May I seek good fortune and avoid misfortune, and live a long and prosperous life.

A month after returning to the capital in triumph, Emperor Jingwu began to reward those who had contributed to the victory.

Almost all the generals and warriors who followed Emperor Jingwu in his western and northern campaigns received rewards.

Ye Zhou, the child Li Heng once saved, was appointed as a Grand General and granted the title of Duke of Wei, a hereditary title.

Li Hui, the Chancellor of the Imperial Academy, was promoted to the position of Imperial Preceptor due to his meritorious service in educating the people.

The most generous reward was bestowed upon the Night Emperor, though he was not interested in it.

Emperor Jingwu remotely bestowed upon the Night Emperor the title of First-Class Town King, granting him the privilege of living and dying with the nation. After his death, he was enshrined in the Chu State Ancestral Temple, where he was worshipped by millions of people.

Furthermore, Emperor Jingwu ordered the construction of Lingyun Pavilion, where portraits and memorial tablets of twenty meritorious officials were enshrined.

Among them, Night Emperor ranked first, and his tablet reads: First-Class Town King, Legendary Grandmaster, Night Emperor.

The portrait depicts a tall, upright man dressed in black with his face covered. This is the only one of the twenty portraits of meritorious officials that does not show his true face.

In the ninth year of the Jingwu reign, Emperor Jingwu issued an edict changing the reign title to Chengping.

[The imperial edict reads: I, having received the mandate of heaven and inherited the great mandate, have witnessed the following: Since assuming the throne, the north has been plagued by rebellious tribes, their steeds seizing power; the west has been engulfed in war, bandits running rampant. This has caused the nation to suffer, the people to be plunged into misery, and nearly half of the ancestral territory to be lost… I deem the restoration of the dynasty paramount, and the first priority is to bring peace and prosperity to the people. Therefore, I hereby change the era name to "Chengping" to signify: to continue the great foundation laid by our ancestors, and to ensure lasting peace throughout the land. This proclamation is made known both within and outside the capital.]

He then granted a general amnesty and implemented a policy of light taxes and levies, reducing most of the heavy taxes and levies left over from the reign of Emperor Xiangqing, and allowing the people to rest and recuperate.

Furthermore, with the support of 100,000 elite Chu troops and several thousand warriors, Emperor Jingwu launched a top-down purge, purging all the old Chu landlords and nobles and confiscating all their property, which greatly alleviated the land annexation problem and financial pressure.

In February of the same year, Emperor Jingwu ordered the collection of all martial arts techniques and the establishment of official martial arts academies throughout the country to gather martial artists from all over the world. He also honored Ye Tianzi as the founder and patriarch of the academies and had a pure gold statue of Ye Tianzi cast and placed in the center of the Kyoto Martial Arts Academy for martial artists from all over the world to admire and learn from.

In the same year, in March, Li Heng opened a small clinic in a secluded corner of Kyoto, specializing in treating poor people who could not afford medical care.

At the same time, he successfully reached the peak of the Grandmaster realm, and his strength became increasingly unfathomable.

He returned to his original simplicity, revealing no aura whatsoever, just like an ordinary mortal.

Now in his sixties, he has changed his appearance to that of an ordinary middle-aged or elderly man, with an unremarkable appearance that doesn't attract any attention.

The third year of peace.

Li Heng's small clinic has already become quite well-known in the surrounding streets and alleys.

He cured many difficult and complicated diseases that doctors in Kyoto dared not treat.

Many poor people would come to Li Heng for treatment, and would often bring him small tokens of their appreciation, usually agricultural products.

Through continuous practice, Li Heng's medical skills improved significantly.

During this time, he also constantly read many martial arts manuals about dispersing internal energy and notes on how predecessors cultivated their skills to reach the Grandmaster level.

Recently, a secret black market has been established in the Kyoto martial arts circle, providing a trading place for martial artists to exchange various training items and martial arts manuals.

Li Heng had also visited the site a few times and found some useful items, such as cultivation insights from grandmasters and some legends and anecdotes about the Celestial Realm. Although the gains were not significant, Li Heng didn't lose anything by going there.

Today, Li Heng plans to continue his journey to the black market to see if he can find anything useful.

The black market was located underground in a large restaurant in Kyoto.

Li Heng arrived at the main entrance of the restaurant leading to the underground passage, took out his black market pass and handed it to the guard waiting at the door. After checking it, the guard immediately returned it to Li Heng and made way for the underground passage.

After passing through a long passage, Li Heng's vision suddenly opened up, revealing a bright and spacious square covering a full hundred square meters.

In the center of the square is a long street lined with stalls on both sides.

On the street, many martial artists came to watch, and shouts rose and fell.

"Take a look! Ancestral secret techniques on clearance sale! This is a top-tier martial arts technique passed down from my ancestors. It has a low learning threshold, no side effects, and a fair price. We're honest with everyone!"

"Grandmaster's Insights, would you like some? This is a martial arts manual left behind by a mid-stage Grandmaster. It details his entire experience of advancing from the first rank to the Grandmaster realm. It's packed with valuable information and definitely worth the price."

Li Heng ignored the shouts and started looking at the first stall along the street.

Half an hour later, Li Heng had walked through most of the stall and flipped through hundreds of books and items, but nothing piqued his interest.

At this moment, he came to a stall near the end of the street. The stall was deserted, and there was only one martial artist staying there.

The stall owner was a middle-aged man wearing short sleeves and shorts, with messy hair and a stubble beard.

His stall had very little stock, with only two books on display.

"This utterly useless cultivation technique is selling for a thousand taels of silver? Are you crazy? I wonder which third-rate martial artist wrote this garbage technique!"

"You...don't talk nonsense if you're not going to buy it! This is a peerless martial arts manual personally written by Yan Tiannan, the greatest hero of the martial arts world, eighty years ago!"

"The descendants of the great hero Yan Tiannan were close friends with my grandfather, which is why they parted with this precious item to him. How dare you speak so recklessly!"

"Bah! A peerless martial arts technique? Look at it yourself! It says that to master this technique, one must first reach the peak of the Grandmaster realm, then either cripple one's own martial arts or pass it on to someone else. What use is a Grandmaster-level technique? If I were at the peak of the Grandmaster realm, would I still be practicing your technique? Bah!"

"This...no matter what, it is indeed a martial arts manual written by the great hero Yan Tiannan himself. If I were lying, may I be struck by lightning and die a horrible death! If I weren't short of money right now, I wouldn't have to sell the martial arts manual passed down by my grandfather."

"No matter what you say, this broken technique is useless. Which grandmaster at the peak would be willing to abandon their martial arts and start all over again? Who knows if they can ever rebuild it? Even if they could, who knows how many years later? How many years will they have left to live then?" After saying this, the martial artist shook his head and left.

Li Heng, who was standing to the side, had a sudden flash of inspiration after hearing their conversation.

"A technique left behind by a former peerless master? It's a technique that requires dispersing one's internal energy to cultivate. Doesn't that have something in common with the Nine Tribulations Nirvana Technique? But unfortunately, the technique that comes with the second stage of the Nine Tribulations Nirvana Technique only supports the peak Grandmaster level."

Lacking a technique to disperse internal energy suitable for the peak of the Grandmaster realm, I cannot forge the foundation and internal strength required for that level. Therefore, my foundation and internal energy cannot reach the limits of the Grandmaster realm. And this technique is very likely a technique for dispersing internal energy at the Grandmaster level!

So, Li Heng pretended to be unhurried and came to the middle-aged man's stall. He first picked up another manual and looked at it for a while. Unfortunately, this one was a very ordinary, common book. Li Heng put it back in its place and then slowly picked up the cultivation method left by Yan Tiannan.

The cover has four large characters: "The Art of Cleansing the Body in Wedding Dresses".

The middle-aged man was a little frustrated. He had been selling this ancestral secret manual at his stall for more than ten days.

Unfortunately, although many martial artists came to watch, including some grandmaster-level martial artists, they all shook their heads and unanimously agreed that this technique was useless and impossible to cultivate.

But he urgently needs a large sum of money. His family is poor, and the only valuable thing he has is this martial arts manual written by Yan Tiannan, who was once the greatest hero in the martial arts world.

Seeing Li Heng pick up the manual, he felt a glimmer of hope that Li Heng would be interested and buy it to solve his urgent problem.