Ultimate True Lord

For the next two weeks, Jiang Ming practiced his hand techniques day and night to improve his martial arts skills. During these ten days, one or two more senior brothers left the outer courtyard, either to become guards in the main courtyard or to join gangs.

Since there was no hope of breaking through, he had no choice but to leave his apprenticeship and make a living.

"Huff, huff, huff!"

In a corner of the outer courtyard.

Jiang Ming, his muscular upper body bare, strained with his arms, his hands taut and bulging as he lifted the stone lock up and down. Fine beads of sweat slid down his bronze skin, landing on the ground and spreading damp patches of dust.

"Thump."

A watermelon-sized stone lock fell down and was placed in the fourth row by a hand.

Three months have passed since Jiang Ming dealt with Zhang Hu.

His physique grew increasingly robust, and his muscles and bones became more powerful with each passing day of training. The stone lock, weighing a full eighty pounds, was now being used by Jiang Ming as a training tool, which he could lift up and down and support for quite some time.

He clapped his hands, walked to the side, picked up a towel from the wooden frame, wiped his sweat, and rested for a short while.

"The essence and blood have almost been replenished."

Jiang Ming looked down at the back of his left hand. The surface of the original furnace was once again covered with dense Taotie patterns, but there was still about 10% blank space between the furnace lid and the surface. It would probably be full in about ten days.

"However, the cultivation technique that can be used to enhance it is still not in hand..."

During this period, he made some progress and visited two martial arts masters in the south of Wangyue City.

Unfortunately, neither of them would discuss it, claiming it was a family secret and would not be revealed to outsiders. The other, who was in even more dire straits, hesitated for a quarter of an hour while looking at Jiang Ming before finally giving the answer that it would not be passed on.

"In the end, it's because the money offered wasn't enough. If it were several times more, the second martial arts master would definitely relent." Jiang Ming shook his head slightly, his tone full of helplessness.

"But now prices in Wangyue City are soaring, and the little silver I have is barely enough to maintain my daily training, so I can't offer a higher price."

He felt inexplicably irritable and slightly anxious.

The essence and blood are about to be fully restored. If you don't prepare a technique to enhance it, you'll be wasting the time of your powerful talent.

Jiang Ming sighed, slowly lowered his left hand, and lowered his eyelids.

"Maybe……"

……

……

The night was as dark as ink, completely shrouding Toyotapu in darkness.

There were no stars or moon in the sky, only a few wisps of dark clouds drifting slowly by. A cold wind swirled up bits of withered grass from the roadside, swirling and drifting lightly across the empty streets.

The few scattered households had already turned off their lights and closed their doors. The shadow of an old locust tree lay askew on the muddy ground, its branches twisted and gnarled.

Suddenly, in a low house facing the street, an oil lamp suddenly blazed on, its dim yellow light shining through the window and piercing the darkness.

The woman's shrill voice ripped through the silence, her voice trembling with panic as she cried out, "Where's my girl? Where has my girl gone?"

This was followed by a man's panicked and furious shouts, and hurried footsteps echoed throughout the room: "He was just on the kang (heated brick bed), and now he's gone!?"

Before the words were finished, a nimble figure in gray clothes flipped over the wall of the courtyard and was still hanging in mid-air, his arms tightly wrapped around an unconscious girl.

Under the moonlight, a gaunt, dark face with prominent cheekbones was revealed. The man's eyes were deep-set, and they gleamed with a sinister light in the night. He chuckled to himself, thinking smugly.

"Another hot commodity, in good condition. Adding the previous one to the mix, we might be able to exchange it for another martial art in the gang. I already have a lightness skill, plus a fist technique. I can fight and retreat at the same time."

The man rolled over and landed, regaining his balance with a slight effort.

He turned around excitedly.

"puff!"

A clump of lime exploded in my face, a large quantity that was quite filling, suddenly shooting right at my face.

"what!"

Caught off guard, the man was directly attacked. Who would have thought that in the dark alley, someone was patiently waiting for him all along?

The mantis catches the cicada, and the oriole is behind.

His eyes were blindfolded, his face stung, and the unconscious girl he had been tucking under his arm fell to the ground. The man, being a thug of the Gray-Clad Gang, had considerable combat experience. He swung his fists rapidly forward, retreating violently.

"Bang!"

"ah!!!"

Another extremely shrill and high-pitched scream rang out.

The person who ambushed from the shadows had no martial ethics and resorted to despicable tricks.

Taking advantage of the man's inability to see his surroundings, she delivered a vicious and insidious kick to his groin!

The combo is extremely fast, taking less than a second from throwing lime to kicking the groin.

The gray-clad gang thug was instantly struck a heavy blow, as if he had been struck by lightning. All his strength seemed to have been drained, and his wildly swinging arms suddenly froze in mid-air.

Numbness and excruciating pain swept through his entire body from his waist and abdomen. His legs convulsed and trembled violently, and he curled up like a boiled shrimp, his body hunched over. Cold sweat poured down the thug's back, and he managed to squeeze out a muffled growl that sounded inhuman.

"Who is it...?"

He tried to force himself to stand up.

"Bang!"

A gust of wind swept across the back of his head, and a sharp-edged stone slammed into his skull, splattering blood everywhere. Jiang Ming possessed the strength to wield a stone weight weighing eighty or ninety pounds, and with the heavy stone falling, an ordinary person simply couldn't withstand it.

"Croak!"

The gray-clad gang thug let out a strange groan, like a frog. His entire body seemed to have been drained of its strength; he lunged forward, crashing heavily onto the muddy ground, raising a cloud of dust.

His limbs twitched stiffly twice before his body collapsed, blood spreading from the back of his head, mixing with the dirt to create a dark red stain.

His body, which had been struggling just moments before, went completely limp and died.

"Bang bang bang!"

Jiang Ming rushed forward and delivered a few more blows to the vital points to ensure the body was absolutely dead. Then, he began looting the corpse at lightning speed.

Unfortunately, this man was penniless and only managed to find a few copper coins. However, Jiang Ming found a thin manual in the sewn-up inner pocket of his chest. Upon closer inspection, it was indeed a martial arts manual.

In today's chaotic world, secret manuals are easily stolen if kept at home; it is best to carry them on your person.

Furthermore, the Grey-Clad Gang thugs had only acquired this martial art two months prior and hadn't yet mastered it, so they kept it hidden in their inner chest pockets, needing to review it frequently. This time, it ironically benefited Jiang Ming.

"Thinking about it this way, if the thugs of the Gray-Clad Gang have martial arts skills, they would most likely carry secret manuals with them at all times. They are practically walking fat sheep."

A surge of excitement welled up inside him, and he couldn't suppress his usual composure. He had been secretly following the gray-clad gang members on the street since dusk, patiently lying in wait, and now he had finally seized his opportunity.

Jiang Ming shoved the manual into his pocket, glanced at the man's corpse and the unconscious girl by the wall, and then instantly disappeared into the darkness.

He only wanted to profit by intercepting and killing the gray-clad gang members. Saving the child was just something he did on the spur of the moment. He had no good intentions and no intention of looking after the child.

Jiang Ming quickly disappeared into the distant shadows.