Chapter 15: Hanging

Zhang Lingshan froze for a moment, then cupped his hands. "Thank you."

Ignoring Li Fu's pleading gaze, he left the Sanjiang Gambling House.

With his current status, he was nothing at all. The fact that they were letting him walk away out of respect for Shi Lei and the Hong Clan Martial Arts Hall was already more grace than he deserved.

If he were to remain here shamelessly, his end would likely be no better than that of Li Fu and his son.

Ultimately, he was still too weak.

Shi Lei was also too weak.

If Shi Lei had been able to defeat the establishment master, Chen Hui, today, he would not only have been able to wipe away the debt but also take Li Dong away through legitimate means.

What a pity.

'Strength!'

Zhang Lingshan silently repeated these two words in his heart.

His recent progress in stance training had yielded some results; his physique and height had improved, giving him a taste of success and making him believe he had attained a certain level of strength.

But looking at it now, his meager strength was truly insignificant.

Even Shi Lei had suffered a setback today.

If Zhang Lingshan had come alone, his fate would have been even worse than Shi Lei's.

Therefore, he had to accelerate his cultivation; he could not afford to become lazy just because he had achieved minor progress.

With this mindset, Zhang Lingshan immediately went to the apothecary to buy Spirit Root Grass, Iron Dendrobium, Green Ling, and other medicinal herbs that had proven effective in his experiments.

Then, he hurried back home.

He wanted to try boiling these herbs together to see if it would increase the efficiency of his energy accumulation.

"Xiao Shan, why are you back alone? Where is my old Li?"

At the doorstep, Li Fu's wife grabbed him and asked urgently.

Zhang Lingshan waved his hand and said, "The master of the Sanjiang Gambling House has returned. He is incredibly powerful and cannot be provoked. Senior Brother Shi has already conceded, and I was kicked out as well. As for Uncle Fu, may he find his own luck."

With that, he shook off Li Fu's wife and rushed into the house, slamming the courtyard gate shut.

He couldn't afford to provoke anyone right now; his only option was to hide away and ignore the affairs of the world.

In truth, when Li Fu had come to beg him, he hadn't wanted to get involved. He had only helped by asking around and acting as a mediator between Li Fu and Shi Lei because Li Fu's wailing and the instigation of the neighbors had made things impossible at home.

He hadn't expected to end up entangled in it after all.

It was truly frustrating.

No wonder the saying goes, "Don't act as a middleman, don't act as a guarantor, and don't act as a matchmaker for three generations."

It was a profound truth.

"Brother, what happened? Is someone chasing you?"

His sister, Zhang Lingyu, who was doing needlework in the courtyard, hurriedly stood up and approached him, asking cautiously.

Zhang Lingshan shook his head and sighed softly, "Sigh, Li Fu is being held by the Sanjiang Gambling House, and I almost got dragged into it too. I'm never getting involved in such messy affairs again. Lock the courtyard gate when I'm not home. I'm afraid Li Fu will come back and make a scene, cursing me for not helping him succeed."

"Ah?"

Zhang Lingyu was startled. "That's too unlucky. We said we couldn't help them, but he insisted we try. If the result isn't satisfactory, we can't be blamed."

"Sigh, let's not talk about it. Good intentions led to bad results. Let's eat first. I'm going to brew some tonic. Once I establish myself at the Hong Clan Martial Arts Hall, we'll move to Hongwu Street to stay away from the trouble here."

Zhang Lingshan sighed.

Zhang Lingyu nodded. "Everything is up to you, Big Brother. I heard the Zhao family from Qinghe Road was also wiped out. Our Changning Street isn't far from Qinghe Road; it would be best if we could move away."

"You are sensible, Xiao Yu. I can rest easy leaving the household matters to you. After that, I'll leave the task of managing Mother's temperament to you."

"Mhm, don't worry, Big Brother."

Zhang Lingyu nodded heavily.

In the past, Zhang Lingshan had always been quite willful, forcing Zhang Lingyu to grow into a sisterly role, becoming mature and steady out of necessity.

Because of this, she was completely different from many girls her age.

She was even more resolute than many boys.

This was what Zhang Lingshan admired most; with his sister holding down the fort at home, he could go out to practice his martial arts every day with peace of mind.

"Mother, you and Xiao Yu eat. I've already eaten."

Entering the kitchen, Zhang Lingshan quickly began brewing his medicine. Then came the usual daily routine: stance training, drinking medicine, and eating dried tiger meat.

The difference was that he found he was getting hungry much faster.

This led to a higher consumption of medicinal herbs and dried tiger meat.

Correspondingly, the speed of his energy accumulation had also increased.

'It seems that after the Hunyuan Zhenyang Stance reached the stage of minor success, the improvement in my physique has also increased my digestion and absorption rate of food and medicine.'

Zhang Lingshan analyzed silently.

This was a good thing.

However, it also meant he was spending money faster.

The amount of dried tiger meat and herbs that used to last three days would now likely be exhausted in less than two.

But he didn't have much money left.

This was only because he had taken the twenty taels of silver from the corpses of Wang Datou and Li Xiaole.

Without those twenty taels, he wouldn't have had the chance to study medicinal herbs or the money to buy dried tiger meat, making it impossible to reach his current level.

But speaking of those twenty taels, he couldn't help but think of the nightmare he had every night—the one with the hands growing out of the chest.

To this day, he still didn't know where those twenty taels had actually come from.

But he was certain that there was something inside his body; those red marks had not disappeared even now.

'Forget it, I won't think about it. Today the Hunyuan Zhenyang Stance reached minor success and my physique improved. Surely the pain will lessen tomorrow and the red marks will fade.'

Zhang Lingshan prayed silently, hoping his estimation was correct.

The next day.

As soon as the first ray of morning light shone in, Zhang Lingshan scrambled out of bed to check the red marks on his body.

Sure enough!

Just as he expected!

Compared to before, the red marks were indeed lighter today, and the pain had lessened.

It was clear that as long as he continued to cultivate and push the Hunyuan Zhenyang Stance to great success, his Yang energy and blood qi would be abundant enough to suppress whatever evil or strange phenomenon was inside him.

'Haha!'

He felt immensely relieved.

But before he could enjoy his happiness for long, he heard a frantic cry from outside: "Someone come quickly! Old Li's entire family of three has hanged themselves!"

"What? Hanged themselves? They were fine just yesterday."

"The whole family? Is Xiao Dong back too? But why would they commit suicide? A child returning is a good thing."

"I don't know. But their deaths look very eerie. If you aren't afraid, come and see for yourself. I think their deaths are related to the Zhang family. Just how deep is this grudge?"

The voices of the neighbors outside were incessant, reaching the ears of Zhang Lingshan's family.

"What's happening?"

Zhang's mother asked nervously, "Why did Old Li's family hang themselves? And why did they say it's related to our family? What on earth happened?"

"Don't be nervous, Mother. We aren't the only Zhang family around. I'll go see what's going on first."

Zhang Lingshan offered a word of comfort, then took a deep breath to calm himself before stepping out of the door.

Though he had said they weren't the only Zhang family, he estimated that nine times out of ten, they were talking about his family.

As expected.

When he stepped out of the door, the surrounding neighbors immediately cleared a path, avoiding him as if he were a plague god.