This martial arts tournament is time-stopping.

After calming Han Heng and Qin Shaoyang down and calming their fear of Zhu Hongxuan, Ye Chu ate the pastries somewhat absentmindedly.

He had just entered the first level of the Skin Polishing Realm and had just condensed the tiger stripe between his eyebrows. He would need to consume a lot of resources to spread the tiger stripe all over his body before he could change the enhanced tiger transformation state to a normal state.

But this involves resources, or rather, food that can nourish blood and energy.

So he's short of money!

Furthermore, when Ye Chu and Han Heng locked eyes, Ye Chu could see the state of Han Heng's cultivation using the Tiger's Skin Appearance Technique, with spiritual power emanating from between his eyes.

But hidden in Han Heng's shadow was not a fierce general, but merely a treacherous ghost.

This surprised Ye Chu somewhat.

Although there are many ordinary people in Jin Yu Lou, there are also quite a few martial artists, but most of them are dressed quite conservatively.

It's not that all martial artists are upright and reserved; it's probably because they cover up abnormal body parts, such as those that have become demonic, with clothing, not wanting outsiders to see them...

The three of them finished just in time for the curfew to end.

Ye Chu and Han Heng passed by the Yang residence again on their way. It was quiet inside, and there was no smell of blood.

The two then quickly ran back to Xicheng and parted ways.

When Ye Chu returned to his home in Willow Bay Lane, he saw a pile of grain that Ji Meng had bought, and was relieved to see that the eagle hadn't stolen the treasure fish that day.

He then estimated his running speed from the east side of the city back to the west side.

Compared to when they first entered the blank stage of skin refining without any techniques, their skill level had improved by 20% to 30%.

And this is just the normal speed.

In addition, the Tiger Transformation state provides an improvement of 50% to 70% compared to the initial, unrevealed state.

This is enough to show that the combination of superior cultivation methods and precious elixirs has a much stronger effect on promoting cultivation than the ordinary "Rock Polishing Method".

Then Ye Chu took out the Blood Meteorite and summoned the Yellow Turban Warriors to refine this spiritual material.

Until the accumulated qi and blood in the body are almost completely depleted:

【技能：黄巾力士lv.1（30/100→55/100）】

"I'll be able to advance to level two in two or three days. I just don't know exactly how powerful the level two Yellow Turban Warriors are."

The next morning,

Ye Chu quickly visited all eight butcher shops in the city, collecting 7.8 units of Time Dao Rhyme.

【Root bone: 21】

【Time and Rhythm: 19.8】

He wandered around the morning market where the mountain people gathered, hoping to find some precious medicines that the mountain people didn't know about, but which could improve their blood and energy.

However, because Ye Chu was unfamiliar with many herbs, and the old herbalist saw him as an amateur who was arbitrarily asking for prices, he gave up.

After checking the sky, he passed by the Yang residence, which was still quiet but also silent, and went directly to Qiongyu Tower.

Although it was said that the eagle stole the treasure fish twice at the fish market, Ye Chu was not present at the time, and he had already sent the eagle back to the mountains, only allowing it to return at night.

Of course it's fine!

Therefore, Ye Chu bringing silver to Qiongyulou to purchase dried meat from exotic beasts should be considered a no-brainer.

He went inside and wandered around. The cheapest dried beast meat, priced at one tael or one jin, was basically stock that had been stored for two or three months.

As for older stock that's been stored for more than six months or a year, I didn't see any.

The one that costs two taels of silver per catty is freshly made dried meat from exotic animals.

There are also jerky made from the meat of special exotic beasts, which cost 100 taels per catty and are in very limited quantities.

Furthermore, according to the waiter, if a rare beast were to be captured, it would be eaten directly after the hunt, not made into jerky.

Ye Chu did some mental calculations. Today was the tenth of the month, five days before the fifteenth and sixteenth that Qin Shaoyang had mentioned.

If you eat 4 catties of exotic beast jerky a day, you'll get about 20 catties in 5 days.

However, he only had 26 taels of silver left, and it wasn't realistic for him to come up with 20 taels at once.

"Luckily, Qin Shaoyang gave me five catties of exotic beast jerky yesterday, so I'll only buy 15 catties today..."

Fifteen taels of silver were spent just like that.

Looking at his increasingly empty wallet, Ye Chu felt a pang of heartache.

Furthermore, with a pound of exotic beast jerky costing one tael of silver, how much could one save even if one ate less each day?

Therefore, open source is still necessary!

"The money Madam Yang sponsored is almost gone. Where will we get the money from now on?"

Although Ye Chu coveted the Yang family's remaining wealth, the Yang family was being eyed by the White Lotus Sect, and barring any unforeseen circumstances, something major was about to happen this morning.

Therefore, we cannot go to the Yang family for the time being.

Ye Chu also wanted to see if any Taoist priests from Huangtian Temple would stand up for the Yang family after their misfortune.

If so, then he will lie dormant.

If not, then he can use time stop to wipe out the Yang family completely!

To avoid any more unexpected problems...

Afterwards, Ye Chu went to the inner courtyard of the Dragon Tiger Hall to cultivate.

Around mid-morning, Nie Qingcang gathered many disciples from the outer court, inner court, and true teaching court for a meeting. He then led his senior brother Wen Ruyu and many inner court disciples to be summoned by the county government to go to the Dragon Nu River.

The third senior brother, Qi Feixing, stayed behind, firstly to teach the newly recruited disciples, and secondly to obey the orders of the first wife to guard the household.

Furthermore, he reiterated that unrest was brewing in the surrounding areas outside the city, and that it was absolutely forbidden to leave the city recklessly, among other things...

Ye Chu watched as the group of people left in a large throng. After leaving the city, the inner courtyard, which originally had about 20 people, was now only occupied by seven or eight young masters from prominent families who didn't need to venture out to earn money.

Qin Shiming, Zicang, Wang Hongru, Long Xuanji, Cheng Rang, Lin Yun, Yan Feng, Zhao Guanlan,

And Ye Chu and Han Heng, two sons-in-law of the Nie family, one openly and the other secretly.

Han Heng was able to get along well with these scions of noble families, chatting and laughing together.

Ye Chu, however, couldn't fit in at all and was met with a subtle sense of rejection.

Therefore, Ye Chu didn't want to make a fool of himself.

While others were laughing and joking, he chewed on the jerky of a strange beast, absorbed its essence, practiced the Tiger-Taming Stance Technique, and condensed the Tiger's Fury Strength.

While others were cultivating, he was cultivating the Tiger Transformation, using the Tiger's Fury to polish and nourish his skin, thereby stimulating the growth of the special tiger stripe between his eyebrows, which then spread to other parts of his body.

When others got tired from practicing, he would lift the stone weights to strengthen his body!

Cultivation is accumulated little by little in this way...

At the same time, resources are being consumed rapidly.

On that morning alone, he ate two pounds of exotic beast jerky, which was quickly digested.

The results were quite satisfactory.

[Technique:]

Tiger-Taming Stance (Beginner: 13/40 → 16/40)

Tiger's Lackey Skin Reading Method (Beginner: 1/100 → 2/100)

"At my current pace of cultivation, I expect to complete this level of tiger skin cultivation in 50 days, and then I will go to observe the leopard and refine the leopard skin."

"I just wonder how long it will take Han Heng to complete this part of his cultivation?"

Ye Chu pondered his cultivation progress; he only needed to fall three to five days behind Han Heng, who possessed a first-grade physique.

After all, he has the reason of being exceptionally quick to understand things, which is somewhat justifiable. But if he speeds too much, it would be too monstrous and not a good thing!

While Han Heng was resting, Ye Chu went to the side and asked, "Brother Han, how long do you think it will take to refine the first layer of tiger skin?"