84: Chapter 84 Aristocratic Families and Merchant Alliances

"You've reached the An Jin stage?!" Lu Xiu, lying on a reclining chair, lazily opened his eyes to look at Li Qing.

"That's right." Li Qing nodded.

"Congratulations on your martial Breakthrough, Junior Brother. You have the potential to reach the Huajin stage," Xie Yi said from the side.

"Hmm, not bad. Keep up the effort. With your Comprehension Ability, after three years, when your fist techniques are proficient, you might even become a Martial Scholar." Lu Xiu gave a slight nod.

Of course, the more Disciples under his tutelage who reached the An Jin stage, the better. Especially in his lineage, many were Disciples unwanted by the other three branches, so their quality was uneven to begin with, and there were relatively few An Jin practitioners.

Never mind how much effort he, Lu Xiu, had put in. The point was, had there been progress or not!

Li Qing stated his purpose: "Master Lu, I wish to participate in this year's Martial Arts Imperial Examination."

"This year's Martial Arts Imperial Examination?!" Lu Xiu looked at Li Qing and nodded. "Makes sense. Getting a taste of its cruelty early will allow you to be more composed next time."

In his view, Li Qing was most likely going for the experience. There were quite a few people like that.

For Disciples with such drive, Lu Xiu felt a sliver more concern.

He asked, "How is your progress with the Three Vibrations Power? This secret technique is not easy to learn."

Among all the Disciples of the martial arts hall, only Ji Chuan and Bai He had fully mastered the first level of the Three Vibrations Power, 'First Vibration'. Adding Fang Lingling from the later batch, that made only three.

As for 'Second Vibration', only the four of them who had reached the Huajin stage had mastered it.

And 'Third Vibration'? Only Zhuang Jin had achieved it, which also placed him among the top ten Huajin Martial Artists in all of Shangyun City, including the Inner City.

This showed just how difficult it was.

Even the Fourth Senior Brother, Xie Yi, before him, had only barely reached the entry level. Using it was somewhat difficult, let alone employing it in actual combat.

"If you haven't reached the entry level yet, I can provide a sparring partner plan. It only costs three hundred taels of silver, payable in installments," Lu Xiu said.

Thinking of another income stream coming in, Lu Xiu felt a slight joy in his heart.

Li Qing nodded. "I've already reached the entry level. I should be able to master it by the time of the Martial Arts Imperial Examination."

Although he had long been able to use it freely, to avoid shocking the world, he gave a conservative estimate.

However, Lu Xiu abruptly stood up!

"What?!" he exclaimed, his voice filled with disbelief.

Whoosh!

He appeared right in front of Li Qing in an instant.

Li Qing's pupils contracted slightly. This time, with the aid of [Micro-Perception], he finally clearly saw Lu Xiu's movement.

'So fast. But... with [Lightness] enhancing me, I can keep up. If my Wind-Chasing Leg Technique breaks through to proficiency, I should be able to surpass him.'

So-called Huajin Martial Artists were no longer out of reach for him.

Soon, he would stand at the pinnacle of the Liuhe Martial Arts Hall.

Ever since his Stake Technique reached proficiency, his progress points had reached eight hundred. He could accumulate three points daily, meaning he only needed about two hundred and seventy days to break through to the Huajin stage!

That was just nine months!

Remember, it had only taken him six months to break through from Mingjin to An Jin!

[Accumulate small steps to reach a thousand miles]

Li Qing finally understood the meaning of this phrase.

Step by step, it was enough to one day completely leave everyone else behind.

Lu Xiu placed a hand on Li Qing's shoulder and said gravely, "Try circulating the Three Vibrations Power."

Li Qing's face flushed red as he 'exerted effort' to circulate the Three Vibrations Power. After a long while, his body finally began to tremble.

An intermittent, vibrating force transmitted to Lu Xiu's palm, trying to push his hand away.

Lu Xiu was startled. Although this vibrating force was intermittent, it proved that Li Qing had truly reached the entry level!

'Could it be that my offhand remark actually came true? Is Li Qing truly a Genius at Cultivating the Three Vibrations Power?' Lu Xiu thought.

A smile spread across his face. "Not bad, not bad. You're really quite something!"

He had actually picked up a treasure.

"You really... keep surprising me!" Lu Xiu said happily.

"Someone! Bring tea!"

For the first time, Li Qing drank tea at the Lu Courtyard for free.

Li Qing then asked, "Master Lu, what about the strong blood pill?"

Quite some time had passed since then. The city magistrate's office couldn't possibly be unaware of this private Medicinal Pill trade, yet they allowed it to develop.

"Heh," Lu Xiu took a sip of tea. "Now it should be called 'Zhuangxue Pill'. It's even cheaper now, one tael of silver for three pills. Hehe!"

He sneered, "This kind of Medicinal Pill, being too cheap, caused a frenzy. But who would have known that after taking it, many people found their Qi and blood not increasing but decreasing, and some even collapsed from poisoning?"

Sure enough, once the Medicinal Pill price was driven down, no one cared about the quality anymore.

Lu Xiu added, "Naturally, such news was suppressed. Right now, it's the top-selling product. Even the Four Great Families of the Inner City and many martial arts halls in the outer city have formed a Merchant Alliance, planning to dump it elsewhere. They're making a killing."

The Families, the martial arts halls, and the Merchant Alliance?

Li Qing recalled the scene of Zhao Xiancheng welcoming and seeing off Chen Qianren earlier.

Chen Qianren was a member of the Chen Family.

"What about us?"

Even though the Great Qian imperial court's power had waned, a starved camel is still bigger than a horse. Apart from the city magistrate, the city magistrate's office still had a full four Core-Forming Strength experts. Openly opposing the authorities like this was probably inviting endless disaster.

Since the Merchant Alliance was starting to recruit outer city martial arts halls to join, where did their Liuhe Martial Arts Hall stand?

Lu Xiu shook his head with a cold laugh. "My family isn't one to 'risk their lives to accompany a gentleman'. The oil isn't dry, the lamp isn't extinguished. Openly defying the imperial family, I see no good outcome.

You must know, all eighteen cities of Yingtian Prefecture are under the Qiyun Sect's territory. Although a few years ago, the Great Qian attacked a Sect's mountain gate, causing relations with the Sects to become quite tense, this also revealed that the government's power is still immense.

And Hua Yunsheng, as a Disciple of the Qiyun Sect, becoming the magistrate of Shangyun City, represents the faction that is close to the imperial court.

For a city under the Qiyun Sect's jurisdiction to have an incident where a Qiyun Sect Disciple was ambushed and killed... hehe."

By now, anyone with clear eyes could see that the Four Great Families were definitely involved in the plot to surround and kill the city magistrate.

Being able to participate in such a matter probably involved some external force.

As for whether it was an opposing faction within the Qiyun Sect or an external Sect, even Lu Xiu, as a Huajin Martial Artist, couldn't tell.

After breaking through to the An Jin stage, Li Qing had access to much more information. This was the benefit of increased status.

"Master Lu, I wonder if you could help purchase some blood toad pills, and also... information about Treasure Fish?"

"As for blood toad pills, I happen to have some here. I won't overcharge, four taels of silver per pill. As for Treasure Fish... hmm, I actually do have a piece of news."

Li Qing looked at the table and tapped it once with three fingers.

Tap!

Lu Xiu accepted the three taels of silver and said, "In each Martial Arts Imperial Examination, the Martial Scholars who rank at the top actually have the qualification to exchange for rewards from the city magistrate's office, including but not limited to Cultivation Techniques, weapons, guards, and even money. This time, it's said there are quite a few Treasure Fish. If you can achieve a good ranking, you might be able to obtain Treasure Fish."

But in his view, it would be quite an achievement if Li Qing could even become a Martial Scholar.

Ranking at the top? Even Bai He, due to his relatively short training time, would find it difficult, let alone Li Qing.