CHAPTER 41: CHAPTER 41: RECKLESS AND UNRESTRAINED

"Hey, it’s Han Mo’s people. That makes it even more interesting."

"Kid, I’ll give you a choice: join me and become a private soldier of the Xing Family. Are you willing?" Xing Penghai sat high on his horse, looking down at Lin Zheyu.

Lin Zheyu frowned slightly, contemplated for a moment, and said, "Sir, fruit forcibly plucked is never sweet. If I agree, I’m afraid you wouldn’t trust me, right?"

"Don’t worry, I have my ways to trust you."

"As long as you swallow this pill, you’ll be part of the Xing Family, and there will be no trouble today." Xing Penghai took out a black pill from his bosom.

Clearly, this pill was likely poison, used to control people.

Lin Zheyu put on an expression of struggle and indecision, monitoring the movements at the city gate from the corner of his eye.

"Phew..."

"Alright, I will join the Xing Family and work for you."

After a moment of indecision, he relented.

"Haha, wise people are always intelligent."

"Do your job well in the future, and once it’s done, I will... Damn, stop him!"

Xing Penghai’s smile froze as he shouted loudly.

He leaned on the horseback with his left hand, and leaped towards Lin Zheyu.

Just as Xing Penghai was speaking casually, Lin Zheyu noticed the movement at the city gate and recognized the chance to escape.

Immediately, he fully deployed the Golden Swan Skill and shot towards the gate.

"Such speed, how can someone in the Bone Forging Realm move so quickly!"

Xing Penghai chased after Lin Zheyu with all his might, but the distance between them increased.

His eyes showed disbelief; he was a strong man at the Peak of the Refining Internal Realm, yet couldn’t catch someone in the Bone Forging Realm!

"Ha!"

Seeing he couldn’t catch up, Xing Penghai decisively threw the battle halberd in his hand.

Whoosh—

The battle halberd whistled, attacking Lin Zheyu’s back with immense power.

He sensed an extremely sharp danger behind him, lightly tapped his foot, turned aside, and narrowly dodged it.

By this time, soldiers at the city gate reacted, raising their weapons to try to stop Lin Zheyu.

He jumped up, stepped forcefully on a soldier’s spear, leaped over the soldier’s head, rushed into the city, and disappeared.

"He escaped!"

Xing Penghai’s expression was gloomy as he watched Lin Zheyu’s retreating figure, anger boiling inside.

For someone in the Bone Forging Realm to escape from his grasp was embarrassing to Xing Penghai.

This kid’s lightweight skill and body technique were extremely agile; he clearly practiced leg skill and quite adeptly at that.

"Brother!"

Xing Jinglong caught up: "Brother, he escaped. What should we do next?"

"What can we do?"

"So what if the Feihong Gang knows we acted? It’s just a kid who recently joined the gang, at most we’ll compensate them with some money."

"Xu Jingwu wouldn’t turn against the Xing Family over a kid in the Bone Forging Realm, would he?" Xing Penghai sneered.

He was from the Xing Family and did not fear the Feihong Gang Leader Xu Jingwu.

"But this kid’s martial talent is indeed extraordinary; in such a short time, he has reached this level. With his talents, he might meet the criteria for secret medicine training."

Xing Penghai pondered for a moment and said, "Report this when we go back."

He mounted the horse, clamped his legs, and rode away.

His voice was heard from afar: "Follow me, I’ll take you somewhere."

Xing Jinglong responded, quickly mounted his horse, and followed.

...

"So brazenly?"

Lin Zheyu’s eyes were grave as he looked towards the city gate.

Judging from the previous situation, if he hadn’t quickly escaped into the city, the consequences of being caught wouldn’t be good.

He didn’t expect Xing Penghai to act against him so openly, despite having Feihong Gang backing.

Fortunately, they only dared to act outside the city. If they were so brazen within the city, it would mean Songyi City’s order was gone, and there’d be no way to stay.

"I need to quickly increase my strength!"

A sense of urgency rose in his heart.

If he hadn’t elevated the Golden Swan Skill to the third level, entering the Refining Internal Organ Realm, making his breath longer than before, he would’ve been done for.

Swallowing that black pill would mean losing control of his life and becoming someone else’s puppet.

"I must be more cautious, stay on guard."

Lin Zheyu muttered to himself.

Even though he was already extremely cautious, barely revealing his strength, he was still targeted by Xing Jinglong.

...

Three days later.

Morning.

Boom boom... crack...

In the courtyard, the sound of Lin Zheyu’s full strength whip-kicks striking wooden stakes could be heard.

The cold wind howled; the weather was extremely cold.

Yet Lin Zheyu was sweating profusely, his muscles perfectly streamlined.

He had been training continuously for over an hour, almost reaching his limit.

His face flushed, gasping heavily.

After another half hour...

At the moment of reaching his physical limit, his essence, qi, and spirit condensed into one, entering an inexplicable state.

This state was extremely brief, fleeting.

He exhaled, leaned on a stake, breathing heavily.

His muscles jumped uncontrollably, and his entire body ached.

Though he had several experiences crossing the limits, Lin Zheyu still found it incredibly difficult.

Every time he broke through his physical limits, it was a test of his body and spirit.

After taking a break, Lin Zheyu checked the data in his consciousness.

Oh!

Lin Zheyu’s face turned to joy.

Earlier, his Source Power was 4, and now it was 6.

After breaking through the limit, he gained two units of Source Power!

"Could it be that as the essence, qi, and spirit improve, the Source Power gained from each breakthrough also increases?" Lin Zheyu speculated.

It remained to be seen if every breakthrough could increase by two units of Source Power.

Or if, after several continuous breakthroughs of physical limits, the next breakthrough increased by two units while before it was just one.

Lin Zheyu felt the latter was more likely.

As his strength improved, the Source Power gained from each breakthrough was slightly more, about 1.x units, but showed as 1 with x not displayed.

The decimal digits accumulated, revealing when reaching 1.

But this was just speculation; the specifics required further testing.

After resting for a while.

Stretching his tendons for half an hour, recovering a bit of strength.

He went inside, took out the Blood-Nourishing and Bone-Strengthening Soup ingredients he had previously purchased.

After the previous consumption, only six sets of ingredients remained. Recently, Lin Zheyu earned money and bought more, now having eight sets.

Brewing the soup was a delicate task, requiring precise control of the heat, and a long simmering to extract the medicinal power from the ingredients.

"These ingredients are getting more expensive. When will this end?"

Lin Zheyu muttered.

He went to buy ingredients in the morning; the price of a set was nearly a tael of silver more than before.

The shopkeeper said it was because of the abundance of mountain bandits. Those herb-gathering farmers often faced robbery when entering the mountains, with little harvest.

The cost of the ingredients increased, thus the selling price rose as well.