encounter difficulties that required answering and resolving doubts. But who knew, he swiftly heard the reports of young master Lu Sheng getting injured bedridden instead.

Then the secret manual was returned to him without another word about the Black Tiger blade method either.

So Zhao assumed Lu Sheng had lost interest and given up. Other than sighing, he said nothing more.

Everything soon reverted back to the old days again.

Life in Lu manor seemed largely unaffected by the Xu household incident.

The young ones who used to go sightseeing still went sightseeing. Those who drank flower wines carried on drinking. Those who listened to music, rode horses, attended poetry meets and flower admiring clubs - Jiu Lian Cheng was no small county, it had all sorts of indulgent entertainments aplenty.

The elders frequently attended this and that social gathering, paid visits to the county offices to give their consult and opinions.

Lord Lu Zhan immersed himself wholly in commerce and business dealings every day like usual.

Everyone appeared to have already forgotten about the Xu family tragedy, resuming the same lives as before.

Only two people differed from previously.

One was Lu Yi Yi. With her fiance gone, her sweetheart gone, she washed her face in tears daily, increasingly haggard.

The other was Lu Sheng.

Lu Sheng grew even fonder of slipping away outdoors now.

But not to join in merry-making and music, rather he found an empty space with sparse trees right outside the county to practice the Black Tiger blade method privately.

...

Black Wind Ridge was located southwest of Jiu Lian Cheng.

The wind howled fiercely at nightfall.

Having fetched a simple cleaver saber from the county ironsmiths, Lu Sheng hurried over.

He had no intentions reaching Black Wind Ridge itself, merely hoped to seize a chance testing his skills along the way.

The Black Tiger blade method came from his cheat device. He did not plan on exposing it. This could serve as a killer trump card for him.

In the eyes of outsiders, he seemed just like an ordinary privileged young master without the least martial strength.

Under such mistaken presumptions, whenever some crisis or malefic intent targeted him, these hidden skills would become his greatest lifesaving reliance then.

Of course, that was predicated upon the Black Tiger blade method's combat experience truly proving effective here.

Lu Sheng was unclear on Black Wind Ridge's exact bearings and distance from Jiu Lian Cheng.

With no night curfew, Jiu Lian Cheng's gates remained open at night. He wore thick wide clothes with head lowered to hide his face, changed into plain traveling garb, then used some powder to slightly alter his facial features.

Right away he transformed into an wholly unrecognizable ordinary wayfarer.

Capitalizing on the dark of night, he exited the county. Peering far into the distance once out the gates, only pitch black desolate hills and ridges laid under the moonlight like a slumbering monstrous beast, peacefully nestled.

His heart also thumped slightly nervously.

But to conceal himself, and to test the true might of the Black Tiger blade method, he steeled his resolve and strode towards Black Wind Ridge's direction nonetheless, standing right outside the gates.

Ting ting ting...

Night time traveling convoys and trade caravans were just then entering the county down main avenue.

The bells hanging off carriages and horses swayed and jangled loudly in the wind, carrying far in the night breeze.

Lu Sheng had exited from a side gate.

Jiu Lian Cheng's city gates were quite odd. Aside from remaining open overnight, just the gates alone numbered good several ones. The encircling walls looked tall and fortified, but were actually full of holes everywhere, not serving any real defensive purpose at all.

"Another late night arrival huh?"

"Rightly so...pitch black nights, then we got a wheel rim bent halfway. Such awful luck...."

Voices of a trade convoy's leader and the county garrison officers floated faintly from the main avenue gates.

Lu Sheng stood on a smaller trail veering southwest. Compared to the main thoroughfare, this road was far narrower.

That murky side exit only had two fire torches burning atop the enclosing walls, casting dim rays that barely illuminated within a meter radius below.

"Truly ancient times alright..." Lu Sheng sighed feelingly in his heart.

Gazing all around, only pitch black lay in the three directions ahead. Only Jiu Lian Cheng behind radiated light.

"No flashlights, no night lights, the wilderness in ancient times is simply paradise for hunting beasts."

He hesitated very slightly, but the Black Tiger blade method's ingrained dexterity flowing within his body did not induce much fear.

Because the Black Tiger heart methods contained techniques for dealing with such dark environments.

Or rather, the Black Tiger itself was an expert hunter in the dark. The blade method demanded superb ambient sensing and positioning, unfazed by these conditions.

Cinching his belt tight, gripping his cleaver saber, Lu Sheng picked up his pace towards the small trail leading to Black Wind Ridge.

Walking several hundred meters along the path, he took out the fire stones and small torch he had prepared early from his waist pouches.

Placing a piece of fire stone by the torch head then forcefully striking them together.

Pa!

Sparks sprayed onto the torch head.

Red embers slowly spread from a few dots to enveloping the entire head.

At last, brightness pierced the darkness.

Lu Sheng looked back. Jiu Lian Cheng's radiance had already dimmed quite far.

Raising the torch, he slowly proceeded ahead.

"According to the old hunter, beasts often prowl this road at night. Let's see my luck here."

He dared not truly head to Black Wind Ridge, aware that ghosts and such possibly lurked in this world. Naturally he was not foolhardy enough to venture too far away by himself.

If not for the inability finding many appropriate spots testing himself within the county, he would not have risked coming out here grasping at luck either.

After walking some more, he quickly discovered traces on the ground.

The kind of beasts' traces the old hunter mentioned.

Several white, clay-like oval shaped feces.

Lu Sheng picked up a rock to poke at the feces.

The dried and hardened stuff crumbled, revealing some fingernail-shaped content inside.

"This is it...this pile of crap should be a few days old. According to the old hunter, he just saw that old wolf prowling here yesterday still. It must be somewhere close."

Holding up the torch in one hand, Lu Sheng slowly unsheathed his cleaver saber in the other.

The cleaver saber originated from the integration of military and agricultural purposes. Its hilt was very long.

Lu Sheng's cleaver blade and hilt were of equal lengths. Removing just the blade portion was usable as a farmer's wooden staff. Somewhat resembling a smaller Kwan Dao.

Gripping it single-handedly still felt somewhat unwieldy.

He simply wedged the torch amidst crevices in a nearby rock. This area was littered in jagged rocks and boulders anyway, sparse on trees, no worries of uncontrolled blaze.

Having secured the torch, Lu Sheng carefully retrieved a paper package from his waist pouch. Within the package was a fresh chunk of pork he had just cut this afternoon.

Unfolding the oiled paper, it was placed on the ground.

The meat surface still gleamed wetly crimson, exuding an intense bloody stench that swiftly dispersed with the wind.

Slightly distancing himself while tightly clenching his cleaver saber, Lu Sheng hid behind a huge boulder nearly three meters tall, lying in wait.

The winds felt chilly.

Lu Sheng leaned sideways against the white boulder. Staring towards the direction of the meat, time slowly crawled by.

Yip...

Soon, the winds vaguely carried a sound, seemingly gusts, yet also akin to certain beasts' whimpers.

Whoosh!

Abruptly, a black shadow pounced from the side. The torchlight reflected a pair of glistening green eyes.

That shadow moved extremely quickly, charging right up to the meat chunk in a flash, biting it and dashing away.

Delight flushed Lu Sheng, he was about to take action.

But suddenly, alarm shot up his back.

An icy gale blasted his back heart.

Lu Sheng widened his eyes, swinging the cleaver sideways fiercely...