Chaotic Times and Disasters: I Hunt Down Martial Arts Masters and Become a God

...

On the fourth day, Zhou Tie and Xiao Lu Han Yue arrived.

Zhou Tie had a bandage wrapped around his back and was walking with a slight limp. As soon as he entered, he pulled up a chair and sat down.

"That quack doctor of yours wrapped my backpack up like a dumpling, I can only sleep lying down."

After he sat down, he recounted the rest of Duan Tieshan's story. When the prison cart carrying him passed Eagle's Beak Cliff halfway there, it was already dark. The escort team stopped at the post station to spend the night. In the middle of the night, a group of masked men sneaked into the post station, knocked out the guards, and hijacked the prison cart.

Tian Jingming sent people to investigate for more than half a month but failed to find out who the prisoner was. He speculated that it was Duan Tieshan's network of connections in Jingjing that had been operating for many years.

However, Duan Tieshan cannot return to his position as the city lord of Ironblood City. The military has already issued a document to appoint a new city lord. Duan Tieshan is now a wanted criminal by the imperial court, but his absence from prison is ultimately a hidden danger.

Fu Qing leaned against the headboard without speaking, tapping her fingers lightly twice on the blanket.

Han Yue sat next to Fu Qing and poured her a bowl of tea with his uninjured hand.

His broken left arm has been set, and Mr. Shen put a splint on him, saying that he would be able to move around after two months of rest. However, he finds the splint in the way and doesn't wear it properly every day.

Xiao Lu stood at the foot of the bed and placed a bag of braised beef on the table, saying that he bought it from the most famous braised meat shop in the market and had waited in line for almost half an hour, telling Fu Qing to eat more to nourish his body.

"Duan Tieshan had an advisor surnamed Wu..."

Zhou Tie put down his teacup, his expression darkening further.

"The Wu guy wasn't in Ironblood City the day we ambushed you. He left a bit earlier with a batch of valuables and some of the Duan family's account books. I sent people to investigate his background, and the more they investigated, the more suspicious it seemed."

"This person is not a staff member from Jingjing at all. Duan Tieshan said that he was a clerk recruited in Jingjing, but I sent people to Jingjing to investigate and found no such person."

"There are clues that suggest he may be from the Yue Kingdom in the Southern Region. His specific identity has not yet been determined, but he is most likely related to the Gu Dao (a type of poison in Chinese folklore).

This was the first time Fu Qing had heard of the Gu Dao system.

Gu Dao is the mainstream cultivation system in Yue Kingdom, which is completely different from martial arts. Gu masters do not cultivate their physical bodies, but only raise Gu worms.

There are many types of Gu worms, some offensive, some defensive, and some supportive...

The reconnaissance Gu can fly into enemy camps to gather information, the attacking Poisonous Sting Gu can lay eggs inside a person and devour them from the inside out, and the supportive Heart-Protecting Gu can protect the host's heart meridian, allowing the Gu master to survive for several days even with a fatal wound.

Powerful Gu worms can even burrow into a person's brain and control their mind. The controlled person shows no outward signs of abnormality, but their every word and action is manipulated by the Gu master.

The Yue Kingdom is located in the Hundred Thousand Mountains of the southern border. The mountains and forests are humid and hot, and full of miasma. Ordinary martial artists have difficulty even breathing in that environment, let alone fighting. But Gu Masters use miasma as nourishment and poisonous insects as weapons, and they thrive in that place.

Gu masters raise Gu worms within their own bodies, nourishing them with their own blood and qi, and releasing the Gu worms from their mouths, noses, and ears to fight their enemies.

High-level Gu Masters can even control tens of thousands of Gu worms, creating an overwhelming force; one person is an army.

Fu Qing thought for a moment and then spoke.

How do the strengths of a Gu Master and a martial artist compare?

Zhou Tie shook his head.

"It's hard to generalize, because a Gu Master's strength depends on the grade of the Gu worm rather than their own cultivation level. If a Gu Master in the Body Tempering Realm raises a Gu worm of the Meridian Opening Realm grade, their combat power is equivalent to that of a Gu Master in the Meridian Opening Realm."

"But when you encounter a Gu Master, prioritize killing the Gu Master himself. Never get entangled in a fight with his Gu worms. Once the Gu Master dies, the Gu worms will disperse, but even if the Gu Master is still alive and only has one breath left, the Gu worms can still bite you to death."

"The good thing is that Gu Masters have very weak physical bodies. A sword with a third level of Body Tempering can kill a fifth-level Gu Master, provided you can get close to him."

"Gu masters are usually guarded by Gu worms. The closer you are to the Gu master, the greater the density of Gu worms. Within three steps, there are so many Gu worms that they can cover your entire body."

Just then, Mr. Shen pushed open the door and came in to change Fu Qing's dressing.

"The Medicine Palace has had dealings with the Gu Dao sects of the Yue Kingdom. Gu Dao and Medicine Dao are two branches that branched off from the same source."

"The underlying logic of medicine and poison is the same. Both use external objects to make up for the deficiencies of the physical body. There are many poison sects in Yue Kingdom. Among the largest sects, there is a place called Wan Gu Valley. It is said that the valley master is an old monster of the second rank or above in poison and can control ten thousand poisons to cover the sky and the sun."

He put down the medicine bowl in his hand and looked at Fu Qing. "You must be more careful when dealing with Gu Masters. Gu Masters' methods are not in the open, but in the dark."

"Their specialty is planting poison on you when you're not paying attention. They might just lightly tap you as you pass by, and the poison worm will have already burrowed inside."

"Avoid fighting if possible. If you must fight, you must kill them with one blow and not give them a chance to release their poisonous insects."

Fu Qing nodded. "Thank you for reminding me, Uncle Shen. I'll remember."

...

During his recovery, Fu was bored out of his mind, so when he was lying in bed unable to move, he would open the system panel and study it repeatedly.

After breaking through to the first level of the Meridian Opening stage, the system panel underwent significant changes.

During the Body Tempering Realm, the panel clearly displays the three stats: Strength, Endurance, and Agility. Each time you add points, you can see the numbers jump up, making it perfectly clear.

However, after reaching the Meridian Opening Realm, the three-dimensional numerical values ​​disappeared, replaced by a cultivation progress bar.

The progress bar showed "Level 1 of the Meridian Opening Realm," followed by a percentage progress. He was currently at 11/100, but he had no idea how this 11% was calculated.

The system provided no explanation, did not tell him how many plunder points were needed to open each meridian, and did not explain the relationship between the percentage and actual combat power.

As for the division of the minor realms of the Meridian Opening Realm, Mr. Shen wrote it very clearly in his book "An Introduction to Martial Arts" for him - each meridian opened is one level, and the opening of all twelve meridians is the completion of the Meridian Opening Realm.

He has now completed the first step, but he is still far from 100%.

...

More than half a month later, Fu Qing was finally able to walk with difficulty.

When I first got out of bed, my legs felt like they were walking on cotton. The wound on my back was pulled and ached slightly, but Mr. Shen said that as long as I didn't do strenuous exercise, I would be fine.

He leaned against the wall and walked from the house to the courtyard, which took him about half a cup of tea's time. By the time he reached the jujube tree, a thin layer of sweat had appeared on his forehead.

Song Yawei was nearly four months pregnant, which made it difficult for her to move around. She had to hold onto the jujube tree and slowly squat down to pick something up.

But she still made soup for Fu Qing every day. Today it was black chicken with angelica, tomorrow it was pork ribs with astragalus. The medicinal herbs in the soup were all personally prepared by Mr. Shen, a recipe to replenish qi and blood.

Fu Qing took a sip from the bowl; the soup was thick and had a strong medicinal flavor.

Song Nini's belly was the same; she walked like a penguin, her hands unconsciously supporting her waist, swaying with every step.

She brought a bowl of pork rib soup from the kitchen and placed it on the stone table, then slowly sat down, holding onto the edge of the table, and fanned herself with her hand.

"The kitchen is too hot, I don't want to make soup anymore."

That's what she said, but the next day she was still the first one to enter the kitchen.

The two sisters sat on bamboo recliners under the jujube tree, each sewing a small garment.

Song Yawei sewed a small red bib with yellow thread, embroidered with a crooked little tiger. However, it was much more upright than the one she had embroidered in the backyard of Shen's Pharmacy. At least the proportions of the tiger's head and body were correct.

Song Nini sewed a little jacket with a blue background and white stitching. She insisted on making it different from her sister's, saying that if the two children wore the same clothes, they would easily mistake one for the other.

Song Yawei smiled and shook her head.

"You're already thinking about apologizing before you've even been born."

Song Nini didn't even look up. "Anyway, I'm sure I look like my brother-in-law, with thick eyebrows and big eyes. And you look like him too, so we won't be able to tell us apart."

Song Yawei pinned the needle to the fabric, thought for a moment, and said, "It would be good to be like him, but never as stubborn as him."

Fu Qing leaned back in her recliner with her eyes closed, listening to the two sisters arguing back and forth about who their child would look like.

Song Nini said that boys should be like Fu Qingcai—strong and good at fighting—and girls should be like their older sisters—gentle.

Song Yawei said that girls shouldn't be too gentle. When she was in the mountains, she was too soft and easily bullied. She needed to have some temper.

After arguing for a long time, the two finally agreed that it didn't matter who they resembled, they just couldn't be as stubborn as Fu Qing.

Fu Qing opened one eye and looked at them. "I'm not dead yet."

The two sisters simultaneously picked up their needlework and gestured to him before continuing to sew.